Stuff I Appreciated in 2024

The art and experiences I held tightly throughout the year

When it comes to units of recordable experiences, I didn’t cover as much ground in 2024 as in 2023. I didn’t listen to as many albums, watch as much TV, read as many books, visit as many restaurants, or play as many games. (I did actually watch one more movie in 2024, but I also don’t watch nearly as many movies as most folks I know.) And yet, some of those 2024 experiences rank among the most impactful of my life. Maybe that means I spent more time with the things I did appreciate this year, and I didn’t feel the need to chase as many new ones? Maybe 2024 was a down year for media I liked? Maybe I had other stuff going on?! Hey, I bet it’s all three!

As the year comes to a close, I wanted to take the opportunity to share some of these favorite things (mostly bits of media, some other stuff) with you. What things did you really appreciate in 2024? I’d love to know!

Table of Contents

• Albums

• TV

• Movies

• Books & Comics

• Games

• Transformers figures

• Meals

• Personal projects

Albums

I listened to 1560 albums in 2024, and these are my favorites that came out this year. (I already talked about my favorite songs of the year here!)

1. Orville Peck, Stampede: “I didn’t want to just feel like a bunch of Orville Peck songs…. Every single song on the album is entirely its own thing,” Orville Peck said of Stampede, his 2024 collection of genre-bending duets. I’m so enamored with this record, a collection of 15 tracks that truly all sound like they come from different corners of the musical universe. And I love how unapologetically queer it is, from the bawdy opening of “Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other” (a duet with Willie Nelson!) to Peck’s collaboration with Elton John on “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” where, after 51 years, Elton switches the pronoun of his object of desire to “he.”

2. MJ Lenderman, Manning Fireworks: An indie/alt country release that seems to have taken the genre by storm — Manning Fireworks reminds me of being a college radio DJ in the mid-aughts, first discovering for myself artists like Okkervil River and Neko Case. With its plaintive lyrics and confessional sonics, Manning Fireworks made me feel young again, but it also speaks to me with something new — a wild sharpness in the lyrics that channels the disaffected losers of today, “cutting Joker lips into a rubber mask” and watching a “deleted scene of Lightning McQueen blacked out at full speed.”

3. Adrianne Lenker, Bright Future: I mentioned before how this album came to my attention thanks to a song on a partner’s mix. I cried when I revisited “Free Treasure” after months of letting it sit in Spotify exile, and then I decided to listen to the whole album, and I cried some more. Bright Future is heartbreakingly beautiful; it’s such a sensitive, well-observed chronicle of difficult feelings with a modern understanding. For many, the standout track here seems to be “Sadness as a Gift,” an incredibly lovely take on breakups: “We could see the sadness as a gift and still feel too heavy to hold.”

4. Nobuo Uematsu. et al, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Soundtrack: I don’t know what else to say about this game (and you’ll hear about it again further down in this post!). The soundtrack is incredible, a beautiful reorchestration of classic themes mixed with new ones that makes a 27-year-old game feel fresh and vibrant again. I love it dearly, even though it is 9 hours long.

TV

I watched 30 seasons of TV in 2024, and these are my favorites that came out this year.

1. Smartypants (season 1): For me, 2024 was the year of Dropout. During a sad summer, I finally subscribed to this College Humor-adjacent streamer that had so many of my favorite podcast comedians on it, and it’s now the service I am least likely to ever cut from my subscription list. I loved pretty much everything I watched on here (see #3!), but I have to give the top spot to Smartypants, which I think just nails the Dropout promise: a bunch of really funny, seemingly super approachable people that you want to be friends with earnestly sharing their nerdiest passions in clever ways. That’s my brand, baby!! Sometimes the TED Talk-esque presentations on this show are just silly (consider Jacob Wysocki pondering which Cryptid would be the best to get high with), and sometimes, they’re genuinely enlightening (i.e., Jess Ross arguing that wrestling and drag are essentially two sides of the same coin). Much respect and admiration to host Rekha Shankar for ringleading it all. I cannot wait for season 2.

