Hard Agree
39 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 51 ratingsHard Agree is a pop culture podcast hosted by Andrew Sumner about the things that connect and unite us, whatever those things may be, whatever our differences might be - the things that we can hard agree on.
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Episodes
A Hard Agree Christmas Carol 2022 (featuring Evangeline Lilly, Michael Moorcock, Dave Gibbons, Olly Smith, Julie Stark, David Leach & Will O’Mullane)
December 23, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 60.1 MBIn this special Yuletide charity edition of Hard Agree, Andrew Sumner is joined by seven very special guests from the worlds of comics, movies, TV and theatre: legendary fantasy author Michael Moorcock; BBC presenter & wine expert Olly Smith (BBC’s Saturday Kitchen, Olly Smith’s Home Cocktail Bible); author, actor & MCU star Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit, Ant-Man and The Wasp); comic book legend Dave Gibbons (Watchmen, Kingsman, The Originals); West End theatre star Julie Stark (Company,...
Professor Ed Catto: Always Ready for Action
October 18, 2022 15:45 - 1 hour - 63.9 MBSumner is joined on this week’s Hard Agree by his old comics industry pal, Professor Ed Catto. The always-cheerful-and-upbeat Ed has fulfilled many roles in the comics business: illustrator, marketeer, entrepreneur, founder & managing director at the Agendae consuting agency, co-owner of Captain Action Enterprises, pop culture columnist at Comic Mix and professor & instructor at Ithaca College. He’s also one of the nicest guys Sumner has ever met - and their freewheeling conversation in this...
Paul Levitz: Five Decades at DC Comics
September 27, 2022 15:12 - 1 hour - 53.1 MBAndrew Sumner is joined on this week’s Hard Agree by the renowned long-term president and publisher of DC Comics: Paul Levitz! Paul talks with Sumner about his unique career and his amazingly eventful 48 years on the payroll at DC, where he was involved with a massive amount of positive change that affected both DC and the entire US comics industry. Paul discusses working on DC’s war books, particularly Men of War (starring Gravedigger) and Star Spangled War Stories (starring The Unknown Sol...
Michael Moorcock’s Multiverse IV: Skiffle, Shatner, Tornadoes & Hawkwind
September 07, 2022 11:00 - 48 minutes - 36.6 MBSeason Two of Hard Agree begins with Andrew Sumner welcoming back the world’s greatest living fantasy author, Michael Moorcock, for the fourth instalment in their ongoing series of conversations about Michael’s life and work. In this wide-ranging Season Two opener (aka Michael Moorcock’s Multiverse IV) , Mike starts out recounting his skiffle adventures with the tea chest bass before covering off: Pete Seeger & Woody Guthrie; subscriptions to Encounter magazine; the intricacies of CIA fundin...
Lying in the Gutters with Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston
February 16, 2022 23:48 - 1 hour - 58.7 MBSumner is joined on this week’s Hard Agree by comics reporter supreme Rich Johnston, the founder of the world’s leading comics news site Bleeding Cool. Rich has been at the top of his game for thirty years, despite starting out as the ultimate outsider, living 3000 miles away from the heart of the US publishing industry. Rich tells Sumner all about how an English bloke from West Yorkshire became the world’s foremost source of comics industry news while also name checking some of his favorite...
Whoa Mama! Doing the monkey with Johnny Bravo creator Van Partible!
January 31, 2022 12:00 - 1 hour - 68.8 MBSumner is joined on this week’s Hard Agree by the creator of the Sumner Family’s all-time favorite Cartoon Network show, the always-cheerful and gentlemanly Van Partible! Van created the mighty Johnny Bravo for Hanna-Barbera when he was just 22 years old and, in this deep-dive conversation, he chats with Sumner about: his early years creating the show; working with Craig McCracken, Genndy Tartakovsky & Seth MacFarlane; working with prolific voice performer Jeff Bennett (who created Johnny’s ...
