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).

COME HEAR US TALK SORT OF SERIOUS IN PERSON

For anyone who is in the New York City area, or can get here in the next week and a half, Aaron and I will be speaking on a panel about Comics and the Press at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art on Thursday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. Other panelists are the esteemed Heidi MacDonald of Publishers Weekly's The Beat, and Reading Comics author Douglas Wolk, who is one of my kinsmen in the small cabal of people who make our livings writing about nothing but music and comics except he is much more famous at it than I. Suffice it to say we have a very weird Venn diagram of mutual friends. Anyway, I'm the first to acknowledge that calling Awesomed By Comics "the press" is hilarious in so many ways, but as Aaron and I are members of the actual press in our day jobs, we have some inkling of the difference and where lines are drawn when and what are the roles of which and blabbity blah. Anyway, you should go to there.

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.

OH MY GOD

I'M LIKE 27 COMIC BOOKS BEHIND. Did you know the X-Men moved to San Francisco?

Anyway. Sorry for the relative silence. Been deep in it here. But I have been prioritizing some comics, and can say that I will now only answer to Busty Meatloaf.

ABC Podcast, Episode #55 plus visual aids

THIS WEEK'S EPISODE WILL BE POSTED MONDAY NIGHT BECAUSE AARON NEVER LEARNED HOW TO UPLOAD THINGS.

UPDATE: IT'S THERE NOW.

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by Muddy Road, the "My Way" of Zen Koans. Evie was away this weekend covering another music festival, but we've taken too much time off lately, so Aaron's flying solo for a (mostly) swear-free half-sized episode. Unknown Soldier wins huge, and Aaron demands that everyone go find a copy of "The Stuff of Legend" which is Fables-level good.

Aaron spends very little time talking about the New Warriors or Pokemon, despite the fact that nobody was there to stop him from doing so.

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Cover of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Unknown Soldier #10, cover by Dave Johnson:




Panel of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Ignition City #4, by Warren Ellis and Gianluca Pagliarani:

FYI

Just because I once wrote a post about Wonder Woman topless, doesn't mean I think it's ok that so many people come to this site by searching for "topless Wonder Woman". I'm just saying.

Also, I'm aware that San Diego Comic Con is going on right now, and yes I wish I were there, and yes I said last year that we were totally going to make a plan to go this year, but, well, you know. This week I've actually been at work till forever working on that hippie thing, so everything happens for a reason. I've only very sketchily been following news coming out of San Diego, but I do know there's a Red She-Hulk on the way, because OF COURSE THERE IS. Also some big news about Marvel buying the rights to Marvelman, the apparent excitement over which is the point at which my comic nerd cred dissolves into dust because I have no idea. I'll have to get learned up when I finish this hippie thing. Ok, back to work!

Tell Me Moore!

Ok yeah that was bad. Anyway, as most of you know, writer, artist and publisher Terry Moore has been doing quite well for himself with both his self-published titles (Strangers In Paradise, Echo) and Marvel runs (Runaways, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane), and is in a unique position to talk about the business in this wacky time. I interviewed him for Publishers Weekly about all of this stuff and more here, so please to check it out!

Just a sec!

I swear this is not turning into a thing. The podcast is done, but we couldn't record it until like 10pm because I had all-day trainings yesterday and today, so Aaron is editing it tonight and maybe some tomorrow morning. He is also perpetrating some crimes against music, but I'd rather not discuss it, you'll know soon enough. Anyway, don't freak out.

One of those posts

Hey kids,
You have probably noticed that the majority of posts around here lately have been podcast-related, with not so much of that "blogging" thing going on. Cold truth is I'm MAD BIZZY with full-time and freelance work at the moment, and so unpaid-fun-with-comix time is primarily going to the show, plus some brainless short-burst stuff that doesn't deserve bloggage (although I had a fantastic superheroine inspiration today that I may need to expand on here soon).

Anyway, I'm not going to say that I hate when bloggers do this, because I actually don't. I'm not so fussed for an air of mystery. Now I will be finishing a few things before going to Jill Sobule's album release show, for work, just so you don't think I'm complaining, and humming her song about a porn star to myself for the next eight or so hours.

The Nerd Beat

I've had a number of people ask when I'll be reviewing Watchmen on the blog, and the truth is that I have read so many Watchmen reviews, I'm kind of oversaturated with the concept. However, Aaron and I did do a dedicated bonus podcast about it yesterday, which is less than 30 minutes, so I recommend downloading that (right sidebar) as a substitute. But here's the once sentence: We enjoyed it a lot, but thought it maybe didn't quite communicate its many messages to people who hadn't read the book and therefore might have seemed crazy and bad to anyone unprepared for the onslaught.

For something a little different, though, I did write a track-by-track of the soundtrack for Billboard.com, which includes context and history of each song, as well as its significance to the original book (if applicable). And, because in between business stories and Morrissey reviews I've naturally taken over the nerd niche at the magazine, here's a review of They Might Be Giants' "Flood" show last weekend.

Happy Awesomedversary to Us!

