It’s December here at Do You Know What I Love The Most?, and that means it’s time for Year End Lists! I’ll be devoting the rest of this month to rounding up and discussing the various media released in 2020 that meant the most to me — just like every other website on the internet! Isn’t that special?
A few weeks back one of my readers asked me a few questions about Substack, asking me about my experiences with it both as a creator and a consumer. I’ve had a really positive experience using Substack to send this newsletter out every week — it’s intuitive and incredibly easy to use, pretty much doing everything for you besides writing the actual article. But the fact that I can use Substack to have the work of other writers I love delivered straight to my inbox might be even more important to me. I’m currently subscribed to close to forty newsletters — that’s how much I love reading these things — and the wild west of my December Year End Lists seemed like the perfect opportunity to highlight a few of my favorites to follow as a fan (listed below in no particular order). Maybe you can find a new favorite newsletter here (after mine, of course)! And if you’re reading one you think I’d enjoy, let me know about it in the comments — I’m always looking for more content to shove into my poor crowded brain.
Welcome to Hell World by Luke O’Neil
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a writer quite like Luke O’Neil before. He tackles politics in a way that’s intensely personal, filled with empathy and righteous indignation, but as compelling and informative as his work is, his prose also reads like a grammatically absurd stream of consciousness, and it’s amazing that the two jive at all, nonetheless as well as they do. O’Neil also uses his platform to help others share their stories of trying to survive in a world designed to make survival untenable, be it through reader question-and-answer sessions, interviews, or even guest columnists. Hell World feels like it could be the future of online journalism — O’Neil would likely find that sad, and while he’s not wrong, I’m glad there are voices like his out there no matter what platform they need to take.
Sample Column: I’ve really enjoyed the recent series of columns called “The Last Normal Days,” each chronicling how a different writer remembers the last moments of normalcy before Covid became the “norm.” This is O’Neil’s entry, Part 3, but it’s a nine entry series, and all are worth reading.
That Thing They Did by Will Harris
Will Harris has made a name for himself as a top-notch celebrity interviewer, especially on The AV Club’s website, where he’s the champion behind the “Random Roles” feature that walks an actor through their entire catalogue of work. Harris is capable of getting some remarkably candid stories out of celebrities, and his work is usually worth reading even if you aren’t familiar with the actor in question. That Thing They Did has so far been a place for interviews Harris wasn’t able to sell to an outlet, or unprinted anecdotes and outtakes from stories that did see print, and in the future might just become Harris’ base of operation if the state of freelance media continues to deteriorate. Harris updates quite often, but with the quality of his work, that’s certainly not a complaint.
Sample Column: I’m a sucker for old sitcoms, so I greatly enjoyed these three pieces full of stories from his The Facts of Life oral history.
The World Is Yours by Alex Hern
I’m not much of a tech person; I like using technology, of course, but following new inventions or specs and tech companies bores me to tears. Alex Hern, though, has a way of making tech palatable. As UK Technology Editor at the Guardian, he certainly knows his stuff, but he presents his information in a concise, incredibly easy to understand way. Moreover, Hern has an enthusiasm for new technologies, but also a wariness, and a necessary skepticism of both the technology and the companies putting them out. It’s a smart balance, and I appreciate Hern’s nuanced takes on a world I could always stand to learn more about.
Sample Column: I learned a lot from this piece about what 5G is, and why the advertising/hype/controversy surrounding it has completely missed why it’s being implemented in the first place.
Dan Ozzi describes himself as “America’s Only Music Writer,” and while that’s obviously tongue-in-cheek, he has quite a pedigree nonetheless, co-writing Against Me’s Laura Jane Grace’s memoirs with her and becoming a stalwart, respected figure in this scene of thirty-something emo punks I’ve fallen into. REPLY ALT delivers casual, yet insightful interviews (both printed and in podcast form) and well-researched, yet blisteringly delivered thoughts on the “scene” and the music industry in general. Ozzi is a consummate professional, yet his writing never loses its sense of humor, full of millennial self-loathing and self-doubt, but y’know, with just enough plausible deniability to not be a cry for help. So, always a fun time.
Sample Column: “The World’s Most Insane Coffee Drinker,” a piece about the truly twisted, deranged, flabbergastingly frustrating and implausible coffee habit of New York Magazine’s senior art critic Jerry Saltz, is without a doubt the funniest bit of writing I’ve read all year. It’s not a “typical” entry of REPLY ALT, but there’s no way I couldn’t highlight it. If you read any of these articles, please read this one. You’ll thank me later.
Empire of the Tiny Onion by James Tynion IV
I follow quite a few newsletters (both on Substack and other services) from comic creators, and unlike the others on this list, they primarily serve as promotion, advertising for new releases and new projects. That’s perfectly fine — it’s what I want, because I’ll just miss announcements on Twitter otherwise — but very few stand alone as interesting writing in their own right. James Tynion IV’s Empire of the Tiny Onion bucks that trend. Don’t get me wrong, Tynion still primarily uses the newsletter to promote his work, but instead of just sending out a brief list of his upcoming projects, Tynion takes the time to dive deep into his inspirations, why he’s making the career and writing choices he is, and his thoughts on comic culture and the industry as a whole, and though releases are erratic, it’s always insightful and thought provoking.
Sample Column: This entry from May absolutely captivated me when it came out. It’s Tynion at his most enthusiastic, his most hyped, his most driven, diving into the way he thinks the delay in entertainment caused by Covid could change comic books for the better, his desire to make single issue comics (“floppies”) more substantial, and finally tying all of that into his (then) new comic Wynd and how he and Boom! Comics completely changed their distribution model for the book in order to fulfill this ethos.
