Comic Book Historians

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview Tony Puryear, Hollywood screenwriter and Comic book writer/artist, discussing key phases of his diverse career,  from his childhood encounters with Jack Kirby & Phil Seuling, his advertising career under the mentorship of James Patterson, directing music videos for 80s hip hop stars, becoming the first African-American screenwriter to pen a $100 mi...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview Tony Puryear, Hollywood screenwriter and Comic book writer/artist, discussing key phases of his diverse career,  from his childhood encounters with Jack Kirby & Phil Seuling, his advertising career under the mentorship of James Patterson, directing music videos for 80s hip hop stars, becoming the first African-American screenwriter to pen a $100 mi...

CBH's Alex Grand interviews comic book writer, penciler and entertainment property creator, Larry Hama discussing his early years including his childhood comics, his time at Manhattan's High School of Art and Design, learning how to draw from Bernard Krigstein, working with Larry Ivie and Bhob Stewart on Castle of Frankenstein, working with Ralph Reese as Wally Wood's assistance for...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview Fantagraphics publisher, The Comics Journal co-founder, and Genius in Literature Award recipient Gary Groth, in part 2 of a 2 parter covering his full publishing career starting at age 13, his greatest accomplishments and failures, feuds and friends, journalistic influences and ideals, lawsuits and controversies. Learn which category best describes ven...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview Fantagraphics publisher, The Comics Journal co-founder, and Genius in Literature Award recipient Gary Groth, in Part 1 of a 2 parter covering his full publishing career starting at age 13, his greatest accomplishments and failures, feuds and friends, journalistic influences and ideals, lawsuits and controversies. Learn which category best describes ven...

Alex Grand sits down with crime and science fiction writer, Alex Segura who discusses his new book, Secret Identity, a noir mystery thriller based in the 1975 New York Comic Book Industry as well as his personal history in comics starting as a reader as a Cuban American child in Miami of the 1980s, joining Wizard as an associate editor, DC as Director of Publicity, Co-President of Archie Comics an...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview animation wizard and cartoonist, Scott Shaw! talking about his involvement in Underground Comics in the late 60s, early 70s, co-creating the San Diego Comic Con, Hanna Barbera Comics, creating and producing Saturday Morning Cartoons like the Flintstones, Muppet Babies, Camp Candy, Ed Grimley, etc, making Saturday Morning Cereal Commercials, contributin...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview animation wizard and cartoonist, Scott Shaw! talking about his involvement in Underground Comics in the late 60s, early 70s, co-creating the San Diego Comic Con, Hanna Barbera Comics, creating and producing Saturday Morning Cartoons like the Flintstones, Muppet Babies, Camp Candy, Ed Grimley, etc, making Saturday Morning Cereal Commercials, contributin...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview comic cubist queen Mary Fleener from her early days as a teenager reading Zap Comix, her first comics in college, joining Weirdo Magazine under editors Peter Bagge, Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb, creating for Slutburger, Drawn and Quarterly, and her graphic novels including Billie The Bee. Edited & Produced by Alex Grand.   Images used in a...

Alex Grand and Jim Thompson interview comic writer and 90s Batman thinktank, Chuck Dixon discussing his comic origins in the 80s independent circuit with Evangeline and Airboy, working for Archie Goodwin & Carl Potts on Epic & Marvel Comics, working with Denny O'Neill on Gotham City & the Batman comics of the 1990s creating properties utilized in movies, animation & Cartoons,...

CBH's Alex Grand travels to Johnstown, PA for the 2021 Ditko Comic Convention hosted by the Bottleworks Ethnic Art Center and the Ditko Family.  Steve Ditko, his Bottleworks art exhibit and the Ditko convention is discussed here with Ditkoverse coordinator and nephew, Mark Ditko as well as comics editor and writer Carl Potts, writer-artist Javier Hernandez, visuaLecturist Arlen Schumer, and f...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview comic artist, fantasy illustrator and creative architect Bill Stout, discussing Conan the Barbarian and the Destroyer, Masters of the Universe, his work with Roger Corman,  his Dinosaur art career with museums, murals and education books, and his journey to Antarctica. Edited & Produced by Alex Grand.   Images used in artwork ©Their Respective Copy...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview comic artist, fantasy illustrator and creative architect Bill Stout, discussing his early work in the comic fanzines,  bootleg album covers,  record label designer,  his apprenticeship to Russ Manning on Tarzan and also to Harvey Kurtzman/Will Elder for Little Annie Fanny, Movie Posters, production design and storyboarding for films like Raiders of the...

