Comic book podcasts — 2

Half an year after this list I ended up discovering or starting to appreciate many other comic book podcasts that I just had to do a sequel.

Comet Boots

A loose and dialogical podcast hosted by James Wheeler and Adam Englebright with recurring guests from The Mindless Ones crew. They talk, often in insightful ways, about a variety of comics: old and new superhero comics, respectable graphic novels, small press offerings and shiny Image comics. Didn’t quite gel with their tone and manner of presentation at first, but once I’ve gotten over that hurdle I happily added another podcast on my listening list.

Inkpulp Audio

Thanks to @cristiandarstar for recommending this one to me. It’s been aptly described as comics’ WTF with Marc Maron and artist Shawn Crystal does justice to the format, with the discussions sometimes becoming frank and personal, touching on the different realities of a working artist’s life. This discussion with Howard Chaykin is killer.

Process Party

I still miss Study Group Comics’ blog, but Process Party kinda makes up for it, even if it’s got a different focus. Hosted by Zack Soto and Mike Dawson, with mini-reviews of the week’s comics Shanna Matuszak, it’s a mix on discussions about life-work and interviews with really great and interesting cartoonists.

Pod Sequentialism

Even if not always about comics, fine art curator and interviewer Matt Kennedy and his guests always touch on subjects relevant to comics, especially from a small-press perspective or from that of a festival organizer. And sometimes he interviews greats like Steve Rude.

Reboot Comic Book Club

I just discovered this one after it relaunched and after only two episodes it already become one of my favorites. Regular guests Chase Magnett and Joseph Kyle Schmidt set up a tight, but flexible formula, mixing a short and focused review section with a discussion with an industry insider over a comic of their choosing, ending up with tackling a canonized piece of comics and wondering if it deserves its place.

The Dreaming

A read-along podcast of The Sandman series. It’s hosted by Sasja Smolders and Joe Fulgham. It offers a lot of insight into the different references and sources that went into the series, deepening my understanding of it. It’s nice to vicariously rediscover one of my favorite series for the first time, through Sasja’s eyes. My only gripe is that, at least in the early episodes, the comics history and concepts Fulgham imparts is dubious and there’s an erasure of the artist’s participation; they’re mentioned at the beginning as a formality then brushed off aside. I hope this gets better with time because it sours something that otherwise is really fun and interesting.

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