Art is My Middle Name by Keith Pille
Art is a broad subject, but Keith Pille has proven himself a veritable renaissance man, using Art is My Middle Name to deliver knowledgeable essays on paintings, comics, music, sculptures, and even museums, art school, and art criticism itself. Pille keeps his writing breezy and approachable even as he dives into complex or little-known subjects, and has a clear stance on each subject even as he tries to give at least a nod to dissenting opinions or trains of thoughts. Learning is always fun with Art is My Middle Name!
Sample Column: This piece on how memes are actually comics, and how they’re turning each and every one of us into cartoonists and creating a new Golden Age for the medium, is absolutely fascinating.
Weird Upstairs by James Cassar
At this point, it’s hard to know what James Cassar is best known for within our insular little music scene. A band manager? Record label founder? Tony Hawk Pro Skater enthusiast? A music writer/band biographer? All I know is that I first encountered Cassar’s writing on the now-defunct music blog “Property of Zack” (RIP), where they had a column about their experiences growing up with cerebral palsy and also growing up a music fan that immediately captured my full attention. Cassar’s work on Weird Upstairs is much in the same vein, each entry combining music commentary and personal essay into an almost dreamlike blend of anecdotes that often seem tangential, yet then surprise you when they finally reach their conclusion and converge into logical, often poignant statements. Each edition of Weird Upstairs is a fascinating journey, and always one worth taking.
Sample Column: The Weird Upstairs column I keep coming back to is this one, which uses various anecdotes about Cassar’s experiences with “heavy music” — a purposely nebulous term — throughout their life to tell a story about how they “fixate on songs as if they were sacred texts solving impossible problems.” It goes places.
Just Enough to Get Me In Trouble by Lyle McKeany
Lyle McKeany uses his Substack for personal essays, and they’re absolutely devastating; “The Hardest Day of My Life” is a series of entries about the birth of his daughter, who nearly died and was left with cerebral palsy. They can be hard reads, but McKeany writes with candor and courage, a kind of emotional honesty and bravery that I applaud, one that makes every emotion pour off the page like waves. McKeany is a fine writer, and I really appreciate him sharing his life like this.
Sample Column: I first discovered McKeany through his association with the aforementioned Luke O’Neal’s Welcome to Hell World. McKeany did his own take on the “Last Normal Day” column, and like the others, it’s well worth checking out.
I’ve been a fan of Emily VanDerWerff since her days writing reviews for beloved series such as Mad Men, Freaks and Geeks, and Community over on The AV Club. Episodes has room for plenty of VanDerWerff’s excellent media analysis, but in this new venue she also has the space to dig deep into personal essays and even fiction, much of it revolving around her transition and how it’s effected both her everyday life and her relationship with much of the media she loves. VanDerWerff is fantastic at both the critical and the personal aspects of her writing, but when she strikes the perfect balance of both in a single newsletter it hits a level of quality that, quite frankly, makes me a little jealous as a writer.
Sample Column: “The stories a sitcom can only tell in its final season” is a fantastic piece about television that makes me so angry because it would’ve been perfect for my own newsletter and I’m mad VanDerWerff had the idea first. Thankfully, “I wish I had written this piece” is probably the highest compliment I could possibly give.
¡Hola Papi! by John Paul Brammer
While ¡Hola Papi! occasionally serves as a home for pieces highlighting John Paul Brammer’s absurd, eccentric sense of humor, it’s primarily a queer advice column, and Brammer’s perfect blend of humor and deep, deep empathy make him the ideal candidate to dole out advice. Brammer can’t solve everybody’s problem, but the humility and compassion he approaches each and every letter with is deeply touching, all while his wit keeps the proceedings from ever getting too sappy. I know I always walk away from this newsletter feeling better about life than before I read it, and I imagine many other readers do too. I think we all wish we had a friend like Brammer, right?
Sample Column: “I Have Nightmares About Amy Coney Barrett” is peak ¡Hola Papi!. The absurd headline masks legitimate anxiety, and while Brammer’s answer is a bit wilder than usual, going broke for laughs, it still manages to impart some legitimately touching wisdom.
A Lonely Impulse of Delight by Connor Wroe Southard
Connor Wroe Southard writes about literature. That’s a broad topic, and Southard makes the most of it, discussing books and stories, the culture surrounding writers, the act of writing itself, and even at one point publishing some of his own works-in-progress to point out the mistakes he made and what he learned from them, and tackling all with brevity, clarity, and an accessible style. Each column also contains a single Calvin and Hobbes strip at the end, with a paragraph or two of Southard’s interpretation and/or commentary on it. That Southard can analyze such a classic, well-known strip and still find meaningful insight without sucking all the fun out of it is a testament to his skill.
Sample Column: Sure, it’s his most recent entry, but I greatly enjoyed “Always Let Me Go,” which examines classic opening lines of great novels and what makes them work, but also great novels that open with far less memorable opening lines and how they still work despite, or even because of, the less traditional introductions. This one left me with a lot to chew on.
Do You Know What I Love the Most’s “Best Of 2020” series:
December 3: Top 10 Newsletters of 2020
December 9: Top Television, Podcasts, and Movies of 2020
December 14: Top Books and Comics of 2020
Today: Let’s Talk About Substack
December 23: 2020: A Playlist
December 30: Top Albums of 2020
ABOUT
“Do You Know What I Love the Most?” is a newsletter from Spencer Irwin. Spencer is an enthusiast and writer from Newark, Delaware, who likes punk rock, comic books, working out, breakfast, and most of all, stories. His previous work appeared on Retcon Punch, One Week One Band, and Crisis on Infinite Chords, and he can be found on Twitter at @ThatSpenceGuy. If you like this newsletter, please subscribe and share with your friends!