Tales of Syzpense #67
The Best of 2024 lists, celebrating the holidays with coming new Dreamweaver, a comic-book tribute to Jimmy Carter, and a final Holiday Spinner Rack + plenty of New Years spinner suggestions, too.
I love reading other peoples’ year-end lists but they do always remind me that I’m once again behind on assembling my own best-ofs, and also that there are so many good things I’ve missed this year, despite feeling like a once again had a solid eyar of reading, listening, and watching whenever I could.
I’ve found it pretty worthless so far to use things like my Spotify Wrapped or other such recaps to track what I actually listened to most frequently since something in their algorithm never quite gets my list right. By way of example, just because I listened to that one epic Trans-Siberian Orchestra tune early on this holiday season should in no way land it a spot in my top ten, and yet there it was. I listened to it no more than once, which is enough for any year.
But I tend to track things on my end all yeah, but despite that annual organization, I do end up rushing through a compilation of my favorites on the last couple days of the year. So these lists are bound to be missing some things I enjoyed, but they’re also a solid reflection of some of the better things I dug into this year, presented in no particular order from 2-10, but my #1 picks are all my tops in each category.
Music
I topped a combined 50,000 minutes at Spotify and Apple Music, to say nothing of the time I spent on Amazon Music and Bandcamp, spinning plenty of vinyl and seeing a wide array of live shows, too, so music of all of these categories is pretty hard for me to limit to ten.
This was a year when I tended to listen to more Americana than anything else, although I also listened to ample film scores to work to, and found myself leaning more toward atmospheric weirdness like Sym Fera and Envy of None as much as anything else.
There were some great comeback records from bands I hadn’t thought about in a while: two of them made this list and one of them topped it. But in addition to The Cure and Jake Bugg, the Black Crowes and even Kings of Leon put out great records after a long time away since their last bout with greatness.
And speaking of comebacks, one thing I don’t dispute about my Spotify Wrapped is that I sure did listen to Linkin Park’s “The Emptiness Machine” a lot of times. Which is especially odd for a band I never paid attention to beyond their hits back when, but a great tune is a great tune, and I always did love female singers who could really belt it out. It’s why bands like The Warning also got plenty of digital spins from me this year. Anyway, here are ten I really enjoyed this year:
The Cure, Songs From a Lost World
Silverada, Silverada
American Aquarium, The Fear of Standing Still
Frank Turner, Unleashed
Sea Girls, Midnight Butterflies
The Last Dinner Party, Prelude to Ecstasy
Jake Bugg, A Modern Day Distraction
JD McPherson, Night Owls
Jesse Malin, Silver Patron Saints (which isn’t really fair to only credit to Jesse, since this is a tribute album with all kinds of bands doing great versions of Malin songs. But by any name, it’s a great array of songs)
Colby T. Helms, Tales of Misfortune
Film
I for sure didn’t see ten movies in the theater this year (although I did see three different edits of Megalopolis in three different screening rooms/theaters this year, if that adds to my overall count). And in general, am lagging in seeing a lot of great movies that were released this year (for example: as I write this, I did see Y2K and My Old Ass this week but have yet to catch A Complete Unknown or Nosferatu. Home is just so much easier at times. Although I probably didn’t even use that time so wisely since as I look over my list, it’s peppered with flicks like Twisters, Under Paris (sharks in the catacombs!), the Road House remake (which deserves a spot on another list but not any kind of Best Of), The Blackening (great fun but not a 2024 release), Late Night with the Devil, The Beekeeper or rewatches of movies like The Thing, Jaws, Raiders, and The Muppet Christmas Carol. Not exactly arthouse fare.
That said, Kyle Mooney’s Y2K is great fun.
So I think this list is probably very incomplete but here we go:
American Fiction
Godzilla: Minus One
Deadpool/Wolverine
My Old Ass
Maxxxine
TV
I didn’t give it top ten status but all of these solid shows aside, whenever I need to throw something on I know I’m gonna love, I’ve been digging into Resident Alien in and around all of these other shows. It’s so worth it just for Alan Tudyk’s performance but it’s great show all around.
