2011 ABCP YEAR-IN-REVIEW

It seems like just last year we didn't put our year-end show up until several days after the year was over! And it was! And now it is again! And again it shall be next year! But from now on, we shall have an always-valid excuse for being late with anything and everything, which is this:

(With a ridiculously huge thanks to listener JR Jenks for the onesie!)

Yes, everyone welcome little May to the world of Awesomed By Comics, joining the cats, our dryer, and our singing Pokemon clock in the ranks of "noisy things we have that interrupt the show". Except it's a lot harder (and far more irritating to the neighbors) to ignore this one. May is celebrating her three-week birthday today the same way she has celebrated every other day so far, and the same way we assume she will continue to celebrate every day for the foreseeable future; eat, defecate, sleep, repeat.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, and please always remember that you are more than welcome to list your own winners for our categories in the comments.

As always with these year-end shows, we've got a list of nominee-nominees ... that is to say, things we thought were among the best the year had to offer and were deserving of mention. Of these lists, we've narrowed down each category to five or so nominees, about which we talk at some length, and then from those nominees we pick winners. Some were tough to narrow down (we could have had 10 writer nominees easily) and some were tough to pick enough nominees from to fill out a segment (rough year for compelling villains overall) but here you go.

PRESENTING: The Nominee-Nominees for this year's ABCP Year-End Spectacular!

Hero of the Year:

Tom Taylor (the Unwritten)

Ultimate Spider-Man (Peter Parker and Miles Morales)

Gus (Sweet Tooth)

Stephanie Brown (Batgirl)

Johnny Storm (FF)

Rocket Raccoon (Annihilators backups)

Red Hulk (Hulk, Avengers)

Horny Namor (various)

Power Girl (Power Girl)

Superman (Action Comics)

Cupcake (Bake Sale)

Villain of the Year:

Loki (various)

The Homelander (The Boys)

Bane (Secret Six)

Poker Face (Power Man and Iron Fist)

Satana (Thunderbolts)

The Plutonian (Irredeemable, Incorruptible)

Red Skull (Red Skull Incarnate)

Spider Queen (Spider Island)

The Cabal (Unwritten)

Dan DiDio (SDCC)

Writer of the Year:

Mike Carey (The Unwritten)

Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Animal Man)

Jeff Parker (Thunderbolts, Hulk)

Greg Pak (Hercules, Alpha Flight; Silver Surfer, Red Skull)

Fred Van Lente (Hercules, Alpha Flight; Power Man and Iron Fist)

Gail Simone (Secret Six)

Garth Ennis (The Boys)

Bryan Q. Miller (Batgirl)

Kieron Gillen (Journey Into Mystery, Generation Hope, Uncanny)

Peter David (X-Factor)

Brian Michael Bendis (Ultimate Spider-Man, Moon Knight)

Nick Spencer (Morning Glories, Infinite Vacation, Ultimate X-Men; Cloak &

Dagger)

Abnett & Lanning (Annihilators; Heroes for Hire)

Mark Waid (Incorruptible, Irredeemable, Daredevil)

Charlie Huston (Wolverine: The Best There Is)

Artist of the Year:

Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth)

Peter Gross (The Unwritten)

Sara Pichelli (Ultimate Spider-Man)

Yuko Shimizu (Unwritten covers)

J. Calafiore (Secret Six)

Andres Guinaldo (Gotham City Sirens)

Timothy Green II (Rocket Raccoon and Groot backup)

Juan Jose Ryp (Wolverine: The Best There Is)

David Hahn (All-Nighter)

Emma Rios (Cloak & Dagger)

Travel Foreman (Animal Man)

JH Williams III (Batwoman)

Paolo Rivera/Marcos Martin (Daredevil)

Crap of the Year:

Smallville

Prelude to Schism

Bendis' interview trope

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Fear Itself

Secret Six ending

Treatment of women by DC in the relaunch

Detective #1

Comic-related non-comic Item of the Year:

Doctor Who

Adam Warrock

Harry Potter 7: Pt. 2

Smallville

Pokemon Black and White

Looking back at the career of Dwayne McDuffie

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

X-Men First Class

Iron Man Armored Adventures

Yu-Gi-Oh 3D: Bonds Beyond Time debacle

Captain America

Thor

Best New Series:

