Podcasts and swamp creatures.

§ June 15th, 2011 § Filed under question time, swamp thing § 10 Comments

Okay, one last Twitter question from last night, which came when I was plotting to destroy my enemies sound asleep, from TheMeanGeek:

“do you listen to podcasts? which ones and why? totally self-serving by the way”

“Self-serving,” he says, because he has his own podcast which I haven’t listened to yet, but I promise I’ll give it a try!

Anyway, I do listen to a handful of podcasts, which include the following:

  • War Rocket Ajax – the only comics podcast I listen to, mostly because I usually don’t like listening to people who aren’t me talk about comics. But I like the hosts (Chris Sims and Matt Wilson, and former host Eugene Ahn), I enjoy their senses of humor, they have good interviews, and generally cut through the usual fan-nonsense that pollutes most comics discussion. Or they completely wallow in it to the point of hilarity.
  • Look at His Butt – a title that may take some explaining if you’re not familiar with the podcast, I realize. It’s a William Shatner-centric Star Trek podcast, with the “his butt” in question being Mr. Shatner’s own. The two gals in charge of the site, LT and Jungle Kitty, have a lot of fun talking about Bill, about Trek, about Trek conventions, about Trek merchandise, and some more about Bill. Always an enjoyable listen.

    Also, a couple of years back they were kind enough to interview me about my own Trek fandom, so feel free to give that a listen if you missed it the first time.

  • As some folks may have gathered (more from my Twitter feed than from this site, I’m guessing), I have an interest in science and skeptical matters. A couple of podcasts along those lines that I enjoy are the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe (a longer show with interviews, discussions of current skeptical topics, and general shenaniganery), and Skeptoid (runs about ten minutes, usually devoted to discussing a single topic per episode). (Also, I won’t list them here, but I occasionally listen to a couple of pro-paranormal ‘n’ woo podcasts just to exercise the ol’ “pick out the logical fallacy” muscle.)
  • A couple of comedy podcasts I enjoy: Sklarbro Country, featuring identical twin comedians Randy and Jason Sklar, and the Pod F. Tompkast with Paul F. Tompkins.

That’s not all of them, but those are the main ones I check out regularly. Keep meaning to start one myself, but that would require, you know, time. And effort. And probably equipment.

A question or two from “White Lantern Alec Holland” from yesterday’s post:

“I need a complete accurate list of of all of DC Comics letters pages of the last forty years responding to previous Swamp Thing related guest-appearances and intros in these titles that I have yet to follow, including [LIST OMITTED]”

Oh, Lordy, I don’t know. To be honest, it never occurred to me to collection Swamp Thing’s mentions in letter columns, though I suppose in some cases, if it was a series I was buying regularly, I got them by default. So…um, I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

He also asks

“What did you think of Garbage Man vs. Mossy Man in Weird Worlds #6?”

I’d actually given up on the Weird World series, but Tim O’Neil mentioned to me on the Twitter that there was a Man-Thing-ish type critter who popped up in that last issue, so I gave the comic a quick poke-through at the shop. My general feeling is that this one story felt more like a classic ’70s-style Marvel/DC horror comic than the other “Garbage Man” installments. More even than the (relatively) recent Swamp Thing/Man-Thing comics themselves, which were too much of the Vertigo Comics generation to really be evocative of the simpler stories of times past. The basic story of a misunderstood monster befriended by a child is straight out of an old House of Mystery. Or the Gamera films, for that matter, I realize, but this particular execution of the plot did give me that slight twinge of nostalgia.

So long as I’m in a question-answerin’ mood, if you have any lingering queries, go ahead and pop ’em in the comments and I’ll give ’em a go. In the meantime, I’ll just be sittin’ here approximatin’ a casual speakin’ voice by replacin’ letters with apostrophes.

10 Responses to “Podcasts and swamp creatures.”

  • White Lantern Alec Holland says:

    “To be honest, it never occurred to me to collection Swamp Thing’s mentions in letter columns, though I suppose in some cases, if it was a series I was buying regularly, I got them by default. So…um, I’ll have to get back to you on that one.”

    I was hoping that would be the case! Thanks in advance for whatever info you come up with. :)

  • The Mutt says:

    Henderson!

  • Thelonious_Nick says:

    Why do all these big events that the comics companies are always pushing on us sound so awesome ahead of time but end up being so god-awful when they actually occur?

  • Moonrock says:

    Having just picked up some back issues of Secret Wars II, which I hadn’t read since it first came out years ago, I was curious if I was the only one who thinks the Beyonder looked like Jim Shooter with a jheri(sp?) curl? Mike, do you think Shooter was egotistic enough to write himself in SWII as an omnipotent being?

  • Rob says:

    Mike Thing: If you like the Tompkast you should give Thrilling Adventure Hour a try. It’s an old-timey radio parody podcast and one of the recurring shows is “Beyond Belief” about a married pair of drunk supernatural detectives in a Nick & Nora vein. Paul F. Tompkins plays the husband and it’s consistently funny. The other shows take a couple of episodes to grow (it took a while, but I now love “Sparks Nevada, Marshall on Mars” another recurring show), but if you like Tompkins I really think you’ll dig the Beyond Belief shows.

  • BobH says:

    I think the answer to any question beginning with “was Jim Shooter egotistical enough to…” is automatically “Yes”.

  • Roger Green says:

    Did you see this Swamp Thing item?
    http://srbissette.com/?p=12288

  • CW says:

    Twitter? They have that on computers now?

  • Professor Booty says:

    Are you watching Game of Thrones, Mike? On a scale of 1 to 10, how awesome is it?
    Do you wear any clothes with Swamp Thing on them? Did Mike Sterling ever dress as Swamp Thing for Halloween (or just to work or something!) and are there pictures of it? If so, how come I never seen them here?

  • Snark Shark says:

    “do you think Shooter was egotistic enough to write himself in SWII as an omnipotent being?”

    HELL YES!