Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 101 is brought to you by “Adventure Chefs: Making Danger Delicious!“, the new reality show being developed for television by our good friend Terry Cronin of Students of the Unusual. As part of PTG’s MegaCon 2010 coverage this past weekend, the first panel I attended on Friday was the “Adventure Chefs” panel, which showed audience members clips of the first couple of episodes shot, as well as introduced the audience to director Steven Shea, who directed Episode 2, and Lisa Corrao, stand-up comedienne and guest judge in Episode 1. I have to say that I’m not all that big on cooking shows. Shows about EATING, like Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and Man vs. Food, on the other hand, will get my attention every time. This concept, sending competitors out into the wild to forage and hunt for what they’re going to cook up for the judges, takes a few elements from those Travel Channel shows in the sense that, in addition to the food preparation portion of the show, the crew and competitors travel to different picturesque locales each week and makes the most of those settings in order to engage the audience. It looks like a lot of fun for everyone involved and a fun show to get into watching every week. Click on the link for Adventure Chefs above and check it out, or find them HERE on Facebook.

This entire episode is devoted to all things MegaCon. In addition to talking about my coverage of the Adventure Chefs panel, the 5th Annual MegaCon Indie Film Festival, and the DC Nation panel on Day 2, The Man from Slacker and the Man joins us on the phone to talk about his adventures (and misadventures) on the convention floor, including his brief but oh-so-unforgettable (and enviable!) encounter with a particular Star Trek: The Next Generation luminary who happens to be VERY active on Twitter!

Speaking of Star Trek, let me take a moment to call your attention to Vulcan Events, the new science-fiction based entertainment venture from Fernando Martinez, a man with over 25 years experience in organizing fun and exciting conventions and events geared towards sci-fi fans. Their first convention will be in Tampa this upcoming April 30th-May 2nd and features special guests Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future, Star Trek III) and Michael Shanks (Stargate SG-1, Smallville), along with a growing list of bonus guests. Even though it happens to fall in the same weekend as Free Comic Book Day, you’re not going to want to miss this show, so find a way to do BOTH!

Also in this episode, The Man and I banter about the various parties over that weekend, including the truly EPIC Wolf Pack Elite MegaCon Attendees After Party, which well exceeded all expectations we might have had, so congratulations to them, because I’m sure they could not have been more pleased with the results. From the Sci-Fried show that started the evening, the all-out transformation of Backstage at the Rosen Plaza Hotel into Bartertown, to the auctioning off of “slave” men and women to the highest bottle-cap holding bidder, this party set a new standard in theme parties that I daresay the WPE is going to have to work hard to beat next year!

All in all, everyone involved with MegaCon this year had to be absolutely thrilled at the success of the show, if you measure that success in terms of attendance numbers alone. Three-Day weekend passes to the convention were sold out by late afternoon on Friday, and Saturday the main exhibit hall was packed to capacity, to the point where no one else could enter until someone left the room! I’d say that’s a pretty good indicator of success for a convention.

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 72 is brought to you by Black Friday. I woke up at 5:35AM this morning, not because I set my alarm for that time, as so many other Americans with a stronger drive than I to get a big part of their holiday shopping done in one day probably did, but because my phone buzzed to tell me I’d gotten new email, an email about Black Friday deals going on over at Entertainment Earth. I promptly went back to sleep. Yes, I could have hopped online and purchased a copy of Dragon Age: Origins from BestBuy.com for $34.99, thereby saving $30. OR I could have gotten dressed and ventured out to the Best Buy down the street to witness firsthand the line of shoppers stretched out the door, people queued up to save lots of money on fun stuff. Wouldn’t have been tough–get up, throw some clothes on, hit 7-Eleven for some coffee on the way over, and get in line.

As I said, I went back to sleep.

