The latest episode of Eating the Fantastic wasn’t recorded at a convention, but as you’ll learn if you listen to my introduction, there’s a very good reason you could, if you’d care to, pretend it was.

My guest this time around is Robert Greenberger, a writer and editor of more than 100 books and anthologies, many within the DC, Marvel, and Star Trek franchises. He started his professional career an editor for Comics Scene and Starlog Press, and in 1984, joined DC Comics as an assistant editor to Len Wein and Marv Wolfman. He was promoted to editor the following year, and assigned the titles Star Trek, Suicide Squad, and Doom Patrol. The adaptations of several Star Trek films he edited led to him working on the franchise’s novel series, such as the seven-book crossover miniseries Gateways, developed with novel editor John J. Ordover. He continued at DC until 2000, by which time he’d risen to the position of Manager-Editorial Operations. Over the years, he worked on such titles as The Warlord, Lois Lane, Action Comics Weekly, Time Masters, Secret Origins, The Hacker Files, and more.



In 2001, he joined Marvel Comics as Director-Publishing Operations under Joe Quesada, but soon rejoined DC Comics as a Senior Editor for Collected Editions, where he remained until 2006. Since that time, he’s freelanced as a writer and editor, working for such companies as Weekly World News (where he was Managing Editor in 2006 and 2007), Platinum Studios, Syfy, Famous Monsters of Filmland, and ComicMix.com. He’s also a co-founder of Crazy 8 Press.

We discussed our teen experiences at the first Star Trek convention in 1972, how TV taught him about the existence of Marvel Comics, the way George Reeves as Clark Kent made him want to be a journalist, the lecture Wonder Woman editor Robert Kanigher gave him after he dared give feedback, why so many DC Comics staffers walked around without their shoes on Fridays, how he convinced Cable News to launch Comic Scene magazine, the convoluted way Denny O’Neil was responsible for him becoming Len Wein and Marv Wolfman’s assistant, how his editing of Star Trek comics led to his writing Star Trek fiction, the differences he saw in corporate culture while working at both Marvel and DC, what Clark Kent would have thought of his gig at the Weekly World News, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us for lunch at Showroom in Frederick, Maryland — (more…)

My guest this episode is Shannon Robinson, whose short story collection, The Ill-Fitting Skin, was released last year. Robinson’s work has appeared in Gettysburg Review, Iowa Review, Water-Stone Review, Nimrod, Joyland, and elsewhere. She has an MFA in fiction from Washington University in St. Louis, and in 2011 she was the Writer-in-Residence at Interlochen Center for the Arts.

Other honors include the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction, grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts, a Hedgebrook Fellowship, a Sewanee Scholarship, and an Independent Artist Award from the Maryland Arts Council. Currently, she teaches creative writing and pedagogy at Johns Hopkins University and lives in Baltimore with her husband and son.

We discussed how best to deal with rejection, the way our opinions about print vs. electronic publication have changed over the courses of our careers, when an untrustworthy narrator can be a feature, not a bug, the many ways readers can be misreaders of stories, how she realized she’d reached short story critical mass and it was time to assemble a collection, the way the genres in which we write are often defined by those who publish us rather than the words on the page, what she tells her students is the only rule in writing, our contrasting experiences with simultaneous submissions, the ways in which she’ll apply everything she’s learned in writing short stories to her upcoming novel, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us for lunch at Tamber’s restaurant in Baltimore — (more…)

The Seattle Worldcon has opened nominations for the Hugo Awards, the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. If you’re eligible to nominate, I hope you’ll consider my Eating the Fantastic podcast in the category of Best Fancast.

Last year, I invited listeners to eavesdrop on 28 culinary encounters with amazing creators. Below are links to all 2024 episodes so you can have a taste and decide whether the podcast — which I launched in February 2016 — is your kind of ear candy. I hope you enjoy eavesdropping!

Join Izzy Wasserstein for Kansas City BBQ in episode 216 of Eating the Fantastic

Munch MVP sandwiches with MVPs Gary K. Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan in Episode 217 of Eating the Fantastic

Nibble garlic naan with Jo Miles in Episode 218 of Eating the Fantastic

Snack on sushi with Ray Nayler in Episode 219 of Eating the Fantastic

Nosh pastrami with Glenn Hauman in Episode 220 of Eating the Fantastic

Join biographer Julie Phillips for Jӓgerschnitzel in Episode 221 of Eating the Fantastic

Join writer Sunny Moraine for dinner on Episode 222 of Eating the Fantastic

Sup on scallops with Arthur Suydam on Episode 223 of Eating the Fantastic

Devour a Georgian dinner with Dan Parent in Episode 224 of Eating the Fantastic

Chow down on cryptid pizza with Lesley Conner in Episode 225 of Eating the Fantastic

