Watching Comics: Loading the Canon (2022 R.I.P.)

                                       Image from ohioisforsale.com

The LOADING THE CANON YouTube Channel was permanently banned without warning the weekend of December 17-18. This is a huge blow to comics research and the promotion of good comics from everywhere. YouTube can easily trample on channels with low subscriber count that don't focus on CGC, MCU, or the latest uninspired ransacking of comic book IP.

LOADING THE CANON unselfishly shared his time and energy to promote the obscure, the neglected, the unjustly dismissed, and the great comics you didn't even know about on his channel this past year. Here's some highlights from memory:

1. My favorite videos were the epic haul videos, LTC didn't invent the haul video but he certainly created a high standard for others to follow. My next installment of this segment would have focused on the legendary four videos detailing his buying spree in Portland comics shops and bookstores. I could spend hours just watching the endless parade of comics I'd either never heard of before or known of but never seen. Also greatly missed are the essential SPX and CXC haul videos (one filmed on the fly in his hotel room), which are so important to folks like me who would never get to those festivals in person. And even his last (coincidentally his first and last videos are haul videos) video showed us some impossible to find erotic comics from the 90s, historically speaking LTC was one of the few talking about these not all great but definitely all forgotten comics born from a decade when the entire comics industry did what it had to do to survive.

2. Next favorite were his discussions with like-minded youtubers Comic Kkrakk, SleepyReader666, Athenaeum Comic Art, and comics muckraker Ryan Carey. One of his most watched videos (iirc) was a wide-ranging conversation with Fantagraphics Co-Publisher Eric Reynolds.

3. LOADING THE CANON explored the history of comics in many ways, the most in-depth was his ten part series bringing to life "The Top 100 (English-Language) Comics of the Century" feature from THE COMICS JOURNAL #210 (February 1999). He matched all 100 entries with books from his extensive collection and commented on the entries from a historical and personal perspective.

4. However, the most important were his essential RECENT READS which was his review vehicle for personal favorites and finds. Unfortunately, this is where memory fails me so I'll spotlight one creator whose work I particularly want to explore based on LTC's recommendation: Jon Allen.