Category Archives: Graphic Policy Radio

X-Men X-Over with Referential’s Dr. Khaliden Nas

A Team-Up with Referential Podcast‘s Dr. Khaliden Nas to talk through our feelings about the state of X-Men comics. The first half, taped in September covers the Fall of X and the end of the X-Men’s ‘First Krakoan Age‘. In December we met again to talk about the state of the X-Office and relaunched slate of X-Men comics under the ‘From The Ashes‘ banner. 

Follow me on Bluesky – @Levin

In This Episode:

  • Fall of X (also hear my earlier coverage of here)
    * From the Ashes (Spoilers starts at 47:46)
    * Kieron Gillen & Lucas Werneck Immortal X-Men, X-Men: Forever & Rise of the Powers of X
    * Gerry Duggan and Russel Daughterman’s Fall of the House of X, Hellfire Gala 3
  • Invincible Iron Man & Uncanny Avengers
    * Al Ewing & Luciano Vecchio Resurrection of Magneto & X-Men: Red
    * Si Spurrier’s X-Men Blue: Origins
    * Jonathan Hickman
    * Gail Simone & David Marquez Uncanny X-Men
    * Jed McKay & Ryan Stegman X-Men
    * Jackson Lanzing / Collin Kelly & Francesco Mortarino NYX
    * Eve L. Ewing and Carmen Carnero Exceptional X-Men
    * Solos!
    * No, we will NOT call Ide “Temper”
    * Democracy in the 2nd Krakoan Age
    * The End of Hope [Summers]
    Kate Pryde and the gates as bi metaphor revisited
  • Reading Warden Ellis
    * Remembering Dr. Moira MacTaggart
    * Assimilation Or Unity
  • Marvel not understanding why Hydra!Cap failed but Gerry Duggan makes the best of it
    * #XSpoilers and fandom meta

    One more time, Krakoans. For the children!

Spencer Ackerman on Writing Iron Man

Is Tony Stark a comrade? Spencer Ackerman, award winning national security journalist and author of the book “Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump”, brings his knowledge of geopolitics, corporate power, and deep Iron Man lore to writing the new Iron Man series. 

This podcast is for folks new to the character as well as long time fans. We open with an overview of why I loved this series and a discussion of Spencer’s inspirations before delving into spoilers of the first three outstanding issues.

We’ve got: 

  • Busting anti-union thugs
  • Boardroom Warfare
  • Feats of engineering
  • Survivor guilt 

And some amazing pulls for bad guys that will please Iron fans and X-Men fans alike. 

Follow Spencer on Bluesky – https://bsky.app/profile/attackerman.bsky.social
Spencer’s Newsletter: https://www.forever-wars.com/ 
Elana Levin https://bsky.app/profile/levin.bsky.social 

Graphic Policy Radio: X-Men and the MLK Legacy Roundtable

One of our most listened to episodes of Graphic Policy Radio discussed the X-Men and their use as an allegory of the civil rights, it covered the series throughout its many incarnations and writers. The discussion also veered into the depiction of minorities in “comic” entertainment and Marvel’s continuity. In honor of MLK Day, we present that podcast discussion.

Guests joining in on the conversation were:

  • Steve Attewell – A political & union activist, Steve holds a PhD in History from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the founder and writer of Race for the Iron Throne as well as The Realignment Project
  • David Brothers – David works for a comics publisher, blogs about stuff at 4thletter.net, & tweets about everything at @hermanos. Find his life story at iamdavidbrothers.com.
  • Gene Demby – Gene Demby is an American writer and journalist & the lead blogger for NPR’s Code Switch team.
  • Emma Houxbois – Emma is a queer blogger for hire out of Vancouver, BC most recently attached to Girls Read Comics. Follow her @emmahouxbois
  • Kendra James – a blogger who writes on race, comics, television & more for Racialicious, follow her @wriglied

You can listen to the archive above or go here and download it for on the go.

Star Trek Lower Decks: The Final Season

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“I love that Star Trek continues to change and adapt. And that includes an animated comedy show,” John Arminio

Film critic and lifelong Trekkie John Arminio joins me to say farewell to Lower Decks, the animated Star Trek series we’ve grown to love.  

We open with a spoiler-free conversation about how this show won us over. You’ll have plenty of warning before we enter a full spoilers, in depth conversation about the series’ final season. 

Listen to John speaking about Voyager on Mission Log, the Official Podcast of the Roddenberry Foundation.https://www.missionlogpodcast.com/1159-2/ 

Listen to his film podcast Popcorn Eschaton https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zebras-in-america/id1220264878 

Read his comics reviews and metal memes at https://www.instagram.com/quasarsniffer/ 

Join me on Bluesky @ Levin https://bsky.app/profile/levin.bsky.social

And stay tuned for an upcoming episode of Deep Space Dive where cohost Sarah Daniel Rasher and I will discuss the Lower Decks/Deep Space Nine crossover episode. 

Batman: Caped Crusader with Leslie Lee III of Struggle Session

“Batman spends more time fighting the cops than helping them” – Leslie Lee III

“The most corrupt Gotham Police Department of any Batman media” — Me…and I am here for that! 

Animated Batman is some of the best Batman. Does this new series from legends like Paul Dini, Ed Brubaker, and Greg Rucka deliver?

Leslie Lee III of the leftist culture podcast Sruggle Session returns to talk about Batman Caped Crusader‘s aesthetics, politics and reinventions. 