Evangeline Lilly’s Library of the Soul: Absorbing the Library
January 24, 2022 12:00 - 50 minutes - 44.2 MBAndrew Sumner welcomes actor & author Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit, Ant-Man and The Wasp, South of Heaven) back to Hard Agree for the concluding episode of her seven-part podcast mini-series: Evangeline Lilly’s Library of the Soul. In this concluding episode, Evangeline and Andrew review their extended conversation, fuelled by five specific books that were influential on Evangeline at key points in her life. This conversation has taken place across a significant divide: Evangeline i...
Evangeline Lilly’s Library of the Soul: The Workaholics Anonymous Book of Recovery
January 17, 2022 12:00 - 56 minutes - 49.8 MBAndrew Sumner welcomes actor & author Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit, Ant-Man and The Wasp, South of Heaven) back to Hard Agree for the sixth episode of her seven-part podcast mini-series: Evangeline Lilly’s Library of the Soul. In this instalment, The Workaholics Anonymous Book of Recovery, Evangeline & Andrew discuss Evangeline’s fifth book selection and the circumstances Evangeline found herself in when she first encountered https://workaholics-anonymous.org/ As usual, their conver...
Evangeline Lilly’s Library of the Soul: The Presence Process
January 10, 2022 12:00 - 1 hour - 66.7 MBAndrew Sumner welcomes actor & author Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit, Ant-Man and The Wasp, South of Heaven) back to Hard Agree for the fifth episode of her seven-part podcast mini-series: Evangeline Lilly’s Library of the Soul. In this instalment, The Presence Process, Evangeline & Andrew discuss Evangeline’s fourth book selection – The Presence Process by Michael Brown - and the circumstances Evangeline found herself in when she first encountered Brown’s work. As usual, their conver...
Evangeline Lilly’s Library of the Soul: The Red Tent
January 03, 2022 12:00 - 1 hour - 54.6 MBAndrew Sumner welcomes actor & author Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit, Ant-Man and The Wasp, South of Heaven) back to Hard Agree for the fourth episode of her seven-part podcast mini-series: Evangeline Lilly’s Library of the Soul. In this instalment, The Red Tent, Evangeline & Andrew discuss Evangeline’s third book selection – The Red Tent by Anita Diamant - and the circumstances Evangeline found herself in when she first encountered Diamant’s work. As usual, their conversation takes p...
Evangeline Lilly’s Library of the Soul: Conversations with God
December 27, 2021 12:00 - 1 hour - 58.8 MBAndrew Sumner welcomes actor & author Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit, Ant-Man and The Wasp, South of Heaven) back to Hard Agree for the third episode of her seven-part podcast mini-series: Evangeline Lilly’s Library of the Soul. In this instalment, Conversations with God, Evangeline & Andrew discuss Evangeline’s second book selection – Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch - and the circumstances Evangeline found herself in when she first encountered Walsch’s work. As usual, t...
A Hard Agree Christmas Carol 2021 (featuring Evangeline Lilly, Dave Gibbons, Olly Smith & Julie Stark)
December 23, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 59.8 MBIn this special Yuletide charity edition of Hard Agree, Andrew Sumner is joined by four very special guests from the worlds of comics, movies, TV and theatre: actor author & MCU movie star Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit, Ant-Man and The Wasp), comic creator Dave Gibbons (Watchmen, Kingsman, The Originals), TV wine expert/author Olly Smith (BBC’s Saturday Kitchen, Olly Smith’s Home Cocktail Bible) and West End stage actress Julie Stark (Company, Les Misérables, We Will Rock You). A Hard A...
Evangeline Lilly’s Library of the Soul: The Final Quest
December 22, 2021 00:26 - 1 hour - 61.8 MBAndrew Sumner welcomes actor & author Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit, Ant-Man and The Wasp) back to Hard Agree for the second episode of her seven-part podcast mini-series: Evangeline Lilly’s Library of the Soul. In this installment, The Final Quest, Evangeline & Andrew discuss Evangeline’s first book selection - The Final Quest by Rick Joyner - and the circumstances Evangeline found herself in when she first encountered Joyner’s work. As usual, their conversation takes place across a...
