As 2011 was looming last year, we started thinking about new ideas for the podcast. We came up with a few keepers, but we also resuscitated some kick ass classic ones and plan to bring them back better than ever. More on that later.

Today though, it's the first in our Bookshelf Babble-On series. Nothing too deep (hey, this is SiDEBAR, right?). Just us grabbing a few things off the shelf that we like and talking about them. That's it.

Dwight, Adrian and myself have many, many things in common as far as our tastes go, but we diverge in a lotta places, too — which is a good thing.

The goal with Babble-On was to pick a book that some people might not know about and bring it to the fore. You know, open up a can-o-worms and see what slithers out!

The rules were no rules. It could be anything — a collected trade paperback, an original graphic novel, an illustrated novel, a novel, a children's book, an artbook, a book about comics or nerd culture — what have you.

Of course, we end up down a few rabbit trails, but again, this is SiDEBAR, where digressions abound (ha).

Our chosen Babble-ees, if you will, are COME ON, RAIN! by Karen Hesse and Jon J. Muth, SLAINE THE KING by Pat Mills and Mike McMahon, and Yoji Shinkawa's THE ART OF METAL GEAR SOLID. We got a little versatility goin' on today, kids.

Hope you have fun listening to us run our mouths. And thanks for stopping by again and clicking the little download thingy.

- SWAiN

I had the good fortune of meeting Jaime Hernandez at my first comic convention, HeroesCon, in June 2006. He and his brothers, Gilbert and Mario, were at the same table and I was awestruck. I'm pretty sure I came across as a big goof, stammering something about, "You're awesome..." and loving their work as they signed my books.

Cut forward to almost five years later and I have the good fortune of speaking with Jaime again, albeit in a more composed manner. Barely.

The guys and I chatted with him from his home in Southern California about all things Love and Rockets and beyond. We touched upon his childhood love of comics, early influences from cartoonists such as his older brothers, Alex Toth and Bob Bolling of the classic Lil Archie series, his love of dialogue, the spirit of 'Do-It-Yourself' in comics, the recent art book 'The Art of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets of Life and Death' by Todd Hignite and much more.

I am wont to say that Jaime is probably one of comics' greatest open secrets. Universally acknowledged as a godfather of alternative comics (in my eyes), it is surprising that many people have never given Love & Rockets a try.

With the entirety of Jaime's work in print by Fantagraphics Press and the aforementioned art book, there has never been a better time to discover his work. You'll come for the superb draftsmanship and nuance of his art, but you'll be come back for the mature storytelling with Maggie, Hopey, Ray, Vivian the Frogmouth and the rest of the gang                                                                 of Hoppers.

- ADRiAN

**Click here for a scan of the signature and free Maggie sketch by Jaime in my copy of the 'Ghost of Hoppers' hardcover from HeroesCon 2006