The World That\'s Coming

June 1, 2026May 31, 2026

The Comics of May 2026

No, you decided to re-read all of the “Brand New Day” Spider-Man comics because of the new movie coming out, only to realize that — when you include the spin-offs and the tie-ins and everything — it’s something like 140 comics and also that these comics are somehow from two decades ago even though it feels like, maybe 10 years tops before you remember that you’re very old now. (They were more fun than I remembered, but also almost impressively light and throwaway in ways that are both good and bad; a fun trip down memory lane, if nothing else.)

Seemingly stuck in 2000s nostalgia, I also revisited Sleeper for the first time in… at least a decade, if not more. It’s funny to see how what once felt fresh and, well, “alternative” now reads like a template for the next decade’s worth of superhero mainstream, but pop will eat itself, as Clint Mansell knows all too well.

Highlight of the month, though, might have been this indie collection I’d forgotten I had: Absent Friends, which is a little 2004 collection of shorts from the late 1980s UK indie and small press scene by Paul Grist and Phil Elliott. It’s charming, understated, and very grounded and intimate and small in ways that it feels like comics just aren’t, anymore. I loved it not only because of what it was, but also because it underscored what I want from so many of today’s comics but rarely find. There’s an essay in there, somewhere.

Batman (1940) #395
Detective Comics (1935) #562
Batman (1940) #396
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #s 307-315
Strange Scales Infinity Comic #1
Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) #93
The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #s 258-259
Marvel Team-Up (1972) #s 145-146
Detective Comics (1935) #563
Batman (1940) #397
Energon Universe 2026 Special #1
2000 AD Prog 2482 (Brink story only)
Marvel Team-Up (1972) #s 146-150
Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) #s 94-100
The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #s 260-262
Web of Spider-Man (1985) #1
New Titans (2023) #35
Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man (2017) #3
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #s 316-317
JSA (2024) #s 13-18
Batman (1940) #s 398-399
Detective Comics (1935) #s 564-567
Batman Annual (1961) #10
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #s 318-319
Flash Gordon (2024) #1
Batman (1940) #400
Justice League of America (1960) #98
The New Teen Titans (1980) #6
Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man (2017) #4
Amazing Spider-Man: Family Business OGN
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 546-548 (Start of Brand New Day era)
Justice League of America (1960) #99
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #320
SNAFU #s 1-3
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 549-551
The Adventures of Superman (1986) #500
Action Comics (1938) #687
Superman: The Man of Steel (1991) #22
Superman: The Man of Steel Annual (1992) #2
Justice League of America (1960) #s 100-101
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 552-554
Absolute Green Lantern #s 8-14
Zatanna (2025) #s 1-2
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 555-557
The War
The Amazing Spider-Man (2025) #28
Captain Marvel: Dark Past #2
Civil War: Unmasked #1
Fantastic Four (2025) #10
MutoManiac (Dark & Golden)
X-Men (2024) #29
Wonder Man (2026) #2
Destination Kill #1
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 558-561
Black Market Presents: Tree App
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 562-563
Iron Man (1968) #108
Star Wars (1977) #7
Zatanna (2025) #3
Justice League of America (1960) #102
Superman (1986) #78
The Adventures of Superman (1986) #501
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #564
DC/Marvel: Superman/Spider-Man #1
Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes #247
Justice League of America (1960) #103
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 565-567
The Champions (1975) #4
The Avengers (1963) #s 164-166
Zatanna (2025) #4
Jubilee: Deadly Reunion #1
Blackhawks (2011) #2
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 568-574
Zatanna (2025) #5
Knight Terrors #2
2000 AD Prog 2483 (Judge Dredd and Brink stories only)
Machine Man (1978) #1
Transformers (2024) #32
Judge Dredd Megazine #492
Zatanna (2025) #6
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 575-577
