Random Thoughts

Even More Catalogues & Zines

kwakk.info has been carrying Previews catalogues for some time now. The usefulness of these things can be discussed (which is why they’re not included in the /all/ search), but having this data can sometimes be useful. (Say you’re doing research of an artist and you see that the last time they’re mentioned is doing an alternate cover for Boom! and you go “ah”, for instance.)

I’ve sourced most of the catalogues from Anna’s Archive, but even they don’t have everything. But then a comment pointed me towards DCBS’s download page (thanks, Jonathan), and they had some stuff, and I incorporated that.

But then I started googling for more, and, tada:

Alternate Worlds (in Australia) had All The Catalogues going back six years!!!

So we went from:

To:

Those Diamond Previews issues are long, man.

It was also interesting to look at the very last issues of Diamond Previews — Diamond was soliciting comics as late as October this year! When surely everybody had to have known that the new owners were stone cold crooks who’d just keep any stock sent to them and not pay anybody anything…. Allegedly! Allegedly! Did the trial(s) end yet?

Here’s a link to this historic artefact.

I guess it’s a fitting end to Diamond, in a way — I mean, the American comics industry was mainly financed by organised crime when it started…

In non-catalogue news, I stumbled upon Ken Meyer, Jr.’s zine page, which has hundreds of zines about comics — many of them chock full of early interviews with interesting comics artists. So I put them into the index.

In other tweaks, I’ve now made language-specific links from the front page to make it more obvious how to get at those — they used to be hidden behind rather obscure menus.

So there you go — kwakk.info is the link.

The Bronzening

I bought an old CD from the Giorno Poetry Systems label after reading an article about it (probably in The Wire). Look at the bronzing! That’s the most extreme I’ve seen.

But it still plays fine, so there you go.

And it has Gary Panter artwork!

While I’m here I can display some more warez — look at this pretty Ghost Rider vinyl! That’s pretty.

And this PC Music sampler from… 2018? is suddenly available again. It has several layers of moire, so I think this is specially designed for people on K.

But this also has very well-made picture disks.

Whoa!

Nice!

In fact, I actually think getting an album that’s on just ol’ plain black vinyl is more rare than getting something fancee? Perhaps black vinyl will become a rare collectors’ item!?

Thank you for attending my TED talk.

The Best Albums of 2025

By using a scientific method (i.e., having Emacs count which albums I’ve listened to most this year), I can officially announce that these are the best albums of 2025, officially.

In ranked official order, they are:

	Richard Dawson	End of the Middle
Bolt I discovered Richard Dawson this year, and I’ve been absolutely flabbergasted at how great his albums are. I’m slowly buying his back catalogue, and it’s all good.
	Little Barrie & Malcolm Catto	Electric War
Little Barrie & Malcolm Catto - "Electric War" [Official Music Video] OK, this album is a bit Madchester/Stone Roses, which isn’t exactly er non-embarassing, but I just love the slinkiness of the music.
	Snapped Ankles	Dancing In Transit: Live 2025
Snapped Ankles - 摆烂 Bai Lan (Live) I saw Snapped Ankles live this year, and they were fantastic — all ghillie suits and everything. So I’ve listened to their live album more than I listened to their new “proper” album this year, but they’re both great.
	Stereolab	Instant Holograms On Metal Film
Stereolab - Aerial Troubles (Official Video) I also saw Stereolab live this year (in Nantes, of all places), and it was great seeing them again. And I like this album, but, er, you know — it’s no Dots and Loops. But it’s good.
	My Brightest Diamond	This Is My Hand
MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND - Pressure I was surprised that this was so high up on the list, because it didn’t totally grab me. But I mean, there’s a bunch of good songs on here.
	Ministry	The Squirrely Years Revisited
Work For Love (Squirrely Version) This album has a truly unfortunate cover, so I assumed that the album would be a complete pisstake. Alan Jourgensen used to go apeshit if people played these songs around him — it’s from the era where he tried to become a British synth pop star (and failed). But these new versions are good! They’re slightly harder than the original versions, and they really work. For love.
	Marc Ribot	Map of a Blue City
Marc Ribot - "Daddy's Trip to Brazil" The new Marc Ribot album is really nice — it’s funny and it’s relaxing.
	Miki Berenyi Trio	Tripla
Miki Berenyi Trio - 8th Deadly Sin (Official Video) I was not expecting a new album from Miki Berenyi (of Lush fame), and I certainly didn’t expect it to be this good.
	CocoRosie	Little Death Wishes
CocoRosie - Cut Stitch Scar (Official Video) Huh, is the new CocoRosie album here? Well, OK… it’s fine, I guess.
	Sacred Paws	Jump Into Life
Sacred Paws - Turn Me Down (Official Music Video) Ray Aggs took a bit of a pause, and then ended the Shopping band… but there’s a new Sacrew Paws album. And it’s very bouncy indeed. Jump around!
	Porridge Radio	Machine Starts To Sing
Porridge Radio - A Hole In The Ground (Official Video) The first time I heard Porridge Radio I was all like “what? no”, but then I heard them again, and now I’m a fan for life.
	Herbert & Momoko	Clay
Calm Water I love Herbert’s old, calm albums (like Around The House), and this new albums seems like a callback to that era. And it’s a very cosy listen indeed. However, it could have done with tunes that are more memorable.
	Little Simz	Lotus
Little Simz - Young (Official Music Video) The new album from Little Simz is somewhat of a break from her previous music, and I think the reception has been rather tepid? But I love it. OK, there’s a couple of tracks on the album (that are more sound dramas) that I could have done without, but there’s also funny songs.
	The Ex	If Your Mirror Breaks
Wheel I love The Ex. However, this isn’t their best album. Wouldn’t mind seeing them again a bunch of times live, though.
	ganavya	Nilam
ganavya - Land (Official Audio) Here’s somebody I saw at random at a music festival this summer. And the album is very nice, too.
	jasmine.4.t	You Are The Morning
jasmine.4.t - Elephant (Official Video) Ditto! Another band I saw at the same festival.