It’s not that I have anything against frugality or bargain shopping. It’s simply that Black Friday craziness is not a part of my holiday habits. I have yet to really start thinking about what to get for whom for Christmas, and that’s simply a must if you’re doing to be doing pre-dawn shopping. A battle plan must be drawn up: specific objectives and locations that must be hit with quick, surgical precision in order to fulfill the mission. I’m sorry, but that’s too hardcore for my holiday spirit. I want to walk the aisles of a store with little pressure and just let the RIGHT gifts call out to me, whether they are bargain-priced or not. It may not be frugal OR efficient, but it seems more in the spirit of giving. It’s not about how much YOU saved, but rather how much THEY love what they get; at least, that’s how it seems to me. Others can certainly disagree, and whatever your method or belief about holiday shopping, if it brings joy to your loved ones AND saves you money, more power to you, and good luck out there today!

Episode 72 starts off by talking about Black Friday and asking the question of you listeners: what’s your holiday shopping routine? Head over to SomaCow.net/forum and the Prime Time Geek message board to answer the question there: we welcome your responses. Also, if you’re in search of deals this morning and don’t want to venture out, but would rather shop online, in addition to the deals I spotlighted in Wednesday’s post post, head over to bfads.net, the Official Black Friday 2009 website, to find hundreds of deals from online retailers all over the web. It’s a pretty comprehensive site, so be prepared to spend time making tough decisions on which deals to take advantage of … Also in this episode we bring you another four-pack of Flash TV reviews covering last week’s new episodes of V, Heroes, Fringe, and FlashForward. We wrap the hour with a set of Top Comic Picks featuring two Geoff Johns-penned books, The Flash: Rebirth #5 and Adventure Comics #4, along with Supergirl #47 by Sterling Gates. Enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com

PTG Episode 48 is brought to you by the art of comic book artist Ed Benes. Now, before I lose any of my female listeners upon sight of the image accompanying this article, there is a point to this, and it IS related to this hour’s content. Benes is the artist currently working on Blackest Night Titans, one of two Blackest Night tie-in titles to hit stores during the week ending 8-28-09 that we cover in this week’s ‘Blackest Night Spotlight.’ Though normally I’m a fan of Benes’ comic book work, I think his particular style works against him and the story being told in Blackest Night Titans. In the course of describing that style and why it doesn’t quite work for this book, it was necessary to talk a bit about Benes’ recurring … ahem … artistic focus. I certainly admit that Benes seems to show a preoccupation with a particular portion of the female anatomy, but I don’t think he deserves all the “hating-on” he seems to get from a great portion of comic fandom. I just wish he’d work on making his women look a tad more distinct from one another. Aside from hair color, hair style, and uniform/costume, his female characters attributes seem at times to be interchangeable. More on that during the episode.

In this installment we also talk a little bit about Fan Expo Canada 2009, the largest comic book, sci-fi, and pop culture convention in Canada, and one bit of news that was announced at FEC 2009 that we didn’t get to during the broadcast was Marvel’s announcement of its upcoming Hulk family crossover event … (wait for it) … WORLD WAR HULKS!

Yes, the brain trust behind the current assortment of Hulk comic book titles (Hulk, Incredible Hulk, Incredible Hercules, Savage She-Hulk) are bringing all their storylines together in this mega-event that finds all the various Hulks (Banner Hulk, Red Hulk, Skaar, son of Hulk, original She-Hulk (we think), “new” Savage She-Hulk (from the future!!), Red She-Hulk (WTF?!?), and who knows who else) facing off against a conglomeration of the world’s greatest evil geniuses, including The Leader, MODOK, Dr. Doom, Egghead, Mad Thinker, and probably a few more would-be world conquerors calling themselves “The Intelligencia.” Sound like silly, crazy, Hulk-Smash fun? YOU BET! Honestly, I don’t read the Hulk books, and Jeph Loeb’s work on “Hulk” was offensive enough to my comic book reading sensibilities that I wanted to fight ANYBODY who willingly shelled out money for the title on a monthly basis. But just for the sake having all the mysteries behind the Red Hulk and who’s who and what’s what in that messed up gamma-irradiated family, I might be tempted to give this a try and report on it for PTG. Don’t hold your breath, though–I passed on the entire World War Hulk storyline from a few years back, David Finch and John Romita Jr. artwork and all, just because, well, I’m not a Hulk fan. End of story. I may have to overcome my distaste, however, for the sake of covering the “news.”

Who says I’m not devoted to my craft? Watch out for World War Hulks coming to comic book stores starting in December. Yay.

