Word Balloon Comics Podcast

75:37

The King Kirby Podcast Drama

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/22

In 2020, playwrights Crystal Skillman and Fred Van Lente joined me to talk about transforming their acclaimed stage play King Kirby into an ambitious audio drama. The original play explored the life, imagination, and complicated legacy of comics legend Jack Kirby — from the birth of the Marvel Universe to the battles over credit, ownership, and artistic identity that followed him throughout his career.In this conversation, Crystal and Fred discuss the challenge of adapting such a visually explosive

en

69:06

Kirby Vs Lee On-Stage Pt 2 Mark Pracht

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/21

From 2024 Chicago Playwright Mark Pracht, and his actors who playedd Stan Lee and Jack Kirby discuss his play The House Of Ideas.

en

84:37

Larry Lieber’s Chirps: From Marvel Heroes To A...

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/20

Today on Word Balloon, comics legends Larry Lieber and Danny Fingeroth join us for a fun and imaginative conversation about Larry’s new prose novel Chirps. The story centers on Chirps, a mutant budgie who can think and speak like a human being. Alongside his billionaire industrialist friend, Chirps finds himself pursued by dangerous forces determined to capture him and exploit the secrets behind his extraordinary intelligence. The novel blends science fiction adventure, humor, and old-school pulp

en

48:48

Comicpalooza With Stanford Carpenter

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/19

Today on Word Balloon, we welcome educator, writer, and pop culture historian Stanford Carpenter to talk about this year’s Comicpalooza happening Memorial Day weekend in Houston.Stanford gives us a preview of some of the convention’s standout programming, including an exciting panel on the history and cultural impact of Blaxploitation cinema featuring acclaimed writer David F. Walker and legendary film icon Pam Grier. From films like Coffy and Foxy Brown to the influence those movies still have on

en

65:31

The War Between Stan And Jack On-Stage

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/18

Playwright and Director Josh Camberlin has created a new play exploring the partnership of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby playing this June at the Fringe Festival in Los Angeles. We talk about their iconic collaboration, and the behind the scenes conflict, over the decadesThis episode includes AI-generated content.

en

6:22

Word Balloon Playhouse With Cesar Romero -The Heist

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/17

Ceasar and I star in this little playlet about a safe heist gone wrong.

en

55:45

History Of Radio Sketch Comedy The National Lampoon...

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/16

Back in 2016, Word Balloon welcomed the late great satirist and comedy legend Tony Hendra for a fascinating conversation that covered everything from modern political comedy to the birth of some of the most influential comedy institutions of the last fifty years.Tony joined us to promote the comedy album Are There Any Triggers Out There?, but the discussion quickly became a remarkable tour through his own comedy history. Hendra was one of the founding creative voices behind National Lampoon and The

en

99:33

Book Club Absolute Martian Manhunter

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/15

Welcome to another Word Balloon League Bendis Discord Book Club conversation, as Brian Michael Bendis and I gather with our dedicated Word Balloon listeners and Discord members for a live Zoom chat all about Absolute Martian Manhunter, written by Deniz Camp with stunning artwork by Javier Rodríguez.It’s a real back-and-forth with passionate readers digging into the themes, storytelling, artwork, and big ideas behind the series. This time, the spotlight is on one of DC’s boldest new reinterpretations

en

63:07

A Retro Bat-Man. and New Vertigo With Mike Perkins

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/14

Artist Mike Perkins returns to Word Balloon to talk about The Bat-Man: Second Knight, now available in graphic novel format. Mike breaks down the visual approach behind this 2nd series set in 1939, collaborating with writer Dan Jurgens, and the challenge of capturing a dark pulp-era Gotham through his detailed painted style. We also discuss Mike’s artistic process, from layouts and reference work to balancing mood, storytelling, and page design.Plus, Mike gives a preview of his upcoming new Vertigo

en

74:11

Marvels Revisited With Steve Darnall

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/13

Today on Word Balloon, we welcome writer Steve Darnall to talk about his new prose adaptation of Marvels, the landmark series created by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross that redefined how readers looked at the Marvel Universe. The new novel with new cover and illustrations by Alex is out in the next 2 weeks from Abrahms. Steve has a long history with Alex Ross, including their acclaimed collaboration on DC's Uncle Sam, and he also played an important role in the original Marvels project itself,

en

49:13

Scene Missing Spies Super Heroes and Action With...

