ABC has an Android App!!!!!!!!!

YOU. GUYS. So a few weeks ago, awesome listener Aaron O'Brien emailed us to say that like, you know, he'd like gone and developed an Awesomed By Comics Android app, no big whoop. Well, it's all updated and ready, and it is DOPETOWN. You can listen to every show, read every blog post with visuals, follow our Twitter feeds, and more. Plus it's totally free!

Go here to learn more about it, and if you go to that link on an Android phone, you can download it directly.

Or, if you are on your computer and have your phone, use the barcode scanner on the QR code below:
Seriously, this is one of the raddest unsolicited listener gifts ever (our solicited gifts are obviously also super rad), and if you have an Android you should download it immediately.

New show con-ing soon! Oh no I didn't.

So we had a whiz bang 3+ days at New York Comic Con, and met a lot of people and took a lot of pictures and read almost no comic books this week. As a result, we will of course have a show, but will probably record it tonight, and talk about things that aren't strictly straight from the page. I was going to post a teaser picture here from our trip to Mars 2112 last night with a whole mess of great people that many of you will recognize, but then realized they're all at home. The pictures, not the people. Or the people may be at home, but not my home. Anyway. Stay tuned.

ABC Podcast, Episode #106 with special guest Chris Neseman! and visual aids

This very special episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by Chris Neseman! That's right, the famed podcaster from 11 O'Clock Comics and Around Comics joins us in our studio via wormhole from Chicago, and can be credited/blamed for the existence of Awesomed By Comics in the first place. Amadeus Cho is powerfully awesome, Thor is devilishly great, and Science Dog's bark is better than his bite. We talk about why Scott Pilgrim tanked, and get a recommendation for a web comic that is pretty much a sure bet to devour us whole. Also: Should you let your girlfriend win at video games? Tune in for the definitive answer.

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.

Cover(s) of the Week

Chris's pick, from Justice League: Generation Lost #8, cover by Cliff Chiang:


Evie's pick, from Prince of Power #4, cover by Salva Espin and Beth Sotello:


Aaron's pick, from Thor #613, cover by Mico Suayan and Laura Martin:


Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Thor #613 by Kieron Gillen and Richard Elson:


Aaron's pick, from Madame Xanadu #26, by Matt Wagner and Chrissie Zullo:


Chris's pick, from Superman Batman #75, story by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo:

Come out of the closet, ladies

A comics-reading friend asked me recently about the degree to which I'm willing to read comics in public. I told him that most of my public comics reading occurs on Wednesdays, because that's when they are between the store and my house, and it happens almost exclusively a) on the subway, or b) in a pedicure chair at the nail salon next to Forbidden Planet. While I certainly feel a twinge of embarrassment about it, it's not enough to keep me from doing it when I need to read something and I have comics in my purse. Also, I don't think that I really telegraph "stereotypical superhero comics reader" (for at least one obvious reason), so I actually take a little bit of pride in subtly being like "SHATTER YOUR BIASES, ONLOOKERS".

Anyway, with these themes in mind, Brian Heater has established Read Comics In Public Day, which is this Saturday, August 28 (Jack Kirby's birthday). And with Read Comics In Public Day in mind, the DC Women Kicking Ass blog has created a Tumblr called Women Read Comics in Public, which will post submitted pictures of women reading comics in public. So, ladies: please take pictures of yourself reading comics in public, and submit them! Or non-ladies, please take pictures of you and your female friends and loved ones and submit them! Or go out on Saturday and take pictures of female strangers reading comics in public and apologize and submit them!

The benefits of this public pride are kind of obvious, but the blogs linked above make the most compelling arguments, so I encourage reading them if you need convincing. And of course if you are not able to insert any ladies into the equation, still read a comic in public this Saturday and feel free to submit a pic to Brian's blog, because he's posting them too.

