It was a big day in comics media news, or at least a “mini-large” day. Rich Johnston announced that yesterday’s Lying in the Gutters would be the very last. LitG is, of couse, the long running “gossip” column that also functions as the last vestige of independent reporting for the comics media, with such news as publishers who are stiffing artists, the Fake Art Adams, swipe files, and lots of snarky gossip from behind the scenes at the Big Two. The final column included a lengthy dialog between Johnston and CBR honcho Jonah Weiland that explained some of the move, reminisced over olden days and alluded to a “big contributor” who would be coming, in an unrelated move, to CBR.

As if to prove the maxim, “where one falls, another shall rise,” on the very same day Valerie D’Orazio debuted her new “Comics-Op” column for Comixology:

Welcome to the first edition of Comics-Op, comics from a semi-insider perspective. What “semi-insider” means basically is that sometimes I’m just as shocked as you are with the latest comic book developments, and sometimes I just sit on big news with my mouth shut and a Kool-Aid smile on my face for months. My hope is that Comics-Op will be the mid-point between these two extremes, taking you along for the ride.

While the first column was a bit light on the gossip, who knows where it will go?

Meanwhile, via Twitter and the Whitechapel forum, Johnston revealed his new gig: a daily blog called Bleeding Cool, which will be hosted and funded by Avatar Press, publishing of Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis and so on.

Yesterday was the last Lying In The Gutters. But a good gossipmonger never dies. He just goes from a weekly column to a daily blogsite.

Bleeding Cool will feature everything you love and hate about Lying In The Gutters, but every day, reacting to topical news and featuring a host of columns, features, interviews, reviews, previews and…. let’s go with familiar names. Expect real innovation.

It’s funded by Avatar Press, who have promised a hands-off editorial process, but whom I’ll give an Avatar Plug Of The Week to to keep them happy.

Over on his blog, Ellis announced he would be contributing to the new blog.

So…a weekly column goes daily, a former daily blogger goes weekly, a proto blogger author comes back…and Avatar gets into the news business. All in a day.

As the countdown clock on BleedingCool reminds us, the new site will debut in four days…aka Monday,

This entry was posted on 05/27/09 at 12:56 pm and is filed under Blogosphere, Comics Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.