Pop Culture Squad's Interview SquadCast

Join us for a special interview with writer Joel Meadows. After 30 years of shepherding Tripwire Magazine, his debut graphic novel, Sherlock Holmes and the Empire Builders: The Gene Genie is about to be published. Enjoy the conversation about his career and his latest project. For more about the book, check out the crowdfunding page at zoop.gg: https://zoop.gg/c/sherlockholmesandtheempirebuilders or check out the post on popculturesquad.com

We are great supporters of independent and, especially, crowdfunded comics. One of the best individual new comics that we read last year was Geezer #1, which was funded on Kickstarter and published by Off Register Press. Geezer tells the story of the almost remembered and not quite successful Britpop band Geezer. It is brilliant concept that writer Will Potter and artist Philip Bond have rendered into a uniquely sized comic book. The misadventures of this imaginary band dovetail perfectly with real life events and style choices that put the story squarely in the timeline of the height of popularity of real bands like Blur and Oasis. There is a terrific cast of characters and Bond's visually artistry is magnificently displayed in a seven inch square format to match the size of vinyl record single. Issue number two of this series, which expected to be a five-issue event, is nearing the end of its crowdfunding run on Kickstarter. We had the opportunity to talk to both Will and Philip about the project. There are some fantastic stories in this SquadCast about the origins of the project and what they hope for the future of the series. The campaign ends noon Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday April 15th. That is plenty of time to back this project and listen to this fun interview with a great pair of blokes. We hope you enjoy the conversation and check the PopCultureSquad post to see more about the campaign.

Our latest SquadCast interview takes place with a pair of comic creators working to fund their latest project, and it is a great concept. For several years now, writer and editor Russell Nohelty has been working on the multiple volumes of his anthology series Cthulhu Is Hard to Spell for a few years now, and as the project transitions to the next phase he has partnered with Laurie Foster and Unlikely Heroes Studios to repackage the books in an even more accessible format with added material. The crowdfunding campaign for this special release is running on BackerKit until March 21st. We spoke with both Russell and Laurie about the project, H.P. Lovecraft and the challenges that his legacy presents in the current social climate, and a whole bunch of other cool stuff. Russell is an author with credits such as Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter, The Godsverse Chronicles, and The Obsidian Spindle Saga, as well as being the editor for the Cthulhu is Hard to Spell anthology series. He has also contributed to a bunch of anthologies including: Cthulhu Invades Oz, Monsters and Other Scary Shit, Parallel Worlds, The Edgar Allan Poe Chronicles to name a few. Laurie is an editor, inker, publisher, cosplayer, and pretty much everything else that you can think of. She runs Unlikely Heroes Studios and if the day has a Y at the end, she is probably running a crowdfunding campaign somewhere. This conversation focused on the campaign for the excellent Cthulhu Is Hard to Spell, but it also ventured into the realms of the horror genre in general, representation in publishing, and nerdy favorites. We hope you enjoy the conversation:

We were very excited to talk to our latest guest. Cartoonist Leeanne Krecic, creator of the worldwide hit webcomic series Let's Play, sat down for a discussion about her comic making craft and what she is currently working on. Let's Play, a romance webcomic that has 4.8 million subscribers and over half a billion views on Webtoon, is Leeanne's most well-known work. It is a super engaging story with wonderful, and relatable characters. Leeanne has just launched a Kickstarter to make a video game based on the characters from Let's Play called Everdate. It funded in less than three hours and is barging through stretch goals. We talked with her about the game and what backers can expect from the results of the campaign. As is typical with most comic creators, Leeanne's journey to comic success is unique and interesting. We talked about her journey and the challenges that she overcame. We are really happy that we had the opportunity to talk to Leeanne about her comic, life, and the game. We hope you enjoy the SquadCast, and don't forget to check out the campaign information for Everdate - Let's Play: The Dating Game.

