013: 1st Anniversary Episode Spectacular
Happy New Year! And happy anniversary to you, newsletter! Thank you for keeping me company, and for retaining all but three of last year’s subscribers. You’re doing good work.
December was good! Thanks to a few of my books ending (and my handing a steady gig to a worthy successor), I had my least stressful December since 2009. I got to spend Christmas with my family without being burnt out, so I had plenty of energy when I received a Homestar Runner puppet! At last, a voice for the darkness within!
I recorded another episode of X-Men Horoscopes that will drop later this month. We discussed Uncanny X-Men #292, among other things! All for you! As for fun things for me in the month ahead, me and my sweetie are seeing both Neko Case and James Acaster live! But not together. Separately! I hope Neko talks about feeding children to tigers. I hope Acaster also talks about feeding children to tigers. There’s precedent for both.
On to the content!
Favorite Things of 2025:
Favorite book: Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson
Favorite film: Marty Supreme.
Favorite show: Andor.
Favorite album: Neon Grey Midnight Green by Neko Case.
Favorite video game: Octopath Traveler 0.
Favorite museum: The National Comedy Center.
Favorite fad: The Final Fantasy Magic: The Gathering cards.
Favorite vinyl acquisition (vintage): In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson.
Favorite vinyl acquisition (new): Tony Fletcher Walked On Water [EP] [reissue] by the Chameleons.
Favorite acting in a Star Trek episode: Melissa Navia as Ortegas in “Terrarium.”
Favorite audio clip: The meat stretcher drop used throughout My Momma Told Me.
Favorite podcast moment (funny): Stavros Halkias and Mandal roasting the student who slept with his professor…and still got bad grades.
Favorite podcast moment (enlightening): What’s So True to you, David Gborie?
Favorite comics industry rallying cry: Matthew Rosenberg challenging mainstream comics to find its lost edge.
Favorite vintage film I watched for the first time: Bull Durham.
Favorite vintage TV show I watched for the first time: M*A*S*H.
Favorite older thing that I watched more than five times this year: Princess Mononoke.
Favorite surprise nod to a comics legend: This quote from The Art of Futurama:
Favorite song that I thought was a cover but turned out to be the original: “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime” by the Korgis, as seen in Marty Supreme. And here I thought Beck was a genius.
Favorite dumb toys I bought: The BT-1 and Chopper figures I saved from the clearance section.
Favorite dumb piece of clothing I bought: The enormous and very soft Von Trapp Brewing jumper that I didn’t realize was for women. Yes, I did put it on and wear it out of the brewery.
Favorite new work asset: The Chequered Ink Complete Fonts Bundle. I got a lot of miles out of these.
Favorite surprise home repair: The garbage disposal breaking on New Year’s Day. How’s that for a bad omen?
Favorite antique shop: Twice Upon A Time Antiques in Brattleboro, Vermont.
Favorite piece of Vermont in another state: The Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop near the San Diego Convention Center.
Favorite political spam: This little number:
I don’t remember the name of this brave young man from Florida, but whoever you are, good luck out there! Favorite annoying little kid: The nine-year-old boy on the flight to San Diego who spent its last hour singing his own name in every way he could think of. His name was James. Shoutout to James.
Favorite healing of a childhood trauma: The final chapter of Neko Case’s memoir, which explained every woman’s emotional bond with horses (don’t ask).
Favorite accomplishment: Seven successful months of cohabitation with my sweetie. Sorry, Eisner award, you’re coming in second.
If you want to see me talk about more 2025 stuff, I contributed to House of Ideas, Powers to Astonish’s Creators’ Year In Review:
Sound Effect of the Month:
Best of 2025 Website Links Roundup Yeehaw!
AIPT Comics gave nods to Batman, Deadpool/Batman, that whole Doug Ramsey business, and me, Clayton! Thank you very much for naming me Best Letterer, AIPT!