Action Comics (1938) #688
Superman: The Man of Steel (1991) #23
Superman (1986) #79
Superman Annual (1987) #5
The Adventures of Superman (1986) #502
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 578-580
The Amazing Spider-Man: Extra! #1
Zatanna (2026) #1
Wade Wilson: Deadpool #4
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 581-588
The Amazing Spider-Man: Extra! #s 2-3
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 589-591
Knight Terrors #s 3-4
Knight Terrors: Night’s End #1
Titans: Beast World #s 1-3
Titans (2023) #s 6-7
Titans: Beast World #s 4-6
Action Comics #1064
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 592-594
Amazing Spider-Man Family (2008) #s 1-6
Secret Invasion: Spider-Man #s 1-3
The Amazing Spider-Man Annual (2008) #1 (#35 overall but renumbered and then they resume the numbering for the next one?)
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 595-599
Dark Reign: Mister Negative #s 1-2
Captain America (2025) #11
Spectacular Spider-Man: Brand New Day #1
Iron Man (2026) #5
The Mortal Thor #10
Ultimate Endgame #4
Dark Reign: Mister Negative #3
The Amazing Spider-Man Annual (2008) #36
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #600
The Amazing Spider-Man/Venom: Death Spiral: Body Count #1
Black Cat (2025) #10
Uncanny X-Men (2024) #28
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #601
Amazing Spider-Man Family (2008) #s 7-8
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 602-604
Green Arrow (2016) #s 18-20
Action Comics #s 973-976
Superman (2016) #s 18-19
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #605
Action Comics (1938) #689
Action Comics Annual #5
Superman: The Man of Steel (1991) #24
Superman (1986) #80
The Adventures of Superman (1986) #503
Batman Eternal #s 3-4
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 606-607
Batman Eternal #5
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #608
Action Comics (1938) #690
Superman: The Man of Steel (1991) #25
Superman (1986) #81
The Adventures of Superman (1986) #504
Green Arrow (2016) #21
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 609-610
Daredevil (2011) #1
The Defenders (1972) #102
Batman Eternal #s 6-9
Machine Man (1978) #2
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 611-614
Machine Man (1978) #3
Web of Spider-Man (2009) #s 1-2
Action Comics (1938) #691
Superman: The Man of Steel (1991) #26
Superman (1986) #82
The Adventures of Superman (1986) #505
Batman Eternal #10
Daredevil (2011) #2
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 615-616
The Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Jackpot #1
Web of Spider-Man (2009) #3
Batman Eternal #11
2000 AD Prog 2484 (Judge Dredd and Brink stories only)
Justice League Unlimited (2024) #19
Batman (2025) #10
Justice League: Dream Girls – A DC Pride Event #1
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 617-620
Web of Spider-Man (2009) #4
Batman Eternal #12
Superman (2023) #38
Batman (2016) #163 (Much delayed last chapter of H2SH, and oof.)
Machine Man (1978) #4
Batman Eternal #s 13-14
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 621-622
Web of Spider-Man (2009) #5
Daredevil (2011) #3
Machine Man (1984) #1
Batman Eternal #s 15-20
Paradax #s 1-2
Summer of Love (Full newspaper strip run)
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 623-626
Peter Parker (2010) #1
Web of Spider-Man (2009) #6
Batman Eternal #s 21-24
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 627-629
Peter Parker (2010) #2
Absolute Green Lantern #15
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 630-633
The Many Loves of the Amazing Spider-Man #1
The Amazing Spider-Man Annual (2008) #37
Peter Parker (2010) #s 3-4
Web of Spider-Man (2009) #7
The Amazing Spider-Man Presents: American Son #s 1-4
Peter Parker (2010) #5
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #634
Batman Eternal #s 25-26
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 635-637
Web of Spider-Man (2009) #s 8-12
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 638-641
The Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Jackpot #s 2-3
The Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Anti-Venom – New Ways to Live #s 1-3
The Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Black Cat #s 1-4
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 642-647 (End of Brand New Day era)
Dark Reign – The List: The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (I forgot this one Brand New Day one-shot!)
