Without Fear

Ryan K Lindsay – Writer

Category: lists

January 6, 2023

What Is Best In Life? – 2022 Edition

Happy new year – 2023 is upon us. I got a lotta problems with you people thoughts on this year’s media, now, you’re gonna hear about it! I love looking back and seeing what different and awesome stuff I got to sneak into my brain and enjoy.

I did a poor job of keeping tabs on what I consumed this year, and there’s every chance I’ve missed something pivotal. Que sera, etc. Okay, let’s spotlight what made 2022 a pretty good year for me:

COMICS

It appears this past year was a big time for rereads of old favourites that reminded me of certain feelings and thoughts I had about comics when first coming back to the medium after a long hiatus through my university studies.

The first reread came to me because I got Covid and had to sequester in my office. I took the chance to finally dive back into a formative run I’ve been wanting to reread in years. The run on Daredevil by Michael Lark and Ed Brubaker might be my favourite, for my favourite character, and it really holds up quite well.

DAREDEVIL by Michael Lark, Ed Brubaker, and friends.

The craft on display – Lark’s atmospheric art for this noir run, Brubaker’s pacing of short term goals and ongoing plot threads – is a thing to behold. The comic is epically readable and I absolutely tore through these single issues one after the other. The overall story – that of Matt Murdock as a broken man being led down a noir spiral until he’s completely shattered at the end is my favourite kind of take on literature’s longest running terrible man.

There are elements of the story that have aged less well – the treatment of Milla Donovan, Dakota North, Lily Lucca; do you spot the trend? There’s an element that it makes sense that the women in Matt’s life swirl amongst chaos because that’s the best way to break Matt as a man [and his best friend Foggy also gets shivved, so you could argue parity, but it would be a weak argument]. The onslaught of troubles for the women, plus the way they are often discarded once their plot purpose is served is a very noir trope, but one we would hope to be subverted if written now to give them more agency.

The villains in the run are all great choices – the Mr Fear storyline still being my overall favourite. What a way to make a guy who seems pretty silly [he’s kinda like Batman’s Scarecrow and his Fear Toxin, but slightly more goofy] and give him some strange levels of power and influence and gravity.

Ultimately, this is Matt’s show – and the way he is broken down, and the terrible choices he makes along the way, make for an interesting character study. The man really isn’t much of a hero, he just has a compulsion to help, but no real weighted centre to naturally do it in the best way. He’s emotionally driven, and conflicted, and wrong, and it’s got all the trappings of a 70’s cinema leading character and the team here lean heavily into that vibe and morality.

If people want to read Daredevil, this is often the first place I’d send them, and to return reminded me of all the little reasons why.

The other comic I reread was…

THE WALKING DEAD by Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard, and Robert Kirkman

This one actually started a while ago, but my brain went elsewhere. This year, while I was working through a stack of essay marking and then short story marking, I found my brain couldn’t process novel reading at night. The wall of text would make my head dip, and I found that frustrating, but I could read comics just before sleep. Maybe it’s the constant head movement due to needing to pivot around the page for each panel – yes, I do read comics like a bird hanging out on a street corner, my eyes fixed, my neck doing all the work, thanks for asking.

I initially, once upon a time as they were being released, read up to about Volume 23. Then I stopped, thinking I’d catch up, and just never did. Then the comic ended, and I realised I had a finite amount of trades to read, so it seemed like a good idea to claw back from the start and then slowly buy the new trades over the coming years through present-type events.

Rereading this, I found myself loving all of the old storylines from the first dozen or so trades. All stories I’d read more than once upon release – I used to reread from #1 each time a new trade dropped, but that soon ended as a routine.

Once past those trades, I could feel myself rereading these stories in a fresh way – it wasn’t all muscle memory. The book is good, I can confirm. Similar to my other reread, there are some problems when you read through a Feminist Lens. I wonder at which point I will be able to reread comics and not cringe at certain character elements that feel like they wouldn’t be written that way these days. Or maybe they still are written that way these days…I won’t do my due diligence and find out, not now. That’s a whole other post.

What I will say about TWD is that the longform character growth, change, and swerves are all quite effective. The idea no one is safe keeps the comic fresh, and while it does steer towards just being brutal for the sake of it, often it’s still in service of the story and the impact is not just on the reader, but also on the characters who survive.

Ultimately, I read to the end of Volume 25 and I’m excited to read beyond and to the end. Hopefully it doesn’t take me another decade or something.

Beyond rereads, I did read some new stuff, and I have been trying to think which comic would top this list and I’ve narrowed it down to two, each intriguing me and making me lean forward while I read it so I can study the story construction and the page layouts. Those books are:

LOVE EVERLASTING by Elsa Charettier and Tom King, and FRIDAY by Marcos Martin and Ed Brubaker

The thing I dig in both is that these comics play with old tropes and do something new with them. They want to bring a modern perspective and a different viewpoint to things that are very old. They want to surprise us. I like being surprised, as they often lead me to being delighted, and it means I read with no idea what is coming.

Though, to be fair, I never know what’s coming. I don’t engage with the act of prediction very well in storytelling because I’m like a tourist on their first boat tour ride – I’m wide eyed, mouth open, just enjoying the ride. Yes, I’m an idiot.

As for the comics, Love Everlasting is this straight up romance comic. It has all the old tropes of the romance comics of yonder years – thought balloons, women pining for that right man – but then at the end of the first issue it takes this strange swerve. Massive respect for doing 95% of the first issue as a straight romance comic, though, and really nailing that vibe, before completely pulling out the rug. It was like the first episode of WandaVision levels of commitment.

From there, the series has continued to show us various situations of Joan falling in love through time, and then having her time come to a violent end. I admit, I’m so curious to see where this is going, and along the ride it’s interesting to see what perspectives and thoughts on love are dropped.

Beside this comic sits FRIDAY – a brilliant weird noir take on kid detectives as we follow Friday Fitzhugh, a kind of partner to a kind of Encyclopaedia Brown character who returns to the home town after a year away at college and finds death, conspiracy, and more waiting for her.

The story is an intriguing blend of genres as we see Friday intuit and think about situations, but then we also see a police officer shed their skin. It’s a wild ride. I love Brubaker’s writing as much as I can love anything on the printed [or digital] page, but Marcos Martin’s work on this comic has been absolutely brilliant. The characters think and fear and squirm in every moment, but I find myself drawn back repeatedly to the environments. The street lights, the cove, the buildings. The town feels lived in – by both nice people and arcane horrors – and I could spend many books just soaking up this atmosphere.

I also want to mention DEADLY CLASS has been one of my favourite comics of the past decade. Wes Craig took some really wild and innovative swings with his art in this strange hyperviolent tale of assassins that’s really just writer Rick Remender trying to work out where he’s come from and where he finds himself now. It’s a great way to show that memoir is in all [many] of our works, and that you don’t ever have to write yourself or in a realistic fashion to be able to tell some of the most personal stories. I liked the end of this comic, the final arc was bloody gripping and satisfying.

NOVELS

THE YIELD by Tara June Winch

At the start of this year, I read the latest novel from Winch that’s all about language and culture and Australia’s history with both of these things. The book is a staggering work of heart and genius mixed together on the page. The book weaves between 3 narratives: the death of Albert Goondiwindi whose story then goes on to live in the dictionary of his language that he’s writing for his family; August Goondiwindi who has returned home for her grandfather’s funeral and then discovered a mining company is going to destroy their land, and Reverend Greenleaf who is represented in his letters from over a century ago documenting his work with the local Indigenous people and attempting to care for them.

The story explores Australia as a country in various stages of dealing with Indigenous peoples of the land, and the changes through time are subtly shown through narrative perspective, character interaction, and structural choices. For my money, the dictionary entries are my favourite as they are this chaotic and wildly roaming account of language as it pertains to one man’s journey. Albert doesn’t set his meanings out in bland didactic form, his explanations are stories, they have heart and meaning and personal connection. They show language as a living entity that runs through a man’s life and holds the memories as much as expresses them.

The book makes you think, and understand certain elements, and is a powerful study of the past that should push astute readers into action. The ending of the book aims to do just that, force action, and I can’t think of a more brilliant ending line that I’ve read in a long time.

COVEN by Marc Lindsay

Nepotism be damned – I love reading a book written by my brother.

This one is a new character, and a new genre, and a new level of awesome from my big bro. Coven is very much written in the same vein as characters like John Constantine – roguish magicians in a world of violent, grey morality. What plays out is a story of a killer and an investigation that’s a delightful blend of Michael Crichton mixed with urban magic.

I really hope Marc returns to John Coven at some stage as I think this is a world he could continue to tell done-in-one stories for a long time.

Teaching Novels with ‘Salem’s Lot and The Road

I found it really interesting and awesome to teach these two novels this year, and for different reasons.

With Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot, the students really looked into how style was used to build up the horror of the story, while also layering in more meaning. The long chapter ‘The Lot’ where the town is introduced through multiple characters over different hours of the one day was something that intrigued the students and showed that the focus of the novel isn’t the vampires, but is rather the lower case ‘e’ evil found in every small town.

With Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, I sold the book on the promise it was about hope. Beyond all things, it is a hopeful text. I think at the end of the unit of teaching, many of the students believed me. The text is so crisp, and the visceral feeling of the visuals soaks into your bones, and McCarthy showed the students how to make a whole lot of something out of moments where there wasn’t too much, at first glance, but there was a world of emotion beneath it all.

Ultimately, I could ask students – “So, the boy is found by the family at the end, and they are going to eat him right after the book ends, right?” Every single student disagreed, and this was the final proof that the text was hopeful. For all the destruction and tension and depression in that world, nothing in the book sets you up to believe the boy dies as soon as you close the book. You have hope in your heart because you believe that family and you know the boy is safe.

I also read WONDER BOYS by Michael Chabon and BURIAL RITES by Hannah Kent and enjoyed both deeply. Chabon’s was one I thought maybe too navel gaze-y, but I really dug where it got to in the end and I think doing some more thinking about the book will only improve it. Whereas I enjoyed Kent’s Icelandic tale of bleak acceptance a whole lot from start to finish. I also want to do some more thinking about this one to isolate exactly what makes it tick so beautifully.

TV

SEVERANCE

I am still thinking about this show.  I don’t even think the high sell of the show would have gotten me to watch it, but rather it was the fact so many people I trust told me it was so damn good. It really is.

The idea of someone undergoing a procedure where they never remember going to work, which means that the version of them at the day job never has any memory of anything that happens after they leave the workplace is a good one. The idea that the working version just leaves work and instantly returns [in their mind] and their life is a terrible nightmare because of this is really fertile ground. From there, the show creates a company and a mythology that’s intriguing, worrying, and finally fascinating and insane the more the story spirals out and reveals the state of the game in which these people are caught.

The show has plenty of visuals and style to match the plot, and also the hidden meanings of the story. It pays to pay attention and it’s rewarding to slowly discover more and more beneath the surface of this show. It’s nice to have something smart on the airwaves.

ATLANTA

The 3rd and 4th seasons both dropped this year and the whole experience proved this show to be one of the best things from the past decade. There are certain plot elements that continued to weave through the show – Earn managing the rap career of his cousin Paper Boi – but mostly this show became an anthology showcase of race issues in America, and in this regard it truly shined. The cultural commentary was great, but the fact it was so deeply steeped in weird genre ideas was what pleased me the most.

I really enjoyed the Snipe Hunt episode that was all about using the build of a camping horror story to deconstruct the relationship of Earn, Van, and their daughter Lottie. The coiled spring aspect of how this story was told made the stakes of every conversation and moment amplify completely, with a kind of twist ending that really made me smile.

Then there’s the final episode. One that left me really satisfied, despite the open ended nature of the closing moment. Hell, I think because of the lack of specific closure in the final moment I loved it all even more. It’s not about which way that moment turns, it could be either – what really matters is that friends are together and that it should be enjoyed in that moment. The world is chaos and stupidity and insanity and you need to hold onto what you can.

These 4 seasons have been a joy, and I’d love to write stuff this absurd and insightful.

I also watched all 4 seasons of BARRY, and that show is pretty titanic in the scope of how funny it can be and how hard it hits. Bill Hader has always been a boss, so it’s good to see him leave something this meaningful in his work now. I’m also nearly finished THE BEAR and am finding it a really fascinating exploration of grief and the tension and conflict it causes – and this is shown both through the plot, but also the storytelling tricks they pull: so many cold opens, that episode that’s one long shot [it was one long shot, right? I’m not on social media so didn’t see any response to this, but it looked like and definitely felt like one long drawn out breath].

There was a second season of ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING, and it continued to be awesome. 

MOVIES

PREY

The original PREDATOR might be iconic and damn good, but I think this flick jumps in front of it in wholistic quality and for the fact it is far less problematic. Both films are great, and perhaps it’s reductive to pit them against each other, but if I had to suggest someone start in on a Predator film then Prey would be my choice easily and 100%.

The action in this one is well directed and tense, the storyline of the main character matters and shows growth and has something to say, and the tightness of the plot keeps it all in line.

I cannot think of other new films that need to be on this list. I cannot think of other new films I watched and enjoyed. Ugh, I need to keep a better list, or maintain my Letterboxd. I did see CRIMES OF THE FUTURE, and definitely enjoyed it, but it was mid-tier Cronenberg, which means it was better than most things, but just had me missing some of his other stuff.

I just caught GLASS ONION and thoroughly loved every minute of it. If Rian Johnson can create comfort food quality like this every time, then I’ll line up every time. It appears TURNING RED might have been this year, and there was a lot I loved about that flick. LIGHTYEAR was also pretty damn rad.

PODCASTS

HOW OTHER DADS DAD with Hamish Blake

I already find Hamish Blake, the Australian comedian and presenter, a funny guy. He’s been great on radio, tv shows, and recently Lego Masters, and so I’d be inclined to give him a try in most things so giving his new podcast was an easy try.

But the fact his podcast is all about parenting, and not from an authoritative standpoint and instead taking an open, honest, and inquisitive stance, means I already deeply love this show. Hamish just brings on other fellas he knows and has a frank discussion about how they parent and how they view quality parenting. Every episode gives me multiple moments of reflection, consideration, and hope. It’s like all good professional learning – you hope to have some good things in yourself confirmed, and then you aim for at least one solid takeaway for the day. Getting a few solid laughs on the side is just the soupcon of flavour this whole dish needs to bring it home as a 10/10 recommendation for me.

Alright, that was the year that was [that I could remember, to the best of my ability, your honour]. All of these things have inspired me in some way, and will affect me as a person and a writer in some way, and I hope you also dug some, or found something new to dive into.

Here’s to what 2023 brings – and to me keeping some better lists :]

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December 10, 2022

A Reconsideration of the RKL 10 Writing Rules/Tips

I stumbled back across this old post and I thought it might be interesting to think about how these 10 writing rules/tips I came up with 4 years ago hold up in my mind and my life and my heart. Here’s the old post, and I’ll intersperse with “personal thoughts” along the way.

THE RKL 10 WRITING RULES-ish – Old Poste

I’m getting the feeling people don’t like Writing Rules, they don’t want a rigid structure of how it works to get worlds out of your brain, and they certainly didn’t warm to those laid down by Jonathan Franzen, but I’ll admit, I find them fascinating. A word I choose carefully.

“I actually want to put together a collection of every writing rules list I can find. See what I can sift out of the collective hive mind.”

I want to know what the masters think we should hold in our highest esteem, I want to know it from my peers, and nascent writers, and plenty of others. I want to look into everyone’s head and see what roads they follow. I won’t necessarily follow those rules, or even care about them, but the process of having them to read absolutely fascinates me. It’ll tell me more about the person’s mindset and style than it will about any universal truth of writing.

I dig books about writing, I dig blogs and podcasts and tweets about writing. I use them like I’m building up a pantry, but when I write I’m just cooking. I might have everything stockpiled, but I’ll only take out what I need for a specific recipe when the time comes. You dig?

“I absolutely cannot think without an analogy involved, can I? I’m like a mule with a spinning wheel… :[“

But, in the spirit, I wanted to attempt to carve out my own ten tips, just suggestions, just from me, and then I could see what I thought rose to the top, so here goes:

“How arrogant to think anyone would care. But I think, at its heart, all writing is a form of arrogance to some degree.”

The RKL Top 10 Writing Rules Tips

1 – Your story must be about stuff. And that stuff isn’t just a list of the things that happen, it’s why those things will matter to the reader, the truths beneath it all, the theme. Your writing will be amateur until you have something of meaning to say.

“This is a tricky one, because we don’t often set out with a theme at first and then start writing. Though I know some writers who absolutely do have an area or an idea on which they wish to say something, and then they craft a story around it. I don’t quite work that way, but this rule is mostly something to consider because you know the inverse – when you’ve written something and it’s completely hollow. Maybe this shouldn’t be #1 – and maybe it should be more about reflecting on your work and finding the truth you’ve laid down. Hrmm.”

2 – Write so 1000 people will absolutely love you, not so 100,000 will think you’re kinda alright.

“This I stand by. Don’t chase fads. Don’t water yourself down. Writing is an act of bleeding on the page, don’t try to bleach out the stains.”

3 – Write about whatever gets you excited to sit down and write.

“You know this is true whenever you try the inverse.”

4 – Set small writing goals. 500 words/2 script pages a day. Then blast through them, sometimes.

“Set goals. Sometimes meet them. Perfect compromise.”

5 – Have only one tab open while you’re writing.

“Don’t do what Donny Don’t Does. I stand by this rule, I wish I could do it more often. Hyperfocus.”

6 – Think on paper.

“I proselytise this in every classroom I occupy. The brain just works better this way.”

7 – Are all your default lead characters straight white dudes? Why?

“One of those rules that’s also to remind myself.”

8 – Write whatever you want. Any genre, any length, any format. You might not find a paying home for it, but you’ll be true to yourself.

“Is this too similar to #2 and #3? Am I padding to hit 10 tips? Maybe on all counts. But it’s about form. Don’t lock yourself into being only a poet, nothing else. Remember: even Dickens wrote a weird ghost story.”

