Three Months In And We've Hit Our Stride

Photo by www.kaboompics.com 

Although there's over a year's worth of material on Cowboys, Capes, and Claws, today marks the end of its first quarter of active engagement with its audience.

And I have to say I'm very pleased with how things are going. In these last three months we've recorded a steady heartbeat of visitors (of course, a large percentage are bots, I know):

Visitor numbers since official launch of the blog

We appear to be getting a decent number of visitors, while still keeping our head below the parapet so I can carry on happily pootling around, not really knowing what I'm doing.

The largest proportion of referrals are from Facebook this quarter, with the United States accounting for 23 percent of hits on the site, while my fellow Brits only make up seven percent! 

Since removing the "number of hits" counter from the front of the blog, I've definitely become more relaxed about visitor numbers. It wasn't that I was desperately hunting for hits, but rather I was worried about attracting "bad actors".

I've never monetised my blogging and never will. I write all this nonsense primarily for my own entertainment, as storage vault for my ideas, and a vague diary of the more geeky elements of my life.

Do I wish more people would comment on the blog? Of course, I do. But that's something to work on as I continue to regrow the audience I used to have on previous blogs.

Since my first overview of goings-on (after just a month of this blog being "live"), the site has two more recruits to its Posse of Followers: namely, my old friend Adam Dickstein (of whom more later) and another gamer I've known for a long time, Norbert Franz.

But more are always welcome, so please show your support to my humble mumblings by clicking the blue button on the right marked FOLLOW (I think you need to have a Google account for this to work properly).

I'm not sure if there's a connection, but my six-year-old, private, tabletop roleplaying Facebook group, I'd Rather Be Killing Monsters, has also started to blossom again. We've had about a dozen new signings in the last couple of months, which is magnificent.

Also, Adam (see, I said he'd be back) has created a month-long blogging challenge, inviting people to share their home game settings through a series of daily prompts (Barking Alien's RPG Campaign Tour Challenge 2026).

And I'd Rather Be Killing Monsters is hosting the offerings from four participants: namely Timothy S Brannan's West Haven; Chantel Jones' Wonderland; Jonathan Linneman's Project 5.5 (The Fifth Moon of Elysia); and Adam's own Star Trek: Prosperity.

These are generating interest and conversations and, hopefully, next year that will translate into even more gamers taking part.

DC Stages A Comeback In My Superhero-Dominated Pull-List

Krypto: Last Dog of Krypton #1 movie variant cover (out this week)

As we were talking about statistics yesterday, I thought today would be a good time for a breakdown of my comic book pull-list.

This will then set a baseline for future comparisons as I monitor my shifting tastes.

There are currently 36 titles on my list, which sounds like a lot but includes pre-orders and one-shots as well as ongoing titles and limited series.

Over my nearly five decades of collecting, my "publisher of choice" has oscillated between DC and Marvel every few years - often with a short spell in between to focus on the smaller publishers. 

I actually thought my current list was dominated by DC at the moment, but I'd overlooked the number of Fantastic Four titles Marvel is pumping out to coincide with the arrival of their First Family in the MCU next month.

Pull-list broken down by publisher - June 2025

DC and Marvel are actually running pretty much neck and neck, thanks to both publishers pushing books tied into their potential summer blockbusters - which just happen to feature my favourite team and my favourite solo hero.

Pull-list broken down by genre - June 2025

I'm not surprised to see "superhero"-themed comics holding such sway over my list though as DC has really hit its stride this year, with its All In initiative. I hope this quality of storytelling will set the status quo for the company's books for a looooong time.

Prior to this, DC had pretty much been wiped off my pull-list (as I wasn't a fan of whatever convoluted balderdash they were doing with their storylines), but now the pendulum is definitely swinging back in the direction of the Distinguished Competition. 

Which is all great fun for me as a reader, but it's also starting to really put a strain on my budget. 

Therefore, largely for financial reasons (the cost of a single comic book continues to creep upwards) I'm aiming to trim my list down to books related to DC's Superman, books related to Marvel's Fantastic Four, and books related to the works of Robert E Howard (e.g. Conan The Barbarian, Solomon Kane etc).

We'll have to see how that goes. I'm already pondering "exceptions", such as catering to my interest in the Green Lantern Corps and its members as well as the JSA!

Fantastic Four Fanfare #2 (out this week)

We're Getting There (I Hope)

Photo by fauxels

We're kinda half-way through the year. While I still haven't made Cowboys, Capes, and Claws available to the general population yet I've invited a select few of my friends (both online and IRL) to an early sneak peek at the site.

I look forward to hearing what they have to say in due course.

As it stands, this is the breakdown of post content (by "labels") so far:

I'm pleased with the balance and the representation of my core objectives (superheroes, horror, and westerns).

I wonder what this pie chart will look like by the time Cowboys, Capes, and Claws goes public later in the year? 

Eventually, I'll run out of "retro reviews" (that is, reviews originally posted elsewhere and now brought over here so I can reference them in the future if needs be), so provided this blog has legs then that percentage should drop off as new material takes precedence. 

Unfortunately, in "real life", it looks as though my laptop is on its last legs and will probably need replacing at some point soon.

Being the technophobe that I am (I love technology when it works, but tend to freak out when it doesn't because I don't understand it), I'm not sure how this will affect my blogging/writing capabilities in the coming months.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this will just be a minor bump in the road and not a headfirst dive off a cliff!

The Joyful Diversity and Wackiness of Eurovision

Our scoresheets from this evening's Eurovision Song Contest

This year's Eurovision Song Contest (the 69th) has just wrapped, with Austria's JJ (performing Wasted Love) pipping Israel's Yuval Raphael (performing New Day Will Rise) to the top spot.

As we usually do, Rachel and I watched the grand final avidly, logging our own scores for all the acts, then totalling them up at the end to find out who we reckon should have won.

Neither of us particularly rated the winning song (although I did think that JJ had a very impressive voice).

Instead, our winners were Sweden's KAJ with their song about saunas - Bara Bada Bastu - closely followed by Switzerland's lovely Voyage (sung by Zoë Më) in second place.

No longer just a Saturday night event, Eurovision is a week of entertainment now that the BBC has started screening the two semi-finals on the Tuesday and Thursday before the grand climax.

And, for me, it's a highlight of the year that I look forward to months in advance.

As well as a great way to sample diverse approaches to popular music from around the world, Eurovision is the ultimate "safe space" where acts are free to be themselves and let rip: which often results in some wonderful craziness.

With its themes of optimism and unity, the show is another exemplar of my beloved principle of "lovely people doing lovely things".

Beyond the music itself, we then have the delights of the eccentric voting system, which - as a stats geek - I enjoy almost more than the music. 

First we get in the votes from the professional judging panels of all the countries involved (that is ALL the countries, not just the 26 taking part in the final).

Then, once we know who the professional panels liked, we go through all the acts and add in the telephone votes from around the world, which - as an example of transparent democracy in action - often shakes things up dramatically.

The voting is such fun, and has to be seen to be believed.

However, for me, the musical highlight of this evening was this mashup from of two of my favourite acts from previous Eurovisions - Käärijä & Baby Lasagna - which truly encapsulates the joyful insanity of the contest:

The final scores for 2025 - judging panels + public vote

Next year: we're off to Austria!