Power Man and Iron Fist

Annihilators/Rocket Raccoon and Groot

FF

Journey Into Mystery

Moon Knight

15 Love

All Nighter

Daredevil

Rachel Rising

Punisher

Animal Man

Action Comics

Ultimate Spider-Man

Story of the Year:

The Unwritten: Leviathan, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

Sweet Tooth: The Further Adventures of the Boy and the Big Man, by Jeff Lemire

The Boys: Proper Preparation and Planning, by Garth Ennis and Russ Braun - Evie

Ultimate Spider-Man: The Death of Spider-Man, by Brian Michael Bendis, Sarah Pichelli, and Mark Bagley

Secret Six: Infernal Affairs, by Gail Simone and J. Calafiore

Wolverine: The Best There is: Broken Quarantine, by Charlie Huston and Juan Jose Ryp

Bake Sale (Original Graphic Novel) by Sarah Varon

No show this week sorryyy :(

We've had a bit of medical drama over here at Chez ABCP, so there unfortunately won't be a podcast this week. Don't worry everyone's ok, but I'm under strict doctor's orders not to get riled up about narrative inconsistency and lazy art. Hopefully we'll be up and running for next week, but your patience during this period is much appreciated.

Awesomed By Comics Podcast Episode #157

This episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by the third week of our 30-word, non-pandering, juggling-inclusive, bananarama fanfiction challenge, AND War Rocket Ajax, AND Copernicus Jones, AND a book that comes out in April - those last three courtesy of our guest host, the always high-minded Matt Wilson. Amazing week for Jeff Lemire on both Sweet Tooth and Animal Man, some ridiculously fun ideas being thrown around in Infinite Vacation, some joyful X-Universe images, and some good words for Heart and Luther Strode. Also our kitten Bo sings a song with some shitty slap bass at the end.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, and please always remember that you are more than welcome to list your own winners for our categories in the comments. Hell, you can list your own categories for our winners, for all we care. Or list your own winners for your own categories, from your own books. Whatever you want to do. And if you feel like donating, there's a button over there with which you can do just that!

Curvurz:

Awesomed By Comics Podcast Episode #ONE FIFTY FIVE (I keep messing up the titles.)

This QUADRUPLE-SIZED episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast, which is nearly 50% longer than usual, is brought to you by the Awesomed By Comics 30-Word, Non-Pandering, Juggling-Inclusive, Bananarama Fanfiction Challenge! Here are the rules:

1) Entries must be 30 Words.

2) Entries must be fanfiction of some kind (regardless of what you're writing about).

3) Entries must include the act of juggling.

4) Entries that include blatant pandering will be disqualified.

Send your entries to our email address, with the subject line "Bananarama"

(note: fanfiction should not be about Bananarama.)

The winner will receive an AWESOMED BY COMICS PRIZE PAK (haha) which includes two (2) comics written and signed by Greg Pak, and an Apple iPad picture, drawn by me. It may or may not also include some cat food.

We go over our winners and losers from the past two weeks in comics, AND the New York Comic Con! Big wins for Unwritten, Journey Into Mystery, Batman, Birds of Prey, Pokemon Cosplay, Bake Sale, Wonder Woman, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Trevor Cahill. Big losses for those chicks changing into their robot maid outfits in the bathroom.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, andleave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, and please always remember that you are more than welcome to list your own winners for our categories in the comments. Hell, you can list your own categories for our winners, for all we care. Or list your own winners for your own categories, from your own books. Whatever you want to do. And if you feel like donating, there's a button over there with which you can do just that!

Pictures and stuff LATER, TATERS!

But for now, here's what should be EVERYONE'S cover of the week:

Cons, Birthdays, Episodes, Triples

New York Comic Con!

High-Five Etiquite!!

Pokemon cosplay!

This week's comics!

ACTUAL LEGITIMATE GIVEAWAYS WITH ACTUAL LEGITIMATE AUTOGRAPHED PRIZES (thanks, Greg Pak!)

All this and more in the next installment of ABCP!

Which isn't happening this week, unfortunately.

We haven't read squat from last week yet, Evie's birthday is tomorrow,Evie's at a concert on Tuesday, and by the time we'll be able to put something together it'll be next weekend anyway. But there will be an extra convention-sized TRIPLE (sorta) show coming next week! Stay Tuned!

