House to Astonish Episode 150
It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally here – House to Astonish episode 150, commemorating eight years of chat and waffle about comics. This time round, we’re not doing our usual news-reviews-handbook format, but instead tackling questions about what current books we’d recommend, what the most ridiculous stories are that we’ve ever read, the Transformers: Earthforce stories, our secret origin, the concept of the “Reverse OHOTOHOTMU”, our greatest hits, and how we’d remake crossover events. Plus our most punsome Amalgam characters, a spot of House to Astonish Theatre and a feature which we straight-up ripped off from another podcast. As a bonus, we’ve also got the entirety of the House to Astonish vs SILENCE! panel from Thought Bubble 2016, featuring Ryan North, Brenden Fletcher, Emi Lenox and John Allison, for anyone who missed that. All this plus Magazine and Magazine Collecting (the magazine for people who love magazines), fifth-dimensional imp Paul F Tompkins and the Super-Beard.
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.
Our Redbubble store (with its wonderful shirts, so cosy, such perfect Christmas presents) is here. You can find our friends from SILENCE! here, and the boys of Bit Socket here.
Congratulations on reaching 150 episodes and 8 years, it’s been fun listening in.
I’ve still never gotten around to reading the run of Young Liars that I claimed as my pub quiz prize.
You definitely should, it’s a cracking wee book (and thanks!).
Byrne did a secret id gimmick for reed and sue where they lived in CT and commuted to the Baxter Building. Sue wore a wig and Reed changed his face
Congrats on 150 episodes! My wish for a quiz-thing is entirely satisfied by Lex Luthor and the tragic story of the 40 cakes.
Nightcrawler really never did recover from the demon spawn thing, did he? Though arguably the damage started earlier, with Claremont rebranding him as a priest. And now we have one Nightcrawler running around being more emo than the time he came back from the dead, and the other as the Goblin Queen’s mount. It’s been a rough century for furry elves, so far.
I would put the ultimaim and phantom stranger reviews amongst the show’s best bits, along with the Netherlands entry of the OHOTOHOTMU.
I’m here from the House to Admonish and I’d like to say if you’re not actually giving away waffles, or selling waffles, or providing waffles of any sort, you’re letting both Belgium and Chicago down. And may be subject to a lawsuit depending on international law.
It’s like advertising free beer and then not having free beer. Or giving away room temperature stout.
Congrats on hitting eight years and a pleasingly round decimal number, guys! Can’t believe it’s been eight years since the podcast started.
Regarding that Transformers partwork, they’re already taking subscriptions online, but I signed up two months ago and have received nothing. Someone else who signed up online has eventually received the four initial issues in one delivery (which include Target 2006 and Stormbringer) along with a letter offering a refund or a free gift, weirdly. I’m just going to stick with IDW’s TFUK trades, the penultimate one of which is finally due out next year.
The first time I encountered Paul’s writing was when his review of The Draco was linked in a newsgroup thirteen years ago. Good to hear a reference to those dark days of terrible comics and New X-Men in this anniversary episode. It’s been a wild ride guys.
Revolution is really bad. I hope Transformers: Lost Light comes back soon.
Congratulations! I am 90% certain that this was the first podcast that I ever listened to.
There is an outside chance that it was Tachyon TV – but they’re not around any more, and you are. So yours is definitely the podcast that I’ve been listening to longest.
Two other highlights: the team-up episode with Wait, What?; the news update when the two of you came back after your long hiatus due to bringing another generation into this cruel world.
Good stuff as always. 🙂
Who wrote the Stryfe book? Because I got an Angry Claremontian Narrator vibe from Al’s reading. I could almost hear it in the voice of Jay Edidin.
Congrats on #150. I eagerly await the relaunch at #1 next week, followed by an arbitrary #200 rough 46 episodes later.
Congrats on eight years. I think I’ve been listening since #10 or so, catching up on the first bunch of episodes when I needed something to listen to at work in mid-2009, and haven’t missed an episode since.
That review of The Draco is one of my favourite reviews ever.
Congrats! I think another highlight was whenever it was you guys got your wives to co-host the show, that was a fun listen. Also I think it was this podcast that convinced me to give MTMTE a try, even after the previous IDW run had so completely killed my interest in the property, so that was good. And I think I started listening to Awesomed By Comics after you guys talked about it, so that was good too.
I’m with Paul on recommending Gwenpool to my own surprise. I picked it up only because I like Gurihiru, but it’s been a lot of fun.
Congrat on 150 guys, I’ve only been listening since Secret Convergence but it’s been great.
I’d put those puns on a best of list, and I agree with Voord that the news update when you came back would also go there, I went back and listened to it when it was mentioned on Secret convergence and it got me to check out the podcast.
