I can’t imagine how I keep mixing up a dark red 1½-turn counterclockwise spiral with a dark red 1½-turn clockwise spiral!

Monthly or More (ongoing):

• Flash (DC)
• Fallen Angel (IDW, formerly DC)
• Fables (Vertigo)
• Countdown to Final Crisis (DC)
• Noble Causes (Image)
• Dynamo 5 (Image)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dark Horse)

Bimonthly, Less Frequently, or on Hiatus:

• Planetary (WildStorm, one more issue)
• Desolation Jones (WildStorm)
• All-Star Superman (DC)
• Astro City (WildStorm)
• Book of Lost Souls (Icon)

Mini-Series

• Salvation Run (DC)
• Countdown To Adventure (DC)
• Teen Titans Year One (DC)

Waiting for Trades:

• Powers (Icon, formerly Image)
• A Distant Soil (Image)
• Girl Genius (Studio Foglio)
• Freshmen (Top Cow)

Still heavily weighted DC over Marvel. 10 of 19 are either DC or an imprint (WildStorm & Vertigo), and one book started at DC. Both Marvel books are Icon, their imprint for creator-owned books. One is on hiatus and one is sporadic. Of the 7 books with a regular schedule, 3 are DC, and one of those is weekly. Plus I’m more likely to pick up crossovers or events from DC than from another company—see Salvation Run, for instance (though I’m mainly buying it for the Rogues, who were the viewpoint characters in issue #1 but strangely absent from #2.) So DC is still getting the bulk of my comics budget.

Very little shared universe stuff. Of the 5 DCU books, 3 are mini-series (4 if you include Countdown), and one of those is a flashback. No Marvel or Ultimates. Just two Image and one WildStorm universe (and that’s only got one issue left).

I’m also thinking I might drop All-Star Superman. While it’s certainly a more entertaining read than other books, I realized that I don’t really care about it.

What’s changed since my last post at the end of 2004?

Added: Desolation Jones, Dynamo 5, A Distant Soil, All-Star Superman, Book of Lost Souls, Freshmen, Buffy, Countdown, Countdown to Adventure, Teen Titans Year 1, Salvation Run.
Dropped: Teen Titans, Outsiders, Astonishing X-Men, Squadron Supreme
Ended: Tellos, Forsaken, Ocean (mini), Rising Stars
Tried: Shadowpact, Jack of Fables, Beyond Avalon, Justice Society of America, Jack Cross, Fell, Wonder Woman
Came and went: Infinite Crisis (and all 5 lead-ins), Seven Soldiers, Secret Six, 52; Otherworld, The Atheist, The Stardust Kid, Mnemovore, Eternals, Elric: Making of a Sorceror, New Spring, Neverwhere, several Angel & Spike minis

It’s interesting to note that all the books I’ve dropped were “big two” super-hero team books. And aside from Infinite Crisis and 52, most of the series that launched and ended weren’t standard super-her books. Seven Soldiers would be the closest.

Of course, even if you don’t recognize the specs, you can identify them easily by the column headers:

• Opera is red
• Browser 1 is blue
• Browser 2 is orange

Hmmm….

Interestingly, I’ve got a project I’ve been working on off-and-on for a couple of weeks, and I’ve already put together a design using just color to represent different browsers.

It looks like I may have been on to something.

Update August 8, 2005: Apparently there are countries in which it is illegal to mention a competitor by name in ads, which might explain the tactic. Also, Opera has taken down the page, replacing it with a note that “This page is under development.”