En god podcast for serieskapere....

Det siste året har jeg begynt å religiøst lytte til podcasts mens jeg tegner. Den podcasten jeg sikkert har lyttet mest til er Art & Story av de relativt ukjente Amerikanske serieskaperne Jerzy Drozd og Mark Rudolph, som jobber for det meste med tegneserier-for-alle, mye inspirert av 80-talls tegnefilmer og 60-talls klassiske tegneserier, så det setter noe av tematikken, men de er generellt gode til å ha et bredt spekter av temaer.
Selv kjenner jeg ikke seriene deres godt, men podcasten har jeg blitt rimelig avhengig av. Så siden de ofte ber folk om å anbefale podcasten til andre eller skrive en omtale på iTunes, tenkte jeg at jeg skulle gjøre akkurat det.

Som vanlig er greier jeg ikke å uttrykke meg kortfattet, men pytt, pytt... her er min omtale:

Being a comic-book artist I´ve recently become addicted to listening to podcasts while drawing.

Writing, coming up with ideas, and pacing/thumb-nailing are intensive activities that require my full attention, but drawing has become more and more of a purely technical process, and during such mindless activity it´s good to have pleasant voices in the background reminding me why I love this medium so much.

Jerzy Drozd and Mark Rudolph talk about comics with great passion and insight, and even though they themselves focus on all-ages compressed storytelling they do not shy away from covering a huge variety of different comics-related subjects. And even when their on thin-ice, on subjects they do not have as much insight in, they are always as passionate. And not afraid to call for help from other creators that do have more insight into those specific subjects.

And yes, sometimes they do say things that make me want to strangle them, but.... That´s a good thing. Differences of opinion are unavoidable when you love a medium with the passion needed to be a comic-book creator, and sometimes a little fit of rage can help remind you have passionate you really are about your artform.

If I have any complaints about the podcast it must be that I wish they would treat other art with the same open attitude that Mr. Rudolph has towards other music in his excellent extreme-metal podcast The Requiem Metal Podcast(Another favorite of mine while drawing). The occasional snide remarks about contemporary art are unbecoming, not because they´re always wrong, just because they don´t come with the same insight and passion as the hosts have for comics.

Another complaint is Mr. Drozds constant excuses and belittling of himself. Yes, Mr. Drozd, we DO know that you´re not the ultimate authority on every subject you have an opinion on, so you don´t have to repeat it every time you have an opinion. Even if there ever was a listener who ever thought you were the ultimate authority on everything, he would have realized his mistake after the first 100 times you repeated your excuses. So Mr. Drozd.... Don´t excuse yourself for having an opinion. It does not make the opinion any more or less valid anyhow, and will not make the reactions to it any more agreeable or unagreeable. Just state what you mean, and stand by it until proven wrong.

But none of these complaints are enough to take away a single star from the 5 star rating this podcast deserves.

Recommended heartily for all comic-book creators, whether aspiring artists in need of a good place to learn, old-hacks who needs reminding of why they love comics so much, or people like me who fall somewhere in between those two extremes.