Slow Horses (all 4 seasons)
What We Do in the Shadows and Reservation Dogs’ final seasons
Shogun, season 1
Masters of the Air
Shrinking, season 2
Nobody Wants This, season 1
The Boys, season 4
Bad Monkey, season 1
Hacks, season 3
No Good Deed, season 1
Books
I read a good number of books this year but that count did take a hit midway through the year when I picked up the new Kindle Colorsoft. It does such a nice job at replicating the look of old comics in ways that the overly bright iPad can’t that it reinvigorated my love of revisiting old comics (not that that love had faded in the first place; the Kindle just made it easier to read them on the go).
And I’m leaving off two of the books that would make my top ten list because they’re not being released til 2025: Robert Crais’ latest (out in January!), The Big Empty, and Joe Hill’s King Sorrow (out in fall ‘25, I think). Crais always delivers, and King Sorrow is an epic story that always maintains its focus on a core group of characters even amidst all the wild goings-on so it never feels like it’s trying to be epic. It’s an impressive balancing act that builds to crescendo after crescendo, and even after spending hundreds and hundreds of pages with these characters, I didn’t want it to end. I think you’re gonna like ‘em both. I sure did.
Other books I liked this year:
Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen. The most terrifying book I read all year.
The Horse by Willy Vlautin
Fever House and The Devil By Name by Keith Rosson
The Path to Paradise by Sam Wasson. 2024 was a big Coppola year for me.
You Like It Dark by Stephen King. King’s best short-story collection since… his last short story collection. I really loved this one.
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
A Better World by Sarah Langan
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
3 Shades of Blue by James Kaplan
The Hunter by Tana French
City of Ruins by Don Winslow. The first two novels in this trilogy landed more directly for this but still, if this is to be Winslow’s final novel, it’s a fine place to end.
Comics
I tend to skip listing favorite comics since I feel like I’m too close to all of it and don’t want to play favorites or leave anyone off the list, and it remains a challenge to judge comics just on the merits of the story and art when I know many of the people involved and have other criteria that might influence my picks… so I’ll forego the numbered top ten list and instead just say that a few but not anywhere close to all of the comics I enjoyed this year were Where Monsters Lie, Rare Flavours, Violator, Ice Cream Man, Houses of the Unholy, Fantastic Four, Batman and Robin: Year One, The Enfield Gang Massacre, Saga, Ultimate Spider-Man, the Absolute line, Ghost Machine’s offerings, Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, The Deviant, Final Cut, Big Jim and the White Boy, My Favorite Thing is Monsters v2, Universal Monsters: Frankenstein, One Hand/Six Fingers, The Power Fantasy, and on and on and on.
2024: The Year in Rear View
As much as the year felt grueling in a lot of ways, I did manage to put a nice array of books into the world, both as the writer/author/co-writer, and as editor/publisher through our Syzygy imprint, too.
While I didn’t picture all of the variant covers for all of the Syzygy releases here, this is still a nice showing of the kinds of books we out out, and the kinds of people I love working with.
All of these books represent lots of months of work, and involve lots of people across all parts of the process, so seeing them like this certainly makes me happy for the reminder of all the great people and places with whom I’m able to do these things.
Of these books and comics, I’ve not yet seen physical copies of Weird Tales or the Conan Colossal Edition book (for which I provided all the text, fully aware that writing text in a book that celebrates the original art from a broad array of amazing artists is a bit like being the stand-up comic opening a rock concert) but I do have copies of all the rest, and someday soon (?) I’ll have finally built out a proper web site to make it easy to get any of ‘em if wanted).
Incidentally, we just sent the Self Help Volume 1 trade paperback collection to print last week, too. The book will be in stores on February 12, and while it will be available everywhere, it’s most helpful to comic shops and independent bookstores if you pick up a copy there.
The book, designed by Self Help letterer/designer Ian Chalgren, looks amazing. Final orders for its initial printing close on January 6, so any time between now and then, you can let your local provider know to order you the book by name or by its item code (1224IM383). And soon, we’ll share some peaks at the first chapter of volume 2, which launches next spring.
Another nice thing about these is that I’m able to build on a number of ‘em into 2025 and beyond, which is really what it’s all about: 20 years into officially working in comics, it’s nice to know there’s more to come even amidst all the challenges all of us are facing in terms of the market, the retail situation , tariffs, competing interests, and so on.
