6 Things Kiel Got Into This Year

Hey, everyone! As Ben said earlier, today marks two years of the CKT. We thought it'd be fun to open up our own personal pop culture notebooks from the past 12 months to share a little bit about what we've been digging on lately (because really, the whole point of this blog is pretty much to make you like the cool shit we're into as much as we do), and I'm up first because I don't have an office job and Kevin's lost somewhere driving across America. Away we go!


1. "Justified"

I gave this show a shot in the summer because I was sad that the networks didn't seem to be stepping up with anything interesting after "Lost" ended (okay, and because of my man crush on Olyphant...his looks are smoldering), but I stuck with it because it's a smart, subtle crime drama that had an engaging overarching story wrapped around some fantastic one-off mysteries and a cast of inarguably human characters. The dialogue is boss, too.



2. King City By Brandon Graham

I'd honestly been hunting for a copy of the Tokyopop volume 1 of this series for what feels like it must have been two years, and finally got a copy a few weeks before the new Image issues started hitting shops. I swear I told myself I wasn't going to double buy the story in the first six singles, but after seeing two of them hit the stands with the art blown up big in the tabloid format and the extra bits and pieces (not to mention the mind-bending covers and design) Graham had added, I folded like a card table. Phenomenal comics wonderfully packaged. Do you think he'll go back to Multiple Warheads next?


3. iZombie by Chris Roberson and Mike & Laura Allred

The other serial comic that's really been scratching my art and design itch of late, I'm sure you all know that I picked this book up simply for the Allreds as I pick up anything they work on at least for a trial spin. But aside from a much more glossy version of the thick lines and soft tones Mike and Laura started digging into in the last Madman volume, I've been super impressed by the hipstery monster mash-up of newcomer Chris Roberson's story. And I'm not even a horror or hipster hound.


4. Majesty Shredding by Superchunk

Okay yes sure, I've only had this album a week or so (thanks to my local comics shop Challengers opening an account with a record distributor just to stock it). And yes, saying "The new Superchunk album is really, really great" is kind of like saying "Hey, chocolate milk is radical." But what can I say, man? Chocolate milk is fucking radical!


5. "Party Down"

One day this summer, I realized the entire first season of this absurdly brilliant and funny cable sitcom was on Netfix instant just in time to also watch the second season as it initially serialized. Explaining my reaction to the show and its cancelation right after season two ended is kind of hard. Um...it's like...it's like you go to camp, right? And you meet this awesome kid named Pauly Downing, and he hates all the same shit you do and knows how to screw with the dickhead counselors without getting caught, and you become blood brothers and swear to keep in touch in the fall no matter what. And then after six months of writing his address with no response, his mother writes you to tell you Pauly died of cancer.

Fuck you, Starz.


6. "Tosh.0"

This one is my "guilty pleasure" pick of the year. And, I don't know...I'm not really sure why it'd be a guilty pleasure except I have no idea what anyone actually thinks of it beyond a general feeling that a lot of my super hip friends would find Daniel Tosh's mocking of internet videos to be kind of meatheaded and vaguely racist at times. But hey, every week I turn this show on and it does the #1 thing any comedy show should: it makes me laugh a lot.

Jesus, I'm watching way too much TV these days, aren't I?