The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Another Thursday rears up out of the cold, gray mist (ahhh, summertime…) and that means its time for Alex Fitch to tantalise us with some new aural delights; as ever check the Panel Borders site for more details and links to archived podcast versions of previous shows:

Strip! Comic Boom, tonight at 5pm on Resonance FM, extended podcast after transmission on Panel Borders

Continuing our month long look at comic book publishing: Alex Fitch and Duncan Nott talk to Mark Waid, the editor-in-chief of Boom! Studios, a relatively new American comic book company that is attracting new creators, veterans of the medium and Hollywood screenwriters alike to pen their tales. Waid himself has been writing comics such as Fantastic Four, Captain America and The Flash for over twenty years and Alex, Duncan and Mark talk about the variety of genres Boom! publish, their methods for attracting new readers and their successes so far in publishing comics in print and on the internet.

Recent podcasts:

Panel Borders: Publishing a Blank Slate

Continuing comic book publishing month on Panel Borders: Alex Fitch interviews Kenny Penman who runs Blank Slate books, a new British publishing company that has been around for just under a year and have 4 books to their name so far including Ignatz award nominee Trains are mint. Alex and Kenny talk about what factors decide the choice of books he publishes, the travails of finding a market for new graphic novels in the middle of a credit crunch and how his history as one of the founders of Forbidden Planet International has helped his new career as a publisher.

(cover to Proper Go Well High by Oli East, published Blank Slate Books)

Reality Check – Red Dwarf / Robot Zoo, online now at Sci-Fi London, with a transcript available here

In a special Easter episode looking at ways you can entertain kids and adults alike over the school holidays, Alex Fitch talks to Craig Charles about playing Dave Lister again after a ten year hiatus in the new Red Dwarf mini-series Back to Earth. Alex also talks to Jo Hatton, keeper of the Robot Zoo at the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill which presents a collection of robotic and animatronic animals to the public and mixes education with the feel of a traveling carnival.