Wednesday is Comic Day!

There are probably over a hundred comic book podcasts put out on a regular basis. These are the four that I subscribe to and listen to every week. A common thread is that these are all done by multiple people. The first comic book podcast I listened to was Augie De Bliek’s Pipeline, available from Comicbookresources.com. Although I liked his podcast, it got a little monotonous to hear just one voice, and it loses the spontaneity of a conversation. I enjoy comic book podcasts because it is a way to both get to know some of the creators a little better, through interviews (John Cassaday isn’t likely to be on the Jay Leno show) and it is a way to hear how fellow readers feel about the current week’s books. The podcasts are free and can be obtained either by downloading the individual .mp3 episodes from the show websites or by subscribing to the podcast through a service like iTunes. A typical podcast is about 30MB and lasts about 90 minutes. The following are my current favorites:

	Fanboy Radio These guys are the top of the pyramid in terms of success. They often get the big named guests. The pocast is hosted by Scott Hinze, Oliver Tull, Jeff Yale, Sean Jackson, and David Hopkins and their producer (Britta Hinze (Scott’s wife)). They post about once a week. They are active with the charity Heroes 4 Heroes and hosted the liveart event at the last couple of Wizard World Texas shows. They are in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and broadcast live on KTCU FM 88.7 on Sunday and/or Wednesday and have a call-in line. Because they broadcast over the air, they are the most family friendly (profanity free). They also have fanboy video available at www.fanboyvideo.com. They’ve been around since before podcast was a word and have almost 500 episodes.
	Comic Geek Speak This is my favorite comic book podcast and is the monster, with over 540 podcasts, to date. The hosts are Bryan Deemer, Shane Kelly, Brian Crispin, Jamie D, and Peter Rios. They host their own convention called “The Super Show” in Reading, Pennsylvania. Ever the overachievers, the guys have even started their own magazine Comics Now! which can be ordered through Diamond. They guys also have an extremely active webforum. Although most of the time it is a relatively clean podcast, you do not want your kids in the room if either Uncle Sal or Cousin Buzz are the guests! Those shows are without doubt absolutely hysterically funny, but those two guys are uncensored to say the least.
	Around Comics This is a weekly roundtable discussion hosted by Christopher Neseman, Brion Salazar, and Tom Katers, from Chicago. They sometimes get big names, like John Byrne, Ed Brubaker, and Greg Rucka. Sometimes their panel includes artists Mike Norton and/or Skottie Young. They advertise as having new shows every Monday and Thursday - recently they haven't been hitting that pace. It's a well done podcast and Christopher Neseman is probably the hardest working guy in pod-dom. He has two other shows, I believe. I prefer the show when Tom isn't there. He has a tendency to be too loud, too angry, and tries to make too many jokes.
	Comic News Insider Hosted by Joe Gonzalez and Jimmy Aquino. It's a fun podcast, but I find my enthusiasm for it is waning. The two reasons for this is that it seems like its becoming more stream of consciousness and less focused on comics and Jimmy seems to like the sound of his own voice a little too much - by that I mean he'll break into song or impression instead of talking about comics. They do get some actors and actresses on the podcast, though. This last week they had Brea Grant (Daphne on Heroes).