2023 articles, books, and more that Mal learned from in 2023

Articles

"Flashes, shimmers and blind spots: Here’s what migraine aura looks like", Alexa Juliana Ard and Brian Monroe, The Washington Post: I'm going to send this article to anyone that asks me what my migraines are like. The lead video illustration is a perfect representation of what happens when my migraine aura kicks in.
"What's 'love' got to Drew with it?", Travis M. Andrews, The Washington Post: "It's a practice I got in, in my adult life," Carey told CBS Chicago in January. "I treat everybody I meet with love, as if they were a friend already. … And it really changes everything. Added Carey, "Better than a smack in the face, right?" Drew Carey is a goddman treasure.
"D-J-A-N-G-O. The D is silent.", David Brothers: David Brothers on his relationship with Frank Miller's work and he doesn't believe in "separating the art from the artist because the art is the artist, and vice versa." Reminds me a lot of my thoughts on Roald Dahl
"An Interactive Guide to CSS Grid", Joshua Comeau: Finally someone breaks down CSS Grid for me in a way I can understand.
"We Cannot Cross Until We Carry Each Other", Arielle Angel, Jewish Currents: The editor-in-chief of Jewish Currents wrote a heart-wrenching editorial after Oct 7th. A line that has stuck with me: "Even if our dreams for better have failed, they must accompany us through this moment to the other side."
"The Evolution of Oracle and Disability Representation", Dayn Broder, Women Write About Comics: Broder wrote a thoughtful, insightful piece that demonstrates how characters in comics should grow and change. Resetting the status quo when a story is done does more harm than good in the industry.
A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden", Maggie Appleton: Writing that started me thinking about the whole Digital Garden thing.
"The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI", Maggie Appleton: Piece that started me thinking about how to bring more humanistic aspects to work and play.
"Push It Along: Revisiting A Tribe Called Quest's Discography", Jason Rodriguez: Thoughtful examination of the A Tribe Called Quest's discography and history which - as someone who really came in to hip hop in my late 20s - created a lot of connections and connected with me.

Books

Titanium Noir, Nick Harkaway (2023): Harkaway just hops from genre to genre, and there isn't one I haven't enjoyed yet.
Emerald City, Jennifer Egan (2007): After reading A Visit from the Goon Squad and while I was waiting for A Candy House, I grabbed this collection of Egan's shorts.
The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle (2016): I've been wanting to check out LaValle's writing for while and this was the perfect entry point (recommended by Alex, of course.)
The Candy House, Jennifer Egan (2022): A kind-of sequel to A Visit from the Goon Squad. Reading them both around the same time adds a lot of layers to the stories.
The Murderbot Diaries (Books 1 - 6), Martha Wells (2017 - 2021): Recommended by Alex, these were so entertaining. They're making a show and it's tough to think of a better series to bring to TV. Murderbot's dialogue is fantastic, but most internal, so it'll be interesting to see how they bring that across without it feeling like a quip-fest.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams (1980): I've never read this! How? Why? I don't know, but it was nice to finally read it. Maybe I'll read the third one in another 15 years.
The Candy House, Jennifer Egan (2022): A kind-of sequel to A Visit from the Goon Squad. Reading them both around the same time adds a lot of layers to the stories.
The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster (writer) & Jules Feiffer (artist) (1961): Books I loved as a kid came up while working on Reading Rockets, so I went back to read this to see if it still holds up for me as an adult. It does!
A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan (2011): Interconnected short stories telling generational stories with some near future sci-fi and well I loved it and will read everything Egan writes forever.
The Golden Enclaves, Naomi Novik (2023): Final book in the Scholomance Trilogy! I didn't even know this was out, which is weird. There was a deluge of sequels I was paying attention too I guess?
The World We Make, N.K. Jemisin (2022): The Great Cities #2. N.K. Jemisin's writing is just so good.
Grimm's Fairy Tales, Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm (2001): Research for a comic project I want to do. These stories are weirder and darker then Disney-fied versions will show.
Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain, Charles Leerhsen (2022): As someone who read all Bourdain's books, watched all his shows, and has even had dreams where he showed up, I appreciate biographies like this. You want to always look at a whole person, not just a 2d representation that's been edited and refined.
The Farseer Trilogy (Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, Assassin's Quest), Robin Hobb (1995-7): I went back and read Assassin' Apprentice and then finished the trilogy in one fell swoop. I just couldn't stop reading them.
Akata Woman, Nnedi Okorafor (2022): The continuing sage of The Nsibidi Scripts. I'll follow these characters forever and hope Okorafor keeps revisiting them for a long time.
Chokepoint Capitalism, Rebecca Giblin & Cory Doctorow (2023): A non-depressing book on capitalism and what we can do to move ourselves out of the current set of systems and in to something that better supports creators. It's going to steer a lot of my business thinking going forward.
The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker (2013): I started this a few years ago and put it down for no reason, and past Jones should not have. So sweet yet so melancholy. Magical realism can really bug me (surprisingly!) and it enriched everything so much here.

