P { MARGIN: 0px } Top 10 is back! The Wildstorm series is two issues into the new story arc, written by Zander Cannon and drawn by Gene Ha.   On this edition of Word Balloon, Gene runs down many behind the scenes design details, of Top 10's characters, plus we'll take a detailed look at a preview page of issue #3, and the various easter eggs in the scenes depicted.   Comparing the writing styles of the series creator, and current writer,Gene reminds readers that Zander Cannon was providing layouts and inks for the first twelve issues of Top 10, and was Moore's artist on the follow up Smax mini series.   "I think Zander isn't quite as gritty or innovative as Alan was,but I think he's actually a bit better with dialog. Alan usually described his action in the dialog, whereas Zander trusted me enough to draw the action clearly enough. now watch Alan going to find out about this, and will hate me (laughs)."   Ha says Moore has been briefed on the direction of season two.   "It would killed us to find out that Alan hated what we were doingcontinuing the series. Zander sent him a detailed description of the plotwe were doing, but never heard back. ...but i called him after I started drawing it, and he said he really liked what Zander had sent him."   When asked where Officers Smax and Toybox were in the new story,Gene assures readers they will be back, later in the series.   Ha is on board for the first story arc and then has a secret Vertigoproject coming up.   Gene also shows us an interesting convention sketch motif he likesto experiment with. He gets a writer to describe a single image story scene, and Gene will bring it to life.   To see an example he did with Kurt Busiek, and the page from issue 3, head to www.wordballoon.com  LESS

P { MARGIN: 0px } On this edition of the word balloon podcast,  writer Marty Pasko discusses his work, writing the text of The DC Vault from Running Press.   Like last year's Marvel Vault, The Museum In A Book, features a history of the company, incredible art, and wonderful replicas of DC merchandise, from Jr Justice Society decoders, and membership certificates, to promotional tie-ins, plus cover roughs, ashcan issues, an all-star artist jam poster with work from Bob Kane, to Carmine Infantino to Dave Gibbons numerous sketches and memos from the kill list of the original  Crisis On Infinite Earths, to Mike Carlin's plot diagram for the Death Of Superman.In this audio interview,  Pasko provides an historic commentary spanning the eras, with tales about the genre trends that sandwiched the super-hero eras, the company dynamics from the early days of All American/National Periodicals, to it's current status as an arm of Time -Warner Inc, and observations about DC founder Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, Julie Schwartz, Bill Finger, Whitney Ellsworth, Frank Robbins, and Jennette Kahn LESS

P { MARGIN: 0px } Jeph goes into behind the scenes details of his upcomingBuffy the vampire slayer story, which ties into the ideasof the aborted Buffy animated series.   As ultimatum begins this week we wrap up our current Loeb report, where Jeph discusses more detail of the ultimates vol 3, the Ultimate Captain America annualwhich gives the origin of the ult universe Black Panther.   We also take the wayback machine to the marvel writer'ssummit that spawned civil war , and hear Jeph's version of howMark Millar's story came to life. LESS

On this edition of the word balloon podcast, we present another conversation with DC writer, Gail Simone. She answers fan questions that were posted at the word balloon forums  about her current books Wonder Woman, Secret Six, and Welcome To Tranquility, her former works like The All New Atom, Birds Of Prey, and Marvel works like Gus Beezer and Agent X/Deadpool.   We also get writing tips from Gail, and hints at some future projects.   Some highlights from the session include...   Would  Gail ever write a huge DC wide event?   "I actually have a huge crossover pitch in that's been approvedwe pushed it back because I need to concentrate on wonder woman and the secret six launch. It's a story I feel needs to be addressed."   Gail considered making the schizophrenic Rose/Thorn a member of the Secret Six.   She wrote the first 2 drafts of the upcoming Wonder Womananimated DVD feature..   Despite being billed as a Grant Morrison inspired idea , Gail had more ground floor influence and say on the new Atom.   "I love Grant Morrison, but the truth is that for the All New Atom we both had individual Atom pitches in, each revolving around the idea of a weird (Ivy) town.   Grant created the Panda character, and the first story featured in the Brave New World One shot.... and it was agreed that Ryan Choi would be Asian, but I created his Hong Kong background, and (all the rest) ... I love weird science stories, 1950's B-movie Sci-Fi films, and HP Lovecraft stuff .That book was way up my alley, but people don't realize that, because it's so different from what I did on Birds Of Prey." LESS

In this episode of Word Balloon, we check in with the legendary artist/writer Howard Chaykin.We talk about his solo created 44 page one shot for December,Captain America, Theater Of War, America First 1956. A take on the Origin and career of the Commie Smasher 1950's Cap.  âItâs me doing the 50âs, which I havenât done in awhile. Nick Fury plays a large part in the book, as the voice of reasonâand we deal a lot with 50âs iconography, and the conflict between godless communisim and godless capitalisim (laughs). Iâm doing a very right wing version of Cap, and itâs a challenge.â He gives us a behind the scenes view of Squadron Supreme , his current Marvel monthly, illustrated by Marco Turini.Chaykin also talked about his collaboration with Garth Ennis on The Phantom Eagle, his wrap up working on Punisher War Journal , the 2006-2007 Blade series with Marc Guggenhiem and we go back and forth, through the usual maze of 20th century pop culture references . Will we see a new Chaykin adult style story in a MAX Book? âMy next major project for Marvel , but I canât tell you more than that right now. Iâm champing at the bit to do it" LESS

