Farewell to 2023
Farewell to 2023
December, 2023
First of all, hello from Buttondown! I'd been considering moving my newsletter for a while now, but Substack's recent decision about what they're willing to have on their platform was the final drop for me to make the jump. We'll see how this goes!
The previous newsletter was sent in September, so it's been a while. I've been waiting for a couple of projects to get announced, but it seems like that might not happen this year. Hopefully I'll have news about those soon, but in the meanwhile, here are some thoughts on how 2023 went!
I somehow convinced myself that I haven't done much work this year, even though I'm perpetually tired! So I made this little graphic to visually convince myself that this isn't true.
That's 6 projects that have been announced and/or published, and 3 unannounced projects, and that's not even counting with all the smaller design projects I work on in between.
In terms of pages that's 326 pages this year! In 2022 I colored 407, and in 2021 I worked on 220.
For the new subscribers:
I helped Msassyk color volume 2 of Les Mondes Electriques, written and drawn by Christophe Alliel.
I also helped her with The Hunger and the Dusk, written by G. Willow Wilson, and art by Chris Wildgoose.
Then I worked on an unannounced project... that is a continuation from previous stuff so I'm sure some people might be able to guess what it is ;)
I did layout design for Hunters Entertainment on projects like Alice is Missing - Silent Falls, and Kids on Bikes 2nd Edition;
I illustrated another tarot series for Natalie C. Parker and Zoraida Cordóva's anthology, Mermaids Never Drown;
I colored my fourth The Mighty Nein Origins graphic novel, Beauregard Lionett, which will be out April of next year!
Gods of Metal: Ragnarock also came out, as did Mall Goth! And, you know, I was nominated for an Eisner Award, so I must have done some work after all!
Things I Enjoyed in 2023
TV Shows
I re-watched a lot of shows this year, lots of old favourites that I didn't remember as well anymore. Shows like Mr Robot, Orphan Black, Broadchurch, Mare of East Town, The Killing, How To Get Away With Murder, Lost In Space... Yes, clearly I like my stories sad and tragic, the exception being LiS. But there's some feels in there as well!
As for new shows I really liked The Diplomat (give me more shows with that sort of dynamics!), The Bear (some of the episodes gave me anxiety, but hey, I still enjoyed them!), the second season of Good Omens, Homecoming (not a new show, I know, but I'd listened to the podcast and didn't know there was a show), The Fall of the House of Usher (one day I'll convince Mike Flanagan to write comic books!), the second season of Wheel of Time, same for Loki (I wish I could write a twisty time travel story like this), the third season of Only Murders in the Building (Broadway musicals and true crime? Yes!), Yellowjackets, Silo, Poker Face... I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Oh! The return of Doctor Who!! I've been loving these new episodes and I'm so glad it's back.
I keep watching Critical Role every week, of course, and I really liked their new game, Candela Obscura! Who'll run a game for me in the Fairelands, hmm?
Movies
I'm not going to theaters yet, so while I watched a lot of shows, I haven't watched that many movies!
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is definitely at the top there. Nimona as well. I also liked the DnD movie, Honor Among Thieves, Barbie, Elemental, and I finally watched Nope! I'm also looking forward to watching American Fiction once it reaches streaming.
I also re-watched both Knives Out movies, I'm always in the mood for murder mystery shenanigans.
Books & Comics
I've already mentioned plenty of these in the past newsletters, but I managed to break my reading slump this year, so here are some of the books that contributed to that!
Books: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson, The Marvellers (and the sequel) by Dhonielle Clayton, Mermaids Never Drown, They Both Die at the End (and the prequel) by Adam Silvera, The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold, and The Starling House by Alix E. Harrow.
Comics: Over My Dead Body by Sweeney Boo, Chilvary by Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran, Ducks by Kate Beaton, It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood, The Nice House on the Lake by James Tynion IV, Álvaro Martinez Bueno, and Jordie Bellaire, Scarlet Witch by Steve Orlando, Sara Pichelli, and Matthew Wilson, Briar by Christopher Cantwell, Germán Garcia, and Matheus Lopes, Hungry Ghost by Victoria Ying, Squire by Nadia Shammas and Sara Alfageeh, and Ink Girls by Marieke Nijkamp and Sylvia Bi.
Games
Shout-out to Jedi: Fallen Order for letting me live all my Star Wars dreams, and more recently Baldur's Gate 3, which has taken over my life! I only started playing it recently, I had to focus on a deadline, but whenever I'm not working I'm getting up to shenanigans in Faerun.
(I so want to play Jedi: Survivor as well but I can't run it in my desktop, so I've been waiting for a service like GeForce Now or Boosteroid to make it available :( Patience, padawan!)
I don't know what 2024 holds for me except for a couple of work related things. I wish it could be the year where I can finally travel, go to conventions, feel less isolated from all the communities I'm apart of. But with my health issues and no one wearing masks anymore... I don't know.
I'd like to find more time to draw, or to get back into 3D modelling! And to write too, I need to finish my current manuscript, and I want to explore some comic book ideas. I managed to write more than I thought I was going to during NaNoWriMo, but then didn't write anything during December because I used all my spoons to meet a deadline. And then... Baldur's Gate took the rest of my time, oops! But I'll get back at it with after some rest!
I hope everyone is having a quiet time this last week of the year. Here's hoping for a good 2024!
In the meanwhile you can find me on BlueSky (I've mostly left the hellscape that is Twitter), and Instagram! Let me know how your year went!