We’re back (back! Back!) with more comics chat, remembering John Romita Sr and Ian McGinty, talking about #ComicsBrokeMe, Image moving distribution to Lunar, Marvel and DC’s upcoming launches and Ram V and Felipe Andrade’s Rare Flavours. We’re also reviewing Void Rivals and Ultimate Invasion, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is the O.G. All this plus Monty Python’s flying robots, passive drowning and a guest appearance by Roger McGough.

The episode is here, 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. And t-shirts? Well, now you come to ask about it, I’m sure we have some of them over at our Redbubble store, let me just check

It’s time for another electrifying set of issues of Marvel’s most wanted superteam, the Thunderbolts, as we look at Thunderbolts Annual 2000, as well as Thunderbolts #38 and #39. Scourges! Hellstroms! Citizens V! It’s very much all go, as the storyline begun in issue 34 continues along its twisty-turny path.

The episode can be found here, or via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, via email, on Twitter or Mastodon, or on our Facebook fan page! And do you know what would really bring out your eyes? A House to Astonish T-shirt. It’s true!

Somehow it’s taken us four months to put out a regular format episode of House to Astonish, but we’re here now, and we’re remembering Al Jaffee and Rachel Pollack, talking about all the upcoming Fall of X and Knight Terrors books, enjoying Mark Waid’s mini-renaissance at DC and dissecting the digital drops of DSTLRY. We’re also reviewing The Great British Bump-Off and Guardians of the Galaxy and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog. All this plus Slovakia’s Finest Punctuation Marks, Woolverine and a mincemeat omelette.

You can get the podcast here, or via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page. And hey! You! You over there, without a t-shirt! You know what would solve your problem about not having a t-shirt? A t-shirt!

It’s a whole new era for Marvel’s Most Wanted as our reread of Thunderbolts enters the Fabian Nicieza era, looking at issues 34-37. The team comes face to face with someone who’s either a new enemy or an old friend (or possibly both) as the tale of the new Beetle wraps up and the Scourge saga begins!

The podcast is here, 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, and remember, a t-shirt isn’t just stylish, it’s just plain old common sense.

It’s 2023! And you know what that means! That’s right, more 2022! Join us as we dish out the golden gongs in the comics industry’s most Scottishy-podcasty awards, the Homies! Now in its titantic tenth year! Who won (we’ll tell you!)? Who lost (we won’t tell you!)? EXCITING!

The podcast is here, 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. And T-shirts! They’re going to be big, trust us!

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except this one mouse who was rereading issues of Saga to see if it wanted to nominate the book for Best Continuing Series. That’s right, it’s time to put forward your nominations for the Homies, our annual awards!

As always, Paul and I will individually be choosing a winner for each category, but there’s the usual proviso – we want YOU to help, so you all name your picks in the comments, and Paul and I each choose our own, and we talk a bit about each of the three on our awards show.

We’re likely to be recording mid-January, so we’re giving you until midnight UK time (7pm Eastern, 4pm Pacific) on January 14 2023 to make your choice. When you list your picks, don’t just name names either, because we’ll be reading out the best comments on the show, so let us know your thinking!

BEST NEW SERIES

This one’s pretty self-explanatory – any comic whose first issue was published between 1 January and 31 December 2022 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 during 2022, 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 2022. We’re counting re-use of titles as well as concepts, so Strange or Rogues wouldn’t be eligible, but (for example) Earthdivers or Know Your Station would.

BEST CONTINUING SERIES

The counterpart to the categories above, which covers books whose first issue was published in 2020 or before. They’ve been around the block, but they’ve still got what it takes.

BEST MINI, ONE-SHOT OR OGN

These are explaining themselves by this point, right? We’re looking for OGNs, one-shots and minis published in 2022 (or partially in 2022, in the case of minis).

FAVOURITE WRITER

FAVOURITE ARTIST

FAVOURITE COLOURIST

Each of these three is pretty self-explanatory – whose name on the cover or credits box of a book makes you want to pick it up? Whose work do you most look forward to seeing?

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?

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT

This is exactly what it says – which creator, creative team, publisher or other contributor to the world of comics 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!

Or “Goodness me, is it that time already?”

To quote the Bard, it’s been a long road, getting from there to here, but we’ve made it to episode 200 of House to Astonish, and we’re indulging in our traditional vices of cake and fizz, and talking about Vault Comics’ Headshell line, Titan’s new Conan series, Joe Kelly and Kim Niimura’s Immortal Sergeant, and Ty Templeton’s cancer-free all-clear. We’re also reviewing a bunch of comics on a theme, as we look at Batman #200, House of Mystery #200, Amazing Spider-Man #200, and, er, Deadpool #58? And as always, the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is ringing in the new. All this plus the villainy of Soupface, the world’s least efficient purse-snatching scheme, and a small haystack that looks like a big haystack.

As we recorded this episode on Sunday evening, the news hadn’t yet broken of the incredibly sad loss of Kevin O’Neill, an absolute giant of British comics. We’ll have more to say about him on a future episode.

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. And has there ever been a better time to snag yourself one of our gorgeous t-shirts from our Redbubble store? Depends on your personal circumstances, I guess?

The Thunderbolts are back, and Graviton is making heavy weather of things for them. Can Archangel tip the scales in the heroes’ favour? Can you imagine how embarrassed he would be if he didn’t? We’re looking at issues 27-30 of Thunderbolts (1997) this time out, and there’s a guy with too many baguettes, some highly unfortunate kerning, and a high society scandal in the world of military robotics to deal with.

The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. You can get our frankly delightful shirts over at our Redbubble store, and you can let us know what you think of the show in the comments below, on Twitter, via email, or on our Facebook fan page.

We’re back, and we’re remembering George Pérez, Neal Adams, Tim Sale, Kazuki Takahashi and Pat McCallum, as well as discussing Oni-Lion Forge and Comixology’s recent personnel shifts, the upcoming Tim Drake: Robin series from DC, Marvel’s newest Spider-Man ongoing, the return (again) of Miracleman, the just-announced Wakanda miniseries and Ryan North and Erica Henderson’s Danger and Other Unknown Risks. We’ve also got reviews of Starhenge and Batman, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is very online. All this plus a photocopier and some tracing paper, the comic book version of the Magic Roundabout and a Weeping Angel but in reverse and useless.

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 through our Facebook fan page, and remember, a dog is for life, but a House to Astonish t-shirt is for eternity (NB: may not be for eternity).

Lightning keeps striking! Good lord! It’s just bizarre by this point! We’re back to look at Thunderbolts issues 22, 0 and 23 (in that order) and Avengers 12 (not in that order). Thrill to Hawkeye losing his AirBnB deposit! Be wowed by Vision’s capacity for complaining! Wonder aloud at whether Hercules and Atlas had a fling! It’s all go here!

The episode 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 through our Facebook fan page. And look, far be it from me to say, but our t-shirts are very reasonably priced and would look amazing on you.