Back To Pop

Back To Pop
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Film Interviews
  • Updated Monthly

Back to Pop Podcast: Your All-Access Pass to Pop Culture IconsDive headfirst into the vibrant world of pop culture with the “Back to Pop Podcast,” where we celebrate the legends and lore of the entertainment universe. From the visionaries behind the scenes to the iconic faces in front of the camera, we bring you exclusive, heart-to-heart conversations with the diverse talents that have shaped our cultural landscape. “Back to Pop” is not just a podcast; it’s a vibrant dialogue with the movers and shakers of music, movies, TV, and comics. Each episode is a unique journey, offering you a front-row seat to the untold stories, creative inspirations, and behind-the-scenes insights from your favorite pop culture personalities.“Back to Pop” is where nostalgia meets novelty, where we reminisce about classic moments while exploring the latest trends that are defining the future of entertainment. It’s your chance to hear from the legends you admire and the rising stars you’re curious about, all in one place.So, if you’re looking to get your pulse on pop culture’s past, present, and future, tune into “Back to Pop Podcast.” Be part of a community that thrives on the excitement, creativity, and passion that pop culture brings into our lives. Join us, and let’s celebrate the stories that connect us all.

  1. Ep: 78 Michael Tove: The Dream That Waited

    1d ago

    Ep: 78 Michael Tove: The Dream That Waited

    Send us Fan Mail What happens when the dream doesn’t die — it just waits? Michael Tove spent decades in North Carolina as a regional actor, film extra, and financial adviser. His first screen credit goes back to 1990, when he worked as an extra on the theatrical adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale — shot right in his home state. He carried a screenplay called Hot Ice for nearly thirty years. He never stopped. Now, well past his 70th birthday, Tove is a debut screenwriter whose short film Yard Saleing — a Hitchcockian thriller about a yard sale, a locked box, and a decades-old jewelry heist — is making serious noise on the festival circuit. The film stars Eric Roberts and Eliza Roberts, and was directed by Tom Logan, veteran acting coach and former head of the acting department at the American Film Institute. Tove wrote it, and produced it.  There is no expiration date on your dreams. Michael Tove is living proof. If you would like to see Yard Sailing watch it here https://youtu.be/QTNAGtQSWm4 And for all things Mike Tove click here https://www.emeraldoakproductions.com/ Theme music composed by Ron Wasserman  Audio composed and edited by  Lauren M. Antoine  Website:  Composer Ron Wasserman  Back To Pop  https://lantoine2.wixsite.com/portfolio Instagram/  https://www.instagram.com/backtopopmedia?igsh=MTd0dGNid2hjdWd5cA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr https://www.instagram.com/4ronwasserman?igsh=MTR6ZGZ5dXJzYXN3eQ== Ever had an idea for an action figure, or maybe you just wish one had been made? Well at Lecroy Toys you don't have to wait anymore, head over and tell Matthew we sent you! https://www.instagram.com/lecroystoys?igsh=MW1ndWE5c Support the show Ever had an idea for an action figure, or maybe you just wish one had been made? Well at Lecroy Toys you don't have to wait anymore, head over and tell Matthew we sent you!  https://www.instagram.com/lecroystoys?igsh=MW1ndWE5cHhzaGQ3dw==

    1h 15m
  2. EP: 77 George Vega: The Kid Who Never Stopped Drawing

    May 21

    EP: 77 George Vega: The Kid Who Never Stopped Drawing

    Send us Fan Mail George Vega grew up in Newark, New Jersey watching Voltron and filling sketchbooks with Jim Lee panels. Today he’s doing G.I. Joe cover work through Skybound and his art has appeared across Marvel, DC, Alien, Firefly, and Rick and Morty. In this conversation, George talks about the artists who shaped him — Jim Lee, Brom, Todd McFarlane, Larry Elmore — and what he actually took from each of them. We get into his process, his discipline philosophy, what it means to capture what makes a character unique, and why showing up anyway is the only real answer to artist’s block. If you grew up on trading cards, action figures, and Saturday morning cartoons, this one hits different. To connect more with what George has going on click here https://www.georgevegaart.com/ Theme music composed by Ron Wasserman  Audio composed and edited by  Lauren M. Antoine  Website:  Composer Ron Wasserman  Back To Pop  https://lantoine2.wixsite.com/portfolio Instagram/  https://www.instagram.com/backtopopmedia?igsh=MTd0dGNid2hjdWd5cA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr https://www.instagram.com/4ronwasserman?igsh=MTR6ZGZ5dXJzYXN3eQ== Support the show Ever had an idea for an action figure, or maybe you just wish one had been made? Well at Lecroy Toys you don't have to wait anymore, head over and tell Matthew we sent you!  https://www.instagram.com/lecroystoys?igsh=MW1ndWE5cHhzaGQ3dw==

