"Kay Wood's graphic novella pits a gang of haplessly humorous activists against an environmental Armageddon in the making. In the "Big Belch," the stakes are high but so are the spirits of characters bumbling their way to a better world." — Singe Wilkinson, Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist
So what's up with the radio show?
About Kay Wood
The Strange Road from Graphic Novelist to Radio Show Host
My background is as a visual artist, and more recently a graphic novelist. I’ve a long history of creating and showing paintings and mixed media installations in galleries and museums in the US and abroad. In 2010 I was moved by the Deep Water Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico to make a major change. I had to find a more accessible way to communicate as an artist my horror at the disaster and at the callous short sighted way our world goes after fossil fuel profits at the expense of all other considerations.
Despite never having attempted anything like it before, in my sixties I launched into doing my first graphic novel, The Big Belch, about an oil firm’s PR stunt nearly blowing up the world with methane. People of all view points love graphic novels. As I’d hoped, I was able to reach through the fog of partisanship and apathy to share ideas with readers across the political spectrum. I had good sales and a successful Kickstarter campaign. While readers laughed at what seemed whimsical fluff, their visceral reactions to the artwork and humor helped them think in new ways about the folly of basing our society on drilling deep in the earth to rip out rotted dinosaur carcasses.
"Kay Wood's graphic novella pits a gang of haplessly humorous activists against an environmental Armageddon in the making. In the "Big Belch," the stakes are high but so are the spirits of characters bumbling their way to a better world."
— Singe Wilkinson, Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist
My talks about The Big Belch led to the surprising offer of doing a radio show. My entire career to that point had been working alone in my studio, so it was a very daunting prospect. Once I came up with the idea for Planet Philadelphia, however, I had to get over my fear because the climate crisis calls for the best efforts we can give, and so I learned how to produce and host a radio show.
Planet Philadelphia explores how environmental issues intersect in complex ways with every aspect of society. We present interviews on important under reported topics. The show’s unique format combines a high level of community participation with interviews from national/global experts. Since when the radio show first broadcast in 2015, we have interviewed hundreds of guests including the former first female president of Ireland, a Nobel Laureate, security experts, scientists, filmmakers, politicians, community members, and more.
Planet Philadelphia airs 4:00-5:00 PM the 1st & 3rd Fridays/month on WGGT-LP 92.9 FM in Philadelphia & at gtownradio.com. It’s also on Villanova University's radio station, 89.1FM WXVU, Thursday mornings at 9:00 a.m. All shows are available as podcasts shortly after live broadcast on the planetphiladelphia.com show archives page. Podcasts are also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor, Google, PocketCasts, Breaker, and RadioPublic.
On another note, I’m just now finishing up my second graphic novel, The Big Frack, about fracking. It’s a 130 page full color fun romp through a gas fueled swamp of greed, corruption, and human foibles.
Here’s what one beta reader said:
“I loved your book. I found the characters quirky, lovable and informative. Very creative the way you weave information into a fun plot. The characters make your book. Your short summary of fracking is excellent…you should be proud of your book….”
I wish you all the best for sanity and survival in our strange world,
Kay Wood
thebigfrack (@) gmail.com
Before I became a graphic novelist, I had a long history as a painter with shows all over – even had a work in a show in Japan. Mostly I showed my paintings, hand made books and installation works at Denise Bibro Fine Art in New York City. If you’d like to find out more about my art history, here’s a small selection: http://kaywood-art.com/
Here's what some critics have said about my past work.
Art critic Lilly Wei said about Kay Wood’s work: It’s “... beautifully rendered, visually penetrable but hard, sealed, the pictures and marks embedded in many layers of translucent acrylic, layers that glow as the light passes through them, activating the color. Like fossils in resin, the configurations are preserved and presented, specimens from a cabinet of curiosities, visual tests to be decoded...”
Jeff Wright said in Cover Magazine: “...Wood sees her work as balancing aesthetic concerns with thematic propositions...The works are handsome and have a dreamy quality. Their success lies in their ability to conflate both the apparent and the apparition.”
R.B. Strauss “...Kay Wood's paintings focus on the geological and the biological. Her work is mixed media on paper on wood...Natural splendor from all quarters is found at Pentimenti Gallery.”
Roberta Fallon “...Kay Wood's collage oil paintings. The small, colorful works showcase images of objects--some manmade, some natural--floating in fields of rich color. The images--organic shapes like a pear or a fossilized flower and inorganic shapes like a glove or a shower curtain ring--are hand-drawn, then scanned and collaged onto the paintings. The play of manmade vs. nature works well against a background that suggests a cosmos of fading stars and looming black holes...[It evokes] thoughts about ecology and humankind's careless husbandry of the earth.”