On this edition of the Word Balloon Podcast, writer/artist Matt Wagner joins us for an interesting discussion that begins with a question. Will the 20th century superheroes be as easy to retcon and update in the decades to come? How well do modern versions of heroes like The Lone Ranger or Zorro work, without their 19th century settings and tools? Don't they need the horses and pistols? What about the Heroes created in the 20th century?

Matt asks this question not only about heroes he's currently working on like Zorro & his upcoming 2010 take on the Golden Age Green Hornet for Dynamite, who Matt thinks still works best in his golden age era .

We also talk about what he has planed for Zorro in the current arc Tales Of The Fox. Wagner says "General Moncado slowly starts to gather information about this rogue highwayman...and it's like Rashomon getting all these different points of view individual stories of who and what Zorro is. At this point he's still more of an Urban Myth."

On his Green Hornet plans with artist Aaron Campbell "I'm going to tell you why he does it...why does Britt Reid who has a way to fight 1930's social injustices through his newspaper still need to adopt this alternate identity? ...We also explore Kato's motivations He's Japaneese in my version, and I found a way to weave his origin into a very historical
event.. We learn why this very skilled martial artist would support and fight beside Britt."

We also discuss his Vertigo series Madam Xanadu which continues to interact with other Vertigo characters that have strong DC roots . Her main adversary through centuries on conflict is The Phantom Stranger.but there are other "easter egg"  character apperances that blur the line between the DCU and Vertigo.

Matt says, "Everyone asks me how I'm able to do it, and my response is, I'm just doing it. I don't ask (laughs). I do tend to keep those references as ones that fit into her charcter history and senarios,like Ertigan, Zatara, and detective Jim Corrigan (The Spectre). Or they happen almost "off camera".Like the mystic green lantern showing up in ancient China, or The Phantom Stranger refering obliquley to the helmet of Doctor Fate. In the Kaluta run we included the golden age Sandman because I needed a character like "The Shadow" and Wesley Dobbs fit.

This arc has some unique time shifting where Amy will be on for two issues, then representing a different era Joel Jones comes on for two issues, then back to Amy. In this arc, Madame Xanadu runs into another unexpected DC character."

The conversation with Marvel Group Editor Tom Brevoort starts with a look at the new mini series STRANGE written by Mark Waid, which puts the good Doctor on a new hero's journey.

Then we take advantage of Tom's perspective to look at today's Marvel. How has comic storytelling changed in the last 10 years? We look at the evolution of the relationship between Marvel & it's fans, from letter pages to today's blogs (including Brevoort's own) .

On this edition of the word balloon podcast, Marvel writer Matt Fraction comments on the startling events in The Invincible Iron Man #19.

We also talk about the new monthly cover design from Ryan Hughes, incorporating Savador Larocca's art, beginning this month in Iron Man #20, and the story Stark Disassembled.

We talk about his run on Uncanny  X-Men  and the focus on Magneto and Cyclop's relationship in the newly formed Nation X "Who these two men are now, and how these situtations force how they relate to each other is a big part of Nation X ."

Act-I-Vate is a comics creator community established by Dean Haspiel . A group of cartoonists, who use their site to promote their creator owned stories.

Last week IDW relaesed the ACT- I - VATE Primer, which has 16 stories that are companion pieces to the free stories they’re doing online. On this episode of Word Balloon, we talk to several Act I Vate creators, about their works, and what brought them together. All the comics at the Activate Comics Website. Visit activatecomix.com .

We talk to Dean Haspiel, Mik Cavlero, Simon Fraser, Tim Hamilton, Michael Fiffe, and filmmakers Se4th Kushner and Carlos Molina.

On this edition of Word Balloon, we present audio coverage from this weekend's Baltimore Comicon. Marvel scribe Brian Michael Bendis gives us details on The Siege story arc, which begins in December and runs through the start of 2010. The story as reported from the retailer summit features a major shift in all the Avengers titles, The Secret Warriors and Young Avengers, and the need for Marvel's hero trinity, Iron Man Thor and Captain America to finally re-unite. We also present audio from the Powers Panel, where Bendis and Powers Co-Creator Michael Avon Oeming discuss the first 10 years of the Powers comic, and look ahead with the new volume starting in November, the Powers Encyclopedia, and new details on where the future of The Powers TV series stands, at the FX Network.

Part 2 of our talk with writer Brian Michael Bendis, who answers more questions from the Jinxworld Message Board . Here are some tidbits from the Q & A session.

More discussion about the transition form Doctor Strange to Doctor Voodoo

Daredevil is "full front" in New Avengers #60.

Next Year Bendis teased he will again work with artist Howard Chaykin.

There's a new Ultimate Universe project coming in 2010.

You'll hear character discussions about DD, Wilson Fisk, and Norman Osborn

Plus, Bendis discusses some of his favorite meetings with Stan Lee, including his lunch with Stan last month, in which The Man asked  Brian "How did Norman Osborne get here?" 

Bendis said, " In preperation of the lunch, he read a few of my books, and He came prepared with  a question and I had better have had the right answer, and I think I did, because I got an got an 'OK Kid.' I had the feeling if I had answered wrong, we probably wouldn't have finished the lunch."

On this edition of the Word Balloon Podcast, we pick up where we left off with writer Ed Brubaker. You’ll hear more about the characters of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes as they share the mantle of Captain America in The Captain America Reborn mini series , and what Ed has plans in the months ahead in both the regular CA series and the Cap One shot coming in December.

We look back at Ed’s 3 year run of Daredevil that ended this summer, and where he’s left the character for Andy Diggle to take over. Plus we discuss the significant DD cast members during Ed’s run, from Dakota North and Lady Bullseye to Mister Fear and Master Izo .

Plus more discussion on Criminal’s return in October, and the distribution of  Ed’s 2009 crime film Angel Of Death online, on DVD, and its cable airing on SPIKE-TV.

After along break in the Summer we resume our talk with Brian Bendis. In this part, Brian breaks down the differences between the new Spider-Woman motion comics available at ITunes, and The first issue, which debuted this week. We talk about the art changes made by Alex Maleev and the story's pacing from motion and dramatized sound, to static images and text .

We talk about what's been going on in the news of the comics world , including Marvel's acquisition of the rights to Marvelman, and how it affects The Sentry's place in the Marvel U.

We also discuss the acquisition of Marvel by The Disney Corp, and how THAT affects the Marvel U. We'll talk about the shake-up at Time Warner regarding the re-organization of DC Entertainment.

Plus we catch up with The New Avengers, Dark Avengers (including a look at the teaser December cover released last week) and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man. After along break in the Summer we resume our talk with Brian Bendis. In this part, Brian breaks down the differences between the new Spider-Woman motion comics available at Itunes, and The first issue, which debuted this week. We talk aboutr the art changes made by Alex Maleve and the story's pacing from motion and dramatized sound, to static images and text .

We talk about what's been going on in the news of the comics world , including Marvel's acquisition of the rights to Marvelman, and how it affects The Sentry's place in the Marvel U.

We also discuss the acquisition of Marvel by The Disney Corp, and how THAT affects the Marvel U. We'll talk about the shake-up at Time Warner regarding the re-organization of DC Entertainent.

Plus with The New Avengers Dark Avengers and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man

On this edition of the Word Balloon Podcast, we begin a two part talk with writer Ed Brubaker.

In part 1 you'll hear about the return of Criminal, with next month's opening chapter of "The Sinners" . Ed talks about future arcs, and what we'll find in the Criminal Omnibus , which comes out in November.

We'll also take a look at the wrap up of the  first Incognito arc, and discuss the progression of the Marvel Comics story events Captain America: Reborn, and the Marvels Project.

Rick Remender talks about what's coming up for charcters like Doctor Voodoo, The Punisher and The Thunderbolts, in books coming this fall.
You'll hear about his new series featuring the current Sorcerer Supreme of Marvel's 616 universe.

Plus The Punisher is heading toward a world of hurt in the months ahead, with bizare story arcs like Franken Castle with Tony Moore , and Punisher: The List, with classic Punisher draftsmen John Romita Jr and Klaus Janson.

We also go in depth on The Last Days Of Crime from Radical Publishing, with art by Greg Tocchini and covers by some guy named Alex Maleev

Plus, Rick talks about a special 40 page Thunderbolts issue, and the pending wrap ups to The End League With Eric Canette and Fear Agent with Tony Moore & Mike Hawthorne.

If you haven't checked them out, here's a bunch of audio from the video interviews I did on the floor at the Chicago Comicon.  All big name guests that can't wait for my slowness is posting the video

New stuff with Edward James Olmos, George Perez and Jason Aaron,plus Mark Millar, Dan Slott and Howard Chaykin.

More coming later this month!

No one really knows, but this deal spans all mediums, from comics to films, DVD,the digital world. What does it all mean? A speculative conversation with Newsarama reporter Vanetta Rogers

Comedian Patton Oswalt stars in the new film BIG FAN, written and directed by Robert Siegel , the man who wrote the screenplay for last year's
indie hit, THE WRESTLER.

There's funny stuff in this film , but like THE WRESTLER, BIG FAN is a realistic look at sports. This time the focus is on an obsessive football fan named Paul (Oswalt) , who's loner lifestyle is defined by his voice on the phone fandom persona as a regular caller to sports talk radio, He has an awkard hero worship moment with his favorite player that turns violently ugly, and upsets his cocoon like world.

Oswalt discuss the film's character and the obvious similarities of this sort of fan worship compared to pop culture fans.

We also talkabout his upcoming one shot Firefly story for Dark Horse Comics, and the realese of his new DVD MY WEAKNESS IS STRONG.

Six Hours and 3 Time Zones couldn't keep Paul and I apart from our conversation. We talk about him wrapping up Captain Britain and MI:13, and his new focus on The Dark X-Men, the complicated relationship between Namor & Emma Frost, and his November mini series featuring the origins and history of everyone's favorite Russian Super-Spy, The Black Widow. We also talk about his run on Young Avengers,and his prolific TV work, from Doctor Who, To Robin Hood, Primeval and beyond.

Elliot Serrano talks about his new mini series from Dynamite, plus we discuss his role as a comics reviewer for the Chicago daily newspaper, Red Eye, and podcaster on Geek To Me, and Comic Culture Warrior.

On this edition of the Word Balloon podcast, writer Paul Jenkins is back to discuss his current work for Marvel Comics, including the current sci-fi story arc Problem Child, featuring Hiro Kala, from PLANET SKAAR AFTERMATH in SON OF HULK, and his upcoming 3rd one-shot of CAPTAIN AMERICA THEATER OF WAR.

Jenkins promises we'll see more new work from him for Marvel in the coming months. "I'll let Marvel make the official announcements when they decide the time is right, but In general terms I have three different series lined up. One of them is set up like MYTHOS and the Captain America One-Shots. Dan Buckley had asked me to give some thought of coming to different cases in the Marvel Universe a finding away to tell single issue or short arc stories.The way Dan put it to me was this way.

Everybody loves Daredevil and the way Brian (Bendis) and Ed Brubaker have been writing him in with that dark tone.There's no space to fix anything, it doesn't need to be fixed... but Dan said, 'What I want to see is Daredevil's one good day.'...That made me think of  55 story ideas for the Marvel universe... I'll go to the x-men say  what i want, and be done with them, and I'll move on and go to Daredevil or Thor's universe...say what I want to with these characters, and move on, while still allowing the regular monthly books to carry the ongoing soap opera."

You'll hear Paul views and insight on characters like Thor, Loki, Iron Man, Captain America and The Hulk. We discuss The Sentry and how his beginnings came from a superman/marvelman template, but what makes them all very different.Jenkins also re-addresses his humorous flap with fans over his character Sally Floyd's tirade against Captain America,  from the mini series Frontline: Civil War.

We also discuss the business side of Paul's career path which includes his work with Marvel, films, computer game animation for smart phones, and other current and future projects.

The CEO Of Wizard Entertainment Joins Us To Discuss This Weekend's Chicago Comic-Con. We talk about the programing , and try to find out details of Shamus new master plan of business.From the recent acquisitions of many regional conventions, to the personnel changes at Wizard Magazine.

Shamus addresses questions about scheduling a convention in Anaheim/Long Beach CA up against the new C2E2 Chicago Convention in April. Aren't both shows going after the same entertainment guests?

We also discuss where Wizard Magazine fits into the new media playing field when it comes to breaking comic news stories. How does the monthly magazine re-position itself in the 24hr news cycle of web coverage?

Writer/Artist Jeff Lemire talks about his two current projects from Vertigo. The Nobody an OGN/mystery with an indie spin on the invisible man tale.

We also preview Sweet Tooth, his "Bambi meets The Road Warrior" action suspense series that debuts in September. This follows the post apocalyptic story of a mutated deer-boy and his bounty hunter protector  as they seek sanctuary and answers to the questions of this strange North American future.

Jeff also gives us details of the Essex County Trilogy Omnibus edition coming out from Top Shelf Productions .

On this episode of the Word balloon podcast, part 3 of The Bendis Tapes with more questions for Marvel Writer Brian Michael Bendis.

You'll hear more on the Spider Woman motion comic trailer, Brian's Avengers books, The new role of Doctor Voodoo as Sorcerer Supreme, The List, and a surprise extended cameo from fellow Marvel writer Matt Fraction visiting Bendis while en route to this week's San Diego Comic-Con.

2 master artists of horror talk about their current work, and their scheduled appearences at this week's San Diego Comicon. Hilary Barta talks about his new story in the debut issue of Creepy from Dark Horse Comics. If you love the magazine's past runs, you'll be pleased to see the new book contunes the Creepy tradition of high quality stories and art.

Also the audio version of my video interview with Dave McKean, on his recent paintings series called NITRATE, inspired by early 1900's silent horror films.

Part 2 Of our Conversation With Brian Bendis. We get details about the Evolution oF <arvel Boy, from Grant Morrison's Original Mini-Series to his current role in the Dark Avengers, Det6ails on Who's writing the back up features in Brian's Avenger books, and will the future plans of Jessica Jones
happen in the Max or 616 Marvel Universe?

On this Episode Brian Michael Bendis returns with an all new Q&A session that's answers the riddles of how long will Norman Osborn's Dark Reign endure, what are the future plans for Ultimate Spider-Man, Powers and The Spider-Woman motion comic, and what was the decision process leading to  Jerhico Drumm's selection as the new Sorcerer Supreme of the Marvel Universe?

Celebrating her Hellcat Trade Paperback, and start on Runaways writer Kathryn Immonen came to Challenger's comics store in Chicago for a signing barbeque , so I took Word Baloon on the road to have this live conversation.

FINALLY FOUND THIS LOST EPISODE FROM NOVEMBER  2005. THE MAN BEHIND GRIMJACK, DC'S SUICIDE SQUAD , THE KENTS, WASTELAND , AND THE SPECTRE JOHN TALKS ABOUT THE RETURN OF GRIMJACK AT IDW , HIS STAR WARS WORK FOR DARK HORSE , AND COLLABORATING WITH ARTISTS, LIKE TIM TRUMAN AND TOM MANDRAKE. PLUS 1980'S CHICAGO MEMORIES OF FIRST COMICS, WINDY CITY INSTITUTIONS LIKE THE BUCKET OF SUDS, AND THE COMEDY GENIUS OF THE SECOND CITY AND IMPROV OLYMPIC , MUNDEN'S BAR WRITER DEL CLOSE.

Gerry Conway is back writing comics. The man who gave birth to the Punisher and took the life of Spider-Man's first love Gwen Stacy is here to discuss his current DC mini series The Last Days Of Animal Man.

We'll talk about his return to comics, and look back at collaborations with artists like Gil Kane, John Romita and Ross Andru.

Like the espionage characters in his comics and novels Greg Rucka knows how much information to leak, and stay spoiler free in this in depth examination of his work. We discuss the 2 new series debuting today in Detective Comics. Batwoman with art by JH Williams, and The Question with Cully Hammer. Plus a thorough look at the Superman books Action with artist Eddty Barrows and co-writing New World Of Krypton with James Robinson and art from Pete Woods.

We also get an update on the new developments in Greg's popular British Spy comic and novel series Queen and Country from Oni Press and Bantam Books.