In our latest episode We are happy to bring you a conversation bright new star in comics. Our guest Fell Hound is about to have here second solo comic published. It is a graphic novella called And We Love You. Fell wrote and illustrated this book. I have to say I am a fan. This book which will be published this month from Scout Comics is the second book in the universe of Commander Rao. Her first book generated Ringo Award nominations and both of them started as crowdfunded projects on Kickstarter and were subsequently picked up for widespread release by Scout. And We Love You is a prequel to Commander Rao, and it takes place about 10 years before the first story. As you will here in the conversation with Fell, I was absolutely blown away by this comic. It is full of emotion and poignent scenes. It was great getting a chance to talk to Fell about this excellent book. You can find our review of the book and some preview art at popculturesquad.com

In the latest episode of the Pop Culture SquadCast we sat down with a pair accomplished comic creators and talked about the book that they are creating together. Both Tim Seeley and Tony Fleecs are known for creating excellent and inventive comics over the past couple of decades, and this one is off to a great start. The two cartoonists are creating a book called Local Man that focuses on a superhero who is at a low point in his life and has to go back to his hometown and solve crimes without using his super powers. Local Man is being published by Image Comics and issue one comes out next month. We spent some time in our conversation talking about the interesting way that Seeley and Fleecs have worked together to create this comic. Since both have been writers and artists and letterers on comics, they are able to divide up the work in creative ways. We also talked about their take on the state of the comic industry and what being and independent creator means today. We hope you enjoy the conversation.

We are roaring back into the new year with more exclusive Pop Culture Squadcast interviews. This latest episode was recorded last month while we were at LA Comic Con. The folks there were able to connect us with this opportunity for an exclusive one-on-one interview. Actor Michael Nathanson has recently launched a unique and interesting podcast called Playing Dead, and he was gracious enough to spend some time with us talking about the project. We discussed the origins of the concept and some of the interesting things he learned through the process. The concept for this podcast is that Nathanson, who played Sam Stein in Marvel's The Punisher on Netflix, spends time talking to actors and other film professionals about the experience and mechanics of dying on-screen. It is a great concept, and the interviews are extremely well crafted and executed. Nathanson is a very talented actor who has been in dozens of roles in TV and Film. In addition to his main cast role on Season 1 of The Punisher, he was also a major part of the Cinemax series The Knick as Dr. Levi Zinberg. He has appeared in films such as Young Adult, Side Effects, and The Wolf of Wall Street. Our conversation, while focusing on Playing Dead, also veered into the realm of Geekdom. Nathanson grew up reading comic books and loving sci-fi. We nerded out a little bit, and I hope you enjoy the conversation.

Welcome Back In our latest episode of The Pop Culture Squadcast We are happy to bring you a conversation with a pair of creators who have a very cool comic project coming to shops soon. Writer Cavan Scott and artist Nick Brokenshire will be debuting Dead Seas from IDW Publishing in December. This pair of longtime collaborators have a massive list of comic work between them. We have already reviewed the first issue of their new creator-owned book Dead Seas which you can find on popculturesquad.com. I was super excited to get the opportunity to talk about it with them. Cavan Scott has written quite a bit of Star Wars content in novel, audio book, and comic form over the years. He also has written for properties such as Pacific Rim, Transformers, Doctor Who, Adventure Time and more. His creator owned comics include Shadow Service from Vault and The Ward from Dark Horse Comics. Nick is an comic artist who has worked on Star Wars, Transformers, and The Once And Future Queen among others. We talked about the process of making their latest collaboration and spent some time talking about the differences of growing up a fan of the comic media in the UK verses America. We hope you enjoy the SquadCast You can check out the transcript on the main article for this interview. HERE

Our latest spotlight interview brought us to a team of collaborators about to bring a sci-fi horror comic to stores near you this October. Writer Jeff Burandt and artist Sean Von Gorman have Ghost Planet releasing on October 19th from Scout Comics. We spoke with the two creators about the inspiration for the book as well as the interesting history of what went into getting it published. Ghost Planet is a forty-page one-shot comic about a family of space explorers that land on a planet with a terrible secret. The first two chapters were released on Webtoon as part of a weekly challenge. This pair have been frequent collaborators and we talked about some of the cool things that they are working on besides Ghost Planet. You can find some pics and a review of the comic on popculturesquad.com