Polish off paneer biryani with Tobias Carroll in Episode 226 of Eating the Fantastic

Dig into duck with Alex Jennings in Episode 227 of Eating the Fantastic

Bite into a burrito with writer Elwin Cotman in Episode 228 of Eating the Fantastic

Gab over garlic bread with Sally Wiener Grotta in Episode 229 of Eating the Fantastic

Savor a seafood pancake with Ai Jiang in Episode 230 of Eating the Fantastic

It’s time for tea and scones with Chuck Tingle in Episode 231 of Eating the Fantastic

Breakfast with Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam in Episode 232 of Eating the Fantastic

Join Jenny Rowe (and James Tiptree, Jr.) at the Glasgow Worldcon bar in Episode 233 of Eating the Fantastic

Feast on burgers and fries with Cynthia Pelayo on Episode 234 of Eating the Fantastic

Munch on Mattar Paneer with horror writer William J. Donahue in Episode 235 of Eating the Fantastic

It’s time for two scoops of Sarah Pinsker on Episode 236 of Eating the Fantastic

Chow down on cheesy garlic bread with Jeffrey Ford in Episode 237 of Eating the Fantastic

Share beef noodle soup with award-winning writer John Chu in Episode 238 of Eating the Fantastic

Share a bowl of Cullen skink with the award-winning Wole Talabi in Episode 239 of Eating the Fantastic

Feast on fish and chips with Paul Cornell in Episode 240 of Eating the Fantastic

Chow down on chicken tikka masala with Gareth L. Powell in Episode 241 of Eating the Fantastic

Share scallops with R. S. A. Garcia in Episode 242 of Eating the Fantastic

Settle in for a steak dinner with Marvel’s Tom Brevoort in Episode 243 of Eating the Fantastic

Thank you for your consideration!

I’ve known writer/editor/artist Larry Hama for at least half a century now, but his career started long before that, when he sold his first cartoon to Castle of Frankenstein magazine in 1966. He’s probably best known as a writer and editor for Marvel Comics, where he wrote the licensed comic book series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, based on the Hasbro toy line, writing nearly every issue of the book’s 13-year run.

He’s also written for the series Wolverine, Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja, and Elektra. He worked as an editor at both DC and Marvel, and at the latter edited the humor magazine Crazy, as well as Conan, The ‘Nam, and Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham. He co-created the character Bucky O’Hare, who not only appeared in comic books, but as a television cartoon. Last year, he was inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame.

We discussed how cataract surgery changes the way an artist perceives the page, what really happened at a mid-’70s penthouse comic book party, Bernie Krigstein’s anger at being asked questions about comics, why Wally Wood felt it was so important for his assistants to learn how to letter, what it was like being part of the famed Crusty Bunkers inking collective, why getting to edit Crazy was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream,  which Marvel Comics Bullpenner was the visual inspiration for Obnoxio the Clown, why getting his freelancers to hit their deadlines was never a hassle, the editing advice Archie Goodwin gave him early on, the real reason he needed to create that famous silent issue of G. I. Joe, the differing zeitgeists of Marvel vs. DC during the ’70s, his approach to taking over the editing of legacy characters, our joint confusion over memes of previous generations, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us for lunch at New York’s Anjappar — (more…)

I plucked Eric Choi‘s short story “From a Stone” out of the slush pile to publish in the September 1996 issue of Science Fiction Age, and our paths have unfortunately rarely crossed since. When he popped by my kaffeklatch during the Glasgow Worldcon last year, that was probably the first time we’d had the chance to chat face to face in decades. So when I heard he planned to also attend Capclave in Rockville, MD, where I’m a regular, I took that as a sign.

Choi was the first recipient of the Asimov Award (now the Dell Award) for his novelette “Dedication.” He also won the Aurora Award for his short story “Crimson Sky,” and a 2023 Sidewise Award for Best Short Form Alternate History for his novelette “A Sky and a Heaven”. His short story collection Just Like Being There was published in by Springer Nature in 2022. He edited the anthologies The Dragon and the Stars with Derwin Mak in 2010 (winning a 2011 Aurora Award in the category of Best Related Work) and Carbide Tipped Pens: Seventeen Tales of Hard Science Fiction with Ben Bova in 2014.

He’s also an alumnus of the International Space University.  Over the course of his aerospace engineering career, he’s worked on a number of space projects including QEYSSat (Quantum Encryption and Science Satellite), the Meteorological (MET) payload on the Phoenix Mars Lander, the Canadarm2 on the International Space Station, the RADARSAT‑1 Earth-observation satellite, and the MOPITT (Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere) payload on the Terra satellite. In 2009, he was one of the Top 40 finalists (out of 5,351 applicants) in the Canadian Space Agency’s astronaut recruitment campaign.

