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.