1st Issue Special #1
Machine Man (1978) #5
Web of Spider-Man (1985) #35
Batman Eternal #27
Justice League of America (1960) #104
Sleeper #s 1-2
Point Blank #1
Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon #4
Ultimate Impact: Reborn #1
Machine Man (1978) #6
Point Blank #s 2-5
Gen 13 (1995) #s 25-28
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #648 (First issue of Big Time)
The Amazing Spider-Man (2025) #29
Venom #258
Captain America (2025) #s 6-11 (Complete Doom’s Shadow storyline)
Machine Man (1978) #7
GAG! (2022) #1
The Great British Bump-Off: Kill or Be Quilt #s 1-4
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #649
Osborn #1
GAG! (2022) #2
Machine Man (1978) #s 8-9 (End of the Kirby run)
Red Hulk (2025) #s 1-5
Osborn #2
Red Hulk (2025) #s 6-10
Fantastic Four (2025) #11
Inglorious X-Force #s 4-5
Sleeper #3 (And Elliott Smith’s “Miss Misery” is in my head as a result.)
My First Paying Job as a Comicker (Eddie Campbell and Phil Elliott)
Action Comics #1099
Barbara Gordon: Breakout #2
Justice League: Dream Girls – A DC Pride Event #2
Cyclops (2026) #s 1-2
Archie’s Madhouse #s 22, 24 (Sabrina the Teenage Witch stories only)
Batman Eternal #s 28-31
Brightest Day #s 0-1
Sleeper #4
JSA (2025) #20
New History of the DC Universe: The Dakota Incident #1
DC K.O.: The Kids are All Fight #1
Sleeper #5
Batman and Robin: Year One #1
Brightest Day #s 2-3
Marvel Fanfare (1994) #4
Longshot (1998) #1
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #650
Sleeper #s 6-7
2000 AD Prog 2485 (Judge Dredd and Brink stories only)
Batman and Robin: Year One #2
Sleeper #8
Pirate Corp$ (1987) #1
Batman Eternal #s 32-37
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #651
Sleeper #s 9-12
Sleeper: Season Two #1
The Human Target (2021) #s 1-2
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 652-654.1
Batman and Robin: Year One #3
Sleeper: Season Two #2
Batman and Robin: Year One #4
Sleeper: Season Two #3
Batman and Robin: Year One #s 5-6
Venom (2011) #1
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 655-657
Osborn #3
Batman and Robin: Year One #7
Sleeper: Season Two #4
Batman and Robin: Year One #s 8-9
Sleeper: Season Two #5
Batman and Robin: Year One #10
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #658
Batman Eternal #38
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #31
Venom (2011) #s 2-4
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 659-660
Fear Itself: Spider-Man #s 1-3
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 661-662
Sleeper: Season Two #s 6-7
DC/Wildstorm: Dreamwar #s 1-3
The Authority (2003) #1
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #663
Sleeper: Season Two #s 8-9
The Infernal Hulk #7
Sleeper: Season Two #s 10
The Sentry (2026) #3
The Ultimates (2024) #24
Wiccan and Hulkling: Raid of Ultron #1
X-Men (2024) #30
Sleeper: Season Two #s 11-12
Video Jack #s 1-2
Justice League: Dream Girls – A DC Pride Event #3
Cyborg (2023) #1
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 664-665
Osborn #s 4-5
Spider-Man: Chapter One #s 1-2
Hulk ‘99 Annual #1
Video Jack #3
Absent Friends (1980s Paul Grist & Phil Elliott shorts anthology)
5 (self-published Becky Cloonan/Fabio Moon/Gabriel Ba etc. anthology)
Rock ‘n’ Roll (Moon/Ba anthology)
I Have No Idea What I’m Doing (Meggie Ramm minicomic)
I Still Have No Idea What I’m Doing (Meggie Ramm minicomic)
Charlesh! (Maybe Jay Edidin? minicomic)
Batman and Robin: Year One #s 11-12
Video Jack #4
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1
Spider-Man: Chapter One #3
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #666
Video Jack #5
The Transformers: The Movie #1 40th Anniversary Edition
2000 AD Prog 2486 (Judge Dredd and Brink stories only)
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers (2026) #1
In Your Skin #2
Video Jack #6
New Titans (2023) #36
Batwoman (2026) #4
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 667-668
Cyborg (2023) #2
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #2
The Authority (2003) #2
Cyborg (2023) #3
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 669-673
Avenging Spider-Man #1
Scarlet Spider (2012) #1
Venom (2011) #s 5-9
Cyborg (2023) #4
Batman Eternal #s 39-41
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #674
Daredevil (2011) #s 3-7
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #s 675-676
The Punisher (2011) #s 1-5
Brightest Day #s 4-7
Spider-Man: Chapter One #s 5-7
Cyborg (2023) #s 5-6