We discussed what William Shatner’s Captain Kirk might sound like dubbed into Cantonese, the wonders of fan-run science fiction conventions, how the Asimov competition gave him the courage to make his first submission, what it was like co-editing an anthology with the great Ben Bova, the accident that gave birth to his first short story collection, why his claim never to have experienced writer’s block comes with a footnote, his moving memories of the Columbia accident as experienced at the Kennedy Space Center, the Richard Feynman quote he shared throughout the pandemic, why the first Harry Turtledove story he read wasn’t written by Harry Turtledove, his unfortunate introduction to The Lord of the Rings, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us for lunch at Rockville’s Lebanese Taverna — (more…)

It’s time to return to the Baltimore Comic-Con for your chance to chat and chew with a second comics creator following last episode’s steak dinner with Tom Brevoort. Get ready to hit one of Baltimore’s best delis with Martha Thomases.

Martha Thomases is a freelance journalist who has been published in the Village Voice, the New York Daily News, High Times, Spy, the National Lampoon, and more. She’s a VP of Corporate Communications at  ComicMix.com as well as a weekly contributor there. From 1990-1999 she was Publicity Manager at DC Comics. She also worked as a researcher and assistant for author Norman Mailer on several of his books, including the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Executioner’s Song, On Women and Their Elegance, and Harlot’s Ghost. She created Dakota North with Tony Salmons for Marvel.  Next year, A Wave Blue World will publish Second-Hand Rose, her graphic novel with Richard Case.

We discussed her theory that your popularity in high school determines whether you’ll move to New York, why she was into DC rather than Marvel at the start of her comics fandom, Denny O’Neil’s explanation of the true difference between Metropolis and Gotham City, the realization she had at 35 as to the true reason her parents allowed her to read comics, the weirdness of Little Lotta and Baby Huey, why she was more nervous meeting Denny O’Neil than she was meeting Norman Mailer, how Dakota North was born, our mutual love for the She-Hulk TV series, selling comics to comics fans vs. selling them to potential readers who don’t yet know they’d like comics, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us for lunch at Attman’s Delicatessen — (more…)

Now that the Glasgow Worldcon is in the rearview mirror, it’s time to head off to this year’s Baltimore Comic-Con.

First up — dinner with Tom Brevoort, who holds the record for being the longest-running editor ever at Marvel Comics, having been hired there in 1989 right out of college. Over the decades, he’s overseen titles such as New Avengers, Civil War, and Fantastic Four. He became Executive Editor in 2007, and in January 2011, was promoted to also serve as Senior Vice President of Publishing. He’s an Eisner Award-winner for Best Editor, and is currently the Group Editor of The X-Men.

We discussed how a guy whose first love was DC Comics ended up at Marvel, why he hated his early exposure to Marvel so much he’d tell his parents not to buy them because “they’re bad,” the pluses and minuses of comic book subscriptions (and the horror when issues arrived folded), how Cerebus the Aardvark inspired him to believe he could build a career in indie comics, the most unbelievable thing he ever read in a Flash comic, how he might never have worked at Marvel had I not gone to school with Bob Budiansky, the prevailing Marvel ethos he disagreed with from the moment he was hired, what it takes to last 35 years at the same company without either walking off in disgust or getting fired, the differing ways Marvel and DC reused their Golden Age characters, how to prevent yourself from being pedantic when you own an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of comics, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us for dinner at Rec Pier Chop House — (more…)

The final Eating the Fantastic guest you get to join at the table during the Glasgow Worldcon — following Jenny Rowe, Wole Talabi, Paul Cornell, and Gareth L. Powell — is R. S. A. Garcia.

Garcia won both the Nebula Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for her short story “Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200,” published in Uncanny , and was a Nebula finalist the previous year as well for her novella  “Bishop’s Opening,” which appeared in Clarkesworld. She is also the winner of the MIFRE Media Award, and a Sturgeon, Locus, Ignyte and Eugie Foster Award finalist. Her short fiction has appeared in venues such as Escape Pod, Strange Horizons, and Internazionale Magazine, as well as a number of anthologies, including the The Best of World SF, The Best Science Fiction of the Year, and The Apex Book of World SF. 

Her Amazon bestselling science fiction mystery, Lex Talionis, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and the Silver Medal for Best Scifi/Fantasy/Horror Ebook from the Independent Publishers Awards. Her sci-fantasy duology, beginning with The Nightward, was published by Harper Voyager US in October, plus The Unbearable Taste of Fruit and Wine will be out next Valentine’s Day from Android Press.

We discussed how the idea for her Nebula-winning short story caused her to leap up and walk out of a writing workshop, how editor Ellen Datlow’s advice changed her life, why writing is a verb, not an adjective, the way she decides whether or not to rise to the occasion of a themed anthology invite, her convoluted journey in finding an agent to negotiate her first novel sale even though there was already an offer on the table, why there are some rejections you should be grateful for, how Sigourney Weaver’s role in Alien inspired the sorts of stories she wanted to tell, the Easter eggs in her fiction only a Trinidadian would get, how and why she’s a complete pantser, the importance of community as well as the danger of it disappearing, her hope that readers get even more from her fiction upon rereading,  and much more.