God, doesn't it seem like just yesterday that I was like OMG LUKE AND JESSICA!!1!11! in Awesomed By Comics' very first post? Well, it was just yesterday, if days were in fact years. The point is, this blog launched a year ago today, yay! Apparently, we share a birthday with Daily Cross Hatch, which is completely coincidental but totally cool.

I started this site not because the world needed another goddam comics blog, but because outside of the writing I do for my day job, I had been blogging aimlessly for five years and wanted to focus on an actual topic that excited me other than, like, "breakfast". In the past year, I've met a bunch of wonderful comics people both virtually and in person, launched the ridiculously fun and increasingly downloaded ABC Podcast with Aaron, started writing about comics for a variety of publications, and generally found a lot more to love (and sometimes hate, but that's what we do right!) about the medium. Oh and we got married, but that's unrelated (except that we took our guests to see Iron Man, on Free Comic Book Day, but that was sort of a coincidence).

So, many thanks to all of you for your visits, support, linking, recommendations, blahbitty blahbitty all that good stuff. I have to go do a thing right now, but hats off to you and the start of year two.

GUUHHHHHHHHH

So many millions of apologies, but the podcast will be late this week... I am dying with a 102-degree fever, which is coming on top of already being behind on this week's books from being at NYCC all weekend--I would have crammed but then this is all on top of the fact that I have coverage to file. We will do our very best to have it in the next 48 hours, but I do so hate letting you down.

Girls, Girls, Girls

I do realize that this excuse has just about outworn its welcome, but the lack of lengthy, probing posts here of late can be partly attributed to time spent on things like this, which is the top story in this week's edition of Publishers Weekly Comics Week. It contains an exclusive announcement from Dark Horse, in the context of the teenage girl market for American comics. Enjoy!

Blood Red Rock

If you've not yet become familiar with the band Bang Camaro from their tracks on Guitar Hero or Rock Band, their insane live shows or their recent appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, the pertinent info is that they're an anthem rock band with 20 lead singers. I know, what? Anyway, in addition to being on the cover of Billboard last week for their success with video game placements, they have a bitchin' (and believe me that word is entirely appropriate here) new album out next Tuesday that I reviewed in this week's issue. It's relevant to this blog not only because it's, uh, my blog, but because one of Bang Camaro's touring strategies is to have regional "choir" members so that they can augment the band with local singers when they go on the road, and one of the Chicago guys is Eric Garneau, owner of Munster, Indiana Lansing, Illinois comics shop Stand-Up Comics (another is my friend Jake, but he doesn't own a comics shop).

So, please to check it out. I have not been able to get "The Hit" out of my head for a week, which I believe is exactly the point of a song with such a title.

Faster than a speeding TPS report

I unfortunately can't post examples due to employee discretion and not being a complete dope and all that, but I just want to mention that you should be jealous of the email I got yesterday from corporate communications, explaining how to implement new company branding conventions via a comic book spoof starring a strapping a superhero who will swoop in and correct all semantic inconsistencies. It was pretty rad, in only the way such a thing could be.

Probably

I just wanted to take a moment to salute the person who came to this site by googling "Am I too lazy to google?" We are kindred spirits, sir/madam.

I didn't get a chance to read any books yesterday, because I was at a class all evening toward the aim of enhancing my professional skillz. Did Sue Storm die? No I know she didn't, because duh.

It's really cold in here and my socks are wet

So the election is a week from today, and eight days from right now I'll either be elated, or suicidal, or homicidal, or fleeing the riot-torn streets, or feasting on Swiss Miss and Kraft Dinner in the name of delicious celebration or dire comfort food because either way everyone's still broke. And that led me to think about the economic crisis and how everyone's worried about their jobs whether they have supportable reason to be or not, and then about how if everything else went to hell, it would be so nice if we could all just relax and work in comic book stores. I imagine that those of you who own/work in comic book stores probably find that laughable for any number of reasons, but cut me some slack, I really needed to get my stream of consciousness away from the macaroni and cheese.

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.

Download/subscribe in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review!

Neil Diamond could totally be an Avenger

This has almost nothing to do with comics*, but you all like music, right? Right! So anyway, this week at work we've been celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Billboard Hot 100, also essentially known as the definitive American pop singles chart (when by "definitive" you mean based on radio play and sales--how this corresponds with any given person's definition of quality is clearly all over the map). It's been pretty fun because we've gotten to research and write up mini-histories of many of the iconic songs of the past 50 years, plus Chubby Checker hung out last week ("The Twist" topped the all-time list).

Besides writing up several of the blurbs you can find here, I wrote about how ladies totally commanded the chart's No. 1 spot in the 1990s, despite the perceived reign of angsty boys like Kurt and Eddie. It was a surprising discovery, and obviously a pleasant one except for the part where I've had Wilson Phillips in my head for a week and a half. So, uh, sorry about that. Also sorry about the chuckleheads who choose to post comments on Billboard.com re: their perceptions of the validity of the various lists--no matter how much info is posted about methodology explaining that the lists come from solid quantitative factors for one particular chart, they still can't imagine why "Macarena" would be included while epically awesome masterpieces like "Personal Jesus" get the shaft.

*Here's what it has to do with comics--I wrote the Billboard.com blurb for "I'm A Believer," and the Monkees had a comic book once.

Inspirational Message