ABCP Episode #133, plus fake special guest

This "back from a computer-imposed week off" episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by a very special episode of our very favorite other podcast, featuring a very special artist who has decided to charge a very special $200 for interviews because his very special art career is very especially over. Big wins for Uncanny X-Men's "point one" issue, a turning point for "Who is Jake Ellis," some hero/villain turns in Secret Six, a great start for the new Herc, a pretty good start for Nonplayer, and a pretty bad start for the Fear Itself tie-in book.

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. Also if you've ever considered supporting the show, this would be the time to do so with a donation of your choosing over there at the top of the right sidebar.

ABC Podcast Episode #122, plus visual aids

This episode of Evie & Aaron and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Weekend is brought to you by compromised immune systems and the inability to STOP THE RUN. We give much respect to two future-tech-idea-driven comics at different ends of their runs (The Infinite Vacation and Vision Machine) pay tribute to the always exceptional Secret Six, and Aaron has a bit of trouble with the proximity of the "O" and "P" keys on the keyboard. Speaking of which, Heroes for Hire keeps rolling, Daredevil and Superman start to get back on track (despite a shit beginning and some ridiculous proportions for Lois) and we bid a fond farewell to Thor: The Mighty Avenger without having ever learned the identity of the mysterious "Mister K."

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. Also consider supporting the show with a donation of your choosing.

Cover(s) of the Week

Evie's Pick, from Infinite Vacation #1, cover by Christian Ward



Aaron's Pick, from Daredevil Reborn #1, Cover by Jock



Panel(s) of the Week:

Evie's pick, from Secret Six #29 by Gail Simone and Marcos Marz



Aaron's pick can't be shown because SPOILERS!!!! so instead here's a bonus anatomy lesson for Allan Goldman, penciller on Superman #707

ABC Podcast Episode #119 and Spaghetti Bonus, For 'Tis The Season!!

This later-than-usual episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by The Sanctuary at Rutgers University, which has an amazing comics collection for an ice cream parlor. Try the ABCP Double-Pie, which is not called that and they will look at you funny if you ask for it, but is a scoop of pumpkin pie and a scoop of apple pie. Big wins for Chaos War, Birds of Prey, and X-Factor. Some interesting stuff going on in The Occultist. Aaron flips through Superman: Earth One and spots a painfully stupid mistake. And, surprise surprise, we gush about The Unwritten. Taking a bit of a break from the regular show for a couple of weeks, but our annual year-end spectacular will be here soon to more than tide you over.

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.

WHOA BUT HEY WHAT IS THIS?






A spaghetti a day keeps the scurvy away.
Three spaghettis a week makes your underarms reek.
Twelve spaghettis a month ah fuck I have painted myself into a corner.

Evie's cover of the week is this:




And then Aaron's cover of the week is this:



And that GODDAMNIT, REALLY? Superman panel is this:



And the actual definition of active voice is this.

And we'll be back next week sometime with our year-end wrapup!

SO OKoffkoffhackhookkaffAY!

O HAI. So the Con-SARS/plague/crud/deathbeast/whatever hasn't gone away, but I was back at work today, and after a few gallons of Starbucks Berry Chai (good tip, Heidi) and several dozen rounds of "Sunny" on repeat (seriously, it's like 2 minutes and 43 seconds of DayQuil a pop), I'm ready to share some tales!

1) My official round-ups of several Marvel/DC panels are here, the second, third and fourth news bullets. They're briefer than the Newsarama/CBR play-by-plays, but it's a different audience. And you've probably already read those. I'm not going to go into them here, beyond what I already said about DC Nation below, which has so far been the universal assessment. Marvel pretty much won this one hands-down, except I will say for the news that the Rucka/Williams Batwoman comic I was so worried would be some kind of placating mini is actually going to be a big long starring run in Detective Fucking Comics. So let's all raise a big hallelujah to that action.

2) The beard has definitively replaced the goatee in fanboy facial fashion. Which of course was replaced by bare skin in non-fanboy facial fashion about ten years ago, but you know whatever. Ok I take this back. With heightened awareness I did a little anthropological observation on my commute today, and unless 85% of the 25-42 year-old males in Manhattan read comic books, beards are apparently making quite a comeback in general.

3) Did I mention the Wonder Woman movie? Yeah, go buy it on March 3. It's tremendous.

4) The Beat's Art of Storytelling panel on Sunday was fascinating, especially for those of us who consider ourselves creative in some ways but do not at all get the kind of ideas that come to the minds of gifted creators (note I am speaking for myself, not Aaron--he gets those ideas all the time, he just needs to write one down some day). Moderated by Heidi MacDonald, it featured Marv Wolfman, Jim Lee, Carla Speed McNeil, Ben Templesmith and Terry Moore, so you know, people with big, crazy, awesome story brains.

