Overview
I have been a big fan of DC Comics since I was five years old. I drew comic book cards in 4th grade and begged my teacher to laminate them. In college I created my own comic book but vastly underestimated the work load. Combining web skills with a lifelong passion led to Supergirl.tv — and from there the snowball kept rolling into eight different websites, across ten-plus television shows, with a staff of seven.
The Opportunity
I never thought buying a domain would lead to where it has. The ".tv" TLD wasn't particularly popular, but it was getting great SEO. On a whim I bought Supergirl.tv and started covering CBS' new Supergirl show. Before I knew it, Warner Brothers was reaching out to see if I would work with them in covering the series.
Iterating for growth
The second version of the site accommodated increasing demand for visitor interaction — a complete redesign with comments on every article and a forum for user-created posts on pre-approved topics. The third version added modern design trends: parallax animations, full-screen imagery, fixed navigation, and a members-only section to help boost donations.
The more heroes the merrier
While Supergirl.tv was experiencing fantastic success, whispers of new shows kept coming. Doubling down on the strategy that worked, I purchased Thewitcher.tv, Batwoman.tv, Stargirl.tv, Youngjustice.tv, Harleyquinn.tv, DCTV.news, and Supermanandloistv.com. Each new show got a new website built from Joomla templates I designed. Running them grew difficult, so I invited my wife and mother to help. Before we knew it, we had a staff of seven volunteers who loved comic-book TV as much as we did.
Shake-up in the industry
Jumping into comic-book television and entertainment journalism was a crazy ride — interviews with cast members, red carpets, swanky Hollywood parties, and Comic-Con as press. The crown jewel was watching the first episode of Stargirl with the executive producer at his Warner Brothers office months before air. But industries change. COVID hit television hard, the CW was sold, and with James Gunn rebuilding DC's entertainment model, the shows wound down. The final episode of Superman and Lois aired December 2nd, 2024, ending a decade of unforgettable experiences.
Hanging up my cape
Episode nights meant watching the East Coast feed, recapping live, and publishing reviews before the West Coast feed began — then live-tweeting reactions with cast and crew. On nights with two or more episodes, we worked into the small hours. I wouldn't trade any of it. Here's one of my favorite interviews I ever did on the red carpet with Supergirl series star Melissa Benoist.
The business impact
There isn't much of a business impact here. I did create a business to cover all of these sites that I was doing with my wife but we never did it for profit. At best we could maybe cover a flight or two. It did, however, develop my interview skills, SEO and social media skills as well as push my development and visual design abilities. At it's peak, we had over 1/2 million followers on Facebook, 100,000+ on Twitter and would see daily visits that hit 80,000 homepage views.
