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Join the Rag-NERD-rok Crew this week for our very first interview! In this episode, we sit down with Bob Rozakis, former writer and Executive Director of Production at DC Comics, to pick his brain about his time in the industry. Mr. Rozakis shares some fascinating and hilarious anecdotes from his 25 years at DC, including the Comic Mobile debacle, the imbroglio surrounding the death of Superman, and the story of how he helped to usher the company into the digital age. After the break, Erik gives us the rundown on the newest expansion for “Red Dragon Inn,” a board game by Slugfest Games in which each player portrays an archetypal hero in the style of “Dungeons & Dragons” with the objective of drinking his or her fellow adventurers under the table at a post-adventure booze session.
I. Cold Opening – “Dr. Thunder” (00:00:00)
Alex tries a can of generic-brand soda and suffers the unexpected consequences of Ryan’s frugality.
II. Show Intro (00:00:44)
No doubt about it, the nth dimension is a strange and disorienting place to find yourself stranded. We briefly discuss the discomfort of folding yourself through higher planes of reality and introduce our feature segment.
III. Interview with Mr. Bob Rozakis (00:02:37)
Bob Rozakis, former writer and Director of Production, DC Comics
Bob Rozakis worked at DC Comics from 1973 to 1998, serving as a writer and Executive Director of Production during that time. Although he graduated from Hofstra University with a degree in accounting, his love of comics led him to DC, where he oversaw production and helped to introduce computers to the coloring and color separation process. He also created the character ‘Mazing Man and the comic series “Hero Hotline” with DC artist Stephen DeStefano. After leaving DC, Bob continued to do freelance work in comics for a few years, and, much to the relief of his parents, finally got a job as an accountant. He teaches a summer writing course at the Johns Hopkins CTY Program, held in Chestertown, MD, and continues to speak about his experiences working in comics at conventions and–thankfully for us–on podcasts.
You can find his blog, “Anything Goes,” at http://bobrozakis.blogspot.com.
IIIa. The Graaz
According to Mr. Rozakis, The Graaz is an alien creature who has found his way to the dark side of the moon. There he waits for some mysterious sign from humanity that will bring him to Earth.
IV. Sketch – “Video Shack” (00:40:45)
A harried Video Shack employee encounters a difficult customer who just can’t seem to remember the names of the films he wants to rent.
V. Board Game Review – Red Dragon Inn 3 (00:43:08)
Check back later in the week for a full write-up of Erik’s review!
VI. Outro (00:57:50)
As usual, you can email us, check us out on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter. We’ve added a new feature to the site: we now have a Google Voice account that will allow us to receive voice mails! If you’d like to leave us one, just call (516) 362 – NERD [6373], and maybe we’ll play your comments on the air!
In addition, we need your help to make Episode 008 the best it can be! We’re planning a formal debate to determine which apocalyptic scenario is the best, and you can contribute questions of your own. Ryan will be arguing for The Rapture, Ed will helm The Nuclear Apocalypse, Meyer will cover Monsters and Aliens, and Erik will show us the benefits of The Supervirus. The criteria for what makes one scenario favorable over another are up to the debaters to establish, and Alex will serve as our impartial moderator. You can email your questions to info@ragnerdrok.com.
See you in the funny papers, RNR listeners!
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Copyright:
Rag-NERD-rok Podcast by Alex Costello, Edward Cress, Erik Dickash, Ryan Mannix and Billy Meyer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available by contacting info@ragnerdrok.com.