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Aug 2

House to Astonish Episode 43

Posted on Monday, August 2, 2010 by Al in Podcast

A huge episode for you this time round, to make up for the slight delay (really though, this kitchen is amazing). We’re looking at a load of news out of San Diego, and giving the solicitations a once-over. We’ve also got reviews of Neonomicon, X-Men Legacy and Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe examines Marvel’s first graphic novel (sort of). All this plus the vindication of Fredric Wertham, a phone number on a beer mat and three pages of hex code.

The podcast is here – let us know what you think in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or using your indoor voice.

Bring on the comments

  1. There are huge improvements in the art and craft of Scott Pilgrim in volume 6, but I think a fair bit of that is due to the two assistants O’Malley’s gained. By the sounds of their job descriptions, he had help on inking, backgrounds and crowd scenes. And while I usually frown upon artists not even bothering to do their own backgrounds, I can’t deny that it takes O’Malley’s work to another level here (and got the volume out on time).

  2. Andrew J. says:

    I’ve always thought “Legacy”, “X-men vol.2”, or whatever you want to call it has been the best X-book since Carey’s been writing it. Even when it seems like all the other X-books, and the entire X-men line, are spinning further and further down an inescapable hole, Carey has been able to tell great, entertaining stories. Unfortunately he’s been saddled with the task of giving life to personalities that no one cares about, but he’s actually doing something with it. I have a hard time deciding whether these directions are ones Carey actually wants to take, or whether it’s all the editorial. Sometimes I think his Rogue vs. Cyclops arguments are metaphors for him and Marvel.

  3. d. says:

    Hey Al,

    Louise Simonson wasn’t involved with CrossGen, it was Barbara Kesel.

  4. maxwell's hammer says:

    Carey’s stuff is superior because he’s telling CHARACTER BASED stories! He started with an exploration of Charles Xavier and pulled in an extra odd cast member here or there, and has now switched to Rogue. These types of stories don’t preclude tapping into broader themes and wider scope, but the stories are so grounded.

    Fraction’s Uncanny stuff has no focus! It’s all big ideas with nothing to ground it. To a certain degree, its potentially interesting, but its hollow.

    Give me Carey any day.

  5. They did finish The Unfunnies, as it goes. Proved itself to be a bit of a Twilight Zone thing, in the end.

    Abadazad novels can be found in Poundland, less than a stride from…well, the rude stuff.

    Suggestion: try reading Humberto Ramos without looking at/first blocking out the figures. Look at the way he builds a world! Awesomes.

    They’ve revised the new Power Man design to remove the neck-treads. How is he going to run in the snow?

    Carnage! The FIEND. I hate you, Carnage! You look like a dry blood-bogey and your motivations are pish! The Joker laughs at your bitten styles!

    The “from behind, smiling” thing is totally okay to do, though! Totally okay! I’m all for telling the artist more than the reader.

    Paul! Man! Scott Pilgrim totally depends on a knowledge of the Siege Perilous-era X-Men!

    I felt that SP6 was a fascinating final act, in that it felt so much more like the middle act of something. Like, the whole first half, leading up to the bit in the forest, felt like the quiet contemplative low point in the middle of a story.

    I want to say it’s like the bit with The Architect in The Matrix, in that it’s oddly incongrous with the rest of the piece, but it’s really more like the infinite un-silence between thunderclaps, and it’s just the oddest thing to find at the start of that particular book in that particular series (or maybe it isn’t).

    My favrit panel was the one with the giant ghostly image with the clenched fist.

    I hate backgrounds, but I get so obsessed over them. It’s like, nobody’s ever going to see this picture of them on holiday behind the speech bubble! God!

    I’m starting to think that the inevitable evolution of Spider-Man is going to be into a character who is at the mercy of other people’s philosophies more than he is the whims of a scorpion-man or harrumphing journalist.

    The New Spidey Adventures – which hopefully won’t include Spider-Girl so much – are going to be an interesting, if potentially troubling read. Dreadful feeling that they’re going ahead with The Carlie Thing. Man alive, now I know what it’s like to be an armchair quarterback! “Don’t do it, Spidey! It would be like kissing your sister, only she smells like dirty bums and dead mafioso!”

    Where’s Ursula Ditkovich, that’s what I want to know. At least he’d get a nice cake with his clingyness.

    Oh, wow. I just got it. The Wall-Crawler gets a clingy girlfriend. How misogynistic!

    //\Oo/\\

  6. robniles says:

    Is it strange that I’m curious what the finished kitchen looks like?

