Sunday, November 21, 2010

SMURFY ROBOT SUPER STORIES!



The sixteenth seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse is broken in Smurftastic fashion when special guest Jim Salicrup conquers the Kingdom Roboplastico! While currently Editor-in-Chief of graphic novel publisher Papercutz, Mr. Salicrup is also known for his legendary career at Marvel Comics during which he became a veteran of the Toy Robots Wars of the 1980s! Listen with excitement as he recounts a time when nobody knew what a Megatron was and writing Transformer comics was kind of like being Spider-Man. All this plus my complicated and confusing time travel analogies involving telescopes in this YOU CAN SEE 1984 FROM HERE edition of the Roboplastic Podcastalypse! It's Smurfy!


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SHOW NOTES OF THE PODCASTALYPSE
  • Bob Budiansky's role in the Transformers
  • Getting hired-picking up after Bill Mantlo left the Transformers comic in the planning stages
  • Why Mr. Salicrup favored writing new or unknown titles over established Marvel favorites
  • Along comes a Spider-Man
  • ToysRUs 10/03/85
  • Writing what you know even when you're writing alien robots nobody knows
  • Hasbro's initial reluctance to approve the Spider-Man cameo in Transformers #3
  • A bittersweet departure after writing the Transformers comic
  • Memories of Frank Springer
  • The fun (and trouble) with writing Transformers in Marvel continuity
  • Watching Japanese animation in the 60s
  • Contrasting the comic properties of Bionicle and Transformers
  • Adapting another foreign born franchise-the Smurfs-for US comic audiences
  • How Papercutz handles licenses with previous unreleased (in the US) comic material and those with little or no comic material at all
  • Why the Totally Spies book got totally canceled
  • The post-movie future of the Smurfs at Papercutz
  • The self perpetuating popularity of perennially popular properties
  • How comics at various levels of sophistication have become more segregated since the 80s
  • The end of the road

5 comments:

fairplaythings said...

How can it be that I've gotten through 16 Roboplastic Podcastalyses? Wow. Go me!

This was a great segment with Jim Salicrup. I never knew the origin of how Spider-Man ended up in Transformers #3. To here it first hand, along with the details regarding why they went with the black suit and the intercompany competition arising from Spidey's involvement in Secret Wars is awesome. And hearing it first hand from someone who remembers the details (as oppose to the situation that happens so often that there are just blanks in people's memories) is incredible.

I also love how what so many people would consider their dream assignment was passed over by so many people at the time. That TF was something to overlook and avoid, like it was Air Raiders or Sectaurs. And now Budiansky is being honoured for his work. Who knew?

I like that people are passionate about the older original graphic novels of the Smurfs. European hard cover graphic novels are really underappreciated in North America. But in places like Belgium, there are museums devoted to just such themes. I really do need to blog more about some of the things I've seen in my travels...

I loved the moment in the postcast where the Salicrup is interrupted and someone just says "hi". Funny!

Evil King Macrocranios said...

It is an honor that you're using up your early days of podcast enthusiasm with my poorly engineered recordings of me talking to myself. Once you move on from mine you'll find that just about every other toy robot podcast is infinitely bigger and better in terms of recording quality and content and fanbase. So thanks for blowing your time with me.

You can hear Budiansky's side of the Spider-Man story in the audio from the panel he did at Iacon One which I posted back in '08.

Yeah I feel guilty when I interview these giants of the comics industry and they have other real friends that want to talk to them. If you ever get to the Michael Golden interview I did at Wizard World Miami there's a part where we get interrupted and he says "Goodbye, Jim" to someone that you can't hear talking in the podcast. Well it was the legendary Jim Starlin dropping by on the last day of the show to say goodbye to Mr. Golden. Stuff like that happens with these comics people at conventions and they could just get up and talk to their famous legendary friends yet they still continue with the interviews. They're true professionals with me even though I tell them I'm really nobody and I'm not even paying them!

fairplaythings said...

Not nobody. A somebody. With a podcastalypse.

Evil King Macrocranios said...

Well yeah, to my friends who know me or listeners there's some familiarity but to these guys I could be a total wacko nutjob. They're really taking a chance and in the big scheme of things I'm a total stranger to them. Jim Salicrup stayed for over an hour talking to me after the fair ended that day. He could have gone back to his hotel and rested up. But he didn't and I appreciate the willingness to spend time with someone they've never met before who wants to talk about things they did over 25 years ago.

fairplaythings said...

A lot of people think that celebrities (minor or major) are too big for their fans, or would rather be doing other things. But a lot of them are like us, and enjoy the attention and the chance to look back. I've heard sometimes there are people who would love to chat but feel strange and weird about starting the conversations themselves. So as long as one don't come off crazy, it can work out.

 

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Evil King Macrocranios was voted king by the evil peoples of the Kingdom of Macrocrania. They listen to Iron Maiden all day and try to take pictures of ghosts with their webcams.