Lifeline Comics 2025 Plans + Top 10 Movies In 2024
Read a FREE comic when you complete our Survey, learn Lifeline Comics' plans for 2025, and find out Kat & Phil's Top 10 Movies of 2024!
Hi Lifeline Comics Readers!
With 2024 coming to a close, we have some final housekeeping we’re excited to complete.
Firstly, we want to hear YOUR opinions about every part of our process — from writing to fulfillment! So we’re putting out an anonymous survey where you can help us to continuously improve at everything we do. And as a thank you to anyone who completes the survey, we’ll give a FREE digital comic!
We’ll also run through Lifeline Comics’ plans for 2025 with a list of all the exciting things you can expect to see from us over the next twelve months.
And to end things off, Kat & Phil will each share their Top 10 Movies of 2024 lists!
Let’s get into it!
Reader Survey — Tell Us Your Thoughts for a FREE Comic!
Phil: We’re always looking to improve our process, so we’re collecting anonymous feedback from our supporters via the Lifeline Comics 2024 Census!
This 8-10 minute questionnaire seeks your opinions on every part of our process — from our Comics, to Conventions, to Fulfillment, to this Substack. We’re seeking your honest opinions (which are 100% anonymous) so that we can improve our process each year.
And as a thank you to everyone who takes the time to respond to the Census, we’ll be providing a free 8-page digital comic! This comic, Prodigal Mother, was written by Kat for Xion Studios’ Spider-Squirrel & Trash Panda Titan-Sized Special anthology.
We appreciate any and all feedback!
What To Expect from Lifeline Comics in 2025
Earlier this month, we did a big post recapping 2024 for Lifeline Comics and talking about all of the lessons we learned from this year’s campaigns.
Now it’s time to apply those lessons and tease some of the exciting things you can expect from us in 2025!
The EverAfterVerse
First and foremost, you can expect all three of our existing EverAfterVerse series — The Beast & Snow, Nightmare in Wonderland, and The Witches of Oz — to continue with at least one (and if everything goes according to plan, two) new issues crowdfunded in 2025.
It’s our goal to run an EverAfterVerse shared universe campaign every 1-2 months. And in the interest of doing so, we’re also planning to launch two new EverAfterVerse comic titles in the coming year.
Firstly is our Little Mermaid-inspired book which we have teased a few times now. And you can expect an official announcement for this series very, very soon.
Secondly, fans of The Witches of Oz can look forward to a new Oz-inspired comic launching in mid-2025! We can’t say too much about this one yet, but we’ll tease that we’re cooking it up with Transphoria Editor Dan Falco, that it follows a really cool character from the Oz novels, and that we are VERY excited to share more details next year!
Comic Anthologies
We’re planning at least two comic anthologies for 2025! The first one, launching in February, is one we’ve been working on secretly for the past couple of months to run during Valentine’s Day.
Some of you may be able to guess exactly what kind of anthology this will be based on our previous projects. But for now, the only thing we’ll tease is that the anthology will feature a new short “Slice of Life” story.
Secondly, we’ll be launching our Asexual & Aromantic Comic Anthology in mid-2025. We’re hard at work on curating the anthology right now with our Co-Editor Jeremy Whitley. And we can already tell that this anthology will be absolutely AMAZING. Everyone who submitted to be part of the book really brought their A-game!
And while it’s still in early development, we already know the topic of our next open-submission anthology. We’re pretty confident submissions for that one will open up in 2025. But time will tell whether the Kickstarter campaign lands in late-2025 or early-2026.
Continuing SFW Series
We can promise new issues of our longest-running series HAUNTING and Like Father, Like Daughter in mid-to-late 2025.
And it’s our goal to release second issues of both Mob Princess and The Last Case of Deven & Taylor in late-2025.
More Event-Exclusive Variant Covers
The interest in our event-exclusive variant cover campaigns — our Pride Month, New York Comic Con, and Exxxotica 2024 covers — this year has been really strong!
So we’re planning to release a couple more Event-Exclusive Covers in 2025 for the big shows we’ll be attending. One we can tease is a new Slice of Life cover for our Pridefest events throughout the year. And the rest you’ll have to wait and see!
New Enamel Pins!
Taking a cue from our Fox/Wolf Enamel Pins campaign, we’re planning a campaign centered around a really popular animal that will give more options for identities we’ve already covered with our other pins.
We already have one or two pins in our library featuring the animal in question, and we’re pretty confident you’re going to love seeing more options for it!
