The shadow of Alan Moore stretches long over this one. The specific antecedent is “The Anatomy Lesson” – we’ve got a gloomy atmosphere, an inactive hero, and revelations on his nature, structured as an inward journey. We also have epigraphs for each chapter, which, in this case, smack of Watchmen over Stephen King.
I toyed with not writing this one at all – the back pain has returned, and I have to push through it and work, so spending time writing doesn’t feel like the best idea. But I decided I’d go back to writing on the phone in bed to give my back a rest, and honestly, this makes for a good distraction.
(This one’s coming to you late because someone – probably accidentally – reported my newsletter as malicious content or something, so I was locked out of sending new ones. Buttondown had to audit and then clear it. We’re back in business!)
As mentioned in Part 1, here’s my reviews for the week. If you prefer my personal rambles to these, you can just skip this one.
First newsletter of 2024! I’m back home in Pune, settling in. We got back home early on the 5th, which turned out to be Friday, so I don’t have to officially start the year till Monday.
Since I have that breathing space, I wanted to reflect on the coming year before it properly begins.
We skipped a few weeks here because, well, I’m on holiday. But even before I was travelling (I’m in Vietnam at the moment, sitting cosy in our hotel room in Hanoi while K reads a book), I had a couple of weeks of mild back pain, and this time, I decided, for once, not to prioritise my writing over my health.
I also had to finish up my remaining work for the year before my vacation (December usually has early closing in comics, so you end up with a month’s worth of work to finish up in two weeks), but I wrapped this up in the first week, and decided to rest before travelling.
I did entertain the idea to finish up my big series outline/beat sheet on vacation, but once we got here, I figured it’s a vacation, and I’d rather be out and about in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi than sit in a café and write (though there are some wonderful cafés here and we’ve done some champion sitting around in them, usually with a book each).
I did, however, want to post a final blog/newsletter to close out the year before we start fully anew next year.
Writing this one from K’s house. It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon, and we just finished rewatching Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
For a change, I’m writing this one on my phone, lying in bed. Not because I feel lazy, mind you. My back’s been giving me some trouble over the last few days because I’ve been writing a lot – writing on a laptop is surprisingly bad for your neck and upper back, it turns out.
Writing this one from my parents’ home. My mother’s taking a well-deserved vacation, so I’m taking care of my father while she’s away. The nicest thing about this is, of course, the constant presence of my cat Loki, who is currently asleep in the chair next to mine, having first arranged my messenger bag into a little bed.1
Hello, my beloved Internet! I intended only to skip one week while I was on my vacation, but I forgot that my vacation encompassed two weekends, and I had no intention to do anything resembling work while on holiday.
A quiet Saturday at my end. I’m writing this from my parents’ home, where I’m tending to dad while my mother has a day out. The cat is sitting on my lap as I write this – he hasn’t had this much alone time with me in a good while, and he’s very happy.
It’s a nice Saturday evening, K and I just got back from a long walk (like the proper old people we are), so I think it’s a good time to write this week’s update.
Here’s this week’s earworm, from the Killers of the Flower Moon trailer:
The Halluci Nation Ft. Black Bear – Stadium Pow Wow(more…)