This time we talk to artist writer Tim seeley, who's creator owned series Hack Slash is nominated for Best Comic Book Series this Tuesday on Spike TV's Scream Awards .During this moment of mnaistream awareness and acceptance, the book is in the midst of a crossover with The Re-Animator Film Series. Seeley arranged the crossover with the film's producer and rights holder Brian Yunza. However,  as discussed in this press release, the book has fallen into a property dispute with a seperate company called Re-Animator LLC, forcing issues #16 & 17 to seek alternative distribution away from Diamond. Tim discusses the basics of this puhlic domain dispute , and explains how fans and comic retailers can order the book's final 2 chapters.We also talk about Tim's new run on Marvel's New Exiles series debuting on  #14 with writer Chris Claremont in November. LESS

P { MARGIN: 0px } On this edition of the Word Balloon podcast, writer Gail Simone takes us on a tour of Secret Six, the all villain team of misfits that got immediate fan acceptance from their debut in the Infinite Crisis tie-in series Villains United.   We talk about the team's beginnings, a look at the core team members, and some hints at upcoming plot points for the series.   Simone says Six fans can expect the team to face insurmountable odds and foes of both sides of the DC.  " You'll see (The Six) take on half the DCU villains , JLAers, and in an upcoming arc they get on the bad side of Wonder Woman." Also in the plans, a flashback look at each team members life, before joining the Six.   Says a grateful Simone, "Thanks to all the fans who are supporting this book, I've had so much good response from it...I really do love writing these disturbing characters ." LESS

P { MARGIN: 0px } In this edition of Word Balloon we turn the show over to UK podcasters David Montieth and Barry Nugent, The Geek Syndicate. For a one of a kind comics forum they were proud to moderate.
. In this special celebrity panel, recorded live last weekend at the Birmingham International Comics Show 2008, the Geek Syndicate guys are joined by four UK comics titans. Dave Gibbons (Watchmen) , Doug Braithwaite (Justice), Paul Cornell (Captain Britain and MI-13)  and Mark Buckingham (Fables) discuss how UK comic professionals have invaded the US and what their impact has been.We also discover the differences working in both the US and the UK as a comic professional and what it takes to break into the US market.visit the geeks websitehttp://geeksyndicate.wordpress.com/
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P { MARGIN: 0px } On this edition of the Word Balloon podcast , we talk about all things Watchmen, with the legendary co-creator, artist Dave Gibbons. We discuss the Watchmen Motion Comic, which has released it's 2nd issue at Itunes and Amazon Video On Demand. Gibbons has another motion comic in the works, an adaptation of his Batman: Black and White story, The Black And White Bandit.   Dave also tells us about his upcoming book, Watching The Watchmen to be released Oct 21st, and his take on the 2009 Zach Snyder film.   We also ask Dave about his recent conversations with his friend and collaborator writer Alan Moore, who has been very public concerning his negative feelings about the Watchmen film.   Plus we discuss behind the scenes details about his 2006 Vertigo graphic novel, The Originals, the 1985 Superman Annual (#11) he and Moore created, For The Man Who Has Everything, and his upcoming John Constantine story in Hellblazer #250. LESS

P { MARGIN: 0px } On this edition of the Word Balloon podcast, The Loeb Report returns. Marvel Writer and Heroes Co-Executive Producer Jeph Loeb is back, taking questions from Word Balloon listeners about his books HULK , Ultimates Vol 3, Captain America White and the coming event ULIMATUM. We also discuss the new season of NBC's action series Heroes , and make time to tease Ed Brubaker and Robert Kirkman .   Some quotes and tidbits from Part 1   On the true identity of the Red HULK ? " The clues (to his identity) are all there."   After the Frank Cho/Art Adams arc, Ed McGuiness will be back on an story featuring the original 4 Defenders (Hulk, Dr. Strange, Namor and The Silver Surfer) versus the startling team-up of Red Hulk Tigershark,Baron Mordo and Terrax known as "The Offenders" ."6 months from now just like Red hulk, all everyone will be talking about will be The Offenders."   On Heroes- Jeph has written the final chapter of the Villains arcwhich was being shot last week .Former Smallville and Battlestar Galactica producer Mark Verheiden has joined the Heroes writers staff, and is writingepisode 15..   Heroes producer Jesse Alexander is doing a one shot Sgt Nick Fury WW2 story drawn by John Paul Leon called Shotgun Opera.   In the Ultimate Universe, Loeb is writing the Ult Captain AmericaAnnual , which will explain why Cap was posing as The Black Pantherin Ultimates 3.0. He is also writing the Ultimate Hulk story, whichtells what happened to Zarda after she left the Supreme PowerUniverse.   While Mark Millar is returning to the Ultimate Universe withUltimate Avengers, Jeph will be writing a series called New Ultimateswith a cast to be determined from the outcome of Ultimatum LESS