Bags of stuff to talk about this time round, with chat about Marvel’s SXSW announcements (and the fallout from their 700 Firsts  giveaway), Justice League of America‘s sales, the casting of Drax the Destroyer, the delay of the adjectiveless X-Men book, Afterlife with Archie, the closure of JManga and a quick trot through the June solicitiations. We’ve also got reviews of Lost Vegas, Aliens vs Parker and Age of Ultron, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is seeing other people’s lives flash before its eyes. All this plus War is Awesome, Captain America’s dramatic walk and the impracticalities of a Top Cat heist.

The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available through the embedded player below. We’re also on Stitcher.com or their free iOS and Android apps.

Don’t forget that we’ve also got a range of super-swanky T-shirts available at our Redbubble store – love comics, look cool.

Let us know what you think, in the comments, via email, through Twitter or on our Facebook fan page.

Anyone who heard me talk about it a few episodes back or seen the interview with me that went up on the Beat a little while back might remember that I recently discovered the scrap of paper on which I’d written the various names which I’d come up with for the podcast back before we launched.

Having made that list, Paul highlighted a half-dozen or so that he liked best, and we then picked one of those for the name of the podcast.

We figured it might be fun to let you see the full list – we meant to put it up for the hundredth but with everything else that was going on in that episode we totally forgot. So here it is! The ones in italics were the final six, with House to Astonish (obv) being the winner.

• The Men Without Fear
• House to Astonish
• Secondary Mutation
• Because You Demanded It
• Heroes for the ’90s
• Words and Pictures
• Variant Edition [NB: we didn’t realise at the time that this was already the name of a podcast]
• The Team-Up You Demanded
• Graphic Novelty
• Motion Picture Funnies Weekly
• The Fill-In Artists
• Direct Edition
• In This Issue… Someone Dies!
• Secret Origin
• Prestige Format
• Four Panels
• Digest Readers
• Superman’s Pals Paul and Al
• Squarebound
• Deadly Hands of Comics
• World’s Fannest
• The Panel Show
• Our Comics At War
• The Shed of Ideas
• Meanwhile, Across Town
• Border Skirmishes

Following our 100th episode extravaganza, we’re back with a regular old-fashioned episode of House to Astonish, with discussion of the Pandora and Batman/Superman ongoings, the expansion of the Fables empire, the Brother Lono miniseries, Gail Simone’s Red Sonja, the death of Damian Wayne, the Unwritten OGN, the Larfleeze title, Monkeybrain’s  print distribution, IDW’s cartoon licenses, Columbia University’s acquisition of the Elfquest archives, the possibilities of Marvel Fist, the coming and going of WTF Month and Steven Sanders’s Symbiosis Kickstarter (it’s a busy couple of weeks). We’ve also got reviews of Five Weapons, Justice League of America and Nova, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is a master of spin. All this plus the DC New 52 Continuity Steerage Sub-Committee, a tasteless, odourless neurotoxin and a competently plumbed-in bathroom.

The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the player below. You can also listen to us via Stitcher.com or their iOS or Android apps, or get us on iTunes (where every review helps).

Don’t forget, you can also deck yourself out in some of our tasteful and stylish T-shirts by visiting our Redbubble store!

Let us know what you think, either in the comments below, via email, on Twitter or on our Facebook fan page.

It’s finally here – the hundredth episode of House to Astonish!  We’re joined by Carrie Kennedy, Susi O’Brien, Stu West and Amal El-Mohtar to discuss topic suggested by friends, listeners and comics pros, encompassing digital comics, boycotts, the greatest comics out today, what Marvel would be like if they’d done right by Kirby, favourite superhero movies, reinventions of Marvel characters, the Eurovision Song Contest, pie, monkeys and what goes on inside the human stomach. We’ve got contributions from Reilly Brown, Jeff Lester of Wait, What?, Steve Morris of Comics Bulletin, Steven Sanders, Al Ewing, Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool, Heidi MacDonald of the Beat, Alex de Campi, Michael Kupperman, Stephen Wacker, Antony Johnston, Kieron Gillen, Justin Jordan, Lauren Sankovitch, Andy Khouri and Andrew Wheeler of Comics Alliance, Brandon Graham and Emma Rios. All this plus cake, booze, an alcoholic with a spanner, Wolverine vs Montessori and Wong’s hash brownies in our longest ever episode (by 25 seconds).

You’ll have noticed that we’ve had a spruce-up of our design – the immensely talented James Wendelborn has designed our new logos, and you may be pleased to learn that we’ve put those to good use already in our official House to Astonish Redbubble store – if you want to show the world your affinity for the show there’s now a way to do it! You can find it here – it’s the swankiest way to combine comics podcasting and sartorial excellence.

The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think of the show, either in the comments, on Twitter, by email on our Facebook fan page.

