First up, let's have just a single episode from the Relatively Geeky Network. This network is all about comics, with the main show being The Quarter Bin Podcast, looking at stuff found in comic shops' discount bins. This episode is part of the series Uncovering the Bronze Age, in which Emily Middleton had a little look at that interesting period of comics after the rise of Marvel and DC in their modern forms in The Silver Age, but before the eighties merged into The Dark Age with releases like Watchmen. This episode, In the Clutches of the Code, deals with a major force during this timeframe, The Comics Code, bought into effect in the early fifties for many years, which the Bronze Age definitely saw a major push back against. The focus is on one of the main things that kick started the whole movement for the Code; the book Seduction of the Innocent by Dr. Fredric Wertham, which is properly analysed in here, with some good critiques of its conclusions. I often like to give this a relisten around this time of year, as I find moves for censorship interesting. It's fascinating seeing parallels between this and things like the rise of the Hays Code for film, or the whole Video Nasties debacle leading to the Video Recordings Act in the UK. This is a great little listen, and I'm not just saying that because a friend of mine does one of the voices. You can listen to the whole thing here, and check out the rest of Relatively Geeky too.
Next up is a favourite of mine, Hypnogoria, now officially Britain's longest running horror podcast. A one man operation from Mr. Jim Moon, Hypnogoria has tackled a huge number of topics over the years, from a Batman retrospective, to the origins of the zombie, to a look into some true crimes, to an investigation of "the most haunted house in London". Mr. Moon is a fine narrator, the right kind of friendly voice to guide you through these topics, including doing quite a few readings and analyses of classic weird tales; if you're looking for audio books, the Great Library of Dreams series is essentially that. For specifically this month though, I recommend going through his episodes looking at the history and evolution of Halloween. These are superb looks at the holiday through the ages, including a lot of great mythbusting in the first episode, making clear that no it is not all some dark pagan revival. There's also this fun little trio of episodes about the link between horror films and double bills, from the old days of cinema right to the legendary BBC Two horror seasons. Oh, and for one Halloween, he did a pretty cool one man radio play of H.R. Wakefield's story Ghost Hunt. There's loads in his archives to enjoy, and he's been adding to his YouTube channel recently too, so that's plenty to try out across October.
Finally we have The Secret History of Hollywood. Originally a spin-off of Adam Roche's fun old-time cinema and radio show Attaboy Clarence, this has become a genuine phenomena of a show, a mix of tributes to various series of films, and biographies of the people behind them. In previous years, we've had a look across the life of Alfred Hitchcock, and an epic length look at the early days of Warner Bros., including a look at the Brothers themselves, and their biggest star James Cagney. More specific for this season, there was a seven hour look at the age of the Universal Monsters. You can find all of these series on Audible. At the moment though, the current series available to everyone is called Shadows, and is the story of Val Lewton, a producer at RKO who pretty much invented what we'd now call psychological horror, with titles such as Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie, The Body Snatcher, and Isle of the Dead. Very soon, the final episode of this run, looking at the making of Bedlam, and the end to Lewton's career, will be made available, so definitely catch up on this series now, it will leave you with some tears, a sense of warmth, and a very long list of classic films to catch up on. Oh, and a little bonus for any Sherlock and/or Doctor Who fans out there; each episode of Shadows has a special introduction read by the marvellous Mr. Mark Gatiss!
Please donate generously to my Halloween fundraiser for Crisis, every penny counts!
Finally we have The Secret History of Hollywood. Originally a spin-off of Adam Roche's fun old-time cinema and radio show Attaboy Clarence, this has become a genuine phenomena of a show, a mix of tributes to various series of films, and biographies of the people behind them. In previous years, we've had a look across the life of Alfred Hitchcock, and an epic length look at the early days of Warner Bros., including a look at the Brothers themselves, and their biggest star James Cagney. More specific for this season, there was a seven hour look at the age of the Universal Monsters. You can find all of these series on Audible. At the moment though, the current series available to everyone is called Shadows, and is the story of Val Lewton, a producer at RKO who pretty much invented what we'd now call psychological horror, with titles such as Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie, The Body Snatcher, and Isle of the Dead. Very soon, the final episode of this run, looking at the making of Bedlam, and the end to Lewton's career, will be made available, so definitely catch up on this series now, it will leave you with some tears, a sense of warmth, and a very long list of classic films to catch up on. Oh, and a little bonus for any Sherlock and/or Doctor Who fans out there; each episode of Shadows has a special introduction read by the marvellous Mr. Mark Gatiss!
Please donate generously to my Halloween fundraiser for Crisis, every penny counts!
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