Hi {name}, Happy New Year (🤞🏽) +/-

For the first MUSEletter of the year I’d been contemplating next steps for 2026. I know that I want to improve my timing with IRL correspondences - holiday cards even. It’s something I’m still figuring out, so I'm open to suggestions. Along those same lines I'm seeking to deepen my correspondences and social connections; especially over great distances - some of my best friends are very far away.

I’ve also been looking at the past half-dozen years, both to energize my creative fortitude (one of the true purposes of a Top 10 list) and learn from mistakes. Wondering if some of that could come in the form of a Bottom 10 list 🤔 I realized that these top & bottom 10's could make for a fun re-introduction of myself to you. But First! A new episode of Go Doggo…

• GO DOGGO
• PLUGO's various Top 10's
• Cool Stuff Dept. - The Cartoonist's Co-Op
•  

It all started as an attempt to review 2025 by way of a best-of series. In many cases they turned into an All-Time-Favorites list. That and a few "that immediately come to mind" lists.  So rather than a setting of intentions for 2026 (I think I'll save that for Year of the Fire Horse: Feb 17th 2026) I've provided this series of Top 10 Lists accompanied by a few tangents & caveats, but let's begin with silly trivia –

Name: Patrick Lugo

​Nicknames: PLUGO, Patricky, ‘Tricky, Patches . . . 

Place of Birth: New York New York 

Current Residence: San Francisco Bay Area

Eastern Horoscope: Year of the Monkey

Western Horoscope: Pisces (very much)

Character I am most frequently compared to: Uncle Iroh

• Drawing/Illustration
• Research & Rabbit Holes
• Giving my Dog his best life
• Quality aged tea
• Audiobooks: Fantasy / Horror / History / Educational
• Watching challenging cinema
• Watching popular media
• Playing boardgames 
• Studying Martial Arts history & lore
• Writing: reviews, interview, blogposts & essays

• The Uncanny X-Men
• Akira
• The Invisibles
• Promethea
• JLA
• League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
• Asterous Polyp
• Top 10
• We3
• Monstrous

• David Quinn
• Grant Morrison
• Alan Moore
• Jonathan Hickman
• Al Ewing
• Gene Luen Yang
• Ram V
• Chris Claremont
• Mark Grundwald
• Kelly Thompson

• Geoff Darrow
• Mike Mignola
• Katsuro Otomo
• Charles Vess
• Bill Sienkiewicz
• Paul Smith
• Walter Simonson
• Chris Ware
• Carmine Infantino
• Dave Cockrum

A good friend of mine built a home-made arcade version of Crazy Taxi (with steering wheel and all) after an epic weekend away as a sort of Arcade themed vacation house. Outside of playing that what I come over for a hang, I avoid video games. They’re a time-suck for me.

• Mare Nostrum
• Wingspan
• Carcassonne
• Tiny Epic Galaxies
• Viticulture
• Cleopatra
• Taluva
• Tash Kalar: Arena of Champions
• Wyrm Span
• Stone Age

• Fantastic Planet
• The Point
• Princess Mononoke
• The Incredibles
• Akira
• Spirited Away
• Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse
• A Scanner Darkly
• The Secret of Kells 
• The Devil and Daniel Mouse
• Rock & Rule

Honorable Mention: The Simpsons

• The Sopranos
• Mad Men
• Game of Thrones
• The X-Files
• Key & Peele
• Northern Exposure
• The Muppet Show
• Twin Peaks
• Legion
• The Last Kingdom

• The Holy Mountain
• The LotR Trilogy
• Barry Lyndon
• The Exorcist
• The Shining
• The Cook, the Thief His Wife & Her Lover
• Planet of the Apes (original  series)
• Enter the Dragon
• John Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy
• The Matrix

• The Malazan Book of the Fallen (10 Books)
• The Odyssey 
• Zen & the art of Motorcycle Maintenance 
• The Dawn of Everything 
• A Song of Ice and Fire
• A Bridge Across Forever
• The Pharmacopoeia (3 Books)
• The Tao of Pooh
• The Lord of the Rings
• Frankenstein 

My relationship to music can make up a much larger essay. My earliest exposure to it was strictly Spanish Language. My discovery of music in English went something like this - Disco records, local radio, Hip-Hop, New Wave, Industrial/Gothic, Techno, Classic Rock (Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin etc), Jazz, Reggae, Turn-of-the-Century Electronic. I’ve had the good fortune of befriending a wide range of incredibly talented musicians and am very mercurial in my tastes. I think there’s something in there that informs the album cover art I’ve created over the years. Not having any favorites in music has allowed me to make each album cover I illustrate my favorite work of music during that time.

Malatona When It Rains / Cuando Llueve en Málatona

by C. S. Garcia Martinez. 

The campaign for this project is active until January 15th. It is already fully funded - Congrats. Check it out anyway, it's a cool looking project with a very interesting premise.

After a rural tax collector is shot, the court of the Malatona province must grapple with justice, divinity, and what it means to have power over death.

Despite the promises of the last twenty years, the Isahek river is flooding again. When a tax collector is shot by its banks, the provincial court must respond to the rising violence. The members of the court vie for control, all the while their system of governance is on a steep decline. A story about environmental disaster, “rational” governance, and what it means to have power over death.

The year is young, there's some fun stuff in the works: A possible gallery show or 2, maybe an in-person appearance and the hope for more convention going! I'll keep you posted. In the mean-time, let me know if any of those listings inspire a response - some of those movies maybe?

ciao for now!
PLUGO