May 29, 2026May 10, 2026

Slow Emotion Replay

I think I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been rewatching The West Wing, that liberal fantasy show from the late 1990s and early 2000s that was, during its run, one of the shows that defined “prestige network television” in an era where that definition also included both Friends and Will and Grace, so… well, you know. I think that says it all. I was a big fan of The West Wing when it first ran — those more innocent days! — and it left an oversize, unreasonable fondness for the works of Aaron Sorkin that have seen me watching both The Newsroom and, worse, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on more than one occasion. (Yes, I am that person who has watched Studio 60 more than once.)

I dove into this West Wing rewatch with no small level of cynicism because, bluntly, history has not been kind to politics or the kind of “People are just goshdarn good deep down” fantasizing that the show is ultimately rooted in; I was lured in by watching Martin Sheen and Dule Hill talk about the show in March for work, and the fact that it was available on HBO Max and, honestly, I didn’t think I’d last more than a couple episodes. As I write this, I’m just starting the fifth season, so you can tell how that worked out.

A lot of what kept me around was the writing, of course. Yes, The West Wing has not aged well in many respects — not least of which is its unerring optimism in “America” as a concept, and Aaron Sorkin’s tendency to scold anyone who doesn’t live up to his stated ideals as expressed through whatever mouthpiece he’s writing at the moment — but the first couple of seasons still crackle with a writer realizing the freedom and scope a television show gives him to follow whims, and a sense of humor (and, bluntly, lots of I’d-forgotten-how-fun writer jokes, too) that are hard to resist. The show is sillier in its early days, and that’s a pretty good way for me to fall back in love with it.

What’s also got me this go around is seeing the show in its historical perspective. What changes between seasons 2 and 3 is, simply, 9/11 happens and you can feel that throughout the second half of Sorkin’s run as writer; he’s visibly knocked off course by it and the show changes in all these fascinating ways as a result, some of which were, I suspect, not even entirely intentional on his part. It becomes way more centrist in its outlook and there’s a lot more emphasis on “good Republicans” showing up, for one thing; it becomes more self-serious and far preachier, with more stories about terrorism, domestic and otherwise. You can see Sorkin get thrown off his game and struggle to find a new rhythm, and it’s neither graceful nor subtle, but all the more fascinating for that.

Things only get worse from here, of course: after Sorkin was fired, the writing plummets in quality and characters start acting wildly out-of-character. Will I bail before that happens, or stay the course? It depends how emotionally masochistic I’m feeling over the next few weeks, I guess — although the true test of that last point will come if I decide to follow up The West Wing with yet another Studio 60 run-through. Surely not. And… yet…?

May 27, 2026May 10, 2026

I’ve Got No Reason to Try

May 25, 2026May 9, 2026

Sisyphus in the Back Yard

It never fails. Each year, when the weather starts getting just a little bit nicer, the thought occurs to me: I need to get out in the yard and clean it up; it’ll be good for the yard, and it’ll be good for me, to not be sitting at my desk the entire day, every day. The very idea of yard work — or even, basically, the idea of moving and lifting things and being active feels both exciting and necessary.

And then, after my first attempt every single year, I remember: I am a weakling who sits at his desk the entire day, every day, and I can manage maybe an hour, two tops, of active yard work before I want to take a break for the rest of the day. It doesn’t matter what I’m doing, almost; I could be uprooting trees, weeding, or waving the weed wacker around like there’s no tomorrow; after an hour or two, I feel like I need a sitdown and preferably one that’ll last quite some time, if given the opportunity.

It’s a reminder of how inactive I am for the majority of my time, and underscores the mild guilt I feel that I don’t follow through on my multiple promises to myself to head back to the gym, or even just go outside on more walks. (To be fair; that’s far easier in the summer, when the weather is less determined to make you close the windows and not even look outside without shivering.) For all that I might think that I’m in relatively good condition, considering, that’s a thought that comes from the same place that believes that I still have the same body that I did 10 years ago, which is also the same place that suggests that maybe a doughnut isn’t the worst idea because I probably deserve a treat.