Jeph Loeb is back, to talk about Hulk #600 and what the future holds for the Red and Green Goliaths.

We also talk about Ultimatum, and get into some in depth discussions about the creation of the classic X-men arc The Age Of Apocalypse, the rebirths of Flash Captain America and more.

On this episode of word balloon we talk comics and television with writer/producer Jesse Alexander. Jesse wrote last month's one shot story Shotgun Opera. an untold WW2 adventure of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. but the summer television season has begun and cable television reminds us that there's an equal amount of quality dramas this time of year as during the fall and spring.

Networks like FX the SciFi channel TNT ABC Family and USA trot out plenty of genre fiction, while the big 5 TV networks struggle to find the next Lost, or Smallville. Fringe made it to season 2. Reaper didn't make it past 2, neither did the Terminator. edged out by Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, it's own future to be determined this fall. Chuck and Heroes
are also returning, but on the bubble for NBC.

There are few guarantees from over the air networks to drama shows. The potential viewing audience is still larger than the basic cable shows and  the budgets are higher, but the network suits patience to grow a loyal and profitable audience is a risky guess.

Alexander is a verteran show runner and producer from 3 recent genre shows that made it past the sophmore slump. Alias Lost and Heroes. Jesse was let go from Heroes by NBC execs last winter, but a new regime at The Peacock has given him a green light for a new sci-fi series he's created coming in early 2010, Day One.

Some of the show's details are still under wraps,but Jesse gives us an idea of what the show is about, and discusses the chalenges of doing genre fiction in today's network television enviroment.
On this episode of word balloon we talk comics and television with writer/producer Jesse Alexander. Jesse wrote last month's one shot story Shotgun Opera. an untold WW2 adventure of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. but the summer television season has begun and cable television reminds us that there's an equal amount of quality dramas this time of year as during the fall and spring.

Networks like FX the SciFi channel TNT ABC Family and USA trot out plenty of genre fiction, while the big 5 TV networks struggle to find the next Lost, or Smallville. Fringe made it to season 2. Reaper didn't make it past 2, neither did the Terminator. edged out by Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, it's own future to be determined this fall. Chuck and Heroes
are also returning, but on the bubble for NBC.

There are few guarantees from over the air networks to drama shows. The potential viewing audience is still larger than the basic cable shows and  the budgets are higher, but the network suits patience to grow a loyal and profitable audience is a risky guess.

Alexander is a verteran show runner and producer from 3 recent genre shows that made it past the sophomore slump. Alias Lost and Heroes. Jesse was let go from Heroes by NBC execs last winter, but a new regime at The Peacock has given him a green light for a new sci-fi series he's created coming in early 2010, Day One.

Some of the show's details are still under wraps,but Jesse gives us an idea of what the show is about, and discusses the challenges of doing genre fiction in today's network television enviroment.

Jeff is back to get us up to date on the Agents Of Atlas, Exiles, and Dark Reign The Hood For Marvel Comics, and his Wildstorm mini series Mysterius, The Unfathomable.

We also answer your questions, posted at the  Word Balloon Message Board.

On this edition of the Word Balloon podcast, writer Brian Wood previews Thursday's release of Northlanders 17. In this self contained story, Wood and artist concurrently weave the elements of a fierce blood match, a History channel style commentary of weaponry and warriors, and a plain speaking narrative that showcases the adventure behind epic poetry. The result is a excellent one-shot that defines the qualities of the series and allowss the curious to jump in to it's unique excitement .

"This story is an overview of as many aspects of Viking warfare as I could fit into a 22 page sword fight...I wanted to slow the pace of the battle...to give it a kinetic Manga style...that's when i could fold in all the technical information, and there's also the story of these two champions in battle...this is where i love working in this format of comics, because you can't really do it anywhere else.If anyone is curious to see what this book is about this a good sample issue.

It's no secret that I do a lot of research, but it's with this issue
where I have reached the glorious tipping point... where I stopped
having to find things in books...but knew the details about weapons I'd need  forthis story."

Wood discusses the challenge of crafting personal stories of the
real people of the age, combing the research of epic Norse mythology with his own dramatic suppositions of character motives and plot conclusions.

"I've kind of figured that formula out.....the poems aren't always very easy to read.  It's like reading Beowulf...reading about them is always more interesting...The next few issues of Northlanders are more stand alone...different voices and radically different context...the next issue, #18  focuses on the wives of slain Vikings, from their point of view...Who really knows what viking wives were thinking about? they weren't considered in the sagas... the histories are epic poems written centuries later...so I really had to tell their story about not being free to be anything, without being chauvinistic ...and I walked a careful line so i don't offend anybody... that's why this book is so fun for me ...cause in every new arc, I can start over again."

We also discuss his other Vertigo series DMZ, and many of his past and future works. Some other quotes from the conversation....

On DMZ...

"DMZ was always meant to run a vertigo length of 70 issues... once i reached that halfway point of 35 to create an end point...what I'd like to do is a few spin-offs on the side to get to what i want to do that are non Matty stories...keep going back to that issue 12 that was written like a magazine and pulling characters out of that.

It took me forever for my subconscious to let me know that Matty is like a blogger, with all their flaws...Not to diss on them, but they're like independent guys like Matty who messes up, and still has to battle the media giants...Ryan Kelly is doing 3 issues of DMZ starting with #42 ...issue 49 is the crazy cliffhanger of the series, which I've been calling The Rise and Fall of Matty Roth ...from 51 to the end it's like the fallout of the events that happen there. "

Wood is writing stories for the second volume of Demo with artist Becky Cloonan
.
"We're on issue 3, but the schedule hasn't been announced yet,  so it won't start till at least January 2010. "

Any future ideas for The Couriers ?

Rob G and I have an agreement that should The Couriers film ever go into production, we'd be fools not to do a sequel. We've read the film script and it's good, but still no director has been attached, so I think it's a way's off."

What's planned for more Local with artist Ryan Kelly?

"Local is a favorite of mine... I do have an idea in my head...we're doing Demo now which is scratching that sort of itch...I feel like I have to something more with Oni again, because they did such a great job with Local. "

Any mainstream/superhero projects in the future?

There is something in the works for DC that I'm halfway done writing...I'm actually worried because people are already talking about it online, and i think that some people are gonna be bummed (laughs)...it's an old book that I love...and have been chasing it for the entire 14 years that I've been in the comics business....I'm also the millionth person to have pitched an Inferior Five idea that was rejected. "

Geoff Johns is juggling 3 Epic stories from DC Comics. We talk about all of them. You'll hear behind the scene details of Flash Rebirth, Green Lantern The Blackest Night, and Legion oF 3 Worlds. You'll hear character discssions of all the major players, from the reborn Flash family to the GL Corps, and previews of what's to come in Adventure Comics and Superman : Secret Origin.


Here are some quotes from the conversation.

Answering the concerns that Johns current portrayal Of Barry Allen is so different from his silver and bronze age characterization.

“Everyone is in a very different place at the beginning of  Flash Rebirth to the end, because I didn’t want to open up with a big Flash parade, and Barry running in with a big smile,. I might as well have started with Flash #1 and we’d be off and running, but there were other emotional explorations with Barry Allen and the Flash team. I wanted to go against expectations and do a 180 on everything. Flash is back, but Barry Allen isn’t…that’s what the story is about.

The great thing about it is it allows me to explore him emotionally... I love the discussion and debates, because I know where this story is going …I remember when we did The Sinestro Corps Wars, and Kyle at the end of the first issue was possessed by Parallax. People went crazy! They couldn’t believe how we could do this (laughs) …and Ethan was saying ‘We should tell them that he’s not going to be Parallax,.’ And I said “No! Let them get riled up, because they should, but we know where this story ends.’ … In Flash Rebirth Barry is searching for the same answers…this story is trying to solve a crime, but Barry is moving much too fast to do that.”

 

On Blackest Night’s further exploration of the multi colored Lantern Corps. “Every one of my artists has brought their own take  on the designs for each of the various corps and characters…Doug Mahnke’s first issue Green Lantern #43 is an all Black Hand issue. It’s one of the creepiest issues you’ll read.”

 

On the upcoming Blackest Night crossover stories, and how this GL story has morphed into a major DCU event.

 

“ Events are just big stories…sometimes there’s a bad connotation to that “event” term…You always want it to be good, and as a writer you want to protect your own story…with Blackest Night there’s just more story potential, so when (The Editors)  wanted to make it bigger and explore it more , it made sense to me, because you’re gonna have DCU characters face dead ones, and Black Lanterns on all sorts of levels…”

On this edition of The Word balloon podcast, a conversatio with the creative team on Supergirl, Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle. They discuss Supergirl, from the recent reveal that Lucy Lane is the new Superwoman, to the death of Zor-El, and the fallout from New Krypton. There's plenty of chracter dissections of Lana Lang, Allura Cat Grant and Kara Zor-El herself, and their views on where all these strong women fit, in this corner of the DC Superverse.

Some quotes from the conversation...

On Lucy Lane/Superwoman's role as Kara's new enemy.

Gates: "I wanted a villain that can act as a Lex Luthor type...when New Krypton
was told to me, I thought it was a master stroke on Geoff (Johns)  and James(Robinson's) part having General Lane be the main bad guy...what great drama you get having Lois's
family be against the Superman family?...There's some more crazy stuff coming up with Superwoman."

On the character designs for the leading women in the series..

Igle: When It comes to Supergirl the very first conversation I had with Matt Idelson He said, 'I don't want to see Supergirl's panties again,' and I agreed ...I think there should be a coy sexiness about her but I don't think it should be as overt as it's been drawn...it just didn't fit my image of what a teenaged Supergirl is supposed to be...she's Superman's cousin, and should be, even by default, sort of a role model to young girls..."

(For Lana's Asian influenced outfits) My wife Corrine works in the fashion industry for a company that does a lot of photo touch ups for Vouge, Cosmo, Louis Viton...
so I get to see all these fashion materials... I was thinking more in terms of something a little eclectic but business like...with Cat, it's all Victoria Secret and Fredrick's of Holywood...the sluttiest dresses I can find (laughs)."

Gates: "I guess that means write more Cat Grant scenes."

On The Death of Zor El

Gates: "Going in, Geoff and James really said we need to upset
things. This can't ne a predictable Superman story and I think the death
of Zor El made New Krypton completley unpredictable, because you realize,
'holy crap, no one is safe.'

Igle: With Supergirl 36, I think that  was one of the highlights for me working on the book
...when I was a teenager I lost a friend to gun violence so I was able to channel
all of those feelings in that opening scene.

Gates: .(Kara) doesn't get to (Zor) for nine pages,and she doesn't have powers, and is running across an open battlefield to get to him before he dies, to either save his life or talk to him one last time.....I lost my father when I was 17 not to violence but a massive heart attack...in those moments when Supergirl is holding Zor-El , and he's says 'I'm proud of
you.',  that was something as I held my father, I wanted him to say,and he couldn't. He was already gone

Given the scene in the Origins and Omens of Lana Lang spitting up some blood
how's her future looking?

"Lana Lang has her own set of problems coming up that we won't come to a head until Supergirl 47."

On Kara's new civilian identity as Lana's niece...

Gates: "Linda Lang is not going away...it kinda got side tracked with all the New Krypton stuff...I was happy to see Linda Lang appear in Superman Batman...as long as it happens elsewhere in the DCU, it's a real thing...We're going to do a story about her in the Supergirl Annual ...that's tenatively called Linda Lang Day One."

The editor Of the critically acclaimed Image anthology of comic stories based on the songs of Tori Amos, Rantz Hosley stops by to talk about the book.

We discuss how he and Tori got together on the project, wrangling all the artist and writer talent to put the book together, and gives his views and cautionary tales of self publishing in today's comics market.

On this edition of the Word Balloon podcast, we present a
conversation with artist Kevin O'Neil, to discuss this month's
release of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Vol III):
Century #1 ("1910") drawn by O'Neil and written by Alan Moore.

Kevin discusses the background of the story, and his views on past characters like
Mister Hyde Mina Murray, the mysterious Orlando, and the Family line of Captain Nemo.
His thoughts on the LXG film, and the origins and future plans of his co-creation with Pat Mills, Marshal Law .

The interview does cover plot points and setting that have been discussed in other preview
articles and reviews of the book, so beware.

Her are some non spoiler quotes from the talk...

On the inclusion of Nemo's daughter in the 1910 League.

"She occupies a great part of the story, and we will follow her in later books."

On the process of putting the literary cameos and pop culture easter eggs in a subtle way.

"We just have to tread a careful line as to how we populate the book..
as we proceed with incredible numbers of different characters in street scenes
and backgrounds or newspaper headlines ...it's a lot of work, but we realize
we have these Jess Nevins books analyze every single panel and we know
a lot of people who like that  it...however if you don't know the references,
it won't spoil the enjoyment of the story, it's just another layer of
fictional stuff going on alongside the main story."

On the creation of Marshall Law,  and could such a story be told today?

"I scribbled out an idea of the name, and rough character sketch for Marshall Law and sent we sent it as a "Mad Max" type of thing for Epic to Archie Goodwin. Archie had warned us that Marvel will take a hell of a longtime to do creator contracts...it ended up taking a year , during which Dark Knight and Watchemen were released...during the interim Pat said 'Why don't we do Marshall Law as a super hero hunter I said 'well don't you mean super-vilians?'  and Pat said , 'No superheroes, I hate them." (laughing)

I felt the energy of that loathing, and that's what we did...Chris Staros did the first ever 1987 review of Marshal Law in his pre internet era Staros Report... cut to us doing League for Top Shelf . Chris asked who owned the rights to Marshal Law, and I told we did (Pat Mills & O'Neil). op Shelf will do a big slipcase edition of Marshal Law featuring every story appearance of the character to be released hopefully later this year...and now reviewing the stuff for the Top Shelf collection I'm surpirised at how strong it was and how far it went becuase i think it would be harder to get that material passed today."

More of Word Balloon's audio coverage from the floor of April's  FX International convention in Orlando  .Featuring one on one talks with Olivier Coipel (THOR, HOUSE OF M) , Matt Kindt (PISTOL WHIP, SUPER SPY), Tony Bedard (REBELS) Chuck Dixon (GI JOE, The Simpsons), Steve Rude (NEXUS), and Arthur Suydam (MARVEL ZOMBIES, CHOLLY & FLYTRAP).

Here are some quotes and tidbits from the conversations...

Expect The announcement of what's next for Coipel and Marvel during
this summer's con season.

Matt Kindt's new OGN 3-Story The Secret History of the Giant Man
will be out from Dark Horse ."It's a weird story that takes place
in the 40's,50's and 60's with the narrative from the POV of his Mother,
His Wife, and his daughter."

Tony Bedard on REBELS: "I think we've had enough with stories that are so
intertwined, they never get a chance develop their own personality.
We want to give these characters a chance to develop on their own terms
and give them their own corner of the DC universe to play with...it's
one of those books where you really don't know who will survive in a
given issue...Vryl Dox wants to do good, but6 he doesn't mind if you.
die in the process."

Chuck Dixon is taking over chronicling the tales of "The Man With No
Name" in the soon to be retitled The Good, The Bad & The Ugly from
Dynamite.

Steve Rude:  Lots of Nexus Product Nexus The Origin: Remastered ,
"Nexus: As it Happened Volume 1" a black and white Archive, and the
long-awaited conclusion of Nexus: Space Opera due out in July.

Arthur Suydam: For Radical Working on Hercules Aladdin and Shrapnel
they're also releasing Cholly and Flytrap Center City featuring
Suydam's post apocalyptic sci-fi duo . It comes out in June.

In part 2 Dan talks about the events in Mighty Avengers, from the revelation that Loki has been manipulating the Mighty and Dark Avengers, to the Mighty teams upcomingencounter with the Fantastic Four.

On Mighty Avengers and Dan's choice to make Hank Pym leader of the Avengers"It will get more messed up as we go along...for all of Hank's fault he is a geniusand has a very non linear way of thinking...but he's still that messed up freak who built Ultron...the question is how do you redeem him...some stink doesn't go away no matter how hard you try...it's nice to have Hank on this redemptive path... he may never get rid of his past sins, but his trying makes him heroic."