Comics

Decorum, Jonathan Hickman (writer) & Mike Huddleston (artist) (2022): So it took me like two years to finally get the last issue of this and finish it. It teases a sequel at the end, I hope we see it sometime.
Injection, Warren Ellis (writer) & Declan Shalvey (artist) & Jordie Bellaire (colorist) (2015): Shalvey is one of the best visual storytellers out there, so I wanted to read the arcs of Injection knowing that he'd inject a lot of quiet and loud beats in the pacing. If I ever get a chance to work with a colorist, I'd want it to be Bellaire.
Amazing Screw-On Head And Other Curious Objects Anniversary Edition, Mike Mignola (writer/artist) (2022): A re-read! I got this from the library, digitally, but I really want to get the hardcover version. Wacky Mignola might be my favorite Mignola.
The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys: National Anthem, Gerard Way (writer) & Shaun Simon (writer) & Leonardo Romero (artist) & Jordie Bellaire (coloirist) (2020): I'm just a sucker for pop art styled post-apocalypse settings. Why does everything always have to be mud brown these days?
The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys Gerard Way (writer) & Shaun Simon (writer) & Becky Cloonan (artist) & Jordie Bellaire (colorist) (2013): Continued my Gerard Way comic reading marathon. Is this the latest long form work that Cloonan drew?
Doom Patrol, Gerard Way (writer) & Nick Derington (artist) & others (2016): Very fun. After reading Morrison's run, I wanted to go back and re-read this one. I wish DC let this little pop-up lines keep going.
Only the End of the World Again, Neil Gaimain (writer) & Troy Nixey & P. Craig Russell (artist) (2018): I have an old collection from Oni Press, but this edition from Dark Horse has a massive process section in the back showing Russell's layouts for Nixey. It was awesome to see how it translated to a final product.
ODY-C, Matt Fraction (writer) & Christian Ward (artist) (2016): Gender flipped, sci-fi telling of Homer's the Odyssey that was everything I hoped it would be. Really inspiring piece of work.
East of West, Jonathan Hickman (writer) & Nick Dragotta (artist) (2013): Read the whole damn epic thing. Way more optimistic then I thought it would be and it hit just at the right time. I'm a sucker for sci-fi westerns though, so I have a lot of bias here.
A Guest in the House, Emily Carroll (2023): Carroll's linework and page layout design is just so goddamn good and unique. I'm going to be re-reading this one a lot.
The Ojja-Wojja, Magdalene Visaggio (writer) & Jenn St-Onge (artist) (2023): I continue to be drawn in to stories of small town friendships. St-Onge's coloring on this added a great extra layer of depth to the story.
Tombs: Junji Ito Story Collection, Junji Ito (2023): Add slug as a tongue to the list of stuff Ito has drawn that will haunt me forever.
Remina, Junji Ito (2020): I can't even explain how weird and fast-paced this gets.
Little Bird: The Fight For Elder's Hope, Darcy Van Poelgeest (writer) & Ian Bertram (artist) (2019): Incredibly detailed art in an incredibly complex story. Very dystopian, oof.
Gideon Falls, Jeff Lemire (writer) & Andrea Sorrentino (artist) (2018): Horror that applied the storytelling tricks of comics so well. Another one I need to pick up hardcovers of so I can study the storytelling.

