Who would have thought that this site would last a year? and who would have guessed that the site would become as popular as it has? The site has racked up over 3000 hits in the past year, with the number of daily hits increasing as time goes by. I've recieved a lot of support from the Azrael reading community on the internet, specifically Kevin aka Mauddib and Mike Rehor from the JLA Headquarters site, and I'd like to thank them.

To satiate those with who who have petitioned me for updates, there are two new rants up, covering issues #52 and #53. The one big thing debuting this month is the image map for the frames section. In the works for a month, it finally makes it's debut today. I've got hold of cover previews for issues #55 #56 and #57, and the improving colouring is evident in these pictures. Also upcoming are solicitations for July which I'll talk about later.

Last month I commented on how excited I was about Azrael being mentioned in the solicitation for Legends of the Dark Knight #120, since then of course I've seen the cover, and that sent me into quite a seething rage. How Azrael could be left off the cover, when every single other Bat-character, two of which don't have books, gets a spot is beyond my ability to explain. This was one of my pet topics of recent memor, the systematic abuse of Azrael by the editorial office and assembled talent for NML. One thing that has managed to offset some of this bad will was Azrael's sales in march, It reached #84 on Diamonds top #100, outselling Woder Woman, Superboy and Martian Manhunter, among others. If these sorts of sales continue then azrael has a secure future and worries about the future of the book can be put aside for the time being.

Up next are the July solicits. I really wasn't happy when I saw the solicitation, what it implied was that DC were cramming hundreds of guest stars into Azrael in an attempt to boost sales. While I appreciate the sentiment I can't help but think that this is the wrong way to go about it, that Azrael would be much better served by putting Azrael in cameos in higer selling books like Supergirl and Nightwing. However the look of the new covers makes me hopeful.

Gordon Hope-Murray 22/04/1999 previous columns
15/07/1998
04/09/1998
15/11/1998
15/01/1999
Some time in March/1999