2. X-Men ‘97 (season 1): X-Men ‘97 had a really tough task: fulfill the nostalgia a lot of us ‘90s kids had for the original X-Men cartoon while making something that spoke to the world of today the way the best X-stories do. And boy, they nailed it. From the trial of Magneto (“help me not let you down”!!) to the genocide on Genosha to angry, fearful humans hybridizing themselves with Sentinel technology to halt a changing world, X-Men ‘97 extended the metaphor of the original show in adept and surprising ways while remaining colorful, fun, and exciting. Plus, they got the fuckin’ original theme song back. Hell yah.

3. Very Important People (season 1 & what is out of 2): Dropout appearance #2 on this list comes from the show whose new episodes I’ve most looked forward to these last few weeks — Vic Michaelis’ Very Important People. Michaelis is someone whose comedy I’ve come to love from their appearances on Comedy Bang! Bang!, and this improvised interview show feels like CBB’s weird but hot second cousin. The performances on VIP travel to some truly imaginative, wonderful, and wildly absurd places; I think maybe the hardest I laughed this year was watching Lisa Gilroy writhe in anger as Vic’s Ex-Step Grandmother, or Ify Nwadiwe embody the mega-horny, desperate-for-Earth-housing alien Denzel. Plus, since these episodes tend to be 15-20 minutes long, they are super rewatchable. And oh, rewatch them I have.

4. Interior Chinatown (season 1): It is a tried and true foundation of this Substack that I adore metatextual storytelling. So I was instantly drawn to Interior Chinatown, a show about a waiter in a Chinese restaurant who wants to become the star of his own show, but consistently feels sidelined by the (white) power structures around him (represented by a Law & Order-style police procedural show-within-a-show that features, hey, Lisa Gilroy again!). The WandaVision-style genre switching is a lot of fun here, but there’s also a pretty sharp and sinister interrogation of what it costs a marginalized person to become the star of the show after all.

Movies

I watched 45 movies in 2024, and these are my favorites that came out this year.

1. ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!: I already wrote about what this documentary featuring the South Park creators fixing up a theatrical Mexican restaurant meant to me, so I won’t recapitulate that. Suffice to say, this fascinating, sweet, stress-inducing film is the movie I saw this year that will most stick with me.

2. My Old Ass: I knew so little about this film going into it, only that it starred the inimitable Aubrey Plaza. Boy, I was not emotionally prepared for a super earnest film that uses the lightest of sci-fi tropes to contemplate what it means for a person to affirm the biggest romantic relationship of their life, even if it ends in pain. This is so sweet, funny, and insightful, and I wish way more people could’ve seen it so we could all talk about it together.

3. Will & Harper: I was suspicious (I think reasonably so) of a Will Ferrell-backed documentary about the trans experience in America. I was not prepared for how Will & Harper would break my heart. I think there are so many important perspectives explored here, and I found myself touched frequently throughout. Harper, through her vulnerability and openness, shows us that so many of us all want the same things. Will, through his kindness and care, shows us that we’re going to make mistakes, and that’s okay if we’re really trying to support the people we love. Overall, this is a beautiful look at friendship, and I hope it engenders empathy in folks who could use some.

4. Lisa Frankenstein: One of my personal hangups with comedy films is that I’m suspicious of movies that want to be absurd and ungrounded in reality but also ask us to care in a very human way about their characters. As an example, I think Anchorman kinda sucks, because the film is so ready to disregard the humanity of its characters for simple jokes that I just don’t buy into any emotional denouement it wants us to feel. So here comes Lisa Frankenstein, a dark comedy with a super absurd plot about a disaffected teen falling in love with the reanimated corpse of a sensitive boy from the Victorian Era who ends up going on a killing spree. And you know what, I loved this movie. Even though it’s silly, it never sells out its characters — you feel the plight of Lisa, desperate for any connection she can find, all while going along for the wild swings of the film’s plot. That’s gotta be the Diablo Cody script. And maybe, because this film centers the creation of life itself as a core theme, it avoids that trap that more rote comedies fall into — it can’t make a mockery out of its characters’ lives because we spend the whole movie watching those characters try to reclaim their lives for themselves.

