This week, the boys take an even longer time than ever before to actually discuss comics, ostensibly the whole reason this show exists in the first place!  But before a discussion of Scarlet, Dia de los Muertos and a bunch of other great series can begin, it's time for the now-weekly-apparently-after-all-we're-not-watching-The-Walking-Dead-anymore discussion of The Carrie Diaries.  In this week's episode, the show wears its The OC-ness on its sleeve more openly than ever, including featuring a character by the name of Seth played by someone who bears an uncanny resemblance to Mr. Seth Cohen himself, Adam Brody!

We also discuss Excused, the greatest dating show on television, from the scene where a man discovers his particular fetish to the scene a few minutes later where he threatens to commit suicide on-air.

Fun times!  Regret listening yet?  Did we mention that James slaps Brandon?

This week, the boys record the podcast, which turns out to be the Best Idea Ever(tm) because they spend a giant chunk of the episode doing Sylvester Stallone impersonations!  You're welcome, world!

After the weekly digression, the boys get down to brass tacks, namely:

-The Carrie Diaries;

-New comics;

-The casting of Chris Pratt as the Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy and a desire to see the cast of TV's Everwood reunited in the Marvel Movie Universe.

Also, James accuses Brandon of being a Nazi.

This week, the boys discuss their recent weekend, from James seeing Hausu to James performing karaoke at a friend's birthday party and the incriminating photos that arose from it and... okay... that part is pretty James-heavy.  You may want to fast forward.

Otherwise, the boys discuss the most recent episode of The Carrie Diaries, how funny it would be if Community got canceled the day before it's set to return and the insane wealth of new comics that went on sale last week.  Hear them gush about Sam Humphries comics!  Learn what the Danica Test is and how it applies to Young Avengers!  Count the number of things they say that will totally get Brandon in trouble later!

Ah, young love.

Alternate Title: Don't Be Brandon

This week, the boys discuss the non-drinking-and-hangover-related part of their second (site (for now)) anniversary celebrations by discussing Life of Pi, which immediately gets derailed, along with their discussion of The Carrie Diaries, to talk about comics.

Wait... first, James isn't the villain (it gets close, though), and now the boys actually talk about comics before the 45 minute-mark?  What kind of sex planets aligned for this one?

This week, famed author and rap camper Sam Humphries returns to the show to talk about his new comics and be the show's first threepeat guest!  He talks continuing on The Ultimates, the return of Sacrifice (and makes what let's assume is a binding promise that the pull quotes James submitted are in the issue) and writing Canadian science fiction, also known as a story about a beach booty contest in the awesome Ahoy Booty! zine.  He also delves into his approach to the brand new Uncanny X-Force, which has its first issue come out next week, in particular the characters of Puck and Mohawk Storm.  At the end, we check in with Sam regarding his thoughts on comics business innovation and, because this is Canada, Margaret Atwood.

This week, the boys celebrate the one year anniversary of the podcast with a look back at the year of 2012, with the help of friend of the show Scott Williams.  At least, in theory.  In reality, the show is as meandering at ever, occasionally stopping to talk about some great media from the last year but refusing to settle on anything but the 1990s.

Seriously, dudes, that was the best decade.

Find Scott online at:

Twitter: @scottowilliams

Web: Sound of the Week

This week, it's the happiest time of the year!  It's the Christmas in December!  It's James' birthday!

That's right, this week the boys celebrate James' birthday on-air, as he talks about his day, opens presents and feels even less bad about dominating the discussion than usual.  The conversation goes from Happy Endings to Don't Trust the B---- to comics, as well as James' disappointment with The Hobbit.  Warning: extremely mild spoilers for a book you read when you were ten.  There's even a hint for next week's very loosely Christmas-themed-maybe episode!

This week marks a very special occasion: it's our fiftieth episode!  That's right: for almost an entire year, without fail, we've made a new one of these every week, which maybe marks the longest time we've ever gone without fucking something up due to laziness or boredom.  Believe it or not, that counts for personal growth with us.

To celebrate almost an entire year of this bullshit, the boys celebrate their comics podcast the best way they know how: by not talking about comics for a full 45 minutes.  Before that, they talk about the final iCarly episode ever, the latest Happy Endings episode and the surprising darkness in the message of the Smurfs' most recent Christmas special.  After that, they talk about some dumb kids with a Kickstarter that will get sued into oblivion and the brand new Man of Steel trailer.  Then, comics, I guess.  Whatever.

This week, the boys relax after some busy weeks with site-related events to just shoot the breeze and slander each other.  They talk about Happy Endings' surprisingly funny smallpox blanket joke, Breaking Dawn Part 2's graphic violence and fuckshack, and why the first issues of Matt Fraction's Fantastic Four books are so great.  Featuring audience participation!

This week, the boys have an extra special episode ready: a recording of the first ever Comics! The Blog live show, recorded live at the PureSpec festival on November 17th.  Here at C!TB, we're lifelong fans of late night talk shows, and when the opportunity to do a live show arose, there was only one clear option: grab the fake plants, write the site acronym on some mugs and interview some guests!  And thus, Comics! The Blog Presents: Early Night with James and Brandon: The Show! The Experience! The Ride! The Squeakquel! was born!

The first guests on the show are Brittney Le Blanc and Dana DiTomaso, organizers of the Edmonton Geek Girl Dinners, a local initiative designed to foster a community of smart, geeky girls and women.  Brittney is also undertaking a massive initiative to meet 5000 people in one year and Dana is a business owner.  Together, they and the hosts tackle topics like fake geek girls and what the wrong opinions about Batman are.

Finally, the show wraps up with a special Skype interview with friends of the show Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction, who... uh... we kinda talk about a lot here.  As usual, the conversation is fairly off-topic, stopping briefly at discussions of social media, how Kelly Sue's Captain Marvel connects with its readership in a big way and how Matt steals ideas from his son.  Most of the conversation, however, is about penises, namely why they're so hard to get across the border into Canada when they're erect and in comics. It loosely relates to Matt's upcoming series Satellite Sam and Sex Criminals, which was the exact point at which a man and his two sons walked in and then quickly out again.

Brittney described the show as containing more discussion of penises than the actual sex show she also attended that day, which we're going to have on our matching side-by-side tombstones.

Thanks a lot to PureSpec for having us, our guests for tolerating us and Brittney in particular for bringing James a gift.  Why didn't everyone else bring him one?  We may never know, but we'll certainly judge them for it.