Graphic Policy Radio

"Every woman we meet in this story has been sterilized without consent." - Moji Alawode-El "When they can make choices they choose compassion" - Kat Green Two professional feminists who are basically superheroes themselves join me to discuss Marvel's Black Widow movie. We talk espionage, fight choreo, reproductive justice and a good jumpsuit. Kat Green is the Managing Director and Chief Mechanic a...

We love Keiko and Miles so much that we're sending them to fictional couples counseling.  Joining us is Scott Thorough, a lifelong Trekkie with a Masters in Social Work.  Scott did his internships for social work school with narrative focus. He's the perfect guest to join us to determine if the O'Briens' marriage can or should be saved. Scott is also the co-host of the excellent Zebras in America...

"Being a Black fan means loving media that doesn’t necessarily love you back" -- writer Evan Narcisse. Evan joins me to talk about his new comic about the groundbreaking and radicaly fun wrestling stars, New Day, race, creativity and change in the wrestling industry as well as his work on Rise of the Black Panther. No wrestling knowledge necessary for this episode.  Evan Narcisse is a writer and c...

THE Julia Serano explains why Loki and Sylvie have no time for your gender essentialism, Tea Fougner delves into Loki's gender fluidity in comics and we all wish the queer showrunner would stick around another season.  Julia Serano is an Oakland, California-based writer, performer, biologist, and activist. She is best known for her nonfiction books Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and...

"After a year worrying about Marvel emailing me from their legal team with a cease and disist  — I get an email from Marvel asking me to write a story for an upcoming comic!" - Stephanie Williams Stephanie Williams is a comics historian and pop culture critic for notable publications such as SYFYFANGRRLS, Marvel, The A.V. Club, Nerdist, Den of Geek, and Rotten Tomatoes. She is currently a content...

"As a boundary defying human I found myself looking for ways to engage with the stories that made me feel alive. When I watched a superhero movie or read Octavia Butler I was talking about real things in a way that felt more fruitful" - S.E. Fleenor, writer/editor/podcaster. S.E. Fleenor joins us to talk about the queer speculative fiction anthology they co-created for Pride Month, http://DecodedP...

“One of the goals of Renegade Rule was to present a book and world that allows for queer joy” - Ben Kahn “The closer it is to trope-y fan fiction the more I like it”  - Rachel Silverstein Meet the writers of a new original graphic novel published by Dark Horse, Renegade Rule! "The Manhattan Mist have beaten the odds to land themselves in the national championships for Renegade Rule, one of the hot...

Policing and the model minoirty myth are deconstructed through a noir genre lens in this hardboiled detective series created by today's guests, sak Pichetshote and Alexandre Tefenkgi.  A new Image Comics series, The Good Asian stars detective Edison Hark—a haunted Chinese-American detective—on the trail of a killer in 1936 San Francisco's Chinatown. The series explores Chinese American identity, U...

"Zemo is the only character with an ideology" - Brandon Wilson "A real Captain America looks to the rest of the world like The Joker" - Spencer Ackerman Talking about Disney's latest Marvel TV show, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier with two of my favorite Marvel experts. Spencer Ackerman award winning national security journalist and author of REIGN OF TERROR: How The 9/11 Era Destabilized Americ...

Doctor Julian Bashir is Deep Space Nine’s resident physician, humanitarian, James Bond cosplayer and disaster bisexual. We are joined by Ali Nagib, Assistant Director of Illinois NORML, an organization that was key to ending cannabis prohibition in Illinois. In this episode, Ali helps us discover why Dr. Bashir was so important for representation, why he’s such a headcanon magnet, why he’s a great...

Traumatized people processing loss by watching TV sure do connect with a TV show in which a traumatized person processes loss via the medium of television. Disney+ newest Marvel TV show is a timely hit. I'm joined by three fascinating guests for a nuanced and necessary conversation.  "When someone tells a Black woman she’s not supposed to be there it goes from being uncomfortable to being dangerou...

"Realism is unfortunate"- Michel Fiffe Michel Fiffe is the creator / writer /artist of the action series COPRA. He’s worked with Marvel and DC on top of fully producing Panorama for Dark Horse, Bloodstrike: Brutalists for Image Comics and Zegas for Fantagraphics. We talk about the development of comics art styles in depth and a graph he made attempting to chart where some of his favorite artists'...

