House to Astonish Episode 140
It’s the last day of 2015, so an end-of year wrap-up seems appropriate. It’s the Homies awards, as is normal for us at this time of year, and we’re awarding all sorts of gongs and other glittering prizes to the comics, creators and stories that most impressed us this year, including totting up the results of our listener vote. Hark! as we lay a potentially surprising amount of praise at DC’s door. Herald! as we try to work out what exactly is Gwenpool. Sing! as we let our central conceit slide with remarkable frequency. There’s no news, reviews or Official Handbook this time round, but we’ve got mince pies and hot chocolate, so you never know who might come carolling. All this plus a human Jaffa Cake, Halley’s clockwork comet, Jeff Lemire’s Blue Tooth and Monty Python’s Secret Wars.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page. Remember, Christmas may be over, but that just means summer’s on its way, so you should stock up on fab t-shirts like the ones available at our Redbubble store.
Thanks to everyone for sticking with us this year. Onwards to 2016!
(If you want to check out our previous awards shows, they’re here and here, and they’re various degrees of fun.)
… I liked Cockney Frank Cho.
I liked Cockney Frank Cho, too.
I was undecided on Cockney Frank Cho. I feel he worked once, but he’s not a repeat gag.
Superior Iron Man works fine as a dark tale of failure, explaining how Tony ended up being who he was for Time Runs Out. But shorn of that context… Yeah.
Funny you didnt mention Kieron writing Darth Vader, since some have said it’s marvel’s best book.
I loved Cockney Frank Cho. I’m sad he won’t be making an appearance.
I’m gutted Cockney Frank Cho wasn’t at the Doorbell to Astonish.
X-Mas story related to one of the Homie winners:
I spent Christmas with some friends in Toronto. At one point, one of them introduced me to his six year old niece with the lead in “This guy knows so much about comic books! I bet he knows more than anyone you know!”
The niece gave me that special look of contempt only a six year can muster. “Nuh-uh. My best friend she lives next door her dad he writes all the mutants.”
Further inquiry with her parents confirmed their neighbour is Jeff Lemire. Yeah, I can’t compete with that.
Good list this year! I didn’t get around to submitting any nominations myself, but it finally got me around to checking out some titles like Wicked + the Divine, Omega Men, and Kaputa.
Also, please let us know what you think of Nimona in a future podcast.
I wish I could decide things in time to actually vote. Or indeed at all; I still don’t know what my favourite comics of 2015 was. I wouldn’t argue with any of these, though. (In fact, listening to the results made me less sure, as I thought “Oh yeah, that was this year as well, wasn’t it?” – Multiversity was, like, ages ago.)
Just to be clear, we’re sure Nimona isn’t about the female counterpart of a minotaur-like villain from seventies Doctor Who?
Thanks for the great podcast. So much new stuff to look into.
I would argue that Mark Waid’s creator-own projects can be found at Thrillbent (Empire, Insufferable).
I liked the super-classy opening music. That’s how you know this is a sophistimacated podcast.
Secret Wars may have been a jumping off point, but by the same token it was a great jumping on point. I read more Marvel comics during the Secret Wars than I read in the previous five years combined.
Great show! Couldn’t agree more with the thoughts on Gwenpoole and Kaptara, really.
Though I really, truly be happy going the rest of my life without hearing the old “couples are a safe, boring choice” bit again, whether applied to gay characters or not. Couples being boring has little to do with the nature of commitment and, bluntly, everything to do with lack of imagination/spine on the part of the writer and/or editor.
Missed the regular features but still greatly enjoyed the episode!
Will you be posting the full listing of titles? I regret not having jotted them all down during my listening.
I’ll second ddt on that.
I’m leaving more Marvel stuff on the shelf post-Secret Wars than I have in a long time (since the 90s, at least). A lot of stuff I’m just not interested in (characters and/or creators), and also just general dissatisfaction that anything’s going to pay off before the next crossover/relaunch (as somebody who got burned by that Superior Iron Man thing).
Now I read that they’re doing Civil War II, and it’s by Bendis? God help us.
Gotta cash in on the upcoming movie, Jerry.
[…] House To Astonish Podcast […]
I feel the need, not exactly to defend We Stand On Guard, but at least explain what it is that it does so successfully, from my point of view.
It’s working on the same register as a novel like Juan Goytisolo’s Stage of Seige, which dramatized the tragedy and horror of the wars in the Balkans, and the relative inaction and apathy of western Europe, by re-staging the siege of Sarajevo in Paris. As an American who lived for years in Canada, I’m not actually convinced that the idea of the US invading Canada for their water is as ludicrous as it may seem abroad. Water should really be a more prominent issue, especially as oil extractions threatens to poison the largest reserves of fresh water anywhere in the world. BKV successfully presents these issues with great moral complexity, while telling a gripping and concise story. But, like Goytisolo’s Paris, I also don’t believe we’re meant to read the story for its surface tale, but to dwell in that ludicrous feeling. Like Pride of Baghdad, which used animals to elicit empathy that Iraqi civilians might not in some readers, WSOG is BKV still processing the US’s endless wars. WSOG is a tale of the complexities of guerrilla warfare and occupation. Set in Canada, we the reader are invited to identify with the occupied in a way that is made more difficult when the protagonists are removed from us by geography, culture, and language. In this way I think We Stand On Guard is more complex and powerful than some may have given it credit for.
I am just listening to this episode now, and as the holidays were especially busy and I didn’t even find time to to vote. But for what it’s worth, I’ll add my voice in support of Island, The Spire, Phonogram, Paper Girls, Kaptara, and Descender. Vision, Barrier, Universe!, the Goddamned, and Patsy Walker may have too few issues to deserve awards but are certainly worth a mention and are books to keep an eye on. Actually, Will Moss’s entire stable of Marvel titles has been great. I really enjoyed Southern Bastards, Lazarus, The Fade Out, and Deadly Class in terms of continuing comics. The Fade Out, and that Criminal one-shot magazine, may be the best work Brubaker and Phillips have ever done. And Ales Kot’s Material was I thought really underrated. Silver Surfer #11 deserves a nod for creative use of the physical medium (though the ads are an unfortunately break in that rhythm).
[…] House To Astonish Podcast […]