Podcast: Comic Sans

Virtual Memories – season 2 episode 12
Tom Spurgeon – Comic Sans

“I was morphined up and looking out the back of an ambulance for about three hours. You get to see things as a beginning, middle and end. . . . My story might end in a couple of hours. What does that mean? What was that life like?”

It’s time for another cheery episode of The Virtual Memories Show!

“The two things that allow people to consume more are rapture — ‘this is awesome!’ — and dissatisfaction — ‘this sucks.'”

In this one, Tom Spurgeon, editor of The Comics Reporter talks about his near-death in June 2011 and how he’s changed his life since, a process that involved losing more than 175 lbs. in 16 months.

 

“The danger isn’t in the limits of what you can do for someone. The danger is in withdrawing, and realizing you don’t have those relationships anymore. If you can be engaged in someone’s life . . . that’s what you have and that’s what you work with.”

We also share conversation on the nature of junk culture, the good and bad sides of internet commenters, the meanings of nostalgia, and absolutely nothing about that Batman movie.

“For junk culture consumers, you always want as much as you can have. It’s not about curating what you have; it’s about seeing all the movies and collecting all the editions.”

Enjoy the conversation!

 About Our Guest

Tom Spurgeon is a writer and editor living in Silver City, NM. He currently serves as the editor of The Comics Reporter, and has written about comic strips, comic books and editorial cartons for various publications since 1982. He worked for five years 1994-1999 as Managing Editor and then Executive Editor of the lauded and controversial industry trade magazine The Comics Journal. The magazine won several industry awards under his stewardship. He is a former contributing writer at The Stranger and for the late satirical web ‘zine Suck.com. As an editor, Tom helped assemble volumes in The Collected Pogo series and books such as Bob Levin’s The Pirates and the Mouse. As a writer, Tom co-wrote with Jordan Raphael the historical profile, Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book, and he was privileged to write for the King Features Syndicate strip Wildwood from 1999 to 2002. You can reach him at tom@comicsreporter.com.

 About Our Sponsor

This episode is sponsored by Out of Print Clothing! Visit their site and check out their great selection of T-shirts, fleeces, bags and other gear featuring gorgeous and iconic book cover designs. I’m wearing my Naked Lunch T-shirt in the photo above! (Photo by Amy Roth.)

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Credits: This episode’s music is That’s Entertainment by Morrissey (covering The Jam). I recorded the intro on a Blue Yeti mic into Audacity, and the conversation with was recorded in a hotel room in Bethesda, MD on a pair of Blue Encore 100 mics, feeding into a Zoom H4N recorder. All editing was done in Garage Band. Have mics, will travel!

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