Hour 1 of Prime Time Geek Episode 20 is brought to you by this sound clip from the all-new, all-awesome Star Trek film from director J.J. Abrams, featuring Jim Kirk’s (Chris Pine) first meeting with a slightly unnerved Dr. Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban) as they sit together aboard the shuttle that will whisk them off to Starfleet Academy. One of the best things about the new Trek film that in my opinion cannot be hailed enough is the performance of actor Karl Urban, who simply vanishes into the role of “Bones” McCoy and makes him real in a way that I can only imagine the late DeForest Kelley would have enjoying viewing. I’ve sung the praises of Urban before–despite career lowlights like Pathfinder and Doom, the man’s done solid, engaging work in Hollywood, including supporting turns in The Bourne Supremacy and Chronicles of Riddick. His characters, however secondary they might be to the leads in a film, are always interesting, and that’s something I believe is wholly attributable to the actor himself. But Star Trek should be a breakout performance for him–watch out for more leading roles for Urban as the Hollywood starmaking machine sits up and takes notice of who everyone talks about when they walk of seeing Trek.

In addition to my full review of Star Trek, Hour 1 of PTG this week features reviews of DC Comics‘ Power Girl #1, by writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray and illustrated by Amanda Conner (click HERE to listen to PTG’s interview with Palmiotti and Conner about Power Girl and her new series!), and The Flash: Rebirth #2 by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, both of which are definitely worth your while to pick up if you haven’t yet. We wrap up the hour by reviewing the penultimate episode of Smallville for this 8th season, “Injustice”, which is definitely worth watching if only to have a great example of less-than-stellar scripting, direction, and acting. For those of us more discriminating Smallville fans who fondly remember when this show was compelling and when we could wholeheartedly recommend the show to others as “good, fun” television, this point in the series is an all-time low, and if you’re like me at all, the only thing to look forward to about this week’s finale, “Doomsday”, airing on Thursday, May 14th, is that it is, in fact, the end of the season and we’ll be spared anymore inane silliness for the summer.

At this point, especially if you disagree with me and you think this season of Smallville has been great, you may be thinking, “Well, if you think it’s so lame, then why the hell do you keep watching?” It was put best in a forgotten Blake Edwards film from the late ’80s called Skin Deep, starring the late John Ritter. Ritter’s character, Zack, is a writer who, in the face of writer’s block he can’t overcome, has ruined his marriage by drowning himself in booze and extramarital affairs. At one point early in the film, after getting verbally jabbed for his now-lackluster wit by his agent, Zack asks, “If you think my stuff is crap, then why do you keep representing me?”

The agent’s response was (and here’s the point, folks), “That’s like asking a heroine addict why he keeps shooting up. It’s because he keeps hoping for the euphoria of that first high, even though he knows deep down inside that it will never happen.” And there’s your answer to why I keep watching Smallville. Hope springs eternal, and I, like Clark, never give up hope that things can get better.

The DC Universe Panel at MegaCon 2009

Prime Time Geek’s coverage of MegaCon 2009 continues with this recording of the DC Universe Panel, hosted by Senior VP and Executive Editor Dan Didio and featuring panelists Tony Bedard (R.E.B.E.L.S), Dan Jurgens (Booster Gold), Jimmy Palmiotti (Power Girl, Jonah Hex), George Pérez (Legion of 3 Worlds, Brave and the Bold), Ethan Van Sciver (Green Lantern: Rebirth, The Flash: Rebirth), and Billy Tucci (Sgt. Rock). Listed below are some highlights of the panel and the time index during the audio file when they occur. Enjoy!

3:00 – Dan Didio reads the official Orange County, Florida proclamation, signed by Orange County Mayor Richard Crotty, declaring Saturday, March 28th as George Pérez Day.

6:00 – Didio discusses DC’s plan to follow up on the momentum of Final Crisis, with Battle for the Cowl, Superman: World of New Krypton, Flash: Rebirth, and “Rise of the Olympian” in Wonder Woman.

7:30 – Tony Bedard talks R.E.B.E.L.S. and why Brainiac 2 (Vril Dox) is such a fun character to work with.