Despite this, despite the experience every year, I still try when the weather gets better. I still think for a brief moment, maybe this is my time to properly get active, this will be a good start, and I still put in the effort for those one or two hours before I collapse in sweat and regret. While the best ending to this story would be remembering to actually rejoin the gym and start working out again, I think that the fact that I try every single year is a decent runner-up, at least in the short term. When I get too jaded and achey to even think I’m capable, that’s when I should really start worrying.

May 22, 2026May 4, 2026

I Remember Palitoy

It feels like a very specific way to identify my age — one of those tell me you’re in your 50s without telling me you’re in your 50s memes that randomly appear in your social media feeds if you don’t prune them enough — to admit that I can remember when Star Wars wasn’t just uncool, but something that was basically forgotten about my pop culture as a whole.

That feels like a near-impossibility for the last… what… 27 years? Something like that? Ever since the prequel trilogy started, it feels as if there’s been a sincere attempt on behalf of multiple companies to make sure that we not only remember that Star Wars exists, but that we think of it as a living, breathing piece of mythology as opposed to, you know, a franchise that is allowed to fall out of favor every now and then. It’s been pretty continuously on movie screens or television screens or whatever you stream to in all of that time, never mind all the books and comics and video games and toys and whatnot that comes along with all of that.

It’s weird to think about that, in a way. I mean, in a sense, it’s really not, because that’s the seeming ambition of every franchise along the way and has been since… well, pretty much Star Wars first came out in 1977. But when I stop to think about the sheer barrage of Star Wars in the past three decades, it strikes me that it pretty much matches the volume of merch and everything that surrounded that original trilogy when the movies were, you know, actually phenomenons. Now, they’re just there, seemingly omnipresent and everything that accompanies them just exists because that’s what we expect now, I guess.

It really does sound almost impossible, in that context, to recall a time when Star Wars was this weird shared secret nerds shared: references that not everyone would get, but when they did, it was a sign that they got it, they were like you in some magical, dumb way. I’m talking… the late ’80s, very early ’90s, I guess? When the generation who were 5 or so when the movies were coming out had grown up somewhat and would see old merch in charity shops and get excited by how much it reminded us of more innocent, more imaginative times. I miss that more simple nostalgia, I admit.

Anyway, happy Mandalorian and Grogu release, I guess.

May 20, 2026May 4, 2026

For Some Past Gone Time That Never Was

May 18, 2026May 4, 2026

You Know I Would If Only I Could

One of the surreal things about being sick for three days and, more importantly, letting myself be sick for those three days — by which I mean, not trying to just keep my head down and pretend that everything is normal even though it’s clearly untrue, as I have developed the unfortunate tendency to do, because being a workaholic is a bad thing — was coming back to everything afterwards and seeing just how many fucking emails had accumulated in my absence. We’re talking hundreds, easily.

It goes without saying, I suspect, that the vast majority of them weren’t something I necessarily needed nor wanted to read. It’s a weird fluke of my job that I get added to so many mailing lists and promotional mailings in addition to things that I might, at some point, have intentionally signed on for only to forget doing so, that I get upwards of 10 emails per hour during daylight hours as a baseline; that I’ve got work email and personal email addresses also means that I get a lot of these mailings and promo emails multiple times even before they get sent to the same address multiple times — occasionally, with “FWD” or “RE” added to the subject line, in case either tricks me into opening them — just to complicate matters.

I think, sometimes, about the first time I got internet access, back when I was in art school and they set one up for each of the students. It was a nearly-impossible-to-remember address, based around our student metriculation numbers, so it’s not like we’d have been able to easily share it with anyone even if we knew anyone else besides friends we saw everyday anyway with emails of their own. Nonetheless, we’d check our email inboxes every day, once a day or so, sitting there through the soundtrack of dial-up internet — we had to log-in and dial-up each session as individual students — and then the slow load of Outlook or whatever we were using at the time.

Each time, we’d wait however long it took, excited and expectant that something would have happened, that some message would be waiting there. And each time, we’d be wrong. What a world, to go from that to a day where I delete more than three hundred messages without a thought, confident that none of them were written by people who are even fully aware of who I actually am.

