Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 143 is brought to you by Dynamite Entertainment. We’ve sung the praises of various Dynamite titles whenever possible for quite some time now, and over the course of our broadcast history we’ve spotlighted some great Dynamite comics featuring some of the biggest properties in film, television, and comics history. Buck Rogers. The Green Hornet. The Lone Ranger. Red Sonja. Zorro. Now you can add The Phantom to the list, or more accurately, The Last Phantom. With all these great titles currently available, plus Garth Ennis‘ wicked superhero satire The Boys still running strong and adaptations of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files and Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ classic John Carter: Warlord of Mars on the way, there’s never been a better time to become a fan of Dynamite Entertainment. We’ll continue to review the Dynamite titles we’ve been covering and add more in the months to come, and we sincerely hope you get on board and start enjoying, because we truly believe it’s going to get even better from here!

Speaking of The Phantom, reading a new comic book featuring the character got me all nostalgic and thinking about the last time the character saw the light of a movie screen. Remember The Phantom from 1996? I sure do!

In this episode we give our take on the details of X-Men: First Class that producer Bryan Singer revealed last week, details that left the geek realms abuzz with, shall we say, less than unanimous enthusiasm. In all honesty, some of these ideas are fine, but there are a few in there that are just downright wrong, and it hints once again at the possibility that the folks at 20th Century Fox are more interested in shoehorning as many mutants as possible into the movie to market it, rather than telling a good story. What’s odd here is that both Singer and director Matthew Vaughn seem to be complicit in the continuity butchering, and that’s surprising considering they’ve both displayed the capacity for almost reverent regard for established source material (Singer in “Superman Returns“, Vaughn in “Kick-Ass“). We can only hope that we are doing as geeks are wont to do and overreacting to what can be interpreted as callous disregard for the desires of X-Men fandom. These guys USUALLY make good movies, so perhaps we should really reserve judgment.

But Havok’s in the movie, and Cyclops isn’t? Seriously?! Come on, guys!

Later in the episode, we bring you reviews of two recent Leverage and Warehouse 13 episodes, “The Underground Job” and “For the Team”, respectively. Both of these series have been great fun to watch this summer, and it’s very sad that their seasons will soon be coming to an end. We’ll provide reviews of them for as long as they continue to run, and look forward to both getting renewed for another season by TNT and SyFy.

Finally, we wrap up the hour by reviewing two Dynamite Entertainment titles, the aforementioned Last Phantom #1 (Beatty, Ferigato) and The Lone Ranger #23 (Matthews, Cariello). Enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 142 is brought to you by Cure For the Run 2/MMX. The big event is in the rear view mirror for 2010, but it’s not too late to get in a donation through PayPal if you haven’t already. For our part, I think its safe to say that this year was even better than last in every measurable way, and there are quite a few friends of the show we have to thank for coming out and being a part of that truly memorable day. We thanked quite a few of them during the broadcast, but the internet and search engines love text links, so we’re more than happy to feed that appetite: to “The Man”, KSV, and Nash from Slacker and the Man, Ryan and Mark from The Talk Nerdy Show, Ryan Scott, Ben Bond, Jenie Boxer, Mike Sears, Maryl-lyn Cooper, Jon Hunn, and Misha Allen from the Orlando Ghostbusters, and Kent Ward and Waldo Waldusky from the Propeller Anime Club, thanks for your generosity of time, energy, and goodwill. You guys are truly great, and we’re honored to have you as friends.

In this episode, Geoff and Jennifer Peace of SomaCow sit in to talk about preparation for the event, their thoughts on how the day went, and also some wishful thinking about the future. We also spend some time on the phone chatting with the “Immortal” ELRoss about his successful defense of his title of “Fastest Cure for the Runner” for another year against some truly challenging competition from Yours Truly and some notable others in the field. Below you’ll find a slide show of images from the event. You can also find these on our Facebook Fan Page. Hope you enjoy, and watch for video from the event to be uploaded later this week!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 141 is brought to you by Cure For the Run MMX. SomaCow’s second annual charity event is just a few days away now, but it’s not too late to get involved. If you’re interested in “running” in the event, if you’re a local business and you’d like to contribute something to the raffle, or if you’d just like to make a donation, go to curefortherun.com and you’ll find all the information you need. It’s going to be a day of great memories, for earning a year’s worth of bragging rights, and for brief athletic achievement followed by copious amounts of eating and drinking. But most of all it’s going to be a day for doing something good for children who need it. All proceeds and donations will go to New Hope for Kids, a Central Florida-based charity whose goal is “to bring health, healing, and happiness to children and families suffering from grief, loss, or life-threatening illnesses.” So please, come on out this Saturday to Wall Street Plaza, get registered to run (starts at 2pm), come meet the hosts from all the shows at the SomaCow Media Network, as well as Slacker and the Man, the Talk Nerdy Show, the Orlando Ghostbusters, and more, eat, drink, and when the time comes, RUN!

