Graphic Policy Radio

A fading genre actor and an obsessed fan meet. It's not Misery at all, it's Parasocial, the latest graphic novel from the twisted minds of Erica Henderson and Alex de Campi! Parasocial is this creative team's newest collaboration since their critically acclaimed Dracula, Motherf--r! both published by Image Comics.  We talk about: What makes a horror story deeply scary Who is Luke Indiana and the p...

Krakoa will never not exist. Will never not be an aspiration and an option. — Spencer Ackerman And do I have some news for Sebastian Shaw about civil forfeiture. — Kaetun Khlynne A journalist and a physicist join me to talk about The Fall of X, the 2023 summer X-Men comics event about the fall of Krakoa, the mutant homeland. The first part of the episode is spoiler free. We are very clear when we...

The Velvet Underground didn’t sell many records at first but everyone who bought one went out and started a band*-- and now YOU can read a graphic novel about the Velvets! I interview cartoonist Koren Shadmi about his new graphic novel, All Tomorrow's Parties: The Velvet Underground Story. His book is about the formation and dissolution of one of our favorite bands, and one of the most important r...

Pop culture and history experts Elana Levin and Historian Steven Attewell host a close watch of the Venture Bros series finale, Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart. We'll guide you through its numerous references and themes--  from NYC geography to 60's B movies to 80s New Wave music... so much 80s synthpop.... in this series finale!  This is the 20th anniversary of the Venture Bros show and...

"many singular people who feel alone, but together are at least feeling alone together" - Felicia T. Perez, Narrative Strategist and Zoe Tunnell, the co-creator of the comic Blade Maidens and official explainer of trans metaphor Gwen Stacy  join me to discuss the latest animated Spider-Man movie, featuring Miles Morales, Spider-Man, Across the Spiderverse.  Covering: Diverse spidersonas, migrant r...

#ComicsBrokeMe but organizing is the answer! The comics industry harms the artists, writers and editors who make the art we love. Building collective power is the strategy powerful enough to win. The Cartoonist Cooperative is a new vehicle for doing just that! I’m joined by one of this new organization’s founding members, Joan Zahra Dark, to talk about the organization’s goals and how readers can...

#ComicsBrokeMe but organizing is the answer. The comics industry has always harmed the artists, writers and editors who make the art we love. Building collective power is the strategy powerful enough to win. The Cartoonist Cooperative is a new vehicle for doing just that! I’m joined by one of this new organization’s founding members Joan Zahra Dark to talk about the organization’s goals and how re...

Possibly the most political comic on the stands, Justice Warriors is a brutal, hilarious and ornately drawn new satirical comic about policing, power and AI in the dystopian Bubble City. Join series co-creators Ben Clarkson and Matt Bors as we talk about their first trade paperback published by Ahoy Comics. Matt Bors is a cartoonist, writer, editor, and the founder of The Nib. He was a Pulitzer Pr...

Star Wars newest animated series is both fascinating and frustrating. Dig into the Bad Batch’s big questions with guest Dr. Holly Schaeffer-Raymond. The Bad Batch reflects on the rise of fascism, biology as destiny and social programing. This episode's first 20 minutes are spoiler-free to help you decide if you want to watch.  Then join us for: What the show has to say about about workers’ rights....

"How the carceral state seeks to manipulate and dispose of its rogues, its dregs, its captives and put them to deniable use by intelligence agencies... It would be malpractice of me, for what I cover, if I wasn't interested in that!" - Spencer Ackerman, co-writer of Waller vs Wildstorm for DC Comics and award winning national security journalist. Spencer Ackerman discusses his debut comic, a Year...

What if the attack on the US Capitol succeeded? 1/6 is a 4 part comics series written by Alan Jenkins and Gan Golan and illustrated by Will Rosado. Prof. Jenkins and Golan joined me on the podcast to talk about their comic which combines comics journalism, speculative fiction and activism.  Drawing on real-life events, 1/6 travels the road that led from back-room meetings, white supremacist rallie...

“Being normal was never going to save me,” says Galaxy the trans space princess protagonist of GLAAD Award Nominated graphic novel Galaxy: The Pretiest Star. “That’s my 'with great power comes great responsibility' moment. That's [Galaxy's] superhero moment,” says co-creator, writer Jadzia Axelrod. Jadzia is the author of Galaxy: The Prettiest Star, a new YA graphic novel illustrated by Jess Taylo...

Swift fan organizing gets the goods! Dungeons & Dragons planned to change how independent content creators could monetize their D&D-related work, but backlash caused the Hasbro-owned company to change the controversial plan. Hear what this Gargantuan news from the world of tabletop role playing games means for comics fans and fandom at large with the TTRPG reporter who broke the story, Lin...