    1h 30m
  3. EP: 76. JP Mavinga: Drawing Worlds, Building Heroes, and the Art Behind White Sky

    May 14

    EP: 76. JP Mavinga: Drawing Worlds, Building Heroes, and the Art Behind White Sky

    Send us Fan Mail JP Mavinga has spent over twenty-five years building one of the most distinctive careers in illustration and comics — born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, trained at SCAD, and forged across three continents before landing as a senior concept designer and art director at Sideshow Collectibles, where his work on the Thanos on Throne maquette set sales records. In this episode, JP joins Back to Pop to talk craft, identity, and his debut Image Comics series White Sky written by William Harms, colored by Lee Loughridge, and already on its third printing.  The conversation covers his multicultural journey and how it shaped his visual voice, his years designing iconic collector pieces for DC, Marvel, and beyond, and the process behind building every page of White Sky  a post-apocalyptic survival story about a father and daughter crossing a haunted America. JP also gets into the tools he uses, how he draws emotion without dialogue, and what twenty-five years in this industry has taught him about staying in it. Find out more about JP at mavinga.com. Theme music composed by Ron Wasserman  Audio composed and edited by  Lauren M. Antoine  Website:  Composer Ron Wasserman  Back To Pop  https://lantoine2.wixsite.com/portfolio Instagram/  https://www.instagram.com/backtopopmedia?igsh=MTd0dGNid2hjdWd5cA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr https://www.instagram.com/4ronwasserman?igsh=MTR6ZGZ5dXJzYXN3eQ== Ever had an idea for an action figure, or maybe you just wish one had been made? Well at Lecroy Toys you don't have to wait anymore, head over and tell Matthew we sent you! https://www.instagram.com/lecroystoys?igsh=MW1ndWE5cHhzaGQ3dw== Support the show Ever had an idea for an action figure, or maybe you just wish one had been made? Well at Lecroy Toys you don't have to wait anymore, head over and tell Matthew we sent you!  https://www.instagram.com/lecroystoys?igsh=MW1ndWE5cHhzaGQ3dw==

    1h 23m
  4. Ep: 75 Rick Burchett — The Artist Who Made Batman Move

    May 7

    Ep: 75 Rick Burchett — The Artist Who Made Batman Move

    Send us Fan Mail If you grew up reading The Batman Adventures, Batman: Gotham Adventures, or Superman Adventures, Rick Burchett’s work shaped how you see those characters.  His pages don’t just look good — they move, they breathe, they act. In this episode, we sit down with Rick to talk about how a commercial art background at a St. Louis ad agency quietly became one of the best training grounds for comics storytelling, why the animated Batman books weren’t just tie-ins but a genuine artistic statement, and what it actually takes to sustain a career in comics across decades without losing your voice. Rick breaks down what he’s really chasing when he builds a page, how he shifted gears between Batman’s tension and Superman’s optimism without losing himself, and why clarity and restraint — not flash — are the rarest skills in the medium. This one’s for the fans who wore out those pages. And for anyone who ever wondered what makes a comic actually work. Theme music composed by Ron Wasserman  Audio composed and edited by  Lauren M. Antoine  Website:  Composer Ron Wasserman  Back To Pop  https://lantoine2.wixsite.com/portfolio Instagram/  https://www.instagram.com/backtopopmedia?igsh=MTd0dGNid2hjdWd5cA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr https://www.instagram.com/4ronwasserman?igsh=MTR6ZGZ5dXJzYXN3eQ== Ever had an idea for an action figure, or maybe you just wish one had been made? Well at Lecroy Toys you don't have to wait anymore, head over and tell Matthew we sent you! https://www.instagram.com/lecroystoys?igsh=MW1ndWE5cHhzaGQ3dw== Support the show Ever had an idea for an action figure, or maybe you just wish one had been made? Well at Lecroy Toys you don't have to wait anymore, head over and tell Matthew we sent you!  https://www.instagram.com/lecroystoys?igsh=MW1ndWE5cHhzaGQ3dw==

