One hates to be morbid. But it’s hard not to notice how many people come visit my blog here because they suspect a comic strip character is going to die. The Phantom’s projected death has brought hundreds of page views around here in recent months. Wilbur Weston falling from a cruise ship to wash ashore on an unknown island? That’s brought even more. It also looks like somebody on Facebonk mentioned me in some way that made people curious. So that’s all pleasant enough for me. Not so good for Wilbur.
My readership jumped considerably in January, rising to 6,892 page views from 3,853 unique visitors, as WordPress counts things. That’s well above the twelve-month running mean for January through December 2021, which was 5,055.4 page views per month from 3,004.7 unique visitors. It’s also well above the running median of 4,585 page views from 2,616.5 unique visitors. This will all die down as Wilbur Weston does not.
The things suggesting engagement were up, but not much. There were 158 likes given in January, compared to a running mean of 148.4 and running median of 141.5. There were 59 comments, compared to a running mean of 58.2 and running median of 52.5. And some of that was passing messages on to people. Well, it’s all content, say people who write algorithms instead of read.
My most popular post in January was this past October’s Mary Worth plot recap, because it asked how Wilbur Weston could be so incompetent. By far. It was almost twice as popular as the second-place finisher. My most popular posts from January were also Wilbur-centered. And the rest? Here’s the five most popular things published this past month:
- What’s Going On In Mary Worth? Why does everybody want Wilbur dead? October 2021 – January 2022
- Statistics December: How Can I Care About December 2021 When Wilbur Weston Might Be Dead?
- Wait, did Funky Winkerbean just give his wife the helmet Bull Bushka died in?
- Where did _Baby Blues_ go? How can I express my anger at _Funky Winkerbean_?
- What’s Going On In The Phantom (Sundays)? How many ritual responsibilities does The Phantom have? October 2021 – January 2022
It does all suggest that people know what they like from me, and it’s me talking about comic strips. Sometimes without even complaining about them. Granted, yes, it’s fun and funny to complain about the trivial. Anyway, TCM (United States feed) is showing Please Don’t Eat The Daisies this Sunday, and I might catch that again. Among original, non-comic-strip writing Statistics Saturday: Gifts Given for Squirrel Appreciation Day This Year was my most popular thing this past month.
Still, I’d be quite the fool to drop my story strip plot recaps. All the story strip recaps should be gathered here. And my plan for the next couple weeks is to cover:
- Neal Rubin and Rod Whigham’s Gil Thorp (8 February)
- Francesco Marciuliano and Mike Manley’s Judge Parker (15 February)
- Jonathan Lemon and Joey Alison Sayers’s Alley Oop (22 February)
- Tony DePaul and Mike Manley’s The Phantom (Weekdays) (29 February)
- Mark Schultz and Thomas Yeates’s Prince Valiant (36 February)
Once again 80 countries or country-like entities sent me page views. 17 of them were single-view countries, down from December’s 18. Here’s the roster:
| Country | Readers |
|---|---|
| United States | 5,059 |
| India | 239 |
| Canada | 238 |
| United Kingdom | 191 |
| Australia | 131 |
| Bulgaria | 116 |
| Japan | 82 |
| Brazil | 63 |
| Finland | 57 |
| Germany | 57 |
| Sweden | 56 |
| Philippines | 51 |
| Italy | 48 |
| Austria | 36 |
| France | 33 |
| Ireland | 30 |
| Spain | 29 |
| Thailand | 28 |
| Portugal | 24 |
| Denmark | 18 |
| New Zealand | 17 |
| Singapore | 17 |
| Egypt | 14 |
| Romania | 13 |
| Argentina | 12 |
| Indonesia | 12 |
| Israel | 11 |
| Netherlands | 11 |
| South Africa | 11 |
| Turkey | 11 |
| Hong Kong SAR China | 10 |
| Macedonia | 10 |
| Malaysia | 8 |
| Peru | 8 |
| Venezuela | 8 |
| Nigeria | 7 |
| Belgium | 6 |
| Mauritius | 6 |
| Mexico | 6 |
| Norway | 6 |
| Poland | 6 |
| Taiwan | 6 |
| Costa Rica | 5 |
| Ecuador | 5 |
| Greece | 5 |
| South Korea | 5 |
| Switzerland | 5 |
| European Union | 4 |
| Hungary | 4 |
| Lithuania | 4 |
| Pakistan | 4 |
| China | 3 |
| Croatia | 3 |
| Czech Republic | 3 |
| Puerto Rico | 3 |
| Saudi Arabia | 3 |
| Trinidad & Tobago | 3 |
| Ukraine | 3 |
| Bangladesh | 2 |
| Chile | 2 |
| Russia | 2 |
| Serbia | 2 |
| United Arab Emirates | 2 |
| Barbados | 1 |
| Colombia | 1 |
| Estonia | 1 |
| Guadeloupe | 1 (*) |
| Iraq | 1 |
| Jamaica | 1 |
| Kosovo | 1 |
| Kuwait | 1 |
| Luxembourg | 1 |
| Mongolia | 1 |
| Namibia | 1 |
| Panama | 1 |
| Sri Lanka | 1 |
| St. Lucia | 1 |
| Uganda | 1 |
| Uruguay | 1 |
| Vietnam | 1 (*) |
Guadeloupe and Vietnam were the only single-view countries on a two-month streak. Nobody’s on a three-month single-view streak.
WordPress figures that I published 18,198 words in December. (I reused a bunch of words, though.) This puts me at an average 587 words per posting this year, though I expect that figure to change. I’m not going to do the work needed to keep it constant.
Between the debut of short-lived game show Whew! and the start of February I’ve published 3,287 things to this blog. They’ve drawn a total 275,048 views from 157,401 unique visitors, they figure. And, for what it’s worth, a total of 4,974 comments. This suggests lucky comment #5,000 might come to the blog this month. It’s going to be people asking why Wilbur Weston isn’t dead.
If you’re looking to be a reader there’s nothing you need to do but read. If you’d like to use your RSS reader to get posts, here’s the feed. If you want to subscribe, there’s the ‘Follow Another Blog, Meanwhile’ button at the upper-right corner of this and every post. And just beneath that is a box to have posts e-mailed to you. I don’t do anything with that e-mail address except send posts. I can’t say what WordPress does with your address. Leave them in the junk drawer with a promise to do something about them soon, is what I would do with them.
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