It’s a quiet week for comics news and releases, but we’re soldiering on, looking at further developments in Gareb Shamus’s convention calendar, Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s new Marvel project, Dynamite and the Dabels, Yen Press’s Gossip Girl manga and the knock-on effects of the Marvel/Disney merger. We’re also reviewing Image United, JSA All-Stars and Jonah Hex and reopen the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. All this plus existentialism, crop rotation and what happens when they turn the lights on at the end of the Blackest Night disco.

You can get it on iTunes, or directly here. Let us know what you think either in the comments thread, by email, on Twitter or via smoke signals just over the horizon. We’re also experimenting with using a lower bitrate to give a smaller file size so let us know your thoughts on that.

In which we look at conventions, movies, TV, awards and, believe it or not, some comics. We do our usual round-up of the solicitations and review S.W.O.R.D., Supergod and Victorian Undead, and bid a welcome return to the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. All this plus the Shiny Happy Marvel Universe, a doughnut half-filled with delicious jam and half-filled with poison, and the Daleks getting people to read Wednesday Comics.

The podcast is here and on iTunes as usual – let us know what you think by way of comment here, on Twitter, by email or through flashing a lamp on a Dover cliffside in the middle of the night.

(As promised in the podcast, Kate Beaton’s website is at Hark! A Vagrant! – go check her out.)

It’s the one-year anniversary of House to Astonish, and as a special treat (if you can call it that) it’s an extended and unedited edition of the podcast, with the usual news roundup, reviews of Assault on New Olympus, The Great Ten and Stumptown, and a special bonus Listener Questions feature. All that plus our anniversary renumbering, the phrase ‘boring boring boring lazy boring boring crap’ and a saucepan being hit with a metal stick.

Download here, and let us know what you think either in the comments threads or by email, Twitter or by secret coded messages in ancient Templar manuscripts.

Thanks to everyone who’s enjoyed our show for the last twelve months, and we hope we’ll continue to entertain as we head on into our second year.

This time around, Paul bravely battles a cold while we look at the NYCC vs Big Apple con war, discuss the purchase of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Nickelodeon and go through the January 2010 solicitations. We also review The Anchor, Sugar Shock and Azrael, and look at one of the most ill-advised villain gimmicks of all time in the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. All this plus known knowns and unknown unknowns, Red Bull fugues and unionised Batman allies.

Download here, and let us know what you think either in the comments threads, on Twitter, by email or by paper aeroplane through the window.

Another three-week gap, caused by my holidays this time, but we’re motoring ahead with reviews of Planetary, Doctor Brother Voodoo and Haunt, and a bunch of gabbing about the Kirby lawsuits, Boom! Studios’ distributor switch and the announcement of Marvel’s Siege. We also discuss trailers for con panels, sweatshop-assembled comics and the perils of too much Swiss chocolate, and there’s a special all-Canadian instalment of the Official Handbook.

The podcast is here – let us know what you think, either by leaving a comment or by email, on Twitter or surreptitious note under the door.

We’ve been away for a little while but we’re back, with loads of chat on the Marvel/Disney thing and the DC Entertainment kerfuffle, plus reviews of Vengeance of the Moon Knight, Beasts of Burden and Sweet Tooth. There’s also chat about the comics company we’ve bought, organically produced supervillains and cuckoo clocks, and the Official Handbook looks at… the Red Skull?

The episode is available to download here – as always, let us know what you think, by comment, email, twitter or secret coded messages in album cover art.

After last episode’s Cannonball Run of mishap and misery, this week’s podcast was a much smoother recording experience, so it should hopefully be a much smoother listening experience for all you people out there in listeningland.

This time round, we’ve got the usual news roundup including a whole heck of a lot of time spent on the solicitations, reviews of 2000AD, King City and Fantastic Four, and the Official Handbook gets religion. Also featuring comics numbered on the basis of smell, the cutting edge music tastes of DC Comics and supervillain pundits on Fox News.

It’s available to download here, and as always you can stream it off the website or grab it from iTunes. Let us know what you reckon, whether by comment, email, twitter message, or semaphore signal.