Graphic Policy Radio

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 from the...

NY's 1st Socialist State Senator in 100 years, get's the graphic novel treatment in Sofia Warren's new graphic memoir -- Radical: My Year With a Socialist Senator.  New York, Socialism, community organizng and COMICS are near the top of my list of interests so I'm excited to have cartoonist Sofia Warren on the show to talk about her book. Reading this graphic memoir might make you feel a little mo...

DC Comics Pride Month anthology features an all ace creative team telling a story of now canonically ace Green Arrow, Connor Hawke! Artists/Writers Ro Stein and Ted Brandt join me to discuss their work. Also, for Marvel Voices Pride they've co-created Shela Sexton (Escapade) and Morgan Red, Marvel's newest trans woman and transmasc nb mutants respectively. We'll hear about Ted and Ro's background...

Neal Adams was a giant: from his art to his fight for artists' rights we'll talk about his legacy and work. This roundtable is for Neal Adams newbies and experts alike. You'll even hear some new personal stories about Adams' unique status as The Dad of Comics. Joining me are: Bryan Stratton is a writer, digital consultant, and co-host of the Marvel by the Month podcast, which covers each month of...

"A diagnosis should set somebody free. It should be a descriptor, not a definition" - Emmett Hobbes. Royale: The Prussian Blue is a Lupin III-meets-Pan's Labyrinth caper. A renowned white-hat burglar stumbles into London's supernatural underbelly to win his target back from an untouchable (and mysterious) art collector. It's a very queer and extremely well crafted heist comic that truly stands out...

Deep Space Nine's handling of religion is unique in Star Trek. While other Trek treats faith with skepticism and suspicion, DS9 depicts a variety of religious characters who explore faith in their own ways.  Our guest: Anthony Oliveira is a National Magazine award and GLAAD award-winning author (his comics "My Drag Brunch with Loki" and "X:Men Early Thaw" are queer Marvels). His graphic novel, Apo...

"[Blackbeard] is presenting as a queer character, not just within our time, but within his own time" - Tea Fougner. "It's historical fiction about pirates if the executive producers were all tumbler users" - Cayden Mak. Pirate Tea and First Mate Cayden Mak have boarded the show to talk about Taika Waititi and David Jenkins' glorious new show on HBO, Our Flag Means Death. It's a queer pirate romcom...

Embrace the Neo-Claremontism and "warped Mutant Catholicism" as writer Kieron Gillen returns to X-Men comics as the writer of Immortal X-Men with artists Lucas Werneck & David Curiel. He's revisiting Mr. Sinister and Hope Summers, two characters he's left an indellible mark on, who have new prominance in the Krakoan Era of X-Men. There's politics, backstabbing and of course music.  Here's his Immo...

Comics critic Harry Kassen guides a jounrney through the many phases of Moon Knight's Marvel comics series from 1975 through today -- just in time for his big Disney + TV debut. Moon Knight isn't just a source of absurdist memes -- he reflects changes in the comics medium. We'll look at some of the best runs of Moon Knight with an especially close look at comics art legend Bill Sienkiewicz who's s...

Anthony Award-winning writer Alex Segura talks about his new book Secret Identity, a rollicking literary mystery set in the world of comics. The book combines comics and prose for a vivid1975 NYC featuring new protagist, writer Carmen Valdez. We discuss our shared love of the noir genre and his time writing Archie meeting The Ramones and Blondie and other delights.  Check out the book https://us.m...

James Gunn's HBO series Peacemaker picks up where The Suicide Squad left off. It features D-List DC superheroes, 80s glam metal, beating up the KKK, maintaining The Security State and having a gender crisis. My guests: Jamelle Bouie is a columnist for the New York Times Opinion section. unCLEAR and Present Danger podcast. Spencer Ackerman is a journalist and author of REIGN OF TERROR: How The 9/11...

Down & Out on M'arzz and Atlantis to cover Young Justice Season 4, episodes 1-13 which aired on HBO. "A PowerPoint being given in pocket dimension" - Hub "That was the moment I added [Onyx] to my Mood Board." - Dr. Khaliden Nas Guests: Dr. Khaliden Nas is a writer & researcher with a PhD in Media and Culture Studies from the University of Sussex. His work explores the realities of queer subjectivi...

"I wanted to defend the reputation of Silver Age X-Men."  - Steven Attewell, Phd. Our favoriate historian is back to talk about his essay series, The People's History of The Marvel Universe -- where he looks at how real world politics and history are refelcted in classic comics. Read it: https://graphicpolicy.com/category/history/peoples-history-of-the-marvel-universe/?order=asc Our conversation c...

12 years of podcasting & I finally did an episode about Art Spiegelman's Maus. Guests Ethan Heitner is a cartoonist who lives in New York City. among other things. Most recently he helped edit the 51st issue of the radical political comix anthology World War 3 Illustrated, available now from AK Press and subtitled "The World We Are Fighting For." Leo Ferguson is the Director of Strategic Projects...

"Hola" from Wonder Woman's corner of comics where I interview Stephanie Williams, co-writer of Nubia and the Amazons. Yes, Wonder Woman had a Black twin sister at one point in DC comics canon and now she's the star of her own series. Updated from her 1973 origins "Nubia becomes queen of Themyscira, but the new title also brings challenges. With the unexpected arrival of new Amazons, our hero is fo...

Hawk-guy John Arminio guests host our discussion of the iconic Hawkeye comics series created by Matt Fraction and David Aja AND the new Hawkeye TV series on Disney+. With Arminio are guests Scott Thorough and Kat Overland. They also get into how to create a comic that has a real sense of place, what New York smells like, Clint Barton's terrible personal life, and Kate Bishop's LA vacation with......

Attention Bajoran Workers: This is Now a Gul Dukat Podcast. Gul Dukat is more than a scenery-chewing space lizard war criminal who looks like Mitt Romney - he's Star Trek's most complex villian. Talking about Dukat means talking about colonialism, fragile masculinity, and the interplay between mental health and morality. And Deep Space Dive is a Star Trek Deep Space Nine podcast all about topics l...

"I hate to spoil a good evil overlord narrative but… " - Brandon Wilson. Because our take on Marvel's The Eternals isn't a refernedum on diverisity in corporate movies (dear lord can you imagine if it freaking was?! ) Joiin us for a nuanced analysis of the movie.  Filmmaker Brandon David Wilson returns to talk about The Eternals from his perspective as a filmmaker, lecturer and lifelong Marvel com...

"I'm thrilled that the book got you laid" - Tina Horn author of SFSX (Safe Sex). Tina Horn returns to talk about her sci-fi sex rebel comic book series. Writer TINA HORN and artist G Romero-Johnson's SFSX (SAFE SEX) Terms of Service is a cyberpunk thriller graphic novel. "After their previous adventures in sex, love, and torture left them separated and traumatized, the Dirty Mind heroes must face...