I was a little surprised not to see some of the other Image books on your recommended list: Velvet, kill or be killed, southern bastards, the goddamned, black monday murders, etc.
But totally agree Vision is best, if not one of, books of the year.
What issue does that revelation about “everybody knows Wolverine” come in?
deworde : It’s in Peter David’s Gehenna Affair, so somewhere in #11-16. #15, according to UXN.net.
Great episode. Loved the panel.
Congrats on the milestone issue! As enjoyable as ever – thanks you guys 🙂
Big congrats on the anniversary lads. I loved Stryfe’s Strike File when I was 14 – it’s probably one of my most treasured nostalgic artifacts. It made the X-Men seem so serious and epic and important. I’ll stand up forever for its absurd, overblown, purplest of prose.
Congrats on the milestone & anniversary. 8 years goodness me, I remember being at uni and seeing Episode 1 randomly appear way back on Paul’s If Destroyed blogspot page and just had to give it a go given how enjoyable the X-Men reviews were.
I have definitely checked out a couple of the books you have reviewed and laughed many times in public looking like a right fool, usually at the OHOTOHOTMU. As mentioned above, the time you both recapped all that had happened in the past 8 months when you came back from hiatus was fantastic.
Listening to the panel at the end was a bizarre experience but it was very funny and the Mark Millar impression was brilliant. Also loved the bonus extended music and sirens at the end.
Also as an aside, could anyone recommend a good ‘catch-all’ comics site (news, interviews, previews) as quite frankly CBR is now terrible since they got bought/relaunched.
Congrats, guys!
The bit about how to make Secret Wars better was interesting. It occurred to me that there have been the occasional good Skrulls before (remember Cadre-K?)so it might be interesting to play up the “they are among us” bit, but also have it that many Skrulls, having been accepted into human society, don’t actually care much about Queen Veranke’s plan and just want to be left in their new lives, and the humans who have a problem with that are actually being racist. (And then I realised I was just reinventing “The Zygon Inversion”…)
Amalgam puns: I remember being very disappointed when one of the Access miniseries had Wonder Wasp and didn’t give her a Sting of Truth. (Her archenemy would be Peter Parker possessed by the Duke of Deception, who has a Web of Lies.)
When the Great Lakes Avengers decided Kirk Langstrom could be the next character to get stuffed in the Grasshopper armour, he became … Cricket-Bat!
Separated from the rest of the Thunderriders, Winthrop Roan joins forces with a mysterious immortal who has lost his brother, and helps him return to the Dreaming. They are … Reddy and Abel!
I’ll stop now.
That Stryfe book is hilariously awful. Does he have Warren Worthington confused with Harvey Dent? To be fair, it sounds like they were aiming for “Stryfe as angsty teen who thinks he’s a poet”, but even allowing for that, that’s some pretty overwrought stuff.
The “forty cakes” bit is from the Super-Dictionary. Lex’s Australian accent, incidentally, was a bit more than a thing he did in passing – it lasted several years, including the entirety of the Death and Return of Superman.
Peter David’s take on Comet was less daft than it sounded. Al missed out that the bit about turning into a centaur wasn’t something the Stable did, but was the result of embracing his powers as an Earth Angel after he merged with a lesbian comedienne the same way Supergirl merged with Linda Danvers. I forget why I thought that would make it sound less daft.
Still to hear the back half.
Eight years! Blimey. Still, when you consider that I’ve been reading Paul’s reviews for nigh on twenty years it doesn’t seem so long.
I enjoyed listening to you guys mention Chuck Austen’s Romeo and Juliet arc, if only because it reminded me of the review that opened with the line “Lo! What shite through yonder window breaks”
Heard the back half, and very entertaining it was.
For future reference, though, a weasel is weaselly recognised, because a pine marten is pine martenily different.
(And an aquatic pine marten is otterly unique.)
> Lex’s Australian accent, incidentally, was a bit more than a thing he did in passing – it lasted several years, including the entirety of the Death and Return of Superman.
Basically, he was posing as his own long-lost son (from Australia, yes) for the duration, with his brain transplanted into a younger clone to get rid of his cancer (and also, restore his hair. He was *quite* adamant about that, hence why “Lex Luthor II” sported long hair and a full beard)
Congratulations on 150 podcasts! Here’s to 150 more!
The only problem with the Earthforce stories was that the continuity was wobbly; other than that they were pretty good. I think the continuity issue tends to overshadow the quality of the stories.
I miss the sirens.
[…] take advantage of a captive audience. Last year’s panel is the last 45 or so minutes of our Episode 150 from last year, so check that out if you want to before coming along next weekend – […]