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/12

It's a very special Scene Missing as Actress and stunt performer Tatiana Neva joins Word Balloon to talk about her new espionage thriller Prey Of Wrath, now streaming free on XUMO, alongside martial arts legend Cynthia Rothrock.Neva discusses the physical and emotional challenges of making the indie action thriller, balancing fight choreography with character work, and what it takes to bring intensity to a modern spy story on a tight schedule. We also talk about her wide-ranging career in television

en

35:04

Word Balloon 21st Anniversary Trivia Quiz

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/10

To celebrate the milestone, I asked my computer to whip up questions for us , in some of the categories I love, comics star trek, spy tv shows, and 40's mystery films. This is like when Gary Kasperov played Deep Blue in chess. I'm happy to say our AI orverlords still don't get everything right. Thanks for all the support all this time since may 10th, 2005.

en

66:25

Star Trek The Last Starship Can Jim KIrk Solve The Burn?

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/08

Jackson L Star Trek Comnzing and Colin Kelly, the Hivemind writer team is back to chek in mid-story on ths epic IDW Tek Comic, that takes place 100 years before Discovery jumped to the future. How did Starfleet try to solve the problem> Could ressurected Jim Kirk save the day?In addition, we discuss their epic Captain America Sentinel Of Liberty 18 issue sage with Marvel, and a lot more.

en

50:03

Happy Birthday David Michelinie

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/07

In our first talk from 2007 Dave talks about beaking into comics, writing The Unknown Soldier, Runs on Superman and Spider-Man. The Iron Man "Demon In A Bottle" saga, and of course The creation of Venom

en

88:53

David Lloyd The Cinco De Mayo Hangover Cure

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/06

It's David Lloyd's Birthday week, bor on ay 5th . Grab some tomato juice and aspirin, and enjoy this 2019 chatIn case you haven't noticed, David Lloyd isn't drawing comic books any more. He's still very much involved in the medium creating the digital comic anthology Aces Weekly, a weekly digital only comic featuring serialized stories in genres from humor to crime adventure and sci-fi. David's current creativity is pointed at publishing this digital only comic. He's stopped drawing to concentrate

en

91:06

Fortress Of Word Ballloon May 2026

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/05

Welcome to a brand new Fortress of Word Balloon, where the mic gets handed over to the League of Word Balloon Listeners, straight from patreon.com/wordballoon.Coming to you from my secret headquarters, and this one’s a freewheeling hang with the smartest fans in comics as we bounce from comics to TV to film, hitting everything we love . And along the way, I dig into the Word Balloon vault to share some behind-the-scenes stories from the last 20 years, the guests, the moments, and the surprises that

en

129:52

The Career and Life of Len Strazewski, With Scott Larson

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/04

Scott Larson, the creator of the supernatural commic Visitations talks about his mentor Len Strazewski, co-creator of Jesse Quick for DC, Prime for Malibu and so much more.Len also did 17 ssiues of The Fly for Impact Comics, and wrote 10 issues of Jstice Society in 1992

en

61:04

Gerry Conway Why he came back to comics

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/03

On this episode, we go back to 2009 for a great conversation with Gerry Conway, a writer whose career has taken some fascinating turns across comics and television. We talk about why Gerry stepped away from a successful run in TV, writing shows like Law & Order and Diagnosis: Murder, to return to DC Comics for a surprising and, frankly, underappreciated project, The Last Days of Animal Man.That decision ends up sparking what you could call a full third act comeback in comics, leading him back

en

57:10

In Memoriam Gerry Conway pt 3

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/05/01

The 2020 One On One chat between Gerry Conway and Brian Michael Bendis I arranged this chat between the guys the wrote their share of Spider-Man Superman, Avengers and Justice League stories.

en

81:21

In Memoriam Gerry Conway pt 2

Word Balloon Comics Podcast ·

2026/04/30

from 202o. during covid gerry abd I talked about where the punisher fits in the post Black Lives Matter era, his DC and Marvel yeras, and adventures in TV and film writing.

en

All Episodes

Similar Podcasts

Raiders Of The Lost Podcast

Big IP | Realm

Frankly, My Dear : Classic Hollywood was Bananas

Kristen

Geek Ultimate Alliance

GeekVerse Marvel DC Star Wars Alliance...

Word Balloon Comics Podcast

John Siuntres

Positively into Movies

Greg Dickman