So if you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you might know that I started a podcast a couple months ago, primarily with Wayne Wise and Katya Gorecki (but also a rotating cast of other people) devoted to pop culture. VoxPopcast (or Vox Populorum… we gave it two names, but everyone seems to be focusing on the former). I’ve been pretty good about promoting it on social media and pretty crappy about promoting it on my blog. I should work on that… so uh… I am… here… right now. See how that works? Every week there’s a different pop culture topic (could be comics or TV or movies or music or video games or the news… all kinds of stuff) and we post a “Call for Comments” to the show’s blog and then we get together a panel that is a mix of academics and non-academics to have a roundtable discussion about the topic while some of might or might not be drinking beer… I am at least. Anyway, if you aren’t listening to it. You should be. And go write us a review so can feel all warm and fuzzy and stuff.
Anyway, as chance would have it, both Wayne and I happen to be teaching classes about comics/graphic novels this semester. Wayne is doing a general “Introduction to the Graphic Novel” class that teaches Pitt students about way comics and graphic novels can be viewed as literature in general. I’m doing a more specific “Sex, Violence and Comics” literature class that is all about the way that comics, as a media form, have used sex and violence to construct a very particular notion of gender in America over the last hundred years or so. We were going back and forth talking about possible topics for the show — and also going back and forth talking about possible books to put on our respective syllabi — and it suddenly occurred to me that… well, that’s a show right there. So what we’re going to do is get together a panel of people who have taught comic classes and then come up with a syllabus for a fictional comic class that we are going to invent right there on the show that might make you well rounded. So… if you’re a fan of comics (and I know a lot of people are, because a lot of you’ve had great suggestions for me the last couple of times I’ve said “hey, what books should I teach?“) then go over to the VoxPopcast blog or facebook page and leave us some thoughts (or you can do it here, I guess… I’m sure a lot of you are lazy).
And if you’re not listening to the show, please do. I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on what we’ve been doing. Some of my personal favorite episodes so far have been:
- Episode 3: Violence in Video Games
- Episode 6: Sex, Drugs & Riverdale
- Episode 9: Chutz-Pow! Superheroes of the Holocaust
- Episode 10: Sex, Gender & Fanfic
- Episode 11: Toxic Offenders & The Dark Side of the Internet
- Episode 17: Music, the Soundtrack of Our Lives
- Episode 18: She-Ra and the Male Gaze
- Episode 20: Monster Mash
- Episode 22: Monuments & Memories
But really, the topic changes every week, so there’s probably something you’d be interested in. So please, take a listen. Subscribe on iTunes or wherever you get podcasts. And write us a review telling everyone else to listen… because my life is empty and meaningless and I need your love.
And yes… I do realize that I used all sexy girl pictures from my photography which are only barely vaguely connected to the topic at hand at all. And I realize I haven’t even addressed them til just now. I just figured that would get people’s attention (and if you listen to the show, you’ll see that I actually talk about the Male Gaze a lot). But really, I figure… that shit works, right? I mean… you clicked on it didn’t you?