A weekly podcast that discusses comic book grails — the epic tales about how they were obtained or new creativity they inspired.

Jake is an avid comic reader and collector with a background in marketing from Nebraska. Jesús is a life-long comic collector from Houston, Texas, with a background in business management. Jesús also runs the comic sales website www.guaranteedcomics.com.
Spec Tales is a weekly comic book podcast that asks collectors and creators the question: What's your grail tale? Each week we explore new stories about the comic book grails we love — the epic tales behind how they were obtained or how they inspired new creativity. We also dive into some comic book speculation and how, as collectors, we can help the hobby pay for itself.
Our listeners are comic book collectors, comic book speculators, and casual collectible fans.
 

Prior to launching Spec Tales, we were active podcast listeners and we found ourselves regularly talking about comic books over the phone. We discussed how much fun it was to hear other collectors tell their stories about collecting comics. We soon realized that there wasn't really a podcast that focused specifically on those stories and we decided we could create a platform to highlight everyday collectors like ourselves. Spec Tales took approximately 3 months to develop and launched in July of 2021.
 

Spec Tales is currently a completely self-funded podcast. We record and release a new episode every week. Each episode takes us approximately 5-10 hours worth of preparation and post-production time. We find time to record in the evenings and edit whenever we can get the time. On average, we spend about $50 a month on the podcast, not including the equipment costs.
 

Spec Tales currently doesn't have any form of revenue or receive sponsorship. The show has generated many new friendships and serves as an enjoyable creative outlet for us.
 

The tools/services we use to produce Spec Tales include Buzzsprout, RODEcaster Pro, Shure microphones, and Hindenburg Pro for editing. We prepare for each episode by finding collectors with good stories to tell about collecting key/grail comics, communicating with artists/writers regarding our show's format, researching our guests, scripting our show's opening/closing, and of course scheduling.
Our guests are a mixture of:
Comic book collectors we meet through social media (Instagram and Twitter)
Comic book artists and writers that we contact through email and social media
 

We do not have a complete breakdown of acquisition sources. However, the first 4 months of Spec Tales' existence, we relied exclusively on Instagram to promote our show. Many of our listeners have come from there. In November, we began using Twitter and promoting on both Twitter and Instagram.
 

In no particular order, here are the pieces of advice we would give to an aspiring podcaster:
- Be patient. Unless you're already a hugely famous/successful person, building an audience takes time.
- Be consistent. Audiences need to trust you and that you're going to stick around before they decide they want to stick with you. So, if you're a weekly show, don't skip weeks.
- Allow your show's creative to adapt and grow as your audience and style develops
 

Instagram — @spec_tales_podcast
Twitter — @SpecTalesPod
www.spectalespodcast.com