9 – Be inspired by your heroes, but don’t ape them. Let them fuel you with the courage to be yourself.

“Find those authors and those books and fill a room in them. Then spend time in that room.”

10 – Recharge your brain so it has more to write about. Read comics, watch movies, study the world, live life.

“This, when done well, should cycle you back to #1 – have something to say. Your writing will have something to say when you have something to say, and you’ll always want to say something about the things on which you are passionate. Find things in your life that stir up those muddy waters within.”

——-

These points are very clearly by me, for me, and just for me. If you find them interesting, I’m glad. If they help you sharpen your own Top 10, fantastic. If your 10 are the polar opposite of mine, fill your boots, I bet we can still be mates.

I write about stuff like this all the time in my newsletter, statistically, there’s a chance one of you will like it, so here’s the link – ryanklindsay.substack.com 

“I like stuff like this because it allows certain ideas and thoughts to be brought up to the front of my brain for a minute. It’s like any cool information, it’s not that we don’t already have it in our head, it’s that we don’t access it a lot. I know tiger sharks fight in the womb and eat their sibling before birth, but I don’t think about it often, so when I do it fills my brain with wonder about nature, and ideas about characters, and I’m all the better for having the idea brought to the top of the brain soup for a minute so I can dine on it momentarily.“

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January 6, 2022

What Is Best In Life? – 2021 Edition

Well at least it’ll be better than 2020, we cried into the night, before a few months of 2021, and then we just cried into our cereal.

It’s been an interesting year. We’d come out of Covid and lockdowns and the year started pretty cruisy. Where I live, we had zero cases for months on end and everything genuinely felt fairly back to normal. My teaching game was strong, I was reading plenty, and then Sami Kivela and I had EVERFROST launch at Black Mask and Sebastian Piriz and I had BLACK BEACON launch at Heavy Metal.

Things “looked” good.

Then the Delta variant swept across the nation, slowly but surely, and eventually invaded my ‘hood and we went into another lockdown. When that happens, my teaching load goes through the roof. It wasn’t as bad as 2020, but it was still pretty escalated. My comics kept coming out, I kept teaching, so there was nothing catastrophic.

Then I decided to change up my dayjob a little – I’ve moved from teaching little kids to now teaching English. It’s rad. But it’s taken a lot of mental load and prep to make the transition smoothly, especially as it happened as we came out of lockdown – a strange time to be doing anything, no less starting a new job at a new school.

It did mean I was ‘forced’ to do more reading, though.

I have no clue what 2022 has planned, but looking back on 2021, there’s a lot of good so I’ll spend this space celebrating some of that good stuff. Here goes…

Comics

As always, I manage to find awesome comics to read because people keep making pretty awesome comics.

My brain took in a Joe Hill Double Bill.

PLUNGE was one that stood out for it’s John Carpenter vibes and beautiful Stuart Immonen art. I dug the book, it’s a very fun ride, and does what it says on the tin with its 80s horror flick vibes.

I followed it months later with A BASKETFUL OF HEADS, which was one I didn’t know anything about, and I’ll be honest that the cover was giving me the wrong vibes for it. I thought it was some kind of eerie gothic slasher book, and it’s anything but – open it to find it’s another 80s throwback, maybe even late 70s, honestly, about a young woman defending herself against some escaped criminals, and she randomly uses this axe from a house display, and it’s a mystical blade that doesn’t cause death but instead life. So when she chops someone’s head off, it remains living.

A great premise, and a really enjoyable book!

My mate Paul Allor teamed with another mate Paul Tucker to create HOLLOW HEART and it really was something else to touch your heart. A brilliant tale of love and monsters and captivity. Seeing Paul write the kinds of emotional and esoteric stories I wish I could fills me with joy.

TRESPASSERS from Breena Bard was one my kids picked up, but I instantly devoured. A really fun middle grade romp about a forgotten mystery and some kids who think they’ve got the right thread on the sweater to pull. I really do love stories about kids investigating crimes. There’s just something about it as a kid I always loved, and as an adult it still fills me with joy and inspiration.

DAREDEVIL continues to be a comic I enjoy, but I gotta admit I’m getting lost in the monthly churn with it. There’s a chance I might transition to trades on this soon, as I have with most things, because my monthly buying and reading has gone to guano since these last two lockdowns, and I find myself constantly lost in where I am up to, or what’s been going on and for how long.

If this also means books need to pivot more towards graphic novels, well, I’m all for that, I guess. The more they make them, the more people will buy them when they come out, and then the more stores will sell them, and then we’ll better get into the habit of buying them, and around and around it will go. I hope.

Speaking of people buying graphic novels as they drop: RECKLESS from Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker dropped another 2 volumes this year. I read the first [which is the second volume] and it suitably kicked ass. I actually have but have not read the 3rd volume, as I’m holding it off as some kind of New Years treat, alongside a few other things, like NOVEMBER Vol. 4 from Elsa Charretier and Matt Fraction. I had to hustle through two different reporting periods, and then I’ve been reading stuff for next year, so these two are waiting for me and I cannot wait.

Transitioning to another Brubaker book, this time with Marcos Martin, I got myself straight into their collaboration with FRIDAY and found myself loving it more and more as each issue slowly wound its way around this very awesome mystery plot. This book is just the definition of beautiful, so I’m looking forward to more.

Novel

Did a cheeky run of rereading and ploughed through DOUBLE INDEMNITY by James M. Cain, FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley, THE GUNSLINGER by Stephen King, THE OLD MAN AND THE SEAS by Ernest Hemingway. All good and interesting reads.

I read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED by Tim O’Brien that’s a short story collection/exploration of the author’s time in Vietnam during the war and it’s a fascinating study. The circuitous way the stories are constructed and present certain key moments, it’s really quite beautifully done.

Benjamin Percy’s THRILL ME is a collection of his essays on fiction and it’s been instantly added to my mental curriculum list of things you should read if you want to be a writer. It takes a lot of his presentations and essays and makes them easy to digest, with examples, and a really strong and engaging authorial voice.

But it was WARLIGHT by Michael Ondaatje that captured me the most. This brilliant story about two kids after the war in Europe struggling to discover themselves, as well as the truth of their family, is a phenomenally well told narrative. The aspects of duality in life, the two sides we have, the truth we never know, the cause and the effect are all explored and brought to light [and hidden in the dark] in this really thoughtful and gripping read.

I wrote a little about it on my Patreon

TV

TED LASSO dropped a second season. Wherein the first looked at Ted slowly winning everyone over, this season went a whole new route – it’s basically just everyone on a journey to combat their inner demons, or sometimes the outer ones. A season of people trying to kick depression in the nethers sounds…ethereal, but it really built and built. It’s hard to compare against the brilliance and surprise of the first season, but I feel like this one stands alongside it as a perfect companion – not a clone, mined for similar but diminishing success, but a new step into something just as challenging and emotionally true as the first.

I really enjoyed WANDAVISION – a superhero show that kinda made you think. It was unlike most anything else from the MCU, and for that alone I was happy. I’ve watched them all, and found FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER to be fun, but that was about as far down as the show could dig, and LOKI was as charismatic as its lead, and WHAT IF…? definitely scratched an itch for me. Good to have one I could watch with the kids, too.

HAWKEYE was a little up and down, but Hailee Steinfeld really grows into the role for me. Yes, another quippy, snarky superhero, who knew?! But she’s so good in the role, I’m happy to see the entire Marvel film franchise end up in the hands of her, especially when paired with Yelena as their scenes in the show were absolute dynamite for chemistry. Give them the reins of the show alongside Captain Marvel, and Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Scarlet Witch, and Valkyrie, and whatever other younger heroes I’m forgetting, or they continue to amass.

ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING was a fun crime show whose premise and structure was really well put together. Getting to see Steve Martin, and Martin Short, both get decent roles to play and show they still know how to chew up some scenery was a delight.

Feel like I watched more, but specifics elude me.

Movie

MITCHELLS VS THE MACHINES has to be movie of the year, right? I could watch it once a week and still find myself laughing my absolute ass off. So effortlessly constructed and genuinely funny as well as moving. Just a masterpiece of family cinema.

BO BURNHAM: INSIDE was a complete earworm of a show, but I thought it was just the right balance of poignant against the esoteric. I found myself genuinely captivated, which for something shot by one guy in his house is very impressive.

I can’t remember what else I saw this year…

Podcasts

I discovered THE KINGSLINGERS podcast, wherein two fellas started reading THE DARK TOWER books, but one has already read them all, and one is completely new to it. As they go through sections they discuss what the newbie thinks is happening and what certain things mean. It’s a great way to unpack certain elements, and was fun to listen to alongside my reread for the first novel, and then to listen to their thoughts on the second one because it’s probably still my favourite of the series.

They’ve moved onto other King works, so I’m going to listen to the ‘SALEM’S LOT eps while I reread that book this month.

I also discovered SMARTLESS where Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes interview random Hollywood guests and it’s a fun show. I usually get a solid laugh out of it each time.

It’s been a good year for fun stuff to enter my brain. Here’s to 2022 bringing more good entertainment vibes, as well as creative ones. Keep the brain spinning and swimming!

