this is with restraint too! like I don't buy many anymore, have a small pile of other pins not in use (which I may put on anyway) and with keeping a few bands on there I saw maybe 10 years ago and which no longer exist

I mean if this photo from last week didn't create deep viscerally excited reactions, you're a back!

also, what a second row pairing!! Tigers always have a strong back 5 but this is definitely up their as some of the best (alongside, I'd argue, last year's)

oh yeh the first volume is out, as I picked it up for someone for Christmas! don't think it'll be too long until vol 2 either (maybe like April?)

nw, enjoy!!

oh it's so much fun!! very much leaning into the kinda 'Japanese Supernatural High School' anime/manga aesthetic (i was watching Jujutsu Kaisen when it started and it's very similar) to tell a pretty fresh take on mutants through a different cultural lens! the art is so unique too with watercolours

Music:
I always find music difficult to communicate my love for! But albums I adored released this year:
Secrets of the Future - Reliqa
Fine Art - Kneecap
Prelude to Ecstacy - The Last Dinner Party
Darker White - Fever333
Negative Spaces - Poppy

TV:
yeh, as ever, I was pretty crap on TV!
I found Scott Pilgrim Takes Off a great rebuild, got very into Jujutsu Kaisen, and fell back in love with Doctor Who...
but
realistically there's only one show I am desperate to shout out, which is Arcane S2 - where I wanted to rewatch the moment it ended

Monkey Man is a great tale on and off of the screen, with some of the year's best action scenes

The Iron Claw made me weep into my brother's shoulder in a brutal tale of family and loss

Movies:
quite a low key year for films for me but there were 5 (4 2024 releases and a 2023) that really spoke to me!

Love Lies Bleeding is a beautiful movie for criminal disaster queers

Hit Man is the modern, thriller evolution of the rom com

Kneecap is riotous and political in the most Irish way

Wonder Woman Historia was the beautiful feminist bending of Greek myth I wanted, plus a little spice of superheroics and almost cosmic horror!

I read a lot of fun comics but I also wanted to shout out a specific arc of the 10th Doctor comics, Weeping Angels of Mons! a gothic WW1 take on the angels!

Other Faves:
I finally checked out all of Chip Zdarsky's run on Daredevil and it's a complex religious epic that's worth the hype! maybe the best DD has been?

I also got round to finishing off two series I loved Heathen by Natasha Alterici and Home Sick Pilots by Dan Watters and Caspar Wijngaard!

Comics:
my best year for comics in a long time!

Whilst Krakoan X-Men ended (in a way I didn't love either), we were introduced to two new unique takes on the mutants with Ultimate X-Men by Peach Momoko and Uncanny X-Men by Gail Simone and David Marquez! These are gonna be loves into 2025 too!

(cont.)
Half in Love -Maile Meloy - some of the stories made me cry, beautiful

Dark Force Rising (and the whole OG Thrawn trilogy) -Timothy Zahn - a grand, naval space opera trilogy and feels like what SW aught to be

Guards! Guards! -Terry Pratchett - love discovering more Discworld! delightful!

Books
I read 43 this year (pretty good for me, especially given busyness)

faves:
Doctor Who: Engines of War -George Mann - ngl, didn't expect to put a tie in book up top but it's a hugely inventive and fun sci-fi epic

Carrie -Stephen King - loved the mixed media epistolary style, very good