Guide to Rocket Raccoon (Early Access for ALL Patrons!) (Patreon)

Hello, my rocking Patrons - and, hardy hello to you if you are one of the folks who have joined the campaign in the past few weeks! I've been hard at work on a lot of CK stuff, including a brand new guide to another Guardians of the Galaxy!

NEW: Guide to Rocket Raccoon (Launch Essay)

Updated for Patrons: Hellcat, Patsy Walker

Updated for Patrons: Guide to Sabretooth

Quick Updates for Patrons: Blade, Spider-Gwen - Ghost-Spider, Venom

Plus, powered-by-Patrons but available for all readers:

Updated & Available to The Public: Guide to Lumberjanes (Announcement)

Updated & Available to The Public: Guide to WildCATs (Announcement)

Updated: Guide to X-Force (Announcement)

Updated: Guide to X-23 (Announcement)

Quick Updates: Fantastic Four, Captain America - Steve Rogers, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Guardians of the Galaxy, Hulk - Bruce Banner, Punisher, Shang-Chi, She-Hulk - Jennifer Walters, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man - Peter Parker (2018-Present), X-Statix & The X-Cellent

Mapping Post: Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 11th Annual Secret Ballot Results & Mappings (video on Near Mint Condition)

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It's wild looking at that whole list all in one place!

I was tempted to leave my Guardians guides with the main three humanoids, but I couldn't skip Rocket in good conscience - he has the most solo series of them all! Luckily, I had already read all but five issues in the Guide to Rocket Raccoon, which always makes things quicker.

I released a pair of last month's exclusive indie guides to the public. I chose Guide to WildCATs because their current ongoing series is generating some buzz and I wanted to start making an impact on search rankings for them. Plus, I added eBay links throughout to help folks track down single issues. And, I picked Guide to Lumberjanes for a special reason - my 9YO helped me improve the reading order!

Meanwhile, with Indie Comics Month in the rearview, I am back to making regular "Quick Updates" to existing guides. Quick Updates involve bringing a guide up to date on all collections and starring series, but not editing the formatting or researching guest appearances - which I save for a full update announced on the main page.

For the first time ever, I've quick-updated some Patron-exclusive guides while they are still exclusive rather than waiting for their public release. Since some of my guides are meant to be long-term benefits for you all, it makes sense to start including them in my update routines.

For a pair of Patron guides, I did make full updates with guest appearances and everything: Guide to Hellcat - Patsy Walker and Guide to Sabretooth.

Oh, and, I mapped all 61 most-wanted omnibuses from the famous annual Tigereyes secret ballot after appearing on a marathon live announcement stream at 5am NZ time with Omar from Near Mint Condition and our good friend OmniDog!

To see new guides and guide updates announced as they happen, keep an eye on the CK homepage.

When you visit a Patreon guide you should be prompted to log in to CK using your Patreon login. If you aren't prompted when visiting a guide page, try visiting the CK login page directly.

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Behind-the-Scenes Krisis

If you can believe it, I did all of that while also keeping my daughter entertained during New Zealand autumn school break! Term break started the evening before my last Patreon post, and the 9YO is back to school this morning.

That's absolutely wild to think about, but it explains why I feel like I haven't slept for the past two weeks! Luckily, I've been compelled to exercise thanks to the kid training for her school's cross-country run.

I actually kicked off term break with a special assignment for the 9YO: I asked if she could review every supplemental Lumberjanes release to place them all in reading order for the public release of my guide.

Before you start pointing fingers about child labor: the kid was intensely curious about the Lumberjanes guide, she reads and re-reads those comics weekly even without a special assignment, she always asks if she can learn how to build a comic guide of her own, and she was paid for her work with a pair of Lumberjanes trades she had been missing from her collection.

It was so fun to get her involved in CK. I loved listening to her reasoning about where the books ought to fit into reading order based on the plots of other issues and the presence or absence of key characters.

In other news, I've also continued battling the ongoing Denial of Service attacks on CK, which has been a pain and which caused some subsequent MYSQL problems. Thank you once again for paying for a hardcore hosting service with round-the-clock support that can save me in situations like this one.

In my last update I said I was meant to be recovering from March but I was interrupted by the DoS attacks. This time I was meant to be recovering from the DoS attacks and I was interrupted by school break! Will I get any time to catch my breath in the next week? Probably not, but hopefully this time the interruptions will be all of my own choosing.

I have launched 45 Guides to you in the past 365 days - 22 Marvel, 5 DC, & 18 Indie! Plus, I've also made many significant updates to existing guides.

Now for the big news: Since my last Patreon post the median guide freshness date has improved from January 2020 to June 2020 while the current median freshness goal moved from July 2022 to August 2022.

In the past 14 days I've gone from 30 months behind my goal to 26 months behind. If I want to keep improving, it's time to update some of the biggest and most-complex guides! I can't wait to say that every guide has been updated within the past 12 months.

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What's up next on Crushing Comics?

Patreons at the Pledgeonaut level will shortly see a rare new Marvel team guide (sort of), plus a new Spider-Guide. Then, all Patrons will get another guide for a somewhat spacey hero early in May.

This week and next I'll be rolling out several of your exclusive Guardians guides to the public, plus updating other space-faring hero guides, all as a countdown to the film!

Looking father ahead, I see some former-villain guides in our future, plus a handful more indie guides. Also, I'm just about done with my weekly updates of all of the X-Guides to present day! I hope to kick off another themed weekly update series in June.

As always, I'm interested to know what YOU want to see next on CK. Thousands of people use the site every day, but you are my focus when I'm planning new and updated content. I know guides to GI Joe, Superman, and Doop are on your lists, which mean they're on mine as well. Whether the thing you want to see is big or small, brand new or an update, drop me a comment or DM to let me know.

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Current Exclusives for Crushing Cadets ($1/month): 46 Guides!

DC Guides (6): Batman – Index of Ongoing Titles, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: Hal Jordan, Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner, Omega Men

Marvel Guides (28): Adam Warlock, Alpha Flight, Angela, Beta Ray Bill, Black Cat, Blade, Captain Britain, Dazzler, Domino, Dracula, Drax the Destroyer, Elsa Bloodstone, Emma Frost - The White Queen, Gamora, Heroes for Hire, Legion, Marvel Era: Marvel Legacy, Mister Sinister, Rocket Raccoon, Sabretooth, Spider-Ham, Star-Lord, Thunderstrike, Valkyrie, Vision, Weapon X, X-Man – Nate Grey

Indie & Licensed Comics (12): The Authority, Black Hammer, Brigade, Codename Strykeforce, Cyberforce, Pitt, Princeless & Raven The Pirate Princess, Savage Dragon, ShadowHawk, Stormwatch, Supreme, WildStorm Events

Current Exclusives For Pledgeonauts ($1.99+/month): 77 Guides!

All of the 46 guides above, plus 31 more guides…

DC Guides (16): Animal Man, Aquaman, Books of Magic, Catwoman, Doctor Fate, Flash, Harley Quinn, Houses & Horrors, Infinity Inc., Justice League, Justice Society of America, Mister Miracle, Nightwing, Outsiders, Suicide Squad, Swamp Thing

Marvel Guides (13): Darkhawk, Falcon, Gwenpool, Hellcat - Patsy Walker, Kang the Conqueror, Loki, Power Pack, Red She-Hulk, Sentry, Silk, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Venom

Indie & Licensed Comics (2): Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - IDW Continuity, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Mirage Studios Continuity