I'll probably have more to say, after his official last post. His departure raises many questions, not least being: What is the future of Journalista, the TCJ.com site, and Fantagraphics' own manga line? Hopefully, a few of those questions will get some kind of answer by later today.
Update:
Dirk Deppey has officially ended his tenure as a blogger at TCJ.com, and there's very little hard information on why he was let go. Dirk claims that the parting was amicable, and he implies that the reasons behind it were economic, although that doesn't necessarily preclude other explanations, like more sweeping changes in company direction.
As expected, the tributes have been sprouting-up all over the Web. They point to Journalista's role in single-handily ushering the comics blogosphere into existence. Noah Berlatsky describes how Dirk encouraged the nascent voices of bloggers like himself, and Sean Kleefeld explains how Journalista was once the most important source for general online news coverage in the industry. He believes that with Dirk's departure, more idiosyncratic and personal reportage will come to dominate the blogosphere. I thought that Dirk was never shy about expressing his own opinions, and this imbued Journalista with its own particular flavor. But I agree that the breadth of his coverage remains largely unparalleled, which is why his link-blogging provided an invaluable service to true fans of the medium.
At any rate, it sucks to be unemployed during the holidays. Hopefully Dirk will find a way to bounce back after some well-deserved R&R.
