Prime Time Geek

 

 PTG Episode 23 Hour 2: Toward a Digital Future? [57:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (28)

Hour 2 of Prime Time Geek Episode 23 is brought to you by the Podgnosticast blog, whose creator, J.C. Martinez, would be oh so grateful if you would pop on over and peruse the articles he’s been posting of late. If you’re so inclined after reading, post a comment-it WILL make his day.

J.C.’s feature story on comic books making the transition to a digital form, as the rest of the print publishing industry seems to be doing in order to avoid extinction, is the centerpiece of Hour 2. It’s a subject that’s been touched upon on this program in other interviews with comics luminaries: Dan Didio of DC Comics addressed delivering comics digitally when we spoke to him at MegaCon, and Peter David mentioned comics on the Internet during our chat with him a few weeks back, citing it as what will turn out to be the real determinant in who dominates the industry once print publication breathes its last. As J.C. discovered in his research, it’s going to be a very difficult and awkward transition, and it will be resisted at every turn by true devotees of the art form. Sure, more casual readers who are technophiles and read everything else via gadget or computer may embrace digital comics more readily, but die-hards (like me) will cling to the medium of printed comics and point out the inadequacies of current technology to truly capture the reading experience of reading a comic book. The conversion MAY be inevitable–I think you’d find few who would argue that–but until technology can tackle some of the problems that J.C.’s report discusses, it may not come very soon, and it may never be wholly complete, meaning printed comic books may never fully die out. (Many thanks to Mark Friedman and Josh Bayer of Cosmic Comics in NYC for talking to us for this report!)

[UPDATE: The artwork above has been corrected, as has the text below, but to make sure there's no confusion on the part of listeners, the name of Mtn Dew's new product is Mtn Dew GAME Fuel, not Gamer Fuel, as I erroneously refer to it during the broadcast. Sorry about that.]

Speaking of awkward transitions, in retrospect it seems almost absurd to follow up J.C.’s very serious piece with an ‘Eat More Geek’ segment, and I hope the Podgnosticastor isn’t miffed at all to have his piece immediately precede a taste test of Mtn Dew’s two flavors of ‘Game Fuel’, “Alliance Blue” and “Horde Red.” Pick them up wherever you can find them and try them for yourself, especially if you’re a Mtn Dew devotee. My preference between the flavors was made pretty clear during the broadcast, but keep in mind that I’m not a big artificial-cherry flavor guy, so anything that aspires to taste like cherry through chemical means is almost always bound to rub my palate the wrong way. If you do get a chance to try them and you’d like to share your opinion, please do leave a comment!