Looking for ways to volunteer this election? There’s https://keyboards.forkamala.fyi/  for keyboard warrior and I’m happy to connect folks to virtual phone banking or text banking opportunities –especialy ones supporting grassroots orgs, fighting voter suppression or working on local races. You an ping me https://bsky.app/profile/levin.bsky.social or even (for this purpose) https://x.com/Elana_Brooklyn  We all can do something to fight fascism (even if you’re reading this after the election). 

“A Chinese James Bond” The Manchurian with writer Pornsak Pichetshote

“less about, China versus America.. what he really believes is the power of community”. Award winning co-creator of The Good Asiansak Pichetshote returns to talk about his visonary new project for Image Comics: a series of five one-shot comic books titled The Horizon Experiment. Each has a unique creative team inventing an original protagonist from a marginalized background set in genres such as horror or espionage, or inspired by icons like Indiana Jones or John Constantine.

Pichetshote’s entry in the series, The Manchurian, is more than a James Bond who “just so happens to be Chinese”- he is a spy whose identity is core to the narrative. There’s also Finders/Keepers from Vita Ayala and Skyler Partridge in which a Boricua archaeologist returns an artifact from a museum to the people from whom it was stolen.

The Manchurian, with artists Terry and Rachel Dodson is out now as is The Sacred Damned and more on the way from creative teams that bridge comics, literature, film and television. 

Here’s my 2021 convo about The Good Asian with sak Pichetshote and Alexandre Tefenkgi.

Kieron Gillen: X-Men Forever and The Power Fantasy

“The philosophy that leads to AI is the same philosophy as 19th Century imperialism and colonialism,” Kieron Gillen. Writer Kieron Gillen returns to reflect on the end of his time contributing to the X-Men’s First Krakoan Age and the start of The Power Fantasy, his new series with Caspar Wijngaard for Image Comics

Subscribe to Kieron’s delightful newsletter (especially if you’re into TTRPGs) https://buttondown.com/KieronGillen

ICYMI Kieron and I spoke about the start of Immortal X-Men back in 2022  https://bit.ly/ImmortalX 

We spoke about his previous comic with Casper, Peter Canon Thunderbolt in 2021 https://bit.ly/DieCanon 

He’s one of my favorite guests (and favorite writers) so you’ll enjoy these! 

Psst hang out with cool comics folks on BlueSky — I’m @ Levin https://bsky.app/profile/levin.bsky.social 

Kieron is @KieronGillen https://bsky.app/profile/kierongillen.bsky.social

Alex Ross and Steve Darnall talk Uncle Sam: Special Election Edition

“Alex Ross’ work is really like outstanding community theater” – Steve Darnall and Alex Ross join me to talk about the rerelease of their groundbreaking policital graphic novel, Uncle Sam as well as Alex’s Fantastic Four: Full Circle

“Timed for this year’s election, UNCLE SAM by Steve Darnall and Alex Ross makes its return after nearly a decade of being out of print. It’s a vibrant, hallucinatory tour of modern America—the story of a star–spangled, ragged vagrant named Sam who is guided by the voices in his head and his own fractured memories. Absorbed by history–traveling visions of America’s dark past, Uncle Sam struggles to remember his true identity and piece together the scattered clues of his own experiences in this deep and thoughtful look at America’s checkered past.”

Alex Ross studied illustration at the American Academy of Art, then honed his craft as a storyboard artist before entering the comics field. His miniseries Marvels opened a wider acceptance for painted comics. In 1996 he produced the equally successful Kingdom Come for DC Comics. Ross is the writer/artist of the award winning Fantastic Four: Full Circle.

Steve Darnall first worked with Alex Ross on the Human Torch story that served as the inspiration for the award-winning 1993 series Marvels. Steve served as a consultant on the movie Being the Ricardos and Ken Burns’s documentary Country Music. He is also the editor of Nostalgia Digest magazine, and the host of two weekly radio shows dedicated to the golden age of radio. Nostalgia Digest

Hazel Newlevant: “Becoming Who We Are” and Protecting Each Other

“I really want to protect my ability to keep making my gay little comics. That’s the important thing to me.”- Cartoonist Hazel Newlevant makes art that shows us how to protect our future and understand our past. Whether its their new anthology Becoming Who We Are: Real Stories About Growing Up Trans or their free zine, What’s Up With Covid and How to Protect Yourself 2024 Edition (featuring advanced safety tips!) their work combines personal narative, diligent research, and charming art. 

Visit https://newlevant.com/ 

Get a copy of the free zine https://newlevant.com/covidzine

My video on how to get your mask to fit you better https://bit.ly/BendNoseWire

Take action against mask bans and more — https://covidadvocacyny.org/ 

X-Men ’97 Finale: Magneto and Xavier’s Meet Cute in the Mind Palace

“Mr. Sinister is obsessed with genetic purity and then this disaster bi bowling league shows up and stomps his ass,” – Artist and Art Director Ethan Gould joins us to talk about the finale arc of Disney‘s X-Men ’97 animated series. Episodes: Bright Eyes – Tolerance Is Extinction. 

We go deep on Bastian and Operation Zero Tolerance in the animated series and comics. The original 1992 animated series was a huge influence on Ethan’s work so we discuss it at greater length here than I have so far on the podcast.

Don’t miss my conversation with the Great Steven Attewell on the X-Men ’97 premier.

Sarah Daniel Rasher on the mid-season episodes 

Check out Ethan’s art and design for the Stillfleet TTRPG where you will soon be able to check out The Sometimes Kingdom on Twitch etc. 

Portfolio: https://cara.app/gouldiniart and https://www.instagram.com/spectralhouse/

Get your Magneto Made Some Valid Points T via X-Plain the X-men podcast’s Teepublic.

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