In this episode we review a HECKUVA lot of stuff, but perhaps most interestingly we review a pair of movies that came out last weekend that couldn’t be more different in terms of tone, style, and target audience. About the only thing that Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and The Expendables have in common is that they both feature martial arts fighting and choreography. One of these films enjoyed considerable movie critic love, overwhelming approval from fans, and tremendous social networking buzz going into the weekend. The other movie, however, proved to be the more palatable to mainstream audiences (despite lousy reviews) because they knew what they would be getting, and therefore actually made money, winning the box office competition by a WIDE margin. Of course, if you didn’t know already, that box office winner was The Expendables. Shows how much I know about predicting the box office; as you’ll hear during the podcast, I actually said I’d be very surprised if Scott Pilgrim didn’t come out on top this weekend.

It’s just another in a series of box office flops by films made from lesser-known, niche or cult-favorite comic book properties. The Hero Complex blog at the LA Times this week features a great article by show business reporter Ben Fritz about why films such as Watchmen, The Losers, Kick-Ass, and now Scott Pilgrim vs. the World have floundered on opening weekend after riding huge waves of fan approval and hype generated by previews and screenings at Comic-Con. It’s a very interesting analysis, and the conclusions are hard to refute. Enjoy!

[EDITOR'S NOTE: During my review of Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #1 in the final segment of this episode, I erroneously credited John Byrne as the writer of the DC crossover event "Legends", as well as mistakenly giving its publication years as 1989-1990. "Legends" was published in 1986-1987, plotted by John Ostrander, scripted by Len Wein, and penciled by Byrne. Apologies for the confusion.]

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 140 is brought to you by Dark Horse Comics and Del Rey Books, and their upcoming comic book series Star Wars: Knight Errant. One of the things that I learned a lot about at this past weekend’s Star Wars Celebration V but didn’t have time to talk about during the webcast was this particular project, which is unique among Dark Horse/Del Rey collaborations in that both the comic series and the novel have the same writer, John Jackson Miller. It’s a level of collaboration between the two companies that’s never been accomplished before, as each series will be written and published concurrently, and each will tell different chapters in the story of young Jedi Knight Kerra Holt. Here’s the description of “Star Wars: Knight Errant” issue #1 from Dark Horse Comics coming in October:

More than one thousand years before Luke Skywalker, a dark age grips the galaxy as an ineffectual Republic abandons entire systems to Sith control. A newly knighted Jedi on her first mission, eighteen-year-old Kerra Holt has joined a band of Jedi volunteers traveling deep behind enemy lines, with no support from the Republic and little chance of survival. She thinks she is prepared for anything. She’s wrong.

It really is a great jumping on point for Star Wars fans (like me) who love the films but might not have read any of the Expanded Universe comics of novels, so if you fit that description, check it out!

This episode is entirely focused on Star Wars Celebration V, perhaps the biggest genre convention ever to hit Orlando (I say perhaps because there aren’t any official attendance numbers out there yet, though the estimated number is around 34,000 people over all four days). For me it was a whirlwind weekend, full of sights and sounds and experiences that I’ll be telling stories about for years to come, I’m sure. If you’d like to check out some of those sights, at the very least, check out the Flickr Slideshow below:

In fact, the event was so huge that I knew I was going to need help canvasing it all, and so I gave a call over to “The Man” from Slacker and the Man, who was in town along with his entire crew to enjoy the show. He would have had some great stories to share, I know, but alas, as you’ll hear during the podcast, all did not go as planned. One thing that DID go as planned was my interview with Wired.com blogger and writer at large John Booth, who joined us on the phone to talk about his experiences at this Celebration as well as his book about Star Wars fandom, Collect All 21! Memoirs of a Star Wars Geek – The First 30 Years. I met John at Heroes Landing’s Celebration V Pre-Event last Wednesday, and I’m certainly glad I did, because it turned out to be a great interview that I know you’ll enjoy. Thanks again, John!