On this edition of The Word Balloon podcast, we present a 2 part
conversation with Dan Slott.

In part 1 Dan discusses the current events in Amazing Spider-Man.

On Amazing #600 and the return of Doctor Octopus "One of the things
we wanted to do was take the villains off the board for awhile so
when they come back it's big...John Romita Jr and I get to tell this
60 page story...We're building towards season 2 of Spidey which begins
after we wrap up some stuff in issue #600."

On the mysterious background of Mister Negative "I can't wait fir people to know more about him...I gave Fred Van Lente some big for his upcoming Mister Negative mini series...but there's more coming including ties to previously established spider-man characters. Let's leave it at that. "

On this edition of Word Balloon, Sal Abbinanti creator of Atomika
the alternate history of Russian superheroes and villains.

Sal explores the iconic images of the former USSR, combined with
Russian mythology, but is the first to say this isn't a pro-soviet
polemic. "At least once a con a guy wants to argue with me
about Communism...or say how are things in Russia and I say 'Guys,
come on, Gene Simmons really wasn't a serpent. It's just an act.' "

He gives tips to aspiring creators about marketing an independent
comic in the current market. "You gotta hustle...I tried going to
cons, all over the country like Loretta Lynn with the records
and my husband (working) out of the car...doesn't work...I tell
new creators, don't release the book until you have 5 issues in the
can, you never realize how much time it takes to promote the thing...
plus dealing by yourself with colorists,inkers and printers...you
never realize how much time it will take."

Sal also discusses future projects like The Hostage based on  
true crime Brazilian kidnappings and the sci-fi comedy Dagos On The Moon.

We talk Scalped, Wolverine Weapon X, His wrap up on The Ghost Rider series, and his upcoming origin of one of the immortal weapons, Fat Cobra.

On this edition of Word Balloon, coverage of this year's FX International Con in Orlando, Fl.

You'll hear floor chats with Jeremy Haun, who talks about drawing the Batman-Battle For The Cowl One-Shot Arkham Asylum, written by David Hine, and drawing the Top Cow series Berserker written by Rick Loverd . Haun calls the arkaham One-Shot "A great hooror
story.I got to draw some of my favorite villians...it does focus on the events after Arkham explodes in the first issue of Battle For the Cowl...with hints of what we'll see in the future (Bat books) ."

Marvel writer Jonathon Hickman talks about Secret Warriors & his work on the Fantastic Four Dark Reign series and taking over the main FF book following Mark Millar and Brian Hitch "After the events of Civil War and Secret Invasion I thought there was a real oppourtunity to do a lot of FF closure in the Dark reign series . The first arc of the regular series will be called "solve everything", and Reed sets out to do so."

Artist Ben Templersmith talks about his IDW work on Wormwood, Doctor Who, and Groom Lake, plus answers the perenial question will he and writer Warren Ellis be doing more issues of their Image series Fell?
"There is more Fell(to come), whenever Warren wants to do it, I'm doing it."

Writer Christos Gage discusses his IDW GI Joe work, his coming Avatar series Absolution, His WIldcats wrok for Wildstorm, and Marvel books.

On Avengers: The Initiative "Somehow a rumor got started that the Initiative was being cancelled, but that's not true, the only way it will be cancelled is if people think it's cancelled and stop buying it...We're actually starting an exciting period...the initiative is now run by Norman Osborn, so they're now training villians to be dark avengers and appear to be heroic while still being bad on the downlow...Some former members are going underground to rebel against the new initiative directive. Tigra will be looking for some payback after her beating from The Hood."

On the upcoming mini series House Of M:Masters Of Evil "What were the villians doing in the House Of M world. The Hood has assembled a gang of villians including Asorbing Man Titania, Crossbones The Sandman, Batroc The Leaper...they get together to steal, in a world where Magneto's army comes down on them hard...the non mutant world starts to mistake their rebellion as being heroic, so they start to plan the scam of a lifetime."

Avatar comics publisher William Christensen talks about Wareen's Ellis's Ignition City, Freak Angels, and how Avatar has chnaged their image from the "Bad Girl" books, to their current line of unfettered stories by today's top creators. Writer artist Mike Wolfer talks about his work with Eillis on the Avatar Series Gravel .

And, Jim McCann checks in to discuss his New Avengers:The Reunion mini series for Marvel.

Ivan Brandon and Nic =Klien debut their Image series Vikings on April 22nd. The First Issue has already sold out with retailers, and Ivan Talks about the series particulars.

We also look at his upcoming mini series for DC, featuring Nemesis, Final Crisis Aftermath : Escape, and his recent appearence on NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice

In this edition of the Word Balloon podcast, Marvel writer Brian Reed checks in to talk about all the big changes in Ms Marvel, and his two new projects, Timestorm 2099 and Dark Reign The Sinister Spider-Man. Some quotes from the audio interview…

On Moonstone taking over the mantle as Ms Marvel I think this question of who am I comes from leading two lives…and now when you have bad guys playing good guys, it’s layers upon layers of itself. The first issue that focuses on her is the Government comes in and demands psych evaluations of the Dark Avengers to make sure they have the right people doing these jobs, so Norman wants to have a psychiatrist talk to a psychiatrist first.. The whole story arc revolves around what make Karla Sofer the person she is…while writing it I realized we’re going to have an interesting dark storyline for awhile.”

“Timestorm 2099 is The present day Marvel slamming headlong into the future 2099 Marvel…these characters are still a lot of fun, but we’ve got to update it. All science fiction eventually shows its age. In the original run The Pixel company sounded really cool in 1993…that’s the danger of writing science fiction, unless your name is Douglas Adams …I wanted it to be loyal, but I also wanted it to be new…the facts behind the story are all entirely new, we see names and designs we recognize …as we were talking about characters we wanted to give a spit polish to, to a man, all of us said we’re not touching (the look of ) the 2099 Spider-Man. We’ll be following the present day Spider-Man and Wolverine, but most of the New Avengers will be making cameos , and some of the Dark Avengers.”

On Sinister Spider-Man –“ This is a bad joke that I think has gone too far and someone approved it (laughs) . Someone said this needs to be a fractured fairy tale this is a Spider-Man book , but starring Mac (Venom) Gargan, and who would Peter be if he didn’t have all the responsibilities, with that power. Matt Fraction pointed out that I’m the wrist writer to have written the script line “Spider-Man is getting a lap dance.” (laughs) …When Norman first got them the job as avengers he said ‘none of you talk to the press, stick around the tower and behave .’ Well Mac said, “ It’s not like there’s a bunch of spider-men out there you can replace me with, so I’m going to do what I want..” So there’s a real animosity between him and Norman . Mac will be dealing with Norman, the City of New York , and something else he’ll have cooking..”

On this episode, we check in with writer JM DeMatteis. JM is known for groundbreaking character studies in arcs like "Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt", and his memorable Joker story "Going Sane". Today JM discusses his new IDW mini series THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SAVIOR 28, with artist Mike Cavallaro. A compelling portrait of a long time patriotic super hero who questions his role of aggressor in the never ending battle. His story begins in the late 30's and progresses through the post 9-11 21st century. Superhero fans will appreciate the nods to familiar moments of real world and comics history, that play out in a very different way than they are used to.

On his upcoming collaboration with his Bwa-ha ha pals Keith Giffen and Kevin McGuire on Metal Men , in the back of Giffen's Doom Patrol .
" Every once and awhile Keith will call me up and say "Wanna do this?" and I always say 'Yeah!" What Keith does is he puts down this rock solid foundation of a story...you get the basic of the plot and characterization, a few one liners and then I come in and fill up as many word balloons as I can!"

We also discuss DeMatties role as editor-in-chief of Ardden Entertainment, including the new Flash

On this edition of the Word Balloon Podcast, DC artist Ethan Van Sciver talks about the well received debut of Flash Rebirth, drawn by Ethan,and written by Geoff Johns., and his recent released teaser images of Black Lanterns Aquaman and The Earth-2 Superman.for the GL Summer event Blackest Night.

 

We talk about the first Flash issue, with minor spoilers about images and basic ideas of the plot so far. The topics include a artists commentary on the opening action sequence, comparing the attitudes of Barry and Wally when facing the Flash Rouges, Wally's eventual "new look", Barry's observations on the changing speed of the world around him, and more.

 

Ethan also discusses his thoughts that went into the Black Lantern designs for Blackest Night, and his respectful but slight jealousy that Ivan Reis is drawing the story.

 

Here are some quotes form the conversation...

 

On Barry's Origin stemming from the accidental lightning storm/chemical bath.

 

"It's close to a Marvel Origin...most DC characters are these self determined
heroes...Marvel charcters get into these stupid accidents, and if the 2 universes
co-existed the Marvel Heroes wouldn't have happened because the DC heroes would've
prevented all the accidents from happening...Superman would've been in space to stop Reed Richards rocket 'What's wrong with you sir, taking your wife up here.' ...'Bruce Banner want to not wander around the bomb testing site?'...Daredevil look out for that truck!'

 

The strange Central City public sentiment of The Flash Museum as a tourist attractiobn.

 

"What's that about? It doesn't have any artifacts of Flash's deeds...It's just big statues of the local murderers...like the citizens wouldn't be terrorized or embarassed that their city gave birth to these killers... i'm guilty of contributing to the myth but will continue to treat it as warm and cute place, but it's strange to me.

 

On retturning to draw Bart (Impulse/Kid Flash ) Allen.

 

"Bart's so awesome. He is the character I drew when I had my son...Bart being treated wellis important to me...When drawing him as Kid Flash I've just aged him a little bit, I'm trying to keep part of that Humberto Ramos cartoony feel, and make him look familiar to Impulse fans ...I know him like the back of my hand.

 

On his future tenure on more Flash books...

 

I'm challenging myself to become a monthly artist...my attitusde was I won't be
a monthly artist...but I realized I'm a storyteller and I really want to tell
a lot of stories... there are shortcuts that I could take but I refuse to take but the story will still be told well...I'm very snotty that way...(by being this way) I'm missing out on the oppourtunity to learn to draw quickly and well...there's a future for the flash, and the only person keeping me from being a big part of that is me,.

 

So I'm going to try hard, and Flash Rebirth is a great way to try... normally I might do 8 quality pages a month while trying to maintain a happy family life, but on The Flash  last month iI did 17 good pages and a cover... I'm trying to get closer to the monthly requirements an artist has to fufill.

 

This weekend Ethan is heading on a Trans-Continental publicity tour to South Africa

 

"A store in Johanasberg contacted me and said 'There are a lot of comic book fans here, but we haven't had anyone from DC to come over to see us.' It was really flattering, they chose me!...They sold tickets to raise money to fly us out there. so I'll be drawing free sketches. They sent over pictures of south african fans wearing Green Lantern shirts in Johanasburg ...really they put in a lot of effort to bring me over, and not only that, how cool is it to go to Africa?...It's a rare chance to step on another Continent and to be able to bring my son who's 10 years old... its a privilage."

 

The writer of Boom Studio's Farscape Comic talk's about the franchise's comic book future, including upcoming arcs , and his working relatioship with the creator of John Crichton's alien adventure, Rockne O'Bannon.

We also discuss Keith's extensive work as a writer and editor of the Star Trek Pocket Book novels, featuring new original tales set in every era of the Trekverse.

Here's two short talks at Wonder Con, where I am more of an observer than the actual interviewer or host as the other players in each part are heard giving their side of the story.

First Ross Richie, Publisher of Boom Studios and Eric Lieb of Fox Atomic Studios are cross examined by Newsarama's Matt Brady . Matt & I try to get more information out of the guys regarding their announcment that Boom and Fox Atomic will be publishing new books based on the FAS film properties. Which ones? We won't know until this years San Diego Con.

Then Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker talk about their slate of projects on the way...

The old link to this show is broken, and a new JM interview is coming too
so I figured I'd re=post pour first talk...

IT'S BEEN A LONG HARD ROAD FOR ABADAZAD AND ITS CREATORS ARTIST MIKE PLOOG AND WRITER DEMATTIES TO SEE THEIR CREATION COME TO LIFE .

LISTEN, AS JM DESCRIBES THE REAL LIFE FAIRY TALE THAT PUT THE CHILDREN'S BOOK WHERE IT BELONGS, THE CHILDREN'S BOOK SECTION . LOTS OF INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BEAUTIFUL STORY THAT SHOULD BE ON EVERY CHILD'S READING LIST.

JM IS ALSO SERVING THE SUPERHERO FANS WITH THE BWA-HA-HA HUMOR OF PLANETARY BRIGADE , CO WRITTEN WITH KEITH GIFFEN.

WE ALSO TALK ABOUT OTHER JM STORIES LIKE HIS GROUND BREAKING ADULT FAIRY TALE MOONSHADOW, THE BATMAN-JOKER CLASSIC GOING SANE, HIS CAPTAIN AMERICA RUN, AND STILL SQUEEZE IN KRAVEN'S LAST HUNT, AND JUSTICE LEAGUE TALK.

Here are my interviews with the cast , Director Zack snyder, and Watchmen Co-Creator Dave Gibbons.

If you missed my previous interview with Gibbons check it out here...

http://wordballoon.blogspot.com/2008/10/whos-watching-dave-gibbons.html

On this edition of The Wordballoon Podcast more tales from the blue carpet, as we present the audio from my newsarama video interviews from this year's new york comicon.

Sean McKeever talks about the upcoming Titans/Vigilante crossover he's
writing with Marv Wolfman, Writer/Editor Scott Allie gives us the lodown on the Buffy comics and the Robert E Howard books, from Dark Horse Comics, Rick Remender talks about his craetor owned series, and The Punisher, Brian Bendis talks about his announcements, The legendary Gene Colan talks about his new Captain America story, along with his reprinted Creepy stories from Dark Horse.

Actor Phil Morris, who pays J'onn Jonzz the Martian Manhunter on the CW's Smallville , Vertigo EIC Karen Berger, Greg Rucka, Matt Fraction, and Daniel Way

In case you haven't seen the video interviews I did at this year's New York Comicon, here are the audio versions. So far, these haven't been posted at Newsarama,

I talk with Jeff Parker (Agents Of Atlas) , Leonard Kirk (Capt Britain & MI:13) Len Wein (Creator Of Wolverine) Richard Starkings (Elephantmen), Dan Jurgens (Creator Of Booster Gold) , Jonathon Hickman (Secret Warriors) , David Lloyd (Co Creator V For Vendetta), David Mack (Kabuki Daredevil ) Jon Ostrander & Jan Durresma (Star Wars Comics) , Chris Ellipolous (Pet Avengers), and Dan DiDio (Exec Editor DC Comics)

Bendis was part of a Marvel creative group, that met with Kenneth
Branaugh to discuss his film plans for Thor. "It was a great day, on par with the
day we met with (Jon) Faverau. Whew!... I'm not kidding I've been
in non-marvel hollywood meetings where the people say, I'm not even
going to read the damn comic.".

On The Spider-Woman motion comic

Casting the voice of Jessica Drew "You're looking for
the voice in your head...that smokey marlboro voice that isn't
trying to be sexy. I had written dialogue that I was quite happy
to hear out loud ...but some actors saw the bio which says she's
from Wundagore Mountain, so they'd do a bulgarian accent which was
like, holy lord in heaven!"

Bendis has written 10 scripts for Spider-Woman He compared it to
the motion comics
It's being produced for the motion comic itself,not as an afterthought
and it's in continuity . Whatever the language of the motion comic
will be, it's going to be exciting to see Spider-Man, The Thunderbolts,
Agent Brand and The Avengers and everyone up and around in motion
comics. You're going to see something very different.

In Dark Avengers #3, a major chapter in the Sentry mystery
will be revealed.

On Ultimate Spider-Man post Ultimatum there will be a couple of
requiem specials

be sure to keep checking the video section of Newsarama for most of my NYCC interviews, but I also made time to check in with some past guests to talk about their current projects.

