The Motherless Oven — ConSequential

2014, eh? Prick of a year. Still, there were plenty of great comics out there, and we've rounded up our favourites. One lucky soul will even win our two top picks, if you booked yourself a Bullshit Bingo card. All you have to do is listen for certain key phrases and mark them off when you hear them. The first person to yell "house" at us on

Twitter

or over

walks away with this fantastic prize*.

We have a winner! Thanks to those who joined in the Dionysian

bingo frenzy

Our combined longlists are way, way below, so as not to ruin the surprise.

Mulp: Matt Gibbs and Sara Dunkerton
Blacksad: Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido
TJ & Amal: E.K Weaver
Trees: Warren Ellis and Jason Howard
Will O The Wisp: Megan Hutchinson and Tom Hammock
Moon Knight: Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, Jordie Bellaire
Pretty Deadly: Kelly-Sue DeConnick, Emma Rios, Jordie Bellaire
Beautiful Darkness: Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoet
The Motherless Oven: Rob Davis
The Wrenchies: Farel Dalrymple
This One Summer: Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki
Through the Woods: Emily Carroll
Hip-Hop Family Tree: Ed Piskor
Just So Happens: Fumio Obata
The Wicked and the Divine: Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie
Moonhead and the Music Machine: Andrew Rae
The Collector: Sergio Toppi
Shoplifter: Michael Cho
Silver Surfer: Dan Slott, Michael Allred, Laura Allred
Saga: Brian K Vaughan, Fiona Staples
Hawkeye: Matt Fraction, David Aja, Annie Wu
Mind MGMT: Matt Kindt
Poorly Drawn Lines: Reza Farazmand

...and our special treat at the end, A Naughty Boy for Krampus.

Comics have always been violent, and while early comics broadly focussed on Hitler getting punched on the jaw or lovesick cats being pelted with bricks, extreme violence has gone through peaks and troughs and sparked the odd moral panic along the way. We look at how violence is portrayed in comics, and where it works and doesn't.

This week we talked about:

Southern Bastards - Jason Aaron & Jason Latour
Wytches: Issue 0 (free) | Issue 1 - Scott Snyder & Jock
The Motherless Oven - Rob Davis
Essex County - Jeff Lemire
Blacksad: Amarillo - Juan Díaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido
Resident Alien - Paul Hogan & Steve Parkhouse
Exit Wounds - Rutu Modan
Kate Beaton's Beat Poets
Batman: Odyssey | AKA Neal Adams' crazy Batman | Brilliant coverage of that insane comic
We3 - Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely
Flex Mentallo - Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely
V for Vendetta - Alan Moore & David Lloyd
Punisher - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon
Crossed - Garth Ennis & Jacen Burrows
Preacher - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon
The Boys - Garth Ennis & Darick Robertson
300 - Frank Miller & Lynn Varley
Three - Kieron Gillen & Ryan Kelly

It's a bra, yeah, but like it's also crabs

This is a bra made of crabs, so now you've seen it too. [wwm_survey id="1"]