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January 7, 2021

My Reading in 2020

According to my GoodReads, I read 74 books in 2020

YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT BOOKS I POURED INTO MY HEAD IN 2020

It’s an interesting bunch of stuff – melting together a whole bunch of comics, some picture books with my kids, some novel reading between it all, and some D&D stuff. YOu can get a weird constellation chart of my year from seeing what I’ve been imbibing.

Jumping from Dashiell Hammett to Frank Miller to some Netflix origins in Hilda and The Witcher. There’s also a guide to being autistic amidst my reread beginning on The Walking Dead, and two books written by my brothers, and then a reread of Hush I’d forgotten I did.

Covid keeps us from wandering into each others’ houses and admiring our book shelves, so here’s a digital peek at mine, or at least the pile I make when I’ve finished books and am too lazy to return them to their alphabetised spot according to medium/genre.

In 2020, I’ve set the challenge to read 84 books, so let’s hope the year affords me more mental energy, less social media, and plenty of pages through my fingers.

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February 12, 2020

Top 10 of the Decade 2010-2019 – Comics

It’s been an awesome decade in many respects, so I wanted to look back and see some of the stuff I’ve really enjoyed the most. As such, here’s a post of my thoughts and lists of some top times I had imbibing some content that gave me inspiration and joy.

May it find you the same, or remind me of that which you already got.

The following is very much in absolutely no order, I just couldn’t :]

Comics:

It’s been a high quality decade for reading comics, and quite the comic reading journey for myself, so here are the highlights – may they provide you with something new to add to your wish list.

In 2010, I was reading a lot of comics for two reasons. I was writing for The Weekly Crisis, and later for CBR, and about to write a book about Daredevil for Sequart, so I was reading with an eye for extrapolating analysis. Around this time, I was also writing a whole mess of scripts that were going nowhere, and I was reading comics with an eye to imbibe, digest, and internalise in a way that would make me a better writer.

It’s a decade later, and I’m still reading comics to better understand them and as such myself and the place I occupy in making them, but just last month I wrote two critical/analytical essays about comics, so I guess not a lot has changed.

I’m thankful to have had a decade where I’ve published my own comics [no, none appear on this list, that’s gauche] and I’m thankful to have been around to see so many amazing comics spring to life. My reading appears to have steered away from cape comics and into the indie, and I’ve no idea where I’ll venture as time rolls on, but I heavily vouch for every comic on this list.

So, in no particular order, and with a write up of whatever thoughts I blasted out when I thought it was pertinent, here…we…go…

HAWKEYE

I didn’t even plan to buy this comic when it launched. I have no specific reason for that decision at the time, I think I was just a little burnt out on Marvel books in general, and I just really don’t dig Clint Barton. At all. I still don’t, but that didn’t stop me loving this run for every single issue as it came out.

The level of craft and sheer awesome in this book still blows me away. If this was about Matt Murdock I’d probably hail it as one of the greatest comics of all time, as it is, about Barton, I rate it as one of the finest entries into the craft from this decade.

DEADLY CLASS

I loved this comic from the very first issue. I dig Rick Remender’s work, and I wanted this comic long before it launched. How exciting to then note how good it was, and continues to be. Though fair play, much of this is on Wes Craig’s shoulders as he brought the thunder with his art layout skills on each page.

A wild and violent ride, this comic is always an emotional truth bomb and that’s what I love the most about it.

KILL OR BE KILLED

I mean, maybe my #1 of this decade. Maybe the comic most personally designed just for my brain. Maybe the comic I’ll remember the most after another decade has gone.

This comic is also everything I want to make myself, so maybe there’s that. It’s 20 issues, a killer size, it’s experimental in some page layouts, but it’s also just crystal clear storytelling. It’s a weird violent crime comic with strange devil shenanigans. It’s beautiful and dark and so so damn good.

CRIMINAL: THE LAST OF THE INNOCENT

CRIMINAL might be the best overall collection of stories and pages from this decade, and I’ll choose THE LAST OF THE INNOCENT as the one present here because it’s just so dark and fantastic. This twist on Archie as if he’s living out a noir story is so much more than the high concept it might present as. This is an emotional journey, a haunting tale, and one that just makes you feel a whole mess of thoughts after the final page kicks you.

Okay, I’ll also add in BAD NIGHT just because I love this storyline, too. It’s the one that’s probably my favourite, even though TLOTI is most likely the one I’d identify as “The Best.”

THE BLACK MONDAY MURDERS

Hoo boy, bleak. This comic is such a dark affair, and it’s so intricately put together. Stunning is another word, but jaw dropping is all I can really offer. The concept of this comic is that money is power, and power can be manifest. The people in this comic are horrible, all of them, and watching them stumble and stab in the dark is quite the tragedy.

ODY-C

I love the reach of this comic. The sheer audacity to take THE ODYSSEY and toss it into space, with a gender-flipped cast, and Christian Ward’s insane artwork. Everything about this comic hits me in the inspirational space where I want comics to do new things and be amazing.

UNCANNY X-FORCE

You might think this is another X-book, but it’s not, no, not at its heart. This is a heartbreaking tale of toxic relationships, and second chances, and mental health. This is a cape book that steps above every combat trope and delivers true character exploration and growth. It’s a comic that got me to care about Deadpool, and Wolverine, and that’s not often a thing that occurs.

Raina Telgemeier – SISTERS

Raina Telgemeier basically took over comics this decade, but I had to pick just one of her masterpieces for my list and I went with my instant reaction – SISTERS. This cross-country road trip about family and a changing future is beautiful, and it uses the comic form well, and it’s the one that’s stuck with me the longest.

But, honestly, go buy every single one of her books, and just enjoy yourself and the future of comics.

PARKER books

Darwyn Cooke did something special with these books. Adapting Richard Stark’s pulp paperbacks into small graphic novels that were gorgeous and still packed their punch. These 4 hardcovers will always be something I want to return to.

4 KIDS WALK INTO A BANK

I often think about this comic. An insanely talented level up from nascent Matthew Rosenberg and a wild intro to Tyler Boss, this comic looks like it oozes style, but really it’s craft. This crime comic about some kids and a bank is such a love letter to the things you can do in comics and I wish more books were this smart, I wish more books aimed this high, and I wish more books played with the form like this one.

Rosenberg and Boss have become instant Must Buy creators and I eagerly await their next collaboration at Image Comics.

SINK

This indie sensation from mates Alex Cormack and John Lees makes me smile with every issue I read. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the content is horrific, but the fact a comic this good is being made by two mates who are blowing up, at ComixTribe, a publisher I love, fills me with hope for the medium and all our places in it.

SINK is a horror comic, and it doesn’t skimp on the horrific, and it’s also a great structural lesson as they make it a series of one-shots, with a two-parter played to maximum effect, and I’m constantly in awe. If you haven’t sampled this comic, you really need to get onto it.

PAPER GIRLS

Enjoyed this from first issue to the last. I trade waited this, and mostly wish I hadn’t. The characters were all so well written I’d have preferred to spend time with them monthly instead of having huge gaps away from them.

GREEN WAKE

I really dug this weird downbeat horror comic from Riley Rossmo and Kurtis J. Wiebe. It was grim and ugly in the most beautiful ways, and I got excited before it was released and got even more excited when it was as good as I wanted it to be. Exactly the kind of comic that felt like it was created specifically for me and my tastes.

Also doesn’t hurt that it formed and built a lifelong friendship between me and Kurtis.

ELEKTRA

This particular Volume, from Mike del Mundo and W. Haden Blackman is a perfect encapsulation of what I want from an Elektra comic, and what I dig about 12 issue maxiseries. Here, Elektra is unpacked and used in a really character driven way, through some insane plot, and by the end of it all she’s been more fully fleshed out.

This book had the very best covers, and is an instant modern Big Two classic from me.

HILDA books

I can’t remember how I got onto these, but I’m so glad I did. I devoured the first 3, and then the Netflix show got announced, and I got excited for that, too. This comic is pure kids’ comic energy! It’s fun and short and well illustrated. This should be a perennial gift to any child in your life whenever you get invited to a friend’s kid’s party.

THE UNDERWATER WELDER

This comic is wild and emotional and like a real piece of literature, if you can believe it, COMICS: BIFF, POW, CHIN STROKE, HRMMMM.

This is like The Twilight Zone in all the right ways and it cemented Jeff Lemire as a writer in my mind I wanted to study and think deeply about and learn how to appreciate.

THOR

Jason Aaron’s epic multi-year run, with many artists, has been a truly monumental achievement. I’ve kept up in trades, and haven’t finished it all yet, but just from what I know he’s managed so far, this is an evergreen example of a superhero comic/story done right.

MONSTRO MECHANICA

This Da Vinci centred comic featuring a killer female partner in Isabel, and a really cool robot, is just the right balance of history, and action, and character work I love. Chris Evenhuis’ art is perfect, and Paul Allor knows exactly how to plot and pace things to bring out the best on the page.