Our latest spotlight SquadCast interview is with comic editor and publisher Shelly Bond. She is a returning guest and we were able to spend some time talking about her latest project Fast Times in Comic Book Editing. Her latest effort from Offregister Press, the company that she runs with her husband Phillip Bond, is part memoir and part editorial handbook focusing on her time working on the Vertigo Imprint at DC Comics. She had a hand in some of the most important comics of the 90s and that helped shape her into the superstar comic editor that she is today. We talked about Shelly's projects including the recently completed Filth and Grammar: The Comic Editor's Secret Handbook, and Geezer. We also talked about comic books in general and why they became her passion. You can see the more about the kickstarter and other info on popculturesquad.com

Our guest this episode is Cecil Castellucci, who is one of my favorite writers. We talked about a her new book Shifting Earth from Dark Horse Comics. Cecil is a fantastic writer and never fails to capture my attention. I am very excited to get this recorded conversation to our audience. We delved into some of the interesting process that she uses to write and talked about her motivation for the stories she tells. We also talked about some of the non-comic things that she is doing. She is one of the most interesting people I have every spoken to and we hope you enjoy listening to the conversation as much we enjoyed having it. You can see the review and other info on popculturesquad.com

A couple of weeks ago, we caught up with rising superstar comic writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson. Johnson is super busy creating comics, but we talked about the three biggest announced projects that he is working on. Recently, it was revealed that he will be writing the new series of James Bond from Dynamite Entertainment, with artist Marco Finnegan providing the visuals. That series begins next month in August. We also spoke about what is going on in the pages of Action Comics from DC Comics where Ricardo Federici, Johnson's partner in crime from the Last God has taken over primary art duties from Daniel Sampere. As is usually the focus of our comic creator chats, we spent quite a bit of time talking about Phillip's writing process and techniques. Some of that highlighted the excellent work that he has been doing on the Marvel Comics series Alien with artist Salvador Larroca. It is always illuminating to talk to Phillip and we have transcribed some of the interesting newsy bits of the conversation at PopCultureSquad.com. Give the SquadCast a listen and let us know what you think.

In this episode of the Pop Culture SquadCast we spoke with writer Mark Russell. It's been about seven years since Mark burst on the scene with his breakthrough book The Flintstones from DC comics. Since that time, he has delivered a string of smart, thought provoking stories in the medium including Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles, Second Coming with Ahoy Comics, Red Sonja from Dynamite Entertainment, Billionaire Island, Not All Robots from AWA Studios, and so much more. We spent some time in this conversation talking about his two upcoming series which are Superman: Space Age on which he is work with legendary artist Mike Allred. And The Incal: Psychoverse that he is doing with Yanick Paquette. If you are a fan of Mark Russell's work at all, you know that we had to touch on some current events and nature of human society. It was a lot of fun. You can find some links and a partial transcription here.

We like to talk to comic professionals in all fields of expertise, and we have finally gotten a letterer on the Pop Culture SquadCast. We were able to catch up recently with Taylor Esposito for our latest episode. Taylor has been a staff letterer for DC Comics and has worked as a freelance letterer for lots of publishers, including: DC Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, AfterShock Comics, Dark Horse Comics, and more. He is also the owner of Ghost Glyph Studios which offers a wide range of comic book and graphic design services. In addition to his freelance lettering work, Taylor is part of the faculty at the Kubert School where he imparts his expertise to the next generation of comic professionals. We had a great talk about his origin story in comics and how he approaches his craft. The topics of discussion were far ranging. Check out the web page on PopCultureSquad for some of this transcript and more links.

A big part of the comic and entertainment convention scene is the presence of people cosplaying as their favorite characters. It adds an exotic and textural dimension to the shows. You can see a massive variety of costumes from store bought to incredibly intricate custom made versions. We got a chance to chat recently with one of the most iconic cosplayers at the con circuit, especially at east coast shows. Harry Crosland is a imposing figure and his long dreadlocks are as unmistakable as his infectious smile. A Maryland native, he has been cosplaying at shows for over a decade along with his wife Gina. He also is professional photographer specializing crafting fantastic and inclusive artistic representations of people cosplaying. This interview was fun and covers topics that are important to deal with regarding respect and acceptance at our favorite nerdy gatherings. Harry (or HC or Aitch Cee) is a fantastic ambassador for geekdom and if you ever run into him, you will be glad you did. We also transcribed some of the key interactions in the conversation at popculturesquad.com