Shelfdust.com asked 150 comic book critics to list our favourite event storylines, "You know the type – something big, dramatic, crossing over a dozen different comics across the course of a few months, with everybody being effected by whatever it is that happens at the end of the story. Whether it be a Crisis or War of some kind, or just the latest in an annual routine which sees Earth invaded by...

Rebel organizer Charles Lenchner and Jedi Master Klaudia Amenábar return to cover the second half of Andor season 1, showrunner Tony Gilroy's revolutionary Star Wars show-- which airs, somehow on Disney+.  In part 1 of my podcast's Andor coverage (listen to that episode first https://bit.ly/ComradeAndor) we joked about a Star Wars reimagining of "The Internationale". I loved the idea so much, that...

From the sound of Mayan spoken in a Marvel movie, to the beauty of wearing a mask to breathe, Ryan Coogler’s new Black Panther movie, Wakanda Forever has a lot to say. And so does my panel of experts: Moji Alawode-El, Feminist Buzzkills Podcast https://www.aafront.org/fbklive/ Marcus Pinn,  Zebras in America podcast / Pinnland Empire film blog http://www.pinnlandempire.com/ Felicia Perez, Head of...

Comrade Nemik isn't alone in developing a revolutionary analysis of the world of Star Wars. My expert guests bring a knowledge of the history of revolutions, the huge Star Wars mythos and real world activism to their analysis of the first 7 episodes of the series, Andor. "I do love when Star Wars is like, yes, I know they're Nazis, but did you know they're also the United States" -  Klaudia Amenáb...

From Bajor to the Bronx we're joined by State Senator Gustavo Rivera, a tried and true Trekkie. Serving in the New York Senate since 2010, Gustavo has beaten the odds, facing down real world Kai Winns, negotiating soil reclamator disputes and championing New York's Medicare for All bill. We talk about communities, real and fictional alike, pulling through the wreckage of colonialsm. Especially Pue...

Blade Maidens is a fantasy adventure romance comic starring two disaster mercenaries trying to get by. Read it online for free at https://www.blademaidens.com/ The serie's creators joined me to talk about their fantastic debut series. Also, the X-men, a little. Valentine Smith is a writer, illustrator, and comic artist. They were shaped by a love of horror movies, music, and comicbooks. Their webs...

DS9's Mirror Universe episodes: simultaniously campy and tragic, we love these episodes' windows into other possible Star Trek worlds. Join us as we recalibrate the transporter polarity for a journey through the looking glass. Deep Space Dive is a Star Trek Deep Space Nine podcast where we examine the serie's social and artistic themes and characters-- particularly with a queer lens. We don't do r...

Let's Do the Time Warp Again as we cover a classic episode of The Venture Bros animated series: Season 1 finale, Return to Spider-Skull Island, aka that Easy Rider episode.  Professor Steven Attewell and I (Elana Levin) will walk you through a classic Venture Bros episode. We'll explain the film history, music and all the themes and references in this episode which draws a ton from two iconic movi...

As Neil Gaiman wrote, "The price of getting what you want is getting what you once wanted." So what of the new Netflix TV series based on the groundbreaking comics series we grew-up on, The Sandman?  Join Sandman fans as we talk about the comics we loved and our thoughts about the first four episodes of the new series. The first part of the episode is spoiler-free. Apollo Gonzales is a digital str...

Fresh perspectives on Taika Waititi's latest for Marvel. Let's see how Thor Love and Thunder applies the organizing addage: "closer to the problem = closer to the solution". Jeanne is a Queer Biracial Tongan media critic and author known for sharing her unique perspective on popular media on Twitter, guest appearances on podcasts, and arguing in bars about temporal paradoxes.  https://twitter.com/...

"I want Ms. Marvel to give us the kind of personal fuel to continue to do this work and keep our eyes on the campaigns we're trying to win." —Sabiha Basrai. Ms. Marvel, the MCU's latest on Disney+ gets a close read from our expert panel. We open with a spoiler-free pitch of why we enjoyed the show then cover the full TV series. Darakshan Raja is a Pakistani - American organizer and Bhangra DJ. She...

Fish people thruples & critiques of the space prison system abound as DC's Young Justice animated series returns on HBO to conclude its 4th season. Guests that helped me cover the first half of this season have returned to update our DCAU mood boards with the Emerald Empress and some Fourth World worthy art. Dr. Khaliden Nas is a writer & researcher with a PhD in Media and Culture Studies...