On this edition of the Word Balloon Podcast, we pick up where we left off with writer Ed Brubaker. Youâll 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 Edâs 3 year run of Daredevil that ended this summer, and where heâs left the character for Andy Diggle to take over. Plus we discuss the significant DD cast members during Edâs run, from Dakota North and Lady Bullseye to Mister Fear and Master Izo .

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

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

âEveryone is in a very different place at the beginning of  Flash Rebirth to the end, because I didnât 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 weâd 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 isnâtâthatâs 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 âI 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 couldnât believe how we could do this (laughs) âand Ethan was saying âWe should tell them that heâs not going to be Parallax,.â And I said âNo! Let them get riled up, because they should, but we know where this story ends.â â In Flash Rebirth Barry is searching for the same answersâthis story is trying to solve a crime, but Barry is moving much too fast to do that.â

On Blackest Nightâs further exploration of the multi colored Lantern Corps. âEvery one of my artists has brought their own take  on the designs for each of the various corps and charactersâDoug Mahnkeâs first issue Green Lantern #43 is an all Black Hand issue. Itâs one of the creepiest issues youâll read.â

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

â Events are just big storiesâsometimes thereâs a bad connotation to that âeventâ termâYou always want it to be good, and as a writer you want to protect your own storyâwith Blackest Night thereâs just more story potential, so when (The Editors)  wanted to make it bigger and explore it more , it made sense to me, because youâre gonna have DCU characters face dead ones, and Black Lanterns on all sorts of levelsââ

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."

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,  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

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. Heâs also in the middle of a new BD story,  Fear My Dear available at the act i vate website.

Plus thereâs 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 childrenâs project Mo and Jo Fighting Together Forever a collaboration with underground comics legend Jay Liynch for Raw Jrâs Toon Books.

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

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

Billy Dogma Fear My Dear

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

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

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.

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 Wachowskiâs 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 Hickmanâs 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.

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 .

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 .

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 ;).

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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

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 

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.

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

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.

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)

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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) 

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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. 

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....

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

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.

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 

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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".

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 ?"

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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!

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

Later this week, more conversations in part 2 !

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.

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

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?

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.

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 .

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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 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/

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.