ABC Podcast, EPISODE #100 AND WOOOOOOOO

Dudes! We did it! We made it to our centennial episode, which is a totally arbitrary thing to celebrate but AWWW YEAAAHHH. We start off this third season of Awesomed By Comics (50 shows per season, why not?) with a bunch of brand new categories, questions, cat stuff, and a very special musical remembrance of episodes of yore. Likely winners include various Wonder Woman-related things, Unknown Soldier, Thor and Batman Beyond; unlikely winners include Green Lantern and Action Comics. We also debut a new version of the theme song, and wish you a happy snappy Fourth O' July!

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!


And now, thanks to new listener and contest winner Marina, you all get the following recipe courtesy of the "have what Awesomed by Comics is having for dinner, for dinner" contest.

You will need:

1 copy of the album And by The Ampersands (my band)
1 stick of butter
1 egg
brown sugar
molasses (preferably ''robust")
flour
baking soda
ground ginger
cinnamon
allspice
nutmeg
cloves
salt

ABCPGingerbread

1) Put on the album And by The Ampersands (my band) which is available at fine online music retailers everywhere.

2) Figure out how to make that stupid little degree symbol thingy

3) Preheat oven to 350°

4) In a small bowl mix the following:
------- 1 3/4 cups flour
------- 1 tsp Baking Soda
------- 1 1/2 tbsp Ground Ginger
------- 2 tsp Cinnamon
------- 2 tsp Nutmeg
------- 1 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
------- 1 tsp Allspice
------- 1/4 tsp salt

5) In a large bowl, beat one stick of butter until softish, as though that ever works beyond just getting the butter stuck in the beaters, but whatever, that's what I always do and it works fine.

6) Add one large egg and 3/4 cup (tightly packed) brown sugar and beat until the butter isn't stuck in the beaters anymore, and the whole thing's relatively smooth.

7) Add 1 cup Robust Molasses and beat until well-blended. Regular molasses works okay too, I just really like the Robust kind.

8) Gradually beat in the flour/spice mixture until everything's in there and it's all nice and smooth.

9) Add 1/2 cup boiling water and beat the brains out of the stuff. I have no idea what purpose the water serves or why it has to be boiling, but every gingerbread recipe I've ever seen has told me to do this, so screw it, I'm putting it in my recipe too.

10) Grab an 8 or 9 inch pan (square, round, trapezoidenal, whatever) and grease it or line it with wax paper, or both.

11) Pour the stuff into the pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. Of course, oven temperature and climate and sea level and bla bla bla, just poke something into the middle after 40 minutes.

12) Top with vanilla ice cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg and enjoy while reading your favorite funnybooks!!!

Happy Terrible Twos, ABC!

So I'm on deadline and don't have time at the moment to be more creative about this, but I just realized that the first episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast was recorded and uploaded two years ago today. They grow up so fast! Anyway, last year it worked out that our 50th episode landed on our one-year week, but this year that won't quite work out, so I thought I'd pour one out today and then our 100th episode will be the real party. Once we decide what to do with it.

So thank you, all of you rapscallions, for listening and supporting and funning and cussing. We're now officially the age to run around screaming and terrorizing the cats and pooping at inopportune moments, which works out well.

Best Month of Comics Ever

Just taking a brief moment to direct you to the blogination of Dave Ex Machina and Bully the Little Stuffed Bull, who are celebrating the best month in the history of comics, February 1966.

As someone who hasn't had the 75 years it would take me to go back and catch up on Silver Age comics, every inch of this is fucking awesome. Winners: Weirdo Legionnaire and that photo of Stan Lee, ladies' man.

Enjoy.

ABC Podcast, Episode #87 and visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by Speed Racer Has a Posse, because Jesus has risen. Punisher kicks tons of ass, Spider-Man goes on a satisfying date for once, and Cloak and Dagger don't do much of anything. We reflect at length on the throbbing whatever that was Blackest Night, and spend unprecedented numbers of minutes talking about the cripplingly depressive entity that is Funky Winkerbean. We also give a shout out to our friends at the War Rocket Ajax podcast and suggest you pay them a visit, because spring is for making new friends.

