Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Comics Podcast recommendation...

As I mentioned in my Pull List post yesterday have been getting to listen to a lot of great comics podcasts while walking out cat Shack...think I'll include an image of him as it's because of him I've had the time to listen

to Black Girl Nerds, The iWord, Graphic Policy, Creator Owned Stories and the one I'll mostly be referencing today Black Comics Chat (soundcloud, iTunes). The podcast is usually artist Marcus Kwame Anderson, writers Leonardo Faierman and Thelonious Legend and PH.D. Student/world traveler and comics fan Grace Gipson talking about all things comics, geek media. social issues and pretty much anything that comes up with their range of opinionated, thoughtful and creative guests from artists to publishers in the comics world. I discovered them because of their hosting David F Walker on the eve of Power Man and Iron Fist coming out in February and it was extra special as it was a show broadcast through YouTube (a kind of regular deal of theirs on Fridays at 9pm eastern time).

Some of the guests like David Walker (oh so may good books like Shaft, Nighthawk, PM and IF) Mildred Lewis twice (Agents of the Realm), Bill Campbell (publisher Rosarium press) Taneka Stotts (editor Elements anthology), Bryan Edward Hill (Postal, Romulus) and the crew behind Brotherman (go, go now no listen to this episode now) I was already familiar with so getting to hear them talk about their pasts, struggles and express their passion for their work made me like them and happy to support them all the more.

Additionally listening to them I've learned more about the comics industry then I previously knew and have encountered more cool creators that I might not have learned about otherwise. Because of the Walker interview I got turned on to Spike Trotman and her publishing powerhouse Iron Circus. Recently the episodes I listened to introduced me to the Saturday AM online manga through the interview with Fredrick L Jones which publishes manga created from artist writers from around the world and offers very affordable yearly subscriptions to get access. The little I've seen looks authentic to me and I've been a manga fan since the read it in Japanese if you can find it days that predates Viz, Dark Horse and other translating it for the English speaking world. (Seems I have similar manga tastes to several of the hosts too)

Grey Williamson sadly was also a new name to me but he's been in and around the comics industry for a long good while and was mentored and championed by several of my favorite big names in comics. In the episode they talk quite a bit about the state of people of color in comics; the discussion was pretty interesting as was the introduction to his dream inspired self published work Val-Mar that I will be buying pretty damn soon. A good load of wisdom got shared in this episode but that is true of most of them as I would definately say that of the Fredrick L Jones one, most definately the Brotherman group interview (again go listen to it and get the book), the David F Walker... Um just well all of them.

I've also been turned onto a couple of webcomics I'd possible missed out on because of Marcus, Leo, Grace and Thelonious including Kamikaze (available on Tapastic) and Starhammer mainly because of the episodes I linked there. Both were ones they call Kickstarter Jumpoff episodes where they bring on creators to talk about their projects. The more I look back across the episodes I have listened to the more I see worth mentioning like Jeremy Whitley and Princless that I've read bits and pieces of to much joy and Cash and Carrie by Shawn Pryor that would be a good companion to another favorite of mine Goldie Vance drawn by Brittant Williams. This post has gotten a bit away from me as I first thought about posting about Saturday AM and Val-Mar as those episodes I heard this week but wow so many good interviews it's definately too much to cover in one quick blog post.

So what could I say about Black Comics Chat other then gush with praise about how much I really love the show and the deep impactlful quality of its content; the passion of its quartet of hosts and their range of guests. It's a show that gets deeper into the comics industry then you'd expect, hits on real social topics and has a lot of fun taking on some pretty real topics. I'll get out of the way and hope you let them speck for themselves it's something that they do brilliantly. The books they cover run the games from all ages to books that have what might be called mature content and all of them are handled with equal time and enthusiasm.

Some links to the books and webcontent I referenced above...

Grey williamson's Val-Mar (Amazon, iBooks ) and Carbon-fiber media

Saturday AM (their 50th issue just recently came out)

Agents of the Realm by Mildred Lewis (fantastic magical girls in college webcomic)

Cash & Carrie by Shawn Pryor

Kamikaze (link to the first chapter on Tapastic)

Starhammer (a different kind of superhero comic)

Brotherman (the nineties comics legend and the new graphic novel)

 

Not sure if I did the gang on the show justice I hope so as its one of my go to podcasts along with BGN and if comics are your thing do yourself a solid and give the show a listen. I've got more to catch up on including the Afua Richardson episode oh and...and... well there I go again. Go listen.

 

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