LOCKE & KEY

Not only a genuinely scary horror comic, also a masterclass of form. Between Gabriel Rodriguez’ steam cleaned art to Joe Hill’s beautiful characterisation, this comic is the kind of thing you can recommend to anyone new to comics and who digs a bit of genre malarkey.

SCALPED

Crime comic on the Indian Reservation. So well done, so much heart, so much breaking of that heart, near about perfection, and a fine example of what Vertigo Comics always did right.

CLUE

This superb take on the old property from Nelson Daniel and Paul Allor was exactly what I wanted and never realised. It’s so well structured, deliciously carving out space for every character, and the whole conclusion has stuck with me ever since.

CASANOVA

I just love this comic. It’s 100% my jam. Uberweird spy-fu stuff, constantly trying to utilise the comic form and page, and make readers think.

THE CAPE

Holy hell this miniseries hit me like if someone dropped a bear on me. Read the comic and you’ll understand the concept. Based on a short story by Joe Hill, Jason Ciaramella took it further, and made better, and I’ll forever want to push this into the hands of others.

TIGER LAWYER

I still think about Ryan Ferrier’s anthropomorphic crime comic he made with Matt McCray, Vic Malhotra, and Adam Metcalfe. It’s all I ever wanted, and pushed me to making my own Deer Editor. In a perfect world, both comics went for very long runs, crossed over, and spawned more anthropomorphic working class heroes.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF D.B. COOPER

An alternative history comic from Brian Churilla that’s still pinging around in my head years later. It’s fun, and gorgeous, and completely and totally insane. Everything certain good comics should be.

SOUTHERN BASTARDS

Come for the American Football backdrop, stay for the crime and nasties, and fill your guts with the Southern BBQ recipes.

STUMPTOWN

This one billed itself as The Rockford Files, but now, and a woman, and a comic. It is, indeed, all of those things, and it is those things perfectly.

THE VISION

Taking a C-List character from the bench and putting them into a funky genre choice – suburban horror, of a kind – and dialing it up to 11. The result was an astounding success.

CEMETERY BEACH

An 8 issue chase/action comic. It really shouldn’t work, but every issue pulled me in further.

HEATHEN

Really stunning self-described Lesbian Viking comic, and it’s so well illustrated, and paced, and it has me thoroughly intrigued and engaged.

SAGA

Some see this as the #1 thing, some see it as the cliche choice that’s okay but not amazing, and some hate it. YMMV, but personally, overall, I think this comic is an absolute bruiser. It hits, and it hits you harder than nearly anything else out there. When BKV comes gunning for my tear ducts, he comes with buckets. After all of the highest highs, I will follow this comic anywhere until it wraps its run.

BLACK MIRROR

Scott Snyder has done some great work with Batman, but my heart always comes back to his debut. This story in Detective Comics, with Jock and Francesco Francavilla, was very much a detective story, with some huge fantastical elements, and it hit that right tone of street level and nasty which I usually dig a little more. Dick Grayson as Batman was superb, and the storyline with Jim Gordon was so well executed. This was a promising debut from someone who just kept smashing it out at DC for the next decade.

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February 6, 2020

Top 10 of the Decade 2010-2019 – TV

It’s been an awesome decade in many respects, so I wanted to look back and see some of the stuff I’ve really enjoyed the most. As such, here’s a post of my thoughts and lists of some top times I had imbibing some content that gave me inspiration and joy.

May it find you the same, or remind me of that which you already got.

TV:

At first thought, I’d not have labelled this decade anything special in the realm of TV, but maybe that’s just because I had 2 kids and wasn’t glued to my glowing screen, and maybe also having kids makes you forget things on the surface level, because when I look down this list I see some belters that absolutely stand out as some of my favourite television of all time.


ATLANTA

This show went from strength to strength and that’s largely on the rising star of Donald Glover’s brain – both in front of and behind the camera. HIs presence is amazing, but his scripts on this show are phenomenal. The first season has the invisible car joke, an absolute fav, but the second season brought some thunder with episodes centred around social media and racism that completely blew my mind.

HANNIBAL

How nice of people to gather their collective abilities and resources to make 3 seasons of a show that were just purely aimed at me. Especially when you consider I heard about this show and instantly thought, “Oof, we do not need more Hannibal Lecter things in this world.” And then I avoided it, or just forgot it existed. Imagine my surprise, late late one night when I’m up with a baby who won’t sleep and I stumble across this and my life is forever changed. I was glued for all 3 seasons after watching this one episode and I’ll forever be thankful something like this even got the chance to exist. It’s horrific and heartfelt and I cannot wait to rewatch it in another decade.

THE LEFTOVERS

I wanted to watch this because of Damon Lindelof. But I couldn’t find a way to watch it legally for free anywhere, so I bought the book, and devoured it, and really loved it, so I finally bought all 3 DVD sets with some present money. Then I smashed those 3 seasons and was left feeling like I’d witnessed something truly amazing, and personal, and spectacular. The concept intrigues, but the delivery, exploration, and extrapolation went places I never could have hoped for, and this whole affair got me right in the Emotion Place.

The fact it adapts the novel in S1 so well, but then goes further for 2 more years is so interesting. The themes Lindelof wants to explore constantly get my attention, whether he succeeds or not. He always seems to be reaching. And that scene of Theroux on the bed, with the plastic wrap, is something I thought was such a perfect character moment done in such a bold way.

THE GOOD PLACE

Another show I didn’t know about, and was happy to avoid on Netflix, until my wife popped the first ep on and then called me into the room 5 minutes into it. From that moment on, I fell in love [yes, with the show, but with my wife a little more, too]. The balls on this show, the ideas and scope, and the tip top cast from leads to background made this one of my favourite experiences of this decade.

BREAKING BAD

Utter genius masterpiece on every level. Once the wheels got turning, every piece of this noir clockwork was finely tuned. Watching Walter White break bad, while Jesse Pinkman proved himself unbreakable was a morbid delight.

FARGO

Every season plays so different, new cast, new tone, and yet each one is a masterpiece in its own design. The ability to do that is wild, and I love every single season so much for that warped Coen Brothers sensibility that feels informs but not beholden.

TERRIERS

Just one season. The world wasn’t ready for this pure bliss and genius. Slacker beach PI shows, may we be blessed with more in the future.

JUSTIFIED

Really loved this show, it’s a fun time to watch, and Timothy Olyphant is a great lead, all around an Elmore Leonard inspired story/approach. I dig it on every level I have, and then I never finished it because the guy who plays the boss cop [sheriff? whatever] came out super-hard on twitter as a troll/bigot and it just made me sad and I couldn’t return. A shame this show gets that mental shade from me just because of one bad actor, but here we are.

THE AMERICANS

I’ve still only seen one season, but that’s mostly because it isn’t on Netflix and I’m lazy and cheap and don’t have the DVDs. I should find somebody with the DVDs.

Anyway, this show is awesome, I love the tone and scripts and characters, and I look forward to the day I come around and finish it.

These are my shows, as always, know that I missed whatever masterpiece you’re thinking of because it’s not aimed at toddlers and I just didn’t have the time last decade. Cool.

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January 30, 2020

Top 10 of the Decade 2010-2019 – Flicks

It’s been an awesome decade in many respects, so I wanted to look back and see some of the stuff I’ve really enjoyed the most. As such, here’s a post of my thoughts and lists of some top times I had imbibing some content that gave me inspiration and joy.

May it find you the same, or remind me of that which you already got.

Films

Presented in a form that matches my brain tonight, at least, here are the flicks from the past decade that really really stuck with me. These are my favourites!

INSIDE OUT

My absolute #1 flick of the decade. Guaranteed to make me cry, a heartstopper of emotional truths for the entire family, and funny as hell on the side. I’ll be watching this one until the day I die because it’s so truly exceptional. The big story, a girl and her emotions, is a great idea, but it’s handled with such deft care and precision. The fact the film is hilarious and also breath-takingly sad shows that it can do what it pushes.

It also has the mind-kicking of the kid’s brain being run by happiness, but the father’s brain being run by anger, and the mother’s brain being run by sadness. And it doesn’t push those points, they’re just there.

INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

Well, okay, unless this is my #1 flick. I mean, it’s a spectacular feat of storytelling, inspiration, and ingenuity. Taking the broader range of Spider-characters and telling the origin story of Miles Morales, alongside Spider-Gwen, with an amazing soundtrack, and wild cartoon style, leaning heavily into the comics in all the right ways. I get the feeling I’ll watch this flick another 50 times over the next decade as I’ve already watched it half a dozen times just this year.

The key to this one is the script: see how so much gets called back in all the right ways.

THE WINTER SOLDIER

I’m always amazed that Captain America isn’t a character I tend towards loving in the comics but Chris Evans made me absolutely dive into the character in the big screen. So take that actor/character, put them in a more intrigue/espionage story, add some Robert Redford, and I am absolutely all in on this flick. The action is great, the tone and visuals are superb, it’s easily my favourite live action superhero flick and I think it’ll be difficult to top because of how well it matches so many of my personal likes.

Protip: watch it in greyscale, it’s a hell of an old school trip. That elevator scene just gets better.

