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 #144

This episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by Bouncing Wailord, which you can (and should) get to by googling "Wailord Pringles." Look, we did it for you, right here. Anyway, we're on that show this week as well, talking about Pokemon for a couple of hours. If you're the kind of person who listens to our show and thinks "man oh man, I wish they would just shut up about comics and get back to Pokemon!" (like I would be, if I listened to our show) then this is the show for you! If you're one of those people who merely tolerates our Pokemon talk, or even has complained about it in the comments or in email, then this is probably not the show for you, but we encourage you to download it anyway even if you have no intention of listening to it - just to make us look more influential than we are. Just download it and delete it, they'll never know. Unless they read this. Which they probably will SHIT I SHOULD NOT HAVE EATEN THE BACKSPACE KEY ON THIS KEYBOARDE.

Big wins this week for Generation Hope #8, Sweet Tooth #23, Secret Six #35, Spider Girl #8, Irredeemable #27 (and part of #26 - you'll see) and Thunderbolts #160. Plus despite some serious love for both Flashpoint and Fear Itself, we've got some ... issues. (one of which is too many damn Juggernauts. The other - we probably shouldn't describe here.)

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've got a few bucks burning a hole in your paypal account, then you should probably get your computer checked. But if you want to subsidize a couple of tacos for us when we're in San Diego, knock yourself out with the donate button over there on the right hand side near the top of the sidebar.

Covers of the week:

Jonah Hex #69 by Jeff Lemire, and Vengeance #1 by Gabrielle Dell'Otto

Bonus Regijuggas for you Pokemon lovers out there.

ABCP Episode #133, plus fake special guest

This "back from a computer-imposed week off" episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by a very special episode of our very favorite other podcast, featuring a very special artist who has decided to charge a very special $200 for interviews because his very special art career is very especially over. Big wins for Uncanny X-Men's "point one" issue, a turning point for "Who is Jake Ellis," some hero/villain turns in Secret Six, a great start for the new Herc, a pretty good start for Nonplayer, and a pretty bad start for the Fear Itself tie-in book.

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 feel free to suggest your own winners for our categories. Also if you've ever considered supporting the show, this would be the time to do so with a donation of your choosing over there at the top of the right sidebar.

ABC Podcast #132, plus niffles

This episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by the debut of what will likely be a Summer-long feature, in which Aaron recaps how 11 listeners, creators, and fellow podcasters will most likely do much, much better than Aaron at fantasy baseball. Victories abound for FF, DD, Mon Mon, The Mission, Magic Batman, Superlamb, and the niffles. Also, since Evie doesn't listen to the show, there's a bunch of stuff Chris from WRA and I have already covered, including Poker Face, the WW Costume, and last week's Unwritten. Oh, and also we're on WRA this week, you should listen to find out about zoos near you!

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 feel free to suggest your own winners for our categories. Also if you've ever considered supporting the show, this would be the time to do so with a donation of your choosing over there at the top of the right sidebar.

Now, courtesy of our friend Joseph, here's Snorlaxtus, and the Silver Surfin' Pikachu!

ABC Podcast Episode #126, plus some other stuff

This episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by a very irritated Aaron, who became even more irritated after he edited the show and realized he wasn't actually as irritated as he thought he was, and that he interrupted the show during the editing process for no real reason. Also the dryer caught on fire yesterday and a cat clawed me in the leg and whatever X-FACTOR WAS GREAT AND SO WAS POWER MAN AND IRON FIST AND BATGIRL AND OMG THEY KILLED A WHOLE BUNCH OF PEOPLE THIS WEEK AND THE WHOLE HOUSE SMELLS LIKE BURNED OUT DRYER AND SOMEBODY SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE MEEEEEEE. Also, BOYS RULE GIRLS DROOL!

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 feel free to suggest your own winners for our categories. Also if you've ever considered supporting the show, this would be the time to do so with a donation of your choosing over there at the top of the right sidebar.

Covers of the Week:

Aaron's co-pick - Batgirl 18 by Dustin Nguyen



Aaron's co-pick - Cinderella: Fables are Forever by Chrissie Zullo (AKA Dustin Nguyen)



Evie's pick - Justice League: Generation Lost 19 also by Dustin Nguyen

Bonus Lidsville :





Bonus Higgins Boys and Gruber:

ABCP BEST OF 2010 COMING IN 2011!!