8:50 – Dan Jurgens talks about what’s to come in the pages of Booster Gold

10:00 – Jimmy Palmiotti talks about what’s in store for Power Girl in her new solo title and also his work on Jonah Hex.

12:54 – George Pérez discusses Legion of 3 Worlds and tries to be vague about his next “epic” project.

15:10 – Ethan Van Sciver talks about his work with Geoff Johns on The Flash: Rebirth and what the newly-resurrected Barry Allen encounters in the first issue, as well as teasing a momentous meeting in issue #3.

16:20 – Billy Tucci touches on his work on Sgt. Rock and also gets to tell a great story about a particular gift he gave to Didio one year recently.

20:40 – Floor opens for questions

21:00 – Didio fields a question about “done-in-one” issues and about the fun of characters like Jonah Hex, Sgt. Rock, and the soon-to-return Warlord, who work and play outside current continuity.

23:08 – Question about the possibility of “letters pages” returning and also an “explanation book” to help readers out with the end of Final Crisis.

26:00 – J. Michael Straczynski still writing an arc in Brave and the Bold?

29:00 – Will Bruce Wayne’s current status be addressed in “Blackest Night”?

30:18 – MY question to Didio, regarding the decision to divulge the identity of certain Black Lanterns LONG before “Blackest Night” begins through DC Direct solicitations for Blackest Night action figures (if you’ve been listening to PTG, you’ll recall that particular spoiler got under my skin REAL bad. Apparently, I was the only one bothered by it in that room.)

32:30 – Didio addresses the relaunch of the Batman family of titles in June, along with listing the new titles joining that family.

36:51 – Didio poses this question to the audience: If a new Flash regular series were to begin, what would the number of the first issue be (assuming it resumes numbering from an earlier Flash series). The answer they get from someone in the front row left even me stunned at the level of memory power displayed.

38:52 – Question to Palmiotti about Power Girl and where she fits in now in the Superman family of characters, in particular her relationship to Supergirl.

41:48 – Didio fields a question about the current Batman/Superman title and when will it start to reflect current continuity (e.g. Bruce Wayne gone). Answer: “It won’t.”)

43:00 – Recap pages possibly in DC Comics?

44:18 – Upcoming appearance by the Suicide Squad? Didio: watch for Rick Flagg and Amanda Waller in “Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape”.

45:00 – Question to Van Sciver: “Will you be drawing any more Green Lantern?” Answer: “I don’t see why not.”

48:00 – Question to the entire panel: “What is you all reading right now, which books?”

54:00 – What worked and what didn’t work in Final Crisis?

The wait is almost over.

MegaCon starts in just over an hour, so those of you out there who can get out and enjoy the show from today’s noon start, have a blast! I’ll be there this evening from 5PM onward, mainly to cover the MegaCon Indie Film Expo, so if you’re planning on attending, look for me or my cameraman, wearing t-shirts with ‘PTG’ in HUGE letters across the backs, and say ‘hello!’ Also, plan to get there EARLY, as the film expo has been SRO for a few years now, and this year will be no exception. Among the short films being screened at the Expo, legendary Lady Death creator Brian Pulido will be screening a preview of his new horror film The Graves, and I’ll be talking to him after the preview screens, so watch for the video of that interview right here at primetimegeek.com in the days ahead!

On Saturday, I’ll be at the show from start to finish, and I hope to get lots of interviews with folks attending the show, especially if you come in costume and plan to take part in this year’s MegaCon Costume Contest. So if you’re at the show in costume and want to show off your hand-made costumes and gear, hunt us down and get on camera! Also I hope to score a few interviews with the various comic book luminaries attending this year’s show, including Guest of Honor George Pérez, Ethan Van Sciver, Chris Claremont, Ron Marz, Mark Waid, Greg Land, and many more. Whatever interviews I’m able to obtain I’ll be featuring on the MegaCon wrap-up edition of Prime Time Geek, airing on SUNDAY from 6-8PM. Should be a great day, and once the con is done for Saturday, of course, I’ll be headed to the Wolfpack Elite’s MegaCon Afterparty at the Embassy Suites Orlando, starting at 9PM. No cameras for that, though!