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 #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 #135

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by, apparently, the fact that all of you, supposedly, like Evie better than Aaron and subconsciously psychically direct your good vibes more in her general direction, or something. Lots of great team books this week, with Thunderbolts, Generation Hope, X-Factor and Power Girl (which is sort of a team book at the moment) coming out on top. It's a handsy week, as nearly everyone cops a feel, and Aaron thinks this is awesome. The new season of Doctor Who premieres, thank god, as does a fun new Doctor Who comic.

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.

Also, apologies for the current lack of visual aids--as everything in our house is falling apart around us, so goes our All-In-One--a new printer/scanner is on the buy list for this week.

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 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 #102 plus visual aids

This week's episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by crazy two-sport athlete conspiracy theories, sandwiched by appearances of one of music's most recognizable tritones. We literally CANNOT say enough good things about the finale of the Boom! series "Codebreakers" -- because saying any more than we did would give the surprises away, and we are demanding that you read it. Superman hits the road to go be a dick somewhere other than Metropolis, The Stuff of Legend and The Unwritten both deliver great work as usual, we lol at Booster Gold, and the X-Men wrap up what turned out to be a fairly solid event by pointlessly murdering innocent and equally endangered creatures.

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(z) of the Week

Evie's pick, from The Unwritten #15, cover by Yuko Shimizu

Aaron's pick, from Gorilla Man #1, cover by Dave Johnson

Panel(s) of the Week:

Evie's pick, from Echo #23 by Terry Moore

Aaron's pick, from Thanos Imperative #2 by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, art by Miguel Sepulveda.

(for the real one, look down below - be warned, there's spoilers.

ABC Podcast Episode #76, plus visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by another horse giving different bridge advice, so get out your notepad. Dr. Strange and various X-Men impress, as do their adorable Canadian boyfriends, and the reformed Rhino warms our hearts. Mike Carey's The Unwritten continues to kill it, and the ending of Christos Gage's Absolution sparks a lukewarm debate. We also get to the bottom of the misidentified Amazing Spider-Man cover artist controversy, which we admit was our mistake, but then they mess up the credits this week so WHO(M) DO YOU TRUST?

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 S.W.O.R.D. #3, cover by John Cassaday and Laura Martin:


Aaron's pick, from Amazing Spider-Man #617, cover by, uh, um, Max Fiumara?

Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Invincible Iron Man #22, by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca:


Evie's pick, also from Invincible Iron Man #22:

ABCP Episode #72 and visual aids

Tuesday is the new Monday.

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by Aaron's mea culpa regarding microphone technique, which is ironic since his mic distorts for a minute at the very beginning, and he didn't notice. Secret Six and S.W.O.R.D. win big, partially because they're two of the four books Evie read, but mostly because they win everything when they come out anyway. Aaron gushes over Paul Tobin's Marvel All-Ages output, and claims to have coined the phrase "Tobinverse," although he may or may not have. (NOTE: A google search turns up only one Paul Tobin-related result for "tobinverse" - ironically posted just last week, by friend-of-the-show Douglas Wolk.) Also, we decide the X-Men anthology books are better than anything else X-related.

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Cover(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Secret Six #16, cover by Daniel Luvisi:

Aaron's pick, from The Boys #37, cover by Darrick Robertson:


Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from The Unwritten #8 by Mike Carey and Peter Gross:


Evie's picks, from Nation X #1 by James Asmus and Mike Allred:

Time to graffiti the Dreaming Celestial

We're off to San Francisco at 0-crack-hundred tomorrow morning for our first vacation in more than a year--and no we didn't choose it because of the X-Men, we chose it because of the A's, among other reasons, but that's another story.

Anyway, we were going to have to skip the podcast for two weeks, but because we love you clowns just too dang much, we're actually going to bring our stuff and do at least one show live from Graymalkin Industries, or maybe our hotel room, or someone's apartment, or Cannery Row, or something. Not only that, but we're going to make it extra special, with guest star Ron Richards from iFanboy, and maybe some other surprise NoCal-based guests. We shall see.

And now it's time to hammer on that endless pre-vacation to-do list--I've been rocking like 14-hour work days so I can hardly believe this is even happening.