Games

Remnant 2 (2023): I hate souls-like games. I just bounce off them and lose any drive to continue because they're too hard for me. And then here comes Remnant 2 with true multiplayer paired with a wild setup and I'm in. I still don't think I'll head back to Bloodbourne though.
Super Mario Bros Wonder (2023): The little character animations bring the game to life. Those little nuances remind of some of the best Looney Tunes cartoons.
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023): I think it took me three years to complete the story in Breath of the Wild, so this one will be on the lists for a while. I love taking my time with it, so how I play is a feature, not a bug.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020): Finally! What a delight with some solid gut punches in the story.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (2021): SO FUN. Between this and the Spider-Man games, Marvel has a great new standard of games that they should look to.
God of War: Ragnarök (2023): I know they'll make another, but I kinda don't want them to. And is this game responsible for me getting a dog? Possibly.
Fallout 76 (2023): Such an easy pop-in, pop-out gameplay experience. With the show coming, here's hoping they make a lot of new story stuff though. It'll be sad the day this falls off the list.

Hyperlinks

The Long Time Academy: A six-part series discussing time and how to consider the past and future when making decisions for yourself and others. Every episode had something that I want to apply to each work or my personal life (which are pretty intertwined.)

Movies

Barbie (2023): Apparently, this movie made couples break up. Good.
The Black Godfather (2019): The story of Clarence Avant and the influence he had on so much of the music industry. He was pretty much responsible for the music I listened to during some formative teenage years.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse (2023): So many visual ideas coming at you in this one. I wonder how many kids went and looked up Scarlet Spider after seeing him and his angst.
Inu-Oh (2021): If Science Saru makes it, I'm going to watch it. This was artistically and musically fantastic.
Mute (2018): I watched this when it first came out, but it didn't stick with me at the time. I don't know why, but this rewatch did though. The world is super interesting and layered. I should watch Moon again and see if the same thing happens.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023): I'm such a sucker for all things Indiana Jones. I loved how they pushed past a lot of nostalgia and embraced the idea of aging and being a bit broken after a long life. Also, James Manigold continues to do a great job in the "aging action hero" genre.

TV

Drops of God (2023): Wine! Mysterious competition! Some of the best cliffhangers on episodic TV I've seen in a while! I can't wait till more people watch this. It's possible that my love anime and manga biased me towards this.
The Good Place (2023): I rewatch this about once a year and every time I notice something new.
High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America, Season 2 (2023): Food and the course of history are so interwined. This documentary talks about so many of my favorite foods that I learned to love growing up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia and it's sent me off on a whole food history reading track.
Primal (2019): This show is heavy metal storytelling. I'm studying the background design and color design work. There are a lot of straight forward aspects to it that I think I can adopt in my comic work.
Bodies (2023): The adaptation of the late Si Spurrier's Bodies did not disappoint at all.
Gen V (2023): This show was shockingly tragic. It pulled back on some of the over-the-edge elements of the Boys, and that's saying something when a penis is a character's plot point in episode 1.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023): I think this better then the original and movie, but can't exist without either. It's a Better Call Saul situation.
Pluto (2023): The number of twists, turns, and tragedies was way more then I expected. I need to go read the manga.
The Fall of the House of Usher (2023): I need to start taking notes on Mike Flanagan's horror character work and pacing and see how to apply to comics. The pulp aspects of this one were so perfect and so different from what he's done before.
Scavengers Reign (2023): Top 10 show of all time for me, no notes.
Upload, Season 3 (2023): A wonderful satire + near future criticism of capitalism and how we handle death in the US. The actors have great chemistry and carry the show.
One Piece (2023): The anime is a massive undertaking and - even for me - has way too much anime yelling. This show was fun as hell! I binged it in a day and I haven't done that in a long time.
The Bear, Season 2 (2023): It continues to be the most tonally accurate show about working in the restaurant industry I've ever seen.
Unicorn: Warriors Eternal (2023): Watching Tartakovsky, DeStefano, and the crew that worked on this pull from different influences and create an emotionally resonant - and extrememly weird - story was great. I hope they get to do all four seasons.
Disenchantment, Season 5 (2023): Farewell Disenchantment! Thanks for giving us Luci.
Only Murders in the Building, Season Three (2023): This season was a musical show about a musical with murders. It continues to be a delight.
Lockwood & Co, Season One (2023): They did a great job creating a world that you have to know very little about to understand and the leads carry the show really well.