The ICE CAST

Without a doubt one of the most fun podcasts I have ever had the pleasure of recording. Freddie is quite simply, not only an incredibly talented and exiting artist but one of the nicest guys in the industry.

And once we started talking about 80s kids cartoons, that was it. We had such a great time we almost forgot we were recording a podcast.

But before that we did manage to talk about his time working on Robin and the Flash for DC and of course the hit crossover events like Batman and Ninja Turtles and He-man and Thundercats,

We also touched on his new creator owned book "BeQuest" with writer Tim Seeley, which looks amazing.

 

The unique and compelling visual style of Kelley Jones has enthralled fans for decades on titles like Batman, Deadman and Venom. 

I am one of those fans and it was a great pleasure to have an open and honest chat with the artist about his early career, his influences and his love of film.

He also shared some surprising and sometimes extremely amusing stories with me from his experiences within the comic industry and a second chat is in the wings over on our sister live video show, THE ICE CAST LIVE as we barely scratched the surface of this man's amazing career, including what he's currently working on.

In the meantime sit back and enjoy this episode, which I have affectionately dubbed "The Comics Confessions of Kelley Jones" :-) 

 

This week on the ICE-CAST I had a great chat with 2000ad artist Patrick Goddard.

We talked about an early artistic sibling rivalry, working from different types of scripts and of course his impressive back catalogue of work plus lots lots more.

From Judge Dredd to Savage and to Sniper Elite Patrick has worked on some of the galaxy's greatest comics most popular characters and stories.

We also touch on his flirtation with Marvel Comics and the idea of doing his own characters in the future.

This episode with special guest Declan Shalvey is a pretty much unedited version of the audio from our live stream from a couple of weeks before with my co-host Lucy Orchard as we talk to the artist and writer about his recent work, writing, drawing and colouring on Immortal Hulk: Flatline and also about his early career in the small press right through to his ground breaking work on Moon Knight with writer Warren Ellis.

We also touch on his most recent work on the new title Time Before Time.

My Guest on the podcast this week is Amy Chu... a writer who came to comics relatively late in life but who never the less has proven that application to her craft, hard work and dedication can help to ensure a successful career as a comics writer.

She's worked on an incredible variety of characters with Marvel, DC, Dynamite, Valiant and on a some really innovative creator owned titles with some amazing artists.

We had a lovely chat about breaking into comics as a writer and also about her recent transition to writing for Netflix in the more collaborative environment of the writers room.

I was also very happy to talk to her about coming over to see us at our next ICE convention in Birmingham., pandemic permitting of course.

I first met the legendary Iron Man artist Bob Layton when I spoke to him at a show in London after inviting him to be my guest at ICE in an email exchange.

I was a bit nervous about meeting one of my comic heroes... not something that usually get me as I have been lucky enough to meet many great comic creators over the year.

But this was the man who drew the second Marvel Comic I ever bought and who is responsible for me being an Iron Man fan since the late 70's.

I had no reason to be nervous. We instantly hit it off and Bob made me feel so at ease. Of course we he was also at great guest at the convention, giving his time so generously to every fan who approached him and to every panel he appeared on, he made sure he was the star!

 

So it was an absolute please to catch up with the creative powerhouse behind hundreds of great comics to chat with him on this episode about his early career and his unique experiences within the comic industry.

I am delighted to share our chat with you now, and I hope you enjoy it.

As we hit our landmark 25th episode of the ICE-CAST it was my absolute pleasure to chat with super star artist Adi Granov, the man who helped Marvel bring Iron Man to the silver screen with his incredible armour designs.

Adi has an incredible work ethic and sense of belief in his work , whilst also admiring his contemporaries, like his good friend Esad Ribic, who he rates as one of the greatest comic artists working today.

We cover a lot of ground in the episode and talk about his early career doing work for Humanoids and how Marvel head hunted him in the early 2000s.

We also go into depth about the work itself, his influences and inspirations, and how he ended up living in America as a refugee from the war in Bosnia at the age of just 16. His determination to succeed as an artist no matter what the world threw at him is truly inspiring

I could not have asked for a better 25th episode.

 

Not only is Chris Weston an incredibly talented and hard working artist, having a back catalogue of unimaginable size, including Judge Dredd, The Twelve and the brilliant Ministry Of Space, but he is one of the most humble and and genuine artists I have had the pleasure of chatting with on this podcast.

He sings the praise of past mentor Don Lawrence as well as his many contemporaries and we ended up talking about a wealth of artists who we have both admired over the years including Moebius, John Byrne and Frank Quitely.

He talks about the challenges of hitting deadlines whilst also wanting to produce the best possible work on every project and he also talks about the various movie projects he has been involved with.

We even come up with a great pitch idea for Rebellion during the chat, so hopefully they are listening... give Chris a call guys... it's a great idea! 

On this week's episode of the The ICE CAST I was thrilled to be able to speak to an old friend who is responsible for the publication of some of the most important graphic novels of the century.

CHRIS STAROS  along with his publishing partner Brett Warnock at Top Shelf Comix, brought to us singular books that have shaped the limits of the comic artform over the years. Including Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell, Craig Thompson's Blankets and Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls.

Top Shelf copulated the careers of artist and writers like Nate Powell, Jeff Lemire and Jeffrey Brown, to name just a few and since becom8ng part of IDW a few years ago continue to publish ground-breaking Graphic Novels.

Surrogates, which was adapted into a move starring Brice Willis, used to be one of my top selling books back when I distributed for the industry and I am delighted to share our conversation with you today, which includes probably one of my favourite Alan Moore anecdotes ever! Not to be missed!

Finally! The ICE-CAST returns for 2021. And for the first podcast of the new year I am delighted to welcome writer of comics, film and games MIKE GARLEY.

We have a good old chat about his most well known titles like the Kill Screen and Samurai Slasher as well as new and upcoming work in film and games.

We also get into conversation about the difficulties that independent creators are facing right now with the current suspension of comic conventions, which is where many people sell their work.

We do end on a positive note I promise :-)