    1h 9m
  5. Ep: 74 Dancing Between the Raindrops with Nelson Aspen

    Apr 16

    Ep: 74 Dancing Between the Raindrops with Nelson Aspen

    Send us Fan Mail He’s covered the Oscars, the Golden Globes, and decades of Hollywood from the red carpet out. Now Nelson Aspen is turning the lens on himself. Nelson joins Back to Pop to talk about Dancing Between the Raindrops: Happily Ever After? — the final chapter in his trilogy blending romance, identity, and the unfiltered realities behind the spotlight.  It’s a book that feels lived-in, because it is. We dig into reinvention in middle age, the tension between wanting intimacy and settling for availability, what it means to start over in New York City, and whether “happily ever after” is something we’re taught — or something we have to redefine on our own terms. This one goes deep. And it earns it. Dancing Between the Raindrops: Happily Ever After?  The Magnificent Mr. &Mrs. Maple are available now. All things Nelson can be found at the link below.  http://nelsonaspen.com/ Theme music composed by Ron Wasserman  Audio composed and edited by  Lauren M. Antoine  Website:  Composer Ron Wasserman  Back To Pop  https://lantoine2.wixsite.com/portfolio Instagram/  https://www.instagram.com/backtopopmedia?igsh=MTd0dGNid2hjdWd5cA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr https://www.instagram.com/4ronwasserman?igsh=MTR6ZGZ5dXJzYXN3eQ== Ever had an idea for an action figure, or maybe you just wish one had been made? Well at Lecroy Toys you don't have to wait anymore, head over and tell Matthew we sent you! https://www.instagram.com/lecroystoys?igsh=MW1ndWE5cHhz Support the show Ever had an idea for an action figure, or maybe you just wish one had been made? Well at Lecroy Toys you don't have to wait anymore, head over and tell Matthew we sent you!  https://www.instagram.com/lecroystoys?igsh=MW1ndWE5cHhzaGQ3dw==

    1h 9m
  6. EP: 73  “Bob Budiansky on Building the Original Transformers Mythology”

    Apr 9

    EP: 73  “Bob Budiansky on Building the Original Transformers Mythology”

    Send us Fan Mail He named 200 characters like Megatron, Starscream, Grimlock, Bumblebee, Prowl, and more . He wrote the character bibles that turned a line of Japanese toys into one of the most beloved franchises in pop culture history — and most people have never heard his name. Bob Budiansky spent 20 years at Marvel Comics as an editor, writer, and penciller. He drew Ghost Rider covers for five years, co-plotted the conclusion of the original Johnny Blaze run, and wrote The Transformers from issue #5 through #55 — crafting the personalities, the mythology, and the names behind roughly 250 characters over six years. Then he walked away from licensed properties and built something entirely his own: Sleepwalker, a wildly original Marvel series about an otherworldly guardian who battles nightmares bleeding into the real world — which he wrote for all 33 issues. In this conversation, Bob takes us behind the curtain on all of it: how the Transformers assignment landed on his desk over Thanksgiving with a week’s deadline, what it felt like to realize he was building the foundation of a global franchise, and why he didn’t fully grasp what he’d created until he googled his own name in the 90s. This one’s for every kid who ever picked up a Transformer and wondered where it came from. Back to Pop drops every Thursday. Subscribe wherever you listen. Theme music composed by Ron Wasserman  Audio composed and edited by  Lauren M. Antoine  Website:  Composer Ron Wasserman  Back To Pop  https://lantoine2.wixsite.com/portfolio Instagram/  https://www.instagram.com/backtopopmedia?igsh=MTd0dGNid2hjdWd5cA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr https://www.instagram.com/4ronwasserman?igsh=MTR6ZGZ5dXJzYXN3eQ== Ever had an idea for an action figure, or maybe you just wish one had been made? Well at Lecroy Toys you don't have to wait anymore, head over and tell Matthew we sent you! https://www.instagram.com/lecroystoys?igsh=MW1ndWE5 Support the show Ever had an idea for an action figure, or maybe you just wish one had been made? Well at Lecroy Toys you don't have to wait anymore, head over and tell Matthew we sent you!  https://www.instagram.com/lecroystoys?igsh=MW1ndWE5cHhzaGQ3dw==

