This episode has taken longer to publish because once we do, All Comics Considered won’t be recording anymore. And I am not ready for the show to end.

A few months back, we received a cease and desist order from NPR, stating that they have a trademark on the All __ Considered brand. We were given six months to change our name, and we were not required to destroy our archive. When we started this show, we knew this was a possibility.

We never aspired to be like All Things Considered - the flagship news program that provides coverage of daily events. Instead, we wanted to be more like All Songs Considered – the show that describes music and says, “This is cool. Dig this.” What we set out to do was talk about the comics and comics creators that we liked. To have a conversation that wasn’t based on which Batman villain could beat Daredevil, or talk about why THIS version of Spider-man was better than that version. We wanted to talk about why folks may like Daredevil, Spider-man, Letters to Lucardo, Bliss, or the countless other titles we mentioned. We wanted to share a love of comics with as wide an audience as possible and tear down whatever gate held folks back.

I think we did the best we could.

I’m proud of what we accomplished. Our interviews with Ariel from Amalgam Philly, Chip Zdarsky, Ellis Bojar, Pornsak Picetshote, Sean Lewis and Caitlin Yarsky are, in my very biased opinion, some of the best interviews i’ve heard on a comics pod. Our reading series on Fantastic Four, Bone, and Astro City helped us get grounding in why we love this medium. But what matters most, for all of us, was how we were able to use this show to invest in each other. This isn’t the cliché, “it was the friends you made along the way.” We used our show to support each other, inspire each other and encourage each other to do better.

Hannah is living her best life in Pennsylvania and working with survivors of domestic violence.

Tim’s been promoted and has reconnected with his artistic side. And he’s really good at it.

Nick is going to be an amazing counselor who will not shy away from dealing with the issues that most white therapists wouldn’t touch for all the Medicare reimbursement in the world.

Steve is making more music. Hell, you may catch him in a band in the Pacific Northwest soon.

I’m doing grassroots organizing. It doesn’t sound so glamorous, but it means I get to talk to complete strangers about things I’m passionate about – and that’s something I loved about podcasting too.
Speaking of podcasting, Tim, Nick, and I are still thinking about what we’ll do next. However, when it comes to ACC, we’re shutting down. It’s time to do something a little different. Maybe more creative. Maybe more scripted. Maybe less. And while I agree it’s time to move on, I’m not ready to say goodbye.

I love talking about comics. I love reading comics. I love hearing other people get excited about fictional worlds that give them an escape from a scary, toxic place. I love how it brought people into my life like Caitlin,Kelsey, Tom and Joe. I think I love everything about comics except the publishing bullshit, but I can deal with that.

There are a few stories we didn’t get to finish. We never recorded Kingdom Come – maybe the third time would have been the charm. We had a huge piece to do on Immortal Hulk, and I was hoping we’d get to talk to at Al Ewing. I wanted to talk to bring back Sean and Caitlin to talk about books we should be reading. I really wanted to talk about Daredevil with Chip. I wanted to bring in so many colorists and editors to talk about their ideas on storytelling…

I’ll stop talking about comics when I move on from this Earth. I’ll be coordinating with my crew as we figure out what comes next. I know I’ll come back to comics one day – and I hope folks will want to listen to that like you did with ACC.

Until next time, friends, remember this: adventures end, but that’s when you can start a new journey.