On this edition of the Word Balloon Podcast, we speak with
writer Jen Van Meter. In Dc Comics Bi-Weekly Mini series Black
Lightning Year One Van Meter and artist Cully hammer flesh out the
early career of the Suicide Slum hero. Black Lightning debuted
in April 1977 by Tony Isabella and Trevor Von Eeden.

Jen goes behind the scenes,discussing how she has connected the dots
of Jefferson Pierce's complicated contuniuty. How did the street fighter
of the 1970's become the button down family man and husband seen in
today's stories. We discuss her collaboration with Hammer, and her
writing process for the project, including layered insight in Jeff's
homelife.

We hear updates on future Van Meter creator owned series from Oni Press
including a new Hopeless Savages story.

animator jake hughes joins us for a conversation about
the watchmen motion comic. jake proposed the project to
warners and the result has been a new way to present the
story and art to an audience pre-sold on the forthcoming zack
snydeer film.

jake gives us an indepth behind the scenes look, from dave gibbons
involvement, to the original musical score performed by a 50 piece orchestra,

A conversation with the writer about his upcoming book from Oni Press Billy Smoke.

With the Dark Reign story arc, it's a new year and fans are seeing a new direction for the Avengers titles and the entire Marvel Universe. On this edition of the Word Balloon podcast , we sit down with Dark Reign's creator Brian Michael Bendis for another edition of the Bendis Tapes, as he takes fan questions posted at Brian's Jinxworld.com  message board.

 
Also with a special cameo appearance, David Mack joins us to discuss his work on a Philip K Dick comic adaptation, the next steps for Kabuki, and behind the scenes details of his co-writing project with Bendis, Daredevil:End Of Days.

On this edition of the Word Balloon podcast, we sit down with artist Art Baltazar, who's Tiny Titans has proved to be an all ages hit for DC Comics. You'll hear about what's in store for the Titans, including Art's gentile satiric take on the current events of the DCU. Darkseid is taking over the Titans school, and detention will never be the same.

We discuss Art and his co-writer Franco Aureliani's writing and art process, from their brainstorm sessions, to the fully produced page. We also talk about their contribution to this week's DC Holiday Special , a Nightwing-Robin story, with art from Tim Levins.

You'll hear more about Art's original characters and trade collection from his electric milk imprint. Check out Art's work, at his website, http://www.artbaltazar.com/

We finally wrap up our 100 questions for Jeph, regarding Heroes, The Red Hulk, Ultimatum and more .

Note: This was recorded weeks before Jeph was let go as Co Exec Producer Of Heroes.

On this edition of the word balloon podcast,  writer Marty Pasko discusses his work, writing the text of The DC Vault from Running Press.

 

Like last year's Marvel Vault, The Museum In A Book, features a history of the company, incredible art, and wonderful replicas of DC merchandise, from Jr Justice Society decoders, and membership certificates, to promotional tie-ins, plus cover roughs, ashcan issues, an all-star artist jam poster with work from Bob Kane, to Carmine Infantino to Dave Gibbons numerous sketches and memos from the kill list of the original  Crisis On Infinite Earths, to Mike Carlin's plot diagram for the Death Of Superman.

In this audio interview,  Pasko provides an historic commentary spanning the eras, with tales about the genre trends that sandwiched the super-hero eras, the company dynamics from the early days of All American/National Periodicals, to it's current status as an arm of Time -Warner Inc, and observations about DC founder Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, Julie Schwartz, Bill Finger, Whitney Ellsworth, Frank Robbins, and Jennette Kahn

In this episode of Word Balloon, we check in with the legendary artist/writer Howard Chaykin.

We talk about his solo created 44 page one shot for December,Captain America, Theater Of War, America First 1956. A take on the Origin and career of the Commie Smasher 1950's Cap.  “It’s me doing the 50’s, which I haven’t done in awhile. Nick Fury plays a large part in the book, as the voice of reason…and we deal a lot with 50’s iconography, and the conflict between godless communisim and godless capitalisim (laughs). I’m doing a very right wing version of Cap, and it’s a challenge.”

He gives us a behind the scenes view of Squadron Supreme , his current Marvel monthly, illustrated by Marco Turini.

Chaykin also talked about his collaboration with Garth Ennis on The Phantom Eagle, his wrap up working on Punisher War Journal , the 2006-2007 Blade series with Marc Guggenhiem and we go back and forth, through the usual maze of 20th century pop culture references .

Will we see a new Chaykin adult style story in a MAX Book?

 “My next major project for Marvel , but I can’t tell you more than that right now. I’m champing at the bit to do it"

This time we talk to artist writer Tim seeley, who's creator owned series Hack Slash is nominated for Best Comic Book Series this Tuesday on Spike TV's Scream Awards .

During this moment of mnaistream awareness and acceptance, the book is in the midst of a crossover with The Re-Animator Film Series. Seeley arranged the crossover with the film's producer and rights holder Brian Yunza.

However,  as discussed in this press release, the book has fallen into a property dispute with a seperate company called Re-Animator LLC, forcing issues #16 & 17 to seek alternative distribution away from Diamond. Tim discusses the basics of this puhlic domain dispute , and explains how fans and comic retailers can order the book's final 2 chapters.

We also talk about Tim's new run on Marvel's New Exiles series debuting on  #14 with writer Chris Claremont in November.

Writer Jon Hickman joins us to discuss his innovative styles of design and narrative. We preview his upcoming Marvel project Secret Warriors, co written by Brian Michael Bendis . Col. Nick Fury and the new super powered recruits he's assembled for the Secret Invasion, will represent a a moodus operandi that has a different purpose than the standard way SHIELD stories were told in the past.Says Hickman,  "(With Fury, your talking about the oldest living clandestant operative in the world. He's not a 'read and react guy'...Secret Warriors is not going to be about a random number of spy incidents, and calamitous adventures... The book is about setting goals and achieving them for a greater purpose . We will be interacting with major (Marvel U) events and be active participants... we just won't be caught 'on camera'."

In addition, we discuss his Image books Red Mass For Mars, Trans Human and Pax Romana , plus his Top Cow Pilot season entry, The Core.

On this edition of the word balloon podcast, we speak with
writer Joshua Fialkov. We'll talk about his top cow books
Cyblade and his pilot season story Alibi, his new western
contribution in Image Comics Anthology Outlaw Territory,
and his new Dark Horse mini series The Cleaners.

Josh has been busy writing vampire stories. From wrapping
up his run on Vampirella, to adaptating the
first two Dark-Hunter vampire novels by bestselling
author Sherrilyn Kenyon, Night Pleasures and Night Embrace
in manga-style for Dabel Brothers Publishing.  

We also talk about Josh's new video work online as head
writer for the next chapter in the lonely girl 15 online
conspiracy suspense drama the resistance. Says Fialkov, "The show is shot cinema verte style... The story revolves around the idea that
the Fountain Of Youth is in the blood of tagreted girls, and the
secret organization is trying to bleed it out of these women...
If you want to see the future of entertainment, check out this show."
You can watch all the chapters here, http://www.lg15.com/theresistance/

On this edition of the Word Balloon podcast, writer Jeff Parker
is back to discuss his newest projects for Marvel. This week saw the debut of The Age Of The Sentry mini series. Jeff talks about fleshing out the chzaracter's silver age past, and the direction the character will take in the future.

We also get more information on he coming October battle between The Hulk and The Monster Of Frankenstein, and  next years debut of the ongoing Agents Of Atlas series.

Plus some background on  Giant X-Men First Class, and hints at a new direction for the First Class series. We also discuss his book of Alex Toth letters called Dear John, and the status of his creator owned property
The Interman .

Welcome To My Delerium. FE-mailers and message board posters  have asked how many character voices can I do, and why don't I do more on my podcast (honest, they have).

Here's a few. From my radio archives, some quick celeb parodies and animated voices from my repertoire.

ok, now he'll talk...

On this episode of the Word Balloon podcast, we wrap up our conversation with Brad Meltzer, who tells all about the inspirations for his latest novel, The Book Of Lies . Brad discusses the soundtrack specially created for the book, and talks about the pseudo docu-video about The Book Of Lies, featuring Brian K Vaughn, Joss Whedon, and Christopher Hitchens , among others. We go deeper into Brad's theories that writer Jerry Siegel conceived the idea of a bulletproof man called Superman, after the murder of his father in 1932. We also talk at length about Brad's goal to save the Siegel Birthplace via his auction website

On this episode of the Word Balloon podcast,
Artist Tony Akins discusses his work on Jack Of Fables,
plus his upcoming story in House Of Mystery #6.

We also talk about his involvement in a gallery show
in Chicago at the Diane Tanios gallery running through this Saturday.
http://dianetaniosgallery.com/

The art showing also features
sequential art from Gene Ha(Top 10) Elisabeth Belliveau,
Alex Wald, and Jeff Zwirek

Sorry, author Brad Meltzer has nothing to say about his upcoming novel, The Book Of Lies,  in stores Tuesday Sept 2nd from Grand Central Publishing.

But he'll tell us all we want to know about his one-shot from DC comics, DC UNIVERSE-Last Will and Testament, His Eisner winning issue of JLA#11, and his upcoming arc on Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight from Dark Horse Comics

In addition there's a new Meltzer TV rock 'n roll drama in the works set in the late 1960's ,and a little theory Brad has, that Jerry Siegel 's dad's 1932 murder was the inspiration for Superman.

However after a fierce off-air argument, Brad did promise to return to Word Balloon next week, to discuss The Book Of Lies.

(Photo courtesy Of Marvel.com)

In his viral video and on a recent Word Balloon podcast, Robert Kirkman started an
open dialog call to fellow creators.His "Mission Statement" was a call to writers and artists to weigh the advantages of making creator owned comics versus making corporate comics working for DC or Marvel.

Creators have written blogs message board threads and have been interviewed on podcasts and websites giving their perspective on the issues Kirkman addressed.

Marvel writer Brian Bendis made his views known in a still to be released new edition of The Bendis Tapes.

Well we're not stupid, this is the subject of the moment, so we present this interesting conversation where Bendis discussesthe points of Kirkman's view. The full Bendis Tapes will be presentedin the days ahead, but for now, here's another great discussion from Word
Balloon.

On this edition of the word balloon podcast, host John Siuntres
engages in a friendly debate with writer Robert Kirkman. Yesterday,
Kirkman released a video message explaining some of his reasons for leaving Marvel Comics, and becoming a partner at Image Comics. He's decided to focus on his creator owned original books, like Invincible, The Astounding Wolfman , and The Walking Dead.

Beyond that the video is a call to arms for fellow creators to focus soley
on their original stories, instead of the licesened work from the big 2
comic book companies,  Marvel and DC. He explains further, that DC and Marvel should gear their main titles and stories on the younger end of the comic reading audience and should leave more mature stories to smaller publishers. He's calling on the industry as a whole to come together and figure out a new publishing strategy for the entire business.

Kirkman came to Word Balloon to expand on some of these ideas.

The Writer Artist is back to talk about creator owned projects, like The Legion Of The Supernatural from IDW, Gigantic from dark Horse, and the Sci-Fi adventure series Fear Agent, but Rick has hit the big 2 comic companies at full force.

We discuss his work on Marvel's Punisher War Journal, and DC's Booster Gold.

The DC artist is back with behind the scenes but spoiler free insight
to 2 of 2009's big story events. Flash Rebirth, featuring the return of Barry Allen, and Green Lantern The Blackest Night both penned by Geoff Johns, with hero and villian designs from Ethan.

On this edition of the Word Balloon podcast, host John Siuntres sits down with DC artist Don Kramer. They go through Don's career path from his early days at Caliber Comics through his work on Dr Fate, JSA and Batman, collaborating with writers like Geoff Johns, James Robinson and Paul Dini.

They also go in depth, discussing his current work on Nightwing with writer Peter Tomasi . Today they start a new arc in issue #147, featuring a confrontation between Dick Grayson and Harvey (Two-Face)  Dent. Two face is the one  Batman Rouge that has always shown contempt for Dick, going back to his early days as Robin. 

"Dick hates Harvey, he doesn't feel the guilt that Batman does about him, and we'll see that right away in part 1." says Kramer.

We also revisit classic stories that Kramer has drawn, like the Black Reign arc in JSA that explored the hero/villain dichotomy of Black Adam. "He's the anti-hero, a Superman, with Punisher's mentality. A lot of fans can understand his motivations and sympathize with his point of view, that's what makes the best kind of villain."


And Detective #826,Slay Ride, featuring the solo story of The Joker holding Robin (Tim Drake) bound, gagged and at gunpoint, as they drive through Gotham in a Black SUV. Two characters, one setting. "When I got the script I read it,  and became giddy. I just made sure I didn't screw it up. Seriously, I'm very proud of my work on that particular story."

From January 2006 A real pleasure talking to the man who co-created Nexus with Steve Rude, no to mention The Badger, the post crisis Wally West-Flash stories for DC,and over 5 years of The Punisher for Marvel. Mike indulges my walk with him down memory lane, plus talks about  The Night Club from Image and The Hook from Big Head Press.

On This edition of the Word Balloon Podcast, host catches up with writer Chuck Dixon, who despite his sudden release last month from DC has plenty of new projects in current and future release.

We talk about his deal with Cartoon Network, which has green lit production of a live action film adaptation of his IDW creator owned teen time traveler story, The Vanishers.

We also discuss the current Wildstorm series Storming Paradise with artist Butch Guice . This alternate WW2 epic answers the question "What if the atomic bomb failed , and the Allied Forces had to invade Japan ?

In a lighter WW2 vein, Chuck also talks  about Abe Simpson and his Fighting Hellfish who star in his latest effort for The Simpson's Comic Book, with art chores by Dan Spiegel.

Today a conversation with Eisner nominated artst Dean Haspeil.  You may know Dean from his many collaborations with Harvey Pekar on his series American splendor and their

Original graphic novel, the quitter. But he also does his share of mainstream hero stories, like a new X-Men First Class story for their Halloween issue with Jeff Parker.

 

 Dean is up for Billy Dogma : Immortal in the "best digital comic comic" Eisner award category. He’s also in the middle of a new BD story,  Fear My Dear available at the act i vate website.

Plus there’s a few more Haspiel digital projects underway . At Zuda Comics website, Dean has just started his series Street Code. At Smith Magazine online,  Haspiel contributes and edits a new series called Next Door Neighbor Stories, with contributions from folks like Harvey Pekar Rick Veitch, and Jonathon Ames.

 

In September Dean and Jonathon release the OGN, The Alchohoic from Vertigo, and a children’s project Mo and Jo Fighting Together Forever a collaboration with underground comics legend Jay Liynch for Raw Jr’s Toon Books.

You can find the stoires at the following urls....

Billy Dogma Immortal

http://www.act-i-vate.com/21.comic

Billy Dogma Fear My Dear

http://www.act-i-vate.com/22.comic

Street Code 

http://www.zudacomics.com/street_code

Next Door Neighbors  

http://www.smithmag.net/nextdoorneighbor/

Mo and Jo Fighting Together Forever

http://www.toon-books.com/book_mojo_about.php

From 2005 This conversation with Dark Horse Editor Diana Schutz, illustrates the kind of big deals announced and sometimes made in the wee hours of the san diego comicon.

Schutz tells the behind the scenes story of how DH secured the rights to Micheal Chabon's creation The Escapist , first seen in his pulitzer prize winning novel about the golden age of comics, THE AMAZAING ADVENTURES OF KAVELIER AND CLAY.

We also cover her work editing such masters as Stan Sakai, Jeff Smith and Harlan Ellison. Plus we look at her work with Frank Miller and Will Eisner, including the conversation novel Eisner Miller .

A Flashback episode from 2006. Kurt Busiek talked about his plans to reboot Aquaman, his "Up Up and Away" Superman post Infinite Crisis arc co-written with Geoff Johns, his Wildstorm WW1 fantasy series Arrowsmith, and gets into the nitty gritty of Astro City

On this edition of the word balloon podcast, host John Siuntres takes us inside the press junket for Batman:Gotham Knight,. The anime DVD is in stores today, created to support next week's feature release of the Christopher Nolan Film, Batman:The Dark Knight.

