Awards season is coming to a close with the grand finale of the Oscars this Sunday. But not to be outdone, we present last, but certainly not least, the esteemed nominees for the 2010 Meltdown Comic Awards!

It’s been an amazing year for our favorite genre and choosing the best of the best was no easy task. This year’s Golden Melty list was comprised from multiple “Best of” lists, sell-through numbers, reviews, Publisher’s Weekly lists and combing through dozens of message boards to hear what true comic fans are saying. So, without further ado, the nominees are:

Best Indie Comic Series

Green Hornet (Dynamite)
The Walking Dead (Image)
Scarlet (Icon)
Chew (Image)
Stumptown (Oni)

Best Superhero Comic Series

Invincible Iron Man (Marvel)
Batman and Robin (DC)
Thor: The Mighty Avenger (Marvel)
Irredeemable (Boom!)

Best Non-Superhero Comic Series

Daytripper (Vertigo)
American Vampire (Vertigo)
Kill Shakespeare (IDW)
The Unwritten (Vertigo)

Hero of the Year

Captain America/Steve Rogers (Marvel)
Scott Pilgrim (Oni)
Kick Ass (Icon)
Zack Overkill – “Incognito” (Icon)

Villain of the Year

Nemesis (Icon)
Skinner Sweet – American Vampire (Vertigo)
Red Skull – Captain America (Marvel)
Norman Osborn (Marvel)

Most Horrific Death

Ares – “Seige #2″
Nightcrawler – “X-Force #26″
Bras – “Daytripper” (all issues)
Cable – “X-Force #28″
Multiple robots – “Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers”

Best Return from the Dead

Aquaman, Hawkman, Firestorm, Martian Manhunter, etc. – ”Blackest Night #8″
Batman – ”Batman and Robin #8″
Dracula – “X-Men #3″

Best New Series

Northlanders: Plague Widow (Vertigo)
Black Widow (Marvel)
Green Hornet (Kevin Smith, Dynamite)
Secret Avengers (Marvel)

Best Graphic Novel

Dark Tower: Fall of Gilead
Absolute Justice
Batwoman: Elegy
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8

Best Writer

Ed Brubaker – Captain America (Marvel)
Mark Millar – Nemesis (Icon)
Jason Aaron – Scalped (Vertigo)
Geoff Johns – Brightest Day (DC)
Mark Waid – Irredeemable (Boom!)
Grant Morrison – Batman and Robin (DC)

Best Artist

J.H. Williams – Detective Comics (DC)
Steve McNiven – Nemesis (Icon)
Fiona Staples – North 40 (Wildstorm)
Naoki Urasawa – Pluto : Urasawa X

Best Celebrity-Written Title

Green Hornet – Kevin Smith
The Guild – Felicia Day
Frenemy of the State – Rashida Jones
Pantheon – Michael Chiklis

Best Event of the Year

Artifacts (Top Cow)
Heroic Age (Marvel)
Brightest Day (DC)
Second Coming (Marvel)

Best WTF Moment

DC issues go back to 2.99
Nick Simmons accused of plagiarizing “Bleach”
Lady Gaga gets her own comic
The ending of Greek Street
Sony Pictures making “Green Hornet” with that script instead of Kevin Smith’s
Tron – ’nuff said

Best Cover of the Year

Spiderman #641 ”One Moment in Time”
Batwoman #0
The Avengers #1 – Variant 7
I Zombie #1
Superman #702
We Will Bury You #1

Were your favorites nominated? Who gets your vote this year for the best of the best in comics? To find out who will take home the Golden Melty, check back here next week for the winners of the 2010 Meltdown Comic Awards!

Meltcast 37: Batman #701 , Harvey Pekar, Girl Comics #3, Orc Stain and much much more including Meltcast fave Felipe Smith’s Peepo Choo

Listen up!, Meltcast No Responses »

Jul 172010

We start the show on a somber note, as Sam leads our eulogy of Harvey Pekar. Then, the train flies off the rails as Caleb returns and we ask the question that cannot be answered – what do comic readers want? We also get an exclusive first look at Taschen Books’ upcoming 75 YEARS OF DC COMICS: THE ART OF MODERN MYTHMAKING (special thanks to Sarah Boyd of Taschen) and feast on a glut of other books: THE NOBODY by Aaron’s favorite cartoonist, Jeff Lemire; DAYTRIPPERS by Ba & Moon, ORC STAIN by James Stokoe, ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS Vol. 1 – NEXT GENERATION by Millar & Pacheco, SCARLET #1 by Bendis & Maleev, PEEPO CHOO by Meltcast fave Felipe Smith, BATMAN #701 by Morrison & Daniel, THE SIXTH GUN by Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt, THE MAN WITH THE GETAWAY FACE by Darwyn Cooke, SUPERMAN #701 from JMS & Eddie Barrows, GIRL COMICS #3, and AVENGERS ACADEMY by Gage & McKone.
Reunited… and you know the rest.

