About
Hey, there.
My name’s Joe Killian, and I’ll be one of your hosts here.
I fell for comics hard with my first fix - Silver Surfer #50, 1991.
(It was a beautifully garish example of the comic industry’s brief love affair with limited edition, collector’s item, foil embossed, glow in the dark cover ridiculousness. I’m not far enough away from it, yet, for it to be much more than mildly amusing - but one day it’s going to be as distinctive and evocative of its time as Steve Ditko’s psychedelia-tinged 60s work and Wally Wood’s crazy space-scapes from the 1950s.)
I’ve been writing about comics almost as long as I’ve been reading them - and I’ve been lucky enough, as a professional journalist, to keep my hand in the medium a bit -interviewing some of my favorite creators and even, for a time, writing a regular comic column for my college newspaper, The Carolinian.
You can read some of those columns here.
With this site I’d like to - through blogging, podcasting and more - continue the spirit of that column: exploring the world of comics as literature, as pop culture, as fodder for (good and bad) movies. I want to look at comics in print and on the web, classic stuff and this week’s new releases, take a look at how creators do what they do and how the comics industry gets us to shell out so much hard earned cash for this stuff.
If you love comics the way I do you’re going to enjoy this site. We’ll have interviews with some of the industry’s best writers and artists (like the two audio pieces with Warren Ellis and Brad Meltzer that are already in the can) and, hopefully, a lively, continuing conversation about comics.
We’re going to need help from you guys with that last bit. Comment as much as you’d like. Ask questions, make demands. If there’s something you think I should be reading, let me know. If you have an interesting link, by all means share it. Nothing will take the place of those Wednesday afternoon bull sessions in a comics shop like Acme Comics or Parts Unknown, where I usually get my books. But that’s the vibe I’m shooting for here. Drop by, speak up and help us keep it going.