A sit down chat between Alex Grand & Steve Ditko's nephew, Mark on various key aspects of the Spider-Man co-creators life, characters and motivations in this career spanning interview.   Edited & Produced by Alex Grand.  Interview ©2021 Comic Book Historians  Images used in artwork ©Their Respective Copyright holders, CBH Podcast ©Comic Book Historians. Thumbnail Artwork ©Comic Book H...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview comic archivist, author, critic and historian, Peter Sanderson who discusses the end of his Marvel tenure, Mark Gruenwald's death, the circumstances of the layoffs during the 1995 bankruptcy era, working with Bill Jemas, working for IGN for Comics in Context, later for Kevin Smith, and publishing various works on Marvel history and continuity like...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview comic archivist, author, critic and historian, Peter Sanderson who was a regular contributer to Julius Schwartz' Flash Grams in the 1960s, to Omniverse with Mark Gruenwald, DC Universe's Who's Who making Crisis on Infinite Earth's possible with Marv Wolfman.  In the first of a two parter, he also discusses joining Marvel indexing an...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview comic writer Don McGregor, in a second parter on his road to Black Panther, discussing how he moved from Warren Magazines to Marvel in the early 1970s, his first writing job with Gardner Fox, Amazing Adventures with Killraven with P. Craig Russell, his Black Panther run with Rich Buckler, Gil Kane,  Billy Graham and his sincere fondness for Gene Colan....

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview comic writer Don McGregor, in the first of a multi-parter on his road to Black Panther, discussing his childhood, jobs out of high school, his first experience with social justice at a Hopalong Cassidy fan meeting, Phil Seuling Comic Convention, introducing himself to Jim Steranko in 1969, heckling Jim Warren into a job, meeting collaborator Billy Grah...

“Comics Detective” Ken Quattro talks in detail with Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson about his terrific new book, “Invisible Men:The Trailblazing Black Artists of Comic Books.”  The lives of pre-Golden Age figures are examined such as Adolph Barreaux who contributed to the first DC and Harvey Comics, Matt Baker, Orrin Evans, George Evans, Hollingsworth, and Calvin Massey.  Learn about some behi...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview comic artist, Ron Frenz in the third of a 3 parter discussing his run on the Mighty Thor with Tom DeFalco co-creating characters like Mongoose, Quicksand, Earthforce, Code Blue, the Celtic Gods, Stellaris, the New Warriors, starting up and ending Thunderstrike amidst the Marvel Bankruptcy, leaving Marvel to work on Superman/Blue with Dan Jurgens, co-cr...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview comic artist, Ron Frenz in the second of a 3 parter discussing his run on Spider-Man with Roger Stern and Tom DeFalco, working under editor Danny Fingeroth and then Jim Owsley, co-creating characters like Black Fox and Puma, the circumstances of leaving Spidey, and ending up with The Mighty Thor for 5 years co-creating a pantheon of characters and plac...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview comic artist, Ron Frenz in a first of a 3 parter discussing his childhood in Pittsburgh,his favorite comics as a kid,  meeting Marie Severin at a local convention, reading How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way by John Buscema, giving art samples to Jim Shooter at a later convention, his work in animation working on the Creepshow 1982 film, starting work at...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview comic artist, Joe Staton in a second of a 2 parter discussing his DC Career with All Star Comics, The Justice Society of America, Earth 2 Superheroes, Green Lantern, Omega Men, collaborations with Paul Levitz & Marv Wolfman, conflict with Sol Harrison, his art director career with First Comics working with guys like Mike Gold and Howard Chaykin, ov...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview comic artist, Joe Staton, from his early fanzine days in the 60s, to starting his professional comic's career with Jim Warren Magazines, Charlton with their bullseye fanzine and the CPL gang, co-creating E-Man with Nick Cuti, Space: 1999, Six Million Dollar Man, inking Sal Buscema on the Avengers and Herbe Trimpe on the Hulk in the mid 1970s, the...

Alex Grand and co-host Jim Thompson interview author & Comic Art Museum curator Kim Munson, the editor of the Comic Art in Museums anthology and the exhibition catalogs Dual Views: Labor Landmarks of San Francisco and On Reflection: the Art of Margaret Harrison, as well as many contributions to academic books, journals, magazines, and other publications. She is also the co-curator with her coh...