Because what if we did the show this week, but something AMAZING came out this week, and was the best of 2010, but we couldn't include it in our best of 2010 show because we recorded our best of 2010 show before 2010 was actually really over and then we would all be sad but then we couldn't include it in our best of 2011 show either because it would have come out in 2010 not 2011 and the best of 2011 show we do next year will only include books that were released in 2011 not 2010 which is when books that came out this week are coming out because right now it is technically still 2010 also...



...WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

ABC Podcast #111 NYCC EDITION and (pending) visual aids

This episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you almost entirely by the contents of New York Comic Con. (Comicon? Comic-Con? Spiderman? Spider-Man? Spader-James?) We take a break from our usual format of handing out awards to the week's books, and instead hand out awards to the weekend's events, with a smattering of books sprinkled in.

Whoa damn, lightning storm here is NUTS.

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 feel free to suggest your own winners for our categories.

Many photos coming tomorrow, but it's late, so check back for more. Also, I hear u liek Mudkipz.

ABC Podcast Episode #103, plus visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq.We answer some of your drunk-ass discussion questions, and give a lot of love to cats, caterpillars, gods and clowns. We also utter the most shocking four words in the English language, "We miss Greg Land".

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 suggest your own winners for our categories!

Cover(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Incorruptible #8, cover by Rafael Albuquerque:


Evie's pick, from Justice League: Generation Lost #6, cover by Cliff Chiang:


Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Action Comics #891 by Paul Cornell, Pete Woods and Cafu:


Aaron's pick, from Thor #612 by Kieron Gillen and Doug Braithwaite:


Bonus Crap of the Week Panel

Bonus PIKACHUS (thanks to Kian)

ABC Podcast, episode #96 plus visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by HITS, which is really the same as HTTC, but shhhhhhhh. Big wins for DC's imprints, as Sweet Tooth, Sparta USA and Demo showcase some impressive storytelling. The Bulletproof Coffin sets up an interesting premise, The Red Hood is much better than we thought it would be, and Heralds is exactly as good as we thought it would be, which is very very very good. Also, yon peeps shall have thy bottoms rocked mayhaps? Because TERRY MCGINNIS.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, or visit our show forum.

Cover(s) of the Week

Evie's Pick, from Avengers The Origin #3, cover by Phil Noto 

Aaron's Pick, from The Thanos Imperative #1, cover by Aleksi Briclot

Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's Pick, from Demo volume 2 #5, by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan

Evie's pick, from Heralds #1 by Kathryn Immonen and Tonci Zonjic

 

More personalized Pokemon prizes to come later, we promise!!!!

ABC Podcast, episode #95 plus visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by HTTC, a new segment on the show that you just really don't want to know the origin of. We say goodbye to legendary runs on Wonder Woman and Power Girl, welcome back the Avatar of Death, cheer Jonathan Hickman's wise protest in Fantastic Four, and discuss whether Rise of Arsenal #3 is in fact the worst comic ever written, or just the second worst. Also make sure to stay through the end of the show to hear us take our cats to Taco Bell. This is not a euphemism for anything.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, or visit our show forum.

Also, see below for more listener-named Pokemon and some special fan art!

Cover(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from X-Men Origins: Emma Frost #1, cover by Benjamin Zhang Bin:


Evie's pick, from Power Girl #12, cover by Amanda Conner:

Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Power Girl #12, by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Amanda Conner:


Aaron's pick, from Gotham City Sirens #12 by Tony Bedard and Peter Nguyen:


Also: Danny Wall's Mike Allred-Rob Liefeld mashup (explanation here):


And, more prizes for submitting discussion questions!

For Lydia:

David:

And LOTR Dan:

ABC Podcast #88 and Visual Aids

To North Philadelphia we won't go, on three comics is where we spent most of this show. Demo number three, S.H.I.E.L.D. number one, and Thor and the Warriors Four were all fun. Sparta USA has us both enthused, while Evie gets the Nemesis comics confused, Aaron loses to a listener at Pokemon battling, and we talk illegal downloads (don't you go tattling.) We're sponsored by Jaguars in a musical skit, and THIS SHOW MAKES KICK ASS LOOK LIKE $H!T.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, or visit our show forum.

Cover(s) of the Week

From Demo #3 cover by Becky Cloonan


From Nemesis: The Imposters #2 cover by Daniel Luvisi


Panel(s) of the Week

From S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 by Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver:


From Thor and the Warriors Four #1, by Alex Zalben and Gurihiru:

LET ME SHOW YOU THEM.

