Hello, Whatnauts! As you can perhaps glean from the title of the post and the image and/or the tag, and/or the tracks of my tears, there won't be a podcast this week due to the most heinous of failures--hard drive failure. I tried to back up my external hard drive *for the first time ever* after recording what was a truly great podcast with Graeme.

Believe me, when I tell you: it was quite a thing. Part of it was the fact we took some controversial stands. We compared Sandman: Overture to Pretty Deadly, with Pretty Deadly being preferred in some matters. We talked about the Fantagraphics Kickstarter -- about which I was especially vexed -- and I think finally nailed our discomfort with crowdfunding.

Since it was November and I was letting myself read Marvel books from the library, we discussed the oddness that is Guardians of Galaxy: The Power of Starhawk, with much bending of the knee at the work of Mr. Steve Gerber an an analysis of how aspects of the work are oddly prescient about fan culture today. Graeme, who'd actually read a lot of books in prep (including a ton of Green Hornet issues we never got around to discussing), listened to me rave about Akira Toriyama's Cowa!, Four Color Fear, and other titles. We discussed DC's move to New York; Marvel's TV four-fer with Netflix; Jeph Loeb: Threat or Menace? with regards to the TV shows he's worked on; and there was a long discussion of the beautifully written, gorgeously drawn Bad Houses by Sara Ryan and Carla Speed McNeil that Jeff both loved and had a lot of things to wring his hands over. And Graeme and I had a fight about Supergirl statues and DC promotional DVDs that was both heated and hilarious.

In short, it was a pretty darn good podcast that I am going insist--for now and forevermore--was out very, very best podcast and now it is lost to us forever. It's like Hemingway's Suitcase, except I also lost what would've been the entirety of the Wait, What podcast if they weren't all uploaded to our server. As it is, the chance of me putting together a mega-edit of Graeme saying "Spectacular!" are even closer to zero than they were before.

So I am sorry, listeners -- we did our duty and tech failed us. Maybe one day we can do a Kickstarter to get the data recovered -- the estimate I got from this one service was that it would cost between $500 and $1400 -- but for now all we can do is apologize. (And in my case, buy a new hard drive. And rebuild my iTunes music library (which may not be that hard since I have iTunes Match, maybe?)

We will record this week so there will be an ep next week...unless something goes desperately wrong AGAIN.

As always, thank you for your patience in these matters, and Graeme and I hope you are doing well.

It's....not easy to explain. Trust me.

Oh, man. Remember all the questions you guys asked us and we didn't get to? Well, don't say we didn't start 2013 right!

After the jump: Show notes, no more terrifying photos, still kissing with saliva, etc., etc.

0:00-12:00: Greetings! Before the comics talk, Graeme and Jeff catch up with what they did during the holidays. Unsurprisingly, Jeff got sick and moped. Even less surprisingly, Graeme worked. And worked. And worked. Other exciting topics covered: inadvertent tech problems, deliberate tech problems, Cocoa Pebbles, Cocoa Puffs, and Cocoa Krispies and Honey Monster, the Sugar Puffs mascot. 12:00-29:03: Jeff talks about the first season of American Horror Story, which is another "what we did during the holidays" topic, and that leads into a discussion about things that go wrong, TV, and includes mention of The West Wing and Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence. And, just as we almost start talking about comics, we swerve and talk about Misfits about which, in a weird reversal of the status quo, Jeff is caught up on and Graeme is not. Also, you will never know how much coughing I had to edit out to make this sound at all listenable, but it was kind of a lot. Some of them I had to keep in so we could (sort of) hear Graeme. Sorry about that. 29:03-36:16: Graeme lists the comics he's read! Hey everybody, we're talking about comics! Well, starting to talk about comics! Well, almost…starting to…talk… 36:16-36:52: Intermission Uno! 36:52-38:52: Hey, who has two thumbs and has been interviewed again by Canadian Television? This guy….Graeme McMillan, whom we all know. Yes, CL Cool Graeme (Canada Loves Cool Graeme) is burning up the airwaves. 38:52-56:58: Comics! We were supposed to talk about all those books Graeme listed so of course…we don't talk about them. Instead, we talk about Amazing Spider-Man #700. 56:58-1:05:35: And from there, we talk a spot of news--the promotions of Bob Harras and Hank Kanalz over at DC. Also, those great lists of CE's top-selling books for 2012. 1:05:35-1:05:50: And so…we finally get around to talking about the list of comics Graeme bought! Or….do we? (Hint: we don't). 1:05:50-1:06:38: Intermission Two! 1:06:38-1:07:23: And we're back…and the sound is a bit hinky for some reason? Have we thanked you for continuing to listen to us recently? We really should! 1:07:23-1:23:23: Remember that list of comics Graeme mentioned way back when? Here it is! A delightful batch of old issues Graeme picked up at his local comic book shop's sale: Batman and the Outsiders Annual #1 (1984); DC Comics Presents #60 (Superman and Guardians of the Universe); Machine Man #10 by Marv Wolfman and Steve Ditko; Micronauts Annual #1 (1979); Mr. Miracle Special by Mark Evanier and Steve Rude (1987); and the DC Comics Mystery In Space DC Presents One-Shot (2004) featuring Elliot S! Maggin & J.H. Williams III, and Grant Morrison & Jerry Ordway. 1:23:23-1:39:12: Also, something comics-related(!): Graeme and I talk Final Crisis since both of us (weirdly enough) had re-read it in the last month or so: ccontinuity, the New 52, reverse time, and issues of race, are among the subjects of our conversational hand-wringing. Then…techpocalypse forces us to cut things short in mid-convo and try again. 1:39:12-1:39:32: Intermission 3! 1:39:32-1:42:35: And we are back! (After a few failed attempts, which were a bit on the crazy-making side of things?) So it's back to more Final Crisis talk--where are those Batman issues? What about the Legion of 3 Worlds? 1:42:35-end: And now on to some quick chat about new comics--Flash #15 and its amazing second half by Francis Manapul; New Avengers #1 by Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting (including a shout-out to Abhay's fantastic commentary on Hickman's Secret); Sachie-Chan Good!! by Akira Toriyama and Masakazu Katsura (which inspires Graeme to recount the "Miss Universe" pitch from the Downey Files podcast); Batman Inc. #6; Saga #8; Wonder Woman #15; Fatale #11 by Brubaker and Phillips; Prophet #32; Godzilla: The Half-Century War #4; Witch-Doctor: Mal Practice #2; and (digitally) the first volume of Kikaider by Shotaro Ishinomori (sooooo good!) And then a little after the two hour mark--we are finished! For now. [Cue ominous music...]

As I'm a bit out of practice, a bit sick, and staring down the barrel of an early wake-up call, let me just cut through the niceties and say: it's good to be back! (Hold up, brain: isn't that a nicety right there?) And blah blah blah blah iTunes, but also right here, and so on:

Wait, What? Ep. 111: Things That Go Wrong

Ah, but no worries we will be back next week--here is to a Happy New Year to all and, as you may have guessed, we thank you for listening!