Description

The Weekly Pop Culture Audio Podcast Featuring In-Depth One On One Interviews and Discussions From The Entertainment Worlds Of Genre Fiction-
Comic Books, Novels, Television, Film, Video Games And More. Created In 2005 By Chicago Radio/TV Host John Siuntres

Word Balloon Live

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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Drawing The Bat Part 2 With Francesco Francivillia


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On this edition of Word Balloon., comic artist Francesco Francavilla joins us for a nice converstaion about his process, from his pencils inking and coloring.

We talk about his incredible recent work on books like DC's Detective Comics with Scott Snyder on the long awaited returnof James Gordon Jr,and Marvel's The Black Panther Man Without Fear series with David Liss.

We also talk about his Zorro work for Dynamite with Matt Wagner, his western story in Image Comics Outlaw Territory,
His story for the Jim Henson Storytellers Anthology from Archaia and his covers for The Lone Ranger-Zorro crossover.

Francesco describes the comic art studios of Italy, and how they are able to do monthly comics
that are 96 pages per issue.

Plus we discuss Francavilla's website Pulp Sunday, featuring more sketches web comics and lobby card
designsand his contributions to the artists blog Comic Twart. Check out his amazing art at his website .

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Van Lente's Action Philosophers Adapted For the NYC Stage


Forget about the Spider-Man musical fiasco, Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey's ACTION PHILOSOPHERS is heading for the stage in New York City. My pal Zack Calhoon interviewed Fred for all the details. Read the interview here

Thursday, May 12, 2011

A Super Talk With Marty Pasko



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Marty Pasko joins us as he returns to Metropolis writing  the 70’s DC Retroactive issue of Superman, drawn by Eduardo Barretto . We talk about the still amazing world of Superman. We ‘ll discuss the career of the late Jackie Cooper who played Perry White in the first 4 modern Superman films . Despite a good working relationship with Cooper on Simon & Simon in  the 80’s Pasko confesses he wasn’t crazy about the casting of Cooper  as Perry. Marty also describes the editorial philosophy of Julie Schwartz, and goes into interesting detail about how DC’s Silver and Bronze age books were written .

You’ll get insights into the cast of the 50’s Adventures Of Superman, Superman regulars like Mike Carlin, and Cary Bates  We also discuss the way DC and Warner Bros interacted in the 90’s , because Marty had the job as liason between the divisions of Warner  Film TV and animation with DC.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Joe Quesada The Cup Overflows







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As the opening weekend of the Thor film approaches  Joe Quesada joins us for a candid look at his position as Chief Creative Officer at Marvel.  We talk about how the position has changed since Avi Arad had the title 10 years ago, and the lessons learned from the Marvel films of the last 10 plus years. Joe tells us why Thor's Kenneth Branagh is a great collaborative director , how Robert Downey Jr performance has affected Tony Stark’s persona in comics and animation.

Plus we explore questions regarding the monthly comic products. Have we reached a price ceiling at 3.99 for a 22 page comic? How will the conversion to digital effect the price point of single chapters and the current 5-6 part structure of story arcs?  Can Marvel take a longer gestation risk on a new ongoing title beyond the store order numbers of a first issue?

We also discuss the Marvel Television projects. From the animated Ultimate Spider-Man to live action projects like Jessica Jones, and the challenges of bringing spandex clad heroes to the small screen.

Sunday, May 01, 2011

Jonathan Hickman Q&A Part 2






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Hickman is back to finish the Q&A session we started earlier this month. There's more discussion of FF, Secret Warriors, S.H.I.E.L.D. and the new books Hickman has planned to start coming out from Image later this year, including The Red Wing in July.