Pictured above: yours truly, with Harley Quinn fan par excellence Elise Archer. Taken at the Armageddon Pop Culture Expo, Melbourne Exhibition Center, 17/10/2010.

As I type this, it’s not long gone midnight Christmas morning, and given the season - and the fact that this is the 2,500th post (!) - I thought it opportune to take a look behind the curtain, as it were.

As John Lennon so pointedly asked, “So this is Christmas, and what have you done?” Well, I could tell him “I started a Tumblr blog about comics,” which is the truth, but also sounds terribly reductionist. Lennon also said, “Life is what happens when you make other plans,” and I hadn’t planned to start a comics blog - but I had no idea where it would lead, either!

To be honest, this blog was borne out of a technical issue. (And goodness knows, there have been plenty of those these last few weeks here on Tumblr!) Y’see, a few months ago, my count of ‘liked posts’ had become stuck at ~3,100. No matter how many posts I bookmarked, unliked or reblogged, the aggregate number would inevitably reset back to the aforementioned number, sometimes several times a day. (This was fixed eventually after emailing Tumblr staff, but we all know how long that can take.)

However, out of that frustration came an idea: since many of my liked posts were comics-related, why not repurpose those into a comics blog of my own?

And thus, this blog was born!

Since then, it’s has since exceeded my wildest expectations; I thought I’d be lucky to get a couple of dozen people following this blog - right now, over 200 people enjoy this blog on a daily basis, and Google tells me that traffic is steadily on the increase, which amazes me no end.

But numbers and usernames don’t mean much if you can’t attach people to ‘em, and I’m glad to say that I can. Since beginning this blog, I have found some great people to follow and interact with, both here and on Twitter. In one such instance, it turned out that one person who follows this blog is good friends with someone I already knew, as friend-in-common and her boyfriend were semi-regular posters on another message board I frequent. Small internet, huh?

Which leads me to Elise. When she first started following this blog, I opted to look at her own Tumblr, and my first thought was, “Wow, she’s really into Harley Quinn.” Little did I know! Once I began exploring her blog in more depth, it hit me: our paths had crossed before IRL, at the Supanova convention back in April! Although we didn’t actually meet, I did view a Youtube video of hers taken there, which led to us exchanging emails. (It also turned out that Elise and I have a mutual IRL acquaintance. Small internet, even smaller world!) She suggested I come to Armageddon, which I really wasn’t planning to do, but I’m glad I did.

Not only was it great to meet the person for whom many people consider synonymous with Harley Quinn and geek out about stuff, the picture above was taken while in the queue for John ‘Bender’ DiMaggio, who had recently appeared as the Joker in BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD. I got him to sign my Brave & Bold Aquaman figure - you guys, he even did the “OUTRAGEOUS!” That made my morning.

But that wasn’t the best part of the day. On a whim, I entered the DC Comics 75th Anniversary Trivia Contest…and guess what. I won! (You can see pix of me participating here, here and here.) While the prizes weren’t all that (leftover DARK KNIGHT toys? really, Warner Brothers?), I opted to swap one prize with one of the runners-up for a copy of the DC Comics Encyclopedia, and gave the Joker doll I received to Elise, who happily accepted.

And none of the above would’ve happened had I not started this blog!

Addditionally, reading Elise’s own blog has been educational for me in a number of ways; she speaks freely and unreservedly about the things that matter to her, be it DC’s handling of Harley and her relationship with the Joker, or gender issues, or racism. (Amongst many other things.) Her passion is evident in every post, and demonstrated in manners both serious (her ‘It Gets Better’ video) and less so (her take on ‘Santa Baby’). Indeed, the highest compliment I can pay her is that she has helped enlighten me about things I was unaware of, and made me want to better myself in response; again, that change would have not come about had I not begun this blog.

I admit, sometimes it can be hard to find material to post on here. Some days, the inspiration flows freely; others, it can be a struggle. Time was, I worked as a nightclub DJ, and often found myself much along similiar lines as described above. However, knowing that my end goal was to make sure the customers would walk away happy got me through some tough nights, and drives me much the same way regarding what I do here. Not every post may hit the mark, but as long as someone enjoys what I do - if it adds a little bit of happiness to their day - then it’s worthwhile. Ultimately, it’s about you guys, not my ego.

Which leads me to my most important point: I want to say “Thank you!” to each and every one of you who follows this blog. You are all fantastic people, and I am so very glad you’ve made a difference to my year. Hell, it wouldn’t have been the same without you.

“So this is Christmas, and what have you done?”

I started a blog, which makes others happy. And by doing so, it changed my life for the better. If that isn’t some sort of Christmas miracle, than what is?

Thank you all, each and every one.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.