I also bought old albums. These are officially the best:

	Arooj Aftab	Night Reign
Arooj Aftab - Aey Nehin (Visualizer)
	The Ex	Dizzy Spells
Town of Stone
	Charli XCX	Vroom Vroom
Charli XCX - Vroom Vroom [Official Video]
	Charli XCX	Number 1 Angel
Charli XCX - Lipgloss feat. cupcakKe [Official Audio]
	Shearwater	The Golden Archipelago
Shearwater - "Hidden Lakes" (official video)
	Various	The Residents Present: Buy or Die!
The Residents - Fire
	Arooj Aftab	Bird Under Water
Man Kunto Maula
	Chat Pile	Cool World
Chat Pile - I Am Dog Now (Official Music Video)
	Joan as Police Woman	Real Life
Joan As Police Woman - Eternal Flame

Book Club 2025: Helen by Georgette Heyer

This was apparently published without a dustcover? This edition is from 1975, so that’s kinda unusual, isn’t it?

Anyway, this is one of those dreaded “serious” novels Georgette Heyer tried to write. Heyer is, of course, deservedly famous for writing Regency romances — I guess she’s commonly held to have invented the genre? I’ve read all of them, and most of them are indeed very, very good. (Hm… I should re-read some of them, really…)

She also wrote mysteries, and they’re… so-so? Her mystery formula is to have everybody be absolutely rotters, so that everybody can be suspected, but that severely limits reader engagement, because unless the mysteries themselves are super duper clever (and they aren’t), it’s just hard to care.

But Heyer also tried to write more serious “contemporary” novels — and they’re universally disliked, I think? Even by Heyer herself — she refused to have them reprinted… but the year after she died in 1974, unscrupulous publishers put new editions out. The name “Buccaneer Books” was perhaps not chosen randomly?

I’ve had these books for some years, and:

I guess I’m glad I bought them when I did, even if I’m not actually looking forward to reading them.

But it’s time to read another one — the first (and so far, only) one of the “contemporary” novels I read was Barren Corn in 2020. One every five years surely shouldn’t be too taxing?

I’m ditching this if it turns out to be too awful, but I can’t help hoping that it’s going to be fine… Here we go:

I remember as a teenager I was talking to a friend about how absolutely tiresome it was that absolutely all books had conflict in them: It just seemed so trite and unimaginative to rely on that single element when writing a book.

(And the same for movies and stuff.)

