“This is KPSB radio, beginning its broadcast day.”

My name is Kevin Paul Shaw Broden ‘Four Names of Creativity’.

I have always imagined my initials as the call letters of a radio station. Not any Top 40 pop station, or 24 hours of talking heads; no, my station exists in the golden age of radio of the 1930s to the 1950s. When tales of adventure ruled the airways.

That was the beginning of my very first Toastmasters speech, and as this blog series is part of an upcoming speech, I thought I would start here.

Before comic books, and while super heroes existed inn Saturday Morning Cartoon, I was discovering them on the radio.

The radio, as they say (or used to say) is the theatre of the mind. In that theatre of my imagination was a place where The Shadow knew what evils was in the hearts of men. Where the William Tell overture announced the arrival of the Green Hornet. The Lone Ranger fought criminals in the wastelands of Texas. And it was in radiophonic sound that Superman first met Jimmy Olsen and was struck down by Kryptonite while Batman and Robin took over the show for a while.

This ‘radio station’ of mine came in existence at a very young age. When my father had to work late, my mother would let me sleep in her bed and leave radio playing all night. ‘Old Time Radio’ programs would be played at 9pm and then rerun at two or three in the morning, full of adventure, comedy, and suspense.

These masked men and adventures would follow me throughout my life. They would transform in to the Super Friends, and other animated heroes of my childhood and then a few years later I’d discover comic books and the heroes with in.

Comic Book super heroes would become my world in one way or another, from enjoyment, to education, to a career.

But these masked heroes of the radio waves and the pulp novels that inspired them would always remain in my imagination until many years later I would write a serialized novel entitled: REVENGE OF THE MASKED GHOST which you can purchase as an eBook, for Kindle and other e-readers.

Cover art for my novel Revenge of the Masked Ghost
Revenge of the Masked Ghost – a serialized novel inspired by pulp heroes and those that played on the radio.

This novel is in the genre of “New Pulp” which in itself is inspired by all the Pulp fiction of many years ago.

These Pulp, Radio, and Comic Book heroes would continue to influence me throughout my life.

Now as a Voice Actor, I would absolutely love to work on a “Radio Play” like those of yesteryear.

As you will see in my next posting, I believe God had a hand making comics books so important to me.

This is the second posting in a series of blogs about Comic Books, Super Heroes, and how they influenced my life and career, as part of a Toastmasters assignment and upcoming speech.