Comics & Graphic Novels Podcasts

Thom Zahler gave each city in his comic Long Distance its own colour. On The Pull Bag he explains that the Columbus scenes carry a greenish tint and the Chicago scenes an orange one, "that way you always know where the story is happening." The choice is small, and a podcast can only make it audible by asking the question and describing the page clearly enough for someone with no book in hand.

I Read Comic Books, hosted by Mike Rapin, is built on a rotating two-person panel. He’s Dead, But That Hasn’t Stopped Him Before (47 minutes, with a guest host) is a good example of the format. One panelist brings a nonfiction graphic novel about a drilling disaster, recommended by a school-librarian friend. The panel argues that comics can hold "the voice of the people, all the diagrams, the suspense" together with the systems thinking that explains the failure, and still reach middle-school readers. Then the talk turns to a Star Wars book split between two artists, and to picks from listeners following live on Discord. In Reading Books With Our Eyes Closed, panelist Paul Jaisley looks back to 2015 and recalls how the hosts eventually decided they "could just talk about comics" rather than industry news. That episode runs 87 minutes and includes early football banter, so it is a slower way in.

The Crypt Cast comes from the staff of a local comic shop. Its reviews are louder and blunter. In #120 The New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract Review, the hosts set the book beside the Dark Phoenix Saga, which they had just read, and find it "so much easier to read." They argue that the two lead-in issues in their hardcover didn't need to happen. They are also frank about the story's relationship between 16-year-old Terra and a man they reckon is in his 40s. #98 Sex Criminals Vol 1 One Weird Trick Review includes a list of the background sex jokes. It also pauses on a quieter image: Susie at the top of the stairs, wrapped in a sheet, while everyone in the house is frozen. A host reads that panel as a picture of how alone she feels. Expect profanity.

The Comic Crusade raises the volume again. One of its three hosts surprises the others with a book each week, and lately that book has often been manga. In Episode 318 - You're Under Arrest they compare the art to early Toriyama and say the series was "very obviously written by a man who did not have a whole lot of, I guess, female input." Then they lose themselves in Looney Tunes. Episode 308 - Batman Hush 2 takes apart a redesigned Riddler and asks how an editor let one line through. The jokes are crude and the tangents are long, and the friendship is the reason to listen.

BCE Comics Pod reads big collected editions. DC Finest Batman (1986) Year One & Two︱Part 1︱BCE Comics Pod runs 113 minutes. Early on, it discusses the aftermath of Crisis on Infinite Earths and notes that Batman, unlike Superman, did not get a hard reboot. From there it moves through issue recaps, a complaint about uncoated inside covers, and an apology to creators whose names keep getting mangled: "I owe so many people a coffee or an apology." In the Captain America Streets of Poison episode, one host admits he has read little Cap, so you hear a newcomer working out a dense cast. The show is live-streamed, and its hosts address audio listeners separately.

Amazing Spider-Talk: A Spider-Man Podcast, with Dan Gvozden and Mark Ginocchio, is the sharpest critic of the group. Early in Ultimate Spider-Man (vol. 3) #19-24 – REVIEW, Gvozden warns that he disliked the book and acknowledges the listeners who love it. He then argues that Spider-Man: Reign "did all of this 20 years ago better and in four issues." Ginocchio surprises him by agreeing. In another passage, one host asks whether the comic made him feel something or whether he brought his own midlife crisis to it. That kind of self-checking is rare in fan talk and worth hearing.

X Is For Comics: An X-Men Podcast assumes you know your continuity. In X-Men: Dream’s End, The The Death of Colossus, & The Return of Excalibur, the hosts say Moira's death is "not as important as i would want it to be," then debate who else could have died in the issue instead. X-Men Archives & The Return of Dark Phoenix and Rogue + Carol in Maximum Security! spends time on sketch designs, including a wish for a Storm whose outfit changes with the weather she summons. For more on how artists think through costume and line, see the Visual Arts page.

Comic Shenanigans gives its guests length. Episode 1151: A Conversation with Jim Zub runs 108 minutes and is his sixth appearance. Zub talks about learning to gauge his own productivity so he can "under promise and over deliver." He also tells of jumping the turn order at a live game. Episode 1153: A Conversation with Scott Koblish wanders more, and the host notes that it is looser than his usual career-in-order interviews. The Pull Bag's Zahler episode adds a practical lesson: in the roughly ten years between the story's origin and the comic, texting and video calls had changed what being apart meant. The Writing and Creative Process pages go further into this kind of talk.

Comics In Motion follows comics into film and television. In Indie Comics from page to the screen: Afterburn, the hosts argue that the comic took big swings and the movie went for the middle of the road. Their closing advice: "read afterburn and maybe give the movie a skip." In Heath and Tony Talk about...Batman:The Court of Owls, one host calls Scott Snyder "the first writer who made me like Bruce Wayne."

Elseworlds Exchange, hosted by Sal, Ethan and Jason, is recorded live on YouTube. In Do movie theaters really have to die? one host proposes a year of theatrical exclusivity, and another cautions that every studio would have to agree. The James Bond episode strays far from comics.

Robservations with Rob Liefeld offers the market as seen by someone inside it. In The CON-Fluence! he plans how he would spend a listener's $500 at MegaCon. He claims that published art gains more value than commissions unless they become covers, and he advises fans to "be hydrated be patient don't haggle." Comic Book Camelot! praises Brian Bolland's 1982 Arthurian series, but Liefeld holds pages up to a camera, so audio listeners miss some of the point.