On this episode of Word balloon, Jason Aaron is back to talk about finding the voices of the characters he writes. From discovering his take on Spider-Man for the Astonishing Spider-Man Wolverine book, and the current arc in Wolverine Weapon X. You'll hear plenty about the current Deathlok/Captain America story.  We also talk a lot about the upcoming reboot of the Wolverine solo book in September, including the opening arc called "Wolverine In Hell". You'll hear about Jason's versions of a senior citizen Frank Castle, and year one depictions of The Kingpin and Bullseye in The Max Punisher series, and why Aaron felt the tone of the Max book had to change from Garth Ennis's run. Plus details about Scalped, Jason's ongoing crime series for Vertigo. 

We go into detail about The Jonah Hex movie. Plus discuss the best selling sucsess of the New Hex OGN,
No Way Back. An artistic overview of the diverse artists
who’ve contributed to Jimmy and co-writer Justin Grey’s run. From regular artist Jordi Bernet, to co-creator Tony DeZuniga . 3 Bernet stories in the drawer, and JH Williams returning to the book.

We also talk about Jimmy and Justin’s OGN Random Acts Of Violence and the uphill battle of doing quirky little genre books. Translating the Torpedo Crime comics for IDW, His upcoming projects like WW2 espionage adventure Time Bomb, drawn by Paul Gulacy, the new Freedom Fighters for DC, and celebrate the incredible work of Amanda Conner with Jimmy and Justin on Power Girl & the Supergirl strip for Wednesday’s Comics. 444

Plus with a home on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida, Jimmy
talks about the BP oil spill and reminds us this gigantic environmental crisis is a problem we all share.

Our Jinworld Q&A continues with more info on New Avengers Vol2 #1, information on  Bendis's san diego panels, and more

On this edition of Word balloon , it’s part four of The Bendis Tapes. More talk about Avengers Prime and New Avengers #1 plus you’ll hear about Brian’s one on one interview with writer/director David Mamet some San Diego announcements and recollections of  little known career moments. Like the fact that Bendis was offered the chance to write the Dick Tracy Comic strip with art by Mike Oeming, but Warren Beatty’s long standing option on the Tracy license squashed the plan. You’ll hear about his early days in Cleveland assisting Mike Gustovich on things like The Justice Machine. Plus  turning down such industry jobs as making foot fetish comics, and saying no to Mexican vampire comics which he would’ve drawn under the name “Manuel Sanchez “…it’s true.

This was supposed to be a friendly conversation with Mark Schultz, to discuss his work on DC books like The Spirit with Moritat, Mark's scripting of the Sunday Prince valiant newspaper comic strip with Gary Gianni, and past and future Schultz projects.

Then we learned of the death of artist Al Williamson Sunday.  Mark was good friends with Al and his wife Cori. The good news is Mark and I spent part of conversation talking about Al's seminal work on Flash Gordon. Last Year Mark wrote the Flesk publication collection of Al’s version of Flash.

In addition I wanted another guest to talk about more of Willamson’s incredible art, so I roped Athena Voltaire creator Steve Bryant into a short interview about Al.

The result ? A history lesson of Williamson, Comic Strips, and great comic works from the 50's through the 90's , and a very special WB episode.

We debut Word Balloon Unversity, with a course in Web Comics from the Summit City Comicon Panel. ​
Featuring Katie Cook (Clone Wars- Gronk!) , Dave Wachter (Guns Of Shadow Valley)  Mike Schwartz (Oceanverse) , and Andrew Fraizer (Bridgette's Belly)

On this edition of the podcast, ​more questions answered by Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis as we continue to discuss his runs on the Avenger titles, Ultimate Spider-Man , his creator owned properties and more. In this part, you'll hear more background on the first chapter of the Oral History Of The Avengers, Why the Next Avengers were chosen for their role in the first Avengers Arc, Comparisons of the Scarlet Witch and The Sentry’s mental breakdowns, which hero was let down more by their compatriots?  The continuing discussion of the $3.99 monthly comic book price. Movie talk about Spider-Man 4 ,  and an offer from Warner Bros to write the Flash movie? Pranks played on DC creators at Con Panels , and another healthy dose of pop culture talk.

Kelly Sue is here to talk about her recent run of stories happening at Marvel, from her One-Shots featuring Sif and Pepper Potts (Rescue) , plus stories happening in The Heroic Age & Girl Comics. Plus I feel compelled to get into a discussion about a subject that I thought wasn't relevent anymore.

 ​Is there still a glass ceiling when it comes to women creators in comics? Don't we laud several accomplished writers and artists?
Are women being denied the chance to make books, because of gender?

Kel isn't her to speak "for all womankind" , but I did want her POV, and we get it. Plus the type of random pop culture fun I'd expect from a woman who's married to Matt Fraction. Crazy timing on this talk. Kel was days away from giving birth to their daughter Tallulah . Welcome to the nuthouse kid, and good luck.