May 15, 2026May 4, 2026

That’s The Way It Is Here, It’s Always The Same

I have a bag of old family photos, and I genuinely don’t remember where they came from. When I say “a bag,” I mean it — it’s a plastic bag that looks like it’s seen better days, and everything in it is loose and looking as if it was just stuffed in there with no rhyme or reason. The contents are a mix of photos from around 90 years ago through, maybe, the turn of the century…? No, wait, a few just after I moved to the United States, so that would be the early 2000s. It’s a heady, quietly awe-inspiring thing to thumb through, seeing the sweep of time go back and forth as I pick through each picture: here’s my grandmother when she was younger than me, getting married; there’s my dad as a baby, so it must be 1941; now my dad is getting married and he looks like a teenager; there’s my sister as a baby; there’s me; and so on.

I don’t often leaf through the bag, because… well, who has time to do that, usually? But an upcoming family occasion had people asking if I had particular photos, so I found the bag and looked through it and realized that I’d utterly forgotten that it isn’t just filled with photos, but all kinds of correspondence and paperwork that clearly belonged to my grandmother at some point. There are telegrams from her husband when he was in the service for World War II, as well as a letter from the government that he’d been killed in action, and a letter from Buckingham Palace sending condolences. Birth certificates from multiple generations of my family on my dad’s side. A whole history of paperwork that I’d entirely forgotten existed, all in this shitty old plastic bag.

It struck me, after going through the bag, that I suddenly wanted to print everything in the world out and put it in bags and boxes and leave it there for people to find years later. I have files and PDFs and JPGs and everything on laptops and devices and CDRs and in the cloud and and and, sure, but it feels like all of those things have a barrier to entry that this bag just doesn’t. Like these days, we’re hiding everything away, but history is just right there in that bag to be discovered.

May 13, 2026April 25, 2026

Not the Type to Keep You Waiting for No Good Reason

May 11, 2026April 25, 2026

The Who’s Version Of The Theme Was Great

I read something recently that made an argument that, for all intents and purposes, my generation was the first proper Gamer Generation, and it once again made me doubt my nerd credentials; while I have surprisingly fond memories of borrowing a friend’s Sega Mega Drive* so I could play the original Sonic the Hedgehog, I couldn’t really make any claim that I was a gamer at that point, or any point afterwards. I don’t have whatever that particular gene is, no matter how hard I try. (And I have, occasionally, tried.)

The thing is, I used to, before then. In the mid-1980s, I spent a considerable amount of time with my Amstrad CPC 464, the awkward home computer that had a tape deck attached for ease of loading in any number of ill-produced games such as Oh Mummy (Pac-Man, by any other name, except the ghosts were Egyptian Mummies) or Biggles, based on the deservedly-forgotten time-travel movie flop of 1986. At that very specific juncture of my life, I was a gamer, and an avid one, at that; spending hours playing the lo-fi games on my particularly lo-fi computer and buying the magazines that offered reviews and cheats and whatever passed for news at the time of what was to come. (Amstrad Action and Amtix, you were oddly important to me at some point.)

In what was a strange glimpse of a world that lay in wait for me, I remember that the last Amstrad game I got truly obsessed with was 1986’s Batman, a video game produced by Ocean Software that I can remember with unusual specificity. Or, rather, I remember the cover artwork and print ads for it, and the feeling when it came out that it was a weirdly retro piece of pop culture to be basing a game around: Batman, in 1986, was already getting a very serious, very cultured makeover in comic books like The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, but that hadn’t reached me just yet. Instead, Batman was re-runs of the 1960s TV show and half-remembered comics from my (even younger) youth, and this game: an oddity based on something I thought no-one really cared that much about.

But I loved the game, as frustrating and non-sensical as it was; I spent hours playing it and failing to get anywhere close to the end despite all the cheat sheets, and I didn’t care. I was so excited by how odd it seemed, how much it felt like it was something that was mine in its design and hyperfocus and the 8-bit remake of the TV show theme and that cover artwork, which I stared at for far too long. It wasn’t a particularly good game — in writing this, I discovered that someone remade it for the internet, so I’m about to find out just how not-good is really was all over again — but it was my game, and the closest I ever got to being a gamer, per se.

It was all downhill from there.

The World That's Coming

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