Pod-casm

Well, in the past few days I have been delving into the seedy underbelly of podcasting. It all started when the creators of Penny Arcade, one of the webcomics I read regularly, started to record sessions that they had thinking up ideas for their strip. It was pretty damn funny, and interesting to hear about how they come up with their ideas (especially when you can see the final product at the same time).

Unfortunately, they have done about six and then slacked off. From there though, I found another podcast, slightly more regular at updates, done by Kristopher Straub and Dave Kellett from Blank Label Comics. They are funny guys who work off each other pretty well, and if I had a complaint it would be that they have fallen into the curse felt by all things webcomic - the inability to update regularly.

I've now worked my way through the 20-odd archives for the Blank Label Comic Podcast, and during that I found another podcast on webcomics called Digital Strips. These guys are a little drier, a little less funny than the BLC guys but still an interesting listen and finally something that is run more like a proper radio show. I think it helps that the podcast is the focus of the website, rather than an addition as per those above.

I enjoy the podcast format, because I can listen to them on my own time (and at work), and using iTunes or whatever you can set it to alert you when a new one is ready, so you don't have to worry about checking the website ad infinitum to see if they have updated.

Once I work my way through the Digital Strips archive, I am going to expand into other genres... I definitely want to find a decent video game review podcast, and perhaps a movie one too. There are also things like aussie radio shows such as the Cage, Sheband and Hamish and Andy for people who like that kind of thing, or international shows such as the Ricky Gervais show (which I know would be a hit with loads of my friends) or Jack Black's video diary (yep, you can get video too) from the filming of his latest movie. All found through iTunes or any number of other programs.

No doubt this is old news to anyone who uses the intarweb on a regular basis, but I'm always a bit behind like this, and it is fun finding a new aspect of the net. In my old job I used to have craploads of time for reading forums and webcomics, but now they keep me busy so I really just have time to keep up on a few of my favorite comics and little else. With podcasts I can listen to them at work while I'm getting other stuff done. Good stuff!