Six Of The Best With BILLY FLYNN

Superproducer Billy Flynn is one third of the Geeklabel Radio crew, along with Kingfish and The Vicar; podosphere celebrities known equally for their hilarious weekly podcast on all things geeky and their fantastic range of Geeklabel attire for geeks, gamers and tech-heads. Read Billy Flynn's regular blogs on his MySpace page.

What’s the “origin” story of Geeklabel and what made you decide to branch out into podcasting?

The origin belongs to Kingfish and The Vicar. Geeklabel is their baby. When I first got my Program Director gig at WRAR, The Vicar was bouncing shirt ideas off of me. I checked out the site and instantly fell in love with Geeklabel.

I love the shirts and the fact you could make each shirt your own was too cool. I have Poker Parties occasionally and they hooked me up with some prizes.

It was about a year later after I had bragged about the site to all my Geeps that The Vicar asked me what I thought about Geeklabel having a podcast. The podcasting bubble had not popped and I thought it was a smooth idea. They asked me if would join them on the show. For that I am eternally grateful. I've made some cool friends andour forums are the closest thing that exists to the old BBS days.

As a keen comic book reader, what titles would you recommend at present?

Fables. The closest thing to Sandman that exists. Very clever, smart and outright fun at times. You can not go wrong with Fables.

Y - The Last Man. The title sounds like a B movie. It is... and somehow so much more than that.

Dark Tower. Sai Thankee Marvel for bringing us a very good interpretation of Stephen's King's story of Roland, The Last Gunslinger.

Astonishing X-Men. Simply the best X-men title in decades.

What’s your recipe for the perfect superhero/comic book film – and what movies do you think have got closest to this ideal?

For any comic book movie to work you MUST have the story. Silly thing to say I know... but how many comic movies have we seen where the story is not there? A few.

Changes are going to have to be made on almost any comic-to-film project. Those changes need to be organic. Far too often we get movies on amazing comics that are changed to the point where you wonder why they even bought the rights to film the comic. (I feel ya, Alan Moore)

To shorten my answer you need people willing to translate the page to the screen. 300 was an amazing adaptation of the comic. Sin City would be the easy answer but I think 300 went a step further as I felt I was reading a comicas I watched it.

As for Superhero movies? Well everyone loves Spider-Man. I did too. (Not part 3) However.... I said it years ago and I still believe it to thisday. As far as a Superhero movie goes... Daredevil. A controversial answer for sure, but that told the origin AND gave us one strong comicstory line. Drama, humor, the visuals, organic changes... Daredevil for me is the closest Superhero adaptation we have seen.

How did you first become a fan of the quintessentially British programme Doctor Who, and who are your favourite Doctor and companion?

I was in the fifth grade. Back then all THREE local channels showed local news at six and national news at 6:30. That left PBS as an option. Sometimes you could catch Monty Python during that time slot. One random day howeverI flipped to PBS (Channel 25 on UHF) and there was a show called Doctor Who. I was an instant lifelong fan.

I discovered that Saturday that from noon till two they showed Doctor Who as well. I have heard and agree withthe mantra "Your First Doctor is always your favorite". As such Tom Baker is my favortie Doctor. Part of the reason I enjoy David Tennant so much currently is he reminds me of Baker. The kinetic energy of The Doctor. Being unfamiliar with the show back then you can only imagine myhorror/intrigue when Tom Baker regenerated into Peter Davison.

As for companion I am going to cheat. As a kid I loved Romana and K-9. Looking back later I appreciated Sarah Jane a lot more. This season I have been an enormous fan of Martha Jones.

From all the roleplaying games you have played over the years, can you think of a single moment that encapsulates just what is so great about this hobby?

Vampire The Masquerade... I was the storyteller for a year long campaign I called The Gehenna Stone. The players were collecting fragments of the legendary stone to keep the Antediluvians from awakening and slaughtering all the Kindred.

Deep character friendships were formed over this long story. One evening the group was triple crossed as it turned out that the goal they were trying to reach actually served a different interest entirely. One person who was trusted turned out to be a Werewolf. When a friend has to kill a friend to save an enemy we have pure pathos.

Afterwards the group was smaller. They had been beaten and totally screwed over. They picked themselves up, refined who they were and in our next meeting 'Role Played' in total character ... and when they got their vengeance moment I saw a grown macho man cry.

They had a fantasy world where they thought they were the coolest things around. They learned different. It touched them on a level they did not know they had. When you "become" your character it is a profound moment.

What do your work colleagues and family make of your geek status?

Different jobs have looked on it differently. The military had no clue what to think of me. Now I work in radio. Radio is filled with Geeks of all kinds. The "normal" people are the minority.

As for friends... they are happy to have an explanation for why I am the way I am. My best friend I am fortunate enough to say is my wife. She has found her inner geek. Whereas once I could make her scratch her head at my geekiness, now... well her first Doctor was Christopher Eccleston. She proudly wears her "I Y My Geek" shirt which is readily available at Geeklabel.com (DING!)