You'll hear in depth, (but spoiler free) interviews with several of the DVD's writers and producers, including some names very familiar to comic fans. Executive Producer Bruce Timm (Batman The Animated Series/Justice League Unlimited) first time animation screenwriters (and longtime comic book scribes ) Greg Rucka (Gotham Central) and Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets) , Film Composer Christopher Drake, writer/producer Alan Burnett (Batman: The Animated Series/Batman Beyond) and the former Academy Award Nominee (A History Of Violence) screenwriter Josh Olson .

They talk about the unique collaboration between themselves and their Japanese animation partners in creating these 6 unique takes on Gotham's Guardian,. Timm and Burnett discuss the big differences in making the WB cartoons versus these short films.

Beyond the DVD talk, Azzarello discusses his upcoming Joker Graphic Novel With Lee Bermejo , Timm and Burnett discuss their future animation plans, and Rucka talks about the Gotham Central Hardcovers coming from DC in the fall.

The 2nd half of my floor interviews from last weekend Wizard Chgo show.

Marvel Editor Bill Roseman and artist Mike Perkins, who give the lowdown on the next Stephen King Marvel adaptation starting in September, The Stand.

Geof Darrow is back to tell us about his contributions to the Wachowski’s take on Speed Racer and his directorial debut on the animated version of his own creation for Burlyman comics, Shaolin Cowboy.

Ande Parks talks about his recent Daredevil Annual for Marvel and his upcoming writing projects for both Image and Oni Press

Ryan Bodenheim, Jonathan Hickman’s artistic collaborator on their new Image series Red Mass From Mars checks in with a look at that project.

Artist Andy Owens talks about his work on the Buffy Season 8 project, and Trinity from DC

Writer Jai Nitz discusses his new take on The DC Comics western hero El Diablo.

Don Kramer updates us on Nightwing, including the long awaited showdown between Dick Grayson and Two-Face.

And Phil Hester talks about writing for Top Cow on The Darkness and the Daredevil/Magdalena crossover.

Plus two extra Con-versations from this spring...

Artist Rags Morales talks about his work on Nightwing, and writer Larry Hama talks GI JOE, and his new Devil's Due spy series, Spooks.

Brian Bendis Dan DiDio, and many others are interviewed in this report from the covention floor of the Wizard World Chicago weekend.

DiDio talks about Final Crisis, and the recent ttemps DC has made to reinvent heroes with familiar names.

Bendis discusses Nick Fury, Secret Warriors, and many other plans, in a location where no comics podcast has dared to go before.

Plus a nice mix of mainsteam and indie creatrors all straight form Artists Alley .

 

 

The writing team behind Uncanny X-men join me in a 3 way talk , about their coming x-plans, plus we go in depth on Iron Fist, Iron Man, Captain America, Daredevil, Punisher War Journal , and more!

From 2006, my two part interview with writer Chuck Austen.

Frankly, the villification of this writer by some comic book fans was to me, one of the ugliest and insensitive attacks I've ever seen, and illustrates the point made by Joe Quessada, when he says,  

"Sometimes fans treat our fictional charcters like real people, and treat real people working for us, like they were made of paper."

Personally, I can name a lot of Austen stories I've enjoyed, like his work on the weekly Marvel Max Series War Machine, his run writing Superman on Action Comics, drawing Miracleman for Alan Moore, Elektra for Brian Bendis, and his animation work for many season on King of the Hill, and his co-creation Tripping The Rift.

We cover all that and more in this interview. Thanks Chuck.

On this edition of the Word Balloon podcast, host John Siuntres
sits down with Marvel writer Daniel Way.During the conversation, Dan tells us about his future plans for The new Deadpool solo series that debuts in September, featuring art by Paco Medina .

He also previews the next steps in Wolverine Origins, including the coming crossover with X-Men Legacy Dark Deceptions co-written with Mike Carey

In anticipation of his Word Balloon return this week, , we repost this June 2005 talk with Marc Andreyko, who's Manhunter was just getting started at DC.

We discuss his creation of Kate Spencer, and also talk about his work on Casefiles Sam & Twitch, and look closely at his collaboration with brian Bendis on the graphic crime novel Torso, which followed the post Chicago career of Elliot Ness as saftey inspector of Cleveland in the 1930's.

Working In Sports Talk Radio afforded me the chance to meet some amazing celebs.

It was an honor to become aquaintences with Budd Schulberg, the screenwriter/author who created that classic Marlon Brando monologue "I could've been a contender. I could've been sombody, instead of a bum." from the 1954 film On The Waterfront.

I met Budd as I covered the sport of boxing, and would frequently engage in conversations about the deacdes of fights he covered for newspapers and magazines. Being the film buff that I am, I'd also get the occasional courage to talk about his lengthy career working on so many of the seminal films of the 1950's.

Here's a portion of my 2002 interview with Budd, as we discuss a few of his great films, including Humphrey Bogart's last picture, The Harder They Fall, and the cult classic view of the power of mass media pundits, A Face In the Crowd, starring Andy Griffith.

From December 2005, writer Gerard jones discusses his biook MEN OF TOMORROW , a thoughrough history of the comic book industry from it's golden age 10 cent beginnings to the blockbuster film adaptations of today.

We also discuss his comic book work on Batman, The Shadow, The Trouble With Girls, and More 

From Nov 17th, 2005. My first conversation with Jeph Loeb was conducted via car phone, as Jeph dropped his daughter off for school, and drove to work, writing at the time for the TV series LOST.

The interview came at a crossroads point in Loeb's life, having lost his son Sam earlier that year.

He had also just left the Smallville writing staff, and was wrapping up his DC comics work, to begin his still current work at Marvel.

We discuss his work on Superman-Batman, prepping The Ultimates, and how his own personal experiences made him feel ready to explore the characters of LOST . We also discuss his Challenngers Of the Unknown mini series, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and comparing the DC and Marvel Universes.

Re-posting This 2006 interview for Newsarama's Flashback Friday

 

THE ACTION ADVENTURE ARTIST WHO BROUGHT NEW LIFE TO SHANG-CHI, BATMAN, AND JAMES BOND ,TALKS ABOUT HIS REMARKABLE CAREER. FROM HIS EARLY YEARS AT MARVEL , TO HIS ORIGINAL CREATIONS FOR DC ECLIPSE AND ACCLAIM.

PAUL'S WORK FEATURED SEXY WOMEN, TOUGH GUYS, AND THE KIND OF GADGETS WE ALL DREAMED OF OWNING. WE'LL TALK ABOUT PAST ORIGINAL WORKS, LIKE SABRE, ONE OF THE CANDIDATES FOR THE DIRECT MARKET'S FIRST GRAPHIC NOVEL, SLASH MARAUD, AND THE GRACKLE .

PLUS HIS RECENT WORK WITH JIMMY PALMIOTTI ON THE PUNISHER AND CATWOMAN,  JSA CLASSIFIED, AND JONAH HEX.

More from the 2008 New York Comicon . Quick sitdowns with Kyle Baker , writer/artist of the Image War story Special Forces , Jonathon Ames writer of the new Vertigo graphic novel, The Alcoholic, Erik Larsen, Publisher of Image Comics, and the mastermind behind the revival of public domain heroes and comic book titles "The Next Issue Project".

Mike Richardson, the Publisher Of dark Horse comcis, talks about Buffy, Hellboy, and the way DHP handles franchise properties.

And more from Walt Simonson, writer of DC/Wildstorm's World Of Warcraft , who gives us an update of what projects his wife (writer and fan favorite) Louise Simonson is doing these days.

Celebrating The Sucsess Of the Iron Man film, we bring back highlights form two great interviews that featured landmark stories of Ol' Shellhead .

First up, Dave Michelinie discusses his classic run with artist Bob Layton, on the Iron Mna arc Demon In A Bottle .

Then Chuck Austen Discusses his classic Max Black and White Iron man tale from an alternate universe War Machine .

On this episode, Word Balloon's coverage of the NYCC.

Most of my work that weekend was done for video interviews, and this is really a sampler of the 32 interviews I ended up doing. I brought my field recorders, expecting to do as many audio talks as video, but things got so busy and productive on the video side that I never had timne to do more audio.

I did speak to the favs from the bronze age who still do great work today, Len Wein Marty Pasko and Walt Simonson all together and you'll hear that, along with Gail Simone, Grant Morrison, Dan DiDio, Lou Ferrigno, Ethan Van Sciver, Irwin Hassen, Tony Moore Jeremy Love, Mike Oeming, Brian Glass,Jamahl Ingle  Jeremy Haun and Billy Tucci.

I'm presenting the full audio of Grant and Gail's talks. The other's will be seen in their entierty eventually at www.newsarama.com , and www.pulpsecret.com just click on their NY comicon
coverage and you'll see why I have a face for podcasting ;).

 

 

From Dec 2005, The man who redefined the DCU. The man who smacked the camp out of Batman, and made him the dark knight badass once again. The man who had Superman fight Muhammad Ali...and Supes actualy lost the battle!

Legendary artist Neal Adams actually tolerated my silly questions for over 90 minutes, and was ready to give me even more time!!!!

Listen , as Neal brings us tales from the early days of Comics Bronze Age. You'll hear about his Green Lantern-Green Arrow run with Denny O'Neil, The Deadman Saga, and many behind the scenes stories of the Dc Offices of the 1960's & 70's.

Neal also goes in depth on his scientific theories about an expanding earth, and answers the obvious question, how does an un-accredited science enthusiast pitch his theory, when the conventional science world refuses to listen?

Just back form the New York Comicon, where I did a bunch of video interviews with the guys from pulp sceret. Thanks again to Pete Alex Justin, Scott and the whole video crew. who were very gracious sharing their mic and camera time with your truly.

Had The chance to talk with Grant Morrison, Lou Ferrigno, Tony Moore Mike Oeming, Irwin Hassen, and more!

check them out here.

Friday Coverage

http://www.pulpsecret.com/the-stack/episode/STK_20080419

Saturday Coverage

http://www.pulpsecret.com/the-stack/episode/STK_20080420

Sunday Coverage

http://www.pulpsecret.com/the-stack/episode/STK_20080421

Yes another flashback episodce from 2006. John talks with the Man who created Crisis On Infinite Earths  and Nova, brought new life to the undead in Tomb Of Dracula , Devised the revitalizations of Dick Grayson, Wally West, and the other New Teen Titans , and made major impacts on so many other Marvel and DC characters.

We look back at Marv's time at Warren publishing, when he edited and wrote for Vampirella, Creepy and Erie , Editing Marvel's black and white magazines from Crazy to Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu, his time in the 1970's Marvel bullpen and breathing life back into DC on The New Teen Titans with George Perez.

You'll hear Marv's views on publisher-wide event books, "story-decompression" , and his genuine pride in the Teen Titans animated series.

Marv also "previews" his 2006 work on The Infinite Crisis Annual, The Teens Titans annual and collaborating with Geoff Johns.

Yes a re-run, but a damn fine conversation.

FROM 2006:  THE MODERN MASTER OF TWO FISTED ACTION DISCUSSES HIS IDW SERIES COBB: OFF THE LEASH , FEATURING DYNAMIC ART BY EDUARDO BARETTO.

PLUS HIS RUNS ON GUY GARDNER WARRIOR, CATWOMAN, THE BLACK TERROR, AND THE WILDCAT MINI SERIES . WE ALSO TALK ABOUT BEAU'S DAYS IN TOUGHMAN COMPETITIONS, SOME GREAT B-MOVIE DVD RECCOMENDATIONS, AND A SHELVED WONDER WOMAN PROJECT THAT BEAU WANTS DC COMICS TO RECONSIDER

From 2005 With the return of television's best Sci-Fi show this friday, we look back at this 2006 interview with co-exec producer Mark Verheiden. Key episodes that Mark wrote are discussed including the amazing first season cliffhanger.

Mark also discussees about the seasons he wrote for Smallville.

Even more hollywood talk involves Mark's work as the co-creator behind Timecop, screenwriter of Jim Carrey's adaptation of The Mask, and he announces the start of working with Bruce Campbell on the 2007 film, My Name is Bruce.

We also cover Mark's great comic book work for Dark Horse, including his 1980's subersive action parody, The American , and his DC work on Superman, The Phantom, and Superman-Batman.

A WB classic from 2005 Walter Simonson looks back at his classic work. From Thor The Frog and the creation of Beta Ray Bill, to Orion and The New Gods.

From his collaborations with Martin Pasko to put the bronze age spin on Dr Fate, to reviving Manhunter with Archie Goowdwin.

We talk about the Fantastic Four, his spin on X-Factor co-plotted with his wife Louise , to working on the Marvel Star Wars comic at that awkward time between The Empire Strikes Back, and Return Of The Jedi.

Tales of wonder, from a true master.

Does the world prefer a kinder, gentler Batman, or the grim brooding type. Steve Englehart & Marshall Rogers created the 1970's Batman: Dark Detective arc, which became in part the basis for the 1987 Batman film.

From 2005, a conversation with the Man Who Paints With Pencils.

We discuss Gene's 50 plus years in the business, that includes meroies of the 1960's Marvel Bullpen. He recounts working on charcters like Daredevil, Captain America, The Sub Mariner,and Dracula.

We also discuss his stints at DC in the 1950's (as Adam Austin) and the 1980's on Batman Wonder Woman, and Nathaniel Dusk.

Gene discuss his film influences , his attention to detail when it comes to cars, cities, and objects. Plus he talks about collaborations with Stan Lee, Marv Wolfman, Don McGregor and others.

In the episode of Word balloon, host John Siuntres presents a conversation with one of the great stars of the brozne age,
who still draws amazing work today, Mike Grell.

Grell's work goes back to the 1970's on titles like the Legion Of Superheroes and Batman, but you have to include his own creations like The Warlord and his revamp of DC's Green Arrow which began with The Longbow Hunters in 1986.

Grell went to Pacific and later First Comics creating works like Starslayer and Jon Sable, Freelance. Grell is midway through a new Sable story,
Ashes Of Eden . The story will eventually be collected as a trade, but you can follow the story for free at www.comicmix.com. In the interview Grell discusses how his own militray inteligence background informed the 1980's stories of Sable, and his future work with the character.

Grell has another story in the works with Mark Ryan called The Pilgrim,
The story is a modern supernatural thriler, based in part on
factual accounts of the British Gov't study of the occult to combat
the Nazis during WW2. "Mark crafted the story, and frankly it gives me the willies."

Other future projects for Grell may include a return to his charcter Travis Morgan, The Warlord."I'm working on a DC proposal for a new Warlord story... we'll see."

His also has two novels in the works, one featuring Sable, the other Savage Empire, which is sword and sandals epic based on an original comic strip idea of Grell's, about an archeologist who time travels back to Atlantis.

On this episode of word balloon, host John siuntres moderates a panel of creators who talk  about how they broke into comics. The group of writers and artist represent a good cross section of genres and companies, that span mainstream and independent tastes.

B Clay Moore (76 Hawaiian Dick, Superman Confidential) Art Baltazar (Tiny Titans, Patrick The Wolf Boy) Matt Kindt (Super-Spy, Pistol Whip) Andy Runton (Owly), and Christian Slade (Korgi)

From January's FX International Con, host John Siuntres conducted this panel featuring four of the Kansas City Studio's members, B Clay Moore , Jeremy Haun, Jason Latour and Seth Peck.

They all discuss forming their studio, and give their view of the comics industry, as they all begin to straddle the worlds of indie creator owned projects, and mainstream work from the big two.

 

 

Word Balloon's coverage of the FX con continues with a panel exploring the Whedonverse. Three actors from the various Joss whedon fantasy tv shows. From Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Nicholas Brandon who played Zander, Elizabeth Rohm, Kate from Angel, and Serena Sotherlyn from Law and Order.Nathan Fillion currently playing Adam mayfair
on desperate housewives, but better known to the whedon fans as the evil preacher Caleb on Buffy, and Captain Mal from firefly, and the film Serenity.

some cast news from the panel...

Fillion will be the voice of Steve Trevor in the upcoming DC direct to video Wonder Woman animated film, with his Waitress co-star Keri Russell as the AmazonSuperhero, and the indie film Trucker

Rohm's 2007 series Big Shots was cancelled by ABC, but she'll co-star
with Danny & Angelica Huston, in the upcoming motion picture The Kreutzer Sonata.

