Pop Culture Happy Hour: Free Comic Book Day And Rabbit Holes

NPR

Another year, another Free Comic Book Day!

This year, we had our comics guide, Glen Weldon, take a break from reviewing the entire haul of 50 comics available this year at participating shops and bring a handful of comics to each of the rest of us on the panel: me, Stephen Thompson, and our pal Petra Mayer, who is a regular comics reader like Glen is but not a regular consumer of the FCBD offerings. Glen gave us great stuff, not-so-great stuff, things we'd find familiar and things we wouldn't. In this episode, we reflect on how it struck those of us who do and don't regularly read comics, and Glen gives lots of great recommendations for this and any other day of comics reading. In Glen's massive, fantastic FCBD post, you can find all the comics we talked about in the show, which are marked with asterisks.

Then we eagerly leap down the rabbit hole of rabbit holes — the phenomenon of jumping from a single piece of culture, or the person who makes it, into the next and next and next thing. Start anywhere and wind up everywhere, as they say.

As always, we close the show with what's making us happy this week. Stephen is happy about several opportunities he had to meet listeners on the road, and he invites you to listen to an All Songs Considered listening party that recently happened in Boston that raised lots of questions about music and how we love it. Glen is happy about a museum he compares, in a certain way, to Oz. Petra is happy about a book she put off reading longer than she wishes she had. And I am happy about a wonderful segment on a show we consider a friend (can a show be a friend? Sure!) in which a six-year-old tells you everything you really need to know about a competitive reality show.

Find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter: the show, me, Stephen, Glen, Petra, producer Jessica, and pal and producer emeritus Mike.