ABC Podcast, Episode #53 and visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by Internet Hornswagglers, crafty peddlers of Wildean wit and lucid dreams for all. Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1 makes a solid showing, General Zod shows some heart, and Warren Ellis proves that he will never run out of thoroughly effed-up ideas with the last panel of No Hero #6. We make ABC history with the first episode in which Evie's Book of the Week is Aaron's Crap of the Week. Or maybe it's happened before, we can't remember.

Download/subscribe to the show 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

Aaron's pick, from Red Robin #2, cover by Francis Manapul:


Evie's pick, from Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1, variant cover by Niko Henrichon:


Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Wednesday Comics #1: Metamorpho by Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred:


Aaron's pick, from Batman #688 by Judd Winick and Mark Bagley (click to enlarge):

Like Catwoman, but more uptight

So this is rather interesting news, that there will be a new Black Panther, and that she will be a lady. It's especially interesting because a new Black Panther cartoon is starting on BET next year, presumably starring T'Challa, and Reginald Hudlin doesn't seem to be concerned about the crossover mismatch. It's especially especially interesting because DC has just canceled Manhunter and the Minx line, and Marvel is actually replacing a popular male superhero with a female, at least for as long as it holds. This isn't the same as the girl Kraven or Lady Bullseye that just showed up, because a) they're villains, and b) they're not really replacing their male counterparts as much as being probably short-lived vehicles for something or other. But the Black Panther identity is sort of divinely hereditary by design, so all signs point to the unidentified female successor as being much more than a copy cat (uh, no pun and all that).

The Black Panther series lately has been pretty decent, and Jason Aaron's Secret Invasion crossover run was lovely (unlike, you know, Secret Invasion). But I certainly won't be joining in any choruses of protest against this move, because Storm has recently returned to the X-Men in Astonishing, and I'm cool with that, and maybe this means she'll stay and T'Challa will, like, come be their spiritual adviser or something. Also, duh, lady Black Panther. Rawr.

O hai, I'm a million years old

A very happy 21st birthday to Cannonball, and also to me. Except that when he was born I was old enough to have a bowling party, and get the "Straight Up" cassingle.

ABC Podcast, Episode #15

This week's episode of Awesomed By Comics is sponsored by "Two and a Half Men," and Harriet's Halfway House, and three-quarters of a banana. Aaron and Evie revisit the awesomeness of Arcana's Penance: Trial of the Century with the second issue, say a sad goodbye to X-Men First Class as an ongoing, and finally give something to always-a-bridesmaid Tangent: Superman's Reign. Editing may not be super tight, Aaron has a lot of actual work to do.

I actually couldn't get this up when I was at home with my scanner and whatnot, so no visual aids for Cover and Panel of the Week just yet--maybe tonight, if I get a burst of energy.

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ABC Podcast Episode #14, and visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by "Two and a Half Men," used around the world either for the crisp petiole or the fleshy taproot. Kooky heroes with claws get lots of love, as does a new indie book inexplicably edited by the guy who created "America's Funniest Home Videos." Special not-to-miss feature is Aaron's Secret Invasion #6 Crap of the Week Flashblast from the Backpast Old Timey Radio Comic Book Haberdashery.

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Cover(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from X-Men: Magneto Testament #1, cover by Marko Djurdjevic:



Aaron's pick, from Final Crisis: Revelations #2, cover by Philip Tan:



Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Wonder Woman #24, by Gail Simone and Bernard Chang:



Evie's pick, from Patsy Walker: Hellcat #3 by Katherine Immonen and David Lafuente:

ABC Podcast, episode #13 checklist

So you know what might be handy for several reasons? A list of the books we talk about on the show! Also, a knife that automatically detects human flesh, and refuses to cut it! The former would be handy as it would allow you, our dear listeners, to be alerted to what comics/things we're going to be talking about this week, that way you can more easily avoid spoilers, AND so that there'll be a reference guide, in case someone ever wants to go back and listen to a show about a particular issue long after the fact. The latter would be handy as it would cut down on both kitchen accidents (ow, my thumb!) and knife fights.

So as not to spoil the show itself, We're not going to list which books won which categories just yet.

ABCP13 Topics of Converstaion
Fables 75
Spider Man loves Mary Jane 2
Manhunter 34
Secret Six 1
The Authority: World's End 2
X-Men Origins: Beast
Marvel Apes 1
X-Men: Manifest Destiny 1
Eternals 4
Supergirl 33
Next Avengers (DVD)
Sub Mariner: The Depths 1

So if any or all of this stuff is on your list to read, read it before listening to us! And if any or all of this stuff piques your interest in what we think about it, then by golly, this episode is for you!