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

It took me years to eventually check this out, and I have no specific reason why, but boy am I glad I did. This is the Coen Brothers content that resonates with me, it’s quirky, it’s heartfelt, it’s “small,” and it’s got Oscar Isaac absolutely crushing it. This shot up my ranks to be one of my favourite Coen flicks of all time because it’s all heart, emotion above plot, and plot pushing emotion before it does any kind of logic. I often think I saw Barton Fink too young to truly get it, but this came at exactly the right time in my life to stick right in my brain.

BLACK SWAN

It’s a dance horror flick, and not the only one on this list. Darren Aronofsky retells the classic ballet Swan Lake and makes it creepy and sexy and brutal and I absolutely fell in love with this flick. 100%, this was a special piece of art that makes me want to create better stories myself on a visual and a visceral level. It’s a piece that uses colour and music and tone to make you fall in and feel, and that’s so hard to do at this level, and I want to learn how.

HELL OR HIGH WATER

I also missed this one at first and can’t remember what made me watch it, but I caught it on my flight to Seattle for ECCC and I swear I talked about this flick all damn weekend with all sorts of creators. The script is airtight, the performances are pitch perfect, and the whole flick just reminds you how damn sad male toxicity is, and how it doesn’t stop and will consume you eventually if that’s what you commit to. It also inspires me in that the plot itself isn’t too intricate, but the way the characters honestly and openly navigate it all is what makes this sing.

LOOPER

This is a weird inclusion, because I recognise it isn’t perfect, but it’s something I just personally dig so so much. The decision to put JGL into the Bruce Willis face is jarring and isn’t something I love, but I love the commitment to trying it out. The concept and the script and the performances are all wins for me.

INCEPTION

Another one where I won’t say this is Pure Cinema™ but I will say it’s something I dig so much because it sits right at the intersection of things I always enjoy wholeheartedly on a variety of levels. The cast is quality, the concept is hugely my jam, and I dug the layers of the script [whether they always made sense or not]. It’s fun AND leaves you thinking and spinning, what else can you ask for?

KNIVES OUT

Only saw this the other week, and yet still, I know this belongs on the list. It’s just so damn well constructed and executed. I know counteless mystery writers no doubt fill shelves with business this good every year, and it’s nothing new, but it felt so fresh on the screen. It’s not a franchise flick, it’s a genre you don’t see all that often, and it’s so damn enjoyable the whole way through. There are dozens of classic little moments that are going to stick with me a long long time, and that’s often what I love most about cinema. I saw this with my wife and then went to lunch and we spent most of it just talking about this flick.

This is another script I’d love to map out and deconstruct. The way things are revealed, and obscured, and hinted at, the balance is near on perfect.

CAPTAIN MARVEL

I absolutely fell in love with Captain Marvel on every level. The flick, the tone, the character, and the actress. Yet another notch in the Crazy Enjoyable Marvel Movie column, I don’t think it’s perfect, or a piece of high art, but it is something important. Hot on the heels of Wonder Woman, it showed a huge appetite for female-led cape movies because you could see the eighth quippy smirking white guy with abs in another costume, or you could see this, and people overwhelmingly showed they wanted to see this. And not because it’s legacy, Captain Marvel was once a dude no one knew about, and now it’s Carol Danvers, who realistically no one knew about, so you’d think she’d perform less than a founding Avenger [Ant-Man, let’s say], but she didn’t.

Brie Larson was key to this as she stone cold nailed this role, able to carry the action and the desert dry humour, and I will happily watch her lead the MCU into the next decade.

THE HATEFUL EIGHT

By the time this came out, I was well burnt out on Tarantino. Django Unchained did little for me, and while I can see Inglorious Basterds is quality, it just wasn’t my jam. Hence why I didn’t catch this until stuck on a plane years after its release, and even then it took an entire trans-Atlantic flight to get through this while pausing constantly to walk my kids around, but by the end I knew this one was going to stick with me. Maybe it’s Kurt Russell. Let’s be honest, it probably is. But it’s also the script, something a little more back to basics in his approach, characters in a locked box conversing, and Tarantino made every character shine in their own sick way.

THE IDES OF MARCH

Gosling, Clooney, old school politics. I knew this one was for me from the shot with the title card. Just a good political thriller to stand up there with some of the best, and this script is really engaging. The kind of thing that’s just words and faces and it doesn’t need theatrics and helicopters and pyrotechnics, it just needs quality acting.

SUSPIRIA

This was some nasty business. Saw this with my two brothers, all three of us veterans of video nasties, and we all walked away quietly contemplative. It’s not just the gore, but it’s the overall tone. This is some dark business, and I never thought I’d want to see Argento updated, but this worked on so many levels, from camera angles, to colour, to pacing.

Plus, that score on vinyl.

THE NICE GUYS

If this had come out earlier in my life, I would have seen it 20 times. Cracking script, great buddy leads, the plot is great but it’s the airtight structure that gets to me. The kind of movie that should come with a six pack to enjoy it all the more.

SPOTLIGHT

Right in my wheelhouse of great journalist stories, this is exceptionally well made, but also treats the plot and subject matter with the tone it deserves. Everyone fired on this, it felt like the kind of thing to stand up there with Zodiac and JFK.

SNOWPIERCER

Brutal stuff, a great adaptation. Chris Evans reminds us he has range, and the grime oozes off the screen. It’s not always an “enjoyable” flick, but the themes will cut close to home, and you’ll wake the next day still thinking about it, and, yes, you absolutely should hunt down the original comics, utterly grand stuff.

WONDER WOMAN

Still remember walking out and my wife declaring, “Well, that was better than The Avengers.” I think time’s going to stand with her on that one. Gal Godot joins the few of this earth who will now forevermore embody the superhero they brought to the screen. Even with a janky third act, this flick is so enjoyable elsewhere that it gets a pass.

BLADE RUNNER 2049

Matches the original in so many ways: music, tone, moments. Maybe not overall as good, but certainly a worthy addition and something I’m excited to revisit. And, yes, everyone says it, but it’s true, the colours are insane eye candy.

ZOOTOPIA

The best crime flick masquerading as a kids’ cartoon…ever? Another script where I want to map it out and study it, for its brilliance, for its simplicity, for its smart joy. Animals and wonderful character arcs and real world commentary: yes, please.

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

Yeah, not the top of my list. Not even close. But this flick is so good I understand why people declare it #1 – it’s a masterpiece, but it’s down here because it’s not something that completely resonated all the way through me. I mean, the bass did, but there’s something about this flick that has made me hesitant to revisit it. I will, because it’s stupidly great, but it’s not like the things above it.

10 CLOVERFIELD LANE

Oh, man, did this flick ever surprise me. I mean, I haven’t even seen Cloverfield yet, but this was so damn tight I had to give it a go, and I’m very very glad I did. I was completely caught on the edge of my seat, never really knowing, and I’ll forever love the script for that. Tension + characters + wild premise + John Goodman + that final scene = all my love.

That’s the list, hope you dig it – either by agreeing, or wanting to chase some down. If I missed something you dug, know that I probably just didn’t see it, or that I hated it and we should battle, as per the Rules of the Internet. Be seeing you.

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January 7, 2020

The RKL List of #1 Issues

I was recently asked to pick my Top 10 Comics Issues with a #1 on them. It proved a difficult and very interesting task. It told me a lot about myself. [NOTE: between the time I initially wrote this and this publication date, I changed one element, s one comic came in, and one went out. Such is the fickle nature of lists.]

You can read a complete rundown of the overall vote/list I contributed to over at Shelfdust!

I had to really stew on this and consider a lot, so here is some of my thought process, followed by my Top 10, with a little commentary!

Daredevil/Matt Murdock is my favourite character, but I couldn’t find a #1 I cared about to go into this list. I own his first appearance, it’s signed by Stan Lee, it’s awesome, but it’s not exactly an amazing comic. It’s also nowhere near the first Daredevil I ever read, nor the reason I fell in love with him. But I couldn’t pick either Frank Miller runs on the main title because neither start with a #1. Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada relaunched well, but it wasn’t in my top 10. If the Lark/Brubaker issue was a #1 it would have been HIGH on this list, but it’s not.

Then I thought about old comics I loved, and while my childhood was spent in Spider-Man territory, and on to Venom, with some X-books amidst it all, it was rarely a #1 that led me there, Venom was in the Spidey titles, and whatever numbers they were up to, and Venom: Lethal Protector might have gotten a #1, but that’s not gonna make the list [though I would be interested to reread that mini, I still have all the issues here in my office]. Same with the X-books, they were floating in whatever numbers they were at – though did AGE OF APOCALYPSE have a #1 issue? Was it an Alpha? Does that count? Either way, close, but most likely just off the list.

I will say, BARTMAN #1 nearly made the list based on how many times I read and reread that issue [and mini] in my youth, but it just got squeezed off. As did THE WALKING DEAD #1, because it might have been instrumental in getting me back into comics as a young professional – shout out to my brother for buying me that trade for my birthday – it was the first trade and the end it landed on that made me a huge fan, not just the first issue.

So, without further ado, here’s my actual list, each served with a little reason why. Enjoy.

