Podcasts are in a boom right now and they are a boon for pop culture, for entertainment for the arts. And since blogs and message boards have grown out of fashion podcasts have stepped into the empty place they left in order to provide spaces for discussion, analysis and criticism.
Most people interested in the subject would know of Fatman on Batman, the various Nerdist podcasts (like Comics Panel or Comic Book Club) or even the resident podcasts of a dedicated news outlet like the iFanboy podcast, the Comic Vine’s podcasts and so on.
But all of them have an air of inauthenticity, a lack of personality. There seem to be a lot of pulled punches in there and a constant celebration of geek culture, even when the hosts are critical to the comics at hand. But let us not despair, because there are a lot of other great podcasts out there.
For example I really like Wait, What?, Silence! and House to Astonish. They are predicated on reviewing recent comics and discussing the news, but are very conversational and go on tangents which I don’t mind since the people involved are entertaining and informative. They touch on a pretty wide array of comics, both Marvel and DC. No, I kid… mainstream, alternative, small-press, graphic novels, they are pretty omnivorous. Wait, Wait sometimes becomes deeply personal especially when to either Jeff Lester’s guilt for buying comics from Marvel and DC even though he knows the companies treat their employers unfairly or when both hosts try to psychoanalyze creators. Silence is a bit more comedic in tone and approach, with the hosts adopting fantastical personas. And House to Astonish is the proper one of the bunch sticking more rigidly to a structure.
With episodes usually focused on a specific theme or topic or comic Comic Books Are Burning in Hell might be a bit grating because they don’t care that much about sound quality and the Matt Seneca heavy episodes (I liked his writing, his punctual interventions are really tonic, but hearing him speak lengths is a whole other deal) can be hard to sit through, but Jog and Chris Mautner are fonts of eloquence and knowledge and there isn’t anything more energizing than hearing Tucker Stone getting righteously angry at the industry. Their discussion on the The Sculptor is a must-listen for anyone interested in the artform.
Inkstuds is another good one, even if, again, suffering from poor sound quality and with uneven episodes. But what it loses in audio fidelity it gains through the quality of the people Robin McConnell interviews. He puts a spotlight both on people who should have become bigger already and on those who have been unjustly forgotten by the fans and the press. Some of the best comics authors — some of them without many other extensive interview in English — have been on there and the host usually probes them a bit deeper about their craft and worldview and relation to the industry than the usual magazine interview done to sell the latest book. The recent discussion with Brendan McCarthy is a high point. Also, I found some really good bands through the opening segments.
Then there’s Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men. A very well produced podcast, on par with other mainstream programs(those from The Panoply Network or Earwolf, for example), it delves deep into the history of the X-Men comics. Very entertaining, very informative (if it’s a subject you care about). Even if they are fans they evade many annoying fanish behaviours. First of all, in all their telling of X-Men’s history, they don’t treat the characters as if they’ve been created from whole cloth by Marvel, rather focusing on the various writers and artists that developed them over time, trying to impart credit as fairly as possible. They don’t fall prey to inherited wisdom holding stories in high regards just because everybody else does so (thus contributing to a vicious cycle that breaks comics criticism). And, finally, they don’t take the material that seriously: they can joke about it and they can acknowledge its faults. Since it’s a narrative podcast of sorts you should start listening to it from the beginning.
Make it then tell everybody is another interview podcast. Better produced than Inkstuds (although the audio on the guest side varies) and it feels more even, more reined in. Probably also because the guests are usually more established, maybe less eccentric or more used to giving interviews. Most episodes are pretty good, by I remember liking this one especially, where he interviewed Darryl Cunningham.
More To Come is more or less Heidi MacDonald’s (of the Comics Beat) news podcast. Usually she discusses recent events with Calvin Reid and Kate Fitzsimons, but sometimes she interviews authors and industry people. I like their perspective on things, since they aren’t fans commenting from the outside, but neither depending on Marvel and DC for the content. I feel that their view is a bit more mature and professional, tempered in places where others would strike, but more critical in others.
TCJ Talkies is a podcast by cartoonist Mike Dawson where each episode he and a guest are discussing a different comic. It depends on the comic discussed and the guest, but it’s usually pretty good and either helps me discover new work or see new things about stuff I already read. This discussion of GG’s work does both.
Comic Book Decalogue is yet another interview podcast, also hosted on The Comics Journal, only with a bit of a gimmick. The episodes tend to be shorter, because the guest has to answer a list of ten questions, some serious, some more in jest. Again, your enjoyment will depend greatly on the guest.
Coming back to more mainstream comics there’s Fonflif! which is described as Kelly Kanayama and Douglas Wolk talk comics, gender, representation, and more comics. But it’s not really that. Rather Kanayama and Wolk take turns torturing themselves with usually horrible comics. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the hosts are charming and smart, making for a very entertaining program.
Bonus, this episode of Baby Geniuses. It doesn’t have anything to do with comics, other than Eleanor Davis and Lisa Hanawalt talking about Diva Cups. It’s great.
Now, I’m sure I missed many other good podcasts and so I turn it to you. Who do you listen to when you want to get your comics news, criticism or even cheeky gossip?
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