🦇

Getting hands-on with Billy Bat AND the new volume of Yotsuba&! in the same span of weeks is a pretty bonkers confluence of high anticipation, I'll tell you what.

Renounce the sun, stay inside and drink in the light of links 🙌🙌🙌

Ma dottore!

@robzacny.bsky.social personal Vader head-canon permanently and fundamentally overwritten by the closing comments on today’s @morecivilized.bsky.social episode.

007: First Light - "For England, James?" "No, for the bants, lad."

Let’s make anime.

They* should make the equivalent of active noise cancelling, but for tastes and smells. *boffins

It’s interesting, playing Saros and Sektori effectively back-to-back, Housemarque staples in effect in both, where they prize strategic manoeuvring between projectiles (and projectile-like enemies) to set up a dash-strike cascade to gain the XP for your next upgrade.

It’s Gnome time.

Time for a re-read to pregame for July.

Cackling every time Saros layers on YET ANOTHER on the nose allusion to The King in Yellow as I impatiently sit through the plot to get back to the upgrade tree and One More Run.

Fumetti in Trieste 📚

The beatings will continue until morale improves. Or until you read @clarklebee.bsky.social latest roundup. www.tcj.com/captive-of-t...

Besieged by jellyfish 🪼

[Donkey Kong voice] OH, PRAG-MATA 💥

Why aren't there more restaurants that serve breakfast at night? We like toast, omelettes and sausage any time- at least here's Clark Burscough with some links: www.tcj.com/april-skies-... #diner

When the 86 minute horror film has 15 idents pre-title, so you know you’re in for a good time 🤗

This week's links brought to you by Clark Burscough- MoCCA's over, get back to work: www.tcj.com/voyage-dans-... (art by Bill Williams and John Stanley)

Whispering “just like The Pitt” as my stay in the phlebotomy department waiting room enters hour two.

When the riff comes back, but nastier 😫 youtu.be/d75ov4HvRrM?...

Wearing out the 'fash, on the nose' buzzer in a week where writing about comics news necessitates items on military invasions, free speech repression, and military free speech repression.

Monarch — Legacy of Monsters really does seem certain that I prefer the interpersonal drama of a gang of dullards over seeing kaiju wrecking shit.

D:

Lifelong grudge with Canadian curling teams unlocked.

Every broadcaster chasing the Heated Rivalry SEO with desperate abandon.

Full on Ralph Wiggum heart breaking in the skating scoring.

I do like the escalation of Dragon Quest VII from “Bring your dad his fish sandwich, there’s a good lad.” to “GOD FAILED IN HIS ATTEMPT TO KILL THE DEVIL, AND THUS HIS MISSION IS NOW YOURS, CHILD. SUCCEED IN HIS PLACE.”

Spraying BBC sports commentators from a water bottle every time they say “oh my word” to try and train that particular vocal tic out of them 🗞️

It’s a him

Preparing to thoroughly fuck up a Christmas tree in a foyer with the lad Kiefer.

Playing the “partner works in food prep” game of “what went wrong with this morning’s batch of pastel de nata?” to necessitate me being presented with 3 of them for dessert.

I am truly begging publishers of long form prose, especially those focused on genre fiction, to include recaps at the start of novels where there is narrative continuity between volumes. I barely remember why I went into rooms, let alone who 20 fucking characters I last read about 4 years ago are.

Audiobooks got me through a rough patch of being too burnt out to fully focus on reading prose as a leisure activity, for the first time since uni and Thought Bubble stress teamed up, but I think the cavalcade of novelty accents in Michael Sheen’s reading of Philip Pullman’s novels has cured me.

@stevewmorris.bsky.social the 2000 AD marketing email I just received made me spit my drink. Strong work.

I’m going to try and resume cataloging comics newly read each year, in this thread, for a reminder when writing the TCJ best-of entry in December. Future Clark, if I didn’t succeed in consistently doing this then lmao soz.

@neillcameron.bsky.social Girlfriend just came back from a trip to Foyles to grab the book club choice for this month and showed off the free bookmark she got with it - Donut Squad in the house.

Operation: I Don’t Know What Day It Is continues until whenever January 5th arrives.

Annoying my partner by immediately glomming onto the comic relief character in any shojo anime she shows me and forsaking all major plot developments in favour of asking questions about them.

Advent window walk.

👀

A Christmas Carol is a soulslike.

Best comics of the year up at TCJ, including the picks from yours truly, also in picture form below. Zod bless us, everyone 🙏🙏🙏 www.tcj.com/the-best-com...

Best comics of the year submitted, so that's a wrap on another year's contributions to The Comics Journal. Waking at 2.30am every day for cryo chamber recovery, weights, golf, prayer, and linkblogging before starting work is tough on a body, but I don't know what to tell you if it is not worth it.

Seasonally appropriate colours.

Never talk to me or my &c &c &c

Waking up to news of the return of the king.