Pornokitsch

We each came to this issue of Bitch Planet with a different level of familiarity with the series - so how this one-off story worked for all our perspectives made for an interesting starting point.

Fun-fact: Bitch Planet was almost one of the first titles we ever reviewed, so it's good finally to get under its skin.

Are we ready to get the Non-Complaint tattoo too? Listen and find out.

Yes, we know it's February, but we still say Happy 2016 at the start of this, the first One Comic episode of the year.

We take a look at the return of Swamp Thing's original writer in issue one of the new Swamp Thing limited series. Given the wealth of different takes that have come along since Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson first created the Thing in the Swamp, what's it like having Wein back now?

And given the unquestionable impact of Alan Moore's retcon of Swampy's origin, Jon takes a swing at a 3&1 of "Retconned Origins". If you know his favourite ranting subjects at all, you'll probably know what's his Worst One Ever.

A year in, we've succumbed to the lure of nostalgia and done a review show of all the One Comics to date. Which of the series we said we’d stick with did we follow? Where did we (very quickly) change our minds?

What is the secret to the perfect One Comic? (A combination of smut, Bex and Jared sniping at each other and a healthy disregard for received wisdom.)

As if a clip show weren't exciting enough, the technical challenges that plagued us at the end of the year affected the sound quality of the new parts of this. A fuzzy clip show! What else could you ask for?!

If you can't partake in unashamed self-indulgence at Christmas, when can you? (Well, if you're Jared in a Comixology sale, pretty much any time.)

For our first ever One Comic Christmas Special we've taken our back-up 3&1 feature and blown it out to be a whole episode that doesn't feature our usual content at all. Like one of the 'stealth pilots' that those sneaky TV people do. Bex, Jared and Jon spend an hour with a cocktail in hand and a list of those comics we'd take on if every actual comic creator in the world mysteriously vanished and Tom Brevoort, Axel Alonso and Co. turned to their next most logical options.

On one hand, this is probably exactly what you think it is. On the other, it's possible that we might have come up with some takes that would surprise you. On yet another, I appear to have developed three hands. Cheers!

Agent Carter

Well, OBV.

Once upon a time there was a comic that wasn't published because of its proximity in content and time to a real world tragedy.

Through a small, easy-to-miss door in the equally easy-to-miss Slade Alley, those who are invited, knowingly or unknowingly, can find the garden entrance to Slade House.

The house itself is large and imposing, perhaps past its prime, but always a surprise to find in the context of its surroundings. In fact, how does a house this big, with grounds this extensive, even fit in the apparently available space? Why is it impossible to find its front entrance? And why, on the last Saturday of October every nine years, is someone brought by circumstance to Slade House and never seen again?

I’ll confess that I’ve always found David Mitchell a difficult writer to get on with. Most of my past efforts to get through his books have foundered in the early stages, though for a variety of reasons, so it’s hard to make a definitive “I don’t like the way he writes X” statement. Slade House proved the exception, which it achieved largely by being pacy, intriguing, engaging and creepy in a way that draws in the reader - for the most part - pretty effectively.

You know those self-help books that people get, well let's just say 'enthusiastic' about? The ones that feel about one step removed from the foundational element of a cult? Like that one founded by a former pulp novelist, for example? Maybe that's what they really are. And maybe there's something even more disturbing going on that it might be better for us all not to know about.

Clearly Gail Simone and Jon Davis-Hunt think this stuff should all be out in the open, and have created Clean Room to document it. So it's only polite that we give it the One Comic treatment and share their findings with the world. Which leads nicely into discussing some old Vertigo series in this show's 3&1.

Do you ever read something and immediately think “Well this is going to cause trouble”?

Sam Wilson: Captain America #1

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Daniel Acuna
Published by Marvel Comics

The new Captain America lands in the ‘Eight months later’, post-Secret Wars Marvel Universe with something of a bang, and not only in the pages of the comic. We join our hero in an uncertain time: on the outs with SHIELD, working on a shoestring as a private operative in partnership with Misty Knight, and suffering public and media fallout from his decision to stand up. The cause? He's dared to stand up and say that, in essence, things are far from perfect in the US, inequality is rife, and that Captain America’s job is to stand for, and unite, all Americans, not just those with money or power. So you can imagine how well that goes over.

This week was widely noted by the comic news sites and many comic stores as an especially big one as far as volume of new publications is concerned, and also, given that this was the week Marvel began rolling out its new post-Secret Wars series, a week when a particularly large number of the titles published were first issues.

In the grand tradition of "I read them so you don't have to", following are my pick of the best of the bunch.