We wrap the hour by pointing out a few things that Star Wars Celebration V did right over the weekend that other conventions in Florida and the rest of the U.S. (SDCC, this means you!) should sit up and take notice of for future events. Now don’t get me wrong here: we’ve been to a lot of conventions this year and last, and each one of those shows do so much RIGHT in terms of taking care of their guests and providing a unique experience. But there’s always room for improvement, and while we recognize that probably no other convention around has the resources to draw on that Star Wars Celebration has, certainly there are little tweaks that can be made to our shows based on what went on at Celebration that can only improve the experiences at the conventions we already love, right?

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 139 is brought to you by Star Wars Celebration V. I’ll be spending quite a bit of this upcoming weekend at THE convention event of the summer, taking pictures, meeting up with Slacker and the Man and the Talk Nerdy Show, and hanging out at the Wolf Pack Elite’s UN-official Celebration Meet-Up on Saturday night, so look forward to reports on all of that stuff this Sunday night from 5-7pm, our NEW time slot at the SomaCow Media Network. We’ve already posted pictures from Day 1 of Celebration V on our Facebook Fan Page, so if you haven’t been over there already to check those out, please do so!

Before I get into what’s in Episode 139, let’s take one last look back at AFO 11 that took place last weekend, this time with video! Here are the videos currently posted on YouTube that I shot while at AFO–if you haven’t checked them out already, please do, and when you do, please rate the video and/or leave comments. Your feedback will bring more views, which helps to spread the word about PTG!

In this episode we bring you last week’s geek headlines, including some Smallville and V casting news and the passing of Hollywood writer/director Tom Mankiewicz, perhaps best known for his work with Richard Donner on Superman and Superman II – The Richard Donner Cut. We follow that with some long overdue TV reviews focused on USA’s Burn Notice and Covert Affairs, both of which are giving spy thriller fans great summer viewing fun in their own ways. We wrap up this hour with reviews on the latest entries of two ongoing event books at the Big Two, Brightest Day #7 (Johns, Tomasi, Reis, Syaf, et. al) for DC Comics and Shadowland #2 (Diggle, Tan) for Marvel. Enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 138 is brought to you by “The Twelve Laws of TRUE MAN!“, which Propeller Anime Club Founder and Dictator Kent Ward, along with his esteemed colleague Shawn Wilson, presented at Anime Festival Orlando for the first time this past weekend (It had been presented previously at MegaCon). Now please, before anyone lacking ANY sense of humor whatsoever sees these laws and begins to take offense, do us all a favor and LIGHTEN UP.

If you’re male and this offends your feminine side, please look down and make sure you do, in fact, still have a pair.

If you’re female and you find this offends your sense of gender identity, or your pride and protectiveness over the progress made toward true equality between the sexes over the course of the past 120 years, please think back to the last time you you watched one of the more recent Old Spice commercials, and how much you laughed while perhaps secretly thinking, “You know, having a man like that WOULD be nice …” If you haven’t, in fact, seen the Old Spice commercials of which I speak, then see the first video below. The second video is for Fist of the North Star fans out there who might not have seen the E3 trailer for the upcoming “Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage” game for PS3 and XBOX 360. The main character in this game, based on the landmark manga and anime series of the same name from writer Buronson and artist Tetsuo Hara, is one of the quintessential examples of the “Manime Hero.” Enjoy.

IF, after watching these you still cannot recognize the spirit in which the Laws are put forth, then there’s simply no hope for you, and this goes doubly for men. “Omae Wa Mo Shindeiru,” indeed.

