April 18, 2010

ABCP Podcast #89 and Visual Aids

This week's episode proves that ABCP isn't our show, it's YOUR show. Actually, no, it's still our show, but several of you are on it this week. Listeners from around the world fill in for the once again AWOL Evie (back to normal next week, we promise!) You guys convince Aaron to go get Atomic Robo and X-Factor Forever, talk about Loki's badassery, discuss the Kick Ass movie's kickassery, and one of you spent as much time editing your three minutes as Aaron did on the whole show (with hilarious results.) Plus two special guests at the beginning and another one at the end. Oh, and Aaron loves Batgirl.

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





Panel(s) of the Week





Link(s) to Stuff of the Week

Artist Amanda Hardy drew 252 Pokemon, all of which are adorable, many of which are hilarious. Such as these.






Just one more Pokemon link - this one's especially good for the incredibly rare Venn Diagram crossover between Pokemon lovers and fans of Dinosaur Comics. Here's Omastar Comics. And also by those guys, here's the funniest video game review I've ever read. (it does help to have played that game.)



Lastly, a webcomic 'by' a cat - the creator has the POV pretty much nailed. (thanks to listener Eric Lyden for sending it to us!)

16 comments:

Mark said...

I've read through the three volumes of Showcase Flash DC has put out, and I can say that your assessment of Barry is pretty spot on. His personality is very just straight shooting and "aw shucks" moments, but looking at the other DC characters at the time, it was a refreshing take.

Barry was never one to indulge himself too much. While Superman had Clark in the Silver Age to kind of play coy and tease humanity with his perceived weaknesses and odd behavior, and Hal Jordan (who admittedly came later than Barry) was just a him donning a mask and acting where much himself, Barry was just kind of a normal guy when he was being the Flash. He didn't don a different persona, just kind of clocked in to do the job, hoping today wasn't going to be a bad day. He saw it as a duty, took joy in accomplishing goals, and hated when his passion was ridiculed. I think the Flash most have had the most enemies that would rather make fun of him than fight him, such as the infamous Puppet Issue or any issue with the Trickster.

He wasn't without a personality, but much like Peter Parker it was a real one. Except while Peter was an adolescent view of super heroics, Barry was the adult version, enjoying the ironies of life and just trying to make his actual romance with Iris work out despite his difficulties as a man. It was very much real.

However, what works for 1956 doesn't work for today, or even the 1970s where Barry became kind of a burden and boring. Barry worked when the Flashes world was full of fancy and wonder, with Barry kind of being the guy shaking his head with a chuckle as he saw what the Rogues or Grodd cooked up for him.

Mark said...

I hope that makes sense. As I said, I can see where people wouldn't get that vibe, especially since it was delivered as kind of nuanced in the original comic. Still, those old issues showed me, someone who didn't grow with Barry or even when Wally hit his stride, what kind of man Allen is.

And it's funny you mention Johns weakness as not being able to make people care about old characters, since his best work came by doing just that with the JSA. I will say he's kind of sacrificed that lately, by creating very enjoyless scenarios with which these characters interact with.

Unknown said...

I'm glad you're going to read Atomic Robo! It's AWESOME and hilarious. I bet/hope you'll really like it.

Euge said...

Great ep. Loved the listener's detailed, well-said, and informative X-Factor history that was immediately derailed by Aaron saying "I DON'T LIKE X-FACTOR BLAHHH"

Jk. It was a great ep.

Ethan Hoddes said...

Thanks Euge (I think) and thanks to Aaron for the opportunity, this was fun. That appeal for women to contribute went over like a lead balloon though didn't it?

Anonymous said...

Aaron, re: your likink of the idea of 'superheroes' fighting unknown enemies and reasons, that's not something that's new.

I'm pretty sure that is the reason of the League of Extrordinary Gentlemen first storyarc, and numerous other comics which probably use the Wellian idea of War of the Worlds and such...

