Back To Pop
Back to Pop Podcast: Your All-Access Pass to Pop Culture Icons
Dive headfirst into the vibrant world of pop culture with the “Back to Pop Podcast,” where we celebrate the legends and lore of the entertainment universe. From the visionaries behind the scenes to the iconic faces in front of the camera, we bring you exclusive, heart-to-heart conversations with the diverse talents that have shaped our cultural landscape.
“Back to Pop” is not just a podcast; it’s a vibrant dialogue with the movers and shakers of music, movies, TV, and comics. Each episode is a unique journey, offering you a front-row seat to the untold stories, creative inspirations, and behind-the-scenes insights from your favorite pop culture personalities.
“Back to Pop” is where nostalgia meets novelty, where we reminisce about classic moments while exploring the latest trends that are defining the future of entertainment. It’s your chance to hear from the legends you admire and the rising stars you’re curious about, all in one place.
So, if you’re looking to get your pulse on pop culture’s past, present, and future, tune into “Back to Pop Podcast.” Be part of a community that thrives on the excitement, creativity, and passion that pop culture brings into our lives. Join us, and let’s celebrate the stories that connect us all.
Episodes
86 episodes
Ep: 86 Daniel Dockery on the Batman Book Thirty Years in the Making
Kevin Conroy sat in a recording booth for thirty years playing a man who wore two faces, and somewhere along the way, that dual identity became personal. Before he ever put on the cowl, Bruce Timm was just a burned-out animator tired o...
Ep: 85 William McNamara: What Happened After the Credits And What's Happening
William McNamara joins Back to Pop for an honest conversation about the life that unfolded beyond the movie screen.Known for memorable performances in Dream a Little Dream, Surviving the Game, Copycat, Chas...
EP: 84 Lance Guest: From 🎃 Halloween 2, The Last Starfighter to Jaws: The Revenge
Every generation has a movie that finds them at exactly the right age. For a lot of us, that movie was The Last Starfighter — and at the center of it was Lance Guest, who turned Alex Rogan into one of the most quietly ...
Ep: 83 Fearless Fred Kennedy on Comics, Broadcasting, and Making Stories That Refuse to Behave
Fred Kennedy — writer, broadcaster, and professional chaos agent known to most of the world as Fearless Fred- sits down with Back to Pop to talk about making comics that absolutely refuse to stay in one genre.Fred is the writer...
Ep: 82 Adam Cahoon on Horror Fandom, LitRPG Monsters, and Vault Comics
This week on Back to Pop, we sit down with Adam Cahoon — artist, designer, and Senior Designer & former Production Lead at Vault Comics. Adam stepped into The Nasty, Vault’s horror-comedy about VHS culture and the ...
Ep: 81 One Image, One Promise: Nick Marinkovich on Covers, Comics, and Dead Romans
Some covers don’t ask you to pick them up — they grab you by the collar.That’s exactly what happened with Honor and Curse from Mad Cave Studios. One look at the cover and the search was on: who made this?This week...
EP: 80 From Plastic to Narco: Doug Wagner & Daniel Hillyard on Building Something Strange
Writer Doug Wagner returns to Back to Pop and this time, he brings his artistic partner in crime with him.Daniel Hillyard joins the conversation for a wide-ranging discussion on what it looks like when a creative partnership build...
EP:79 “Art That Feels Like Something” — Suspiria Vilchez
This week on Back to Pop, Marc is joined by cover and variant artist Suspiria Vilchez — a Barcelona-born, Toronto-based painter whose hand-crafted acrylic technique sets her apart in today’s comics industry. Her work has appeared across Vault C...
Ep: 78 Michael Tove: The Dream That Waited
What happens when the dream doesn’t die — it just waits?Michael Tove spent decades in North Carolina as a regional actor, film extra, and financial adviser. His first screen credit goes back to 1990, when he worked as an extra on the the...
EP: 77 George Vega: The Kid Who Never Stopped Drawing
George Vega grew up in Newark, New Jersey watching Voltron and filling sketchbooks with Jim Lee panels. Today he’s doing G.I. Joe cover work through Skybound and his art has appeared across Marvel, DC, Alien, Firefly, and Rick and Morty. In thi...
EP: 76. JP Mavinga: Drawing Worlds, Building Heroes, and the Art Behind White Sky
JP Mavinga has spent over twenty-five years building one of the most distinctive careers in illustration and comics — born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, trained at SCAD, and forged across three continents before landing as a senior c...
