Certain People Are Always Right (or: Why I Create Comic Guides For You)

There is a single phrase that drives not only my professional obsession with communications and customers, but my personal compulsion of creating endlessly detailed comic guides and my new focus on asking you to sponsor Crushing Krisis.

The phrase is “Certain People Are Always Right.”

That doesn’t mean some people. I’m not arbitrarily choosing a group of correct people. It means that people who are very certain about something are the ones who are correct.

That seems like such a “duh” statement, but it’s actually revolutionary when you dissect it. Certainty is not an easy thing to create. Just because you want something doesn't mean you're certain about it (although you might be certain you want it). 

Certainty isn’t just about possessing facts. Is someone who owns a dictionary certain of spelling every word? Is someone who owns every X-Men comic book certain of the reading order?

Certainty requires both facts and context ... knowledge but also wisdom.

My intent in starting Crushing Comics was to become the single best source of certainty about the fewest, cheapest number of collected editions to buy to own every X-Men comic book. Over time I became curious about other characters and titles, and new guides were born.

A lot of different comic resources sites have popped up since I launched the first X-Men Guide in 2010. Many of them are great at suggesting comics to read or explaining the comics you’re reading. I use some of them myself.

When it comes to being certain about where a character has appeared, how to buy those comics in collected editions, and what order to read them in, I truly feel CK remains the most thorough resource on the internet.

That's why many of you are reading this post!

I want to broaden the reach of CK’s certainty. It wouldn’t be a bad thing to highlight the best stories or to comment on the relative importance of each story to continuity, because context is important to wisdom. What could I provide certainty about other than Marvel? Other than or comic books?

I’d also like to explore different kinds of content to create certainty. I love text, but can I create certainty faster with a video collecting guide? What kind of a comics podcast pairs well with my site?

I'll have more resources to do that with you as my Patron.

I want you to be as certain about committing a $1 or more of your money to this Patreon campaign every month as you are about what collected editions contain X-Men #137. The next few posts will outline exactly what your dollar(s) will help to fund for CK.

(Want to know more about why I started the comics guides on CK? Head to my multi-part “But I Regress” post series from 2010.)

(Want to hear more about my "Certain People Are Always Right" client philosophy? I've given talks on it in the past, and if you're interested it could become an ongoing topic on CK.)