From the amazing Kirby-written, Kirby-drawn finale to the first Super Powers miniseries.

See, everyone? I don't blow every deadline, just some of the deadlines.

Anyway, we're back (although SPOILER: we're off next week again) with not quite two hours of Kirby talk, Ewing talk, and...three year old niece talk? Um, I'm afraid the answer to all of those is: YES. Join us after the jump for show notes, why don't you?

0:00-2:35: Hello again! It has only been about two weeks but we are confoundingly rusty. 2:35-19:01: And yet, within the first three minutes we are talking comics. More specifically, we are talking the terrific Ethan Rilly's Pope Hats #3, which Graeme found on the cheap while we were at the comic store together up in Portland. We talk about it, the work of Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian; the Paul books by Michel Rabagliati; how it feels to be in the elite cadre of CE newsletter writers; the difficulty of digging through long boxes as you get old; the food in Portland; Vegan Viking -- Portland food or Jack Kirby character?; the hero of World War II, Ken Dynamo: and more. 19:01-21:16: After some problems with his 2000 A.D. app, Jeff managed to get his subscription ironed out and was up to his neck in 2000 A.D. And so in Part One of "this week in Al Ewing," we rant about the Zombo strip in 2000 A.D.'s Free Comic Book Day issue, or do until an unexpected tech snag sends us instead into…. 21:16-21:52: INTERMISSION ONE! 21:52-24:19: And we are back, with a story from Graeme about some hold music that is all about listening to music while on hold. Meta. And then about a company that has put the Star Trek logo onto an arrangement of atoms. Terrifying. 24:19-29:33: But, yes. Back Al Ewing and Henry Flint's fantastic Zombo story for the 2000 A.D. Free Comic Book Day story. Also, Graeme was in the store during Free Comic Book Day and saw some eye-opening things. (I mean, apart from comics.) 29:33-34:54: Hey, Whatnauts: care to help a brother out? Jeff is looking for ideal comic books for his three year old niece that are age appropriate and feature female action heroes. This segment talks about the stuff he's looked at, the stuff he's looking for, and how you can help. 34:54-54:08: And somehow this leads into Justice League of America #3. Graeme has read a bunch of recent DC titles and comes away with a good feeling about the variety in the New 52's line-up…or does he? Included in the discussion: the latest issue of Swamp Thing, Suicide Squad #20 by Ales Kot and Patrick Zircher; Ann Nocenti doing her thing on Katana; Jeff Lemire's Green Arrow; Batman & Robin, and more. By contrast, Jeff read The Movement #1 and Action Comics #20, and was maybe not so positive about it. 54:08-59:59: Part Two of "this week in Al Ewing": Graeme sells Jeff on Avengers Assemble #15AU, and Mr. Ewing's latest novel, The Fictional Man. 59:59-1:07:22: Also under Graeme's magnifying lens, Gilbert Hernandez's Julio's Day and Paul Pope's The Death of Haggard West. 1:07:22-1:07:43: Intermission Two! 1:07:43-1:16:16: Can you withstand the onslaught of….The Graemebot! And Jeff has a story of frustration--dire funny book frustration. Family are involved. 1:16:16-1:28:09: Jeff has seen Iron Man 3 and talks about that a bit. What about Jeff's boycott? He talks about that, too, as well as the weirdness that appears to the Avengers 2 negotiations and Marvel Studios. 1:28:09-1:32:46: Which brings us to Graeme's tweet about Marvel and Jack Kirby that was retweeted 645 times. The figures in Graeme's tweet comes from the first issue of Comic Book Creator from Two Morrows Press, which we also talk about for a bit. 1:32:46-1:55:56: Speaking of Kirby, we discuss The Jack Kirby Omnibus Vol. 2, as well as the amazing "White Zero" issue of 2001: A Space Odyssey #5. We discuss the first Super Powers miniseries, especially the last issue written and drawn by Kirby. 1:55:56-end: Closing comments. Next week we have a skip week thing going on (again) but we make pledges! We make vows! We take oaths! To try and give a good run of episodes for a bit.

As for the episode itself, well, hmm. It probably hasn't hit iTunes yet (although that RSS feed does seem to synch up quite nicely to it these days) but, as always, you are more than welcome to listen to it here:

Wait, What? Ep. 123: Assault Monitors

As always, we hope you enjoy, and we thank you for listening!