My voice seems to be all over the podcastosphere this week (is that even a word?)

I don't have the cash right now to travel around with the Secret Identities crew on their publicity tour in New York and more recently, L.A., so I've had to stick to plugging Secret Identities without leaving the Bay Area.

On big WOWO's podcast, which you can listen to right now on WOWO's blog or as a direct download, I discussed with podcast host Byron Wong the Secret Identities novel and the development of "Sampler," as well as the need for more Asian American scriptwriters, whether in the comics industry, TV or sketch comedy.

I revealed to Byron that right before I wrote the treatment for "Sampler," I was going to make the title character the daughter of a tailor who caters to superheroes, but then I remembered that a J. Michael Straczynski Amazing Spider-Man story introduced a similar tailor character, so to avoid turning into the Carlos Mencia of comic books, I changed the characters from tailors to dry cleaners.

I wish Byron kept the digital recorder rolling after the interview was over because we then shared some funny wisecracks about the 1998 Asian American indie movie Yellow (what's up with the lead actor's shouty acting?) and my own self-portrait, which I drew for both Secret Identities and my blog profile page (Me: "My picture probably scared away your site's readers from posting questions to me [in the comments section]. Maybe they're like, 'Who the fuck is he? Another untalented Basco brother?'" Byron: "It looks like a mugshot." Me: "Yeah, the photo I based it on had me wearing a beret, but I wanted to draw myself with a more gangster-looking hat." Byron: "Maybe I should have said you're dating a white woman. Then I would have gotten some comments.").

The same week I recorded the podcast with WOWO, I also guested on The Ben and Joel Podcast, hosted by conservative Scripps Howard columnist Ben Boychuk (a longtime fan of A Fistful of Soundtracks) and his liberal fellow columnist Joel Mathis. During their roundtable chat about the summer movie season, I talked mostly about a subject that's unrelated to Secret Identities: film and TV scores. (UPDATE: Listen to this Ben and Joel Podcast installment right now on Ben's blog or as a direct download.) At one point, Ben even asked me to briefly discuss Secret Identities, and I explained how my Secret Identities experience made me see the advantages the comics medium has over film and TV. For instance, when you create a comic, you don't have to worry about a ginormous budget like the one Fox lavished on X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Ben and I are from opposite ends of the political spectrum, but there's one thing we agree on: the awesomeness of the scores of Yoko Kanno, Michael Giacchino, Jerry Goldsmith and Basil Poledouris. Many of the scores Ben and I like are ones that are listenable outside of the movie or TV show. During the chat, I admitted that some of the scores I enjoy and have chosen for airplay on A Fistful of Soundtracks are from movies I've never even seen, like the 1999 cannibal horror flick Ravenous. It's an interesting discussion about music in movies, and I got to talk about aspects of film music and AFOS I haven't even addressed on this blog yet!