10. VAULT OF HORROR #1

This one was a reprint. It collects a variety of stories from other issues. But this was one of the very first comics bought for me, and it started a long-standing tradition of loving everything EC had once put out.

The stories themselves aren’t the absolute pinnacle of what EC could offer, but this issue is one I’ll remember forever because I remember where I was when it was bought, I still remember its cover, I remember reading it over and over throughout the years, and I know it was the first building block of my own comic collection and the place where I forged my own path as a lifelong comic reader.

10. VAULT OF HORROR #1

This one was a reprint. It collects a variety of stories from other issues. But this was one of the very first comics bought for me, and it started a long-standing tradition of loving everything EC had once put out.

The stories themselves aren’t the absolute pinnacle of what EC could offer, but this issue is one I’ll remember forever because I remember where I was when it was bought, I still remember its cover, I remember reading it over and over throughout the years, and I know it was the first building block of my own comic collection and the place where I forged my own path as a lifelong comic reader.

9. LOCKE & KEY #1

The effective hooks of a first issue are many: deliver characters we can connect with, make the premise simple and enticing, have knock out art, have 1-2 moments that grab our collars and shake, do it all with economical use of pages/scenes with no fat. Yep, it’s gotta be all thriller, no filler.

Gabriel Rodriguez & Joe Hill effortlessly bring us into this world they build through really strong character interactions and a hook that’ll catch you for days. It almost seems simple how well they did it, but don’t be fooled, this is arcane alchemy. And it was so good I bought the #1 issue again when IDW offered it with a full script in it. Absolute brain fuel.

8. THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST #1

This is the book that brought me all in on Danny Rand. I previously dug him for the loose Daredevil connection, and the killer yellow threads, but this run from David Aja and Ed Brubaker/Matt Fraction locked me in for life, and the foundation is all laid here in this issue.

Danny Rand is a kung fu master, and there are few better equipped to show that than David Aja. The early double page splash of Iron Fist fly kicking some HYDRA goons in the rain is just stunning [and mirrors the same trick Brubaker pulled over in Daredevil with Michael Lark, and both times they are just as effective].

The whole mythos then gets a little tweak with the introduction of Orson Randall, and the stakes go up, and the tone is set. It’s part superhero story, part gritty 70s action flick, and all billionaire kung fu.

7. CASANOVA #1

I’ve come back to this issue a whole bunch of times, usually when I’m writing my own #1 issue. Maybe it’s because I love Matt Fraction’s writing, maybe it’s because Gabriel Ba builds a whole world in one go, or maybe it’s because this issue covers so much ground and uses so many comic skills that I find it inspiration fuel every time.

I do appreciate the cyclical nature of this issue, and the fourth wall breaking captions, and by the end I know Casanova Quinn, and his job, and his problem. And I know I will read this comic for the rest of my life, no matter what schedule it comes out on.

6. THE IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN #1

This is a book no one was asking for. Phil Hester and Robert Kirkman go about building a new super, which is hard enough yakka, but then they make him not very super, and very barely heroic. In fact, he’s a scumbag and by the end of this first issue you want to keep reading because you really want to see Eric O’Grady’s house of cards fall down around him.

And yet I still kind of love him, and have enjoyed reading him elsewhere, but that’s due to the way his character grows over time. In this debut, he’s absolute pond froth. But you just can’t look away at this seedy underside of what goes on behind the Marvel superheroics.

5. SLEEPER #1

Okay, now the list hits the real tour de forces. Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips here start something truly special, and I think it’s their second collaboration, and it’s one of the first comics I bought when getting back into comics and it was the one that completely solidified my fall back into things.

This is a phenomenal debut: it gives us a character we can’t look away from, it surrounded them with other people who are interesting and will help/hinder him along the way, and it slowly unpacks why we should care for our character through the main complication of the text.

A spy comic by way of some superpowers, this is hard hitting action and a slew of characters you’ll follow to the grave and beyond. I’ve read this entire series more than once and it only gets better.

4. ELEKTRA #1

I love Elektra. Frank Miller introduced her, he told the best story with her, and he buried her. That really could have been her entire catalogue in story, but I’m glad it’s not because Mike del Mundo and W. Haden Blackmen did something special with her in this maxiseries, and it all starts in this character focused debut.

Elektra has history, so it’s unpacked here in gorgeous detail, and this builds context, which they then quickly move away from. This isn’t yet another story of Elektra circling her boyfriend Matt Murdock. This is her story they want to tell, and she will be the centre of it, so she thinks about the past right before moving forward and taking a bounty hunter style job to find someone. It’s all fairly simple in summary, but the way it’s told is so exceptionally fluid, and it’s juxtaposed against Bloody Lips, a new villain invested here who is truly fascinating.

And then we get the final splash of Elektra descending into Monster Island.

Yes, Elektra, our leading lady/ninja/bounty hunter jumps out of a plane and descends towards Monster Island in her wingsuit. Comics! When they’re this good, they’re better than anything else out there.

3. UNCANNY X-FORCE #1

I’ve not been an X-mark since the cartoon when I was in primary school, so I initially slept on this book. I don’t really follow Wolverine or Deadpool, I knew little of Fantomex, Archangel didn’t feel like anything that had been interesting in a while, and I dig Psylocke but not enough to buy into this comic. But then I started hearing things, so I dug back and got the first issue and didn’t stop pulling it monthly until the run ended.

This issue not only makes me care about an X-team, but it invested me in characters I had little connection with, and made me have to come back to see how it would all unfold over time. The wild adventure style storyline is certainly something a little different, and Jerome Opena elevates it beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. There are funny moments, but also some gore, and the cast selection shows itself to be genius for what is being set up. This run is an absolute titanic force of how good it can get when someone plays with the toys, and it all began in this debut issue I roundly ignored until I realised I had it wrong, and I’m so glad I realised my error.

2. KILL OR BE KILLED #1

Okay, maybe my favourite comic from the past decade, and something so incredibly my specific jam, and the pinnacle of what I’ve enjoyed about what happens when Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker collaborate.

This debut issue is a masterclass.

Brubaker carries us through this all with a resonating first person caption voice that’s captivating. We see Dylan try to kill himself, and then we rewind to build context, and then we shift again to showcase other pertinent information. It’s all dripped out at a delicious pace, but one that constantly gives us something else to add to the pile to astound us.

Phillips uses gutters to isolate characters, and guide the eye, and make us feel the emotional scope of this character and the world around him he feels so constantly attacked by. I’d love to map out how this issue gives up information, and how it does it. Putting something like this together, giving us so many character interactions alongside our leading man’s state of mind and motivation moving forward is a masterclass in how to give an audience everything they need without them ever seeing it coming or having a moment to feel bored.

Every comic writer should read this issue to see why we should never rest on our laurels. We can always do better.

1. Y: THE LAST MAN #1

This is the cliche choice, the one people are told to read, to seek out, to study. And there’s reason for that.

Yes, this issue is that good. You might not dig the story [I guess, I don’t know how, but that’s cool], but there’s little denying this issue does everything it should and does it with the most simplistic style. If you step back, this issue looks so easy, and doesn’t do much, but it really just pushes information into your brain through conversation and dialogue and that’s not easy to do without making anyone feel like a James Remar Exposition Machine.

Every character for the series gets time here, they all get moments that shine, and by the end of this issue you know them all and have cast your lot in with the right or the wrong ones. The hook in this issue isn’t that all the men on Earth die, that’s just doing what it says on the tin, the masterful magic here is in how much you love the characters and need to know what will become of them all.

In a world where most comics end their #1 issue by revealing the hook that’s already been in all of the solicit/prepress material, this comic goes another route. Knowing that Yorick wanted to propose to his girlfriend at the worst moment and got interrupted is the key to this series. Brian K Vaughan never sells this book as a post-apocalyptic tale of every man on Earth dying, bar one. He sells it as the story of the last boy on Earth becoming the last man on Earth. A great reminder than your story isn’t your hook, your hook is there to make people give your story their eyes. Then your job is to make them care.

Reread this issue, see how BKV does it, especially with the world’s finest work from Pia Guerra, and marvel at how he does it. One tip: he has 40 pages, so he’s got that working for him. Good luck to you!

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December 30, 2019

What Is Best In Life? – 2019 Edition 

The final year of the decade, and we’ve gone out with some high quality parts, so it’s nice to sit back and reflect on all the good things, and only the good things, just for one moment.

Comic

Every year, I manage to read a lot of good comics, and this year was no exception. I’m always thankful to find new things, and see amazing things continue to be phenomenal, and to see mates making excellent stuff, as such, here are some comics you should scope out.

November by Elsa Charettier and Matt Fraction is a brilliant OGN with a killer structure and some absolutely brutal pages of character and design. Crone from Justin Greenwood and Dennis Culver only just started but it’s already one of my absolute favourites of the year as it depicts a Red Sonja type adventurer who has grown old and now sees the world and herself very differently. John Lees continues to impress with Mountainhead with Ryan Lee and Sink with Alex Cormack, both showing skill, craft, and care. 

But my comic of the year, yet again, is a Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker jam: CRIMINAL

Absolutely stunning, beautifully put together, intricately woven, and just damn fine crime comics. An absolute MVP on the market.