Even More Surprises!
We can’t tease everything for you, but rest assured that we still have a few tricks up our sleeve for 2025 that we can’t say much about now — including a new SFW series that is unlike anything we’ve done before!
2024 has been our best year yet, and we’re excited to keep the train moving at full speed next year! Thank you all for supporting us and making all of these cool projects possible!
Top 10 Movies of 2024!
Real talk: it’s been hard to make it to the movies this year. We’ve found ourselves busier than ever in 2024 and had a lot of trouble coordinating movie nights. So there were some releases (particularly those that didn’t have the best critical/audience reception - Venom 3: The Last Dance, Joker 2, Maxxxine, etc.) that we didn’t get the chance to watch this year and are hoping to catch up on in 2025.
But that said, we did manage to see all of the movies we were most excited. And you can check out exactly what we watched (in no particular order) below:
Phil’s 2024 Movie List:
With a total of 33 movies!
Kat’s 2024 Movie List:
With a total of 43 movies!
Which of these movies were our favorites? Read on to find out!
10. Phil’s Pick: Love Lies Bleeding
I honestly didn’t think this one would last on my Top 10 List until the end of the year. But it really is a movie that has stuck with me in the nine months since I saw it. Maybe it’s the layered queer relationship at the center of the film (a rarity for feature releases even in 2024). Maybe it’s the unique and impactful way that the film explores addiction in various forms. Maybe it’s the bizarre stylistic choices the movie makes (culminating in one moment at the end that many say “jumps the shark”, but that I found charming). Whatever the combination of reasons, Love Lives Bleeding is a movie that has stayed in my brain since my first viewing and one that leaves you with plenty to talk about after you leave the theater.
10. Kat’s Pick: Civil War
We saw this one pretty early on in the year, and it still sticks with me. Civil War takes place in a pseudo post-apocalyptic world that looks eerily similar to ours. The movie expertly builds tension as we see the world crumble through a journalist’s camera lens. It’s the first movie this year that had me on the edge of my seat, where I quickly knew it would get a spot on my Top 10 list.
9. Phil’s Pick: Robot Dreams
One of the most affecting silent films I’ve had the pleasure of seeing. Little visual moments like catching your reflection in the TV or holding someone’s hand for the first time are given so much more meaning through skillful animation and sound design than could ever be communicated verbally. Robot Dreams is funny, cute, heartbreaking, and uplifting. It’s an incredibly real depiction of life, loneliness and change that is sure to affect even the most cynical viewer.
9. Kat’s Pick: Thelma
As a person who cherishes character stories, action movies have become a bit tiresome as of late. Many focus on the popcorn flick action pieces rather than telling an intriguing character piece to go along with it.
Thelma is the perfect balance between action tropes and a heartwarming narrative. Unlike many films that surround the elderly, this isn’t a story about dementia or nursing homes, but instead a grandma who made an innocent mistake for the sake of her grandson. The movie weaves in real life petty crime with a twist on your classic hacking or big stunt scene that makes this one hell of an unique movie.
If you still have a grandparent or an elderly figure in your life this movie reminds you to give them one giant hug…who knows, maybe they’re an action star in their spare time.
8. Phil’s Pick: Lisa Frankenstein
Lisa Frankenstein is the only movie on my Top 10 List that I nearly walked out of during my first watch. It really took me a minute to adjust to the bizarre tone and style of this movie. And I nearly gave up on it before all of the pieces fell into place (when the Creature arrives). But I’m so glad that I did stay because Lisa Frankenstein is a movie I still find myself frequently thinking about and quoting all these months later.
Tonally, this movie is kind of a mess. It teeters from comedic to dramatic — never fully committing to one genre or the other — in a way that really wouldn’t work for most movies. But somehow, it all comes together here in an oddball Frankenstein’s monster sort of way. This is in large part thanks to the script from Diablo Cody, which is just full of lines that make you double-take and laugh out loud.
Lisa Frankenstein isn’t a movie for everyone. But if you’re willing to stick it out and appreciate how off-the-beaten-path it is on almost every level, then you’re in for a really fun and unique movie experience.
8. Kat’s Pick: Good One
Good One could have very easily slipped past my radar, but I’m glad that I looked up some indie films that were getting buzz before solidifying my list. India Donaldson’s debut feature is not so much a coming-of-age film, but a look at midlife crisis through a teen’s POV. Donaldson fully unpacks the divide between gen-z, queer women and middle-aged men without having to say much at all. It’s a quiet film that makes the viewer just as much an observer as our queer lead.