  7. Al says:

    d.: You’re absolutely right, it was Barbara Kesel. Bit of a schoolboy error there on my part.

    robniles: it’s unvarnished oak-style cabinets with slate-style flooring and work surfaces, white walls and red tiles. It’s a heck of a lot better than the 1970s monstrosity that was there before.

  8. odessasteps says:

    pictures, maybe?

  9. Al says:

    It’s really not that interesting. It’s also very small and pokey. Your mental picture is probably more impressive.

  10. You know, in current iterations of the Johns-written Flash and Green Lantern, I find Hal Jordan and Barry Allen both to be incredibly dull characters, and yet the stories are engaging and worth reading, and the supporting characters are usually interesting.

    I’m just shocked that in the case of Green Lantern, there’s been almost 60 issues featuring such compelling stories featuring such a dull character.

  11. AJ says:

    *contemplates Facebook-friending you guys*

  12. robniles says:

    Speaking of Facebook, sorry if this has been addressed previously, but any chance of a House to Astonish page, or is it just easier to keep discussions consolidated here?

    Bringing it slightly more on-topic, my heart was warmed just a little by Al dropping an Animaniacs reference in the podcast. (Now there’s a discussion waiting to happen: Is Greg Land the Chicken Boo of current comic artists?)

  13. Paul C says:

    Ed Brubaker getting the Eisner for Best Writer 3 out of the past 4 years is pretty damn impressive. He’s probably one of the most consistently good writers in the business at the moment. Mike Carey would probably fall under that umbrella too.

    I’m really looking forward to the “Black Widow”/”Hawkeye & Mockingbird” crossover as both titles have been pretty enjoyable. Yeah it is a pity that Marjorie Liu is leaving but she has generated enough good faith so far for me to give the new X-23 book a look when it comes out.

    Putting Red Hulk in an Avengers team is stupider than just like hitting your head repeatedly off the wall. I’d concur about it being enough of an incentive to drop “Avengers”…if one still cared for that title.

    I’m also a bit concerned that there will will reportedly be a “new man without Fear” from all these teasers. The signs seem to point to Nova but Marvel have been known to back-track or swerve on things in the past. Maybe this means Daredevil ends up in jail after “Shadowland”, which would be at least better than the alternative to him being killed.

  14. I think they’ve shown a few different characters in those ‘New Man Without Fear’ teasers (like they did for that female Black Panther thing recently), which is why all the people on the panel were so blaise about letting everyone know it was Nova.

  15. Jonny K says:

    I heard the “From behind, smiling” was in V for Vendetta — something about a silhouette of his back, with a large grin across his face…

  16. Paul Wilson says:

    Nobody’s nostalgic for the days of Your Sinclair? Think again:

    http://www2.b3ta.com/heyhey16k/

    (Personally, we had an Amstrad CPC 464 when I were a lad!)

  17. Cheeris says:

    Regarding your assertion that nobody is nostalgic for ‘Your Sinclair’, I too want to add a big-shout-out for those days. ‘Zero’ magazine was great as well.

    As an aside, I got my very first exposure to a comic called ‘Uncanny X-Men’ in the pages of ‘Your Sinclair’, in their ‘other reviews’ section.

    Also, apologies for this, as I only seem motivated to post on your excellent blog when I feel moved to disagree/criticise, but I do take umbrage with your (admittedly passing and brief) description of ‘Crossed: Family Values’ as having a child-molester as a hero and an example of Garth Ennis using Avatar’s liberal publication philosophy to publish stories that step over the boundaries of taste.

    Firstly, the ‘hero’ is unambiguously portrayed as a monster, both by the narrator and by his acts portrayed – he’s only a hero in that (so far?) he is the only person possessing the authority and bloody-minded determination to save himself and his family from the Crossed-infected when they threaten.

    Secondly, the moral ambiguities inherent in that scenario are reasonably complex (given the genre nature of the story, anyway) and are to the fore of the story; it is a long way from a simple provocative shock-fest.

    Thirdly, it’s written by David Lapham, not Garth Ennis – Garth Ennis has a ‘created by’ credit only.

  18. Daibhid Ceanaideach says:

    Neocomnicon may be the last Alan Moore comic to be written, but surely it’s not “Alan Moore’s last comic” as long as parts 2 and 3 of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century are still scheduled for “possibly before the heat death of the universe”.

  19. Daibhid Ceanaideach says:

    Oh, and when I heard there was a new Young Justice book, my first thought was that it was going to star the new pre-teen heroes: Damien Wayne, Chris Kent, Wally’s daughter, the girl in Booster Gold who’s probably going to be the new Goldstar…

    I still think there’s a story in that, albeit probably one about reckless child endangerment.

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