Anonymous said...

damn! just got to the part where Evie called in.

She sounds slightly different.....VERY sexy & sultry!!! O.O

:)

Dann said...

Aaron (and Evie for being out of town, I guess), I just wanted to take a minute to say thanks for letting me be a part of the show. Oh, and also for not making huge fun of me for mixing up the New Avengers and the Mighty Avengers. *facepalm*

I know Gail didn't create Wonder Woman (and Amanda didn't write Power Girl). I'm dumb enough to mix up Avengers teams, but not so dumb as to think Gail is a time traveler. But, you did clarify my point that it's the departure of a very key part of a book that worries me.

This was a great show, as a change of pace (and I'd bet the rest of the contributors would agree). Although I'm not sure I wanted the mental image of Aaron taking a bath...

- Dann

(shameless, probably pointless plug: http://twitter.com/dannimal )

CasinoGrande said...

Hopefully I can elaborate on another reason for you to pick up Atomic Robo.
This current volume does consist of one-shots as Chris Murphy says, but all of the volumes pretty much stand alone.
The first gives you a basic idea of who Robo is (a robot built by Tesla at the turn of the 20th century and who has lived on and practiced super science to this day), while the second volume is set in World War II, and the third involves him fighting a creature from outside our dimension and time jumping.
I'd suggest reading all of them, cause they're AWESOME, but you should up whichever volumes and issues you can find.

Kevin Rapp said...

Gotta agree with everyone else. I had a blast recording (and editing) my segment and really enjoyed the episode. It was a cool change of pace, and I liked hearing some different perspectives (off to buy some Atomic Robo now...heard good things but that panel sounds like enough of a clincher to go get the trades...).

Nice job Aaron and all the contributors on this fun episode ABCP (which has such a similar acronym to America's Best Dance Crew that I always expect Li'l Mama to pop up and incoherently ramble about how much she respects women).

Eric Lyden said...

Your welcomes from listener Eric Lyden for sending on the "Hey,Pais" link.

I wish I could have contributed something to the show, but I lack boith the equipment & technical know how to do it. But my Surprise of the Week goes to Muppet Show #4. Fuckin' Skeeter shows up, man! Skeeter is all up in this bitch.

Otherwise I think UNWRITTEN pretty much sweeps all the other non "Crap of the Week" categories.

Das Übernerd said...

All the Greg Land jokes in this week's episode reminded me of something I had to share. Land was at a comic convention last week that I was attending and every time I saw him all I could hear in my head was "TRACING PORN! WITH GREG LAND!" and that just set me off giggling.

So you have reduced this comic book "creator" to a walking joke for me. Now the mere presence of Greg Land makes me laugh in a way that no other person in comics can.

Dann said...

One last thing (I know I'm late to the party on this one, but I listen to the show during my commute, so it takes me 3-4 days to get through all of it):

I think my favorite segment of this episode (if only because it would be ultra-cheezy to pick mine) is Evie's. I think it might be the first time in ABCP history that Evie got to do a whole award without Aaron talking over her. ;)

Paisley the Cat said...

Hi Aaron (and Evie)! Thank you for mentioning my comic on your podcast. I just listened to it and I'm glad you think it's funny!

The name of the comic is Hey Pais. "Pais" is pronounced like "pays," it's short for Paisley, which is my name! (A lot of people think it's pronounced Pize though, so you're not alone on that one.) I don't understand why you said it is "ostensibly" by a cat, are you worried that I am not a cat? Have the dog lobbyists gotten to you?! I am 100% very pretty cat.

Thank you again for the mention!

Chris Murphy said...

I'm glad I had the chance to contribute to the episode, it was a lot of fun and thanks for taking the extra time to put it all together.

(Also, because I get the feeling you're the right audience for it, I'm going to quickly point you to a short comic about a cat I wrote a while ago- http://www.holdreset.com/future/just_imagine_1.html )

Evie said...

Chris--heeheeheee luv it. :)