In March 2017, I launched this blog in earnest, thinking only that it would be a fun, weird distraction from the horrors of everyday life. I deliberately chose myself a task that would seem to have no end, and a lot of wild swings in term of quality, but that always promised something good was coming up.
Starting all the way back in 1963 with X-Men #1, and going at a rate of one issue per week, it seemed crazy-unlikely I would last until the year 2001, the year the X-Men franchise was revitalized by creators such as Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely and a plethora of new ideas, concepts and approaches. It seemed inevitable that my attention would wane, I would get tired of doing it and find somewhere else to put my energy, or else I would simply no longer have the time.
As of right now, I have written 620,000 words about the X-Men. I have made 493 posts which is an average of >1 per week since March 2017. That's 1300 words every week for 9 years. There's no sign that I will be stopping anytime soon.
Every year in March, I feel the need to commemorate this a little bit. There may not be a lot of people paying attention to what I do, but I did it when I was sure nobody was paying attention. I did it for myself. And I continue to do so, and just hope that what amuses me to create also amuses others to read.
Life has changed, and the world sometimes feels horrible in ways that weren't even fathomable in 2017, but the resonance of the X-Men remains, and so does my happiness at continuing this site. Instead of running out of steam, this blog has pulled me through some tough times and given me something to look forward to doing week after week.
As we move through this year, there are going to be some tweaks to the way I approach this project. As we approach a watershed moment in comics history, I have to take stock of what this blog is and how I do it.
Pulling back... slightly
I've been in a big hurry to get to the exciting watershed era of early-2000's X-Men, which features both creative highs and lows that promised to be a fun time for this blog. We've been doing two posts per week for the most part, but in upcoming weeks you'll see that pace slow back down to one per week consistently. That said, you never know when I will feel like adding a second post for the week, so keep checking back or follow me on Bluesky.
This blog will always be free to read.
If nothing else, I want this blog to always exist as a fun thing you can keep coming back to forever. It will fundamentally always be what it always has been, which is free and openly available.
I'm also committed to maintaining an ad-free reading experience, because not only do in-post ads disrupt the reading experience, most of you probably have adblockers on. Ultimately, throwing ads on a site like this is trying to get blood from, if not a stone, a very small bug. There might be some there, but not enough to justify the effort. Plus gross, bugs.
Uncanny X-Cerpts Patreon is really coming back this time, though.
As anyone can tell you, the world of the X-Men is sprawling, and has only ever gotten bigger as time has gone on. I've always wanted a venue to explore these things outside of the Uncanny X-Cerpts blog, but time and energy kept slipping away from me.
By the time you read this, the Patreon will have launched, with our first post coming March 4. You can read more about what to expect there, but here are the bullet points:
- Patreon will be the exclusive home for coverage of X-Treme X-Men as well as numerous other X-Men spin-offs we didn't cover the first time around and stuff from around the franchise. Features will be covered on a rotating basis.
- There will be one active tier to start, and a commitment to three posts per month for as long as I have 0-5 patrons. The more patrons we get, the more posts I will provide, up to a point.
- I'm committed to this status for four months, at which point I'll examine what I've been doing and see if we need more tiers, different offerings, a price adjustment, or if the whole thing is a bust.
Supporters on
Ko-Fi will get some of this exclusive content, but I'll be de-emphasizing that site while I focus on getting this service off the ground.
I want to thank you all for indulging me with this. It's a huge pleasure to do this even when nobody's looking, but you always hope folks will come along for the ride.
Excelsior and all that,
-Scotto
