R.I.P. HTMLGiant Unicorn 2008 – 2010
You might know Ryan Call from his role as guest curator of the “Watching Ice Melt” edition of the More Interesting Than a Lit Blog Fight? series on We Who Are About to Die. “Watching Ice Melt” rapidly surpassed such critics’ darlings as “Grass Growing” and “Leaky Faucet” to achieve cult status in the annals of indie lit blog history. As managing editor of HTMLGIANT, Ryan knows his way around an internet tussle.
Ryan and I, Melissa Broder–editor emeritus of We Who Are About to Die (WWAATD)–recently explored lit blog culture and lit blog comment culture through the dual lenses of obsession and revulsion. Knowing that our dialogue would end up on a lit blog somewhere (we wanted it to) (in spite of ourselves), we edited it no less than 30 times.
Here is what remains.
Melissa Broder: So. Are HTMLGIANT bloggers getting more booty than ever before?
Ryan Call: According to Google Analytics, no.
MB: What happened to the former mascot–the unicorn?
RC: When Gene Morgan redesigned the site, he asked Jimmy Chen to design a new 404 Page Not Found image. He sent back this really cute picture of a stuffed animal. A sloth or something. I’m not exactly sure what it is, but I hope it makes everyone really happy. It’s just kidding about their mothers.
MB: I miss the unicorn. But I’m slowly warming to the sloth. It has soulful eyes. Soulful plastic eyes. Perhaps you are trying to lure a younger readership?
RC: We will do whatever it takes to get to the younger readers before the other lit blogs get to them.
MB: What advice would you give to children looking to get involved in the lit blog biz?