Brendan has two films in post production, The Portal, and Blood On The Highway.

Then the show switches to the FX con floor, featuring interviews with Gene Ha (Top 10) Freddie Williams (The Flash, Robin) Derrick Fish (Dandy & Company) and Shannon Chenoworth (The Line, Supersonic).

 

 

Part two of our conversation with Jeph Loeb.

Some highlights from both parts...

Who will the Red Hulk face?

The cast we see in issue one with be the group we initally follow.

In particular,"Leonard Sampson will be seen as an FBI profiler
based on his years observing superhero behavior. He has always
been regarded as a c-level hero and he wants to change that perception."

Ed McGuiness has a long list of Marvel Heroes he wants the Red Hulk
To face and Jeph is agreeable to all suggestions
"There isn't anybody in the Marvel Universe That he doesn't want the Red Hulk to smash.

We want to be on this book forever, which for me is like 25 issues.
Ed is living every Jack Kirby fantasy he's ever had with a Red Hulk doing the damage.

"The book was never intended to be called HULK RED...It is by people's estimation other than my own, it's a take on "the hulk" that hasn't been done before.I don't claim that, I just think Ed and I are telling a very fun Hulk story."

 

On possible future  Marvel Color books with artist Tim Sale .

"Nothing can happen until Tim's exclusive deal with DC ends. Marvel could have kept doing them without us, but I'm glad they didn't. "

"We have an idea about Capt America White... The idea behind the color books is the hero losing an important early love of his life. In Cap's case I have a story but it doesn't involve Sharon or Peggy (Carter). I can see an Iron Man Yellow story, if I could convince Tim. "

On the Ultimates Vol 3

Why kill the Scarlet Witch instead of Pietro?

"I think Wanda is the glue that holds Pietro together, and I do not
think good things will come out of this.

I can put together any version of this team I wanted to. My version of Hawkeye is the next step in terms of where Mark and Brian were going, that this guy was losing his grip on reality and here he is, to the point where now he won't let anyone see his face.

I'm having a blast with the Ultimate Black Panther...you have no idea
where that's going. I'm also having fun with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, and when you see what I'm doing with Valkerie hopefully you'll like it as well."

On The Ultimates Vol 4

I think Ultimates Vol2 #6 which is the Defenders story was the best story
Mark has ever written. It's a bunch of folks who want
to be heroes and get the crap beaten out of them. What happens to them
when their dreams come true, and what is the price of that?

That is the basis for Ultimates 4, and who will draw that, I'm not sure cause my original artist is having too much fun drawing a red monster.

The Spider-Man story Loeb and J Scott Campbell are working on takes place in current brand new day continuity.

 

 

Writer Jeph Loeb is a fan of the Bendis Tapes, and after hearing the last session, he wanted to take questions from WB listeners .

What follows is a funny discussion that covers Jeph's current books like HULK with Ed McGuiness and THE ULTIMATES Vol 3 with Joe Madureira, but also reaches back to loeb's early Marvel days, his classic takes on Superman & Batman, his film and TV work, and much more.

In this edition of Word Balloon, host John Siuntres dicusses 52 Aftermath, The Crime Bible with it's writer Greg Rucka .

The mystery continues the personal journey of the new Question , former Gotham City Cop Rene Montoya , but also focuses on the book itself, complete with pages from the crime bible itself.

In an earlier article at Newsarama http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=137919&highlight=rucka

We discovered a dossier The Question is using to assembles clues to locate the crime bible. Greg talks about the creation of these clues , and further locations to more viral info that enhances the story behind the book.

We also talk about Checkmate the DCU spy series , Quuen And Country, and his latest novel Patriot Acts, featuring Atticus Kodiak.

Finally Greg discusses his future including the decision to end his exclusive contract with DC, but why he'll contnue writing comics for the company.

it's time for the comclusion of the Bendis tapes.

more info frokm Brian Michael bendis about secret invasion, the avengers books ultimate spider-man and more. Plus a new wrinkle which leads to the next episode of the podcast

On this Holiday Edition of Wordballoon, host John Siuntres has a conversation with artist Mike Hawthorne . They discuss his work on The Un-Men from Vertigo, written by John Whalen .

The Un-Men were first introduced in the Original Swamp Thing series, but the group has evolved far beyond the original concept created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. 

They also talk about Mike's past collaborations with Ivan Brandon, Jeff Amano and Greg Rucka  On Ruule & Queen and Country 

On This episode of Word Balloon, host John Siuntres tries to get us through the withdrawls of the first Monday, without a new NBC HEROES episode.

The show's Co-Executive Producers Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander join John for a look back at Vol 2, and what the future may hold for the show, the story and its characters, as the WGA strike rolls on. They also talk about HEROES: SAVING CHARLIE, the new original novel due in stores Dec. 26th.

The Show was taped live at The Empathic Treehouse, the writing office shared by Jeph Loeb, and other comic book writers, like Geoff Johns, Brian K Vaughn and Allan Heinberg. There may be a few cameo surprises from Loeb's office mates.

On this edition of word balloon host John Siuntres spoke with Heroes Co-Executive Producer Jeph Loeb about episode nine, the possible fate of the spin-off series Heroes Origins, and what may be next for volume 3...whenever that happens.

They also squeeze in some talk about Jeph's upcoming Marvel Books Ultimates Vol 3 and Hulk .

On this episode of Word Balloon Dc Writer Geoff Johns and Host John Siuntres catch up with a big picture look at the characters and story arcs playing out in Action Comics,Justice Society Of America, Booster Gold and Green Lantern.

We'll discuss Geoff's takes on the multiple versions of Superman,
the legion of super heroes, and all the palyers in the sinestro corp war
and finding a new purpose for booster gold.

You'll also hear Geoff's thoughts on the WGA strike and some 
never realized season 2 story ideas for the blade tv series, including a plot with Marc Spector, Moon Knight.

Some other tidbits from the interview...

Johns has green lantern plotted to issue 55 ...JSA to 25 or longer, Action Comics"if we stay the course, Gary and I have two years of stories to tell."

On Green Lantern: "That book with its epic scope... to bring Hal Jordan to issue 50 has become a very personal story for me." 

On Superman Prime: "He's absolutley one of my favorite characters to write. he's such a jerk(laughs.)

On the future : Johns and former Blade TV/JSA collaborator David Goyer have a new comic story idea they hope to release in early 2009.

Suppose they held an LA comic book convention without a live audience? That's what happened last week, on a shoot for the CBS TV series NUMB3RS.

The episode revolves around some action at a comic book convention so the word went out for creators to show up to the mock-con and go through the motions of a real show.

There were some familiar names among the creators and guest stars for the shoot, and Word Balloon got the low down from indie artist Tony Fleecs (In My Lifetime, Postcards:True Stories That Never Happened)

On this Halloween edition of Word Balloon, host John Siuntres
chats with artist Phil Hester, who's been flexing his writer muscles
and has a slate of current and upcoming monster related stories.

We caught Phil as he was recovering from a cold, but still excited about
getting more scripting work alongside his upcoming art projects.

You'll hear about Hester taking the reins on THE DARKNESS for Top Cow, and a new direction for the series main character Jackie Estacado.
Also the very funny "werewolf in recovery" series THIRTEEN STEPS,
co-written with Chuck Satterlee and drawn by Kevin Mellon for Desperado.

But Phil show his sensitive side too, in a poingant indie short story featured in The Villard Books collection POSTCARDS: "True Stories That Never Happened".

On the art side, Phil previews the December start of his run on Superman Confidential, teaming up with his infamous inking partner Ande Parks and writer B Clay Moore.

Next Year will be busy for Phil, writing and drawing a Daredevil/Magdalena crossoverfor Marvel/Top Cow in February, and in the spring he and artist Andy Kuhn bring back FIREBREATHER for Image Comics.

Part 2 of The Comic Creator Panel That Josh Fialkov put together Sept 29th for the LA Public Libarry.

Featuring Mark Waid Ross Richie, Christos Gage Kazu Kabuishi and Tony Fleecs.

 

Today we wrap up our conversation with the Kentucky writer. Kirkman tells us about winning a SPIKE-TV scream award last year,and tells us how his scary books play to the non-comics horror crowd.

We also talk about his run on Ultimate X-Men, and preview his collaboration with Rob Liefeld on Kilraven, the Martian hunting hero of Marvel's War Of The Worlds.

This weekend several comic book podcasters got together to do a non-stop 24 hour comics podcast. They included DC artist Mike Norton and Chris Crank of Devil's Due (The Crankcast) Marvel artist Skottie Young, Chris Neesman Brian Salazar & Tom Katers (Around Comics) Stevie D and Eric (The Comic Book Queers) and John Siuntres (Word Balloon).

Along with the round table discussions, there were informal interviews with other comic pros like J Torres, Tim Seeley, Chris Moreno Jeremy Haun Chris Burnham, Sean McKeever and Brian Michael Bendis. Most of the pros just talked casually about work in general, but Bendis dropped a few comic news items regarding his books.

On this special edition of Word Balloon, we present the Bendis interview, moderated by John Siuntres and the Around Comics hosts.

Some highlights from the interview...

On Ultimate Origin being re-scheduled...

Bendis and artist Butch Guice have three issues completed, but some tie-in stories written by Jeph Loeb won't be ready till next year. Plus they didn't want the Ultimate Universe storyline to conflict with Bendis' Secret Invasion miniseries, so Ultimate Origin is getting pushed back until the end of summer 2008.

On the ,b>Avengers/Secret Invasion/Illuminati books…

When artist Frank Cho finishes his Mighty Avengers arc he will move to the Mighty Avengers Annual featuring an all female Avengers team facing a group of female villains. Mark Bagley then replaces Cho on the series, and he's already finished drawing his arc. After issues #6 and #7 of Mighty Avengers comes out, Illuminati #5 will be released.

New Avengers #38 will be a very special issue focusing on Jessica Jones and Luke Cage drawn by Alias co-creator Michael Gaydos. "I don't want to spoil the story but it's called ‘The Break-Up.’"

On Secret Invasion...

There are clues to who is a Skrull in some of the thought balloons in Mighty Avengers, so it will be fun to see who can figure out who the Skrulls are, by re-reading those issues."

On Ultimate Spider-Man

"I got permission to Ultimatize a few villains from the 1967 Ralph Bashki Spidey animated series that have never appeared in any Marvel Comics. "I was surprised that there didn't have to be any legal wrangling to recreate these villains."

In fear of the pending 2008 Hollywood writers/directors strikes, the studios are rushing to production with any potential films in the development pipeline. Apparently, this has resulted in some upcoming good news for Bendis.

"Uh yes... in about three weeks, I should have some announcements."

In this episode of Word Balloon, host John Siuntres begins a two part conversation with writer Robert Kirkman.

Kirkman gives us an update on Haunt, his 2008 collaboration with Todd McFarlane, of which the writer says, "I've written the script for it...we're looking for a May/June 2008 launch. Todd will be designing all the characters,and I'm going to say he'll be doing all the covers . Hopefully it will be a cool book, I've got some cool stuff planned."

We also hear a preview of his return to the Marvel Zombies universe, as Marvel Zombies 2 hits the stores this month. We'll also discuss his string of Image creator owned books, including the very popular Invincible, and his other Zombie mega hit The Walking Dead. he talks about turning over a couple of his creations to new writers, like Bruce Brown (currently writing Brit), and the upcoming Atom Eve miniseries written by Benito Cereno.

On the subject of craft, Kirkman discusses his thoughts on the difficulties in writing a first issue, selling a new series to the public and more

Writer Jason Aaron gives word balloon host John Siuntres the lowdown on his critically acclaimed  pulp western series Scalped from Vertigo,
all about the seedy side of life on a native american reservation.

They also talk about his Vertigo debut,the Vietnam mini series The Other Side, his Ripclaw one shot, part of Top Cow's Pilot Season. and
his past and future work on the Wolverine solo book for Marvel.

Writer Allan Heinberg wraps up his long awaited 5 part Wonder Woman arc from DC comics, and discusses the story and delays with host John Siuntres.

We also discuss the upcoming Marvel Young Avengers mini series featuring Allan & Jim Cheung's team now in the hands of other creators.

Plus we look at Allan's television work, currently as a co-executive producer of Grey's Anatomy. The Emmy winning ABC series returns for it's 4th season this week.

 

The Cartoon Satirist is back discussing his new Fantagraphics book The Fun Never Stops a collection of comic strips, cartoons and illustrations from the pages of RAW, MAD, Heavy Metal, SPY, DETAILS, The New Republic,The New York Times Magazine
and THE NEW YORK OBSERVER.

Drew tells hilarious stories about Woody Allen Jerry Lewis
Groucho Marx,Howard Stern, Jimmy Kimmel, Larry Storch
Mad Magazine creator Harvey Kurtzman, and why George W. Bush is the spitting image of 1950's comedian Doodles Weaver

You'll learn the genesis behind Freidman's recurring hero The
Duke Of Eltingville, his past animation work for Liquid TV and
Comedy Central. We'll touch on his trading card work for Topps
and wonder where his style of comic strip satire fits into today's
electronic media world.

Minnesota Artist Brent Schoonover joins host John Siuntres for a talk about two great indie projects. Horrorwood the 1950's Hollywood Murder Mystery written by Brandon Terrell from Ape Entertainment, and coming out in November Astronaut Dad  from Silent Devil Productions written by David Hopkins.

To see more of his art, check out his website www.brentschoonover.com

Word Balloon presents this 2 part chat with writer Marty Pasko.

He started his career as a freelance writer, but soon worked his way through the DC ranks , writing runs on Superman, Dectetive Comics, Justice League Of America, Swamp Thing, and Wonder Woman.

He also revamped The Metal Men, Doctor Fate, The Blackhawks, Secret Six, and Kobra, among others.

Marty shares a detailed look at the 1970's DC bullpen , and the changes in making comics from the Bronze Age, through today.

Couldn't make the trip to Chicago? No problem, just close your eyes and Word Balloon takes you there in this audio podcast report

 

Taped from the convention floor, host John Siuntres scanned the rows of artist alley and beyond to get quick moments with an assortment of comic creators and executives, that run the gamut of the comics world.

We'll catch up with creators like...

Matt Anderson & Eric Hutchins (White Picket Fences)

Dan Didio (Executive Editor DC Comics)

Art Baltazar & Franco (Tiny Titans)

Will Pieffer (Catwoman & Amazons Attack)

Skottie Young (New X-Men)

Matt Wagner (Grendel, Madame Xanadu, Zorro)

Tony Digerolomo (Bongo Comics, Super Frat, Zombie County)

Micheal Avon Oeming (Mice Templar, Spider-Man Red Sonia, Powers)

Phil Hester (Thirteen Steps, The Darkness)

Ande Parks (Daredevil Annual, Blood Red)

Andy Owens (Buffy Season 8, Countdown Arena)

Don Kramer (Dectective Comics)

Andrew Pepoy (Jack Of Fables, Bongo Comics)

Chris Kirby (Lost Squad)

Dave Wachter (Scar Tissue)

Pat Loika (Pantheon, Path To Armegeddon)

Shane White & Scott Reed (The Overman)

Christian Beranek  (Silent Devil Productions)

Raven Gregory (Return To Wonderland)

Sean McManus (The Sin Of Mark Grimm)

Ralph Tedesco (Xenoscope Books)

B Clay Moore (Hawaian Dick, The Leading Man)

Chris Moreno (Sidekicks, Frontline: World War Hulk) 

We're in that "twilight zone" time between two big conventions, post San Diego, but pre Wizard Chicago. To tide us over till the news from the Windy City start pouring in, Word Balloon host John Siuntres presents this collection of creator convention stories.

Brian Michael Bendis shares classic encounters with Lou Ferrigno,
and a memorable writers panel where he had to contend with a great
Marvel writer, who didn't agree with today's decompressed story telling.

Jimmy Palmiotti talks about the strange promotion a convention in Spain set up, to tie into the release of the Garth Ennis Amanda Connor classic, THE PRO.

