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I’ve been asked to moderate and appear on a couple of panels , in addition to my usual bird-dogging fun of roaming the isles and doing floor interviews.

Leading up to the show, there will be many “Road to San Diego” episodes of Word Balloon, featuring top creators including 2 more Bendis tapes sessions.

If you are a vendor or small publisher heading to the con, I’m offering an affordable advertising option for the next few weeks.

Sometimes the con floor can be a blur to attendees

By advertising on an episode of Word Balloon, your message will be heard by thousands, and is the best direct marketing option to guide con goers to your specific  booth number, and product. This is a perfect opportunity for small publishers, vendors,  etc.

An ad buy on word balloon will give you a top of the show and end of the podcast  commercial  read by me, plus I’ll perform a short phone interview with you about your San Diego promotion.

To check out the affordable spot rates and more details,  send me an email

john@wordballoon.com

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On this edition of Word balloon , it’s part four of The Bendis Tapes. More talk about Avengers Prime and New Avengers #1 plus you’ll hear about Brian’s one on one interview with writer/director David Mamet some San Diego announcements and recollections of  little known career moments. Like the fact that Bendis was offered the chance to write the Dick Tracy comic strip with art by Mike Oeming, but Warren Beatty’s long standing option on the Tracy license squashed the plan. You’ll hear about his early days in Cleveland assisting Mike Gustovich on things like The Justice Machine. Plus the secret origin of “Manuel Sanchez”.

This was supposed to be a friendly conversation with Mark Schultz, to discuss his work on DC books like The Spirit with Moritat, Mark’s scripting of the Sunday Prince valiant newspaper comic strip with Gary Gianni, and past and future Schultz projects.

Then we learned of the death of artist Al Williamson Sunday.  Mark was good friends with Al and his wife Cori. The good news is Mark and I spent part of Thursday’s conversation talking about Al’s seminal work on Flash Gordon. Last Year Mark wrote the Flesk Publication Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon

In addition I wanted another guest to talk about more of Willaimson’s incredible art, so I roped Athena Voltaire creator Steve Bryant into a short interview about Al.

The result ? A history lesson of Williamson, The Past Present and Future of Newspaper Comic Strips, and a look at Mark Schultz’s body of work.

Bonus: This 1990 news clip of Williamson George Evans and Dave Stevens  at a Comics Convention.

Everything from early childhood attempts to capture Alex Raymond’s style, to Al’s work on Album Covers, Magazine ads, the King Comics, and Gold Key’s 1980 adaptation of the Dino De Lerentus film

here’s an excellent examination of Williamson’s process

I was planing to release a new WB episode that features a talk with Mark Schultz, and it includes a lot of talk about his Williamson book, and Mark’s appreciation of Al’s work . Expect it on Tuesday.

We debut Word Balloon Unversity, with a course in Web Comics from the Summit City Comicon Panel. ​
Featuring Katie Cook (Clone Wars- Gronk!) , Dave Wachter (Guns Of Shadow Valley) Mike Schwartz (Oceanverse) , and Andrew Fraizer (Bridgette’s Belly)

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On this edition of the podcast, more questions answered by Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis as we continue to discuss his runs on the Avenger titles, Ultimate Spider-Man , his creator owned properties and more. In this part, you’ll hear more background on the first chapter of the Oral History Of The Avengers, Why the Next Avengers were chosen for their role in the first Avengers Arc, Comparisons of the Scarlet Witch and The Sentry’s mental breakdowns, which hero was let down more by their compatriots?  The continuing discussion of the $3.99 monthly comic book price. Movie talk about Spider-Man 4 ,  and an offer from Warner Bros to write the Flash movie? Pranks played on DC creators at Con Panels , and another healthy dose of pop culture talk.

Late last Summer, comedian  Patton Oswalt joined us to talk about his film BIG FAN, and to talk about his SERENITY one shot from Dark Horse featuring a story about Wash. The comic book came out today. Relive our conversation.

Download The MP3 Here

Download The MP3 Here

Kelly Sue is here to talk about her recent run of stories happening at Marvel, from her One-Shots featuring Sif and Pepper Potts (Rescue) , plus stories happening in The Heroic Age & Girl Comics. Also, I feel compelled to get into a discussion about a subject that I thought wasn’t relevent anymore.

Is there still a glass ceiling when it comes to women creators in comics? Don’t we laud several accomplished editors writers and artists? Are women being denied the chance to make books, because of gender? Kel isn’t her to speak “for all womankind” , but I did want her POV, and we get it.

Plus the type of random pop culture fun I’d expect from a woman who’s married to Matt Fraction.KS talks about her favorite kind of female heroes and villains from Modesty Blaise to actress Rosiland Russell .

Crazy timing on this talk. Kel was days away from giving birth to their daughter Tallulah . Welcome to the  nut house kid, and good luck.

Download The MP3 here
IFC Film Podcast Host and Critic Matt Singer is back to talk about this seasons new comic book films. We discuss Kick-Ass, The Losers and Iron Man 2 . How did they do and what were the studio’s expectations on these and the upcoming films like Jonah Hex & Scott Pilgrim Vs The Universe?

We also talk about the comic book  films in production, Thor, Green Lantern & Captain America, The First Avenger, Plus Matt recommends some more lousy films to laugh at .