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.