This book definitely doesn’t rely on conflict. Instead we get the story of Helen, a girl born to a rich, smart and good father. She grows up swell, and nothing bad happens, really. (Until the last sixth of the book.) And I think it works really well? It does read a bit like a wish fulfilment story, but Heyer writes well, and it’s just fun following these somewhat amusing people around.

I still think I was right back then — conflict is such a convenient crutch. You see midwits proudly proclaiming stuff like “writing is coming up with good characters, and then imagining the most horrible things that could happen to them”. You have textbooks proclaiming that every scene should have a primary and a secondary conflict. You have so much fake drama — it’s easy, and nobody will pick on you for having too muck idiotic drama in your book. It’s such a hegemonic convention that you look like a moron for even questioning its primacy.

But… this isn’t a totally successful book. Heyer has a tendency to have her characters expound at length about Things In Society, and those opinions are invariably tedious. Even worse were those thirty pages where she went on about The Nature Of Love.

I did thoroughly enjoy reading 80% of this book, and then the rest was *rolls eyes*.

I don’t understand at all why Heyer suppressed this book, though. Were the reviews savage at the time?

Hm…:

In due time Helen is bound to marry an exceptionally agreeable young man; all her training indicates such an end. This being his inner conviction, the reader can take his time over this leisurely tale, which takes an even course through pleasant English scenes and shows us the growth and development of a thoroughly “nice” girl, candid, athletic, and affectionate.

Well, it’s not very savage…

Heh, Punch had this poem about it… and it’s not particularly negative, either.

Ah:

Georgette Heyer’s second contemporary novel, Helen, would also be her most autobiographical

It has a very low Goodreads score, 3.28:

Helen (1928) by Georgette Heyer (buy new, buy used, 3.28 on Goodreads)

Comics Daze

Hey, up bright and early today, so let’s read some comics. It may be a short daze, though, as I have to run some errands later… we’ll see… it’s also supposed to be pouring later, so perhaps that’ll put an, er, dampener on the Will To Errands.

Richard Dawson: End of the Middle

06:15: Mini Kuš #135-138

I got these from here.

Yay! Heather Loase! She’s brilliant. And this mini is very funny — it’s a classic procrastination comic (“I don’t know what to write” thing), but it works anyway.

Mao does a thing about octopuses.

Ula Rugeviviute Rugyte (plus a lot of diacritics that are too hard to write) does a piece on refugees.

And Dina Omut does a kind of fairy tale.

Little Barrie & Malcolm Catto: Electric War

06:39: Lost & Found by Mia Wolff (Fantagraphics)

Wow, this is really good. The book mixes autobio…

… with a graphic novel that was apparently unfinished.

And it really works — the shifts between the autobio parts and the graphic novel are magical. It’s a fascinating, gorgeous book.

06:55: Frank Zappa Cartoon by Daniel Østvold (Ford Forlag)

I have no interest in Frank Zappa, but Østvold’s comics are often both intriguing and funny.

But… this is a pretty straightforward recap of Frank Zappa’s career, and I didn’t find it particularly interesting.

Stereolab: Instant Holograms On Metal Film

07:25: The Jungle #1 by Keenan Marshall Keller & Tom Neely (Uncivilized Books)

Uhm… this is apparently the third volume about these anthropomorphic apes?

And this is set in a prison, and over the first few pages, we cover all the clichés you can think of, including the Vietnam vet. I guess you can admire the efficiency, but it’s just not my thing at all, and I ditched it after a dozen pages.

07:35: Coderr 4 by Jason Oooverby

This one has a very nice flow.

And attractive artwork.

07:43: Santos Sisters #9 by Greg & Fake (Floating World Comics)

When Santos Sisters started, it wasn’t quite clear whether it was intended as an Archie parody or sincere homage.

And I still have no idea. But I like it.

07:50: Quiet Crossings by Vivi Partridge (Conundrum Press)

This artwork isn’t my kinda thing… animation-adjacent and tablet-ey…

The story isn’t bad, though. It goes for a Hayao Miyazaki-ish thing — it’s about an inn next to Charon’s river. So it’s about people dying, but in a gentle way.

08:06: The Peacemonger by Juliette Collet

I really like Collet’s artwork.

This is a very pensive book. It works.

08:21: Trek Smut (Desert Island)

This is what it says on the tin — it’s Star Trek smut.