"I'm not damning Stan Lee, I'm living with ambiguity" says Abraham Riesman of his essential new Stan Lee biography True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee. No matter where you stand on the debate of who gets credit for Marvel comics, you MUST read this book. It's past time for a serious work of history like this one examining the conflicting stories behind one of most imporant cultural forces...

DS9 premiered at the height of third wave feminism. In this episode, we’ll look at how Star Trek Deep Space Nine incorporated feminist thought of the ‘90s into its depictions of women and gender. Also, how that explains why Major Kira is always wearing a full face of makeup even when she’s roaming caves with a phaser rifle. And how the real villian isn't just the Dominion, it's Supreme Court Justi...

How are The Celestials and The Eternals like Diana Ross & The Supremes? Find out as Kieron Gillen (obviously) returns to discuss his new series for Marvel Comics, a relaunch of The Eternals, in which he and artist Esad Ribić interpret Jack Kirby's classic "powerchord of a visual". We follow up with his critically aclaimed re-imagining of Peter Cannon Thunderbolt as well as his current indie se...

X-Pert podcaster Jay Edidin wrote his 1st Marvel comic X-Men: Marvels Snapshots, and I love it! So of course I had him on my show to talk about the obvious topics like DC Comics, Victorian Literature, and Fun Home. And yes, of course, his take on Cyclops in this highly personal yet accessible comic. You can hear Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-men at https://www.xplainthexmen.com/ and read his tweets...

Rom quotes Karl Marx and organizes a labor union at Quark's Bar-- of course this merits a full episode of our new DS9 podcast. Join our guest, labor unionist & Trekkie Asher Huey for a close look at Bar Association, Season 4 episode 9.  This is the second episode of our podcast spin-off series, "Deep Space Dive" a Deep Space Nine podcast hosted by Elana Levin and Sarah Daniel Rasher.  In each...

"I reverse engineered Mark Trail"--  Jules Rivera is the new cartoonist for the classic syndicated comicstrip Mark Trail. You know, the nature guy in the plaid! Jules gives Mark Trail a look and a new environmetal justice spin on his LONG STANDING mission of conservation education. Plus a diverse cast for soap opera hijinks and humor.  Jules is the second Latina woman to become a nationally syndic...

DS9 is the Star Trek with the greatest focus on political concepts like colonialism, feminism, queerness and post-scarcity economics. Join hosts and guests who aren’t just Trekkies but activists, academics, artists, therapists and more as we do a deep dive into the text and subtext where few Star Trek podcasts have gone before.  We're discussing Deep Space Nine’s themes and characters-- not doing...

"If you can do comedy you can do horror"- writter and letterer Alex de Campi returns to the show to talk about her latest comics  Vintage pulp horror graphic novel Dracula, Motherf**ker (Image Comics) with Erica HendersonSci-fi thriller Madi: Once Upon A Time in the Future co-written by filmmaker Duncan JonesVeteran action/buddy comedy Bad Karma -- read it online http://panelsyndicate.com/comics/b...

IGNORE ME at your perril! Professor Steven Attewell and I, (Elana Levin) walk you through one of the most quotable episodes of The Venture Bros show. We're here to help you understand the history, context and pop culture references within. From the most important chair of the mid 20th century to the 1991 MTV Music Video Awards (that was a wierd one indeed). 3rd image our slide show is Arishem the...

In 1989 Daredevil's Inferno storyline from Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr offered some pointed social commentary about NYC. It's return in Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto & Mattia Iacono's current series made for some uncanny reading for New Yorkers today.  Join Leslie Lee III of Struggle Sessions podcast & Scott Thorough of Zebras in America podcast as we swing into; Classic Daredevil #260...

November isn't just the election it's also the hit hardboiled graphic novel series from Elsa Charretier and Matt Fraction. A special commentary edition of the book is on it's way and Elsa has the scoop! Fraction and I also chatted about Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, his series with Steve Lieber- and there are some interesting connections between the two very different works!  Support the massively p...

Tabletop roleplaying games are a hot social activity. Many have played for decades, but some have always wanted to try but haven't found a group to join yet. This episode features a diverse crew of TTRPG experts answering your questions on everything from how to get started, how to make your games more inclusive, how to adapt your offline games to online AND recommend awesome games you haven't hea...

“disrupting the idea of superhero vs super villains and more about what happens within any community”-- Music critic Matt Perpetua is writing about X-Men comics on his new site https://www.houseofx.org. He is also the sole writer of the independent music site Fluxblog since 2002, more recently expanding beyond the site itself to playlist curation on Spotify. In addition to the site, has also contr...