7. Phil’s Pick: Dìdi (弟弟)
One of the most honest depictions of the middle school experience I’ve seen committed to film. My favorite thing about Dìdi (弟弟) is that it really feels like a complete picture. You get the typical “awkward cringe” that you see in most middle school-set media. But the cringe is served in equal measure with the quiet, the infuriating, the hilarious, the heartbreaking, and the uncertain. It feels real and lived-in throughout.
Dìdi (弟弟) also does a phenomenal job capturing its time period — that mid-2000’s period where the internet was just starting to become a part of our everyday lives. The isolation that Dìdi feels while interacting with his peers on the internet, compounded with his complex feelings of internalized racism and self-loathing, paints such a nuanced portrait of our young protagonist — warts and all.
On a personal level, the titular Dìdi is the same age as me (born in 1994) and it was honestly eerie seeing just how perfectly the movie captured that time period — down to the accurate MySpace and early Facebook pages and the recommended videos on Dìdi’s YouTube screen.
7. Kat’s Pick: Look Back
No matter how good of an artist you are, you’ll never truly feel like it’s enough.
This 60-minute feature follows two students as they grow into becoming manga artists. It’s a heartbreaking story about the blood, sweat, and tears that go into becoming better at your craft, and the friendships that ebbs and flows because of it.
But what I enjoyed the most about Look Back is its exploration of the “what ifs?” Almost like a blank page. Life can be full of them. Once you hit that fork in the road, you can choose a positive direction for character growth that could actually become the most detrimental and still…there’s no rhyme or reason why something goes right or wrong - it’s all just luck, really.
6. Phil’s Pick: Thelma
This comedic action movie starring a 93-year old woman is incredibly well-realized. It lives up to its comedic premise, delivering hilarious action that pokes fun at action movie tropes (the “hacking” scene at the end had me ROLLING). And it also delivers on the pathos you would expect from a movie centering around people at the end of their lives — with quite a few moving scenes as Thelma and her peers reflect on their lives and where they’re at now.
One of my favorite elements of this movie was the relationship between Thelma and her adult grandson. It feels so authentic and sweet — as one might expect, since the titular Thelma is loosely based on writer/director Josh Margolin’s own grandmother. It’s a guiding light at the center of a movie that already has tons of heart and humor.
6. Kat’s Pick: Wicked
We had a pretty recent post about this movie, so I won’t write a dissertation here. But with the little time that has passed, I still stand by the impact this movie not only has had on musicals, but film as a whole. This is a second year in a row that the “girlie” movie has hit box office records. So whoever said “girl movies” don’t sell I hope they now see the impact of movies like Barbie and Wicked for not just young women, but the greater movie audience.
5. Phil’s Pick: Civil War
The second and third acts of Civil War deliver near non-stop levels of tension and rising action. I was on the edge of my seat for probably a full hour as we marched towards the climax of this movie. It was such a unique theater experience that I’m really glad I got to experience on the big screen.
But action and tension alone aren’t enough to nab a place in my Top 5. Civil War also delivers some fantastic character work for its leads. You really understand the importance of their journalism work (to themselves and to the world) and why they’re willing to risk their lives for it. It’s intense, heartbreaking, and inspiring all at the same time.
5. Kat’s Pick: Deadpool & Wolverine
Deadpool & Wolverine is a movie made for the underdogs! But wait Kat, isn’t both Deadpool and Wolverine just an easy slam dunk? Why are they underdogs? Well, there was a time when studios didn’t believe in Deadpool where Ryan Reynolds had to fight tooth and nail for the movie to even be made. There was a time when Wolverine wasn’t a household name, let alone, allowed to wear a comic accurate costume.
But I was especially impressed by the deep cut Fox Marvel references that filled my childhood with joy (yes, even Elektra!). The Gambit movie that could have been. The fun-loving Chris Evans Human Torch. So yeah, Deadpool & Wolverine is a love letter to the underdogs - that just so happened to make a bucket load of money!
4. Phil’s Pick: I Used To Be Funny
A drama that we watched on a whim because we’re fans of Rachel Sennott. The story of au pair by day / stand-up comedian by night trying to find her way back to “normal” after a traumatic even years ago. I Used To Be Funny effectively alternates between past and present storylines which converge at the traumatic event in question that destroyed not just Sennott’s character’s life, but also the life of the girl she was caring for, Brooke.
