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!

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.

Aquafresh.

Hey, does everyone remember this Final Crisis cover, where it appeared as though our 17 year-old friend Supergirl was perhaps signaling that she might like something special put right there because this big bad awful final crisis was just so darn scary?


But WHAT?!

What could she have possibly been telling horny fanboys all across this great nation that she would like put right there? What do young, innocent, impossibly sexy girls want to put right there, right where Supergirl is pointing?

You'll be happy to know that Marv Wolfman and Phil Winslade have your answer in this week's Brave and the Bold.





Why, it's toothpaste of course! White, gooey, sticky, runny, not-at-all-suggestive toothpaste! I'll bet you're all embarassed now, you dirtyheaded gutterminds.

....and Fail

Caleb points out that in the in-book advertisement re-purposing of the pretty sweet "real power of the DC universe" poster, DC chose to reconcile the poster with comic book dimensions by cutting out everyone who wasn't straight or white.



I should note that I'm sure they didn't do this on purpose, it's just an unfortunate oversight that doesn't help their current PR issues. Stay classy, DC.

Things I learned from my first few hours at NY Comic Con

1) Geoff Johns may have gotten the most audience questions and ass kissing at the DC Nation panel (deserved, he's rad), but Gail Simone got the most introductory applause, including a standing ovation by a handful of dudes. Who were mostly gay, but it's a start.

2) Geoff Johns is the hottest guy in comics. Which in theory isn't saying anything at all, but in his case it is. He obviously, like, works out and stuff. Even my fiance commented on his fineness over our post-Con cupcakes.

3) Geoff Johns doesn't really understand why everyone always calls him "Geoff Johns" to his face instead of "Geoff." But seriously, how can you not? It's like my friend Judy Wu, why on earth would you ever not say that whole name together.

4) Ok apparently I have a mini-crush on Geoff Johns.

5) Gail Simone is all the awesome I knew she was, and I'm really looking forward to interviewing her, which I am actually going to get away with doing for work.

6) There are some fanboys who think it's a real snooze that people keep bringing up how great Jaime Reyes is because he's the only really authentic, positive Latino superhero. God, how annoying and boring, they should just be happy that they get to have jobs and read comic books and stuff. It's almost as bad as those girls and gay guys who are always going on about how awesome Gail Simone is. SNORE.

7) The coworker I ran into at the convention center "never would have guessed in a million years" that I was a comic book fan. I will confess that more than 50 percent of me is taking that as a compliment.

8) Young women in comics get kind of uncomfortable when older women in comics start talking about feminism, because they've "never really had to think about it." Based on the young women's stated ages, I think there was some kind of bizarre reboot of socio-political continuity between my birth and my fourth birthday.

9) DC is going to launch a series about Supergirl in eighth grade. Despite any number of reasons for concern, I've tentatively decided that this rules.

10) There aren't many things cuter than little boys accompanied by their dads stepping up to a microphone and asking Joe Quesada if there's any chance that the Sentry could be a Skrull. Ok, if I meet a little girl who's being kept up at night by that question, that might be a little cuter.

Do you think batarangs are tax deductible?

Happy tax day, everyone. I'm bang-deep in work at the moment, but I will be at NYCC this weekend, so if you see a girl with a press pass and a slack-jawed, concerned expression, give a thumbs up. I won't actually be concerned, that's just the involuntary default state of my face. It has confused many a teacher and employer, and enabled repulsive candid photos.

Anyway, I unintentionally walked by Jim Hanley's Universe in Midtown yesterday, and the line was around the block to sit cross-legged at the feet of Brian Bendis and Matt Fraction. I had read about the event and considered going, but the pen I use for having my thigh autographed was out of ink. According to their posts on the Bendis board, Brian and Matt were "not invited" to the New York Comic Con, and so were just in town for last night's event. I'm guessing that "not invited" means "not given an award or had a panel named after them," since clearly, they would be welcome to attend and, I don't know, autograph thighs.

L-A-M-E

I don't really think it's necessary to add more commentary to the whole marvel_b0y nonsense (a supposedly disgruntled low-level Marvel employee who may or may not be a marketing stunt), but if a commenter on this post is right and the prankster is Brian Bendis, let me just add my unique nuanced analysis that is just the most stupidest thing ever. Bendis is obviously the guy who put cupcake frosting in the weird girl's hair in junior high and she didn't notice ALL DAY and dude it was SO HILARIOUS.