2024, In A Slightly Disheveled Box
Apparently we all need to do these now?
The year has ended, so I suppose that means I have to do one of those wrap-up whatchamacallits. At least, that's what social media and pretty much every app and other service, including Substack, seems to suggest.
I could go on about how many games I played this year, what books I read, how much I spent on toys, but I'd wager everyone's interest in that runs shallower than a Trump-voter's cultural well. Given this completely understandable position, I shall instead regale you with my first almost-a-year on Substack.
As I mentioned waaaay back in my first post, I didn't really know what I was going to do here on the 'Stack. I had a general idea of chronicling my adventure of having my first book published, which I've continued to share, but other than that I didn't have much of a plan. I'm not really one for plans, me. However, I've settled into writing what I like writing about most; geeky stuff. Comics, video games and a little bit of collecting. So far it seems to have gone well, with two posts almost cracking the 200 views mark, which is pretty cool. They are certainly outliers though, as the majority of my posts get between 30-50 views.
In fact, to my great delight, on checking my subscriber count in preparation to write this very article I've found I've 119! No idea when that happened, I did not get one of those notifications I see everyone else post in Notes, but I'm eternally grateful. I can't believe there are over 100 people who are interested in my eccentric ramblings.
I have learnt, however, that articles about collectables have been the least popular. Whether it be about the history of a toy line or a review of an item, they are consistently the lowest. So, I suppose I'll have to bin that kind of article off (for the most part, at least) but I've no idea what I'll replace it with. It’s a bit of a shame as I really enjoy writing and researching those.
I have had, however, two Notes go somewhat viral, at least within Substack itself. The first was putting the boot into AI-art loyalists, the second pointing out the ignorance of a slack-jawed American and their rather galah-brained opinions of Australia. I'm still amazed that people continue to like and reply to these notes. I'm not sure how much they have helped my subscriber count, but I think I've nabbed one or two subs out of them. And it's been a great way of finding out who the flat-headed wombats that need blocking are.
Going back to The Geekologist itself, I think the articles I’m most proud of are as follows;
The Toy That Made Me - Quite a personal piece, but the article with the lowest views of anything I’m posted.
The Phantom: Why Has America Ignored This Proto-Superhero? - Pretty surprised how well this did, honestly, but it was fun to write.
The Phantom: A Hero Who Influenced the World - Again, lots of fun to write and research. I didn’t do as well as the previous Phantom article, which actually kind of proves one of the arguments of that article.
The Death of Adam Warlock and Captain Marvel - This was the first time I’d ever really sat down to write something exploring the themes and messages behind a comic story. Took a lot longer to write than I thought it would, although, again, it’s one of my least read pieces. Did earn me a subscriber though, so bit thanks to that brilliant person.
Fiction & Fact: The Phantom in Malta - Comparing the real-life Siege of Malta to the fictionalised one that appears in these Phantom stories was great fun. It did okay as far as views go, more than my average but less than 100. I’m very happy with how it came out though; it was a lot of research.
Moving into 2025, I'll probably keep doing much of the same (although, anyone have ideas on what I could replace those collectables articles with, please let me know 😁). With the SEGA book coming out later this year, I'm considering doing a series of articles covering aspects of the company's history I would have liked to cover in the book but simply run out of space. I though this might add value and also incentivise people who read the book to check out my 'Stack, and vice versa.
As you may have noticed, I've played around with paid subscriptions a little bit. At the moment, I've kind of tried to use it like you would Kofi, but that hasn't sprung any results. I might set up an actual Kofi for anyone who wants to tip and use subscriptions for anyone who might want to support me long term. That would obviously necessitate coming up with subscription "exclusives" and, honestly, I've no idea what that might be.
All this is to say that it looks like 2025 will be more experimentation. I'm still considering putting fiction up on Substack, but whether it'll be part of Geekologist or a new 'Stack I'm not sure. Also, I need to finish the story first.
Whatever way the sub goes, I hope all of you continue to follow along in 2025.
TTFN.