One of my favorite elements of this movie is its realistic portrayal of how trauma affects its characters. This is especially skillful in the handling of the teen Brooke, who is, for all intents and purposes, the antagonist of the present-day story. But the film does such a great job building the relationship between Brook and Sennott’s character in the past that you can understand the complexity of both of their positions even as Brook does absolutely horrible, unforgivable things. It’s a complex film, and one that I think about often.
4. Kat’s Pick: Challengers
Challengers was by far my favorite movies I saw in theaters this year! I didn’t know what to expect from this erotic Zendaya flick, but I would quickly learn that the film was much more than just its buzzy three-way-kiss.
Sports movies usually go one of two ways. Your main character either loses or they win. There’s a formula that’s pretty hard to break, but Challengers somehow shatters it into a million pieces. Challengers is a movie about manipulation both on and off the court. Do these boys really want to be the best tennis players or are they just puppets in Zendaya’s grasp? It’s a movie that matches the intensity of your classic sport flicks, all while delivering a completely new sub-genre.
3. Phil’s Pick: Challengers
Once Challengers gets going, it does not let up. The complex relationship between the three leads is electric from the moment they set foot in their hotel room as teens. The manipulation, affection, detestation, and desire (sometimes all at the same time) are absolutely off the charts and make for one of the most engaging trios (is it fair to say throuples?) in recent film memory.
I love a good character piece, and Challengers delivers three incredibly different but equally compelling characters, each with an equally complex and fascinating relationship between them.
3. Kat’s Pick: Robot Dreams
An ode to New York City and loneliness. Even in a city filled with millions of people, you can still feel utterly alone. You’re constantly exposed to seeing people’s daily routines, while not saying an actual word to them. There’s this barrier that seems so easy to break, yet impossible. As a lifelong New Yorker, I’ve never quite seen a movie hit that complicated feeling as hard as Robot Dreams does.
The animated feature not only crafts their score to illicit immediate emotional turmoil, but expertly uses sound as a nostalgic tool to craft new meaning for the characters’ experiences. Robot Dreams isn’t your classic love story. It’s a movie about how people come in and out of your life to help shape the person you’re meant to become.
2. Phil’s Pick: Problemista
Problemista is my favorite kind of movie. It effortlessly teeters from funny to moving, never for a second losing its identity nor its creativity. Anchored by phenomenal performances from Tilda Swinton and writer/director/star Julio Torres, this film draws you into Alejandro’s unique world and puts you into his shoes with such ease. Every frame and every line communicates just how much of a passion project this was for Torres.
I still find myself absentmindedly thinking about some of the best scenes from this movie completely unprompted — including a hilarious Bank of America joke and a powerful letter-reading scene between Tilda Swinton’s and Greta Lee’s characters. There haven’t been a lot of movies that I watched this year and then raced to watch again with people who hadn’t yet seen it. But this was definitely one of them.
2. Kat’s Pick: I Used To Be Funny
MORE PEOPLE SHOULD BE TALKING ABOUT THIS MOVIE!
Rachel Sennott showcases her dramatic acting chops in this film about a stand-up comic that can’t quite find the humor in life after a tremendously bad experience. But it’s really the complicated relationship between her and the girl she used to babysit that carries you throughout the film. This non-linear character piece will keep you on the edge of your seat, not so much the mystery, but because of the emotion it elicits as it leads you towards the event that we were all so afraid to admit was true.
1. Phil’s Pick: Wicked
If you know me or have read one of the dozen Substack posts where I’ve gushed about Wicked, then this top pick should come as no surprise to you. From the moment the credits rolled on this film adaptation, I had no doubt in my mind that it would be my favorite movie of the year.
As a lifelong fan of The Wizard of Oz and the Wicked Broadway Musical, I was definitely predisposed to like this film adaptation. But it’s so rare that high expectations are exceeded as tremendously as they were with this film adaptation. Everything from the music to the acting to the costumes to the set design was absolutely perfect. Director Jon M. Chu toes the line of delivering a faithful adaptation that will please fans while adding just the right amount of new touches to make the film feel like its own entity.
I don’t think it’s recency bias to say that this is one of the best (if the best) film adaptations of a Broadway Musical ever. I know it’s one that I will watch endlessly on repeat when it hits streaming.
