File Under: THINGS THAT NEED TO HAPPEN

One of my all-time favorite sort-of-guilty-pleasure cult films is Angela Robinson's D.E.B.S., specifically the 2004 full-length remake of the short she made a year earlier. From a sheer plot standpoint it's so stupid it's brilliant--a group of female super spies recruited via secret questions on the S.A.T., who fight crime in school girl uniforms--but the real satisfaction of the movie lies in the fact that it is a fun, tender lesbian romance that is revolutionary specifically for its lack of political weightiness around the subject.

ANYWAY, Robinson hasn't been able to get anyone to produce a sequel, so inspired by Buffy, she wants to make a comic series. YES, PLEASE. The premise of D.E.B.S. could not be more perfect for comics, and it has the kind of characters that we really need more of. DO IT DO IT DO IT.

This is the best blog reaction headline one could hope for, ever

Many thanks to Comicsgirl for her shout-out to my Publishers Weekly article about comics for teen girls. It can obviously be touchy to approach a subject of business and art in terms of gender, and I'm glad that she took away exactly what I intended.

Huh?

I have a sneaking suspicion that Grant's going to have to join us on the podcast this weekend to explain exactly what the hell just happened.

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!

ABC Podcast, Episode #32 and visual aids

This (late, apologies) episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by Two and a Half Men! Two and a Half Men! Two and a Half Men! who, it must be said, have done it again. Evie and Aaron freak out a little over X-Factor #39, and strenuously respect but deny Peter David's request not to spoil it. As a result of all this Dark Crisis Faces of Death Evil Reign of Bad stuff being a big downer during this new real-world era of Hope and Change (and bankruptcies and layoffs), Marvel's delightful all-ages books win big, although Dan Slott also gets major points for bringing actual Avengers back to an Avengers book.

Download/subscribe to the show 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

Aaron's pick, from X-Factor #39, cover by David Yardin and Nathan Fairbairn:


Evie's pick, from Black Lightening Year One #2, cover by Cully Hamner:

Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Tiny Titans #12 by Balthazar and Franco:

Aaron's pick, from Marvel Adventures Avengers #32 by Paul Tobin and Matteo Lolli:

Blrrgh

Hey yo, so I've uploaded the podcast but I'm trying to do a test download and it's not working for me. Can someone let me know in the comments if it's working for you, so I don't pull it down and start all over for no reason? THX!

Ne'rmind, everything seems to be fine, carry on.

Podcast delay

Hey kids, just a note that if you're waiting for the podcast, it will probably be up some time tomorrow, apologies. We got a late start, and then Aaron's computer crashed 45 minutes into recording, so we had to slap in some enthusiasm and start over. Many thanks for your patience. Maybe I'll take the opportunity to write something here tomorrow, crazier things have happened.

Brand New Day

Hey everyone! The whole country's been retconned! The past eight years never happened. Isn't it great?

Also, Obama's speech actually included the word "childish," in reference to what came before him. He just doesn't give a fuck, I love it.

Pretty lady

More teasers for Greg Rucka and JH Williams' Batwoman series, here, here and here.

(via)

ABC Podcast, Episode #31 and visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by the Forkies, who are enraptured. In a week where the Big Two fight for easy press, the biggest story for us is the beautiful conclusion of I Kill Giants, which made Aaron cry even harder than the end of Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Captain Britain and MI13 turns in another fine chapter, and two series starring kick-ass ladies come to a premature end. SPOILER: Batman died. SPOILER TWO: Batman will be alive again soon enough. Happy new president week!

ALSO: Because we got a lot of follow-up questions to last week's show--here is the link to the iTunes store for Aaron's band, or search for "The Ampersands" (album called "And") at Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, CD Baby, or wherever you get those things.

Download/subscribe to the show 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, Anna Mercury #5 painted cover by Paul Duffield:


Aaron's pick, Final Crisis #6 by JG Jones:


Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Captain Britain and MI13 #9 by Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk (context: Pete Wisdom is destroying a corridor of dreams where people are falsely living out their hearts' desires):


Evie's pick, from Final Crisis #6 by Grant Morrison and 600 artists:

I Kill Giants kills regular-sized people

According to New York Comic Con's website, Joe Kelly will be among the featured guests next month. I'm going to find him, and give him a big hug, and slap him in the face.

If you're a regular listener of the podcast or at least skim the episode summaries here on the blog, you know that Aaron and I have been blubbering over Kelly's and JM Ken Niimura's Image mini-series I Kill Giants for months, and gave it story of the year for 2008, even though it wasn't finished. Well, as you probably know, it finished this week. And let's just say it didn't help my already suffering sinuses.

I don't even want to give it a full review right now, because if you haven't read the book, I want you to go spend your money on it instead of having it ruined by the emotional wanking I would pour on it at the moment, having just finished issue #7. If you have read it, you know what I'm talking about, or maybe even it's not really your kind of thing and you're tired of hearing people go crazy about it. The sentiment factor is indeed high, although the execution is so well imagined and paced that it doesn't feel at all excessive. Also, a little confession, which I was going to turn into an essay about this book and then realized how eye-rolly that would probably be, and also how I couldn't do it without an inhaler: I lost my dad when I was a little younger than Barbara, on the day I came home from having been out of the country with a friend's family for two months. So, Barbara's epiphany made me drown in my own snot a little extra.

