Haven’t done this in awhile, but since Ali was kind enough to give me a shout-out this week, I figure that should be just enough of a incentive to get back into it. The theme this fortnight is other blogs and bloggers that are as different from you as possible.

Greg McElhatton has been reviewing comics for a long time; he currently has his own review blog, Read About Comics. He’s a gay white man, not that that shows through in his reviews. What I like about him is his diversity of selection. Many online comics reviewers tend to stick primarily, if not exclusively, with the corporate superhero books, and many of those that review independent and small press comics tend to stick to only those. Greg reviews them all, big and small alike. His reviews are clear and concise and tell you what you need to know. Not much more one can ask for in a comics reviewer.

Elayne Riggs is one of my all-time favorite people. She is an older Jewish woman, and her blog is called Pen-Elayne on the Web. She’s old-school – she was reviewing comics back in the online Stone Age era of the early 90s, and I believe her print history goes back even further. She’s a huge advocate of women’s comics – she’s the former head of Friends of Lulu, a comics organization dedicated to that cause. She’s also a former editor at Comic Mix, and her husband is inker Robin Riggs. She doesn’t review as many comics as she used to; these days her blog is devoted to all manner of esoterica, from politics to cats to writing to the Beatles and more… though she may open up about what comics she’s reading these days if you ask her real nice. Witty, sharp, opinionated yet rational – there’s always something worth reading at her blog.

This last one I just picked at random while trying to find a Latino comics blog. Anthony Oropeza does a comic called Amigoman, and at his blog Amigoman Art and More, he has pictures of the art classes he teaches for young kids. Hard to tell what kind of lessons he’s teaching – whether it’s how to draw superheroes or how to draw superhero comics or maybe both – but the kids do look like they’re having a good time. According to his website, not only are there are bi-lingual Amigoman comics, but he tailors his books for specific age groups. He’s committed to getting children to read and create, and it looks like he lectures to schools on a regular basis.