While I can’t yet announce many of the new things I’m working on or that will make their way into the world in 2025, maybe next time, I’ll lay out a kind of “mood board” with hints and peaks at ‘em.
And here’s one now, that was announced last week and so probably just slipped into the pre-holiday night without much notice:
Dreamweaver exclusive reveal at AIPT Comics
Press Hits
Nice to see our Marvel Calendars book on this 2024 gift guide at Biff Bam Pop alongside some other great books, too.
And I talked up the Calendar book, and a number of other projects past and present, on one more podcast, too. Or if you prefer a video link, below is the YouTube channel:
And 13th Dimension just posted their Top 13 Covers of 1974 as voted on by a number of us. You can check that out here.
Deck the Spinner Rack
I’m a little late for this last look at the holiday covers I tossed into my office spinner rack but still, most of these covers are good enough to display year-round anyway:
And since it’s unlikely I’ll get another one of these sent out before the end of the year, here are some new years cover suggestions, should you—like me—pivot directly from holiday covers to new years covers:
A Comic Book Tribute to Jimmy Carter
The world said goodbye to President Jimmy Carter, age 100, this week, and the tributes to his life and legacy of doing good are plentiful and deserved, and also better left to others to discuss. So I went a different direction with my tribute here.
First, Carter was our first President to officially file a UFO report — from before his time in the White House but still, it’s a fun bit of trivia.
And while in office, he appeared in a number of Marvel and DC comics of the era. Some of which named him, some of which took efforts to never name him as anything but “Mister President,” and whose likeness varies wildly depending on who the artist was.
First up, his Marvel cameos (top left to bottom right: Fantastic Four 178, Howard the Duck 8, Incredible hulk 238, The Champions 16, Marvel Team-Up 85, Savage She-Hulk 5, X-Men 108, and X-Men 136):
And DC (Action Comics 512, Adventure Comics 460, All-Star Squadron Annual 3, Batman Family 16, World’s Finest 246, Justice League of America 10, and Superman vs Muhammad Ali, where he appears on the front bottom-right. I figured I’d spare you from having to scour that image to find him, but that Neal Adams cover does always reward any closer look at its greatness):
I happened to be in Georgia on a Megalopolis-related trip earlier this year and found myself with a few hours to kill before a return flight. I was intending to spend it at a comic shop or record store but happened by the Jimmy Carter Museum on my way. I ventured in and spent most of my remaining time in Atlanta wandering around that beautiful space. I think it was my first visit to a presidential library and museum despite having grown up right near the Richard Nixon library, and it was both peaceful and revelatory. Certainly worth a visit if you find yourself nearby. (And I did still have just enough time to visit Criminal Records before leaving so it was a good day all around).
Goodbye, Nick Furry (2013 - 2024)
Otomo in Wonderland
Finally, to end the year with a couple fun things, there’s this: a friend always puts together this immense list of links to cool, obscure stuff he’s found throughout the year: unpublished screenplays, rare and out-of-print comics, unreleased pilot episodes, and so on. On this year’s list, he included a link to a short Alice in Wonderland comic strip by Akira creator Katuhiro Ottomo, and it’s as good as you might expect. Here’s the entire strip, with a couple of the better images below:
And finally, what better way to end the year that the remaining two Rom Spaceknight Omnibus books were released, complete with my introductions, than with a final bit of ROM:
the great Ron Frenz did this piece for me, featuring two of my favorite Marvel characters past and present: a pair who once appeared together in a comic (Marvel Two-in-One 99) drawn by Frenz. Ron posted the image online, and it was then colored by artist Rich Seetoo, so here is both the original art and the colored version:
A final note of thanks to everyone who has checked out this scattershot assortment of comic words and pictures throughout the year, as well as all of you who’ve supported it in more direct ways—and to all of you who’ve done the same for the books and comics I’ve had a hand in over the years. I hope you’ve gotten through the holiday season in whatever ways suit you best, and I wish you all a happy new year as we all head into whatever we’re all headed into…
"bandcamp" - me, too, Chris. Me too.
PS: so sorry to hear about Nick Furry. All the best for 2025 - hope you are okay.
I have to read Stephen King's: "You Like It Dark".
Great Substack read, Chris!