In this episode we recap two days of panels, interviews, game shows, martial arts demonstrations, and cosplay craziness going on at Anime Festival Orlando 11. In the course of the episode I thanked a great many people for all being a part of my memories from the show, but I’d like to list a few of them here, along with a few other people whose acquaintance I made and who I look forward to keeping in touch with: in no particular order, thanks to Karen Trudeau, Angela Duplis, Peter Stolmeier, Kent Ward, Larry Furry, Waldo Waldusky, and Angela Holloman. Also, very special thanks to AFO guests Tony Oliver (Robotech, Lupin III) and Tommy Yune (director, Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles) for their generosity in taking time out of the schedules to sit down with me for one-on-one interviews. During this episode we play back some short clips from those interviews, but if you’d like to hear the interviews in their entirety, click below.

Tony Oliver Interview

Tommy Yune Interview

As you might imagine, I spoke a great deal to Tony and Tommy about Robotech, which is celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year. If you’re not familiar with Robotech, or you’ve heard about it from friends but never checked it out yourself, and what you hear in the podcast and interviews interests you, there’s never been a better time to become a fan. Full episodes of the entire series are available for your viewing pleasure FOR FREE on YouTube. Here, let us get you started–here’s Episode 1 in its entirety:

Finally, in case you haven’t been to our Facebook Fan Page and checked out our pictures from the convention, check out the slideshow below. We’ve got video, too, which you can watch over on our YouTube Channel. Enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 137 is brought to you by Vindictus, the eagerly-anticipated upcoming fantasy MMORPG from Nexon nominated for “Best MMO” at this year’s E3. Once again, we want to thank Assistant Producer Chris Gyselinck for spending some time talking to us about Vindictus and all it has in store for the avid online role-player and gamer. The interview has lots of great information about the game if you weren’t aware of it before now, so if you’re into MMORPGs or action-adventure games do give it a listen, because Vindictus sounds like quite a different gaming experience compared to other games in this genre. We’ve posted the trailer for the game below, which shows extensive scenes of actual game play, so check that out, too! We also wish to thank Joanne Sibug, Public Relations Associate for Nexon, for making this interview with Chris possible. We hope to hear more about the game as it gets closer to its 4th quarter 2010 release.

In this episode, our second with Mitsugi and Chiaki of the Anime Addicts Anonymous Podcast, we focus almost exclusively on video games. In addition to our interview with Chris, Mitsugi weighs in the brand-new Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty from Blizzard Entertainment, which StarCraft fans have been waiting for now for a decade, and has much to live up to in terms of the fun its predecessor brought. Chiaki brings her own review of Final Fantasy XIII from Square Enix, measuring it up against its predecessors as well as assessing its strengths and weaknesses in its own right. And me? Well, I just listen, comment, and note the names of yet MORE games I hope to try out soon. Hey, I’m still playing Bioshock 2 and God of War III, so I’m a bit behind the times, I know, but at least they’re good games!

We wrap up the hour with reviews of new comics last week: Wonder Woman #601 (Stracynszki, Kramer) begins the new Diana-in-Pants Era of the Amazon Princess’ comic with a tale of legendary bravery and sacrifice, as Diana sees with her own eyes the destruction of Paradise Island and sets out in search of those responsible; while over in Marvel, Thor continues his battle with the soul-eating Disir (think Zombie Valkyries!) threatening Hela and the Asgardian dead in Thor #612 (Gillen, Braithwaite). Enjoy the show!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 136 is brought to you by Anime Festival Orlando 11, going on August 6-8 at the Wyndam Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida, and by Wacko Media. [PLEASE NOTE: During the webcast we erroneously gave the dates as August 5-7th. Apologies for the confusion!] During this hour we were honored to have on the phone with us Peter Stolmeier (and his alter-ego, Wheldon Smiley) from the AFO staff and the mastermind behind Wacko Media to talk about this year’s edition of Anime Festival Orlando and all that it has in store for its attendees. We’ll be there covering the convention on Friday and Saturday, as will our friends the Anime Addicts Anonymous Podcast, who will be hosting three panels over the course of the weekend that you won’t want to miss. Whether it’s the AFO Game Room and Game Show Room, the Skies of Orlandia LARP, Sleeping Samurai’s “Whack-a-Nerd” event, or the many panels and guests attending this year’s AFO, there’s going to be something to enjoy for every anime fan, so make plans to attend, if you haven’t already, and we hope to see you there! (Many thanks to Peter and Angela Duplis from AFO Media Relations for making this interview happen!)