Evangeline Lilly’s Library of the Soul: Entering the Library
December 19, 2021 20:00 - 45 minutes - 39.9 MBAndrew Sumner welcomes actor & author Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit, Ant-Man and The Wasp) to Hard Agree for the first episode of a special seven-part podcast mini-series: Evangeline Lilly’s Library of the Soul. Over the next seven episodes, Evangeline & Andrew discuss Evangeline’s lifelong journey through faith and spirituality, as signposted by five key books that influenced Evangeline at major points in her life: i)The Final Quest by Rick Joyner ii) Conversations with God by Neal...
The Epic Life of Carl Potts
October 25, 2021 19:27 - 1 hour - 75.5 MBSumner is joined on this week’s Hard Agree for a wide-ranging comics-heavy conversation with one of his all-time favorite comic book editors: artist, writer & thirteen-year Marvel Comics veteran Carl Potts. Carl joined Marvel in 1983 and, in addition to co-creating Alien Legion, he oversaw the reinvention & redevelopment of The Punisher (transforming Frank Castle from an occasional Spider-Man/Daredevil supporting player into one of the two most popular Marvel characters not created by Kirby,...
Drawing with Rob Biddulph
October 01, 2021 18:03 - 1 hour - 65 MBWhenever Sumner gets asked “who’s the most talented person you’ve ever worked with?” there’s only one answer: “Rob Biddulph.” Back when they worked together in the magazine biz, Rob was an innovative, multi-award-winning art director (responsible for zeitgeist-defining titles like SKY and the NME before his storied run on the Observer Magazine). Now Rob’s an innovative, multi-award-winning and wildly-successful children’s author/illustrator and no-one could deserve that success more. Because...
Michael Moorcock’s Multiverse III: Battling WH Smith, Celebrating Billy Batson & Remembering Harlan Ellison
September 22, 2021 11:00 - 56 minutes - 50.6 MBSumner welcomes the world’s greatest living fantasy author, Michael Moorcock, back to Hard Agree for the latest instalment in their ongoing series of conversations about Michael’s life and work. In this third episode, Sumner & Moorcock discuss Mike’s battles with WH Smith about John Norman’s Gor; puritanical America; the artistry of CC Beck and Mac Raboy - and the brilliance/anti-capitalism of Fawcett Publications’ Captain Marvel; thanking Paul Levitz; the one-world idealism of the UK’s Eagl...
Mark Askwith: Canadian Coaxial Pop Culture Boogaloo
September 06, 2021 21:43 - 1 hour - 75.5 MBSumner welcomes his old friend Mark Askwith to this week’s Hard Agree. Mark’s done itall and interviewed everyone in the pop culture sphere over the last thirty years. After starting out in the late 80s publishing scene (like Sumner himself - but 3,000 miles further west, in Toronto), Mark managed the hugely-influential Silver Snail comic book store in Ontario, before co-writing the comic book sequel to The Prisoner TV show - Shattered Visage - with Dean Motter in 1988. The next year, Mark b...
John K Snyder III: Ethereal Pulp Noir
August 15, 2021 02:32 - 2 hours - 109 MB image/jpegSumner welcomes comics writer/illustrator John K Snyder III to this week’s Hard Agree. Possessed of a unique style that’s both ethereal and hyper-real, that lends itself to hardboiled noir and fantasy, John has spent 35 years super-delivering in both genres (and sometimes jamming them both together). Sumner & Snyder spend a couple of hours walking through John’s storied career, beginning with Fashion in Action and Matt Wagner’s Grendel and moving on to DC Comics’ Mr. E and Doctor Mid-Nite (a...
