What to Listen to? (Part I)
I LOVE a good podcast. Whether I’m driving in my car or working at the drawing table, podcasts are often the perfect background medium. So, I’m always on the lookout for a good show. For the next two weeks, I’ll share some of my favorites with you.
Webcomics Weekly
- The Show: An audio roundtable of the internet’s premier comic strip authors.
- The Hosts: Dave Kellet (Sheldon), Brad Guigar (Evil, Inc., Webcomics.com), Scott Kurtz (PVP), Kris Straub (Starslip)
- Schedule: Eh…sort of weekly. If you’re new to the show, there’s an extensive archive, all worth listening to, making up for a less than consistent update schedule.
- Why it’s worth your time: These are the guys who wrote the book on webcomics. Literally. Even if this show wasn’t chock full of a valuable tips and thoughts on both the creative and business side of full-time cartooning, it be worth it for the humor. Webcomics Weekly routinely delivers laugh out loud moments from four creators who clearly click.
- Website: http://ww.libsyn.com/
The Webcomics Workshop
- The Show: A podcast for webcomic creators new and old, troubleshooting webcomic issues or problems in a round-table discussion format to come up with solutions.
- The Hosts: The members of the Webcomic Alliance, including Ken Drab (Rick The Stick), Byron Wilkins (1979), Antoine Gagnon (The Drunken Fools) and Dawn Griffin (Zorphbert and Fred)
- Schedule: Posting on Wednesdays, bi-weekly
- Why it’s worth your time: The youngest podcast of the bunch, this show has really hit its stride. I absolutely love the format, where each week, each co-host brings one issue to the table, which is then discussed by the rest of the group in a solution-focused manner. Recently, they’ve taken to also including a user submitted question to the bunch. While many podcasts out there tend to ramble and go off on tangents, Byron Wilkins tends to keep things on topic. This is also a podcast focused on the sort of issues webcomic creators face when they’re just getting started, so it has a lot of appeal to the entry-level webcartoonist. (In the interest of full-disclosure, I was a guest on the Webcomic Workshop a few months back, and will be returning to the show again next month.)
- Website: http://www.webcomicalliance.com/category/podcast/
Word Balloon
- The Show: Audio interviews featuring pop culture discussions of comic books, films, TV, DVDs, animation, novels and other cult entertainment
- The Hosts: John Siuntres
- Schedule: Weekly
- Why it’s worth your time: Quite frankly this is the premiere podcast for the superstars of the comic book world. Brian Bendis, Mark Millar, Matt Fraction, Robert Kirkman…the list goes on and on, and there is no other podcast on the internet that gets this many high profile comic guests. What’s more, experienced radio personality John Siuntres is a great interviewer, with an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture.
- Website: http://wordballoon.blogspot.com/
TGT (Two Guys Talking) Webcomics
- About the Show: A live radio show that interviews creative people in the Comic and Webcomic / Digital Comic industries.
- The Hosts: Kurt Sasso (and friends)
- Schedule: Weekly+
- Why it’s worth your time: Kurt Sasso’s show covers the wide and wild world of webcomics with a passion and reverence like no other. Kurt does an incredible amount of yeoman’s work for the webcomic community, and his show features a veritable who’s who of webcomics. (Again, I appeared on TGT for the first time last October, and will be returning to the show in August.)
- Website: http://tgtwebcomics.com/
I Should Be Writing
- About the Show: The podcast for wanna-be fiction writers.
- The Hosts: Mur Lafferty
- Frequency: Weekly +
- Why it’s worth your time: Four words: Good Cop/ Bad Cop. This monthly feature on the podcast is must listen to material. I Should Be Writing is a hugely popular podcast in fiction writing and podio book creating circles. While it’s not a comics podcast, it does deal with the world of self-publishing and creative writing, pulling in great audio interviews with authors all over the fiction writing spectrum.
- Website: http://isbw.murlafferty.com/
Next week I’ll be back with five more podcasting picks. In the meantime, check these ones out, give ’em a listen, and let me know what you think!
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Tyler James is a comics creator, game designer, and educator residing in Newburyport, MA. He is the writer and co-creator of EPIC, a superteen action comedy, and Tears of the Dragon, a swords and sorcery fantasy, and writer of the upcoming superhero murder mystery mini-series THE RED TEN. His past work includes OVER, a romantic comedy graphic novel, and Super Seed, the story of the world’s first super powered fertility clinic. His work has been published by DC and Arcana comics.
Tyler is the publisher and co-creator of ComixTribe, a new website empowering creators to help each other make better comics.
Contact Tyler via email (tylerjamescomics@gmail.com), visit his website TylerJamesComics.com, follow him on Twitter, or check him out on Facebook
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