We're back on myth this week, looking at comics that create their own myths and discussing 19th century vs. contemporary mythic theory while swearing like troopers. Tell us you get that anywhere else. Liar.

We also set about tackling new some new releases, and generally being terrible people.

• Blacksad - Juan Díaz Canales (writer) and Juanjo Guarnido
• Secret Avengers - Ales Kot & Michael Walsh
• Saga - Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples
• Sex Criminals - Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarksy
• Young Avengers - Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie
• Phonogram - Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie
• Chimichanga - Eric Powell
• The Auteur - Rick Spears and James Callahan
• The Black Project - Gareth Brookes
• Just So Happens - Fumio Obata
• Nextwave - Warren Ellis & Stuart Immonen
• Planetary - Warren Ellis & John Cassaday
• Jack Kirby's Fourth World - Jack Kirby
• Grandville - Bryan Talbot
• The Hero - David Ruben

And if you're into actual books:

• The Hero With a Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell
• Mythopoeisis: Mythic Patterns in the Literary Classics - Harry Slochower
• A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller

Comics, and in particular superhero comics, have always drawn on, incorporated, reinterpreted and created myth. We look at a few mythic-themed comics, as well as a roundup of some recent releases.

• Superior Foes of Spider-Man - Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber
• Just So Happens - Fumio Obata
• Breaks - Emma Viecelli and Malin Ryden
• Moon Knight - Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, Jordie Bellaire
• Nemo: Roses of Berlin - Alan Moore, Kevin O’Neill
• Bandette - Paul Tobin, Coleen Coover, Various Others
• The Auteur - Rick Spears, James Callahan, Luigi Anderson
• Sabretooth Swordsman - Damon Gentry and Aaron Conley
• Will o’ the Wisp - Tom Hammock and Megan Hutchinson
• Greek Street - Peter Milligan and Davide Gianfelice
• Steve and Steve - Patrick Sean Farley
• Encyclopedia of Early Earth - Isabel Greenberg
• Delilah Dirk - Tony Cliff
• Loki: Agent of Asgard - Al Ewing and Lee Garbett

We also prattled on about:

• A bacon thermal lance
• Ibsen's last play
• Joanne Harris' The Gospel of Loki

If you went solely by listening to us, you'd be forgiven for thinking that comics were just about punching things and crying in cupboards. Not so! That would be ridiculous. Many of them are hilarious, and here we take a rambling walk through of favourites. Also there's a thing about sherry. We couldn't stop him.

• Maakies
• Judge
• Prophet
• Down. Set. Fight.
• Fatale
• Ms. Marvel
• The Unwritten
• Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant
• Garfield minus Garfield
• Achewood
• Yes Hive Overlord
• The Authority: Kev
• Strange Tales
• The Goon
• Hark! A Vagrant!
• She-Hulk
• Bad Machinery
• Too Much Coffee Man
• The Tick
• Doonesbury
• Wondermark
• Poorly-Drawn Lines
• A Softer World
• I Want My Hat Back
• Perry Bible Fellowship
• Men in Hats
• Peanuts
• Nextwave
• Primates

• Gonzalez Byass Leonor Sherry Palo Cortado

There are a whole bunch of horror comics, and we help navigate you through some of the best of the last 50 years, stopping to define horror along the way and make off-colour jokes.

Contains slight spoilers for Adamtine at 30 minutes. Skip ahead if you're a delicate type.

• The Hero
• Judge Dredd: City of Courts
• Deadly Class
• Young Avengers
• Locke and Key
• Uzumaki
• Witch Doctor
• Adamtine
• Sandman
• Sex Criminals
• From Hell
• Family Man
• Eerie
• Creepy
• Swamp Thing
• Tomb of Dracula
• Werewolf by Night
• Crossed
• Emily Carroll
• Severed
• American Vampire
• Walking Dead
• Hellblazer
• Anya's Ghost
• Three Shadows

That article about sexiness in Young Avengers.

