Recording a Q&A episode on 2016-03-02

[JohnMayo]

I know this is short notice but I'm planning on recording a Question and Answer episode tonight as was discussed in episode #1001. I've got a bunch of great questions from Sven Carlson which will be the basis for the episode.

If anybody has any other questions, post them here and I'll try to include them.

Any questions which come in after I record will get included in the next Q&A episode (which will get recorded whenever it gets recorded).

[IanG]

Are these questions about the show or comic books in general? Anyways, here are some of my questions. Feel free to answer all, some or none.

What is your most favorite single issue, or a few favorites, of all time?

When you get your DCBS box, how do you decide which comics to read first, is their a hierarchy or is it random?

If for some reason you had to get rid of all your comics, what would you do with them? Donate them, sell them or give them to friends?

Which comic book line wide event was your favorite, or which do think most people would enjoy the most?

If all monthly comics went to a digital platform some day, would you continue to still read monthly comics?

If all single issue go to $4.99 in a year or two, will you just continue to read comics as usual, or will you scale back, switch to digital, trade wait?

Do you receive any free comic books or trades from publishers and if so do you read them?

Thanks

[JohnMayo]

Are these questions about the show or comic books in general?

Either or both. I'll answer the rest of the questions in the episode.

Thanks for the questions. I've added these questions to the list of questions from SvenCarlson and HopHopHead and I'll go through them in the order they came in during the episode.

Basically, we'd talked about doing a Q&A episode in episode #1001 and due to some scheduling issues, I've got an unexpectedly open slot on Friday. I've got the time record an episode from the list of questions and get it edited in time for the Friday slot so I figured I'd go ahead and do so.

[bralinator]

What are some of your favorite licensed properties translated into comics?

What are your favorite and least favorite comic book movies / tv shows?

What current titles go to the top of your read pile?

Do you have any goals for the Comic Boom Page podcast that you've yet to achieve?

If you could do it all over again, (this podcast) would you change anything?

[JohnMayo]

That does it for the first Q&A episode. Any additional questions will be held for the second Q&A episodes whenever that is.

[drew]

This was a great episode - I really enjoyed it, good questions and answers

[bralinator]

I enjoyed this too. This was a great episode. It made me come up with some additional questions. I'm hoping this becomes a bi-monthly or semi-annual regular offering...


++++++++

And this is specifically for Drew, you may want to correct your brother, Kyle. I listen to your podcast also, and he frequently refers to books shipping twice in a month as "bi-monthly" which in actuality means "every 2 months." What he probably means to say is "bi-weekly" which is every two weeks. Or even more accurately, "semi-monthly" which means half-month.

For example:

Bicentennial = 2 hundred years
bimonthly = 2 months
biweekly = 2 weeks
bicycle = 2 wheels
bipedal = 2 legs
bisexual = 2 gender preferences

and so on...

The more you know

[Alec Burkhardt]

++++++++

And this is specifically for Drew, you may want to correct your brother, Kyle. I listen to your podcast also, and he frequently refers to books shipping twice in a month as "bi-monthly" which in actuality means "every 2 months." What he probably means to say is "bi-weekly" which is every two weeks. Or even more accurately, "semi-monthly" which means half-month.


The more you know

Actually, bimonthly means both every 2 months and twice a month. Same is true of biweekly - it can be used to either mean every 2 weeks or twice in a week.

[bralinator]

Then I stand corrected. I do recognize that bimonthly has two technical definitions that mean two totally different schedules, but the more common nomenclature for 'every other month' is bimonthly, and the terms 'bi-weekly' or 'semi-monthly' are more commonly used for twice a month.

Whenever I received comics I was subscribing to in the 80s that came out every other month (Marvel Premiere for example), they were referred to as "bi-monthly" comics. I haven't seen the term 'bimonthly' in any solicits for comic books shipping semi-monthly, or bimonthly (twice a month) as you state (Matt Fraction's Hawkeye could've used it). Can you provide an example of a comic solicitation using the term to indicate twice monthly? I suppose maybe I just haven't seen them.

Regardless, whenever I hear "bimonthly," I immediately think every 2 months. Just as biweekly, or bicentennial means every two periods of time. And probably since I subscribed to bimonthly comics in my youth and that's what the term meant.

Perhaps this article will either clear things up, or muddy the waters further: http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive ... bisemi.htm

[drew]

++++++++

And this is specifically for Drew, you may want to correct your brother, Kyle. I listen to your podcast also, and he frequently refers to books shipping twice in a month as "bi-monthly" which in actuality means "every 2 months." What he probably means to say is "bi-weekly" which is every two weeks. Or even more accurately, "semi-monthly" which means half-month.


The more you know

Actually, bimonthly means both every 2 months and twice a month. Same is true of biweekly - it can be used to either mean every 2 weeks or twice in a week.

cool, i will pass it on...if i start correcting kyles grammar, we may never get through an episode...we'll have to re-boot to 'grammar for fun and profit'

[JohnMayo]

I suspect (but can't prove) that bimonthly came to also mean twice monthly due to frequent misuse. I've always considered it to mean every other month.

[bralinator]

I suspect (but can't prove) that bimonthly came to also mean twice monthly due to frequent misuse. I've always considered it to mean every other month.

This is my suspicion as well.

I think double-shipping books should be termed "semimonthly". "Bimonthly" is acceptable but potentially ambiguous.

Of course, we could always just keep saying "double shipping" .

[ChrisMyers]

I really enjoyed the Q & A episode, thanks for sharing. I look forward to the next one.

[Alec Burkhardt]

The issue of bimonthly, biweekly, biannually etc. meaning both "twice every" and "every two" is actually centuries old. The terms really need context to determine which is being meant, and often it is recommended to simply not use the terms and simply say which you really mean - "twice a week/month/year" or "every other week/month/year." Which is somewhat what the link bralinator provide gets at in arguing for the use of semi in one case and bi in the other. Although I'd argue it is better to just avoid using bi-whatever as much as possible rather than trying to claim that one use of bi is more "correct" than the other. And just because there is the word biennial does not mean that the word biannual no longer has both meanings. Just check merriam-webster.com or any other respectable online dictionary.

Historically bimonthly has probably been used more in comics to mean every other month, but then again, historically there have been a lot more comics which published every other month rather than twice a month or every other week (which of course are also not really the same thing - a book publishing every two weeks would need to come out three times in two months every year). I agree that semi-monthly is probably clearer than bi-monthly for books shipping twice a month, but then again saying it ships twice a month is clearly than both. And trying to get someone to be clearer by telling them they are incorrect when they actually are not didn't seem like the best approach to me.

Back on topic - listened to the podcast yesterday and just wanted to thank John for answering the questions and those who submitted them for asking them. It is always nice to learn a bit more about someone you listen to on a regular basis. A lot of nice questions, many of which I hadn't even realized that I had in fact wondered about myself.

[JohnMayo]

I'm surprised nobody has suggested the term "fortnightly" yet...

The episode was fun to do and so far all of the feedback has been positive. So, provided more questions come, there will probably be another one of these at some point in the future.