Awesomed By Comics Podcast Episode #154

This episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by the final standings from this year's Awesomed By Fantasy Baseball league, which ended with Power Listener Dann's team beating Fellow Podcaster Tom's team in the finals. Aaron's team only beat the other two people who also gave up on the league sometime in May. Great week for The Boys, The Penguin, Moon Knight and Chew. Either a good or a terrible week for Avengers and the end of Schism, depending on who you ask about either. And the best-ever week for the Bone Baron, who is a skeleton pimp with a lance, riding a donkey.



Also, Evie's mom says hi!

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, and please always remember that you are more than welcome to list your own winners for our categories in the comments. Hell, you can list your own categories for our winners, for all we care. Or list your own winners for your own categories, from your own books. Whatever you want to do. And if you feel like donating, there's a button over there with which you can do just that!

Coverz

Awesomed By Comics Podcast Episode #152

This episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by Comics Alliance, which is like having a podcast about the internet and having it fake-sponsored by Google, but we happened to be joined by a very special guest, Comics Alliance's very own proprietor Laura Hudson, so we were duty-bound. HEY ANY GUESSES AS TO WHAT THE CRAP WAS? Here's a hint .... it was Starfire. OH DAMNIT I FORGOT TO USE THE NEW MUSIC. Oh well. Sing it in your heads this week. I'll replace the old one in the template next week. Also we get some awesome recommendations including Craig Thompson's extremely intriguing new book, Daredevil continues to be unfair to every other comic, we dig the first Wonder Woman and Batman and Marvel's mutant heroes take a turn for the villainous in two different books.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, and please always remember that you are more than welcome to list your own winners for our categories in the comments. Hell, you can list your own categories for our winners, for all we care. Or list your own winners for your own categories, from your own books. Whatever you want to do. And if you feel like donating, there's a button over there with which you can do just that! (Or save your money to buy my record when it comes out, which I also fully support.)

Covers of the week:








And from the mind of ABCP Teen Patroller Greg Deaner comes the story of POWER HORSE: THE HORSE WITH HORSEPOWER!!

Awesomed By Comics Podcast Episode #151

This episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by THE BEST POWERPUFF GIRLS FANFICTION SOMEONE WHOSE SILLY NAME I GOOGLED HAS EVER READ IN THEIR WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE but which another reader finds less than impressive. We talk about the first comics we ever read, and some of this week's best and worst, as always. Rather predictably, Journey Into Mystery, Batwoman and Daredevil won a bunch of stuff. Rather unpredictably, Superboy and the Monkey King also won. We say hello to the new Ultimate Spider-Man, lament that Squirlgirl didn't actually save the day, and obviously wonder what the hell DC was thinking by getting rid of 2/3 of Amanda Waller.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, and please always remember that you are more than welcome to list your own winners for our categories in the comments. Hell, you can list your own categories for our winners, for all we care. Or list your own winners for your own categories, from your own books. Whatever you want to do. And if you feel like donating, there's a button over there with which you can do just that! (Or save your money to buy my record when it comes out, which I also fully support.)

I think the first comic I ever read had Superman and Captain Marvel in it, but I wasn't able to find that looking through the covers at CoverBrowser.com so instead here's the first comic that I distinctly remember the plot of:



And the first arc that I remember reading and re-reading and re-reading over and over and over because it was just so fantastic:








And here's Evie's first comic ever:



And here's our regular Covers of the Week this week:






And here's Bonus Cat Fort:

Awesomed By Comics Podcast Episode #150!!!

This THREE EXCLAMATION POINT episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by 150 episodes of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast! So, including this one, I guess. (META!) We pause to look back on the last 3+ years of this little show, remembering some of the things we really liked ("Trinity?" Remember that?) and some of the things we really didn't like, which you can probably guess.

Meanwhile, we also do a regular show, for what was a monster week in comics in terms of sheer volume. Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman's debut issue of Animal Man was easily the best of the relaunch issues, Evie has finally caught up on Garth Ennis and Russ Braun's The Boys so we can both talk about that now, some fun cosmic goings-on for Marjorie Liu and Phil Noto's X-23 and her gang, a fantastic #2 issue for G. Willow Wilson and David Lopez's Mystic, and a surprisingly solid start to Rags Morales and Grant Morrison's Superman. And then also we whine about books that were DUH NUH NUH NUH NAAAAAAH NUH NUH NAAAAAH etc.

