Word Balloon Comics Podcast

From 2020 Alex discusses his UNSEEN art book featuring crossovers that were proposed but didn't happen Star Wars and The DC Universe, Star Trek Vs Star Wars, and many more.

We also talk about his MARVEL anthology series festuring stories by fols like Sal Abinanti Steve Darnall and Alan Weiss.

Steve Niles has spent decades redefining horror comics, from 30 Days of Night and Criminal Macabre to a long list of stories that brought genuine scares back to the medium. Today, Steve returns to Word Balloon to talk about two exciting new projects that showcase both sides of his storytelling talents.

First, we discuss Heartbreak Manor, his new graphic novel with artist Damien Worm, currently seeking support through crowdfunding. We'll talk about the origins of the project, the unique blend of horror and emotion at its core, and why Damien's atmospheric artwork makes him the perfect collaborator for the...

Welcome to Word Balloon Playhouse: Western Edition. Where through the magic of audio editing, I get to act with some of my favorite film stars in a short scene. 

Today we present Stacked Deck, starring Vincent Price. Price plays a smooth-talking gambler who arrives in town with a winning smile, a quick wit, and a reputation that makes honest men nervous. But when the stakes rise and tempers flare, the question becomes whether he's simply the luckiest card player in the territory,or if he's got a little more up his sleeve than a hidden ace.

Along with the obvious detail about her Absoulute Wonder Woman run, Kelly previews her Buffy Angel cooks coming for Dynamite, a new Jeff Summer Special in July, and a lot about soap operas

Maggin has rleased his 3rd superman universe novel Lex Corp, a first person narritive of Luthor telling his own story. Now He also is reading the book chapet by chapter as a free weekly podcast. You can also hera him read his ast Son Of Krypton and Miracle Monday books as well.

Artist Jacob Edgar has a cartoony style that evokes the work Bruce Timm. We talk about his worl with Bendis on The Ones for Dark Horse and The Rocketeer : The Island With John Layman for IDW

Jimmy Palmiotti has worn just about every hat in comics, artist, writer, editor, publisher, and creator, but today we're focusing on some of the stories that have defined his career and some exciting new work hitting shelves right now.

Jimmy joins us to talk about his latest return to Marvel's hardest-edged vigilante in the new Punisher miniseries with artist Dan Panosian. We'll discuss Frank Castle's latest mission, the collaboration with Dan, and what makes the Punisher such a compelling character decades after his debut. We'll also dive into Jimmy's Daredevil/Punisher crossover series, bringing together two heroes whose...

Tim Sheridan is back with a tie-in MOTU Dark Horse Mini series

One of the cornerstone ceators on The Simpsons and Co-Creator Of The Critic Mike Reis is back ! He has a new travel book Bad Trips which is collection of his Substack essays about his trips to some of the scariest ports of call. From Iran and Iraq to The Ill Fated Titanic Submarine Tours. 

He scares us with tales of ABBA , the best food in the worst country, lots of Simpson TV writing tales and more.

For nearly three decades, Comic Book Resources was one of the most influential destinations in comics journalism. What began as a fan-driven website in the mid-1990s grew into a daily stop for comic book news, creator interviews, reviews, industry rumors, and commentary, helping shape the way fans followed the business and culture of comics online.

Today we're talking with the man who started it all, Jonah Weiland. We'll go back to the early days of the internet, when comics fandom was finding its voice online, and discuss how CBR evolved from a labor of love into one...

Brothers Tim and Steve discuss their coffeetable book The Art Of He-Man from Dark Horse

Some brief thoughts on he actor's passing From Buffy's Giles  To Merlin's Uther Pendragon, To Rupert Manion on Ted Lasso, you could always count on a compelling performance

Tony Fleecs and artist Andy Price have shown a very different side of their My Little Pony output crafting a tight one shot disturbing Twilight Zone for IDW call the Taxidermist

Brian Hurtt on Fort Psycho with Matt Kindt for Oni, we also chat about his long tiemcollaborations with Cullen Bunn on The Sixth Gun and The Damned. Plus we look back at his work with Steve Gerber on Hard Time, Gerber's last story

Today on Word Balloon, we're catching up with one of comics' most distinctive visual storytellers, Rod Reis.Rod is taking on a huge creative challenge with DC's new Elseworlds Supergirl series, serving as the complete artistic force behind the book. Writing the visual language, designing the worlds, drawing, painting, and bringing every page to life. The series imagines a dramatically different destiny for Krypton's last children. In this reality, Kara Zor-El and baby Kal-El share the same escape rocket from Krypton, launching them into a sprawling science-fiction adventure that takes the Superman mythology into entirely new territory.

