Word Balloon Podcast

Word Balloon Podcast – Neal Adams and Tony Akins

Show Notes

On this episode of Word Balloon, legendary artist Neal Adams is back to discuss many issues of the current comic book scene. From finding a neutral way to help Gary Friedrich’s financial situation, without taking sides in the Disney-Friedrich-Ghost Rider lawsuit, to DC and Marvel’s new place in their corporate parents’ business.

Neal talks about the recent Comic Book films based on DC Marvel and Dark Horse properties, and asks why wasn’t John Stewart in the Green Lantern movie, given his prominent place on TV’s Justice League series, which had a built-in audience of millions?

You’ll also hear a good dose of comic book history, from Neal’s point of view of the Pinoy artist invasion of the 1970’s with guys like Tony De Zuniga and Alfredo Alcala, plus other Adams peers like John Buscema and Gene Colan.

We discuss Batman Odyssey and Neal’s Dark Horse Presents serial Blood. Plus some current and future projects including hints at a new Marvel project. We wrap up with an interesting look at how the idea of the motion comic has evolved into Neal’s work in animatics for the motion picture industry.

Then Tony Akins talks about joining the creative team on DC’s Wonder Woman sharing alternate art chores with Cliff Chiang. Tony and writer Brian Azzarello are longtime Chicago comic creator pals, going back to the days of companies like Now Comics and Comico, and they’ve been trying to work together on various Vertigo projects for years. The former Jack Of Fables artist admits he’s not a big superhero fan these days, but this warrior-versus-horror villains take on Wonder Woman intrigued Tony enough to take himself out of the running for some other big ticket books.

A working vet of the Chicago comics scene for over 20 years, Tony talks about the old days of Chicago’s thriving comic book publishing scene in the 80’sand 90’s, and looks ahead to his pending move to Seattle later this year.

Subscribe

Get Involved

Doing the podcast is fun and all, but let's be honest, listening to the 2 of us talk to each other can get repetitive, so we look to you, the iFanboy listeners to participate in the podcast! "How can I get in on the fun?" you may ask yourself, well here's how:

  • E-Mail us at contact@ifanboy.com with any questions, comments or anything that may be on your mind.

Please don't forget to leave your name and where you're writing from and each week, we'll pick the best e-mails to include on the podcast!

Comments

  1. I’ve finally gotten round to listening to this and though I’m only a bit of the way through the Neal Adams interview, this is easily one the best interviews you’ve done yet. Some of Adams’ opinions I strongly agree with, some I don’t and some are utterly bonkers but, man, what a fascinating dude.

    Thanks as always for this, John. Great, great stuff.

  2. Wow. The ego on Neal Adams is staggering. I couldn’t finish this wank session, sorry.

    Sal Abbinanti was right regarding Neal Adams.

Leave a Comment