Here’s how you can join us for lunch at Two Fat Ladies at The Buttery — (more…)

The fourth Eating the Fantastic conversation you get to eavesdrop on from the Glasgow Worldcon — following my chats with Jenny Rowe, Wole Talabi, and Paul Cornell — is with Gareth L. Powell.

Powell  has twice won the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel — in 2014 for Ack-Ack Macaque and in 2019 for Embers of War — and has become one of the most shortlisted authors in the award’s 50-year history. He’s also been a finalist for the Locus Award (twice), the British Fantasy Award, the Seiun Award, the Premios Ignotus, and the Canopus Award. His short fiction has appeared in the magazines Clarkesworld, Interzone, Galaxy, Worlds of IF, and others, and has been featured in numerous anthologies, including Shine: The Anthology of Optimistic Science Fiction, Solaris Rising 3: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction, and The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Second Annual Collection.

As a freelancer writer, he has written a strip for long-running British comic 2000 AD, articles for The Guardian, Irish Times, Acoustic Magazine, and SFX Magazine, and currently writes a monthly column about future tech for The Engineer. He’s the Managing Editor of Stars and Sabers Publishing, the publishing imprint he founded with his spouse, the American author Jendia Gammon.


We discussed the way a Diana Wynne Jones critique of his teenaged writing was a complete revelation in how to write fiction, how an adversarial relationship with a university professor who didn’t want him writing science fiction actually ended up helping him, the New Year’s resolution which led to him to both kick smoking and write a novel, how reading William Gibson’s short story collection Burning Chrome shook him up and made him realize what kind of short stories he really wanted to write, the message he most wants to convey to beginning writers in his workshops, the importance of stepping outside your comfort zone, how to make a good impression when approaching an editor in a convention bar, the way he developed his propulsive writing style, why he’s so receptive to editorial suggestions, what it was like collaborating with Peter F. Hamilton and Aliette de Bodard, his techniques for deciding which of many story ideas you should write, the reason his mother refuses to read his books, why writing novels can be like telling a joke and waiting two years for somebody to laugh, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us for lunch at Shish Mahal — (more…)

It’s time for the third of five culinary conversations I brought back from the Glasgow Worldcon, following my chats with Jenny Rowe, creator of the one-woman show Tiptree: No One Else’s Damn Secret But My Own, based on the life of the remarkable James Tiptree Jr./Alice Sheldon, and Wole Talabi, author of the seemingly universally acclaimed Nommo Award-winning novel Shigidi And The Brass Head Of Obalufon.

This third episode I brought back features Paul Cornell, with whom I’ve been trying to break bread ever since the 2019 Dublin Worldcon. Paul started out writing Doctor Who fan fiction, which led to him writing canonical Doctor Who novels (where he created the companion Bernice Summerfield), audio plays, and comics. Plus he recently won the Terrance Dicks Award for lifetime achievement in Doctor Who writing from the Doctor Who Appreciation Society.

But aside from his achievements in the Doctor Who universe, he’s created so many other awesome experiences for us. He’s written episodes of Elementary, Primeval, Robin Hood, and many other TV series, including his own children’s show, Wavelength.  He’s worked for every major comics company, including his creator-owned series I Walk With Monsters for The Vault, The Modern Frankenstein for Magma, Saucer Country for Vertigo, and This Damned Band for Dark Horse, plus runs on Young Avengers and Wolverine for Marvel, and Batman and Robin for DC,  

He’s the writer of the Lychford rural fantasy novellas from Tor.com Publishing. His short fiction has been published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Interzone, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, and at Tor.com, plus he also written for George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards short story anthologies. He’s won the BSFA Award for his short fiction, an Eagle Award for his comics, a Hugo Award for his SF Squeecast podcast, and shares in a Writer’s Guild Award for his Doctor Who work.  He’s the co-host of Hammer House of Podcast.  

We discussed where he stands on the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby debate, how his UK mind was blown the first time he saw a U.S. issue of The Avengers, why fannish history fascinates him, the reason he went the self-funding route for Who Killed Nessie (and what that did to his blood pressure), how some of his Doctor Who fan fiction eventually became canon, the reason he’s suspicious of nostalgia, how he knows when ideas pop into his head which of his many projects they’re right for, the legacy comics characters he’d love to write more of, what he learned from the great Terrance Dicks, how he manages to collaborate while remaining friends with his co-creators, his fascination with Charles Fort, why he announced there’d be no more Doctor Who in his future, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us for lunch at the 106-year-old University Cafe — (more…)