5) Alright Lost is on now and I'm coughing up my spleen, so I'll give you the rest in some not-very-artful pictures:

Who chalks the Chalkmen!


The endlessly prolific Greg Rucka giving an interview to iFanboy's Ron Richards (whom I've spent more time talking with about Morrissey worship than comics, which is saying something)

Yeah you know I had to get Firestar's picture for Aaron, stat. She even has a Ms. Lion doll! (And did you hear? Ms. Lion is going to be a Pet Avenger!)

Hey, aren't pictures of panels the best? Greg Pak and Joe Quesada agree.

The girl in the Jessie outfit handmade these Team Rocket costumes (even though Team Rocket doesn't have a Furrett), and they made my day.


If you're going to go to karaoke at Sing Sing, get there early so your song wait time isn't three hours, which is too much. Laura knows this, and well. (From left: Popgun Vol. 3 co-editor Adam Knave, a girl whose name I didn't catch so sorry, the ubiquitous Jeff Newelt who took a knock-out turn on Shaggy's "Angel," Laura Hudson of Publishers Weekly/Comic Foundry/MTV.com/etc., Laura's friend Valery which I keep wanting to type as Valkyrie, Popgun co-editor Mark Andrew Smith, oh hi, Image Comics PR/Marketing emperor Joe Keatinge, who came down with the plague that Aaron and I are just now getting over about an hour after this picture was taken on Thursday).

Pak & Roll

Ok, so I didn't get to say all that stuff to Greg Pak, because they moved us out of the theater space pretty fast. It was more along the lines of "dude, you write awesome comic books." However, when Aaron mentioned we were upset about Amadeus Cho's puppy in Incredible Hercules being a Skrull, he said "Well... you're going to have to keep reading." So yay! Not a Skrull! Maybe!

Also, his last name is apparently pronounced "Pock," so since the Pak Rats thing wouldn't fly, I told him to start a letters column called "To: Pak". Ha, just kidding, no. Believe it or not, there is only so much unfunny I will allow myself to be in mixed company.

Pak Rats

That's what Greg Pak should call his fan club, and I think I'll tell him that tonight when we see him at Comic Book Club. This is a weekly roundtable that we ridiculously haven't gone to yet--our primary form of organized entertainment besides movies is small-club comedy shows in Manhattan, and this one is about comic books, with actual creators as guests. So really, what the hell has taken us so long is anyone's guess.

If I actually do get close enough to chat, I'll also attempt to give him the in-person version of this, without quite the same degree of breathless metaphor mixing, and maybe a little of this (letter #3). I'll report back on the success or failure of these missions.

Korg's Requiem

In the same way that different kinds of music offer different strengths--a beat, a care for harmony, an emotional ideal, a suitability for drunken scream-along--different kinds of literature speak to different strands of storytelling. Poetry rides on language, journalism relies on compellingly credible narrative, theater is big on character. And superhero comic books, to my mind, are for story lovers. Also for art lovers, but in terms of getting from point A to point B, the magic of comic books is in moving a reader through a great story with brilliant efficiency. When I say "efficiency," I mean it in the best sense--the best comic writers can develop a character magnificently through carefully chosen words and actions that don't wander around through internal monologues or lengthy descriptions. Not that those can't be fabulous in novels, but I read comics because I want to know what's going to happen in this crazy universe, dammit, and throw in some clever dialog that makes me laugh when you get a chance.

But every once in a great while, as I'm trucking along with a planet-saving or moving call-to-arms or second-tier goof-balling, a series of panels will come out of nowhere and stop time. That happened this week with World War Hulk Aftersmash: Warbound #4, a title I'd almost given up because it's confusing as hell and frankly irrelevant to much of what's going on elsewhere. These random-ass aliens, having come to Earth with the Hulk to beat down a few self-important superheroes and failed, are now running away from the government and have all these weird powers and don't really belong anywhere. They find themselves in the middle of some big gamma-ray chaos with Hulk's superest super-villain, and for some indecipherable reason, one of them (Heroim) begs another one (Korg) to kill him because apparently Heroim's power is causing all the problems. Whatever whatever confusing, and then this (click to enlarge):


I'll confess, this sequence brought me to near tears--because it was unexpected, because it revealed so much about a character's private thoughts that had not been at all evident before, because it tells us without any awkward bullshit that there is an entire race of men who, through a ritual of deep friendship, reproduce homosexually. Events in World War Hulk had shown Korg to be earnest and devoted, with an intense sense of responsibility, but this was heart-rending and, in my view, extremely elegant work by Greg Pak and artist Leonard Kirk.

What happens after this is a cliffhanger involving some sudden giant robots that didn't do much for me action/suspense-wise. But I'll read the last issue, not because I give a crap about the robots or the gamma dome of death, but because now, finally, I really care whether the aliens get home safely, away from earthlings and their talent for ignorant judgment.