John K Snyder III – Ethereal Pulp Noir
August 15, 2021 02:32 - 2 hours - 109 MBSumner welcomes comics writer/illustrator John K Snyder III to this week’s Hard Agree. Possessed of a unique style that’s both ethereal and hyper-real, that lends itself to hardboiled noir and fantasy, John has spent 35 years super-delivering in both genres (and sometimes jamming them both together). Sumner & Snyder spend a couple of hours walking through John’s storied career, beginning with Fashion in Action and Matt Wagner’s Grendel and moving on to DC Comics’ Mr. E and Doctor Mid-Nite (a...
Tyler Bates: Music, Moviemaking & Creative Alchemy
August 05, 2021 11:00 - 1 hour - 72.1 MBSumner welcomes award-winning musician/composer/producer Tyler Bates to this week’s Hard Agree for a chat about his working life in music & movies. Over the last twenty years, Tyler has scored some of the most impactful Hollywood productions of the 21st century – including Watchmen, 300, Guardians of the Galaxy 1 & 2, Hobbs & Shaw, Deadpool 2 and all three John Wick movies. He’s composed music for a wide range of TV shows & video games, written & produced a bunch of top-selling rock albums a...
Mark Ditko: Family, Creativity and the Unparalleled Genius of Steve Ditko
July 29, 2021 17:32 - 1 hour - 65.1 MBSumner welcomes Mark Ditko to Hard Agree. Mark is both a successful civil engineer and the nephew of Sumner’s all-time favorite comics artist: Pennsylvania’s finest, the legendary Steve Ditko! Mark’s beloved uncle co-created, plotted & illustrated the adventures of Peter Parker, the amazingSpider-Man, across an amazing 38 issue run that’s never been equaled. Along the way, he also designed the most famous, most-instantly recognizable superhero costume of all-time, before creating Doctor Stra...
Matt Wagner’s Mystery Theatre
July 21, 2021 14:19 - 1 hour - 79.5 MBSumner welcomes one of his favorite writer-artists, Matt Wagner, to Hard Agree for a deep dive into Matt’s forty years at the top of the comics industry – from his constantly-evolving signature creations Grendel and Mage, to his love of pulp fiction and his inspired adaptations of The Shadow, The Green Hornet, Zorro & The Spirit to his deconstruction/amplification/expansion of the pulp form’s possibilities with Vertigo’s groundbreaking Sandman Mystery Theatre (mainly illustrated by the great...
Michael Moorcock’s Multiverse II: Letters from Hollywood
July 01, 2021 11:00 - 56 minutes - 50.8 MBSumner welcomes the world’s greatest living fantasy author, Michael Moorcock, back to Hard Agree for the latest installment in their ongoing series of conversations about Michael’s life and work. In this second episode, Sumner & Moorcock discuss Mike’s wild ride through Hollywood – including working with Irvin Kershner, Peter Weir’s high-level conjuring ability, the limitations of Ray Harryhausen movies, meeting the extremely-tall Christopher Lee, scripting The Land That Time Forgot for Amic...
Mandy Bardisbanian: Pride, Empathy, Creativity & Ambition
June 24, 2021 11:00 - 1 hour - 63.9 MBIt’s LGBTQ+ Pride Month and Reverend Sumner welcomes one of his closest friends, Legion M’s Mandy Bardisbanian to Hard Agree. Mandy B is a tireless, take-no-prisoners, stamp-the-accelerator-to-one-hundred creativity machine. Born & raised in two of the USA’s most socially & politically conservative states, Oklahoma & Texas, Mandy B parachuted into Hollywood ten years ago without friends, a job or a place to live. Within days, she’d talked her way into a receptionist job at Hot Topic’s head o...
John Hughes: one Rhino, four Monkees and a Super-Soldier
June 18, 2021 11:00 - 1 hour - 65.6 MBSumner welcomes John Hughes, Senior Vice President of Fan Engagement & Innovation at Rhino Entertainment, to this week’s Hard Agree – where they chat about John’s career at Rhino Records, his early years in the US Army, his friendship with the late, great Adam Schlesinger (That Thing You Do!), his long-time relationship with Sumner’s favorite band, The Monkees, producing The Monkees’ amazing comeback album Good Times! in 2016 and his trio of epic music & comics podcasts – before jumping into...
