Literature

The Mind Behind Galzilla: Kevin Malcolm of Backroom Comics Podcast

Last March, Kevin Malcolm and Spencer Fornaciari recorded the first episode of the Backroom Comics Podcast. Since then, they’ve recorded 71 episodes, covered the Emerald City Comicon twice, road-tripped to cover the Spokane Comicon, and expanded the show to include five more hosts. 

Kevin himself has gone from comics commentator to comic creator, scripting a story for ONI Press’s compilation JAM! Tales from the World of Roller Derby. Kevin interviewed me about raising a kid on comics for the Father’s Day episode of the podcast (forward to 16:50 above if you just want my smilin’ face); I figured turnabout was fair play.

What are the secret origins of the Backroom Comics podcast? 

While listening to a podcast during a stormy Seattle day I was struck by lightning, and instead of injuring me it gave me the super power to ramble on and on about Metamorpho, Jimmy Olsen and Archie Andrews for hours on end. 

What makes your show different from other comics podcasts?

That’s something we’ve been struggling with a bit because there are quite a few very good comic related podcasts out there that cover anywhere from comics in general to ones that just focus on reading Silver Age Flash stories. But I think we differ in a few areas from a lot of the other ‘casts out there. We’ve made a concerted effort to not do fan-boy-message-board ranting and instead replace it with thoughtful, fun discussions on the comics we dig. We’ll still talk about problems we have with individual issues or writers but it’ll never just be, “Frank Miller is sUX0R!!!!” Also, the interests and knowledge of everyone that we’ve added to the show is quite diverse…oooh wait, you’re asking about this in the next question…

How did you assemble your collection of hosts, and what perspective does each of them bring to the table?

Would you believe Quiz Night at the Old Pequliar? Spencer (BRCP’s producer, camera-person, editor extrordinaire) and I quickly realized that just having me blather on about comics with no one to bounce off of would get boring very quickly, so we asked Greg (who I had met at OP trivia and befriended a year earlier) to come on board and then Pete and Jason (who I met at trivia as well) followed about 6 months after that. Ahe was a friend of Greg’s, and Chris (our newest addition) was an old friend of Pete’s. Each of the crew certainly does have their own “super power” and if I were to assemble an super-team based on their attributes I think it’d be:

  • Pete is just getting back into comics so his enthusiasm for seeing where the industry has gone since his absence is quite refreshing. 
  • Greg is our tech guy, a big proponent of digital comics and online comic retailing. He also knows more about comic toy history than 99% of the people out there.
  • Ahe is primarily a blogger for us who feels strongly about her capes. She will pretty much kick anyone’s ass at DC trivia, especially Bat-universe related. Dan DiDio (DC Editor in Chief), unless you want to feel Ahe’s wrath, don’t mess with Tim Drake anymore. 
  • Chris, like me is a longtime reader so he brings a deep knowledge of the highs and lows of the last 20 years of comics. He’s also our resident sci-fi and is a zombie enthusiast.
  • Jason is also a longtime comic reader who loves the capes as much as the indies but also steadfastly refuses to buy anything crossover related. So its always interesting to talk to him and inform him of the latest frustration in crossover land and just watch him put his face in his palm. 
  • Spencer hadn’t read any comics up to about a year ago but the show couldn’t run without him. Pretty much every little behind the scene activity that we take for granted is handled by Spencer. He’s like the Oracle of our little Justice League. 

What inspired you to start doing a podcast in the first place?

It was Spencer’s idea. He wanted to get into doing some podcasts and at the time I thought it would be easy to just sit and talk comics for an hour. And I was right, it is easy to talk comics for a long time. The problem comes in when you try and do it entertainingly, which is why soon after our premier we had to bring other folks in for me to talk to.

How did you get hooked up with Arcane? What’s their role in the podcast?

Arcane’s role is informal but pretty damn important. Arcane became my comic shop of choice 6 years ago when I moved to Ballard and since then Scott Stafford (Arcane’s owner) has become a good friend. When I told him we were going to do a podcast he generously offered the use of his shop to film at, originally suggesting we film in the back room of the shop, hence the name of the podcast. Since then he’s been nothing but supportive in letting us shack up with his booth at comicon, coming in early to accomodate our filming schedule and generally talking us up to his customers.

What are your favorite current comics? What about least favorites?

I am and always will be a superhero fan, but if you watch the show I’ve been pretty frustrated with the direction both Marvel and DC have been going for the past few years now. To me its all Event(!) no substance, which means the comics I truly enjoy, the “top of the pile” comics, are not event related. Jonathon Hickman’s run on Fantastic Four is, well, fantastic so far, Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth’s detective comic set in Portland Stumptown is spectacular, and Thomas Hall and Daniel Bradford’s R-13, about an ancient Greek robot fighting monsters in 1939 Spain, is just flat out a well written/drawn and amazingly fun comic.

My least favorites right now are the Marvel/DC comics that promise a new “brighter,” more “heroic” era that still think that using murder, rape and child kidnapping will give their characters depth. Sadly that’s most of the comics being put out by the big two right now. (Wow, I am coming off as a bit of a grumpy old man right now, aren’t I?)

When did you decide to make the leap from comics fan to comics creator, and how did you go about it?

All circumstance. A good friend who skates for the Rat City Rollergirls said they wanted a comic for their programs and would I like to write it. It sounded fun so along with artist Brian Beardsley I came up with the first Galzilla story where she has to battle skaters who are robots and plant/human hybrids, as well as an evil scientist who just wants his own reality show. It was a lot of fun and gave me a taste for the pure freedom of imagination writing a comic story can give you.

From there, at Derby Nationals I saw an ad asking for stories for the JAM anthology that ONI was doing so I put together another Galzilla story and sent it in with fingers crossed. Thankfully they liked the story enough to accept it and gave the art chores to an amazing artist named Ahmed Doucet who totally got what I was going for in the story.

Is your story in Jam your first professionally published comics story?

Yup, it’s the first and I am pretty durn lucky to have my first story published by a big publisher like ONI.  
What was the collaboration with Ahmed like?
There wasn’t much collaboration, actually. They accepted my script, made a few necessary editorial changes (I was trying to squeeze too many panels onto each page) and sent it off to him. But I have zero complaints about the final result. It’s great!
Why roller derby?
Aforementioned friend got me into derby and now I’m a giant fan. And in a way, comics and derby have a lot in common. The protagonists in both are dressed garishly, and they have fun, whimsical names but when it’s time for action there’s no giggling, it’s all business.
Do you have other books planned?
I have some really fun ideas but I’m still only in the writing phase with all of them.  
And finally, who wins in a fight: Captain “Shazam” Marvel, or Superman?
I have to defer to the great comic writer/encyclopedia, Mark Waid and his resolution in the comic Kingdom Come on this one. Superman all the way.
To get your copy of JAM!, check your local comic shop–most of them in Seattle seem to be carrying it, though Kevin recommends calling beforehand since it’s put out in limited numbers by an indie publisher. He also recommends calling Arcane first. And there are many ways to subscribe to the podcast, all of them detailed on their site.