Tim Across America, part ten! The finish line of Tim’s trip is Los Angeles, home of our friend Dale Wilson, of BuyIndieComics and DWAP Productions. Dale hooks us up with Robert Roach, comics creator and Hollywood storyboarder. He fills us in on ways that storyboarding is much different from comics, and also talks about the importance of getting the details in your story right — regardless of medium.
For the Southern California edition of Ask a Retailer, a talk with Howard Chen at Legacy Comics and Cards in Glendale. Unlike most of the other Tim Across America retailers, Legacy still has plenty of manga on the shelves. But to what extent are those books flying off the shelves?
Finally, Tim and Dale are joined by Stephenny Godfrey (“Panorama”, “Two Buses”) and Richard Hamilton (“Return of the Super Pimps”, “Miserable Dastards”) to discuss the L.A. comics community and revisit a topic from the Chicago episode: should you make a comic as a step toward getting your story on film?
Also, don’t miss Griffin the Dog in his podcast debut!
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In the early ’90s, Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s From Hell, based on the true story of Jack the Ripper, was published in issues, and collected in 1999. Kumar and Dana find that, upon re-reading (or re-re-re-reading), new questions still arise. What’s the story about? Why does the killer sometimes come off as a wise prophet? Many scenes are simply puzzling and need sufficient time to unpack. And then there’s the Star Wars reference…
FLASHBACK! Many comics have been adapted to movies, but few have tried to reproduce the experience of actually reading a comic. These two did: Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy, and Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s Sin City. Tim, Mulele, Paul, and newcomer Rod discuss. Also: Paul and Mulele give Miller’s The Spirit a quickie review. (Originally published August 24, 2009)
Villains we love to hate! Villains who could have been good guys but made bad choices! What makes the more interesting villain? Are the two types mutually exclusive? Why are some villains really compelling, while others become the butt of jokes? What makes a villain menacing? How is it different in comics compared to movies or TV? Tim and newcomer 
How do theatre and comics overlap? How have they influenced each other? How is an actor’s life similar to that of a comic creator? Tim covered some of this ground with 
In San Francisco! Tim finally meets in person some of the 
Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer was part of the early ’80s wave of indy comics that brought us 
FLASHBACK: THE PULSE-POUNDING ORIGIN! We revisit the very first time, more than five years ago, that Tim, Mulele, and Brandon recorded their comics discussion and put it up on the Net. The episode was originally published Dec. 5, 2005. Topics include the trailer for Superman Returns, Revelations by Paul Jenkins & Humberto Ramos, and Mike Mignola passing off art duties on Hellboy. Oh, and, of course, Star Wars.
FIVE YEARS of “Deconstructing Comics”! We celebrate with a retro lineup (Tim, Mulele, and Brandon, plus Kumar) discussing the topic that we always used to accidentally end up talking about anyway: Star Wars! Specifically, Dark Horse’s