Chuck Austen gives a first hand account Of Alan moore strange adventures at the infamous 1986 SDCC, his first (and last) american convention.

And Tim Bradstreet tells us what it's like when The great Steranko holds court, after hours at a con.

More words and memories with artist Tim Bradstreet, who not only gives us some news about the double sized Punisher #50 issue from Marvel's Max line, featuring interior art by Howard Chaykin...

But he also talks up books from the Raw Entertainment Studios
like Bad Planet written by Thomas Jane & Steve Niles , Todd Farmer's Alien Pig Farm, future projects like the Bloody Pulp anthology ,and what fans cam expect from the Raw booth at the San Diego Comicon.

On this edition of Word Balloon host John Siuntres
chats with artist dan Brereton. Dan's creator owned
crime noir meets classic horror series the Nocturnals.

Doc, The Gunwitch, Halloween Girl and the other Nocturnals 
fight against Pacific City's organized crime families is poised for a return via Olympian Publishing, with the release of The Nocturnal Alaphabet book featured this week at the San Diego Comicon.

Dan gives us details on the book, new stories included in the
Deluxe Hardcover collections of the Nocturnals saga  and some early word on the upcoming new Nocturnals mini series in development.

We'll also spend time talking about Dan's work on September's
Immortal Iron Fist Annual for Marvel Comics written by Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction and sharing the art chores with his friend Howard Chaykin.

A Double Sized final chapter to this session of the Bendis Tapes.

You can hear both Brian Bendis and John break down as the hours tick away, answering this last clump of questions fro the jinxworld message board.

As the air gets thinner, the humor gets crazier

 

 

 

On this edition of Word Balloon host John Siuntres talks with a writer who's finally getting the attention he deserves.

John sits down with tv and film writer Christos Gage to talk about his current comics work on World War Hulk tie ins with the X-Men and Iron Man, His Wildstorm work including the ongoing series Stormwatch PHD drawn by Doug Mahnke, and upcoming new miniseries Armegeddon, and info about The Authority Prime mini sereis.

We'll also get details on future projects like House of M Avengers with
artist Mike Perkins and for Dynamite Entertainment Chris will be
writing new adventures of the spaghetti western anti hero,
The Man With No Name.

More Q&A from Brian Michael Bendis's message board.  On this edition of Word Balloon, He and host John Siuntres provide more insight into Brian's storylines for the months ahead.

As his Marvel works wrap up, and DC comics begin, writer Sean McKeever looks back and forward with Word Balloon host john Siuntres

In this podcast interview, we talk about the wrap up of his run on Spider-Man loves Mary Jane, with Takeshi Miyazawa ,  the process of writing countdown with Paul Dini for DC, and we'll get hints of what's to come for the Birds Of Prey and Teen Titans.

Sean talks about his formative collaborations with writers like Paul Jenkins and artists like Mike Norton. You'll hear about his Marvel runs on The Inhumans, Gravity, and Sentinel, and future project at DC in the months ahead, like his Search For Ray Palmer issue, featuring
the Earth 3 Crime Syndicate. 

Here's more of the neverending story of Bendis answering questions from his jinxworld.com message board.

You'll get more tidbits on HALO, Ultimate Origins, The Avengers books and Ultimate Spider-Man.

There's even more to come in the days ahead....

Artist Jeremy Haun is back, but the conversation is all new, with his debut as a crime writer, on this month's Oni Press OGN Narcoleptic Sunday , which debuts at this month's San Diego Comicon.

Jer also discusses his current run on Marvel Comics Excalibur written by X-Men legend Chris Claremont , and the progres of the Kansas City based comic creator studio Atomic Revolver, with writers B Clay Moore Jason Auron and Seth Peck, and artists Tony Moore and Jason Latour.

Ethan Van Sciver is back to showcase THE SINESTRO CORPS, in this very spoilerrefic conversation.

Ethan talks about his colaborative process with Geoff Johns, his early years, and what's in store, for the GLC in 2007.

On this edition of word balloon we sit down with DC Artist Mike Norton and Chris Crank, from Devil's Due Publishing. Chris and Mike are comic pros who also host their own podcast The crankcast.

We'll talk to Mike about his work on The All New Atom with Gail Simone, and the book's involvement in DC's new weekly series Countdown, and Loaded Bible 2 the action packed post apoccalyiptic showdown between Jesus and Legions Of vampires.

Chris talks about Pull Box Online, the digital comics distribution
store he set up through Devil's Due, and his involvement in the upcoming Troma Anthology Books of Horror stories.

With convention season under way we talk about the difficulty pros have juggling work deadlines and the need to be out at conventions plugging
their books.

Today Word Balloon's host John Siuntres sits down for a chat with artist Tim Bradstreet, who breaks down his style of art, and answers the fans who think light box artists are just "tracers".

They also talk about his years of covers for books like The Punisher, Hellblazer and his current work with his Raw Entertainment Partners Steve Niles and Thomas Jane.

You'll get the details on Tim's longtime pet project Red Sky Diary, and they preview this month's re-return of the Sci-Fi story Bad Planet , written by Tom Jane with new interior artist James Daly.

You'll want to follow along looking at the art examples discussed, so while you're listening,  check out Tim's typepad blog, http://timbradstreet.typepad.com/ , and his Red Sky Diary Page, http://www.myspace.com/redskydiary 

With stories like infinite crisis and 52,Comic Book writer Geoff Johns has been one of the guiding voices of the entire DC universe.

Now past his involvement in the wide ranging crossover events,
Geoff can focus on his personal monthly books, like Green Lantern , and the upcomming Sinestro Corps,His Superman run on Action Comics co-written with film director Richard Donner,and the Justice Society of America, currently in the midsts of a Justice League Legion Of Superheroes cross over, cowritten by Brad Meltzer.

We'll also talk about the new upcoming booster gold series, cowritten with Jeef Katz, and drawn by booster's original creator Dan Jurgens, and Geoff's movie work, including his role as an executive producer on the Metal Men film.

Marvel Comics Writer Ed Brubaker checks in with a look at what happens next after the death of capt america, we'll talk about the media hype that followed the event, plus we discuss Ed's current runs on The Uncanny Xmen, his collaboration on The Immortal Iron fist with Matt Fracation, Daredevil, and Ed's creator owned book from Icon Criminal.

The Co-Excutive Producer Of Heroes checks in with more behind the scenes information, some teases about next season, and a delightful chat about how he hooked up with show creaytor Tim Kring, his long time pal JJ Abrams, and his writing partner Jeph Loeb.

Jesse also wrote ALIAS during it's 5 seasons, was one of the creators behind LOST, and wrote the recent monster parody EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS.

 

We cover it all, in the classic Word Balloon tradiotion.

From Aug 2004, The acclaimed comic artist discusses his longtime colaborations with the Wachowski's in comics, and film. We talk about the conceptual art behind THE MATRIX, his creations for The Wachowski's comic book imprint Burlyman Entertainment, Shaolin Cowboy and Doc Frankenstien.

Then we look at Geof's many works with Frank Miller. his friendship with Moebius , and our mutual love for the american western.

It's time for the final rucka debrief.  
We'll take a tour of Greg's favorite pop cultural refernces Which range from the literaray masters of espionage fiction, to Rick and AJ in Simon and Simon.

Greg also teases more info about his upcoming batman superman arc,
he gives his insight into the charcters of Tara Chase from
queen and Country Sasha Bordeaux in checkmate
and Renee Montoya the new Question.

Rucka also has final thoughts on the "52" project, as the last weekly issue hits the stores today.

In This episode of Wordballoon, we talk with writer Brad Meltzer about The Lightning Saga, the current JLA JSA Legion Of Superheroes Team Up, co written with Geoff Johns. Meltzer also discusses the paperback release of his 2006 best selling novel, The Book Of Fate.

We'll also prevview Brad's remaining stories on Justice League Of America, and revisit his first JLA arc, The Tornado's Saga, His Green Arrow story The Archer's Quest and discuss the fan reaction to Sue Dibny's controversial rape in Identity Crisis.

The conversation continues, as the DC writer answers more fan questions about his characters and stories . You'll learn more about "52", passing the hero mantle of THE QUESTION, film news on WHITEOUT, and why isn't DC considering a new LOIS LANE book?

In this first part of the Rucka debrief , you'll get writing tips from greg,
information about the upcomming Checkmate/Outsiders Crossover from DC comics , details on the future plans for greg's British spy series from Oni Press Queen and Country, and upcoming Rucka novels...

You'll hear Greg's thoughts on what should and shouldn't be
done with Wonder Woman,and more on the wrap up of DC's weekly series "52", and the consequences of "World War 3".

NOTE: This conversation took place in late March,
before DC announced the new plan of Gail Simone
taking over Wonder Woman, and Greg's comments should not
reflect on Gail's plans for the Amazon Hero.

The spider-man film is less than a month away, and we check in with venom's creator. David tells us what it was like to enter the business and create such memorable charcters as Venom,
Carnage, Jim Rhodes, and Claw the unconqueroed.

We cover his runs on The Unknown Soldier, The Avengers, His    spider-man and superman years, and talk about his legendary runs
on Iron Man with Bob Layton,  including the seminal story "demon in a bottle".

an audio tour of the indie master artist's latest book, Old Jewish Comedians, from Fantagraphics. We talk about the careers of Jerry Lewis  Bud Abbott, and Milton Berle and the lesser lights like Benny Rubin, Herbie Faye, and Mousie Garnder.

Drew also shares some his influences that led to his unique style of art and satire, tales of working with R Crumb, and Art Spigelman, and answers age old literary questions like "What night time TV soap star did JD Salinger stalk in the 80's", "What comic strip kept Vladimir Nabokov mystified/" and "Who is Menasha Skulnick ?"

Steve Niles made his mark in comics when he formed his own publishing company called Arcane Comix, where he published, edited and adapted several comics and anthologies for Eclipse Comics.

His adaptations have included works by Clive Barker, Richard Matheson and Harlan Ellison. Niles is best known for his horror noir chracter Cal McDonald the star of many mini series and prose projects, his original vapire tale 30 days of night will sooon be released as a major motion picture,

He's also working with comics legend bernie wrightson on City of Others, and on several other projects that come up in the course of our conversation. We'll talk about his work with Sam Rami, Tim Bradstreet Thomas Jane, and the pros and cons of comic creators on the web.

Wordballoon, in association with newsarama.com presents part 2, as we wrap things up with the writer of many Marvel Comics and  The Co-Executive Producer of NBC's Heroes.

We discuss the Buffy Season 8 comic book from dark Horse and jeph's eventual association with the series. We also get into a detailed debate about the amount of publisher wide events that DC and Marvel are serving non-stop to their readers. Finally we wrap up with an insider's view of the breakout hit tv series of this season, Heroes.

In our first WB conversation, Jeph and I spoke on his car phone, while he made his daily commute from his home to the studios of LOST .

The travelouge nature of our talks continue in this chat which starts in the cabride from Wonder-Con, To The SF airport, and finally wraps up at stately Loeb Manor, and his new office digs at HEROES.

In part 1, Jeph gives us the background behind his Wolverine run, and his involvemnt in Civil War, which led to the creation of FALLEN SON, THE DEATH OF CAPT AMERICA

We wrap up our talk with Brian Bendis. see How mnay hidden double meanings there are in some of his answers, givien the recent events in the Marvel Universe and their impact on the two Avengers teams....

Part 2 of our marathon conversation continues, with comments about the philosophy behind comic book events, more backgorund of Ultimate Spider-Man and The Avengers books, and lots more!

The Great Thing about having these marathon conversations with Marvel Comics writer Brian Michael Bendis is the amount of plot hints, character studies, and project updates for his books and films in production. Aspiring comic book makers will learn a lot about the craft of writing, and how to promote a new indie book.

The challenge (and fun)  is to wade through the hundreds of silly and random questions provided by myself and Bendis's message board community at jinxworld.com to get to those nugets of information.

 

If You'd Like to follow along with the thread containing all of the questions' here's the link

http://www.606studios.com/bendisboard/showthread.php?t=102365

As comic book readers get older, some may tire of the safety rules superhero stories have when published by the big two DC and Marvel Comics.

Writer Jay Faerber has written for the big two on titles like DC's Teen Titans and Marvel's the New Warriors, but these days seems happiest focusing on his own original ideas. Joining his soap opera hero series Nobel Causes is a new hero team book from Image, Dynamo 5 featuring the illegitimate superpowered children of Captian Dynamo
an iconic all american hero who's public wasn't aware of his all too human flaws.

We'll also talk about Jay's love of detective fiction in books and TV, and his original gumshoe creation, Dodge's Bullets.

FROM 2006...THE POPULAR DC WRITER ANSWERS QUESTIONS FROM FANS ABOUT BEHIND THE SCENES FACTS ON BOOKS LIKE BIRDS OF PREY, AND SECRET SIX, HER INTEREST IN WRITING OTHER FAN FAVORITE PROJECTS, AND LOOKS AHEAD TO BOOKS LIKE THE ALL NEW ATOM AND GEN 13. GAIL RESPONDS TO QUESTIONS ABOUT HER WRITING STYLE, HER INFAMOUS ESSAY ON THE 90'S PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN COMICS "WOMEN IN REFRIGERATORS" , AND HER CONTINUING SPITBALL FEUD WITH BRIAN BENDIS. YOU'LL ALSO LEARN THE ONE BIRDS OF PREY STORY IDEA DC WOULD NEVER LET GAIL USE... IT'S A DOOZY!

From 2005, a fun conversation with the man who put THE PUNISHER in The Big Leagues, with the 1986 mini series CIRCLE OF BLOOD, with artist Mike Zeck.

We talk about Steve's work with the legendary Gil Kane, His crime comics, the weekly Permanent Damage column at CBR and his epic bio comic on the late Pope John Paul The 2nd!

It's time for part two, the wrap of up my coverage of the FX con in Orlando Florida. In this episode you'll hear from Gene Ha the Eisner Award winning artist, who's working with Grant Morrison on The Authority from Wildstorn, and a few other high profile projects.

Artist Mike Perkins tells us what he can about Capt America's post civil war plans, and other projects in the works at Marvel.

Chuck Dixon Lays out his Wildstorm slate of books.

Cover painter Mark Sparacio tells us about his cover work for the overstreet guide, comic buyers guide, Heroes for Hire at marvel and more upcoming work

Indie creators Derrick Fish (Dandy & Co) , Shannon Chenowith (The Line) , and Art Baltazar (Gorilla Gorilla & Patrick The Wolf Boy)

and we wrap things up with two stars from the Sci-fi Chanel's hit series Eureka, the father daughter duo of Collin Ferguson and Jordan Hinson

What a great time at Orlando's FX Convention! This is the first of two shows, featuring panels and conversation with Matt Wagner (GRENDEL MAGE BATMAN ) Chuck Dixon & Derick Donovan (CONNOR HAWKE), Dave Johnson (100 BULLETS BEN 10) Steve Scott (CHECKMATE SHADOWPACT) Michael Golden (MICRONAUTS THE NAM), and the guys from Desperado Publishing, including Joe Pruett (KILROY IS HERE) Mike Perkins (NEGATIVE BURN) Chris Moreno (SIDEKICKS) Stephan Nilson (ATOMIK MIKE) and Andrew Robinson(DUSTY STAR) .

 

Later this week, more conversations in part 2 !

 

 

A brand new talk, with one of the Chicago based Comic Book creators ...

If you're a fan of the RA Salvatore comic adaptations, or early Devil's Due GI Joe books, you already know Tim Seeley is a great artist. But his writing is distinctly funny and consistantly entertaining . We talk about Tim's work on JOE, The Salvatore adaptations of Deamon Wars and Forgotten Relms, and his original horror creation, Hack Slash, which has beemn optioned for a future motion picture release.

Tim's also hard at work on a Troma Pictures comic anthology , adapting films like The Toxic Avenger, Surf Nazis Must Die, and the like, and the long awaited sequel to LOADED BIBLE , with artist Mike Norton.

Ethan is an exceptional artist and a very funny guy! I had so much fun talking about his work and comics in general.