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

From Amazing Spider-Man #627, cover by Lee Weeks:


From Punisher #15, cover by Mike McKone:


Panel(s) of the Week

From Punisher #15 by Rick Remender and Tony Moore:


From Cloak & Dagger #1 by Stuart Moore and Mark Brooks:

Bonus Panels of the Week

From Incorruptible #4 by Mark Waid and Jean Diaz:


From New Warriors #9, by Fabian Nicieza, Ron Frenz and Mark Bagley:

Crap of the Week

Braniac lettering in Adventure Comics #9:

ABC Podcast, Episode #82 plus visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by just the best most beautiful laptop ever, yes you are we love you so muchy much, you have no reason to ever get mad at us and not work when we're trying to record the show again, no you don't, you're just so perfect and hot, by the way have you lost weight? We LOL at X-Factor, have a sadz at the end of Ms. Marvel, and hype the skillz of Gail Simone, Matt Sturges and Joshua Dysart for Wonder Woman, The Web and Unknown Soldier, respectively. We also talk about Dwayne McDuffie's killer new Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths animated Timmverse movie, and wonder what possessed James Robinson to get so freaky in Superman. Also, Warren Ellis writes a parody of a Warren Ellis comic, and Aaron thinks it's totally awesome.

(An apology, while we're all here: in the show I note that Aaron Lopresti was the penciller for Wonder Woman, but it was in fact Chris Batista and Fernando Dagnino--it's miscredited on the cover, someone at DC did a cut-and-paste.)

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 Fantastic Four #576, cover by Alan Davis:


Aaron's pick, from Thor #607, variant cover by Mico Suayan (plus whoever drew the squirrel, I'm not sure? Any help here?):


Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from X-Factor #202 by Peter David and Bing Cansino:


Evie's pick, from X-Factor #202 by Peter David and Bing Cansino:

Yeah, yeah!

I don't want to jinx anything, but after a lot of coaxing and whispering and spiritual bribing, it seems the laptop has cooperated and we have recorded a show in full. Aaron is editing right now, which could explode in a million pieces because why not, but if all goes well we should have it up by later tonight. So, check your feeds and/or here in a few hours. And congratulations Canada, for winning some big thing today that everyone was all jazzed up about.

Behind the Curtain

Evie may not hate when bloggers write "why I'm not blogging" posts, but I sure do. So I figured this would be as good a time as any to let everyone out there see where the magic happens.

Here then is our little Sanctum Sanctorum, complete with eyes of aggamotto and wands of watoomb and toys featuring hot chicks in suits of cat.

Just like Dr. Strange's famous Greenwich Village manse, my home studio also appears to be something other than what it is. In fact, I distinctly remember when we first moved to New York City four years ago, walking through the village on a quest for macaroons, eyeing each building with a hint of suspicion, as though any of them could be hiding the true whereabouts of the universe's Sorcerer Supreme. (And while we didn't find Dr. Strange's hideout, or macaroons for that matter, we did pick up a neat toy which you will see in a minute.)

So lo! Here just outside our bathroom, sits this non-descript cabinet. (non-descript if you don't count the hanging guitars and the microphone stand directly beside it. And the tower of keyboard equipment to its right, which I did not photograph, as that would have ruined the comparison.)



O ho! But inside, there is a world of wonder!



Baubles and levers and switches and something called a "sonic maximizer" which I'm still not 100% sure what it does, but it will likely come in handy should Evie ever become posessed by an alien symbiote. This cabinet hides messes of wire so tangled, it rivals the far-outiest of the Ditkoverse constructed for the good Doctor.

So let's take a look at some of the toys that make my studio go go go go! No, not the devices and gadgets and preamps and that nonsense. Actual toys.



Here are the newest additions to the team, Snorlax, Driftblim and Guy Gardner. Why is Guy hanging with the Pokemons, you ask? Because the rest of my studio is populated by toy babes, whom I wish to protect from his inevitable advances.

