“Eggtown.” Best Kate effort in quite a while!

Fitnesssky: how do I achieve this body type and head shape while living an uncle lifestyle?

6. ELDEN RING

It’s so fucking long, but there’s a real-deal “immersion” that hits when all the obscure FromSoft narrative logic starts to feel intuitive. You start thinking shit like “wait a minute… these knights wear Praetor Rykard’s banner… what business does Volcano Manor have this far east?”

5. ZARDOZ (1974)

The next-closest thing to the last two episodes of The Prisoner, at feature-length. Feints in the direction of being a cheapy, softcore Planet Of The Apes riff before actually delivering on its philosophedelic promises in the back half. Visually and narratively rich.

4. TITUS ALONE by Mervyn Peake

I liked-didn’t-love the first two Gormenghast books, which were a little constrained by the palace-intrigue stuff, but the third one is just a short, rambling victory lap, sort of like Season 3 of the Leftovers. Peake the poet takes the reins from Peake the novelist.

3. CROSS GAME by Mitsuru Adachi

Started reading this because I was looking for a birthday present for a 10 year old, and it has a few too many “schoolgirl panties” gags for that to be viable, but (apart from that) I loved it personally. Rock-solid comix fundamentals. A wistful, sad sports romcom.

2. GENERAL MARTOK

The DS9 weekly watch has just hit “You Are Cordially Invited” (no spoilers please) and man, this guy is such a great addition to the cast. Like Jack Aubrey from one of the latter books, a wizened and kind-hearted captain who’s weary of everything except war, which he lives on.

I can sympathize as someone who watched almost every superhero movie for 15 years, but I’m praying that gamers will learn how to say no