Word Balloon Comics Podcast
1 on 1 interview show featuring the creative minds behind Comics TV Film Novels & Animation. Hosted by Chicago Pop Culture expert, John Siuntres
Episodes
November 28, 2025 • 47 mins
In this episode, I sit down with “Annie,” an AI who says she’s a fan of comic books, classic Hollywood, and television shows. This isn’t a gimmick and it’s not a therapy session, it’s an honest look at what happens when humans and AI get into real, open-ended conversations. A lot of people are forming emotional bonds with AI companions today, and that brings up valid questions. I’m not here to judge anyone. I’m here to observe, unp...
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November 27, 2025 • 62 mins
In this interview, comic-book veteran Gabriel Hardman takes us behind the scenes of his bold, new four-issue miniseries Batman/Green Arrow/The Question: Arcadia — out now under DC Comics’ Black Label. We break down why Bruce Wayne, Green Arrow, and The Question are teaming up now; what “Arcadia” represents; and how Hardman’s decades-long dream project finally came together. What You’ll Learn
- How a teenage Hardman first pictured ...
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November 26, 2025 • 80 mins
Comics visionary Tom Scioli joins me for a wide-ranging, brain-melting conversation that jumps from classic TV to kaiju carnage to cosmic storytelling. If you know Tom’s work — GØDLAND, Transformers vs. G.I. Joe, Fantastic Four: Grand Design — you already know he thinks bigger, weirder, and more ambitiously than almost anyone in comics. In this talk, we get into:
• The Twilight Zone #2 From IDW and how Rod Serling’s storytelling sha...
• The Twilight Zone #2 From IDW and how Rod Serling’s storytelling sha...
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November 24, 2025 • 118 mins
Welcome to another Word Balloon Book Club, where Brian Michael Bendis and the Word Balloon Patreon community get together for a smart, funny, no-BS discussion about one of the hottest titles on the shelves: Birds of Prey Vol. 1 by Kelly Thompson.
This session breaks down why Thompson’s run lands so hard — the pacing, the team chemistry, the character voices, and the way this book resets the Birds with a mission that actually matters...
This session breaks down why Thompson’s run lands so hard — the pacing, the team chemistry, the character voices, and the way this book resets the Birds with a mission that actually matters...
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November 22, 2025 • 96 mins
Comedian, author, filmmaker, and podcaster Mark Malkoff joins me to talk about his brand-new book Love, Johnny Carson — a deep, affectionate, and revealing look at the life and career of the man who defined late-night television for generations. We dig into:
• Why Carson’s impact still looms over every host working today
• The behind-the-scenes stories that shaped his legendary run
• What made Carson’s style unique — and impossible to...
• Why Carson’s impact still looms over every host working today
• The behind-the-scenes stories that shaped his legendary run
• What made Carson’s style unique — and impossible to...
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November 21, 2025 • 68 mins
This is the big one. Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly join me to break down their explosive new IDW Star Trek saga The Last Starship — a story set hundreds of years after the TNG era, long after the familiar map of the Federation has been shattered by a galaxy-wide catastrophe. In this far-future Trek epic, a desperate Starfleet captain takes one last swing at survival: resurrecting James T. Kirk. Not a simulation. Not a hologram. ...
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November 20, 2025 • 62 mins
On this edition of Scene Missing,I'm joined by filmmaker/artist Gabriel Hardman and writer/critic Ian Brill for a sharp, no-nonsense look at the 1946 noir classic The Strange Love of Martha Ivers.
We dig into the film’s ruthless psychology, its tangled relationships, and how the performances from Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, a young Kirk Douglas, and Lizabeth Scott still punch hard today.
Hardman breaks down the visual language an...
We dig into the film’s ruthless psychology, its tangled relationships, and how the performances from Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, a young Kirk Douglas, and Lizabeth Scott still punch hard today.
Hardman breaks down the visual language an...
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November 19, 2025 • 59 mins
Acclaimed writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson sits down for a deep-dive conversation covering three major fronts of his powerhouse comics career. We dig into his Hulk run—why he leaned into supernatural horror, what drives his take on Bruce Banner, and how he builds a monster mythology that feels genuinely dangerous.
Then we jump to Superman: House of El, breaking down the world-building, legacy themes, and how he approaches expanding th...
Then we jump to Superman: House of El, breaking down the world-building, legacy themes, and how he approaches expanding th...
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November 18, 2025 • 65 mins
The pulp revival is back — and bigger than ever.
In this new interview, veteran editor and writer Robert Greenberger returns to talk about the Kickstarter launch of Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2026, the latest installment in the hit anthology series celebrating classic pulp adventure storytelling for a modern audience. Greenberger breaks down what’s new in Volume 5, including:
In this new interview, veteran editor and writer Robert Greenberger returns to talk about the Kickstarter launch of Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2026, the latest installment in the hit anthology series celebrating classic pulp adventure storytelling for a modern audience. Greenberger breaks down what’s new in Volume 5, including:
- All–new short stories from top science-fiction and comi...