The Awesomed by Comics Pokemon Challenge is officially ON. Of course, the Discussion Question Challenge with Pokemon naming rights as prizes is also still officially ON but there's no rule against having two challenges that are officially ON at the same time, is there? And if there is, well CONSIDER IT BROKEN because both challenges are officially ON.

Now, before I get into the scritti politti of the Awesomed by Comics Pokemon Challenge (which, as you may or may not be aware, is officially ON) allow me to show you THIS amazing piece of awesome delivered to our comments box at 2:30 this morning.


This is from listener David Henion, the artist of the webcomic Daisychains which I wish I could say more about but I haven't had the chance to read it yet because I found out about it today and just got home from work. But you should also read it, that way we can all be reading it at the same time! Anyway, this is awesome for three reasons, which I will enumerate here.

1. Evie and Aaron are, in fact, the only two (relatively normal) names which are also names of Pokemon species. Spelled differently of course, the Pokemon are Eevee and Aron, as you can see up there. I suppose there might be someone out there named Doug Trijo or Margaret Nemite but let's stick with first names.

2. That's obviously Stan in the background. Which is not only awesome because somebody put Stan in a comic, but I love the idea that Pokemon would have a cat.

3. COME ON THAT IS AWESOME.

David actually came remarkably close to our mic setup as well, except Evie actually uses the good mic.

So David has clearly passed the Awesomed By Comics Pokemon Challenge. But you don't have to have artistic skills to participate! No, all you need is a Nintendo DS and a copy of Pokemon(s) Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Heart Gold, Soul Silver, Yellow Moons, Purple Horseshoes, Green Giant, Lumber Liquidators, etc. And of course you need this - the most coveted piece of information that exists possibly anywhere ever, MY FRIEND CODE. Which is 5242 4115 1448. (You can find yours in your "Pal Pad" in the key items pocket of your bag.)

So there you go. Now you've got my friend code. Put me in your Pal Pad, or send me your friend code so that I can put you in mine, let me know what time you want to make battling, and IT WILL BE ON.

CHALLENGE ISSUEMENT ACCOMPLISHED!

ABC Podcast, Episode #60 plus visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by Thomas Kinkade, Painter of F&$%&* Light, how f*&%(^ awesome is that guy. We extend a warm welcome to new listeners brought via the recent recommendations of respected comics creators and commentators, and then swiftly proceed to go off the trolley like the walnut-brained mouthbreathers that we are. Beasts of Burden and Agents of Atlas get hearty nods, while M.O.D.O.K. demands pancakes, which is perfectly reasonable.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, or visit our show forum.

Cover(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Beasts of Burden #1, cover by Jill Thompson:


Aaron's pick, from Ultimate Armor Wars #1, cover by Brandon Peterson:


Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Agents of Atlas #11, by Jeff Parker, Dan Panosian and Gabriel Hardman:


Evie's picks, the panel sequence above, plus runner-up from Chapter 3 of Amazing Spider-Man #605 by Brian Reed, Yanick Paquette and Mark Farmer:

Behind the Curtain

Evie may not hate when bloggers write "why I'm not blogging" posts, but I sure do. So I figured this would be as good a time as any to let everyone out there see where the magic happens.

Here then is our little Sanctum Sanctorum, complete with eyes of aggamotto and wands of watoomb and toys featuring hot chicks in suits of cat.

Just like Dr. Strange's famous Greenwich Village manse, my home studio also appears to be something other than what it is. In fact, I distinctly remember when we first moved to New York City four years ago, walking through the village on a quest for macaroons, eyeing each building with a hint of suspicion, as though any of them could be hiding the true whereabouts of the universe's Sorcerer Supreme. (And while we didn't find Dr. Strange's hideout, or macaroons for that matter, we did pick up a neat toy which you will see in a minute.)

So lo! Here just outside our bathroom, sits this non-descript cabinet. (non-descript if you don't count the hanging guitars and the microphone stand directly beside it. And the tower of keyboard equipment to its right, which I did not photograph, as that would have ruined the comparison.)



O ho! But inside, there is a world of wonder!



Baubles and levers and switches and something called a "sonic maximizer" which I'm still not 100% sure what it does, but it will likely come in handy should Evie ever become posessed by an alien symbiote. This cabinet hides messes of wire so tangled, it rivals the far-outiest of the Ditkoverse constructed for the good Doctor.

So let's take a look at some of the toys that make my studio go go go go! No, not the devices and gadgets and preamps and that nonsense. Actual toys.



