#western-publishing — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Play Comics @[email protected] · 2026-02-01 · 07:15 UTC

Popeye Rush for Spinach with Ryan Estrada

Grab your canned vegetables and your questionable licensed tie-ins, because this week on Play Comics we’re diving headfirst into Popeye: Rush for Spinach on the Game Boy Advance—the game that looked at a classic comic strip about a gruff sailor punching his problems and said, “Actually, what if everyone just… ran a lot instead?” This is a world where the Sea Hag steals the global spinach supply, the solution is apparently time-traveling track meets, and Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto, and Wimpy all agree that the best way to settle things is to sprint through history like someone off-screen yelled “last one there buys lunch.”

Helping us untangle this leafy green disaster is the wonderful Ryan Estrada from the comic-making side of the internet, a man who knows exactly what it looks like when characters escape the page and do something absolutely no one asked them to do. Ryan’s here to help figure out how a comic icon who started life in newspaper strips, got famous selling spinach, and spent decades punching sea monsters somehow wound up in a handheld racing game that feels like it was brainstormed during a very strange lunch break.

So power up that tiny GBA screen, flex those forearms, and get ready for an episode that’s equal parts comic history lesson, adaptation autopsy, and incredulous laughter at the phrase “Popeye racing game.”

Learn such things as:

Were our parents lying to us about spinach all these years?
What’s the point of dropping plot threads if you never plan on picking them up?
Will somebody just bring me a cheeseburger already?
And so much more!

You can find everything you could ever want to know about Ryan on RyanEstrada.com. Let’s see if anyone can pick out my favorite part. I’ll give you a hint, it’s on the home page.

If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in.

If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store.

Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix.

You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube or the Play Comics website.

If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out.

A big thanks to Peace Bound and Down – A Wonder Woman Podcast and Carnival of Glee Creations for the promos today.

Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who prefers arugula.

#Bluto #CharltonComics #DellComics #Fantagraphics #GameBoyAdvance #GoldKeyComics #HarveyComics #IDW #KingFeaturesSyndicate #MagicPockets #NamcoHometek #OliveOyl #Popeye #RyanEstrada #WesternPublishing #Wimpy

#bluto #charltoncomics #dellcomics #fantagraphics #gameboyadvance #goldkeycomics

Play Comics @[email protected] · 2025-11-02 · 07:15 UTC

Astro Boy Omega Factor with Hamish Steele (Super Mario Moment)

Welcome, mechanical marvels and atomic adventurers! This week on Play Comics, we’re firing up our reactor cores and diving headfirst into the absolutely electrifying world of Astro Boy Omega Factor for the Game Boy Advance – because apparently someone at Banpresto looked at Osamu Tezuka’s groundbreaking manga and thought, “You know what this 1950s icon needs? A portable fighting game experience where he punches evil robots directly in their non-existent feelings.”

Released in 2003, this 2D brawler took the mighty atom himself and somehow convinced an entire development team that what fans REALLY wanted was the chance to mash buttons while watching our favorite nuclear-powered pint-sized hero exchange haymakers with increasingly ridiculous mechanical adversaries. Sure, the original manga was about philosophical questions of robot rights and what it means to be human, but why dwell on existential dread when you could just… punch things?

Joining us for this high-voltage episode is Hamish Steele from Super Mario Moment – a man who knows a thing or two about platform and fighting game mechanics, though probably with significantly fewer isotope-based superpowers than Astro Boy packs. Together, we’ll explore whether this GBA adaptation captured the essence of Tezuka’s revolutionary creation or if it just left us feeling like we’d been on the receiving end of one of Astro Boy’s arm cannons.

So charge up your atomic energy reserves, practice your most devastating uppercut, and prepare for an episode that’s absolutely radiating with gaming chaos. Will this manga adaptation prove to be a shining beacon of handheld excellence, or will it fizzle out faster than Astro’s battery in a poorly designed dungeon? Time to find out if this portable pugilist belongs in the Hall of Mighty Adaptations or the scrapheap of forgotten GBA obscurities!

Learn such things as:

Should we be concerned that a 50,000 horsepower robot is solving all his problems with his fists instead of, you know, actual diplomacy?
How many obscure Astro Boy villains can one GBA cartridge possibly hold before it achieves sentience?
How many different episodes will at least partially focus on a character’s butt?
And so much more!

You can Hamish on BlueSky @HamishSteele, his website HamishSteele.co.UK, and his podcast Super Mario Moment. If you want to get your hands on some of his books then go grab Go-Man: Champion of Earth or any of the DeadEndia series in The Watcher’s Test, The Broken Halo, and The Divine Order.

If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in.

If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store.

Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix.

You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky.

A big thanks to Distant Echos and D’ohmance Dawn for the promos today.

Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who is very disappointed in me for not asking about Astro Boy’s relationship to Astro Man.

#AstroBoy #DakrHorse #GameBoyAdvance #HamishSteele #Hitmaker #IDW #Kobunsha #NOWComics #Sega #Tokyopop #Treasure #WesternPublishing

#astroboy #dakrhorse #gameboyadvance #hamishsteele #hitmaker #idw

IndieAuthors.Social News @[email protected] · 2025-05-13 · 22:03 UTC

What is “western publishing”, anyway?

Trade fiction, academic works, comics, audiobooks and digital serials are all being reimagined- from Tokyo’s manga cafés to Dubai’s audiobook studios. And all too often it is the "west" that is playing catch-up and copy-cat.
https://thenewpublishingstandard.com/2025/05/13/what-is-western-publishing-anyway/

#PublishingBrief #PublishingControversies #Qatar #DohaInternationalBookFair #westernpublishing
@indieauthors

#publishingbrief #publishingcontroversies #qatar #dohainternationalbookfair #westernpublishing

Play Comics @[email protected] · 2025-02-23 · 07:15 UTC

Turok Evolution with Frank Martin

Grab your time-traveling bow and arrow, folks! It’s time to dive into the prehistoric playground of Turok: Evolution, the game that asked, “What if we took a beloved comic book series and cranked the dinosaur-blasting action up to 11?” Join us as we explore this Acclaim-produced, multi-console extravaganza that had gamers questioning whether they were playing as a noble warrior or just a really enthusiastic paleontologist with anger issues.

This episode features the talented Frank Martin, comic writer extraordinaire and master of crowdfunded creativity. He’ll help us navigate the treacherous terrain between comic panels and pixelated landscapes, all while dodging raptors and questioning the logic of futuristic weapons in a world where “cutting edge” usually refers to a particularly sharp rock.

So strap on your loincloth, polish your plasma rifle, and get ready to explore a game that’s part Jurassic Park, part quantum physics experiment gone wrong. Will Turok: Evolution stand the test of time, or will it go extinct faster than you can say “Cease and desist, dinosaur!”? Tune in to find out!

Learn such things as:

Is it cheating if you’re making the game alongside the comics?
Is it cheating if you rebooted the comics to be nothing like the comics were when the came out all those years ago?
Is it cheating if you’re just making Goldeneye in the early 2000s but with dinosaurs?
And so much more!

You can find Frank on most social media platforms using the handle @FrankTheWriter and FrankTheWriter.com.

If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in.

If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store.

Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix.

You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky.

A big thanks to Not If I Reboot You First and Behold! for the promos today.

Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who doesn’t have a favorite dinosaur because they’re all so cool.

#Acclaim #AcclaimComics #DarkHorse #DellComics #DynamiteComics #FrankMartin #GameBoyAdvance #Gamecube #GoldKeyComics #PS2 #RFXInteractive #Turok #Valiant #WesternPublishing #Xbox