Doy?

You're telling me that in their years-long holy war preparations, the Skrulls didn't think to infiltrate or even monitor the X-Men, and therefore didn't know they were in San Francisco? Ok then.

ABC Podcast, Episode #9

Episode #9 of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by trains, because TRAINS ARE AWESOME. Aaron lauds the heroism of a topless Emma Frost, while Evie imagines a Cyclops v. Nightwing inter-company crossover wrestling match. Aaron presents the Crap of the Week Final Crisis #3 Read-Along What the Fuck. Terry Moore and Eternals win big, and also, trains are awesome.

Download this episode and/or subscribe to the podcast in the right sidebar.

I know you are but what am I

This will probably be one of our Panels of the Week, but just in case, this made me laugh for five straight minutes:

Who is the Question? The X-Women, apparently.

Not being in San Diego to talk about goings on and announcements and parties and giant Pikachu balloons, I'll just sit over here and talk about comic books. If that's ok with you.

When it comes to comic book art, I'm pretty much in the camp that would be cool with stick figures as long as the story is good. I mean I guess if all my comics actually had stick figures, I'd be like "ok, I appreciate that all the monthlies are coming out on time and stuff but this is getting a little old"--but my general point is that I don't scrutinize the art the way I do the plot, dialog and characterization. Part of this is because I can't draw a straight line unless I'm trying to make it wiggly, so I'm duly impressed with anyone who's talented enough to make a living at it, whether they blow me away or not. I appreciate it when I am blown away, and I complain a little bit if the art is hard to follow, but you won't hear me saying things like "the shading on Wonder Woman's cheek was off."

So given my generally relaxed perspective vis a vis cartoonists, I'm wondering if I could get some corroborating opinions that this panel from Uncanny X-Men #500 is suckfully incompetent:


I'm sure if asked, Greg Land would mumble some bullshit about deliberate abstraction. But I'm fairly convinced that if pressed with threats and mindgames and truth serums, he might eventually say "ok, actually I really can't be arsed to, uh, draw small things. It takes a long time and makes my fingers cramp, and they don't come out so good anyway."

Another astounding example, from the same issue:


Now, obviously the script here said "turn page to breathtaking two-page spread of San Francisco skyline," right? Instead, the next page is still more conversations inside the building, with nary a Bay Bridge in sight. So either this is a joke that didn't go over so well, or Greg Land said "Uh, that sounds pretty hard. Can we just have the reader picture it in his mind instead?" And I say "his," because that's probably what Greg Land said. Given that women don't have faces and therefore no eyes for reading comic books.

Anyway, this was a fairly interesting issue with some intriguing points for going forward, but this lazy-ass art, it was quite distracting, to my incredibly tolerant eyes. Which I do have. I'm sure Marvel wanted to get this landmark 500th issue out in time for Comic Con, but there's gotta be someone who could have made this happen in a marginally quality way. I'm just sayin.

Top 20!

So I made a hypothetical comment below about "if I were to compile a list of my 20 favorite runs."

And within seconds of my fingers lifting off the keys, my brain kicked into gear, as the brain of a comic fan always does when presented with such an idea, and I decided to compile a list of my 20 favorite runs.

This list is not even remotely final or complete or even correct. (I probably have a few creators wrong.) But working off the top of my head at 2 in the morning last night, here's what I came up with.

New Warriors V1 Nicieza/Robinson
Avengers V2 Busiek/Perez
Ex Machina BKV/Harris
Runaways BKV/others
Y The Last Man BKV/Guerra
Daredevil Bendis/Maleev?
Ult. Spider Man Bendis/Bagley
Planetary Ellis/Cassaday
Warlock Starlin
Defenders Gerber/???
Ult FF Ellis/Immonnen, (Ellis/Kubert?)
Animal Man Morrison/???
New X-Men Morrison/Quitely
52 Morrison, etc.
Sentinel McKeever
Ultimates 1&2 Millar/Hitch
Fables Willingham/Buckingham
Ult. Galactus Trilogy - Ellis
Marvels Busiek Ross
Birds of Prey Simone

I figured I'd post the list here in its outline/barebones/incorrect form, and do a little series of posts tracking the changes until I get to my final list. Obviously there's a lot more modern stuff in here, because I've read a lot more modern stuff.

And besides. Why the hell not? I've got a comic blog. This is what comic blogs are for.