Olly Smith: Days of Wine, Roses & Roger Moore
June 14, 2021 17:48 - 59 minutes - 56 MBSumner welcomes the UK’s most famous TV-presenting wine connoisseur, supercharged bon viveur Olly Smith (star of BBC One’s mighty Saturday Kitchen) to Hard Agree. Sumner & Olly have a wide-ranging positivity-bomb conversation that covers Olly’s relationship with music, playing the French Horn, meeting Mike Rutherford of Genesis, Bert Kaempfert, Barenaked Ladies, Iggy Pop’s Post Pop Depression Tour, Tom Petty, the life-threatening brilliance of Condorman, the wonder of airports, lovely restau...
Michael Moorcock’s Multiverse: From Melniboné to Hollywood
June 04, 2021 17:42 - 43 minutes - 33.8 MBSumner welcomes the world’s greatest living fantasy author, Michael Moorcock, to Hard Agree for the first in an ongoing series of conversations about Michael’s life and work. In this debut episode, Sumner & Moorcock discuss Michael’s parents, his Dad’s regard for Arthur C Clarke, completing the latest Elric of Melniboné novel (due for release in Fall 2022), the beginnings of Jerry Cornelius, Michael’s great friendship with feminist author Andrea Dworkin - and they begin a discussion of Micha...
Fabian Nicieza: Deadpool, Domino & Dicks
May 26, 2021 11:00 - 1 hour - 71.1 MBSumner welcomes one of the most prolific Marvel Comics writers of the 80s/90s, the always-honest and endlessly fascinating Fabian Nicieza, to Hard Agree. Fabian worked through one of Marvel’s most turbulent decades, starting in 1985 in the production department before working his way into editorial (via sales & promotions). By the time he left Marvel in 1995, he’d scripted wildly successful runs on X-Men, X-Force, Thunderbolts, New Warriors (Fabian’s personal favorite), Two Gun Kid: The Suns...
Barry Greenberg: Connecting People 24/7
May 21, 2021 15:38 - 49 minutes - 43.1 MBSumner welcomes one of the hardest-working humans he knows, celebrity agent par excellence Barry Greenberg, to Hard Agree. If you’ve ever attended a comic convention and stood in line for a signature or photograph (or both), you have Barry to thank for making that happen. Barry’s led an incident-packed life that’s taken him from serving with the US Air Force in Panama, to building a client base like no other, to working on his latest interactive AI venture, Storyfile – all of which he discus...
Ed Asner: Seven Decades of Acting with Integrity
May 12, 2021 11:00 - 37 minutes - 28.4 MBSumner welcomes one of his lifelong favourite performers – and one of the world’s greatest living actors - the mighty Ed Asner, to Hard Agree for a candid discussion of his 60-plus years onscreen, during which Ed has starred in two of the all-time great TV shows (Mary Tyler Moore and Lou Grant), won more Primetime Emmy Awards than any other male actor, starred in a wide variety of unforgettable movies (including the beloved instant classics Elf and Up), worked with a variety of entertainment...
Brian Bolland: The Definitive Batman Artist on How The Killing Joke REALLY Ended
May 05, 2021 11:00 - 1 hour - 79.4 MBSumner welcomes legendary comics artist Brian Bolland (the definitive DC Comics artist, the definitive Judge Dredd artist and the co-creator of Camelot 3000 and Batman: The Killing Joke) to Hard Agree to talk about the great British city of Liverpool (and his recent Batman-in-Liverpool cover for Forbidden Planet); Brian’s 40 years creating the definitive versions of Batman, the Green Lantern Corps, The Flash & Wonder Woman for DC Comics; his creation of Camelot 3000 with Mike W Barr; the ear...
How Batman ‘66 Changed My Life (With John and Kenric from Spoiler Country!)
