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.

I think, at some point, I will write about Final Fantasy 15 and Death Stranding, and the way those two games converge in my brain.

Because the true platform of choice is YouTube videos I put on to focus my anger at work into a scalpel point, no infographic will ever capture the majesty of Daytona USA Let's Go Away, The Flute Tune, Super Sharp Shooter, On A Ragga Tip, and the French/German language versions of Heroes on loop.

We are BACK.

I'm an easy mark for Kojima, because he just goes back to the well/s of Every Topic I'm Interested In, but Death Stranding including instances of "and now I will go to check in with my friends Junji Ito, Ma Dong-seok, CHVRCHES, etc, who are all super happy to see me" really does add to the flavour.

🤘

Rewatching The Empty Man, and, while he’s aged out of the role, James Badge Dale would have made an amazing Leon Kennedy.

Telling everyone that I meet in-game that I call it ‘Clark Raiders’, because my name is Clark.

Everyone’s allowed one. (Dandadan, vol. 14)

A House of Dynamite, but everyone except Jared Harris is replaced by the Muppets.

FFT: Ivalice Chronicles - a good time in 2025.

Watching the early political intrigue play out in chapter 1 of Final Fantasy Tactics, having spent the first 6 hours of the game grinding to unlock the ninja class and the dual weird skill to melt everyone on the battlefield.

@demontomatodave.bsky.social one for you from the legal realm papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

True ending, on a Sunday morning ⚔️

Today, at work, having completed Act I of Silksong before leaving the house, and 90% of people not being in the office, due to the tube strike.

Absolute Wonder Woman: what would the unfolding mythological, magickal, and theological implications of shifting Diana’s origin to Hades be? Absolute Batman: WHAT IF HE WAS HUGE

Great/horrible book - does the Providence thing of a world going increasingly off-kilter and shifting into an inexorable nightmare logic.

Absolute Wonder Woman having the same energy as Madeline Miller’s Circe, a really good run on Hades/Hades II and this panel from Final Crisis is, let’s be frank (no pun intended), A Good Time.

The Sopranos, s02e07 “D-Girl” (2000, dir. Allen Coulter)

@illusclaire.bsky.social important Buffy info. bsky.app/profile/jami...

Wheeeee

Many people are saying this.

Here lies one whose name was writ in water.