Music: Foghat – Slow Ride / Usher – Confessions pt.2 …

Genius Pull – “Anti-hero”

Art, Comixology, Commentary, DC Preview, Did you know?, Get to Know, Just Arrived, Listen up!, News, Read This!, Reviews, Stacey and Jason, Uncategorized No Responses »

Jun 212010

By: Jason Vaughn

Hello once again to all of you comic book connoisseurs out there in cyberspace. It’s about that time for another random genre selection as we reach our hand into the musty cob-web covered Meltdown Genius Pull box. Here’s an excerpt from the previous mix for anyone who might have missed it (and exactly why did you miss the last one, hmm?) and may not be sure how this works.

“Every iTunes library now contains a playlist called “Genius Mixes.” It’s a rather intuitive program that cycles through your library and pulls together multiple mixes from the different genre types in your music collection. So this got me to thinking? What if you could do the same thing to your comic collection and pull list? Just *click* and you have a selection of crime dramas, *click* a mix of superhero stories, *click* and there’s a handful of your favorite horror books to lull you into a blubbering nightmare-filled sleep before bed. So until the major publishers catch on and start doing something similar on their own websites, every so often I’ll be highlighting a random genre pull of current upcoming books and compare them to some back issue favorites. (By the way, I take full credit for the idea, guys! You can send the royalty checks to Jason Vaughn courtesy of… oh, who am I kidding.) This way, you don’t have to go digging around in that closet where you hide all of your comics from your girlfriend. And guys, don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.” Continue reading »

Meltcast 027: FCBD, Wilson, King of Flies, 20th Century Boys

Commentary, Meltcast, Pod cast No Responses »

May 062010

Half the crew is under the weather but we’re hanging tough — fresh off his Free Comic Book Day Fraggle Rock Mega-Signing, Sam “The Hammer” Humphries fills in for Caleb and the bombs start dropping. ALMIGHTY’s Ed Laroche joins our roundtable discussion of Dan Clowes’ WILSON (and Chris’ comparison of it to INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #25), and shares his thoughts on Mezzo & Pirus’ KING OF FLIES and Naoki Urasawa’s 20th CENTURY BOYS. We also touch on BATMAN AND ROBIN, SIEGE Battlefield Tie-Ins, UNKNOWN SOLDIER #19, and Aaron raves about the new volume of ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN.
Oh, and Chris praises Mark Millar (must be a full moon)!

Via LA Weekly: Meltdown’s Throwdown: Show Us How YOU Kick-Ass, Hollywood!

Contest, LA Weekly, News 1 Response »

Apr 092010

View videos and vote here.

For the LA Weekly By Nicole Campos

Dustin David aims his propeller limbs at Jonah Ray’s recycling.

Just one week from today, geek brethren: Matthew Vaughn’s much anticipated, controversial, madder-than-a-hatter and — judging by the early reactions — all-but-assured cult classic adaptation of Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass barrels its way into theaters. In the spirit of home-spun vigilante heroism, the intrepid crew of Meltdown Comics held an event Wednesday night with an eye toward giving any and all local candidates for grass-roots ass-kickery a chance to shine and prove to the world they’ve got what it takes to put a boot in the hiney of… well, any hiney that requires booting, really. With the backup of Comics on Comics, Geekscape and Lionsgate Films, Meltdown cleared as much space as possible in their back gallery space (No mean feat – lots of room breadth-wise but those ceilings are low. And dude, don’t kick the artwork!), set up cameras, called in some judges and enticed the masses with gooey fried goodness from the Frysmith french-fry truck… all to find out who among Hollywood faithful had what it takes – with only a minute to demonstrate — just how they are capable of kicking ass.