Award-winning author and creator Graeme Burk is running a Kickstarter to launch a new podcast, The Comics Code, kicking off with seven-episode series about Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman.
Hidden behind the drawings and the words are the stories of how comics were created… and how the comics of the 20th century became the bedrock of today’s popular culture.
The Comics Code is a podcast where author Graeme Burk tells the stories of comics – and their creators – from the first century of the medium.
Graeme is an award-winning author and creator whose books include the absorbing Who Is The Doctor? and Who Is The Doctor 2?, and Head of Drama – The Memoir of Sydney Newman, based on an unpublished memoir, one of the most comprehensive accounts of Newman’s role in the creation of Doctor Who, and his attempt to get creator credit in the 1980s.
He hosted and co-produced the acclaimed Doctor Who podcast Reality Bomb, and the music podcasts Deeper Cuts and A Year With The Beatles. He started collecting comics and researching the history of comic books when he was ten-years-old… and has never stopped.
“The Comics Code is a ‘You Must Remember This’ or a Memory Palace for comics history,” he explains.
Using spoken word, archival interviews, dramatic readings, documentary interviews, music, and sound effects, Graeme tells the stories behind some of the greatest works of graphic literature and popular culture.
“Some of these stories have never been told before… or never told fully.
“We’ll look through the pages and the panels to talk about found and stolen dreams, petty feuds turned ugly, moral panics and witch hunts… and the beautiful stories and creations by talented people that brought wonder, delight, and excitement.”
Supported by smashing ID design from talented artist Graham Kibble-White, who’s also created a limited edition tribute poster to Jerry and Joe for dedicated backers (and there are other rewards on offer, too), The Comics Code podcast project has achieved its “seed money” target, but further support is, of course, much welcomed.
The first season debuts with a seven-part mini-series on the creation of Superman, Jerry and Joe, which explores how Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two kids barely out of high school in Cleveland created the greatest adventure hero of all time: Superman. It recounts their struggle to get a character published that no one believed in… and how they lost the rights after selling Superman for just $130. It’s a story of gangsters, nerds, corporations, greed, hubris, and despair. But it’s also about how the first generation of science fiction fans created the superhero – and how they were saved by the generations of fans who followed.
Fully researched, already eighty per cent completed, this series brings to light new details about the creation of Superman, and offers new or not widely known facts about Superman’s co-creators struggles before and after getting the character published. Interview subjects for this series includes comic book writer and producer Mark Millar and authors Brad Ricca, Bonnie Siegler and Helene Stapinksi, Diana McCallum and Brian Cronin.
“This is an ambitious podcast that is looking to tell the stories behind comics, but do it in a thoroughly professional way,” Graeme says, “and I am working with a team of talented individuals who who are dedicated to making this sound as professional as product produced by Slate, the BBC, Radiotopia and others.
“Future episodes will explore the story of one of the strangest, sweetest comic strips ever made,” he teases, “the beginnings of one of the most popular Marvel Comics ever… back when it was the lowest-selling comic book on the market; how comics became part of a witch hunt in the 1950s – even as they gave rise to legendary crime and horror comics… and MAD Magazine. And a whole lot more.”
• Check out the Kickstarter for The Comics Code here
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Audio, Comics, Creating Comics, Crowd Funding Projects, Digital Media, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Other Worlds, Podcasts, US Comics
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