Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
In this edition of Up North and Personal, I chat with Mark Askwith, a pioneer in the Canadian comic book industry and a legendary interviewer (among many, many other things). We talk about his work in comics at Toronto's Silver Snail in the 80s, the show Prisoners of Gravity and the interviews conducted for it, how he stumbled onto working on the Power Stone anime, and his various run-ins with comic legends like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Alan Moore... this guy's been around, and I'm flattered he got to share some of his many tales with me.
Recorded on February 12th, 2026.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
4:10 How did this get started?
7:32 Stories of the Silver Snail/Other Comic Book Stores
28:38 Prisoners of Gravity
35:36 Commander Rick
38:20 Most Memorable Interview (Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy writer)
46:18 Budget for POG and how it was used/Scheduling for POG
57:49 Banjo music for "Second Nature" segment
1:05:21 Nancy's Origins/Potential Human Voice for Nancy
1:09:30 Original Ending for POG Season 5
1:15:08 Watchmen Episode (Interviewing Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons)
1:18:52 Watchmen Creator Reactions to Mark's Interview
1:22:14 Talking with Stan Lee at Fan Expo
1:25:45 5 minutes left... (lol)
1:26:09 Adapting the Power Stone anime
1:32:18 Favourite Food?
1:34:51 Any Questions for Me?
1:37:19 Talking YTV/Ajay Fry for Space
1:39:52 Host story at SPACE (speaking with George Miller)
1:47:04 One more story, I swear! (Interviewing Monty Pythons' Terry Gilliam)
1:52:36 Meeting an all-time favourite editor
1:56:27 Neil Steven Interview
2:01:15 One thing you ask if an interview isn't going well
2:02:45 Jack Kirby Interview Aftermath
2:14:05 Closing Words
Stan Lee snippets:
youtube.com/watch?v=kciEdL3Peig
youtube.com/watch?v=t3iX7Ru8ghc
Jack Kirby POG: youtube.com/watch?v=KQEQELWZ9rY
Watchmen POG: youtube.com/watch?v=QVl1qkmSVPo
In this edition of Up North and Personal, I chat with Mark Askwith, a pioneer in the Canadian comic book industry and a legendary interviewer (among many, many other things). We talk about his work in comics at Toronto's Silver Snail in the 80s, the show Prisoners of Gravity and the interviews conducted for it, how he stumbled onto working on the Power Stone anime, and his various run-ins with comic legends like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Alan Moore... this guy's been around, and I'm flattered he got to share some of his many tales with me.
Recorded on February 12th, 2026.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
4:10 How did this get started?
7:32 Stories of the Silver Snail/Other Comic Book Stores
28:38 Prisoners of Gravity
35:36 Commander Rick
38:20 Most Memorable Interview (Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy writer)
46:18 Budget for POG and how it was used/Scheduling for POG
57:49 Banjo music for "Second Nature" segment
1:05:21 Nancy's Origins/Potential Human Voice for Nancy
1:09:30 Original Ending for POG Season 5
1:15:08 Watchmen Episode (Interviewing Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons)
1:18:52 Watchmen Creator Reactions to Mark's Interview
1:22:14 Talking with Stan Lee at Fan Expo
1:25:45 5 minutes left... (lol)
1:26:09 Adapting the Power Stone anime
1:32:18 Favourite Food?
1:34:51 Any Questions for Me?
1:37:19 Talking YTV/Ajay Fry for Space
1:39:52 Host story at SPACE (speaking with George Miller)
1:47:04 One more story, I swear! (Interviewing Monty Pythons' Terry Gilliam)
1:52:36 Meeting an all-time favourite editor
1:56:27 Neil Steven Interview
2:01:15 One thing you ask if an interview isn't going well
2:02:45 Jack Kirby Interview Aftermath
2:14:05 Closing Words
Stan Lee snippets:
youtube.com/watch?v=kciEdL3Peig
youtube.com/watch?v=t3iX7Ru8ghc
Jack Kirby POG: youtube.com/watch?v=KQEQELWZ9rY
Watchmen POG: youtube.com/watch?v=QVl1qkmSVPo
