Awesomed By Comics

This episode of Awesomed By Comics comes to you from Cacapon (Ka-KAY-pon) State Park in Berkeley Springs, WV, where we came for vacation, went home and came back again. The big winner of the week is the fourth issue of Joe Kelly and Max Fiumara's Four Eyes, which we've waited 13 months for; other good showings come from the family of Spider titles, The Boys, Birds of Prey and Heralds (HER-alds). We also have a good chuckle/tsk at DC's pitch-perfect ironical racial stereotyping. Apologies for any wonky sound quality, as we are sharing a mic on a portable setup in the wilderness that also has WiFi. Also apologies for the lack of Panels of the Week, as we don't have our scanner in said wilderness. Also apologies that this show is two days late, but we on vacation (vay-KAY-shun).

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Cover(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Heralds #3, cover by Jelena Djurdjevic:


Aaron's pick, from Joker's Asylum II: The Mad Hatter, cover by Bill Sienkiewicz:

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by half of the War Rocket Ajax, which was kind enough to lend us one gently used Chris Sims for the episode. Chris sits in for Evie and takes issue with our dislike of Batman and Robin #10, and my love of most things Joe Kelly. Hercules: Death of an Avenger wins multiple awards, Archie comics are discussed on the show for the first time ever, and despite decades of comics reading between the two hosts, nobody can remember whether Thanos has ever had eye beams or not.

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

Aaron's pick, from Guardians of the Galaxy #24, cover by Alex Garner:


Chris's pick, from Hercules: Death of an Avenger #1 of 2, cover by Ariel Olivetti:

Cover(s) of the Week

Again, no Photoshop, so no scanner for my pick (which is the hilarious Northstar panel from Hercules) but you can see Chris's pick here.

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by the metalest costume wear since the Weezer snuggie, stay cool. Marvel's newest cosmic event Realm of Kings takes off like a rocket, and the ladies of Terry Moore's Echo and Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber's Underground take multiple top honors. We also get giddy over the return of the Joe Kelly/Ken Niimura team-up in this week's Amazing Spider-Man back-up, and Aaron fulfills a favorite creator's musical request.

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

Aaron's pick, from Realm of Kings: Inhumans, cover by Stejpan Seijic:


Evie's pick, from Underground #3, cover by Steve Lieber:

Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Amazing Spider-Man #612, back-up story by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura:


Aaron's pick, from Mighty Avengers #31, by Dan Slott, Christos Gage and Sean Chen:

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by Robo Zen, because it's pretty much the only combination we haven't tried yet. A slew of excellent debuts this week as we give it up for Kieron Gillen, Steven Sanders and Jamie McKelvie's stunning S.W.O.R.D. #1, Mark Waid and Emma Rios' superb Strange #1, and Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk's daring Dark X-Men #1. The Bat Books continue to inspire angst, and Unwritten remains a stack-toppin' smash. There's also an above-average amount of Pokemon stuff. Let's go Pats.

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

Aaron's pick, from Strange #1, cover by Tom Coker:


Evie's pick, from S.W.O.R.D. #1, cover by John Cassaday:


Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from S.W.O.R.D. #1, by Kieron Gillen, Steven Sanders and Jamie McKelvie (click to enlarge):


Aaron's pick, from Amazing Spider-Man #611, by Joe Kelly and Eric Canete (click to enlarge):

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by a special EXCLUSIVE sneak preview of a special upcoming Marvel special Noir special event, and also a shout-out to Iowa Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge. Abnett and Lanning give Aaron a double cosmic nerdgasm, while Joe Kelly continues his inexplicable killer tear by jumping on Amazing Spider-Man, because why the hell not. You'll never guess which new creator team RUNS AWAY with with the gold. Sigh, is it June already?

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, from Runaways #10, cover by David Lafuente and Christina Strain:


Aaron's pick, from Unknown Soldier #8, cover by Dave Johnson:

Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Amazing Spider-Man #595, by Joe Kelly and Phil Jimenez:


Evie's pick, from Amazing Spider-Man #595 by Joe Kelly and Phil Jimenez:

Ok, I'm running out the door to the convention center, but since I didn't get to post after yesterday, wanted to tell you these things:

1) If you are going to NYCC at all this weekend, please be sure to stop by the Comic Foundry booth in Artist Alley--I forget the number but it has an orange table cloth, a "2008 Eisner Award Loser" sign and is across from Peter David--and pick up the $1 16-page preview of the next (and last, sniff!) issue of the magazine, out Feb. 18. Not only does it have lengthy interviews with Bryan Lee O'Malley and Grant Morrison, but Aaron and I wrote the first story, a Valentine's-themed ditty that you will probably enjoy. And you can imagine how much fun we had coming up with those candy hearts.

2) Saw the new animated Wonder Woman movie last night (produced by Bruce Timm, co-plotted by Gail Simone), and HOLY HERA was it fantastic. In general I'm a pretty big Timmverse junky, but I didn't much like the recent Superman Doomsday movie, and Wonder Woman certainly could have gone wrong. But it was pitch perfect, so satisfying. It's on DVD March 3rd, three days before Watchmen is out, so you know, whatever.

3) Marvel very much would like you to think about the fact that Hope, the messiah mutant baby currently being raised by Cable, has RED HAIR AND GREEN EYES, and that she will cause Cyclops to have a VERY COMPLICATED YEAR. Not to spoil anything of course.

4) Dan DiDio spent most of the DC Nation panel apologizing. But Greg Rucka proved an eloquent spokesman, and he could probably convince me to forgive all of DC's implementation issues if he were so inclined. But he also seems to know what's worth defending and what isn't.

5) I did not slap Joe Kelly, but I did get a chance to tell him how lovely I Kill Giants was, and that was very nice.

Alrighty, I'm off!

Maybe you've heard, New York Comic Con starts tomorrow, and that's pretty jazzy. I'm very much looking forward to seeing/meeting a bunch of people that I mostly/only communicate with over the onlines or phone interviews or what have you, plus conventions are just a big fat fun nut farm. Aaron and I decided we'd be too busy/poor to get a table in Podcast Alley, but I'll be spending a shift or two at the Publishers Weekly and Comic Foundry booths, trying to get to many panels and just generally running around with a tape recorder and some sweet little Awesomed By Comics, uh, "business" cards that Aaron got printed up. I know for a fact that we'll be camping out to get into the Wonder Woman animated movie debut on Friday night, and I also plan to hit the CBLDF party Thursday night, which is nowhere near the convention center but very close to my office. I realize that's not a very helpful "come say hi" schedule, but I will be wearing a press pass that I assume will have my name on it (maybe? I forget how they do them), so it's not an impossible feat. Haven't decided if I want to have my laptop with me, probably will not unless it turns out I need it for a specific story, but I'll try to post when I get home at nights. And if I don't, you can assume I'm in jail for slapping Joe Kelly.

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.