Reprinted from an 80s fanzine. Well, why not.

Snapped Ankles: Dancing In Transit: Live 2025

08:24: La mèmoire du futur by Abitan/Guerrive/Schwartz (Cobolt)

It’s a new Spirou… but it’s not one of those “special edition” Spirous?

Oh, right, this follows on the previous album — where Spirou apparently died. But it was all in VR.

There’s some enjoyable scenes in here, but they mostly rely on “oh, I know that character”. But it’s basically a mess — it’s a mash-up of The Matrix and references to seven different (and better) Spirou albums.

In a way it reminds me of modern super-hero comics: It mostly exists to appeal to old fans by doing fan service iterations on “IP” instead of just telling a fun story.

My Brightest Diamond: This Is My Hand

09:14: Fata Morgana or, The Colombine’s Scarf by Olga Volozova

Huh, those windows look very blue now… I should adjust the colour temperature of the lightbulb in my reading lamp here…

There. Much better. Except that now all the other lamps look extremely yellow.

I think this is like the third book of Volozova’s that I’ve read? I like them — they’re constructed from a unique blend of paper cutouts, statues, printed-out-and-photographed paper strips and stuff.

This one tells the story of a Soviet avant garde theatre director. I’m not sure whether it’s referring to real historical people or not, but it’s interesting anyway.

09:27: A root bound plant needs space to grow by Stacey Zhu (Fieldmouse Press)

This little book collects three pieces.

They’re all quite direct — the author is musing out loud to the reader. I think it works quite well — it has a mood going on.

09:34: Drawings From Elsewhere by Oliver Coria (Desert Island)

These Desert Island books are from the mystery mail subscription.

I guess these are sketchbook drawings?

It’s cool.

Ministry: The Squirrely Years Revisited

09:38: Psychodrama Illustrated #9 by Gilbert Hernandez (Fantagraphics)

This feels like it may be the last issue of this series? It’s an extremely dense issue — it’s about all of Fritz’ doubles and the stimulant that’s resulted in these boobs.

I wonder what Beto’s drawing process is these days. The linework has become more wispy, and the artwork is sometimes almost abstract if you squint a bit — just circles and lines.

Anyway, this series is a singular vision for sure.

10:03: L’aviatrice 1 by Borgers/Walthéry/Di Sano (E-Voke)

Grr! I should read comics faster after buying them, because otherwise I end up buying multiple copies…

Oh, I should make lunch…

Uhm… What is this? I kinda like Walthéry’s comics, but I suspect he’s just a hired hand. This book has the unfortunate whiff of being a Belgian WWII pap pap book — designed to sell to Belgian 70-year-old men (note all the bookmarks).

Or is this meant to be read in class to learn about WWII?

In any case, while the artwork is competent (I’m guessing Walthéry did the layouts, at least?), it’s a chore to read.

10:33: Altcomics #7 (2d cloud)

The previous issues of Altcomics consisted mostly of interviews and articles, but now they’ve pivoted to an anthology format.

It has all these people.

Hey, Jason Overby again. That’s a coinkidink.

I like this anthology a lot — it’s mostly pretty abstract pieces, but they’re very evocative. Unfortunately it doesn’t say anywhere who did what (for some of the pieces)…

But it’s a solid anthology. All the pieces are good.

Sacred Paws: Jump Into Life

10:48: Smoke Signal #45 by Tara Booth (Desert Island)

Wow, an entire Smoke Signal issue by Tara Booth?

This is great.

She uses the huge format extremely well.

It’s gorgeous, it’s funny and it’s moving. Fantastic. Try to grab a copy before they’re gone… Oh no, they’re already sold out? Boo. They should have printed more. Perhaps they still have some copies in-store.

11:00: Plejehjemmet by Marie Høegh (Hunov & Haffgaard)

This is about a group of people living at a nursery home.

It pretty miserable — I mean, it’s totally realistic: Some senile people, some very quarrelsome people, and some are just depressed. There’s no “plot” as such, and while reading this I was thinking “but where is this going?” And it’s not really going anywhere, but it’s moving anyway.

Porridge Radio: Machine Starts To Sing

11:16: The End

And now I have to run some errands.. It hasn’t started raining yet.

Eep. Still have a lot of comics to read… I guess I have to find time for another comics reading day soonish. Or two…