Hey Folks, Welcome back to our latest interview edition of the Pop Culture Squadcast. In this episode, we spoke with comic writer David Pepose. David is known for his creator-owned titles Spencer and Locke, Going to the Chapel, Scouts Honor, and The O.Z. He started his comic career interning at DC comics and was highly respected as the head of the comic book review team at Newsarama before diving full time into his freelance comic creating. His work has been nominated for multiple industry awards and his catalogue of work is continuing to grow into new publishing venues. His latest work, The O.Z., is a book that he is publishing through Kickstarter. The first double-sized issue was funded last year and currently the campaign for the second installment is underway. Backers have until September 15th to get behind this excellent comic. David has grown as a writer and creator over the years that Pop Culture Squad has been around and he continues to be one of our favorite interviewees. We hope you enjoy the conversation

In our latest episode of the Pop Culture SquadCast, we spoke to comic book writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson. Phillip's catalog of published comic work has increased significantly in recent years. He created and wrote the hit DC Comics Black Label series The Last God and currently is writing for both DC and Marvel comics. He is penning Action Comics for DC and the newly launched Alien book for Marvel, among others. Phillip has an amazing "day job" as a member of the United States Army and has come to comic book writing later than others. His roots in comic publishing come from the creator owned space with books like Last Sons of America that was published by Boom! Studios, and his collaboration with Steve Orlando on the AfterShock Comics book Kill A Man was a significant topic in our conversation. We hope you enjoy the conversation and it inspires you to seek out Phillips work. You won't be disappointed. You can also find out more about this conversation and Phillip at our website Popculturesquad.com

Our latest Pop Culture SquadCast features comic writer Jeffrey Burandt who is in the midst of campaign to fund his latest comic on Kickstarter. Burandt's style is satirical with warm heart. The best part about his writing is that while the things he writes about run the gamut from straight humor to life and death sci-fi, the reader gets the sense that Burandt is enjoying the telling of the story regardless of topic or genre. We got a chance to talk to him about his new project with Jason Gongour called Killer Bad, and we also talked about his other projects including Odd Schnozz from Oni, anthology projects Love is Love and Pandemix, and more. Killer Bad looks to be a hell of ride. This first issue that is being Kickstarted is a superhero slasher story set in the 90's. Check out the campaign information for Killer Bad and then go and back it.

Welcome to another Interview Edition of the Pop Culture Squadcast. In this episode, we spoke with comics editor extraordinaire Shelly Bond. Anyone who has been paying attention to comics over the past thirty years knows that Shelly has shepherded some of the most fantastic comic stories to ever come along. Her decades long tenure at Vertigo brought us books like Fables, Lucifer, American Virgin, Clean Room, Euthanauts, and so many more. Over the past few years Shelly has been curating and publishing comics through Kickstarter. Her anthologies include Femme Magnifique, Insider Art, Heavy Rotation, and Hey Amateur! Her latest offering which is still available to back is called Filth and Grammar, The Comic Book Editor's Secret Handbook. It is written by Shelly as part memoire and part instruction manual. We had the fantastic opportunity to sit down (virtually) with Shelly and talk about what has gone into the creation of this book and her stellar career in general. This has been one of the most entertaining and productive interviews that I have ever conducted. You can find this interview an all of our episodes at PopCultureSquad.com

Hey Folks, Welcome back to another interview edition of the Pop Culture Squadcast. In this episode, we spoke with cartoonist Steve Conley. Steve writes, draws, colors, and letters the web comic The Middle Age which can be found on Webtoons, Tapas, gocomics, and other places. I have been wanting to talk to Steve for a while and he did participate in the Web Comics panel that I moderated at Baltimore Comic Con in 2019. You can check that out on the Popculturesquad YouTube channel. Steve is a gifted storyteller and artist and he has a new kickstarter in progress right now, so the timing really worked out. Please enjoy this conversation where we talk about the kickstarter for Astounding Space Thrills , and Steve's career, the history and future of the middle age and we throw in a litte etymology for good measure. The info about the interview can be found on Popculturesquad.com