Learn all about the secrets behind Cyberfrog, Ethan's early Heavy Metal influences, his long collaborations with Geoff Johns, which began on the sometimes forgotten FLASH IRON HEIGHTS and continued with GREEN LANTERN REBIRTH. We'll also disucss his run on Superman Batman with Mark Verheiden , and wait till you here his take on a classic O'Neil/Adams Green Lantern Green Arrow scene .

From Dec 2005

 

 

 

Sorry folks a few new interviews got lost in a hard drive mishap, so enjoy this June 2005 interview with the great fantasy artist Colleen doran, who's work on A Distatnt Soil , The Book Of Fate, Orbiter and other comic books continues to amaze readers.

Colleen discusses her colaborations with Mike Carey J Michael Straczynski, and Warren Ellis. She also discusses her approach in drawing Japanese style manga projects.

This was one of the first wordballoon episodes, Has my voice changed much?

The 24 hr news cycle is taken to task in Jonathon Hickman's new book from Image Comics.

Citizen victims of false accusations form an agressive cult that seeks revenge on the irresponsible reporters and news organizations that ruined their lives.

But the plot of the nightly news is only half of Hickman's
singular creation.The gov't conspiracy theories and media issues
are presented in a format that is part sequential art, part
information guide, wraped in a design display that is like no
other comic book on the market.

We talk with writer artist Jonathon Hickman, about the issues and design of The Nightly News.

From Jan 2006 A Conversation With Writer/Producer Dwyane McDuffie.

Dwayne co-founded the Milestone Comic Book Line, created Static Shock , and Marvel Comics Damage Control . He wrote great adventures for books like X-O Man Of War, Deathlok, and the Fantastic Four.

He also was part of the phenominal production staff that made the Warner Bros/DC Cartoons of the 90's. We spend a lot of time talking about the Static Shock TV series, and Justice League , which scoring huge ratings for the Cartoon Network. Details about classic JL stories, and the other comic creators who had a hand in various episodes.

Learn all about Dwayne's comic books,cartoons and his love of the superhero genre .

Ape Entertainment's Pulp Adventure series is wrapping up it's first arc, "Flight Of The Pheonix" in January, but this month, you can see the genesis of the Sexy Female Adventurer with the Trade Collection of Her first Onlione Adventures. We discuss her origins and pulp influences with her Creator, Artist Steve Bryant.

Check it out, and find out why comci creators like Warren Ellis Mark Schultz, and Tim Bradstreet love this book too!

Damn I love this book!

Swashbuckling action set during the american revolution, Pirates, Monsters, Masked Heroes...and Ben Franklin? Lichius gives us the lowdown on his comic book creation, THE BLACK COAT co-written with Adam Cogan and amazing art from Francesco Francavilla for Ape Entertainment. The first trade A CALL TO ARMS, is avaiable now though Diamond Distributing . Learn all about this revolutionary hero, and his fellow cast of characters.

Think of this as Wordballoon's Holiday special, like It's A Wonderful Life or A Christmas Story. One of the most requested interviews is back! From Dec 2005, The man who redefined the DCU. The man who smacked the camp out of Batman, and made him the dark knight badass once again. The man who had Superman fight Muhammad Ali...and Supes lost! Legendary artist Neal Adams actually tolerated my silly questions for over 90 minutes, and was ready to give me even more time!!!! Listen , as Neal brings us tales from the Bronze Age, and goes in depth on his scientific theories about an expanding earth. How does an un-accredited science enthusiast pitch his theory, when the conventional science world refuses to support it?

The DC/Marvel/Wildstorm writer talks about his comic books, like Iron Man Captian America Casualties Of War, Union Jack, Stormwatch, and more, plus he and host John Siuntres have to bond as fellow Greek countrymen, and figure out which comic pros are also Greek.

We also talk about his transition from screenwriter on TV shows like LAW AND ORDER SVU, and NUMB3RS to comics.

If you've ever been to a DC Nation panel, that seems to be the tone in some fans voices , as they fret over the fate of their favorite comic book heroes .

From killing Sue Dibny and Ted Kord, nearly killing Nightwing, to the new versions of Blue Beetle, Aquaman and The Atom. If they'd get past their anger, they'd realize how much fun it's been reading the comic books.

The executive editor of DC Comics has readers attention and wondering each month, what's going to happen next?

We take a look at Dan's editorial views on why things change, and his plans for DC in 2007.

Steve Ditko created him for Charlton Comics, but writer Denny O'Neil re-defined THE QUESTION. It was a ground breaking 1980's series remebered fondly by the industry's top writers today.

In this march 2006 conversation, Denny talks about the character , and his new novel, HELLTOWN , which gives the backstory of Vic Sage's path which resulted in his adopting THE QUESTION identity.

Die hard Question fans will notice changes to the story as originally depicted in the Charlton and DC comic books, but O'Neil Fans won't be disapointed in the cameos and tone of the novel.

We also discuss Denny's start in the comic book field and his influences learning from editors like Julie Schwartz and Stan Lee.

You might hear some Batman talk in their too, given O'Neil's 30 plus years writing and editing the character.

It's Here! The Final Chapter! Bendis and I go one more round talking about all of his comic books

After 5 twilight hours of answering fan questions Brian and I are tired and losing our grip on reality.

Listen, as John loses his ability to read english!

Hear Bendis, as he shrinks to microscopic size buried under the weight of another word association list, or Paste Pot Pete reference! Will our heroes survive?

How's That for Stan Lee style hyperbole?

Sure, Matt is kicking ass writing comic books like Punisher War Journal and The Immortal Iron Fist (with Ed Brubaker) for Marvel, but are you reading Cassanova? His wigged out action packed, and very disturbing spy series from Image?

How about older books, like the Image graphic novel Five Fists Of Science, the 1899 heroic duo of Mark Twain and Nikolai Tesla Vs the evil of Thomas Edison?

Or the IDW crime classic, LAST OF THE INDPENDENTS?

We cover those, plus throw in enough pop culture talk to make Alex Trebeck weep.

 

Mark's been a DC comics fan forever, and says Adventure Comics #357 was a mind blowing experience. The comic featured a classic Legion Of Superheroes story, The Death Of Ferro Lad, written by teenaged Jim Shooter, and drawn by the legendary Curt Swan. Nowadays, Mark is making Legion history himself, as the writer of Supergirl and The Legion Of Superheroes, drawn by frequent Waid collaborator, Barry Kitson. Mark is also co-writing the weekly DC Comic "52". We get updates on both books, and delve into a bunch of other pop culture topics.

Writers Danny Bilson and Paul Demeo are back to discuss RED MENACE , the new WILDSTORM mini series about a 1950's superhero who unmasks for the anti communist US senate committee, led by Joe McCarthy. The book is co-authored by actor Adam Brody, who plays Seth Cohen on FOX TV's THE OC, and art is provided by the great Jerry Ordway. Billson & Demeo also discuss their run on the DC comic THE FLASH,and the chorus of internet complaints about the shift from Wally West to Bart Allen as the scarlet speedster. For more talk about their work on THE FLASH tv series, and movie work on THE ROCKETEER & TRANCERS, check out my first interview with the guys here http://www.wordballoon.com/files/WBflashguys.mp3

Part 3 of the never ending story contnues, but it's loaded with interesting insights. You'll find out about the workings of the fabled Marvel Retreats , where the elves get together in the hollow tree, and bake the cookies .

We'll also discuss various thoughts on Steve Ditko, the craft of writing, hints at upcoming arcs in new Avengers and Ultimate Spider-man, TRhe current TV and Movie seasons, and who would YOU cast in the JINXWORLD movie?

 

 

Time for part 2 with more talk about Ultimate Spider-Man, New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Bendis's writing porcess, plus a celeberty story that may rival Brian's encounters with Lou Ferrigno.

Brian Michael Bendis is back to talk about all of his comic book and movie projects.

Taking questions from his Jinxworld.com message board forum, Brian talks about artist Stuart Immomen joining Ultimate Spiderman, What's coming up in New Avengers , along with movie & TV talk, and lots of friendly jabs at fellow Marvel creators like Ed Brubaker, and Robert Kirkman.

The DC scribe is back, with insights on his current run in ACTION COMICS co-writing SUPERMAN with film director Richard Donner, The continued sucsess of the TEEN TITANS, Hal Jordan's new challenges as GREEN LANTERN, "52", Decembers return of THE JUSTICE SOCIETY. and looks back, at the BLADE SPIKE TV series , and INFINITE CRISIS.

A great seasonal chat with Hellboy's real dad, who sets the table for the big red guy's animated debut in the film roman production SWORD OF STORMS, premiering &nbsp;Saturday Oct 28th, on the Cartoon Network. The DVD release is expected in February. Mike also talks about Hellboy's beginnings, the upcoming new mini series with Duncan Fegredo, An Abe Sapien mini series, more BPRD and the pulp inspired hero Lobster Johnsn. You'll hear about Mike's art influences, collaborating with artists like Guy Davis, Richard Corben, and filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro Also a lengthy tease about HELLBOY 2 , which has just begun pre-production.

Joe gives his views on the current stories and controversies each week in his newsarama weekly Q&amp;A sessions, but in this thoughtful conversation, we talk about the state of Marvel Comics , six years into Joe's reign as Editor In Chief.From his days with Jimmy Palmiotti starting Marvel Knights, through the Bill Jemas era, to today's current regime.We talk about Marvel movies, the MAX comics line, and the editorial philosophies behind rebooting a character, or bringing it back to basics.

WE REPRESENT THIS CONVERSATION WITH DINO, WHO CONTINUES HIS COLLABORATION WITH WRITER HARVEY PEKAR , IN THE NEW AMERICAN SPLENDOR SERIES FROM VERTIGO COMICS.

THE VIRTUOSO UNDERGROUND ARTIST TRACES HIS CAREER FROM HIS DAYS AS AN ASSISTANT WORKING UNDER THE LIKES OF HOWARD
CHAYKIN BILL SIENKEWICZ AND WALTER SIMONSON, TO HIS OWN WORKS LIKE THE VERDICT , THE KEYHOLE SERIES WITH JOSH NEUFELD , HIS EVAN DORKIN TEAM UP ONTHE THING :NIGHT FALLS ON YANCY STREET

AND WE LOOK AT HIS CURRENT SOLO  WORK, SUCH AS  BILLY DOGMA, DEAN'S NOIR ANTI-HERO IN AIM TO DAZZLE AND THE CURRENT IMMORTAL AVAILABLE AT DEAN'S LIVE JOURNAL SITE

http://community.livejournal.com/act_i_vate/

Artist Jeremy Haun gives us the lowdown onThe LEADING MAN from ONI PRESS with writer B Clay Moore, and his upcoming marvel work on IRON MAN CAPTAIN AMERICA-CASUALTIES OF WAR , with LAW AND ORDER writer Christos Gage.

What a pleasure talking to the man behind great satire and action like American Flagg, Time 2, The Shadow, The Blackhawks, and Cody Starbuck .

You'll hear about his current projects like BITE CLUB, BLADE, GUY GARDNER, JLA CLASSIFIED, along with a look back at his work on STAR WARS , BLACK KISS, AMERICAN CENTURY , his television work on THE FLASH, VIPER, and MUTANT X .

We'll discuss Chaykin's view of Televison, from the shows he loves to what Hollywood is looking for from writers these days. Between us, we'll throw in enough obscure ancient pop culture references that would make Dennis Miller call his grandfather to confirm.

As a lifelong fan of his writing and art, Howard is my kind of people.

ATTENTION, The repeating overlapping sound problem has been fixed.

 

We visit with writer Brian Azzarello, to talk about Loveless the Vertigo western he started this year, and his new projects debuting this fall...

A return to the wildstorm charcter deathblow first tackled by brian in a batman crossover story done in 1999 with returning artist lee bermejo. we'll also discuss brian's reboot of Dr 13 in DC's Tales Of The Unexpected, a new monthly he shares with fellow crime writer David Lapham.

Azzarello is at the 3 quarter point in his crime consipracy epic 100 Bullets. so in the second half of the show, we replay our first conversation with Brian, covering the behind the scene facts of the series.

Celebrating Brad's climb to #1 on The NY Times Bestseller list, here's a "book only" version of my conversation with Brad.

 

This summer, Andrew made his mark with the SCI-FI channel's new hit TV show EUREKA . The successful screenwriter is no stranger to comics, as we find out in this informative interview, featuring talk about his Dark Horse series DAMN NATION, plus his continuing work for BOOM! STUDIOS on books like THE SAVAGE BROTHERS, X-ISLE, and THE ENIGMA CIPHER.We'll also get into the behind the scene info on Eureka, and it's chances for coming back next season

a few tech snaufus are keeping me busy this week, so we represent a great conversation with Chris, who does so many comic related things beyond lettering so many of our favorite monthlies.

chris is also the genius behind FRANKLIN RICHARDS, SON OF A GENUIS, which to me is still one of the funniest ideas marvel ever released.

 

 

The writer Of Marvel's Civil War checks in for a conversation about his health, the current status civil war, and the future, as Mark prepares to dive into the podcasting world with his own show.

We'll look at Mark's early years writing for 2000AD, the origin of Civil War, The zombie storyline of Ultimate Fantastic Four, which created its own spin-off series, Marvel Zombies, and tons more.

The San Diego Coverage Of the Moonstone Books Phantom Panel continues, with the audio from the creators Q&A session.

NOTE: We lost the first few seconds of Ben Rabb's opening, as he talked about writing the new graphich novel LEGACY, which is the never before told story of the very first Phantom, and how the Phantom dynasty began.

At the San Diego Comicon, Moonstone books presented a panel revealing their 2006-2007 plans to commemortae the 70th anniversary of The Lee Falk hero THE PHANTOM.The Ghost Who Walks will be presented in a number of stories with varied formats.Moonstone Publisher Joe Gentile Had a full audio visual presentation, in addition to comments made by the writers and artists behind the new projects. We present the sldieshow used at the san diego panel.

A conversation with Scott Hinze, the host of Fanboy Radio . We talk about the show's origin, and then scott and I have a discussion about the two big mainstream events in comics, Dc's "52", and Marvel's "Civil War".

THE MAN BEHIND BOOM GIVES US A TOUR OF HIS TITLES, FEATURING TOP COMIC CREATORS, LIKE KEITH GIFFEN , JOE CASEY, MARK WAID, JM DEMATTIES, CHEE, DAVE JOHNSON, PAIRED WITH NEW COMIC TALENTS LIKE ANDREW COSBY, JOANNA STOKES (pictured next to Ross) , RON LIM AND OTHERS.

WE TALK ABOUT THE CHALLENGE NEW PUBLISHERS FACE , GETTING RETAILERS AND READERS ATTENTION WITH FRESH CONEPTS, AND HOW ROSS BEGGED ARNOLD SCHWARTZENEGGER TO PASS ON A COUPLE OF FAMOUS FILMS.

Best selling author Brad Meltzer gives us the lowdown on his new roster in the Justice League Of America, and the keys behind his new JLA story. We also discuss Brad's new novel, the political thriller, THE BOOK OF FATE, which is available at bookstores Sept 5th. Plus we'll talk about GREEN ARROW THE ARCHER"s QUEST, His WB television series JACK & BOBBY, and the JLA story that started the current events in the DCU, IDENTITY CRISIS.

We wrap up our conversation with crime writer Ed Brubaker, with more talk about his Icon title CRIMINAL, with Sean Phillips on art.

Plus we delve more into the psyche of Captain America, ponder the question "Is Daredevil the smartest guy in the room, or the craziest?", and Ed previews his upcoming collaboration with Matt Fraction, on THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST , filled with world espionage and kung fu action.

For years Ed Brubaker has shown his love for crime comics, by writing some of the genre's best modern stories.

In collected works like SCENE OF THE CRIME with Michael Lark, SLEEPER his first series with Sean Phillips, and collaborating with pals Lark and writer Greg Rucka on the police procedural, GOTHAM CENTRAL.

In Part one of our conversation, Brubaker explains his plans for the new Icon series CRIMINAL, plus we take a look back at SLEEPER, and talk about his current run on CAPTAIN AMERICA.