We also annoint the official ABCP TEEN PATROL:

R.J. Washington (Commenter name: XandGunn)
Ryan Emmet (DocWhiskey)
Alberto De Jesus (Power Listener!)
Jennifer Rubinowitz (ABCP Yugioh Champion)
Laura Abe (Guyalice)
Dann Fuller (Another Power Listener, whose wife's debut novel you should all pick up! "The Princess Curse," in bookstores now!)
David Watts (everyone needs something in parenthesis!)
Greg Deaner (Lebeau2501)
and our very own Rick Jones / Snapper Carr, Ziah Grace.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, and please always remember that you are more than welcome to list your own winners for our categories in the comments. Hell, you can list your own categories for our winners, for all we care. Or list your own winners for your own categories, from your own books. Whatever you want to do. And if you feel like donating, there's a button over there with which you can do just that! (Or save your money to buy my record when it comes out, which I also fully support.)

COVERS:

Moon Knight 5 by Alex Maleevand X-23 14 by Phil Noto

Awesomed By Comics Podcast Episode #149

This episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by the hurricane that we pretty much slept right through, and which did not give us an opportunity to bond while "hunkering down" but which was also far less destructive than it could have been which in the long run is a better thing for everyone. Winny wins this week for Mystery Men, Gotham City Sirens, Space Wolverines, Punishers, Captains America and Buckies and Confusingly-numbered Iron Man minis. We bid a fond farewell to this confusing iteration of Wonder Woman, and lament that the last-ever appearance of Oracle was as a side character in a hack-ass book. Plus Dr Who, Zelda, Vs. System, Pokemon Board Games, Iron Man Armored Adventures, The Origin of Stan, AND MANY MORE!

The 150th is nigh! Be aware of street preachers and disco remixes!

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, and please always remember that you are more than welcome to list your own winners for our categories in the comments. Hell, you can list your own categories for our winners, for all we care. Or list your own winners for your own categories, from your own books. Whatever you want to do. And if you feel like donating, there's a button over there with which you can do just that! (Or save your money to buy my record when it comes out, which I also fully support.)

Covers and stuff later, probably!

Awesomed By Comics Podcast Episode #148

As we creep closer to our 150th show, this episode is brought to you by the return of the Zen Koan .... which quickly devolves into rap videos and masturbation jokes. Many loves for Daredevil, All Nighter, Journey Into Mystery, The Stuff of Legend, Generation Hope, and Power Girl. Not many loves for talksploitation comics and the death of fun. Many shenanigans including several trips to the MyTube, followed by FriendFace and BookSpace. Also we need a damn window in our studio. Or at the very least, a donkey with a box fan attached to it who can mill about the house spreading its cool donkey breeze.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, and please always remember that you are more than welcome to list your own winners for our categories in the comments. Hell, you can list your own categories for our winners, for all we care. Or list your own winners for your own categories, from your own books. Whatever you want to do. And if you feel like donating, there's a button over there with which you can do just that! (Or save your money to buy my record when it comes out, which I also fully support.)

Covers and stuff later, if I remember.

Awesomed By Comics Podcast Episode #147

Whoa Nelly! This 147th episode of the Awesomed By Comics Website is brought to you by a little speed lesson! You got a need for speed? Then let's rev it up! Speed-style! VROOM VROOM VROOOOOOOOM.

This week we bid a melancholy and vaguely disappointing farewell to Batgirl, which has been one of the entire industry's most solid titles, month-after-month, for the last two years, and whose lead character is not going to be appearing in the relaunch stuff for a while anyway. We also bid a lousy farewell to this incarnation of Birds of Prey, who deserved better than the sendoff they got. As Thor might apparently say, "Weak sauce, brah. Totes weak sauce." The Unwritten takes an interesting turn, and might be setting itself up for a pretty ballsy move, while Cloak and Dagger make a relationship book work in the midst of an event tie-in. Plus Squrlgurl, and also Evie's in a book, kinda.

