Bitten by a Radioactive Podcast
By Dean McKnight, Jade Sarson and Josh Randall
The comics podcast that generates real heroes from random prompts! Every fortnight hosts Dean, Jade and Josh create a complete superhero from scratch from a randomly-generated name, down to the last detail.
Since 2017 I've co-hosted, produced and edited a podcast centred around the act of creation, with a splash of improv and comics discussion. We show off the creative process in all its messy fun: the bad ideas, the flashes of inspiration and everything in-between! Over the years we've created dozens of uniques superheroes (and villains, of course) with their own themes, character arcs and relationships, often delving into how their physical comic might look.
We've written high-school heroes from our greatest fears. Rap names lead to a hero who could delete entire concepts like love or pain. Ex-villain retirees living at the seaside; trombones with trans-dimensional portals; Animorphs-meets-selkies-meets-MTV... anyone and anything can be a hero!
If you're curious about how others turn small ideas into big things, or want to hear a character come to life before your very ears, check us out on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We're also @BBR_Podcast on Twitter, where we post updates, chat about comics and host Jade Sarson throws up amazing illustrations of each episode's hero! I may be biased, but their renditions of our characters capture their essence perfectly:
Holly Deadline: A high-schooler 'blessed' with super speed after being hit by a radioactive sports car. Are the upper-class Moth-Landens behind it all? From Episode 3: Childhood Pet Names and Greatest Fears.
Abominable Driver: their role is to keep heroes in a post-apocalyptic world equipped with gadgets and gear. Just don’t get in the way of their slapdash super-mobile - they’re a little reckless behind the wheel. From Episode 59: The Anime Title Name Generator.
Candy Armstrong: punk drummer-turned-farmer. She helped rebuild her rural community, handing out sweets, beetroots and beatdowns (only to miscreants, mind). From Episode 30: The Punk Rock Name Generator.
Sailor Princess: an anime-inspired story about a ship captain seeking her homeland, fighting with rope-based powers. Nothing means more to her than loyalty, but there might be treachery in her ranks. From Episode 77: Shaz Mohseni and Your Anime Identity.