1. Kat’s Pick: Am I Okay?
This is a Kat movie, through and through. The very hilariously dry Tig Notaro and her wife Stephanie Allynne make their directorial debut with Dakota Johnson playing a 30-something year old who just found out that she’s gay. It’s a reverse coming-of-age of sorts as it explores a concept that I think many 30 year olds need to see - it’s never too late to find yourself. Am I Okay? is a layered, authentic film that uses queerness to not just explore romantic relationships, but keeps friendship at the heart.
What Have We Been Up To?
Let’s talk about how we’ve kept busy these last couple of weeks!
Lunch with Fellow NYC Comic Creators
Kat: One of Phil and I’s biggest goals in 2024 was to make real connections and more relationships with other creators.
And I’m so happy that we’ve been sharing more quality time with our fellow New York City comic creators including Pat Shand and Fabrice Sapolsky.
Santa’s Secret NYC 2024
Phil: One of the ways that I celebrated the holiday season with my fiancé, Julius, was attending Santa’s Secret NYC — a Speakeasy/Burlesque show centered around revealing six of Santa’s naughtiest secrets.
The show is anchored by the Ice Queen (Shequida Hall) — a Drag performer emcee who (hilariously) introduces each of “Santa’s dirty secrets” which then segues into a performance from one of the various characters (Santa, Mrs. Claus, the Lumberjack, the Nutcracker, the Angel, etc.)
The Ice Queen was my favorite part of the show. She delivered an absolutely hilarious (and sexy) storyline that contextualized the entire experience. And her crowdwork interacting with our audience was some of the best I’ve seen in a live show — with performer Hall having a real talent for callbacks to elements/guests specific to our show.
The burlesque performances were also varied and skillful, ranging from stripteases to pole dancing to gymnastics to ballet. There was a TON of talent on the stage and at least one shocking moment in every performance.
There was also a very fair mix of masc and femme performers. So definitely something for everyone to enjoy.
Definitely a show we’d check out again next year (when I believe they’ll have a different story as well)!
Media
We would normally talk about Media we’ve enjoyed and comics we’ve read now. But since we already spent so much time talking about movies and this post is getting long, we’re going to just talk about one additional piece of media today.
Knuckles Season 1
Phil: With Sonic the Hedgehog 3 now in theaters (which we’ll be seeing next week), I thought now was finally a good time to talk about the Paramount+ Knuckles series that released a few months ago. It had been on my watch list for a while, but I kept delaying my binge because I just heard nobody talking about it. But I finally sat down to watch with my cousin (a big Sonic fan) a couple of weeks ago.
Leading with the good, the Knuckles series doesn’t skimp on its titular character. I had a bit of trepidation that a Streaming budget would mean we would see less of the animated characters that we’re here for. But Knuckles is very present throughout the runtime of his series — and we even get some limited screentime with other Echidna characters, and with Sonic and Tails. And while there is one episode where the animated characters appear sparingly (Episode 4), the installment has a pretty creative (and colorful) stand-in that prevents it from feeling like something is missing.
Knuckles’ biggest problem is that there just isn’t very much story. Honestly, there’s so shockingly little story that most of the run time is dedicated to quips and detours as Knuckles and Wade make their way to a bowling tournament in Reno. There are a handful of Easter Eggs and references that will please fans of the Sonic games, but they’re mostly concentrated in Episodes 1 and 4. And, in my opinion at least, there wasn’t any big Easter Egg or surprise that really excited me at any point.
While the two Sonic movies so far have done a solid job of being enjoyable for kids and adults alike, I found Knuckles to lack that balance. Hardcore Sonic fans will likely find something to like. And some of the comedy is definitely solid. But I wouldn’t call Knuckles required viewing my any means.
ENDING: Bombshell & Atomica #1-2
The second issue crowdfunding campaign for Mature Queer Superhero series we write for Bad Bug Media ends in just two days!
“Two women must keep their superpowers and love for one another a secret in this spicy, post-WW2, pulp superhero comic. Mature content.”
In Closing
Thanks for reading our final post of 2024!
Please do share your honest thoughts with us in the Feedback Surveys (they’re completely anonymous)! We truly want to hear how you think we can improve at all stages in our process.
And be sure to share your own Top 10 Movies of 2024 lists with us in the comments below and on social media!
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Next Kickstarter: Slice of Life #6: The Cheerleader Gets the Girl!
Previous Paid Post: Early Look at Slice of Life #6 Covers
Next Cons/Events: TBA
Survey complete! I hope that doesn’t ruin my anonymity. Lol Thanks for another great newsletter! I’m looking forward to all you do in 2025, and I’m hoping to attend NYCC myself. :)