People who rule

I'm assuming just by certain transitive properties that at least 50 percent of the people who read this site are Rachel Maddow fans to one degree or another. Anyway, in case you didn't want her to be your pretend girlfriend badly enough, read this, wherein she piles love on Queen & Country. Somewhere, some Greg Rucka fan fic author is shipping the hell out of Rachel Maddow and Renee Montoya, and the sun shines a little brighter. Happy New Year!

Ho Ho Holy shit I have a lot of wrapping to do tonight

We'll be gallivanting around the Eastern seaboard for the next several days, but please be sure to download the two-part year-end podcast if you haven't already. Have an awesomed one everybody!!


(I almost went with this image, but then feared that anyone who hasn't been around here all that much might take it the wrong way.)

I never thought I could feel this way about anyone, Alfred

Recent Madonna ex Guy Ritchie's rich new girlfriend is supposedly named Jemima Khan, and is "the daughter of Lady Annabel Goldsmith and the late financier Sir James Goldsmith. She was previously married to a Pakistani cricket player."

I say "supposedly" because this is clearly a secretly evil Bruce Wayne love interest, not a real person.

ABC Podcast 2008 Year-End Special!!

Welcome to the Awesomed By Comics Year-End Spectacular Extravaganzamaskkahnzasm! In this very special two-part episode, Aaron and Evie give awards to the comics, characters creators and more that made 2008 in comics what it was, from the triumphs to the tripe. Lots of new categories, and some unexpected (and some very expected) winners. We even sing for you, for free. As a special bonus for those who believe hard enough, we'll throw in a dozen of Aaron's famous orange cranberry pecan Christmas cookies. Be sure to download both Parts A and B. Have an awesomed holiday!

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Nominees for 2008's Funniest Moment in Comics (because they lose a little something in the audio version):











(These next two panels don't sufficiently represent the nomination, which was the execution of Kang's attempted world domination via potato chip enterprise)

R.I.P. Maddie Blaustein

I was extremely saddened to learn of the passing of comics writer, prolific voice actress and friend Maddie Blaustein.





Maddie (born Adam Blaustein) might be the most recognizable transgender voice on the planet, from her roles as Meowth on Pokemon, and Solomon Moto on Yu-Gi-Oh, not to mention dozens of other anime and video games. She was also a writer for Milestone Comics, penning issues of Static and Hardware, as well as the limited series Deathwish.

Maddie once told me the story of how she was inspired to fully transition from male to female (and to come out to her co-workers as transgender) by an episode of Pokemon. In the episode "Go West, Young Meowth" her character travels to Hollywood to make it big. There, Meowth falls in love with another Meowth, who spurns his advances. He decides to learn how to speak and to stand upright in order to impress her - but she rejects him for being a "freak." Meowth was a human trapped in a Pokemon's body.

Maddie was an inspiration to people around the world - not just GLBT people, but anyone who felt like a little bit of an outcast.

She died in her sleep at the age of 48, after what's been called a "brief illness." She will be dearly missed by anyone who loved her work, whether they knew her name or not.

ABC Podcast, Episode #27 and visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by "Alphabet Bitches" by Lil' Wayne, which incidentally settles a question or two about Black Adam's late bride. I Kill Giants once again gets the gush treatment, and Final Crisis #5 barely qualifies for an award of its own. Awards also go to nasty jerks and a delightfully adapted PowerPoint presentation. Aaron presents an urban allegory to answer all your questions about how the likes of Ed Benes, Grant Morrison, etc. are allowed to keep doing what they do without consequence.

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Cover(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz #1, cover by Skottie Young:


Evie's pick, from Green Lantern Corps #31, cover by Patrick Gleason and Nei Ruffino:

Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from I Kill Giants #6 by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura:


Aaron's pick, from I Kill Giants #6 by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura:

I can hardly wait

I'm working from home today, still in my pajamas, because a guy is painting and working in my bathroom to fix some plumbing that was originally done by a guy who was completely shitfaced. The point is that I am feeling both lazy and on edge, which results in a snitty post like this.

So anyway I was reading Secret Invasion: Dark Reign #1 last night, and while there are any number of hilarious things to pick on, such as old ragged Namor (who, by the way, also acts nothing like Namor in addition to looking nothing like him), this is what jumped out, from the previews at the end:


"Huh," I thought, "that is an awfully long time to wait, maybe they want to get us excited just in time for Don Cheadle?" But no, of course it is a typo, somebody just cut and pasted from the other preview tags that say "ON SALE JANUARY XX, 2009," etc. We only have to wait one week for this Inuit-slaughtering opus (which we know from the preview showing the bloody mauling of Inuits), not one year and one week. It's like Christmas already.

You know what's a terrible thing to do?

A terrible thing to do is to fall asleep while reading Final Crisis. Seriously, you will wake up and not even know what hemisphere you're in. Particularly since you won't have fallen asleep all at once, but in fits and starts, while sort of reading two or three pages that shift transitionless between context-free scenes, characters you forgot existed and Mary Marvel scalp-stubble. It's horrifying.

ABC Podcast, Episode #26 and visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is sponsored by a very nice and not bad-looking girl who is bored this evening, would you like to chat? In this very special show, Evie and Aaron interview a certain Big Shot Writer who may or may not answer all of your burning questions about a certain blockbuster "summer" crossover event whose "shocking" conclusion was released this "week". So be sure to stay tuned for that bonus segment about midway through. Also, Aaron gets excited about lots of green-skinned space babes, and the Punisher brings the hurt in the name of Our Lord and Savior. X-Men Noir debuts, albeit without any of these promised black X-Men, and Criminal #7 STEALS the show. HA HA.

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Cover(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from X-Men Noir #1, cover by Dennis Calero:


Evie's pick, from Cable #9, cover by Ariel Olivetti:


Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Terra #3 by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner:


Aaron's picks, from X-Men Manifest Destiny #4, story by James Asmus, art by Takeshi Miyazawa:


And from Marvels: Eye of the Camera #1 by Kurt Busiek and Jay Anacleto:

Suggestion

It's probably too late for this, but just in case it's not: Don't read Secret Invasion #8. You know what happens. If you read it, you'll close it with a furrowed brow and full of doubt that you ever knew the difference between good and terrible storytelling. Instead, read New Avengers #47. Despite being written by the same author and even overlapping in a few panels, it is nothing like Secret Invasion. It is small and tender and tense, and will remind you of a bygone era when that author spent a lot of time doing what he was very good at and did not get in over his head with toothless, lumbering punch-and-kickathons. At least consider it. For the children.

A sad goodbye to Comic Foundry

As Tim Leong and Laura Hudson announced on Comic Foundry's website today, and in an email to contributors last night, the innovative magazine of comics culture is closing after the next issue.

This causes me great sorrow. When I first discovered Comic Foundry at Forbidden Planet early this year, my first thought was "I love this!" and my second thought was "I want to write for them!" because after all that's what I do, and I can't just admire something without sticking my fingers in it. After enjoying the first four issues as a reader, I am in fact contributing to the fifth and final issue, with a fun Valentine's-themed piece that Aaron and I wrote together (I know, awwww). The timing should be perfect, as the issue is scheduled to come out in early February, hopefully in time to be available at New York Comic Con. But still, I was really looking forward to seeing the magazine grow, as it really is one of a kind, and has a little something for everyone who has ever flipped through a funny book or two.

Anyway, I'm sort of hoping that there will be all kinds of outrage that will force Tim to reconsider, but his decision is understandable and that probably won't happen. However, if you haven't read it yet, go buy or order every copy you can find, so that you can be pissed off about its demise just in time.