The site has had a minor spruce-up for 2026. NEMS parts 2&3 and Savage Sword of Susan have been moved to the story archive – you can find them in the menu at the top of the page (under “my old comics”), or on the Scary Go Round site where you can also find Bad Machinery, Kit + The Wolf, Giant Days (Self-Published) and more! I’ll add It’s The Nineties, Get Used To It to this archive when I get chance.
The plan for this year is twelve months of Solver, so it’s time for the old masthead (knocked up in ten minutes nearly five years ago, IIRC) to go. I hope you like the new one. Mildred must feature, of course – she got two whole issues of Solver, after all, and can always return to stir up trouble when she’s needed.
Once again, same as it is every year, my albums of the year. Only one more year to go to achieve 40 years of chart lists (see them all!). I didn’t get quite as much listening done this year due to some demanding extra-curriculars, and it felt like an “off” year generally, but last year was so rich for new music for me that a drop-off was inevitable. There were a few reissues that gummed up my 2025 deep listening time too. But I still found lots of new things that I really enjoyed, especially in the final third of the year.
1 BALLOON BALLOON BALLOON – Sharp Pins 2 BLEEDS – Wednesday 3 NESTED IN TANGLES – Hannah Frances 4 PHONETICS ON AND ON – Horsegirl 5 LIFE, DEATH AND DENNIS HOPPER – The Waterboys 6 RASPBERRY MOON – Hotline TNT 7 MORE – Pulp 8 IT’S A BEAUTIFUL PLACE – Water From Your Eyes 9 WHEN I PAINT MY MASTERPIECE – Ada Lea 10 GETTING KILLED – Geese
11 JOEY – Joey Joesph 12 EURO COUNTRY – CMAT 13 THE BERRIES – The Berries 14 MICHELANGELO DYING – Cate Le Bon 15 BURY THE KEY – TOPS 16 INSTANT HOLOGRAMS ON METAL FILM – Stereolab 17 BURNOVER – Greg Freeman 18 NEW THREATS FROM THE SOUL – Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band 19 SWITCHEROO – Gelli Haha 20 COTTON CROWN – The Tubs
21 GRASS – Grass 22 SONG SHARDS – Peter Stampfel 23 MARAVILHOSAMENTE BEM – Julia Mestre 24 UP LATE WITH DUMBELLS – Dumbells 25 SPRING GROVE – The Ophelias 26 BUGLAND – No Joy 27 SOUNDS LIKE… – Florry 28 TOMORROW COMES CRASHING – Smut 29 LUMINESCENT CREATURES – Ichiko Aoba 30 2 – Foxwarren
31 SNOCAPS – Snocaps 32 I LOVE PEOPLE – Cory Hanson 33 ANTIGONE – Eiko Ishibashi 34 LOVE CHANT – The Lemonheads 35 SPRING BOARD – The Chills 36 BUYER BEWARE – The Men 37 ALL CYLINDERS – Yves Jarvis 38 SINISTER GRIFT- Panda Bear 39 ANIMARU – Mei Semones 40 TIMELESS WORLD FOREVER – Graham Hunt
One record arrived too late for consideration (last week) but I am sure would have made the list given time to bed in, it’s a good one:
HOLO BOY – This Is Lorelei
I’ve stopped using Spotify this year but I know a lot of you still use it so I’ve done a playlist of a song from each album (bar the one where the artist had taken their music off). You can listen here. I’ve also done one for Tidal.
The collected edition of KILL OR BE QUILT is out today, in comic shops and bookshops. Just ask for it! If you didn’t pick it up in single issues or prefer a bookshelf edition, now is your time to shine. Or perhaps you think it will make a good Christmas gift? I can imagine many scenarios in which this book delights its recipient on the holy morn. I think this is one of the best books Max Sarin and I have done together, and I am not sure when we will get to work together again, so I hope you’ll pick it up.
Related: I will be signing copies of this and anything else you stick under my nose at Gosh Comics in London this Saturday (28th Nov) from 2-3. Here’s the link to the event.
ITEM! SAVAGE SWORD OF SUSAN (TOPATOCO) UPDATE: The first shipment to the US was lost. The second has now been “delayed” for a week (this might be due to Thanksgiving/Black Friday parcel traffic etc). Fully half the run has now been fired into the Atlantic void, I will post here again when and if it is ever available.
I’m not sure how many people still see these below-the-fold announcements, but I will persist with them for now. Today, I have a new interview that I did with David Haller. I think it is one of the more interesting ones I’ve done; I talk about a few things that I haven’t before. And it’s text, so you can demolish it in about five minutes. I’ve pivoted to text. It’s the new thing. Everybody’s doing it.
ITEM! In other news, I’ve sent some more Savage Sword of Susan to Topatoco (and some NEMS 1968), as the last batch of Susans were lost by the courier. Hopefully these will arrive safely, as after the Thought Bubble convention I don’t have any more left. I’ll do another post when (if?) they’re available for sale.
ITEM! GREAT BRITISH BUMP-OFF: KILL OR BE QUILT is out in trade paperback in a week or so. More on that shortly.
