Podcast 67 - Best Comics 0f 2016

Hot dang folks, it's the end of the year, and that means Best Of lists. We're no exception to this cheap and easy content format, but we will at least give some lucky scamp a prize of each of our picks for the best comics this year.

Our spoilery results way below, hidden beneath this very professional advert for  affordable bookkeeping:

Problem Chimp Will Count For You

(Not an official Problem Chimp Enterprises advert, but I do work in marketing, so, y'know. Sorry.)

Each of Our Top Three Books:

• AD: After Death #1 - Scott Snyder and  Jeff lemire
• For The Love Of God, Marie - Jade Sarson
• The Nameless City - Faith Erin Hicks and Jordie Bellaire
• Rolling Blackouts - Sarah Glidden
• Unsounded - Ashley Cope
• March #3 - John Lewis, Nate Powell, Andrew Aydin
• Vision - Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire
• Plutona - Jeff Lemire, Emi Lennox, Jordie Bellaire
• 5000 KM Per Second - Manuele Fior

Still Good:

• Saga - Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
• Paper Girls - Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Matt Wilson
• Trees - Warren Ellis and Jason Howard
• Southern Bastards - Jason Aaron and Jason Latour
• Empty Zone - Jason Shawn Alexander
• Doctor Fate - Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew
• Giant Days - John Allison, Lissa Treiman, Max Sarin
• Harrow County - Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook
• Sixth Gun - Cullen Bunn and Bryan Hurtt
• Squirrel Girl - Ryan North and Erica Henderson
• Doctor Strange - Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo
• Injection - Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, Jordie Bellaire
• Monstress - Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
• Check Please - Ngozi Ukazu

And also:

• Broken Frontier Anthology - Various
• The Spire - Simon Spurrier, Jeff Stokely, André May
• The Can Opener’s Daughter - Rob Williams

Podcast 60 - The Eisner Awards

This episode we look at the Eisner Awards, looking at recent winners and asking: "Awards, huh? What are they good for?" Stick with us to find out.

Sixty episodes! Where does the time go? I'm serious, where is it. ANSWER ME, PHYSICS.

We read:

• Deadpool v Gambit - Ben Blacker, Benjamin Acker, Danilo Beyruth
• Empty Zone - Jason Shawn Alexander, Darragh Savage, Luis Nct
• Mechanism - Raffaele Ienco
• Bad Machinery - John Allison
• Gunnerkrigg Court - Tom Siddell
• Giant Days - John Allison  and Lissa Tremain
• Doctor Strange - Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo
• Vision - Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta

Eisner:

• March - John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell
• Showa: A History of Japan 1953-1989 - Shigeru Mizuki
• Southern Bastards - Jason Aaron and Jason Latour
• Paper Girls - Brian K Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Matt Wilson
• Descender - Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen

You can find a full list of the Eisner Winners here.

John Barrowman as Squirrel Girl

Photo credit: John Barrowman MBE

MBE

Podcast 43 - Architecture

Buildings! Pretty great, huh? Personally, we all live in one. One each, this isn't like Rainbow where we all live in our pyjamas and hang out with a sexually ambiguous hippo. If only. Comics and architecture are natural allies, buildings being where stuff often happens, and comics being images of stuff happening. But there's more to it than that, and we look at some of the most interesting and informative takes on architecture in comics.

We also go into which each of our favourite metro systems are. Regular listeners will wonder what took us so long, frankly.

We apologise for the noisiness of this episode. Sometimes we just need our air really conditioned.

We read and discussed:

• Orbital - Sylvain Runberg & Serge Pelle
• Empty Zone - Jason Shawn Alexander
• Batman: Death By Design - Chip Kidd & Dave Taylor
• Saint Cole - Noah van Sciver
• Fante Bukowski - Noah van Sciver
• The Abaddon - Koren Shadmi
• Robert Moses - Christin Pierre and Oliver Balez
• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath - I.N.J. Culbard, from H.P. Lovecraft
• Necropolis - Jake Wyatt
• Chew - Rob Guillory and John Layman
• Asterios Polyp - David Mazzucchelli
• From Hell - Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell
• Sandman: World's End - Neil Gaiman et al.

See also:

• Soul of a Soulless City
• Andrew Lynch's maps of unbuilt Robert Moses Highways
• Imaginary Cities

Podcast 41 - Warren Ellis' Spies

In the run-up to Warren Ellis' James Bond comics launch, we look at the espionage highlights of Weird Uncle Warren. The man writes about the fallout and faded glory of the intelligence agencies with a weird panache. Plus new releases and the end of Hawkeye, because we're good to ya.

We read:

• Empty Zone - Jason Shawn Alexander
• Aama - Frederick Peeters
• Parallel Lines - Richard Swan
• Hawkeye - Matt Fraction, David Aja, Matt Hollingsworth
• Island - Brandon Graham et al
• Injection - Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, Jordie Bellaire
• Godzilla in Hell - James Stokoe
• Desolation Jones - Warren Ellis, J.H. Williams
• Planetary - Warren Ellis, John Cassady
• SVK - Warren Ellis, D'Israeli, Berg
• Red - Warren Ellis, Cully Hamner
• The Man Who Saved Britain - Simon Winder

Podcast 40 - Shiny! New!

Roger and Dave find themselves alone again this week, but rather than fighting to the death with sexy blades, they've thrown themselves into a vast raft of new releases (issue 1s and new trades) for your edification and amusement. If that's not enough, they still find time to get themselves a-frothy over Image Expo and the upcoming goodness. Onwards!

We read:

• The Spire - Si Spurrier and Jeff Stokely
• We Stand On Guard - Brian K. Vaughan, Steve Skroce, Matt Hollingsworth
• Arclight - Brandon Graham and Marian Churchland (part of 8House)
• Autumnlands - Kurt Busiek and Benjamin Dewey
• Rumble - Greg Arcudi and James Harren
• Supreme: Blue Rose - Warren Ellis and Tula Lotay
• Wytches - Scott Snyder, Jock, Matt Hollingsworth
• Kaptara - Chip Zdarsky and Kagan McLeod
• #WicDiv
• Starve - Brian Wood, Danijel Zezelj, Dave Stewart
• Empty Zone - Jason Shawn Alexander
• The Art of Flying - Antonio Altarriba
• The King in Yellow - I.N.J. Culbard, adapted from Robert W. Chambers
• The Case of Charles Dexter Ward - I.N.J. Culbard, adapted from H.P. Lovecraft