Speaking of the Anime Addicts Anonymous Podcast, this episode features for the first time ever AAA Podcast hosts Mitsugi and Chiaki in studio with us for both episodes we broadcast last Saturday night. During this first hour we get to hear from them a bit about their experiences at MetroCon, the anime convention in Tampa that ran a few weeks back, as well as their thoughts on this summer’s latest season of anime. Due to time constraints we only got to really talk about a few of the shows, such as Mitsudomoe, High School of the Dead, Kuroshitsuji 2, and Occult Academy, but all three of us have lots to say about them, so do check that segment out.

We wrap up the hour with a review of some decidedly Western animation, Batman: Under the Red Hood. Adapted for the screen from the 2005-2006 Batman story “Under the Hood” by original story writer Judd Winick, this latest DC Universe Animated Collection release from Warner Premiere features the voice talents of Bruce Greenwood as Batman, Jensen Ackles as the Red Hood, Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing, and John Dimaggio as the Joker. Hope you enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 135 is brought to you by Anime Festival Orlando 11. Don’t miss this weekend’s live broadcast of PTG starting at 8PM EST. We’ll have special guests Mitsugi and Chiaki of the Anime Addicts Anonymous Podcast, fresh from their trip out to MetroCon in Tampa last weekend, in studio for both hours to talk to us about anime and video games, as well as to join me in interviewing the folks over at AFO about their upcoming show, which runs from August 5-7 at the Wyndam Orlando Resort. We’ll also have an interview with Nexon, the developers of the upcoming fantasy MMORPG Vindictus (see screenshot below). It’s going to be a packed show, so please spend part of your Saturday night with us. You can go out and party-hearty AFTER the show.

What a purdy smile you have!

In this episode, our focus shifts to special guest co-host James Greene Jr. of the JGTwo Land blog, our intrepid Eat More Geek correspondent, and his adventures during his visit to Florida, including a trip to the Burt Reynolds & Friends Museum and Institute in Jupiter, Florida. He also joined me for experiencing the Grilled Cheese Burger Melt at Friendly’s, the most recent entry in the “sandwiches with something else besides bread for buns” genre of dining oddities, and we share our thoughts on that. We start the hour, however, talking about last weekend’s new movie Salt, the espionage actioner from director Phillip Noyce (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger) starring Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber. Salt came in second at the box office last weekend behind Inception, which is turning out to be this summer’s “gotta go see it” movie, as well it should be, and if you haven’t seen it yet, what are you waiting for? Go, right now! (Well, listen to this episode first. THEN go.) Enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 134 is brought to you by San Diego Comic-Con. By all accounts, this was THE most epic year yet for the BIG comics convention of the year, thanks once again to all the Hollywood star power the movie and television studios brought to wow the crowds with dreams of things to come. My only consolation for the fact that I’m not there to see for myself the ENTIRE cast of The Avengers film on-stage together (see below), or Smallville’s final Comic-Con panel, or Odin’s Throne or Abin Sur’s corpse (pictured above) from next year’s Thor and Green Lantern movies, respectively, is that the lines for Hall H, where all the major presentations took place this past weekend, were so long that if I’d stood in line for all those presentations, I doubt I would have seen or done ANYTHING else during the convention. It’s just a sign that the convention has grown so very large and well-attended that maybe a move to a larger venue really IS needed. I just hope if the venue does change that it’s NOT Los Angeles. Put it in a city that will REALLY appreciate it and still has the natural beauty that San Diego does. Portland, OR comes to mind …

From left to right: Robert Downey Jr., Clark Gregg, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, director Joss Whedon, producer and Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige.

This episode features special guest co-host James Greene Jr, author of the JGTwo Land blog, the self-proclaimed Gore Vidal of crap, as well as a Comic-Con on-scene report from Jeremy Reinhard from our longtime friends at Grimm Visions, whose comics and fantasy photography we strongly recommend you check out. Later in the week we’ll have another Comic-Con report from PTG listener and working comics writer Chuck Spear, who we tried to contact during this hour and met with insurmountable technological FAIL. It did provide the opportunity for James to leave ol’ Chuck some funny voice mail messages, though, which in my opinion made for good radio, and we hope you feel the same when you listen. Enjoy!