Talking Comics

Podcasts are everywhere (and they're crowding out blogs!), and the comics community has not been immune. Fanboy Radio is a weekly podcast out of Fort Worth, Texas, and this week they've got Alan Moore. The comics (and other things) writer talks quite openly about a number of things, such as Lost Girls, the acclaim surrounding Watchmen, who really owns the copyright to Marvelman, his feelings on super-heroes and mainstream comics, some current and upcoming work, which Beatles are really working class heroes, and his upcoming appearance on The Simpsons (where apparently he'll be joined by art spiegelman and Dan Clowes). One thing he mentioned that I'm not sure I knew but is certainly not a surprise is the fact that he uses Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies cards. Eno developed this deck of cards, each with its own direction of some sort, to offer random advice to creators who are stuck for some reason. The directions offered on the cards might be easy or difficult, might fit in the context of the creative problem or not, but they're designed to shove your thinking in a different direction and get you over your creative hurdle. As is everything else these days, the cards are on the Web, and you can pick a random card here. And back to Alan Moore, the hour-long interview is certainly worth the time if you're interested in comics. The podcast was free when I downloaded it a couple of days ago, but at some point they start charging 75 cents. But don't worry. It's worth every penny.

And speaking of podcasts, I should also mention Around Comics, a locally produced podcast. It's associated with Dark Tower Comics, over on Western. They haven't been around as long as some others, but they've got over fifty free podcasts to choose from, so check them out.