My friend Jason Neulander, a director and writer in Austin, shares two of my great passions:  comics and theatre. Here’s the latest very cool thing that Jason has done:  turned his radio play “Intergalactic Nemesis” into a graphic novel, which he then turned into — a live theatre piece combining elements of a stageplay, foley sound effects akin to radio drama, and visuals from the graphic novel.

In the 1990’s, I got to work with a “non-radio radio” group called Smugly Absurd several times, producing their shows at my theatre, Moving Arts; they were (and are) amazing actors, able to do numerous voices, ably accompanied by our late friend David Krebs, a premiere foley artist who could sonically convince you that you were boarding a train, scuffling in the dirt, taming a horse, or otherwise sharing in the adventures. I just wish we’d thought to produce a graphic novel and build that into it, too.

For years, I have been a fervent admirer of the zine called Duplex Planet. In each issue, David Greenberger interviews old people (originally, the residents of the Duplex Nursing Home) on subjects they seem to have little understanding of. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve heard the aging and the baffled debate the qualities of chipmunks vs. squirrels (both real and animated).

I just stumbled across this interview by a man determined to share his love of comic books, but coming square up against someone with perhaps the world’s foremost comic-book phobia. The depths of his man’s antipathy for the four-color printed page cannot be fully plumbed; suffice it to say, there is something darkly Freudian down there. After the interviewer easily strips away all his protests with the force of logic, the refusals become increasingly determined as well as (I can’t resist) wonderfully comic. Here’s the interview. It’s so bizarre, it seems straight out of Duplex Planet.

And what did I do after reading this? Read a comic book, of course.

In his autobiography, Joe Simon says that as a boy he got to meet a Civil War veteran and got to “shake the hand of a man who shook hands with Lincoln.” This was part of his inspiration for creating Captain America — the idea of meeting an icon. I completely love this little bit of American history: from Lincoln, to frail old veteran, to schoolboy, to the enduring American icon Captain America.

Just a week after Jerry Robinson’s death, Captain America co-creator Joe Simon has left us for that four-color splash page in the sky. Here’s an interview with him from last summer, courtesy of the Washington Post. I’m glad he got to see the Captain America movie — where, after the bad previous filmic attempts, producers actually got the character right — and I’m glad I got to meet him once, and got his autograph on my hardback reprint of the first Captain America comics from the 1940’s.

Sad to see that legendary comics creator Jerry Robinson died last night. Robinson was the creator of The Joker, and was a fixture at the San Diego Comic-Con. The ranks of Golden Age creators continue to shrink; last year, for the first time in the Con’s history, Mark Evanier didn’t put together a Golden Age panel because he wasn’t able to round up enough panelists. Jerry Robinson had been in comics almost from the beginning. I’m sure there are others, but the only remaining elders I can think of are Joe Simon and Stan Lee.

In which Newt Gingrich almost saves us from ourselves, again and again. (And thank God someone at DC Comics finally listened.)

Here’s how I learned at an early age to be skeptical:  by ordering crap advertised in comic books. The novelties were worthless, but the disillusionment proved to be priceless.

I make a point not to buy junk, and not to buy stuff I don’t need. But ironically, I need to buy this book — because I think that just seeing it on my bookshelf every day will serve as a useful reminder.

How do you know when a movement has become a cultural meme? When Superman finds himself stuck in it.

Seattle superhero Phoenix Jones has  been unmasked as Benjamin John Francis Fodor — which I think will make it easier for women to track him down and beat him with a shoe, as in the video below. Once his identity became public, did Captain America ever have to deal with this?

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In recent years, movie studios and exhibitors (movie theatres) have been at war over when it’s appropriate to release a movie for digital distribution. Exhibitors, obviously, want people to go out to the movies; if the same movie is available within weeks  — or, worse for them, day-and-date of release — they fear that people will stay home and watch them there.

Now the same drama is playing out in comics. DC’s “New 52” line is available day-and-date for digital reading, with comics store owners still unsure how that’s going to play out; my own local comics shop owner told me he’s hopeful that if people buy their DC titles electronically, they’ll buy them from his online store, where he’ll get a one-third cut.  Retailers I met at this summer’s San Diego Comics Con felt like angry villagers ready to storm DC’s castle.

Now this:  Barnes & Noble is pulling all the DC graphic novels because DC’s parent, Warner Brothers, has entered into an exclusive digital deal with Amazon, meaning that, say, “Watchmen,” will be made available for the new Kindle Fire — but not for the B&N Nook.

Where will all this wind up? No one knows. Digital delivery — of music, of books, of movies, of information, of mail, and more — has already destabilized countless industries (including the post office). Expect more of that.