Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for July 19 2015 – Black Heart of Digital Hygeine

In this episode, I play a song by Amy Ray; I read the patrons and talk about how the weekly schedule is a benefit and I’m not phoning them in; I talk about “flight time” and its importance; I talk about David Moldawer’s article on new media for Boing Boing; I talk about the “tenth anniversary of podcasting” as it relates to iTunes; I talk about Dave Sim, his videos and a recent insight from his works; I talk about Valiant comics and close by talking about my poor digital hygiene and how I lose things I have paid for.

Here is the direct MP3 download for the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast, July 19, 2015

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Podcast Endings

Over the course of this summer through the last week, a number of podcasts I subscribe to have come to an end. In a way, these announced endings are relatively rare. It seems more common that people just trail off their production schedule and at some point they podfade without another episode being published. Here are the ones from my list, in no particular order.

I was a listener to several of the Poker Road shows, but I came very late in the game to Two Jacks in the Hole. Unlike all the other shows on that network, this was not poker related in content but a purely comedic show hosted by guys who hosted other shows on the network. That show came to an end, rebranded itself as Huff and Stapes off the network, joined up with the Toad Hop Network and then over the summer came to a finale. Scott Huff moved to New York and they decided that the show wouldn’t be the same over Skype so they executed the “Thank you, good night” maneuver. It was a shame, I really enjoyed this show and at times was brought to hysterics by it.


This is not strictly a podcast, but it fits with the general theme so what the heck. I was a reader of the Cerebus comic book for much of its run, although I still have never finished it. (I read Rick’s Story this year and am slowly working through the rest of the series.) Around the time the baby was born I discovered Cerebus TV, which was an odd duck of a new media product. It wasn’t on demand or downloadable, but streamed on an endless loop so you either started in the middle or as I did, turned the sound down and waited for it to loop back around to the beginning. It was mostly Dave Sim in his house addressing the camera, sometimes in monologues, sometimes while drawing. It also included interview segments done by some of the producers and other odd bits. I generally enjoyed the show although found it shocking that such a staunchly Canadian man could do the absolute worst Bob and Doug Mackenzie impression I’ve ever heard.


I had also been reading his post-Cerebus comic series glamourpuss, also an odd duck. It was a comic that was half parody of fashion magazines (including beautfully rendered ultra-realistic drawings) and half an exploration of the history of photo-realistic cartooning. In issue 26 is an editorial in which Sim discusses how he his shutting down glamourpuss as a series, his Cerebus Archive series and Cerebus TV. Apparently he’s going into career suicide mode, which is sad for such a talented individual. I intereviewed him when I was 17 years old at one of the early HeroesCons and he couldn’t have been nicer about it. I hope that his life and career do not go into worst case mode. I believe that some or all of the Cerebus TV episodes are going to be put into some purchasable form and I’l try to support those if the pricing structure is at all realistic. I went a while without watching Cerebus TV and now I don’t get to go back. I always enjoyed catching the first run when possible, and I liked it when in the intro he said “It’s 10 PM on Friday in Kitchener Ontario” and I actually was watching Friday at 10 PM. It’s the little things.

I became a fan of Mike Dawson in a roundabout fashion. First I heard him interviewed on Indie Spinner Rack about his graphic novel Freddie & Me , then later heard about him hosting an interview podcast series for The Comics Journal called TCJ Talkies. I subscribed to that, and later to his personal podcast with Alex Robinson the Ink Panthers show. From there, I bought several of his graphic novels and I quite liked all of his output in all of these media. Earlier this year, with a busy schedule and a second child on the way Dawson decided to cease production of the TCJ Talkies show. I certainly understand, having shut down an interview show myself I know the dynamic. The 30 – 90 minutes in conversation are the best but all the preparation ahead of time and post-production are the worst. He found he didn’t have time to devote to all of that, his children and his cartooning so this is the bit that had to give. I understand, but still miss the show.

The most recent of these shows, just announced in the last week or so, is the end of Ed Champion’s Bat Segundo Show. I’ve been a listener for a long time, and a (very) occasional correspondent with Mr. Champion. I’ll admit that I don’t listen to every episode of this show because his tastes are more rarified and intellectual than mine. I keep an eye out and listen to the specific shows with guests with whom I’m familiar and like a lot of those. In particular I’ve liked a lot of his shows with cartoonists. His conversations with Alison Bechdel were terrific and one of his last episodes is with Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez. I’m looking forward to that as a great capper to almost 500 episodes of insanely well researched and literate talk. As with Dawson, I completely understand why he found the need to do so. Champion does so much research that I can’t even fathom the hours these 500 shows required of him. I wish him luck in his future endeavors and thank him for all his great work in the past.


Cerebus TV on Bob Burden

Bob Burden and Dave Slusher Mutually Mesmerized

Around the holidays of 2010, I started watching Cerebus TV, this odd yet compelling video program that Dave Sim publishes every week. Not only have I gotten addicted to watching this show, but I like to watch the very first airing Friday night at 10 PM. When the intro says “It’s 10 PM Friday in Kitchener, Ontario” it makes me kind of happy to be watching at 10 PM Friday. I can’t explain why it matters, but it does. Even though it spends an entire week running on infinite loop, I like that first play.

This week’s episode (will be up until 10 PM March 11th) is about Bob Burden. As it happens, I’ve had the fortune to know Bob a little for over 20 years. It’s not as if we’re close friends or anything, but I’ve been casually friendly with Bob in that way that people on the same convention circuit get. I’ve interviewed him a few times over the years (photo is from one of those at Dragon*Con 1995), and he’s a nice enough guy that when we turn up at the same bar, he always buys me a drink and chats for a while. Even before I knew him that much, I bought comics from him at the Atlanta Fantasy Fair. In 1985, I bought from him the copy of Love and Rockets #1 that I still own today. If I remember correctly, Bob even cut me a deal on it.

I enjoyed this episode in particular of all the ones I’ve watched so far. This is timely, the show will rotate in 72 hours and as far as I can tell there is no way to see older episodes. If you are a fan of The Flaming Carrot, the Mystery Men movie, the Gumby comic books or like me all of the above, check it out.

Steve Bissette and Dave Sim Chat

Yesterday I got my Steve Bissette Captain Beefheart sketch from the post office and also read the purportedly last entry of the exchange between Steve and Dave Sim about self-publishing, comics in general and many other topics. That’s kind of a shame. I’d like to see the two of these guys go on long enough that there is a book that can be published out of the exchange. Illustrated by both, of course. That would rock.

My fallouts as a reader of this exchange include buying the above sketch, becoming a regular viewer of Cerebus TV, and buying from ComiXpress all the issues of Cerebus Archive published since the title was dropped by Diamond. I was already a regular purchaser of Sim’s glamourpuss comic, which is hard to describe but is one of my favorite things being published today.

Sim had a quote in one of the missives that I love so much for a variety of reasons. The context he used it in was self-publishing and giving up on things preemptively. I find it applicable broadly and think it gets even better if you strip the context away:

Never commit suicide – always make them kill you
Dave Sim

Amen. Truer words were never spoken.