April 28, 2021 08:00 - 1 hour - 61.7 MBSumner welcomes Spoilerverse founders, John Horsley & Kenric Regan, to Hard Agree for a deep dive on the classic 1966 Batman TV show and the huge impact it had on his life. Well, that’s how their conversation starts and ends but, along the way, they detour into how Kenric & John met John Wesley Shipp, the brilliance of David Caruso, NYPD Blue, Sumner’s hugely-influential grandfather Pops Smythe, Sumner’s best-in-the-business Comic-Con booth crew, James Cucciara’s Stylin Online, gentleman act...
Max Allan Collins: The Three Biggest Names in Hardboiled Fiction
April 21, 2021 08:00 - 1 hour - 78.6 MBSumner welcomes his old pal (and the three biggest names in noir fiction) - multi-award-winning crime writer Max Allan Collins – to Hard Agree, to discuss Max’s wildly successful career creating long-running series characters like Nathan Heller & Nolan, their work together on Max’s completion of the outstanding adventures of Mickey Spillane’s two-fisted PI hero Mike Hammer, Max’s writing style & working practice, Max’s adventures writing movie tie-in novels, the influence of music over both ...
Garth Ennis: All-Out War
April 14, 2021 08:00 - 1 hour - 58.6 MBSumner welcomes The Boys creator Garth Ennis (creator of Preacher, Hitman, The Punisher and Crossed) to Hard Agree to talk about Garth’s latest comics projects - Jimmy’s Little Bastards and Marjorie Finnegan: Temporal Criminal – before exploring their mutual love of war comics, war movies and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood! Buy Garth’s books: https://forbiddenplanet.com/catalog/?q=garth%20ennis&sort=relevance&page=1 Follow Sumner on Social Media:http://twitter.com/sumnar...
Dave Gibbons: A Life in Comics
April 07, 2021 08:00 - 1 hour - 64.6 MBSumner welcomes incomparable British super-artist, co-creator of Watchmen, Martha Washington, Rogue Trooper & Kingsman – the one and only Dave Gibbons - to Hard Agree, for a freewheeling chat about Dave’s career (from the early days until now) and their mutual love of comics, with plenty of stops/detours along the way, digging into comics history & celebrating the industry titans who inspired (and continue to inspire) Dave! Find Dave online:https://twitter.com/davegibbons90 Buy Dave’s book...
Hard Agree – Introduction
March 31, 2021 15:00 - 13 minutes - 13.9 MBAndrew Sumner’s Pops bought him his first comic book in Liverpool, England when he was three years old. Sumner spent the next fifty years hurtling around the pop culture kaleidoscope - first as a fan and then as a journalist, editor, publisher & presenter. Along the way, he met a bunch of interesting people who’ll be joining him here: creators, performers, professionals & public servants. We live in divisive, fractured times but art & popular culture connect people from all viewpoints and f...
A Spoilerverse Christmas Carol
December 23, 2020 16:59 - 1 hour - 58.8 MBIt's the eve of Christmas Eve! This year, we're supporting pandemic comics charity GiveComicsHope.org, who are doing great work helping our family-owned comic book shops stay alive during this bleakest of midwinters. Please join John & Kenric and Hard Agree's Sumner as they accompany Ebenezer Scrooge and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present & Future for this very special production of Charles Dickens' performance version of A Christmas Carol. It's time for Christmas and it's time to Give Co...
Prelude to a Spoilerverse Christmas Carol
December 22, 2020 22:00 - 1 hour - 85.9 MBWelcome to the first episode of Hard Agree! This is a joint episode with the boys from Spoiler Country as we talk about our 2020 A Christmas Carol in support of GiveComicsHope.org. Find Sumner online: https://twitter.com/Sumnarr Find Spoiler Country: http://scpod.net/podcasts/spoiler-country/ Find John: http://twitter.com/y2cl http://instagram.com/y2cl/ http://y2cl.net http://eynesanthology.com Find Kenric: http://twitter.com/XKenricX Music: "Old School Punk Rockers" by The Young Presid...