Prime Time Geek

 

 PTG Episode 43: Hangin' With the Hangman [59:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (50)

PTG Episode 43 is brought to you by the 70th Birthday of Marvel Comics. All this month, to celebrate 70 years of publishing greatness (and also to get a few more bucks out of our wallets, if we have them), Marvel is publishing a number of its issues with special variant covers that … well, cover the breadth of Marvel’s most enduring characters. The art that frames each cover is by artist Jim Cheung. Check out a couple of the covers available this week:

If you’ve got the extra dough to fork out for these, grab ‘em–think of it as supporting the economy, rather than supporting any need to have EVERY variant cover of an issue, no matter how true that might also be. In all honesty, the Cheung art makes them all look quite snazzy.

Episode 43 focuses on J. Michael Stracynzski’s efforts to re-introduce and revitalize comics characters once owned by Archie Comics and published under their Red Circle imprint, now licensed to DC Comics, and situate them within the DC Universe, Those efforts began this week with one-shot issue “The Hangman”. Similar one-shots, each focusing on a Red Circle character, will be released one per week through the month of August. Certainly having JMS’s name attached to it lends serious geek cred to the title, but seriously, does it have a chance to even make an impression on DC readers right now, with that little thing called “Blackest Night” they have going on that’s got everyone, even non-superhero comics fans, snapping up issues faster than anyone can say “Green Lantern”? Time will tell … Also in this hour, PTG’s Top Comics Picks for the week ending 8-8-09 and EricathePimp’s latest book review, this time focused on an older work by science fiction author Orson Scott Card, The Worthing Saga.

Looking ahead to this Saturday, August 15th, PTG welcomes back Mad Mario, Destroyer of Worlds to the SomaCow studios, where he will bring his unique “charm” and insight to a variety of subjects we have on tap, most notably the new film District 9, which will wrap up our coverage of the 2009 Summer Movie Season. We’ll also be tackling this past summer’s movies as a whole as well as looking ahead to movies and television coming up in the Fall. Don’t miss it!