Are you a ‘DC’ fan, ‘Star Wars’ fan, or just a comic fan in general? Mars has got you covered! Full name, Marsden Sturtz, 27 years old, and from Middletown, Delaware. She has been running her blog ‘ThatComicGirl‘ for about a decade now! Full time you will find Sturtz doing what she calls “a boring desk job” working for the Delaware Division of Revenue, but in her spare time you’ll find her blogging, posting videos on her Youtube page , or on social media (Twitter and Instagram) reviewing and sharing her passion for comics.
People started coming to Mars because they too wanted to get into comics, but needed recommendations. Her blog originally started on Tumblr but got moved over to BlogSpot. Sturtz described her desire to get into her site as a true passion. “It’s just that passion, it’s just wanting to get other people into comic books.”
She admitted feeling overwhelmed in the beginning, describing how big this world of comics seemed.
“When I first got into comics, because I’ve only been reading comics for about ten or twelve years now, I was very overwhelmed. I had a friend who helped me get into it, but I remember first learning that Batman had more than one Robin, its little things like that that felt very overwhelming, and I didn’t want anyone else to feel like that.”
Not only did Sturtz have a passion to spread more knowledge on some of these storylines, but also feeling as though comics are more than just superheroes nowadays.
“I wanted to be able to show people that there’s independent comics; there’s books that feel like ‘Star Wars’ but aren’t quite ‘Star Wars’ that people could find themselves wrapped up in, and enjoying, which is why I kind of created a central hub where people could go to and see where they could start and why they should get into comics and stuff like that.”
Showcasing more of an indie feel to her blog and YouTube pages she strives to share more than just the mainstream media comics with others. Despite this sort of theme she’s found along the way, Sturtz admits that the most difficult part about running her site has been finding her voice since the very beginning.
“Did I want to be more formative and more almost like a news site, where I was talking about breaking news and things as they happened? Did I want it to be more like a personal lifestyle blog? Because that is what I feel like I originally wanted it to be and to be more talking about my collection and my day to day life as a comic book nerd, and then eventually it just kind of evolved into a combination of the two; where I would do reviews and be talking about the books I loved, and maybe why I was starting to read this type of series, and what got me into that type of series, and things like that.”
She’s had to ask herself important questions along the way, such as,”Am I doing this for other people or am I doing this for me? And, you have to kind of find that really nice cushy medium between the two.” It seems the main cure to these speedbumps for Sturtz has just been balance as I’m sure many of us have felt in life when taking on responsibilites, no matter how fun they can be.
Although there have been challenges, when I asked what has been the most rewarding part of running her site, Sturtz described how the responses she got from others made it all worth it.
“People coming to me and telling me about a book they now love because I recommended it. You know, a book maybe they had never heard of, or maybe they did hear about but maybe was a little bit hesitant about taking a chance on it, and maybe I pushed them over that edge in terms of finally picking it up and reading it. That to me is the most satisfactory thing, is knowing that there’s people out there that now love things because I love them, and because I shared my passion about that particular book or series. And then, even if so they say, I fell in love with this book and now I’ve gotten person x, y, and z to read it as well, and they love it; its just that kind of outreach effect that makes you feel so warm and fuzzy and wholesome, and makes me realize why I’m doing this.”
As mentioned earlier, you can find Sturtz on BlogSpot, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. She finds all of these mediums to be really signficant aspects of her content creating, and shared how they impact it in great detail with me.
“Instagram and Twitter I think are really great in terms of a more marketing standpoint. It’s a way of reaching out and letting people know what kind of content I’m in the process of or content I already have out there. Twitter in particular too is really great for reaching out to creators, specifically, in the comic book industry. I can’t imagine a world without Twitter and still being able to do what I do and still be able to have access to people and the conversations I can have with creators in the way that I do. I mean it’s so simple now to go onto Twitter and find somebody’s name after I’ve read a book and reaching out to them and either asking them for an interview, or just telling them how much I love their book, and when you review something and tag somebody in it, it just makes things that much easier.”
Specifically YouTube has been the medium that Sturtz revealed she’s putting most of her attention into recently in growing her ‘ThatComicGirl’ adventure.
“I’ve been sort of switching over to YouTube, I just feel like a lot of people like to consume their content that way because they can put my videos on in the background while they’re doing something else, and I feel like that’s just the way that people are gravitating towards. To get their information in a more outreaching sense, aside from just reading something, and I do the same thing there that I do on my blog. I’m giving recommendations, I’m sharing my passions, and I feel like that passion can come through a little bit better through video and audio because I’m a very expressive and animated person, and that comes through in video versus say coming through in just text so, that is something I’ve been focusing on a little bit more.”
As far as the future of journalism as a whole, Sturtz believes digital journalism is going to be where the action will be.