Books & Comics

I read 37 books and comics in 2024, and these are my favorites that came out this year.

1. I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This, Chelsea Devantez: I met Chelsea a few times doing comedy in Chicago. One particular sketch of hers is burned into my brain as one of the funniest bits I ever saw performed live (it was about how video games ask their voice actresses to perform with overly sexed-up intonations, even when they’re decrying something horrible happening around them — I dunno, explaining jokes makes them unfunny, but trust me, it was great!). Chelsea’s career has taken off since then, and I was delighted when my friend Katie told me about her new memoir. Man, this was a hell of a book. Chelsea’s prose is so pointed and vulnerable, even while being crushingly funny. From stories of abusive relationships to troubled comedy partnerships to finding one’s self in drag, every word of this memoir felt immediately vivid and hit my heart. I definitely feel some hometown pride here, and I’m so glad Chelsea told us this.

2. Void Rivals vols. 1 & 2, Robert Kirkman & Lorenzo De Felici: Image Comics has found itself a giant hit over the last few years with their “Energon Universe,” and it still blows my mind that I can rightly type the sentence “Walking Dead/Invincible writer Robert Kirkman soft-launched a universe of Transformers comics in his new sci-fi series that’s more of a Romeo and Juliet-meets-Dune thing.” And while the main Transformers book is freakin’ cool, it’s Void Rivals I’ve been enjoying a bit more — to see such an iconic creator play with the toys of my youth (literally!) while telling his tale is something I find thrilling. Like, you’ll just be reading about two political pariahs from warring cultures trying to survive exile on a harsh desert planet and then, hey, there’s Springer the Autobot hanging out! I love it.

3. There Was Nothing You Could Do, Steven Hyden: Hey, did you guys know I like Bruce Springsteen?! I was all-in for this critical look at the Born in the U.S.A. on the album’s 40th anniversary (which also coincides with my 40th anniversary, by which I mean, our birthdays are two days apart). I thought Hyden’s analysis of Springsteen’s mega-pop stardom and how we can relate it to the political climate of then and now was fascinating and well-observed, and I’m forever grateful to Hyden for teaching me the name of my musical instrument nemesis: the Yamaha CS-80, the programming of which birthed “Wonderful Christmastime” into the world, casting us into a century of musical Yuletide darkness. Hey Yamaha… I’m coming for ya.

4. What It Takes to Heal, Prentis Hemphill: Alright, full disclosure, I haven’t finished this yet — that’s why it’s at #4 (this is solidly #1 material). Unfortunately, my to-read pile (along with my Netflix queue) has become a monument to my failed relationships this year. I started working through this book alongside a lady I briefly dated, and we didn’t get to make it to the end together. But it’s fucking good. The premise: political/social/national healing is not possible without personal healing. This came into my life right as I was starting therapy, and not only did it embolden my choice to go, but it helped me articulate for other friends on the fence why they should, too. Even in the few chapters I’ve read, I’ve taken away some thoughts that have enriched my perspective forever. I’m going to finish this soon, I promise.

Games

I played 41 tabletop games in 2024, but very few of them came out this year, and I don’t want to rank the ones that did because it would be way too biased towards folks I work with professionally, which could be awkward. I will shout out This Game Is Killer as one I found especially delightful, though!

I played 9 video games in 2024, and these were my favorites that came out this year.

1. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Here we go again. This game literally changed my life. It’s hard to imagine another video game ever having this kind of impact on me.

2. Metaphor ReFantazio: I haven’t finished Metaphor yet, but holy shit, I’m in love. While Rebirth brought out some intense feelings in me, Metaphor is working my brain in ways a video game never has. Like, you mean to tell me we’ve got a game that ponders deep philosophy with a metatextual bent, has mechanics in place to encourage empathy, and offers a job system?! Are you trying to turn me on here, man?? You better believe when I finish this thing, I’ll be writing about it here (two pieces planned already! Maybe more, who can say?).