One...

Today on Word Balloon, we're talking with one of comics' most versatile storytellers, Tony Fleecs.Tony first grabbed readers' attention with his creator-owned work, helping redefine horror comics with the Image hit Stray Dogs, the chilling tale that mixed Disney-style visuals with a dark serial killer story. He followed that with Feral, another unsettling animal-centered horror series that's been turning heads and proving he has a real talent for finding fresh angles in the genre.

But Tony's talents go well beyond creator-owned comics. He's also brought his storytelling skills to some of the biggest characters in comics, including...

Leo DaVinci is a YA adventure romp with a little dose of history as Hamilton depicts the great artist and inventor as a teen prodigy entering Florence and iscovering goverment conspiracies and action adventure.

Hilary and Chris Barnard join us to talk about recent 3-D projects , but no glasses needed to enjoy this convesation, where we cover the history of 3-D comcs and film.

They adapted the 3-d film Robot Monster for a new German pblication, Chris also worked on the restoration of a 1950s Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis film,"Money from Home" coming soon on BluRay from Kino Lober.

We also talk about Hilary's Doctor Droom versus the1950s  Marvel/Atlas Monsters story for the recent Marvel miniseries . Droom was the original template  for Doctor Strange, and in th...

Chris revisits The Civil War era with a new 5 issue mini series Civil War Unmasked. It features untold stories form that era. We also talk about Chris's work in the original mini series, plu Union Jack, Batlleworld, Avengers Academy , and his love for Hank Pym.

We also talk about the new Spider Noir series from Amazon, and Chris's work on the Netflix Daredevil TV series.

Jeremy Adams Aquaman is the most exciting version of the character in many years. He's taking big comedic swings with Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner in Green Lantern. Both books have tremendous supporting players as sickkicks and vilians. 

We also get into the animated adaptation of Batman Knightfall which introduced Bane and Azreal in the early 90s for a signinficant chapter of the Bat Mythos. . Adams is writing the first film, and the flick gets it's premire next month at an animation festival in France.

Howard Chaykin is back for a casual chat that includes detais of his Zorro run at Dynamite with Jorge Fornes,

but mostly we go through obsevations on his brief stint at Atlas Seaboard creating The Scorpion, then going to Marvel with Dominick Forutne. plus toughts on film tv and books .

You'll also hear some shocking accounts of his time at National Lampoon Magazine. 

Strong Language advisory

From Feb, Barth talks about  Babs from Ahoy Comics, his savage sword-and-sorcery riff that weaponizes absurdity, blood, and pitch-black humor to skewer genre clichés while still delivering the kind of brutal action Ennis fans crave. It’s funny, ferocious, and very deliberately unserious, until it suddenly isn’t.

From there, we shift gears into war stories, both old and new. Ennis talks about his long-running love affair with Johnny Red, the WWI and WWII aerial combat hero he’s revived through graphic novels with a historian’s respect and a storyteller’s bite. We also break down Battle Actio...

Garth discusses his comics Tankies originally published by Battle in The UK, and by Dead Reckoning in the US

In this Terrficon Panel Garth Joe Ryband and I discuss the Boys comics and at the time the wrap up to season 3

The first of two interviews with Garth about The Boys. In psrt one from October 2020 Dynamite Editor Joe Ryband interviews Garth during the covid era. They also discuss Garth's Graphic novel Sara from TKO.

In 2020, playwrights Crystal Skillman and Fred Van Lente joined me to talk about transforming their acclaimed stage play King Kirby into an ambitious audio drama. The original play explored the life, imagination, and complicated legacy of comics legend Jack Kirby — from the birth of the Marvel Universe to the battles over credit, ownership, and artistic identity that followed him throughout his career.

In this conversation, Crystal and Fred discuss the challenge of adapting such a visually explosive story into a purely audio experience. They break down how sound design, voice performance, and narrative structure became tools to recreate Ki...

