Lagom
My word for 2026 along with a couple comic reviews
Years ago I started to adopt a “word for the year.” Some simple concept to help focus my energies. One year it was “no.” Which, being an obliger, didn’t work too well. Next was “draw” which, due to time constraints also wasn’t as successful as I would have liked. Recently, on a whim, I chose “whim” more as a reaction to a comment from the Dursleys, but I did enjoy just doing stuff on a whim- still do. Last year I decided on “coddiwomple.” Looking at my travels over 2025 it was a good choice. With the direction the world is heading 😱 I decided to be a bit more serious this year and chose “lagom.”
What is Lagom?
From https://visitsweden.com/about-sweden/swedish-lagom-lifestyle/
“While there’s no direct English translation, ‘lagom’ roughly means “just the right amount”. It’s about finding harmony in everyday life – whether decorating your home, planning your meals or managing your workload. For Swedes, ‘lagom’ isn’t about doing less – it’s about doing things mindfully and avoiding excess.
Think Goldilocks, but make it Scandinavian.”
So I head into this New Year looking at being a bit more mindful and balancing out the stuff in my life. My hope is that I will create more and feel better about my situation which is so much better than many people (I’m not creating a “Go Fund Me” to help me pay the bills like some people have). It’s just not what I expected when I initially retired. Then again the world is a different place than it was when I made that decision. I kind of started embracing the concept of lagom then, but got distracted (squirrel! oooo, shiny squirrel!). While I am happy with a lot of what I have done these past three-ish years, I also have started to regret a little bit, but would probably do it all over again if given the chance. I believe “YOLO” is the term all the elderly kids use nowadays. 🙄 I also keep seeing people posting about how you need to do things while you can, so stop putting off those Whimventures®. It’s hard to not think about affordability and expenses when you live in a country that embraces corporate profit over people. When your health insurance premiums that were already high- tripled overnight. A big “beautiful” bill.
A friend once told me (Thanks Greg), and I’ve probably already said this before, the hardest thing about retirement is the mind shift from saving to spending the money you put away. Sadly, I’ve watched people put themselves in the hole by spending like money will keep coming in or they don’t understand life expectancy in the 21st century. I don’t want to end my time on this earth worrying about how to pay my bills. Then again I also don’t want to live my life stuck in my house shivering worrying about how much my electric bill is going to be this month. So finding balance in all aspects of life… lagom.
Enough with the seriousness let’s talk about comics. Yes, I will be cutting back (I mentioned this before) but I really do enjoy the escape they provide and do enjoy supporting creators and comic shops. I’ve already started cutting down my pull list, and have put a halt on looking over at Kickstarter or at least I’m being a lot more selective when it comes to giving my support.
This Week in Comics December 31, 2025
This week was weird- DC (Lunar) decided to not ship anything. Full transparency - they shipped next week’s books but nothing for release this week. So Marvel (Penguin/Random House) shipped out their books which means I got a whopping two books pulled this week. We don’t even talk about Diamond anymore.
Flash Gordon #14 Mad Cave W: Jeremy Adams A: Eder Messias & Tom Derenick So Flash has escaped the mirror universe with his evil twin’s army and fights to save Mongo from Ming and his evil twin. But how? How will he do it and how will his friends escape and help him? A little birdy told me that he might get some help from above. This is action pacted, meaning not a lot of plot exposition. That said, it is a lot of fun as the battle heats up and you cheer for the good guys and boo the bad guys. leaving us with a wonderful cliffhanger.
Ultimate Endgame #1 Marvel Comics W: Camp A: Terry & Rachel Dodson and Jonas Scharf Have I said before how much I really dislike big crossover events? I don’t really care if it’s Marvel or DC. These tend to end with massive universal changes that last about two months. (Death of Superman anyone?) For speculators this could be another one of those sell it while it’s hot. Marvel announced that many of the blind bag variant comics might be damaged so now those undamaged ones will be even more valuable for speculators. My LCS is out of them, even with the “Caveat Emptor” sign. I stopped reading most of the Ultimate titles even with them only going a finite number of issues. I stuck with Spider-Man because it was fan service for those who still wanted to see Peter and MJ happily married with kids. I have enjoyed it, without worry about the Endgame. Well, Endgame has arrived and we haven’t reached the final issue of Ultimate Spider-Man so whatever cliffhanger was part of that series has been blown. (DC had the same challenge with “Hush 2”). So we have reached the end, the Maker is coming and our heroes are out to stop him. Except that the Maker is pretty smart and things start going wrong. Like many stories (see Campbell’s Heroes Journey below) things have to get really bad, or our heroes wouldn’t be heroic. They need to make heroic sacrifices, get really depressed, even die a few times before we can understand just how heroic they are. After this issue’s last page reveal… um… really?!?
Do you have a word for the year? Post it in the comments.
Let's make Lagom viral!
Usually Swedish and Norwegian are very similar. But in this case, lagom translates to akkurat passe in Norsk. I'll take either or both, please!