James Callan

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.

It's just as well that I can't afford to collect Andy Warhol. One piece just doesn't do it. You can fill half of Paris's Grand Palais with portraits and a museum in Pittsburgh with assorted pieces and still not see the same piece twice.

Or you can stay closer to home: love fear pleasure lust pain glamour death opened yesterday at SAM. It's a smart, focused selection of Warhol pieces curated by Marisa Sánchez.

She steers away from the overly familiar and focuses on Warhol's non-paintings—photobooth strips, Polaroids, sewn portraits, screen tests—and non-iconic subjects. No Marilyns, no soup cans, no neon-cow wallpaper.

Warhol's genius—or was it just a knack?—was taking a simple set of rules and milking them for all they were worth. He repeated ideas the way Letterman repeates punchlines, and was just as successful at making lightning strike the same place twice, three times, four times, or more, long after you'd think that spot had no spark left in it.

A case in point is the highlight of the show: twenty of Warhol's Screen Tests. The idea behind the Screen Tests was simple: Sit someone in front of a nondescript background and film them for three minutes. Just sitting there. Doing not much. Project the films at 16 frames per second so they last four and a half minutes.

The first time I saw any Screen Tests was last year at SAM, when Dean & Britta played their collection of songs composed for 13 Most Beautiful. "Most beautiful" was an apt title, and not just because Jane Holzer brings the hubba hubba. The Screen Tests are some of the loveliest films I've seen, but it's maddeningly hard trying to pin down why, because for the most part nothing happens. But nothing makes me feel more like L.B. Jeffries, James Stewart's character in Rear Window, and at their best they give Warhol's subjects a moment where they're as lovely as Grace Kelly's entrance in that film.

(When Ann Buchanan cries in hers, it's a major event. SAM's publicity materials for the show claim that Buchanan was so "emotionally invested in the process that she begins to cry," but in person Sánchez promoted the more common theory: Buchanan didn't blink, so her eyes watered.)

For this show, the Screen Tests fill two rooms, each with five running at a time. Edie Sedgwick and Dennis Hopper. Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison. Holly Solomon and Ethel Scull. They're projected at giant size, but it suits them; the film grain and stark lighting add to the allure. It's the best way to see Screen Tests this side of YouTube. SAM turns them into the church of staring at beautiful people trying to act naturally. Linger. Watch.

Other highlights include some of the photobooth photos of Ethel Scull that Warhol used in his first commissioned portrait, Ethel Scull 36 Times; Polaroid "self portraits" (no one knows who actually pushed the button on the camera) of Andy in drag; another Polaroid of Keith Haring embracing his partner Juan Dubose; and a sewn portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat, with the same photo printed at six different light levels.

The show also resists the urge to overread Warhol, whose best work seemed to spring from the thought that "gee, that's pretty," and ask the question "Will it sell?" Sánchez said she selected pieces that reflected Warhol's love of ephemerality, and the show doesn't promote him as a deep thinker.

(There are exceptions: The placard next to a Polaroid of Howdy Doody, one of his American Heroes series, mentions that photographing a marionette suggests "Warhol's belief that things are not always as they appear." Incisive analysis. Wouldn't it be more noteworthy if Warhol believed things were always as they appear?)

The final room of love fear pleasure blood sugar sex magick contains a photo booth and a chance for you to get interactive: Get your picture taken ($4, credit cards only) and leave one on the Warhol quote wall. You can visit Facebook and tag yourself so that we can make the obligatory comment about Warhol's influence on social networking.

Which works out—it's Andy's world, and (apologies to Sinatra) we just live in it.

(Note: To get to the Warhol exhibit you've got to go through Kurt. If you, like everyone who contributed to the exhibit, really like Kurt Cobain, you should go. If you, like me, don't find that particular rock tragedy inherently more compelling than Lennon or Tupac or Buddy Holly, you'll probably like a few of the pieces but find the exhibition unilluminating, a highbrow spin on the Cobain T-shirts you can buy in a gazillion places online or in malls. Nothing wrong with that, but it's mostly art for the converted.)

(And on a final note: Chelsea Girls is coming to town! Friday, May 21 at 7:30pm in the Plestcheeff Auditorium. As with the rest of the best of Warhol, Chelsea Girls was notorious, motivated by his urge not to waste anything, and hugely profitable. I can't wait.)

I'm going to abuse my authority for a minute and promote a photo I took of my own daughter. To be fair, I did share it in the SunBreak Flickr pool, the proper destination for amazing photos of all shapes, sizes, and color palettes. Especially if they've got cute kids in 'em.

What a cute little fire plug guy. A cute little well-endowed fire plug guy. In chains. Forged in life or worn for fun? Hmm. Thanks to Great Beyond for adding a touch of cute/disturbing to my morning. (And our Flickr pool.)

Number 12? That means we've come in in the middle of this story. And I for one want to know the rest of it. (From the SunBreak Flickr pool, courtesy of photocoyote.)

Pity the bus never showed. On the plus side, photocoyote found something productive to do while waiting for it. Fresh from the SunBreak Flickr pool. Join up! Add your photos!

Always nice to start the week with a classic: A gorgeous portrait, courtesy of SunBreak Flickr Pool regular seadevi. 

Could someone get +Russ a beer? He dropped this photo in our Flickr pool, and it seems like a fair trade.

Well, lookee here. Slightlynorth explores the amusingly creepy territory between Se7en and "Dick in a Box." Who knew you could get something so Lynchian out of an iPhone? Regardless, I was extremely glad to find it in our Flickr pool.

Photocoyote got up close and personal with Christopher Columbus and this the resulting photo was the one that commanded my attention when I checked in on our Flickr pool this morning. Though to be honest I thought it looked more like an anxious woman in a bonnet than the "discoverer" of the Americas, but sculpture's not my forte.