Allow me to introduce to you the first of those babes, Fujiko Mine from my all-time favorite anime (and one of my favorite manga) Lupin III. This is Fujiko undercover as an extremely believable policewoman, who would certainly not at all raise any suspicions that she might not actually be a real policewoman.

Oh, and also her sidekick Machop. They're like Turner and Hooch.



Here are my other two Fujikos, one of which was picked up at the aforehinted-at Japanese import toy store in New York, the other of which may also have been, but I'm leaning towards ebay as the source for it. The one hanging from my lamp used to also have a motorcycle, until it fell and broke. Now she's on a covert mission to infiltrate the back of my monitor, or the top of my D8.





And of course, what would a studio be without a Firestar on a Dala Horse?



And while I'm at it, I may as well go ahead and introduce you to our occasional guest-stars, Stan and Pokey. They are also where the magic happens, whereas magic = cat poops.

Stan's the pink one.






You can see why Pokey might be less likely to appear on the podcast, given that this is his state of being about 95% of the time.

So now you know babies are made!

Villain of the Week

It's this little guy right there.

That there is the common cold, at least according to the goobles. It's also what's set up shop in your hosts' heads, at least according to the mountain of gross we have both been creating.

And unfortunately, while I had "I am sick as hell" as an excuse not to cram myself into an enclosed area with tens of thousands of strangers in the height of cold/flu season - Evie did not, until it was too late, and she had already volunteered to attend approximately 45 panels. So now I'm on the mend thanks to a weekend of relative rest, but our beloved hostess is down in the pits of sinus hell, and making noises that if I were to hear a barnyard animal making, I would advise the farmer to get whatever animal was responsible for them checked out. (see title of her last post. Evie loves onomatopoeia.)

So here's the problem.Not only is Evie sick as all hell, she was too busy cavorting with tens of thousands of strangers in an enclosed space during the height of cold/flu season to read all the books we got last week - and I've forgotten what happened in practically all of them, because I was too sick to pay that much attention when I was reading them.

Now here's what we're going to do - next week, bonus extra super show! Or maybe just a longer than usual one with our stray thoughts from this week. Or maybe the same length because we'll still be sick. Either way, we promise we'll be back next week. Except no promises. But we promise. No we don't.

Hey diddle diddle

I totally just figured out who Enigma is in Trinity. I'm sure I won't be the only one by far, but I'm proud of myself anyway. He's the Earth 3 Riddler.

P.S. After a very slow, tepid start, this series is getting fairly awesome.

El-e-phants and kangaroosies-roosies

Jeff Sharlet, journalist and author of the new scary awesome hilarious book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, totally pimped the Awesomed By Comics Podcast today in the Revealer, a daily journal about religion and the media. How did he reconcile that obvious glaring topical mismatch, you say? Well, a)he's the editor, b)as a religion reporter who writes for Rolling Stone and other widely read cultural publications, he knows better than anyone how the mythologies of phenomena like superhero comics are deeply connected to mythologies of all kinds, and c)he totally hearts Buffy and Daredevil.

We definitely need to have him on the show soon, maybe to talk about Final Crisis: Revelations. Or Buffy or Daredevil.

Anyway, we are much obliged, and will hopefully not totally alienate the unsuspecting religion scholars and such who take his recommendation.

Humble (/insecure) request

I recently started this blog to write about something I love, but also to connect with other comics fans. I know that people are starting to wander over here via reciprocal links or my comments on other sites, so I'm asking with Krypto-the-Superdog eyes if you will please leave a quick hello and introduce yourself in the comments*. Please tell us:

1) Where you live (or general region/hemisphere if you don't like to share that info with strangers)
2) Who your favorite character is, if you have one
3) Lemon cookie?

Thank you!

*Even if you think I'm a too-easily appeased feminist for liking Darwyn Cooke's Wonder Woman so much.