“I feel like that’s definitely the way we’re gonna go because again it brings us back to the Twitter conversation where its instant information at your fingertips. If we look at things like Facebook, when we go into the Facebook videos and you’re just sort of scrolling and you see things from Buzzfeed and you see things from NowThis, and things like that, this is condensed information usually within 60-90 seconds or less, and its 90 seconds I don’t even realize is going by; and if I don’t like it within the first 15 seconds, okay I can scroll on and move onto the next. I feel like that is a way especially within the millennial and digital age having shorter attention spans, I definitely feel like that’s the way its gonna be going.”
Still it’s the people and connections she makes that Sturtz really loves about her involvement in digital journalism and running her site.
“Just being able to reach out to the people that I do, and then the connections that its made along the way, and just kind of watching it grow and spiral. When I started this ten years ago I had no idea that now I would have publishers, and people reaching out to me to use my voice to share the books that they’re publishing, or to send me PR packages and talk about the things that I’ve gotten from them. Its really insane that you know, little baby comic me, who was just writing a few good words and a few recommended books on my computer, or on my phone has made it so much more massive. I know with COVID-19 I feel like I’ve kind of scaled back a little bit because I’m not going to conventions as much. I’m not being able to reach out to those publishers and to those creators, and have direct interactions with them, but it just makes me excited for what is going to come about, and how its going to continue to grow as things slowly progress back to normal.”
When it came to advice on how others like myself can get started on this multi-media, blogging journey and can mantain it Sturtz goes back to the theme of balance, but also a steady drive.
“Never quit, honestly I think that persistence and that perseverance are very important. Personally, I know there were a couple times where I wanted to shut everything down and I realized how upset I would be with myself if I did, or even too taking a break and focusing on what it is about the journalism that you really love. Burnout is something very easy that can creep up on you without even realizing it, and I know I personally, especially recently was so focused on pushing out content, and making sure that I had enough pieces every week or every month out there for people, and it was exhausting because as we had mentioned earlier; I do have a day job and I do treat this as my job, but at the same time I have to realize when I can stretch myself too thin because once you’ve done that, and this goes for anyone starting out, once you stretch yourself too thin and you don’t even realize it the quality of your content goes down severely, and I feel like people can see that so its: being mindful of yourself, being mindful of your surroundings, and how you feel so that way you can ensure you’re taking care of yourself, you’re still putting out the best quality content possible, and that you continue to put out that content, and don’t kind of just give up on it because you’re worn out or feeling exhausted.”
The last thing I wanted to touch on with Sturtz was her experiences with comic book stores and conventions since those are my main interests on my site, and her answer didn’t dissapoint. In short she’s been going to shops since she started collecting comics about twelve years ago, and has been very, very involved with comic book stores, their communities, and working with them at conventions. She even worked at a small comic book shop briefly that was built right near her in Middletown, DE about two years ago called, Born to Game and touched on her experiences with them.
“It was really great to see all of that behind the scenes, see how the ordering goes down, see how that relates to the comic books as they come in, and the customer base, and its just a matter of getting people excited, and convincing people to buy books and to get excited about those books.” Still today, Sturtz is faithful to the store and orders her weekly comic book subscription from Born to Game.
Overall, being so involved within the comic book community has allowed Sturtz to be a voice for change, as a part of the LBTGQ+ community herself, and see just how much the comic book community has evolved over the years, especially through comic book shops.
“There is a sense of comic book camaraderie, in that community where its become a very safe space, these nerd type, pop-culture stores have become a safe space for people where people can feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, and I feel like that also too is within the queer comic book community. Again, it’s that safespace and that camraderie that I really, really love about comic shops.”
Sturtz on diversity within the comic book community:
“Comics for the longest time it felt like it belonged to the generic, straight, white man, and those were the characters you saw in these comic books, or you saw the “pretty ladies,” that were full figured, that were obviously drawn and created for “the male gaze,” but now we’re seeing a bigger difference and a bigger wave in comics; not only with the type of stories and representations that we see, we’re seeing all types of diverse stories and queer stories being told, but also seeing that sense of creation. We’re seeing a lot more queer creators and a lot more creators of color, so, its evolving, and its becoming like I said, a safe space for people because its people that are just like one another, and they can converse and read stories about themselves, and finally see themselves in a story.”
As someone apart of the LGBTQ+ community, advocating for ‘comics for all’ Sturtz’s passion and accountability actively participating in media really spoke to me, and showed me just how far we’ve come within not only the comic book community, but today’s media alone. We’re seeing more and more diversity in the main characters of films, video games, etc… I was so glad to hear Sturtz’s support and awareness of the inclusivity “geek culture” today has, and how she reflects this on her blog ‘ThatComicGirl.’
The Geek Stop 