Graphic Policy Radio

Comic book retailers give advice on buying the right gift -- from games to toys to books-- for your friends and family while supoorting local comics businesses. Hear their tips on the things that are far better to buy at a LCBS than anywhere else. "A great gift is a gift that a person won't by for themselves. No one would buy a 100-sided die for themselves but they wouldn't mind owning one "-  Dim...

Doom Patrol Season 3 asks some big questions about the purpose art and the purpose of a time machine. Lux Alptraum is a writer and podcast host whose smart commentary has been featured in a wide variety of outlets including The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, and Hustler. She's tackled the thorny topics of leaked celebrity sex tapes and public apologies as the host of the second second season New Yo...

"When [Jack Kirby] came back to Marvel he was making Kirby comics, he was not making Marvel comics. And we're the richer for it" -Rand Hoppe, Jack Kirby Museum Jack Kirby's 1977 comics series is a witty psychedelic saga about the Day of Judgement. Join Eternals experts for a look at Kirby's underrated series historical context. Plus hear which other Eternals series we enjoy (and which you can skip...

"Engaging with my demonic sea-monster tendencies has made me a lot healthier just as a dude" - Jude Doyle. I'm joined by award-winning journalist, opinon writer, comics fan--now horror comic author Jude Ellison S. Doyle to talk about his new series Maw.  A provocative five-issue horror series by Doyle (Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power) and artist...

"We're ALL ambassadors." -  Rafael Shimunov. Artist and organizer Rafael Shimunov's family of Bukharian Jewish refugees from Uzbekistan learned English by watching Star Trek. Raf's read on Worf as a fellow Jew of color is eye opening. We talk all things Worf, but especially about his depiction as a Jewish person of color, directly within Star Trek's coding of his background and metaphorically as a...

DC comics new Jewish teen girl superhero and activist is fighting to save a VERY Lower East Side Gotham neighborhood from gentrification. Of course I had to have the co-creator of this new character, Whistle, on my podcast-- New York Times Best Selling author E. Lockhart!  Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero, is a young adult graphic novel from DC written by New York Times best-selling author E. Lockh...

If Corto Maltese is Cuba is Starro is the Embargo? Or is it Nicaragua and Project Starfish is the CIA drug smuggling? Join journalists / DC comics nerds Spencer Ackerman (Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump) and Arturo Garcia (TruthOrFiction) as we talk about James Gunn's new uber violent political satire movie based on some of my favorite comics. Buy Spencer'...

"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 series...

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 epis...

"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...