And if this isn't enough Aaron for you, or if you want to listen to a bunch of guys talk about whatever for a couple of hours and have a lot of fun doing it, you can listen to last week's episode of Randumb Idiocy featuring Aaron, our pal Euge (AKA Adam WarRock,) our other pal DeWayne Feenstra, his brother who is now our pal David, and our lettering - slash - pigeon-hero-maker - slash - make-someone-in-a-book-named-Evie pal Joe Caramagna.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, and please always remember that you are more than welcome to list your own winners for our categories in the comments. Hell, you can list your own categories for our winners, for all we care. Or list your own winners for your own categories, from your own books. Whatever you want to do. And if you feel like donating, there's a button over there with which you can do just that! (Or save your money to buy my record when it comes out, which I also fully support.)

Covers and stuff later.

* Also of note: Yes, I am aware that I forgot to bleep out the name of that guy's city, but the rest of his letter, had we read it verbatim, would have made it clear that that's where he lived anyway.

** Also also, here's that comic Evie mentioned. Please note that while it is drawn quite well and is pretty clever, this made me sad to read.

Awesomed By Comics Podcast Episode #146

This extra-long episode of the Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by us soliciting ideas for our (now just four episodes away!!) 150th anniversary! That's right, Awesomed By Comics has been around for 150 years, 1874-2011!!

Yes it does. Several of those years count as two or even three, if the crops were particularly bountiful.

Anyway, this week renewed a lot of our faith in comics. Strong debuts for Rachel Rising, Severed, The Punisher, The Cape, Snarked and oh yeah, a certain new Ultimate hero. Strong endings for Secret Six and that thing about tennis which was silly but we loved it anyway. Plus great weeks for Irredeemable, Sweet Tooth, Thunderbolts, Hulk - MAN what a good week for comics. Also we talk about Iron Man Armored Adventures Season Two, which is off to a great start, and the next-to-last step for my band's next record which I've been working on and talking about for seriously at least two years.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, and please always remember that you are more than welcome to list your own winners for our categories in the comments. Hell, you can list your own categories for our winners, for all we care. Or list your own winners for your own categories, from your own books. Whatever you want to do. And if you feel like donating, there's a button over there with which you can do just that! (Or save your money to buy my record when it comes out, which I also fully support.)

Covers of the week: Red Skull Incarnate #2 by David Aja and Rachel Rising #1 by Terry Moore

And here's what I think was that great Moonstone costume from SDCC. There was a great Moonstone costume at SDCC, and this is a great Moonstone costume, therefore this may or may not be it. But we can pretend it was. Anyway, MORE MOONSTONES PLS is the takeaway from this.

Awesomed By Comics Podcast Episode #145

Hey! You know what? This episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by Horse Quotes, which we invite you to send in at your earliest convenience. We talk a little bit about the last couple weeks of books, recap the best and not-so-best of what we saw at SDCC, AND do our usual show about this week's books! It's like getting one and a quarter shows for the price of having to wait an extra two weeks! Which is not a very good deal at all! Venom, Gotham City Sirens, and Ultimate Fallout were all standouts this week, as were the first Ultimate Fallout and the debut of the all-new, all-not-miserable-anymore Daredevil. Meanwhile, an Eevee family was adorable and Dan DiDio was a colossal jackass at SDCC, but it appears DC is at least going to make an effort to address some of the concerns raised during its panels. (although we learned that too late to talk about it on the show.) Plus other stuff which I forget what it was because we recorded this a thousand days and three billion time zones ago.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, and please always remember that you are more than welcome to list your own winners for our categories in the comments. Hell, you can list your own categories for our winners, for all we care. Or list your own winners for your own categories, from your own books. Whatever you want to do.

Covers of the week:

Eevee Family



(L-R: Umbreon, Eevee, Espeon, Flareon)

Ultimate Fallout 3



Daredevil 1 (from last week)



Venom 5



Oh and also here's Morty, which was awesome.



And you should probably all be aware that this happened too.



Also who wants to see ZOO PICTURES?!?!?! You say that YOU DO? Well then here are some!!











And some highlights from Friday night's baseball game:

THERE WILL BE A SHOW THIS WEEK

Just not now. (We're operating on West Coast time in the morning, and East Coast time at night.)

Hope to do it tomorrow from Los Angeles. With special guest Evie's Mom.

Here's a cat we met last night.