Anyway, it's beautiful. Get it if you haven't already.

UPDATE: Aaron just got home and read it and got his ass thoroughly kicked to the point that the cats instinctively came in close to protect him. I'm assuming they did not offer me this service because I read the book in the bathtub.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Heh heh, just kidding, like Bruce Wayne is actually dead for good, as fucking if.

(I was thinking of reviewing Final Crisis #6, but then I read Caleb's review here, which is pretty much exactly what I think. And of course we'll talk about it on the podcast this weekend, over the next 48 hours I'll practice not being excessively shrill).

Taking her ball and going home

I'm not usually one to spend too much time prognosticating on plot resolutions, because I like to be surprised. But because I'm a bit sick and am feeling a little snotty both literally and figuratively, I would like to note that in a post on November 13 I wrote this, about how the whole "100,000 Kryptonians on Earth" thing in Superman/Action/Supergirl could possibly solve itself:

Either the world ends, or they all die in a General Lane Kryptonite attack, or Superman improbably convinces them all to behave forever, or somebody finds them an empty but perfectly inhabitable planet orbiting a yellow sun that they can all go be powerful and autonomous on. Ok, that one is probably the most plausible. But that seems a little anti-climactic.

Ok so nobody "found" them anything, but in this week's Action Comics #873 (supposedly a Lex Luthor Faces of Evil thing that had very little Luthor in it but whatever), that bitchy Alura-El (or Alura Zor-El? How does that work?) picked up the giant chunk of the Arctic Circle that New Kandor was sitting on and built a planet out of that Kryptonian crystal crap and put it in orbit around our sun, opposite Earth so that we'd never see each other, because neener neener meanie cooties. Also I don't think that's how orbits work and the gravitational pull of New Krypton would probably end all life as we know it, but hey, better than a bunch of beligerant Kryptonians flying all up in people's grills I guess.

On a related note, do you ever write down the plot summary of a comic book and think, "what?"

Somebody keeps moving my chair

You guys like They Might Be Giants, right? Of course you do, you're comic book fans. Anyway, if you do, or if you like any band at all, go read this on my other site, and do with it what you will. (And if you're an artist/cartoonist, there may be something extra for you down the road, but that's for later).

ABC Podcast, Episode #30 and visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is sponsored by... oh lord I can't even type it, let's just say that Aaron has sunk to new lows and move on. It's a colon-friendly show as Black Lightening: Year One, Submariner: The Depths, Sandman: The Dreamhunters, and others score big, not to mention the Shredded Wheat. Aaron finally plugs his band, and Evie gets weepy over hamsters in love. Starring special guest stars the Philadelphia Eagles.

Download/subscribe 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 Sandman: The Dream Hunters #3, cover by Paul Pope and Yuko Shimizu:


Aaron's pick, from Black Lightening: Year One #1, cover by Cully Hamner:


Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Secret Invasion: War of Kings by Abnett & Lanning, Paul Pelletier and Bong Dazo:


Evie's picks, from No Hero #3 by Warren Ellis and Juan Jose Ryp:

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.

A tangled web

Alright, so, here's a big media push by Marvel to publicize next week's Amazing Spider-Man #583, which features an oh-so-collectible Obama cover (didn't someone already do that?). In my effort to find out who did the interior pencils for a little lighthearted mocking about the fact that he apparently doesn't know what the President-Elect looks like, I turn up this solicitation on Marvel.com for an Amazing Spider-Man #583 coming out next week that, uh, is totally not an Obama issue in any way shape or form nor written by Zeb Wells.

So what's going on? Is there a fist-bump or not?? How will we ever figure out if we need to buy it???

ABC Podcast, Episode #29 and visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is sponsored by Frogfucius, who say "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do. Ribbit." Aaron and Evie ring in the New Year with piles of praise for Hercules, Incognito and Gigantic, but find the Holocaust disappointing. New Year's resolutions include less eating and more shitty music. Also, could we see some more Wolverine in '09? We'd really like to learn more about what makes that guy tick.

Download/subscribe 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

Aaron's pick from Gigantic #2, cover by Eric Nguyen:


Evie's pick from Incredible Hercules #124, cover by Henry Clayton and Guru:


Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick from Incredible Hercules #124 by Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, Clayton Henry and Salva Espin:


Aaron's pick from Marvels: Eye of the Camera #2 by Kurt Busiek and Jay Anacleto:

Technomological difficulties

Just a note that the new podcast is going to be a little late, it's all done and edited and all that, but Libsyn's hosting servers to be having a bit of the flu this afternoon. Stay tuned.

Batwoman: Unofficially official

Three years after the mainstream media made a big nudge-nudge hullaballoo over ZOMG LESBIAN SUPERHEROINE!1!11!, the Batwoman solo series finally approaches for reals, helmed by the only person that anyone really wanted to see touch her*. Greg Rucka has posted the first page of the issue one script on his blog, and it's a giant tease but who cares. Of course I'm terribly afraid that it will be a five-issue mini-series or some such injustice, but for now I'll just be thrilled.

*besides Renee of course