December 30, 2009

When we say Year-End, we mean it

The considerable spike in site visits over the past few days leads me to believe either that a) people are just getting to their Spider-Man #615 letters page, or b) that you're all wondering where the hell our 2009 Year-End Awards Show is. Well, do not fear, it is all recorded, winners exist that are known only to us, etc., but Aaron has had to put in some crazy hours this week due to year-end programming at his real job, so it just needs to be edited. Perhaps we'll spend New Years Eve doing that, just as we spent Christmas Eve recording the show, because that's just how much we love you. Either way, we thank you for your patience, and for making 2009 Awesomed By Comics' best year ever! (Yes it only had six months of 2008 to compete with, but still).

December 20, 2009

ABC Podcast, Episode #73 and visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by the world's only horse-engineered audio recording of our cat eating. I know, right, happy holidays! Shocking turns in Mark Waid's The Unknown: the Devil Made Flesh and Brian K. Vaughan's Ex Machina score big, as does Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber's simulated waterboarding in Underground. Kyle Rainer wins the All-Time Super Contest for Cheesiest Ways to Rejoin the Living, and Power Girl gets hit on by the supreme leader of Earth-Diggler. Also, do not miss us and many other special guests on the War Rocket Ajax Christmas Special, available Monday Dec. 21 at noon EST! We sing, like for real.

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.

Before we get to the comics visuals, here's that terrifying Lidsville theme that Aaron insisted I post. Seriously, you will question your own humanity after watching this:




Cover(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Spider-Man #615, cover by Javier Pulido:


Evie's pick, from Dark Avengers #12, cover by Mike Deodato and Rain Beredo:


Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Fables #91, by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham:


Aaron's pick, from Ex Machina #47 by Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris, but it gives too much away if you're reading it in trade so I'll just put up these adorable penguins and bunnies from Tiny Titans:

December 18, 2009

Awesomed By Comics: officially better than This American Life

From the letters page of this week's Amazing Spider-Man #615, which editor Stephen Wacker wrote the week before Thanksgiving, wherein he lists the things he is most thankful for:

For the record, I am a professional music critic and think both Adam Lambert and George Michael are extremely talented and dynamic performers.

But anyway, what company, huh? From the bottom of our hearts, a real honor sir. Especially given the delightfully varied reviews we've given certain members of your book's creative team over the past year-plus. But the highs have been quite high indeed.

December 15, 2009

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.

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 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:




December 13, 2009

Podcast coming Monday

Hey kids, we went to Boston this weekend and just got home, so the podcast will be a day late--but it will for surely be going up tomorrow night. So hang tight, we thank you for your patience!

December 6, 2009

ABC Podcast Episode #71 and visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by a horse's advice on playing bridge, and our brand new Kirby-cracklefied logo. Word. Magnificent mathiness this week in Echo, musical mirth in Deadpool Team-Up and marvelous magic in Strange and Black Widow & The Marvel Girls. New star fave Kieron Gillen takes over Thor, and Fantastic Mr. Fox gets tremendous mileage out of a fist pump.

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 Dark Avengers Annual #1, cover by Chris Bachalo:


Aaron's pick, from Barack the Barbarian #3, cover by Joel Humberto Herrera:


Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Strange #2 by Mark Waid and Emma Rios:


Evie's pick, from Deadpool Team-Up #898 by Mike Benson and Carlo Barberi:

Okay...

...then how about some Kirby Crackle?

December 4, 2009

LOGO FUN!

You know how you see those ladies at the mall, or the grocery store or wherever, and they're in their late 30's, early 40's, and they still do the poof thing with their bangs, and you think to yourself "good lord, do these women own a television? Don't they know that nobody does that anymore?" And you know that it's because they learned to do their hair in the late 80s/early 90s, and it looked good when they were in high school, and that's probably mentally still where they are and/or would like to be. That was when their sense of personal style was formed, and they've never been able to shake it.

Where am I going with this?

I "learned" graphic design in the late 9os/early 00s. Photoshop 5/6. Layer Styles. 'Embossing' is to my graphic design skill set - what 'boiling' is to Irish cuisine. Multiple fonts per logo. (You guys are lucky you're not getting Comic Sans up there.)

So whoever issued that scathing criticism in the post down there is totally right. I do like the A made up of an exclamation point - but screw the "BC." Let's flatten it, add some comic-booky stuff, and there you go.

Is this any better?