ComicsBeat’s list was everything I wanted in a Best Of list—just a heaping serving of everything! They gave nods to Absolute Batman 2025 Annual, Closer, The Power Fantasy, and Trinity: Daughter of Wonder Woman!
ComicBook.com and Screenrant both gave nods to Absolute Batman, The Power Fantasy, and Star Trek: The Last Starship!
ComicBookClub gave some love to Star Trek: The Last Starship, Wonder Woman, and the entire line of DC’s Absolute books!
The Comics Journal (specifically Charles Hatfield) selected FML!
The Hollywood Reporter chose both Absolute Batman and Absolute Batman Annual 2025!
TrekMovie named Lower Decks the Best Comic Book Series of 2025, and gave a nod to Last Starship #1 for Best Individual Issue!
Community:
Coming soon—COMICS! The Magazine! Issue #1 will have a big feature about the making of Absolute Batman! Yes, I will be featured! My name is on the cover and everything!
The Comics Journal did a terrific interview with Katie Pryde of Books With Pictures—who you may remember from last month’s newsletter. Even with national recognition, it turns out that running a comic book shop is extremely difficult—especially when it has a mission. You’ve gotta respect it.
Recommendations:
Comic: Hirayasumi. Let’s be real—David Harper says it better than I ever could. After picking up volume 2 on a whim from the library, I tore through the rest of Hirayasumi in under a month. Would especially recommend if you enjoy Locas by Jaime Hernandez. It doesn’t have wrestlers, Los Angeles, or Penny Century, but it does have an ever-expanding cast of characters trying to get through their laid back, soap opera lives in a superb, less-is-more art-style. Read both volumes 1 and 2 for the full hook.
Non-comic: Overflow: The Art of Bryce Kho. I backed this on Kickstarter and it arrived just before Christmas. What a yummy treat! I’ve been a fan of Bryce Kho’s work for a long time, and upon reading the book (yes, I read the text in the art book for a change), I found his passion and process truly inspiring. He also excluded the fanart that takes up most of his Instagram feed (Ghibli, Pokémon, etc.), so you get a good look at all of his original stuff. Great book! Can’t recommend enough!
Stuff with my name in it (January 2026):
1/7:
Absolute Batman: Ark M Special #1
All-New Venom: Who Is All-New Venom? TP
Batman #5
Daredevil by Saladin Ahmed vol. 5: Rites of Reconciliation TP
FML #7
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow DC Compact Comics Edition TP
Venom #253
X-Men #23
1/14:
DIE: Loaded #3
Knull #1
Star Trek: Lore War TP
Star Trek: Lower Decks #15
Uncanny X-Men #22
Wonder Woman: Black & Gold 2026 Special (King/Gerads story)
1/21:
Absolute Batman #16
The Power Fantasy #15
Star Trek: Shaxs’ Best (and Worst) Day TP
Star Trek: The Last Starship #4
Star Wars #9
Wonder Woman #29
X-Men #24
1/28:
Giant-Size X-Men: Second Genesis Revisited TP
Magic: The Gathering: Untold Stories - Elspeth #3
NOTE: Keep an eye on the Marvel Unlimited app for a yet-to-be-announced Infinity comic!
And finally, the cat photo:
I guess I’d be remiss if I didn’t really talk about the year that was, but I’m not really feeling it. Despite the enormous list of 2025 stuff you just read, I’m not ending the year in a reflective mood—which is welcome. I’m certainly looking at 2026 with more hope than I did 2025, and I have some faith that the forces that rocked the comic industry in 2025 will soon settle down (I’m looking at you, Diamond). Though I expect the world-at-large to get worse before it gets better—and I won’t insult you all by pretending otherwise—I do hope your 2026 is less turbulent than your 2025, and that we get through all this in one piece.
One last note—you should receive an extra email today! It’s a Q&A that would have made this email too long, so it got its own edition. Don’t delete it! And please keep the questions coming!
That’s it for January! See you in a month!
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