Here are the newest additions to the team, Snorlax, Driftblim and Guy Gardner. Why is Guy hanging with the Pokemons, you ask? Because the rest of my studio is populated by toy babes, whom I wish to protect from his inevitable advances.

Allow me to introduce to you the first of those babes, Fujiko Mine from my all-time favorite anime (and one of my favorite manga) Lupin III. This is Fujiko undercover as an extremely believable policewoman, who would certainly not at all raise any suspicions that she might not actually be a real policewoman.

Oh, and also her sidekick Machop. They're like Turner and Hooch.



Here are my other two Fujikos, one of which was picked up at the aforehinted-at Japanese import toy store in New York, the other of which may also have been, but I'm leaning towards ebay as the source for it. The one hanging from my lamp used to also have a motorcycle, until it fell and broke. Now she's on a covert mission to infiltrate the back of my monitor, or the top of my D8.





And of course, what would a studio be without a Firestar on a Dala Horse?



And while I'm at it, I may as well go ahead and introduce you to our occasional guest-stars, Stan and Pokey. They are also where the magic happens, whereas magic = cat poops.

Stan's the pink one.






You can see why Pokey might be less likely to appear on the podcast, given that this is his state of being about 95% of the time.

So now you know babies are made!

SO OKoffkoffhackhookkaffAY!

O HAI. So the Con-SARS/plague/crud/deathbeast/whatever hasn't gone away, but I was back at work today, and after a few gallons of Starbucks Berry Chai (good tip, Heidi) and several dozen rounds of "Sunny" on repeat (seriously, it's like 2 minutes and 43 seconds of DayQuil a pop), I'm ready to share some tales!

1) My official round-ups of several Marvel/DC panels are here, the second, third and fourth news bullets. They're briefer than the Newsarama/CBR play-by-plays, but it's a different audience. And you've probably already read those. I'm not going to go into them here, beyond what I already said about DC Nation below, which has so far been the universal assessment. Marvel pretty much won this one hands-down, except I will say for the news that the Rucka/Williams Batwoman comic I was so worried would be some kind of placating mini is actually going to be a big long starring run in Detective Fucking Comics. So let's all raise a big hallelujah to that action.

2) The beard has definitively replaced the goatee in fanboy facial fashion. Which of course was replaced by bare skin in non-fanboy facial fashion about ten years ago, but you know whatever. Ok I take this back. With heightened awareness I did a little anthropological observation on my commute today, and unless 85% of the 25-42 year-old males in Manhattan read comic books, beards are apparently making quite a comeback in general.

3) Did I mention the Wonder Woman movie? Yeah, go buy it on March 3. It's tremendous.

4) The Beat's Art of Storytelling panel on Sunday was fascinating, especially for those of us who consider ourselves creative in some ways but do not at all get the kind of ideas that come to the minds of gifted creators (note I am speaking for myself, not Aaron--he gets those ideas all the time, he just needs to write one down some day). Moderated by Heidi MacDonald, it featured Marv Wolfman, Jim Lee, Carla Speed McNeil, Ben Templesmith and Terry Moore, so you know, people with big, crazy, awesome story brains.

5) Alright Lost is on now and I'm coughing up my spleen, so I'll give you the rest in some not-very-artful pictures:

Who chalks the Chalkmen!


The endlessly prolific Greg Rucka giving an interview to iFanboy's Ron Richards (whom I've spent more time talking with about Morrissey worship than comics, which is saying something)

Yeah you know I had to get Firestar's picture for Aaron, stat. She even has a Ms. Lion doll! (And did you hear? Ms. Lion is going to be a Pet Avenger!)

Hey, aren't pictures of panels the best? Greg Pak and Joe Quesada agree.

The girl in the Jessie outfit handmade these Team Rocket costumes (even though Team Rocket doesn't have a Furrett), and they made my day.


If you're going to go to karaoke at Sing Sing, get there early so your song wait time isn't three hours, which is too much. Laura knows this, and well. (From left: Popgun Vol. 3 co-editor Adam Knave, a girl whose name I didn't catch so sorry, the ubiquitous Jeff Newelt who took a knock-out turn on Shaggy's "Angel," Laura Hudson of Publishers Weekly/Comic Foundry/MTV.com/etc., Laura's friend Valery which I keep wanting to type as Valkyrie, Popgun co-editor Mark Andrew Smith, oh hi, Image Comics PR/Marketing emperor Joe Keatinge, who came down with the plague that Aaron and I are just now getting over about an hour after this picture was taken on Thursday).