Thanks to everyone who’s contributed to the show or who’s enjoyed it so far – here’s to many more episodes.

It’s a podcast weekend, and we’ve got an hour and a half of discussion of DC’s chaotic creative assignments, Keith Giffen’s potential departure from Legion of Super-Heroes, Kyle Baker’s free graphic novels, Marvel NOW!’s free digital collections and the Doctor Strange movie, as well as a look at April’s solicitations. We’ve also got reviews of Uncanny X-Force, The Answer and Threshold, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is full of beans. All that, plus a slim gorilla, Lamp and Plinth and how to hijack an aeroplane with a graphic novel.

The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below, as well as on Stitcher.com or their free iOS and Android apps. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, via email, on Twitter or on our Facebook fan page.

We’ve a nice little hour and a quarter of comicy chat for you this time out, with discussion of Titan’s new comics line, the Phoenix going digital, the proposed DC “dark” movie, the SHIELD and Hulk TV shows and the Superman appeal decision. We’ve also got reviews of The End Times of Bram & Ben, Superior Spider-Man and Mara, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is suffering from an inferiority complex. All this plus Batman’s successful plastic surgery, an epidemic of constipation and a small cat caught in the middle of a war between estate agents and bacon.

The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, either in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – the time when comics pundits online post their picks of what stuff they thought was great and/or rubbish!

Paul and I are no exceptions to this tendency, and this year we’re attending the glittering night of the stars that is the Homies awards. Live from the green room of a very unusual venue, we’re rounding up our choices in a variety of categories, and going live to the main award ceremony where a dazzling cast of comics creators and personalities will be awarding the prizes to the comics, publishers and creators that won the listener vote, as chosen by YOU here, on CSBG and via email.

No news, reviews or Official Handbook this time round, just 95 minutes of the best and worst of 2012. The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.

Have a happy new year, and we’ll see you in 2013.

As we’re about to hit the end of the year, we’re thinking about our next episode, which will be our end-of-year wrap-up. As part of this, we’re going to be inaugurating House to Astonish’s own awards – the Homies – where we’re going to hand out gongs in eight categories. The best part is, we want YOU to help – Paul and I are each going to select our winners in the following categories, but we’re also going to read out what our listeners think on the next episode. So check out the categories below, and let us know who or what you’d award each glittering prize to if you were us!

BEST NEW SERIES

This one’s pretty self-explanatory – any comic whose first issue was published between 1 January 2012 and the date of broadcast (likely to be the 29th or 30th of December) is eligible. What new series got your attention the most this year?

BEST ACTUALLY NEW SERIES

This one’s a little less self-explanatory – what series, again first published between 1 January and date of broadcast, did you think was best, with the proviso that it has to be something where the property wasn’t in existence prior to the start of 2012. We’re counting re-use of titles as well as concepts, so Prophet, X-Men Legacy or Dial H wouldn’t be eligible, but (for example) Saga would.

MOST WANTED

This is for the comic, series or graphic novel that saw print this year which you’d want to see more of, whether that be a book that was cancelled before its time, a one-shot or mini that just begs for a follow-up, or an OGN that you’d love to see a sequel to.

MOST PLEASANT SURPRISE

It may have seemed unappealing when you read about it online, and those preview pages may have looked unremarkable, but when you finally got the winner of this category in your hands you were ready to eat your words. What comic, series or graphic novel did you find yourself enjoying much more than you thought you would?

STIFF DRINK AWARD

This award will go to the comic or graphic novel that most made us gasp with surprise – an unexpected plot twist, a daring cliffhanger or a shocking denouement will stand a book in good stead here.

THE JOE CHILL AWARD FOR SERVICES TO REFRIGERATORS

Here we’re looking for the most egregious example of bad gender relations in the comics world, whether that’s a disservice done to female characters or to a female creator(s) or participant(s) in comics fandom.

THE NEW COKE AWARD FOR MOST ILL-JUDGED MARKETING

What move did a comics company or creator make this calendar year that had the effect of most making you want not to read a particular book or buy a particular company’s comics? We’re looking for abrasive interviews, ridiculous variants and counterproductive advertising here.

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT

This is exactly what it says – which creator, creative team or publisher really knocked it out of the park this year?

Let us have your picks in the comments thread below, along with your thinking on each one – we’ll read out a range of the responses on our big end-of-year show. Happy nominating!

After far too long away, we’re back with a solid hour and a half of jabbering about Karen Berger and Gail Simone’s departures from DC (and what this means for the Vertigo imprint and the company as a whole), the November sales figures, the cancellation of Creator-Owned Heroes and Marvel and DC’s March solicitations. We’ve also got reviews of Hellboy In Hell, Blackacre and Avengers, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe cracks open a cold one. All this plus Cherry Wolverine, Fairtrade comics and the action escapades of a man called Boise.

The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.