Transformers figures

I added 47 Transformers toys to my collection in 2024, and these are my favorites that came out this year.

1. Optimus Prime (Studio Series 86): The 40th anniversary of the Transformers brand meant a slew of Optimus Prime figures this year, and for my money, this one wasn’t just the best, it’s also the best figure of the character we’ve ever gotten. This is the exact guy from my TV screen!! Opening the box felt almost magical, I swear. I just cannot imagine an Optimus figure ever supplanting this one as the “main” Optimus in my collection. Fuck, man, this dude was basically my dad. Except I still get to see this Optimus toy.

2. Animated Optimus Prime (Legacy): Like I said — a slew of Optimus figures. This one is based off his appearance in the 2009 cartoon Transformers Animated, and I just love this design! I think it has so much character, and it does an awesome job blending the stylized Animated look with a more classic Transformers aesthetic. I also bought the third-party DNA Designs upgrade kit for the figure to give him his sick backpack, because in 2024, I have become that person.

3. Sandstorm (Legacy): And here’s another one that’s pure nostalgia goodness for me. I never had the original Sandstorm figure, but my cool older neighbor Matt did, and I loved playing with that thing. Now I have a Sandstorm of my own. I think the trick for designing these adult collector-based toylines is to make figures that feel like what the originals did while improving on them in basically every way. Here, they absolutely nailed it.

4. Springer (Studio Series 86): This mold already came out 5 years ago as part of the Siege toyline. I don’t care. His new 2024 color scheme makes Springer pop like he’s coming right from the cartoon, and all the accessories Hasbro packed in with him really offer a lot of neat display potential. Just a cool-ass toy.

Meals

I shared 104 meals with friends and colleagues in restaurants this year, and these are the ones I will not soon forget:

1. Pizza Lupo (Sting Like a Bee pizza) with Brice and Michael: While I was at GAMA in Louisville this year, I got to visit the pizza place owned by Murder by Death. And you know what, not only is it cool because of that fact, it’s cool because the pizza is really fucking good. Like, for sure this is one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had. Pepperoni with a hot honey drizzle and a perfectly pillowy yet charred crust… oh baby. I’m sad I’m missing GAMA in 2025 and this is a not insignificant reason why.

2. Omarcito’s Latin Cafe (catfish jibarito) with Lily: To call food “fusion” cuisine feels overdone, and I don’t know if that’s how owner Omar would refer to this dish, but damn, this combination of Puerto Rican and soul food powered me the hell up. The light but flavor-packed breading on the catfish was perfect (it honestly puts most of the fish fries I’ve been to in Wisconsin to shame), and the way that interplays with the textures and toppings of the jibarito was just out of this world. Chicago folks, please give this place a try!

3. 8 East (brisket fried rice & tossed green beans) with Jon and Troy: Never before 2024 have I eaten a vegetable dish and thought “I have to know how to make this myself.” Such is the power of the Pan-Asian downtown Vegas restaurant 8 East, which serves a Sichuan-oil tossed green bean dish with ground chicken that was, without a doubt, the best veggie dish I’ve ever eaten. I’ve since recreated it to about a C-level at my home, but man, there’s something in their Sichuan oil….

4. Harry & Izzy’s (Izzy’s style New York strip) with Brice and Cynthia: Brice is someone I work with via my day job, and he’s got incredible taste in food (this is the same Brice who went to Pizza Lupo with me — he also has great taste in music). As you do, we went to Harry & Izzy’s during Gen Con, and he convinced me to get a steak Izzy’s style, meaning it was covered in orange brandy butter sauce and cracked pepper. A former wine rep, Brice then paired this with an Australian shiraz, and like — I dunno, I try to eat less red meat a lot of the time, and I’d like to think my conscientiousness buys me the slack to indulge in stuff like this every once in a while. It’s literally making my mouth water right now to recall it.