Ep: 75 Rick Burchett — The Artist Who Made Batman Move
If you grew up reading The Batman Adventures, Batman: Gotham Adventures, or Superman Adventures, Rick Burchett’s work shaped how you see those characters. His pages don’t just look good — they move, they breathe, they act.In thi...
Ep: 74 Dancing Between the Raindrops with Nelson Aspen
He’s covered the Oscars, the Golden Globes, and decades of Hollywood from the red carpet out. Now Nelson Aspen is turning the lens on himself.Nelson joins Back to Pop to talk about Dancing Between the Raindrops: Happily Ever After? —...
EP: 73 “Bob Budiansky on Building the Original Transformers Mythology”
He named 200 characters like Megatron, Starscream, Grimlock, Bumblebee, Prowl, and more . He wrote the character bibles that turned a line of Japanese toys into one of the most beloved franchises in pop culture history — and most people have ne...
EP: 72 Jeremy Robinson: Blood, Butterflies, and Building an Empire
Jeremy Robinson has written nearly 100 novels. He’s a #1 Audible and New York Times bestselling author published in 14 languages. His kaiju series Project Nemesis is in development at Sony Pictures Television with John Wick director Chad Stahel...
Ep: 71 Comics, Games, and the End of Everything: William Harms
William Harms has spent thirty years building worlds — and the dead ones are his best work yet.From small press comics in the early ‘90s to writing Captain America and Wolverine for Marvel, to crafting the entire story of inFAMOUS fo...
Ep: 70 Marc Singer: Before the Loincloth, Beyond the Legend
Before streaming. Before shared universes. Before fandom went mainstream — there were heroes who meant it.This week on Back to Pop, we give Marc Singer’s career the full treatment it deserves. He was a classically trained stage actor be...
Ep: 69 Into the Sweetest Darkness: Doug Wagner
Today, on Back To Pop we dive into the pages of comics, with acclaimed writer Doug Wagner Doug Wagner writes serial killers in love, cannibal furries, fashion designers with a taste for human flesh, and Viking curses — and s...
EP: 68 Highburn Studios: The Business, the Books, and the Grind of Indie Comics
Michael Watkins (CEO/Editor-in-Chief, Highburn Studios) is back — and this time he brought the whole crew. Joining him are Lyle Pollard, creator of the slice-of-life series Tribulations, and Mike “Mez” Phillips, freelance artist and creator beh...
Ep: 67 Hal Eisner Didn’t Plan Any of It — That’s What Made Him Great
He covered the O.J. Simpson trial, the Rodney King riots, the Northridge earthquake, Columbine, the Las Vegas mass shooting, and Michael Jackson’s death. For 58 years, Hal Eisner was there — camera rolling, microphone in hand — for the mome...
Ep: 66 On the Line: Breaking Barriers, Battling Cancer, and Rewriting the Rockettes Story
People know the kicks. The costumes. The Christmas magic.But they don’t always know what it cost to stand on that line — and what it takes to stay whole after you do.This week on Back to Pop, we sit down with...
Ep: 65 Caitlin Yarsky: Mythology, Emotion, and Visual Storytellingep
Comic Creator Caitlin Yarsky joins us to discuss her journey from early creative impulses to becoming one of comics’ most distinctive visual storytellers. Known for her work on Coyotes, Bliss, Black Hammer, and He-Man and the Masters of t...
EP: 64 From Two Dimes to TerrifiCon: Mitch Hallock’s Comic Book Journey
What happens when a lifelong comic book fan decides to build the convention he always wanted to attend? You get TerrifiCon – Connecticut’s largest comic book convention and a love letter to creators and fans alike.In this episode, we...
EP: 63 A Conversation w/ Ron Fazio: From the NFL to The Toxic Avenger to Saving Lives in Surgery
The most unbelievable three-act story in pop culture.Ron Fazio suited up for the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles. Then he became the man inside the costume in The Toxic Avenger Part II and Part III. Today, he saves lives as a cardiot...
EP: 62. A Conversation w/ Patrick Piazzalunga: Drawing Gunpowder, Grindhouse, and Italian Gothic
Join us for an in-depth conversation with talented comics artist Patrick Piazzalunga as he shares his journey from Bergamo, Italy to the international comics scene.Patrick opens up about his early days studying at the Scuola Internaz...