    1h 23m
  7. EP: 72 Jeremy Robinson: Blood, Butterflies, and Building an Empire

    Apr 2

    EP: 72 Jeremy Robinson: Blood, Butterflies, and Building an Empire

    Send us Fan Mail Jeremy Robinson has written nearly 100 novels. He’s a #1 Audible and New York Times bestselling author published in 14 languages. His kaiju series Project Nemesis is in development at Sony Pictures Television with John Wick director Chad Stahelski. And now he’s back where he started — in comics. But he’s not adapting his novels.  He’s creating something new. Nectar, the debut title from Robinson’s own Breakneck Comics imprint at Vault Comics, is a 19th-century gothic folk horror story set in 1837 on Misery Island — a cold, isolated stretch of land off the coast of Salem, Massachusetts. Its monster: blood-drinking butterflies carrying the Dancing Plague. The goal was to build something that could stand alongside Dracula and Frankenstein. From the early reviews, they may have pulled it off. In this episode, Jeremy Robinson traces the full arc — from Beverly, Massachusetts kid raised on science fiction and seacoast exploration, to comic book illustrator, to screenwriter, to genre fiction empire builder. We talk about the leap from drawing panels to filling them with story, the architecture of a shared universe, what it means to run your own imprint, and how an idea that arrived in minutes with his wife Hilaree became the horror comic readers are already hunting on the secondary market. This is the origin story. And the monster story. And the business story. Let’s go. Find out more here!  https://www.breakneckcomics.com/ Follow him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jrobinsonauthor?igsh=MXE2NjVpdjU3YW1mYw== Theme music composed by Ron Wasserman  Audio composed and edited by  Lauren M. Antoine  Website:  Composer Ron Wasserman  Back To Pop  https://lantoine2.wixsite.com/portfolio Instagram/  https://www.instagram.com/backtopopmedia?igsh=MTd0dGNid2hjdWd5cA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr https://www.instagram.com/4ronwasserman?igsh=MTR6ZGZ5dXJzYXN3eQ== Support the show Ever had an idea for an action figure, or maybe you just wish one had been made? Well at Lecroy Toys you don't have to wait anymore, head over and tell Matthew we sent you!  https://www.instagram.com/lecroystoys?igsh=MW1ndWE5cHhzaGQ3dw==

    53 min
  8. Ep: 71 Comics, Games, and the End of Everything: William Harms

    Mar 26

    Ep: 71 Comics, Games, and the End of Everything: William Harms

    Send us Fan Mail William Harms has spent thirty years building worlds — and the dead ones are his best work yet. From small press comics in the early ‘90s to writing Captain America and Wolverine for Marvel, to crafting the entire story of inFAMOUS for PlayStation 3 (IGN’s Best Story of the Year, 2009), to serving as Narrative Director on Mafia III — a BAFTA-nominated game that ended up in a Victoria and Albert Museum exhibit — William Harms has done it all.  And now he’s back in creator-owned comics with White Sky, his haunting new post-apocalyptic series from Image Comics about a father and daughter fleeing across a world completely ruled by ghosts. Issue one sold out at the distributor level on release day. The second printing has already topped 30,000 orders . In this episode, we go deep on the personal thread running through thirty years of horror, games, and comics — how William wrote the moral complexity of Mafia III, what makes ghost stories different from every other kind of horror, and why White Sky isn’t just a story about the end of the world. It’s a story about what you hold onto when everything is gone. White Sky #1 and #2 are available now from Image Comics. Theme music composed by Ron Wasserman  Audio composed and edited by  Lauren M. Antoine  Website:  Composer Ron Wasserman  Back To Pop  https://lantoine2.wixsite.com/portfolio Instagram/  https://www.instagram.com/backtopopmedia?igsh=MTd0dGNid2hjdWd5cA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr https://www.instagram.com/4ronwasserman?igsh=MTR6ZGZ5dXJzYXN3eQ== Support the show Ever had an idea for an action figure, or maybe you just wish one had been made? Well at Lecroy Toys you don't have to wait anymore, head over and tell Matthew we sent you!  https://www.instagram.com/lecroystoys?igsh=MW1ndWE5cHhzaGQ3dw==

    1h 5m
See All (78)

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Back to Pop Podcast: Your All-Access Pass to Pop Culture IconsDive headfirst into the vibrant world of pop culture with the “Back to Pop Podcast,” where we celebrate the legends and lore of the entertainment universe. From the visionaries behind the scenes to the iconic faces in front of the camera, we bring you exclusive, heart-to-heart conversations with the diverse talents that have shaped our cultural landscape. “Back to Pop” is not just a podcast; it’s a vibrant dialogue with the movers and shakers of music, movies, TV, and comics. Each episode is a unique journey, offering you a front-row seat to the untold stories, creative inspirations, and behind-the-scenes insights from your favorite pop culture personalities.“Back to Pop” is where nostalgia meets novelty, where we reminisce about classic moments while exploring the latest trends that are defining the future of entertainment. It’s your chance to hear from the legends you admire and the rising stars you’re curious about, all in one place.So, if you’re looking to get your pulse on pop culture’s past, present, and future, tune into “Back to Pop Podcast.” Be part of a community that thrives on the excitement, creativity, and passion that pop culture brings into our lives. Join us, and let’s celebrate the stories that connect us all.

Information

  • Creator
    Back To Pop
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    78
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Back To Pop
  • Show Website
    Back To Pop