From 2024 Chicago Playwright Mark Pracht, and his actors who playedd Stan Lee and Jack Kirby discuss his play The House Of Ideas.

Today on Word Balloon, comics legends Larry Lieber and Danny Fingeroth join us for a fun and imaginative conversation about Larry’s new prose novel Chirps. The story centers on Chirps, a mutant budgie who can think and speak like a human being. Alongside his billionaire industrialist friend, Chirps finds himself pursued by dangerous forces determined to capture him and exploit the secrets behind his extraordinary intelligence. The novel blends science fiction adventure, humor, and old-school pulp storytelling in a way that feels very true to Larry’s classic comic book roots.

And what roots they...

Today on Word Balloon, we welcome educator, writer, and pop culture historian Stanford Carpenter to talk about this year’s Comicpalooza happening Memorial Day weekend in Houston.

Stanford gives us a preview of some of the convention’s standout programming, including an exciting panel on the history and cultural impact of Blaxploitation cinema featuring acclaimed writer David F. Walker and legendary film icon Pam Grier. From films like Coffy and Foxy Brown to the influence those movies still have on comics, action films, music, and modern genre storytelling, the discussion promises to be one of the weekend’s highli...

Playwright and Director Josh Camberlin has created a new play exploring the partnership of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby playing this June at the Fringe Festival in Los Angeles. 

We talk about their iconic collaboration, and the behind the scenes conflict, over the decades

This episode includes AI-generated content.

Ceasar and I star in this little playlet about a safe heist gone wrong.

Back in 2016, Word Balloon welcomed the late great satirist and comedy legend Tony Hendra for a fascinating conversation that covered everything from modern political comedy to the birth of some of the most influential comedy institutions of the last fifty years.

Tony joined us to promote the comedy album Are There Any Triggers Out There?, but the discussion quickly became a remarkable tour through his own comedy history. Hendra was one of the founding creative voices behind National Lampoon and The National Lampoon Radio Hour, which became the first national sketch comedy showcase for performers...

Welcome to another Word Balloon League Bendis Discord Book Club conversation, as Brian Michael Bendis and I gather with our dedicated Word Balloon listeners and Discord members for a live Zoom chat all about Absolute Martian Manhunter, written by Deniz Camp with stunning artwork by Javier Rodríguez.

It’s a real back-and-forth with passionate readers digging into the themes, storytelling, artwork, and big ideas behind the series. This time, the spotlight is on one of DC’s boldest new reinterpretations of Martian Manhunter, with Camp and Rodríguez delivering a visually inventive and psychologically layered take on the ch...

Artist Mike Perkins returns to Word Balloon to talk about The Bat-Man: Second Knight, now available in graphic novel format. Mike breaks down the visual approach behind this 2nd series set in 1939, collaborating with writer Dan Jurgens, and the challenge of capturing a dark pulp-era Gotham through his detailed painted style. We also discuss Mike’s artistic process, from layouts and reference work to balancing mood, storytelling, and page design.

Plus, Mike gives a preview of his upcoming new Vertigo project with Ram V. 

The conversation also dives into Mike’s lifelong love of Marvel UK, and 2...

Today on Word Balloon, we welcome writer Steve Darnall to talk about his new prose adaptation of Marvels, the landmark series created by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross that redefined how readers looked at the Marvel Universe. The new novel with new cover and illustrations by Alex  is out in the next 2 weeks from Abrahms. 

Steve has a long history with Alex Ross, including their acclaimed collaboration on DC's Uncle Sam, and he also played an important role in the original Marvels project itself, co-writing the Marvels #0 story that explored the origin of Human Torch, the Golden Age an...

It's a very special Scene Missing as Actress and stunt performer Tatiana Neva joins Word Balloon to talk about her new espionage thriller Prey Of Wrath, now streaming free on XUMO, alongside martial arts legend Cynthia Rothrock.

Neva discusses the physical and emotional challenges of making the indie action thriller, balancing fight choreography with character work, and what it takes to bring intensity to a modern spy story on a tight schedule. 

We also talk about her wide-ranging career in television and genre entertainment, including appearances on The Mindy Project and her many turns portraying comic b...