WITH POD ON OUR SIDE: WHERE MONSTERS DWELL

 To me, Hell is other people on public transport and being that I commute to work this necessitates me taking matters in hand. Rather than resorting to physical violence, I have resorted to filling my iPod or iPhone with my favourite music and my favourite podcasts. 90% of these podcasts are comicbook related and one that gets priority when posted is Where Monsters Dwell. WMD is a weekly radio show broadcasted from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. I discovered this show quite by chance by becoming friends with co-host “Monster” Mike Campbell on Facebook years ago and have been listening ever since.

The show is a mixture of discussions between hosts Mike Campbell and Remington J. Osborn on a variety of nerd topics be it TV, film, games and a conversation with a comicbook creator. These discussions are very entertaining as, the hosts have said this themselves, it is a couple of friends meeting once a week and chatting about the things they love and they would do it even if they didn't have a radio show. They veer away from the negative and try to focus on the positives. They also give a much appreciated spoiler warning if they think the discussion is heading in that direction.

The laid back style really works when it comes to the interviews as the vast majority of guests are put at ease when they realise that the WMD crew just want to talk about what they want to talk about and won't push them where they don't want to go. (This doesn't stop Remy from trying to extract information about top secret projects on occasion but that is more of a running gag than serious pressure). Mike does a great job on the discussion of art process as he is genuinely interested in knowing how artists do things (he's a bit of an artist himself). If they aren't asking the questions you want, you can ask a question by posting on their Facebook wall (or call in if you're listening live) and producer Chuck will ask the question. The guests have included the legendary Joe Kubert, Gail Simone, Mark Waid and Irishman Declan Shalvey. They have a nice mixture of independent creators and the well known names and they have many repeat guests as interviewees seem enjoy the chats as much they do.

After appearing on the show, and being very entertaining (as he usually is) and presumably having a good time, Jimmy Palmiotti began doing a spin-off show called Listen to Jimmy where Mike chats with Jimmy about his work (which Jimmy skips over as something that people don't want to hear about) and what has happened in the week (not restricted to comicbooks) and he answers Twitter and e-mail questions. I think that is the part of the WMD show (and the Jimmy show) that I enjoy the most. I really feel part of both shows. They have asked questions for me and every week it feels like I am listening to a couple of friends chatting about the things I love. That and when they discuss future plans on air. “Maybe we should discuss this off air.”

*****

Follow Mike Campbell and Remington J. Osborn

Website: http://wheremonstersdwell.ca/