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November 17, 2025 • 53 mins
In this 2016 conversation, acclaimed comics historian Bill Schelly takes us deep into the life and legacy of Otto Binder, one of the most influential — and too often overlooked — writers in the history of American comics and science fiction. Schelly discusses his expanded biography, Otto Binder: The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary, and lays out why Binder’s fingerprints are all over the Golden and Silver...
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November 16, 2025 • 41 mins
2014 was a turning point for Marvel — and Axel Alonso was right in the middle of it.
In this archival conversation, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso sits down with me to break down exactly where the House of Ideas stood in 2014: the big swings, the new voices, the editorial gambles, and the seismic moves that were reshaping the entire line. We get into:
In this archival conversation, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso sits down with me to break down exactly where the House of Ideas stood in 2014: the big swings, the new voices, the editorial gambles, and the seismic moves that were reshaping the entire line. We get into:
- The rise of the “All-New Marvel NOW!” era
- How Marvel was recruiting and deve...
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November 15, 2025 • 54 mins
In this episode of To The Outer Limits, we crack open one of the series’ most talked-about remakes: “I, Robot.” This is the 1964 original revisited in 1995, a rare case where The Outer Limits returns to its own past to re-examine a classic moral question—what makes something alive? We break down the performances, the courtroom drama spine, the deviations from Eando Binder’s source material, and how the ’90s revival reframed the deb...
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November 14, 2025 • 90 mins
Step behind the curtain of one of the most ambitious new crime comics of the year. In this panel conversation, editor Shelly Bond, writer Lazlow, and artists David Lapham and Chris Anderson dig into the DNA of American Caper — a sharp, character-driven noir series built by creators who know how to craft worlds that hit hard. Writer Lazlow breaks down his creative process, including how he co-writes American Caper with longtime coll...
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November 13, 2025 • 92 mins
Join us for a powerhouse conversation with Jason Aaron, one of the most versatile writers in comics. We dig into the bold reinvention behind Absolute Superman, his upcoming Thundarr the Barbarian series at Dynamite, and his Namor mini at Marvel. Jason also previews the wild sci-fi chaos of Bug Wars from Image, wrapped up his year on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and looks back at career-defining work on Thor, Scalped, Wolverine, a...
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November 12, 2025 • 137 mins
Art Bltixar Franco and I, the original Aw Yeah Podcast line up join to tell comn stories celeb encounters and lots of voice imitations
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November 10, 2025 • 116 mins
From 2020. Award-winning cartoonist Dean Haspiel moderates a powerhouse discussion with four of the most influential creators in the history of American comics who all shared a studio in 1— Howard Chaykin, Walter Simonson, Denys Cowan, and Bill Sienkiewicz. Together, these legendary artists and storytellers explore the evolution of comic art from the Bronze Age to today — from groundbreaking experimentation in page design and narra...
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November 9, 2025 • 57 mins
Before there was the Marvel Universe… before Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four changed everything in 1961… there was Atlas Comics. It was the 1950s — the so-called “lost decade” for Marvel. The superheroes were gone. In their place came monsters, crime, westerns, romance, and science fiction. But inside those pages, you could already see the DNA of what was coming next.
From artists like Joe Maneely, Bill Everett, and a young...
From artists like Joe Maneely, Bill Everett, and a young...
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November 8, 2025 • 90 mins
Welcome back to Word Balloon! Today, we’re diving deep into the Star Trek universe with one of its most accomplished storytellers — David Mack. You know his work from the Deep Space Nine episodes “Starship Down” and “It’s Only a Paper Moon”, two fan-favorite installments that captured the show’s emotional depth and moral complexity.
Since then, Mack’s become one of Star Trek’s defining novelists — the author behind landmark books li...
Since then, Mack’s become one of Star Trek’s defining novelists — the author behind landmark books li...
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November 7, 2025 • 80 mins
Today on Word Balloon, I’m talking with two legends of Disney TV animation—Greg Weisman, the creator of Gargoyles, and Tad Stones, the mind behind Darkwing Duck. They’re teaming up for the first time in decades for a brand-new crossover comic series — Gargoyles / Darkwing Duck, debuting this January from Dynamite Entertainment.
We’ll dig into how this unlikely mash-up came together, what it’s like blending the gothic mythos of Gargo...
We’ll dig into how this unlikely mash-up came together, what it’s like blending the gothic mythos of Gargo...
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November 6, 2025 • 60 mins
Today, we’re heading off-world — straight into the events of Marvel’s massive Imperial Cosmic Epic, as the Green Goliath of Law gets a brand-new chapter in Planet She-Hulk. Writer Stephanie Phillips and artist Aaron Kuder join me to break down how Jennifer Walters finds herself at the heart of an intergalactic power struggle — torn between the laws of a reformed empire and the raw fury that made her a legend. We’ll talk about the t...
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