Comics about mental illness are surprisingly common, both personal narratives and fiction, and in this podcast we take a look at a range of them. We take a look at some of the best and look at whether they can be useful to people dealing with mental illness. We also look at some recent releases, and talk a worrying amount of nonsense.

• Lighter than My Shadow
• Very Casual
• The End of the Fucking World
• Dangeritis
• The Chimpanzee Complex
• Jerusalem
• Pyongyang
• Epileptic
• Room for Love
• Naming Monsters
• The Nao of Brown
• I Do Not Have an Eating Disorder
• Psychiatric tales
• Swallow me Whole
• I Kill Giants
• Fun Home

• Into Eternity

• Reading for the Plot
• Hamlet in Purgatory

• Arsch mit Ohren

Holy hell, it's the end of the year. That means only one thing: lists. Here's our review of the best comics of 2013, plus some that we didn't want to leave out so we just included them anyway but talked faster.

Scroll down for the list. It's carefully hidden at the bottom of the page so as not to ruin your listening enjoyment. While you're up here though, why not Subscribe in iTunes, via RSS, or throw charitable money at Music by Programmers, featuring our brilliant theme tune composer Chris Whitworth.

• Mind MGMT
• Sex Criminals
• Six-Gun Gorilla
• Aama
• The Hypo: The Melancholic Young Lincoln
• The Encyclopedia of Early Earth
• Lighter Than My Shadow
• Bad Machinery
• Eustace

• The Lengths
• Copra
• Naming Monsters
• The Black Project
• Prophet
• Prince of Cats
• Saga
• OhJoySexToy

This week we're in Leeds, taking in Thought Bubble 2013, and squeeing a little bit over the assembled comics Luminaries.

Captain Crochet. Not for the delicate.

It's a bumper episode this week. More comics! More jokes! More interviews! More inexplicable digressions about cauliflower. These people got mad brassica love, yo. This week we look at Kickstarter, and all the good and bad that comes out of it, as well as interviewing cartoonist Lucy Bellwood with her experiences with 2 Kickstarter campaigns. Mentioned in this week's show:

• True Believer
• Cartozia Tales
• The Black Beetle: No Way Out
• Supermag
• The Encyclopedia of Early Earth
• Thor: Godbomb
• Marshall Law
• Mind MGMT
• Molly Danger
• Reich
• Jezebel
• Blue is the Warmest Colour
• Anything That Loves
• Sex Criminals
• Afterlife Inc.
• Oh Joy Sex Toy
• Dresden Codak
• The Authority
• Beyond (queer sci-fi anthology)
• Smut Peddler

"Dum de dum dum dah, dum de duhm dum, The Suburbs" sang Arcade Fire on their hit song, The Suburbs. Probably. Don't pretend you know the lyrics, because you don't.

Just as those fun-loving Canadians found plenty to say (albeit in the form of tuneful grunts) about the strangeness and banality of suburban life, so too have a great many of the finest cartoonists. Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Charles Burns - all have made their careers poking about at the saddest and strangest parts of suburban life. Let's talk about that!

• Supergraphic
• The Black Project
• Battling Boy
• Walrus
• Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD
• Interiorae
• Blue is the Warmest Colour
• Black Hole

The whole monolithic business of comics hasn't been especially great to women historically, and in recent weeks there's been a flare up of tone deaf and flat-out stupid anti-woman statements from some of the biggest names in comics. What can we do? Have a bloody good moan, as it turns out. We also look over some recent releases.

Covered this week:

• Chew
• Hawkeye
• Young Avengers
• Six-Gun Gorilla
• East of West
• Five Ghosts: The Haunting of Fabian Grey
• Sailor Twain
• Yes Hive Overlord
• Sex Criminals
• Chip Zdarsky's Watchmen 2 Treatment (NSFW or anywhere else)

Disclaimer: Alex Hern and Cara Ellison were never at The Spectator. It was the other one. New Statesman. With all the socialists.