Contemplating a Comics-Related Wiki

So I've put together a thing about as valuable as a hairy apple: a critical and taxonomic theory of the 'superhero' and all related archetypes in literature.

Putting aside the question of whether the theory's as all-encompassing as I, its author, think that it is, the question becomes: what to do with it?

I can think of only three possible avenues for circulating the theory.

(1) Write and/or self-publish a book that sums up the theory. There's a small cottage industry for books about comics-creators, but at present there isn't a "growth industry" for books about comics theory, much less cross-media theories.

(2) Devote a blog to the theory. A blog has the advantage of being free, and it may continue to float around the Internet for some time whenever I pop off this mortal coil. But in my experience with other blogs, they don't attract that much of a readership if they're theory-oriented rather than oriented on nostaglia or humor.

(3) Devote a wiki to the theory. A wiki has the advantage that it's much easier to explain complex points via hotlinks than it is with a blog; readers are much more used to consulting matters in depth on wikis than on blogs. But some if not all wikis cost money, and they may go away once no one's paying the freight, so that all the labor is wasted. I know of one website, Toonopedia, that's still going past the author's demise, but the fellow's family eliminated most of the illustrations for reasons that may have to do with expense.

None of these options are likely to yield much money; Don Markstein of Toonopedia told me it took him years to break even.

If anyone has any advice, great; if not, I just needed to think aloud in print somewhere.

No, nothing to do with helpful advice. Just amateur theorizing.

Lately I begin to wonder if I ought to aim the project at sci-fi/fantasy readers, since comics fans, from my personal encounters and from forums, don't seem interested in literary theory. At least some SF and fantasy people enjoy theory for its own sake. But as you may be able to tell by my not posting here for a while, the project hasn't exactly been eating up all my attention lately.

I've been reading that these days publishers are reluctant to commit to publication, either of fiction or non-fiction, unless one has created a platform. That pushes me somewhat more toward the "site first" idea.

Thanks for the feedback. The format of a blog has some appeal, because I'm already familiar with it. I even thought that if I amassed a collection of encyclopedia-entries I could post one a day and maybe get a lot of curiosity-seekers that way.

The down side of blogs is that they aren't all of a piece: they don't present the substance of a theory in one easily accessible place, as a wiki or a site could. I have some fantasies about making the site intellectually "respectable" enough to spawn a book. The few times I've seen books spawned from the Net, it's almost always from sites rather than blogs. I may have missed some, of course.

I'll try this out on anyone who wants to play:

I've had the thought that although my theoretical wiki is a little abstract, it might be more accessible if the characters covered had representative quotes that might funny, moving, or otherwise interesting.

Here are some quotes I've compiled of characters whose names (beginning with first names if any) begin with A. I'll see if anyone recognizes them and then post answers in a jumble.

“Out o’ my way, you motherless sons of slugs!”

“So, it’s that sweat that keeps these guys possessed?”

“We warred on a culture we didn’t understand… and we were massacred.”

“I am an apex predator.”

“These maniacs are trying to take over the world with an army of go-go girls!”

“I have all the agility of a hippopotamus with St. Vitus’ Dance!”