Planet Comic Book Radio episodes #4 & 5 up on the website

I've negleted to mention this before but my radio show now has it's own dedicated website:PlanetComicBookRadio.Com. While still found on the Perspective Radio internet podcast, having our own site for the radio show is something I've wanted since we started. Now you can listen to any of our previous episodes (5 of them as of this post). We also have profiles, polls, and soon, reviews of comics and comic's-derived media!

Last week, 12-18-07, we recorded Episode #5, the Podcast Before Christmas!
My guest was Alan Rutledge, a comic dealer who specializes in back issues, particularly from the Silver and Bronze Ages of comics (my favorites!). Alan is an old friend of mine, I've been buying from him for over 5 years. He has a booth at a local show called Frank & Son Collectible Show, kind of like an indoor swap meet for comic books/toys/manga/anime/sports collectibles, etc. It's open on wednesday evening and all day saturday.

Alan's appearance allowed me to brind a new type of guest on the show. Not a comic creator or author of a book relating to comics, but a vendor. And being a back issue dealer, that opened up the topic to interesting aspects of comic books. We talked about the grading scales for comics and how the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide sets the standard for the whole industry. We also talked about the various eras of comics and the market forces that led to the creation of the Direct Market. In the interest of trying to create a fun show, I also asked Alan to grade some comics, live on the podcast! I handed him my copies of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #13 & 21, ROM #1 and even slipped in a copy of the very first EL MUERTO comic book from 1998!


It was the photocopied, b&w NUMERO UNO EDITION. I think I made a total of 300 or 400 of those babies, and to this day only have about 5 of them myself!

Also on the show, in keeping with the Holiday Season, I performed the first ever recital of my El Muerto Christmas poem, THE NIGHT BEFORE NAVIDAD! (The astute JAVZILLA readers will remember the poem from last year...I've slightly edited the poem to reflect the final version I read on the show) I'll be honest, I was a little nervous about reciting the poem, my fear being that I would muck it up! But it came out good, and again, I'm always looking for ways to make the show fresh and original and fun.

Alan was in-studio, which is always nice because it really makes it feel like he and I are just talking like we do at his booth. Two guys chatting about comics!

On Episode #4, 12-11-07, I had the oppurtunity to interview Michael Aushenker, an L.A.-based cartoonist who's been publishing his own books for over a dozen years. Mike's also been a great friend of mine for about 10 years, and in fact I remember telling him about my soon-to-debut comic book EL MUERTO when I was introduced to him by another friend of mine (and future guest), Rafael Navarro. Mike's most well-known character is EL GATO, CRIME MANGLER, an explosively hilarious book that's half Three Stooges madcap comedy and half slam-bang superhero farce.


Mike and I have collaborated over the years, contributing artwork in the form of short stories or pin-ups to one another's books. Mike also contributed an EL Muerto painting to the Galeria del Muerto found on the DVD special features to THE DEAD ONE.
His interview on my show gives you a pretty good idea of the man's work over the last 15 years. He's currently a contributing writer to BACK ISSUE magazine, published by Two Morrows.

Mike was another smooth and easy interview to do. He was also in-studio so again, it was just like me and him sitting around talking about comics! Of course, I have to make sure I keep somewhat to a format. I do want people listening to gain a clear picture of the work my guests do. But as long as I can conduct the interviews in a conversational setting, I'll be happy with the final product.