Novel

I don’t give myself enough time to read novels, but this year I finally sampled Fletch by Bregory MacDonald and did enjoy it, despite the eponymous hero being a fairly decent asshole. Killing Gravity by Corey J. White absolutely won me over and I need to catch up with him to get my hands on the next 2 in the trilogy. But my favourite reading experience of the year was: CANARY

Duane Swierczynski always makes his books feel like arrows flying directly at you, and you can either duck, dodge, or take the hit. This one is very much in that school of his shelf.

TV

There are a lot of good shows out there, but I’m trying to spend my time on the truly great stuff. This year I really enjoyed The Kominsky method as it does something a little different with the sitcom format and allows Michael Douglas to seemingly both stroke his ego while completely deflating it. The return of Veronica Mars was really fun because it truly did posit the concept of what this character would be like travelling into adulthood. Life is hard for her, and that’s about right. How interesting then that my favourite show features the same lead actress: THE GOOD PLACE

It doesn’t seem right that this show can continue to be this good. It’s funny as hell, and deep enough to keep you thinking, and structurally sound like a glass snowflake. Every character continues to shine, the plot goes insane, and the heart of it all never leaves view.

Movie

It’s always exciting to find new things in film. Captain Marvel continued the trend Wonder Woman began last year of strong superhero films featuring women in the lead, and this flick really amplified the presence. This flick was funny and full of awesome and Brie Larson can easily carry the MCU for another decade, if she so wishes to. However, my heart belongs to something that’s not a franchise flick because this year I was completely bowled over by: KNIVES OUT

A murder mystery, in the style of old mansion novels, and Rian Johnson nails it all. The tone, the style, the characters, everything. I’m still thinking about the structure of this beast as the audience is given information at different times, and sometimes we don’t even know it yet, and there is so much to learn from this one.

Podcast

Every commute, every time I mow the lawn, I’m listening to someone talk info into my brain. I’ve enjoyed learning more about D&D through their official podcast, Dragon Talk, and it helps the two hosts are great fun. I’ve continued to expand my teaching brain with the Google Teacher Tribe, and my comics brain with Off Panel and Word Balloon, but this year my ears belonged to: SMASH BOOM BEST

This podcast about two people debating two topics through separate rounds got my brain firing with all kinds of rad ideas and desires for the classroom.

And that’s been the best of my 2019, let’s keep the run going into 2020 and the next decade to come.

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January 2, 2019

What is Best in Life? 2018 Edition

Nothing like an end of year round up. A time to reflect, a time to take stock, and a time to project.
Overall, 2018 has felt like a year of building pressure. Whether we get a glorious wave into 2019, I don’t know, and whether I have the balance to ride that wave and not get crushed I also do not know. But I’ve done my best to stay positive and keep wheels behind the scenes moving, so while I didn’t publish a lot this year, I did prep 4 pitches, and put the scripts for one project to bed, and wrote a tonne on another one, and have lined up a few one-shots with artists I’m excited to bring it all together with.

If everything I worked on in 2018 came out in 2019, it would be a stellar year. So we shall see.

And while I said I didn’t get much out in 2018, what did come out was stuff I’m crazy proud of. The BEAUTIFUL CANVAS tpb landed in Feb, collecting last year’s acclaimed mini-series, and the month before it we started the year strong with ETERNAL, and I’ve been saying if you only publish one new thing all year, but that thing is ETERNAL, then it’s been a good year. Eric Zawadzki and Dee Cunniffe deserve all the praise this year.

Now, onto some things we can list!

MY TOP COMIC OF 2018

I really dug some good good stuff this year. Image tops the list with so much quality: GIDEON FALLS was something I got caught up on recently, and that book is very fine, as is CEMETERY BEACH, for totally different reasons. SHANGHAI RED was my jam in the same way SINK at ComixTribe is. PAPER GIRLS and SAGA and DEADLY CLASS continue to be masterpieces, and I really enjoyed MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES, but the top book really has to go to something that’s one of my very favourites from my very favourite creative team:

KILL OR BE KILLED

Just a stellar end to a wicked story where both Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker were on superbly fine form.

MY TOP NOVEL OF 2018

Man, THE OUTSIDER from Stephen King could have run away with this, if I’d only stopped before the final hundred pages. It’s not *bad*, but it is not as blistering as the first half of the book. That first half is pound-for-pound King at his dark criminal best.

I also really dug PLATO WYNGARD AND THE ARMOUR OF THE GODS, the second novel from my two brothers, Marc and James Lindsay, but that feels a bit nepotistic, and would make them far too happy.

I took a few weeks to smash through HANGMAN, where Jack Heath writes such a ballistic crime novel that you can’t help but be impressed with the layers of familiarity he builds into his characters alongside the wild intricate puzzles and violent moments.

But there can only be one, so, I’ll lay this one at the feet of:

WE RIDE THE STORM

This fantasy epic from Devin Madson was something I bought because she showed the opening line on her table, and it’s a banger:

I honestly hadn’t read a fantasy book since my David Eddings days in high school, but I was keen to try this out. It’s Book One of a bigger story, so the opening hundred pages is a lot of table dressing, but by the final hundred pages it’s just fistfuls of food being slammed into your mouth faster than you can chew. And I mean that in a good way. The action and character drama continue to rise, and I was hooked on all three plot threads as they wind ever closer.

There were also two particular chapters where I finished them and thought…damn, that’s some good reading.

If you get the chance, track this down, it’s bloody, glorious, and bloody glorious.

MY TOP TV SHOW OF 2018

THE GOOD PLACE came so so close to running away with this one. The third season has been just as good as the rest, and in a way that’s different from S2, which went about it different from S1. The show is a titanic force, and I’m a better writer for having watched it, but something else from this year jumped ahead of it through sheer force of will. And it wasn’t DAREDEVIL S3, or GLOW S2, or THE KOMINSKY METHOD S1 which came out of nowhere to absolutely thrill me, nor was it my marathon catch up of three seasons of THE LEFTOVERS, which I’m discounting because it’s an older show. No, the top gong is kinda easily held onto by this one which should be absolutely obvious when you really think about it:

ATLANTA S2

This show good, this show real good. Some of these episodes, mostly in the middle in and around the Teddy Perkins ep are just A+ analyses of the modern world as told through gonzo noir small screen cinema. So so perfect.

MY TOP MOVIE OF THE YEAR

It’s one thing to announce a tie, and it’s another to give that tie to two polar opposite things. Both of these flicks did what they needed to do nigh perfectly, and they left me in very different places, and I can barely separate them. One will be endlessly rewatchable, one will be a hard watch again, though I will. One is high pop bubble gum joy, one is brutal art house insanity. Both, though, are long. I can’t separate it, so I’m letting the chips fall where they may – the top flick[s] of 2018 are:

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR and SUSPIRIA

Watching the Marvel Cinematic Universe come to this big break moment at the end of Infinity War was something to behold, a truly special feat. The movie is top notch event comic action fun. It’s *BIG* and it’s wild and it’s a smile injected into your lips. It’s not high art, and it shouldn’t be. It’s not a great character study, and it shouldn’t be because there are about 500 principal hero cast at play – though it is a study of Thanos, which is both as bold as it is brilliant, and it’s for that reason it crossed the line at the top.

However, across the aisle, SUSPIRIA does everything different, and is most likely the more true superior flick. It is high art, it’s weird, it’s a character study, or more of a location study, a look at witch hierarchy in dance schools. It’s unsettling, and everything holds huge gravity – which is funny when you consider the death count in Suspiria must be about 0.0000001% of the other cape-inclined movie. I feel like Suspiria is more likely to sit atop Best Of lists when we look back in 20 years, but Infinity War will be more remembered, and more wildly remembered, and will sit on its own Best Of lists, too, for its own reasons.

MY TOP PODCAST OF 2018

I’ve gone deep into WOW IN THE WORLD and STORY PIRATES with the kids on all commutes, and they’ve fed my brain in wonderfully small ways. SERIAL returned and was interesting, but lacked that central narrative engine that makes it a binge-worthy podcast. I also found it crazy depressing, to the point where it almost felt like it was inducing anxiety in me after listening for an ep, and maybe that’s a huge point: if listening to it all give me the shivers, imagine living it 😐

I’ve caught up on a tonne of the GOOGLE TEACHER TRIBE PODCAST just to keep my dayjob game tight, and it’s worked a treat, making me feel energised about all kinds of things for work, especially going into 2019.

But, I think this year goes again to OFF PANEL, the comic interview podcast where the creators are well picked and always get down to real talk. I still love this podcast, and still get a constant stream of quality inspiration and joy from it.

MY TOP MUSIC OF 2018

There was new Sarah Blasko this year, I got DEPTH OF FIELD and it’s a great writing record, but it lacks the punchy catchiness of her other albums, so I think sneaking in at the top might be the SUSPIRIA soundtrack.

And I think that’s a wrap. 2018 had some good stuff, and it also felt like mental quicksand. But walking into 2019 will feel like walking free, so I better make the most of it.

Here’s to building a better stronger list of live in yet another year.

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