Who Will Blog the Blogmen: Part III

For my third, and final, trick, I will now blog about this little gem.

Let's begin with the title: The Beat: The News Blog of Comics Culture. Isn't that interesting? It's not a blog necessarily about what Spiderman's new costume will look like next month, but it suggests a commentary on the culture of comics. What is comics culture, then? Pasty, socially malnourished teens slinking about in basement comic bins, searching for Amazing Fantasy No. 15? Hardly. The world of comics has turned hip, thanks largely to the string of successful blockbuster films based on comics (even lesser known comics have been turned into pretty killer flicks, such as Road to Perdition, A History of Violence, and American Splendor). Comics have grown up, and have acquired a much-needed sense of humor, seen here in the ABOUT section of the Beat:

Born in a tiny grass hut in Nepal, The Beat studied wu shu and Carl Barks at the
Shaolin Temple before boarding a tramp steamer and arriving in the US sometime
before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Assembling a team of high level operatives
from every walk of life, The Beat has since become dedicated to fighting the
sinister influence of Doktor Kaos and his minions, disseminating coded messages
to her worldwide network via her blog postings, and ensuring liberty for all.
The Beat can currently be found at her headquarters, Stately Beat Manor, where
surrounded by the latest in internet tubing and technology, she gathers
intelligence, only occasionally leaving her island refuge to protect the weak
and innocent and maintain the eightfold path of righteousness.

The steam behind The Beat is probably its links to other sources, marking as a strong filter site. There's really nothing personal within the posts, although some opinions manage to sneak out. For instance, when the staff of Wizard Magazine--a long-lived source of comics news, gossip, humor, and collecting resources--underwent a dramatic changing of the guard, the writers at the Beat were clearly a little shocked, and a little upset.

So it could be said that the Beat is a part news source, part industry monitor. Several posts concerning various comics based films being made are balanced with posts such as this, in which we get an "exciting" peek at the world of sales. That suggests that fans are not the only people browsing this blog, and that several professionals are probably doing their share of looking around.

The Beat covers topics that are important in the world of comics--posts on censorship appear a few times, for instance. Alan Moore recently published a graphic novel called Lost Girls, which has seen its share of challenges. Why? Apparently, the comic brings together three notable female characters from literature: Alice, Dorothy, and Wendy. They exchange stories about their fantastical adventures, which contain some pretty heavy sexual content. So much so, that some fear it could be labeled as child pornography, despite having only hand-drawn art. The Beat is right there, on the front lines of every battle comic book writers, artists, and publishers are fighting.

Since personal views are not really expressed, this blog fits into something like a "professional filter blog." The Beat serves as a hub of comics buzz, and connects to several other spokes in the wheel of the comic book industry. The site boasts a sidebar chock-full of other comic book related sites.