The [End] State of the Kitsch
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Our (slightly belated) annual summary of what happened and what's happening. Or, in our case, what won't be. Please read on.
First, our annual mantra:
There are a lot of reasons we do a thing like this - a website, a blog, a thingazine, whatever you call it. The best of those reasons is that we enjoy doing it. So, as always, when we sit back and reflect upon the previous 365 days, the first question is, "did we have fun?".
...and we did.
But also: not enough.
So we're calling it a day, and we're closing up Pornokitsch at the end of March.
The next month promises to be fun: it has been ten years of deeply-subjective, highly-opinionated, and stupidly-niche material. Let's go out dancing with the partner that brought us. But first, here's what happened last year...
Things that happened
The top 10 most read articles of 2017:*
- 'The Action-Packed Secret Origin Story of Judge Dredd' (Guest article by Magnus Anderson)
- 'Gray is an insult to real moral ambiguity' (Guest article by Adam Kranz)
- SPFBO: The First 26 Reviews! (Reviews by Jared)
- 'Home to Heroes, Too' (Article by Becky)
- 'Dolores Umbridge is the scariest villain in Harry Potter' (Article by Erin)
- 'Some unwanted writing advice' (Article by Jared)
- 'Velvet: Sex, Spies and Stereotype' (Review by Jamie)
- 'The Anti-Singularity: The Open Secret of 2001' (Review by Mazin)
- A Fistful of Fingers (Review by Stark)
- Venus is a Man's World (Listen-along with Kuzhali!)
[2017 articles only, and excludes perennial champions "We are Sansa", The Wise Man's Fear, Caligula and Wizard's First Rule.]
A top ten is a small sample of the 133 articles we published last year, but, as always, we're delighted that it reflects a range of contributors and topics. Well done, y'all.
We published (some) fiction:
- 'The Empire Cashes Back' by Mazin Saleem, with art by Sarah Anne Langton
- 'Alf' by Mazin Saleem, with art by Dearbhla Ní Fhaoilleacháin Ryan
- 'The White Fox and the Red' by E.J. Swift, with art by 12 Orchards
- 'Four Feet' by Kirsty Logan, with art by Howard Hardiman
Plus an extract from Fonda Lee's Jade City and classic reprints from John Kendrick Bangs, Andrew Lang and James McKimmey.
Who did all the hard work?
Your 2017 regulars were Anne, Becky, Erin, Jamie, Jared, Kuzhali, Mahvesh, Mazin and Stark.
Guest posts and interviews came from Magnus Anderson, Verity Holloway, Adam Kranz, Oliver Langmead, Sally Partridge, and Laurel Sills. And a special shout out to the many brilliant small presses that participated in our spotlight interview series.
Artists included 12 Orchards, Howard Hardiman, Sarah Anne Langton, Dearbhla Ní Fhaoilleacháin Ryan, and Caspian Whistler.
You!
Thank you so much for sharing, commenting, arguing, and, most importantly, reading. You're the best!
tldr;
- Our goal is to have fun.
- In 2017, we had fun.
- Year = success.
- Pornokitsch = done.
Stick around, as we're going to spend the next few weeks being as noisy as possible. More details on all the practical aspects of impending doom here.