Podcast Notes: The Outsiders Show That Never Was

Category: Outsiders
Last article published: 3 August 2021
This is the 167th post under this label

You might or might not be surprised at the number of podcast ideas that don't make it to your ear buds. For example, I once thought of doing something with the New Gods. Nothing came of it. I've been trying to get episodes of FW Records together and even recorded some things, but I feel like the end result is always too thin and I don't finish production. I even once recorded what would have been an audio version of this blog (more of a magazine style show), but it's still in the can, unproduced. One idea I thought would have a shot is an Outsiders podcast co-signed by myself and Rob Kelly.

Now, if you've followed this blog since at least 2014, you'll know I have no real love for the team Batman built in the '80s. In fact, I used to write take-down articles, basically making unfair jokes about the art and story, page by page, up through issue #15 of the original series! It was meant as comedy - I don't have nearly as much skin in the game as the posts make it out to be - and everyone knew it. But the Outsiders have their fans (or at least, people who own a pair of rose-tinted nostalgia goggles) and fellow Network All-Star Rob Kelly was among them. The concept for the show would have been this:

We each record on our end a page by page appreciation (or in my case, "appreciation") of an issue - me essentially adapting the comments I made on this blog years ago, him new material that contradicts my comments. So whether you think the Outsiders are total pants or a fun Bronze Age superhero comic, you get your due AND a reason to debate in the comments section. Plus, the format didn't require us to schedule a meeting. I would simply edit the audio into a coherent show that kept switching hosts and views.

But we only really JOKINGLY talked about it. I had too much on my plate to really push for it even as a one-off or annual thing. And then our friend Tim Price started an enthusiastic podcast about the Outsiders (the Wright On Network's The Outcasters on the Batgirl/Huntress Podcast feed) and that was that. We're not in the business of competing with people in our larger circle (even of the sentiment isn't always reciprocated). I listen to the show and shake my head a lot and I don't comment because I don't want to burst Tim's bubble. I guess it makes me realize that though those article were all in fun, I still DID think the Outsiders were ill-conceived.

In an alternate reality, perhaps this show is a thing. Perhaps it's even good, who knows.