Personal Projects & such

Cover art by Sean Rose and Stephen Winchell, respectively. They rule!!

This year, I produced three Mortified Chicago shows (for the first time as sole executive producer!), published one TTRPG zine by myself (Dustland Saga: The Road of Wrath), and helped my pals Grayson and Steve publish another (That Rug).

I had more ambitious publishing plans, but they didn’t come to pass. This was a tough year for me creatively; for the back half of it, I just wasn’t really in a headspace to make stuff (Mortified happened because it had to). A big part of that was the personal heartache of this year, and another part was that Dustland Saga, which I launched for 2024’s Zine Quest, was a bear of a project to crowdfund. Like, I knew a John Steinbeck-inspired module for a non-D&D RPG was a niche thing, but damn, I was not prepared for a pledge cancelation that pulled me from “barely funded” to “not gonna make it” for like half the runtime of the campaign. I was really proud of the work I did on this book — the end project matched the vision I’d had for it in so many ways — but it just didn’t find any kind of audience. It’s okay when stuff doesn’t always do as well as you’d hope. But that also makes me want to focus my resources and time on things that do bear fruit.

Speaking of… working on That Rug with Grayson and Steve was so satisfying, and I love how that book came out! By ratio of final total to starting ask, it was my most successful Kickstarter campaign of all time. That was all Grayson and Steve (except for the layout), but it’s a great system-agnostic RPG and probably the tightest, most accessible thing that’s ever been published under the Critical Lit banner. It was also an honor to be asked to help. Thanks for that, guys.

RPG-wise, the other consistent source of creativity this year was the monthly DIE campaign I’m running for a table of friends. We’re just about done with the first act of it now, and I don’t want to talk about it here yet, lest I spoil any uncovered lore of the world. But god, I continue to love DIE; it’s easily my favorite tabletop RPG system to play in. The joy of this campaign has also made me think that maybe I’m better at developing for a table than I am for publishing, and that’s okay — that’s where RPG storytelling started, and that’s where the promise of the medium comes alive.

Outside the gaming table, I adore working on Mortified; it’s consistently the most fulfilling thing I do, and I’m really looking forward to another year of shows with my incredible team, starting on February 14 with our annual Valentine’s Day show (tickets on sale now!). It’s also nice that, like, Chicago wants to see these shows. Thank you to WBEZ and our killer crowds for that bit of validation.

And that brings me to my last creative outlet for the year… this Substack. Gosh, I love writing it. And I’m very appreciative for the folks that take the time to read and engage with it. I think I’m a good writer, and I really like having an outlet for my thoughts. Writing them out helps me work through and concretize them, a valuable process. I try to publish at least one piece a month, and although I did miss October this year, hopefully I’ve made up for it since then. Here are my favorite pieces that I wrote in 2024:

• January: I, and love, and Final Fantasy VI

• March: What do the X-Men and Jennette McCurdy have in common?

• June: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Love, and Grief (you’re probably sick of me linking this one by now lol. I’ll try to stop in 2025!)

• September: Casa Bonita Is a Save Point

• December: I Want to Believe a Man Can Fly

While I’m not sure what print publishing looks like for me going forward, I know this Substack will continue. Like I said, you are definitely getting at least two pieces on Metaphor: ReFantazio as soon as I finish, and I’m about 35 hours in now, so… I dunno, February? Maybe February will be Metaphor Month. Although it probably should be March, for the alliteration.

Finis

So there it is. 1560 albums, 30 seasons of TV, a handful of Substack pieces, and the rest.

Like I said — I listened to, watched, read, and played less this year than I did in 2023.

On the other hand — I saw my friends more. I was more intentional about reaching out to people who matter to me. I worked on myself more (a lot more!). I loved more — infinitely more.

2024 was one of the most difficult years of my life, but it also might have been the best?

How does that work, you may ask?

I don’t know, I’m just the writer. I can’t do all the work here.

Happy New Year, all. See you in 2025!