Word Balloon Comics Podcast

Stan Lee RIP . Fred Van Lente joins me to look at Stan's life and career. Fred is the co-author of The Comic Book History Of Comics from IDW with artist Ryan Dunlavey so he is a perfect guest to talk about all the facets of Stan's career.  We also talk about Fred's new mystery novel set at a San Diego Comic Con called The Con Artist from Quirk books, with illustrations by Tom Fowler 

Brian is here to talk about his new drama Archie 1941. It's a poignant realistic look at The Riverdale gang dealing with the onset of WW2. Written by Augustyn and Mark Waid and drawn by Peter Krause, its a great story.  We also discuss the creation Gotham By Gaslight which became the first DC Elseworlds title, featuring a 19th century Batman taking on Jack The Ripper. Brian takes us through the whole creative process including encticing a pre-Hellboy Mike Mignola to the project. Great stories about DC Comics in the late 80s. 

Brian is here to talk about his new drama Archie 1941. It's a poignant realistic look at The Riverdale gang dealing with the onset of WW2. Written by Augustyn and Mark Waid and drawn by Peter Krause, its a great story.  We also discuss the creation Gotham By Gaslight which became the first DC Elseworlds title, featuring a 19th century Batman taking on Jack The Ripper. Brian takes us through the whole creative process including encticing a pre-Hellboy Mike Mignola to the project. Great stories about DC Comics in the late 80s. 

Comics Writer Editor and Pop Culture Historian Bob Greenberger has begun a series of Comic Book Histories for DC. The first is The 100 greatest moments of The Justice League , The 2nd is the 100 greatest moments of DC Heroines. These are great histories that  not only give you the reasons why these are the great moments but also loads of comic book scenes in full that  feature the best moments We also talk about his work on magazines such as Starlog and Comics Scene , his time at The Weekly World News and his thoughts on Star Trek.   

Eric's comic explores Mexican myths and the ongoing culture wars of everyday life . Border Town is a bold new comic from Vertigo that explores the polarizing world of life on the Arizona Mexican border. That Border is also on the supernatural plane between our world and the mythological Mexican Hell. 

Sanford Greene joins us to talk about his latest collaboration with David Walker and Chuck Brown. Bitter Root is a new monster hunting book featuring a family team exploring monster hunting during the historical backdrop of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance. It's a fanstatic concept with unique charcters and solutions to the "Monster Problem" 

Shawn Crystal is here to talk about his comic books and his excellent interview podcast Ink Pulp Audio, featuring great one on one interviews with comic book artists . We compare our styles of interviews and talks about Shawn's art process. 

Check out the newest addition ot the Word Balloon Network Here's the latest epsiode of The Big Bout Podcast. Bill Dettloff talks about his magazine Ringside Seat, and we review and preview recent and upcoming bouts.  

Great to welcome Paul back to talk about his many AfterShock Comics. The current treasure hunt/conspiracy adventure Beyonders. The controversial superhero saga Alters and The Sci-Fi comedy Replica. We also discuss his POV of where creators and genre content are going in today's entertainment market. 

Greg and Jonathan are back with their latest childrens book collaboration The Prince Who Saved Her Friends.  The two discuss the book,and their tips interms of kickstarter, and how to sustain creator owned careers in the comics and music business.   

Great to welcome the incredible Eric Shanower . His Age Of Bronze was one of the hallmarks of late 90s comics. Now it's back and in full color. The new Volume 1 from Image collects the first nine issues and Eric will be releasing all the other 3 volumes . Plus next January Eric continues the saga with issue 34, his first new issue since 2013. We also get into Eric's passion about The Wizard Of Oz books and the Oz fan culture, plus other current projects and more 

Venom's dad gives us his strange origin. David Michelinie gives us the behind the scenes story behind Eddie Brock and Venom.   

The writers cover Superman stories from the 1970s-today. Featuring a roundtable chat with Roger Stern Jerry Ordway Paul Kupperberg, and Peter J Tomasi. 

First, a fresh take on teens fighting monsters in The Lollipop Kids from father and son writing team Adam and Aidan Glass, drawn by Diego Yapur from AfterShock. The main character, Nick, has dyslexia, a conditon he shares with Aidan, but it's more of a superpower than a hinderance that Nick uses to detect and fight a slew of monsters in New York . Nick also discovers a group of fellow teens whose ancestors brought the monsters with them when they came for old world Europe and other places to the US. Adam also talks about his current work on Teen Titans for DC, television writing on shows like The Chi for Showtime, and 4 years on Supernatural. Then Howard Chaykin is back talking about his new Image series Hey Kids! Comics, a look back at the post WW2 Mad Men era of comics with real life stories from the industry . We also talk about the current comics market and Howard's place in it, conventions and fans, superhero TV and film, and a full recommended TV viewing list from Chaykin.

From Terificon, an incredible conversation. From Dick Grayson to Jason Todd to Tim Drake and Damian Wayne the men who helped evolve the character discuss and debate the strengths and even weaknesses the "Boy Wonder" brought to the Batman Mythos and The whole DC universe We hear from Dennis ONeil, Mike W Barr Jim Starlin Peter J Tomasi and Tim Seeley