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Light Brigade written by Peter J Tomasi, art by Peter Snejbjerg, colors by Bjarne Hansen, letters by Ken Lopez & Rob Leigh

Just your standard WW2 story where a group of U.S. infantry are recruited by the immortal Centurion Marcus Longinus to stop a fallen angel and his army of near immortal half-human offspring from igniting an archangels Wrathful Sword upon the ever-burning Cross of the Nazarene and using it to overthrow God. So you know, same old same old…

Plus its drawn by Snejbjerg who I’ve loved since way back when he was on Books of Magic. And here he gives Frank Quietly a run for the money in the ability to draw humans that have been shot to fuck and back…

But the main appeal here is the story again. Which is kind of Devil’s Brigade meets Zulu meets Demon Knight. So you know, its chock full of awesome and plenty of scenes where Nazi’s get shot…

Headlines this week, and a new addition to the cast!  Sam has joined our motley crew, and we are now a three-host podcast, at least until such time as we fire him.

Sam gets welcomed to the ‘cast.  Jonathan talks about Gen Con and Ex Illis, a game he didn’t have the opportunity to actually try out, but still has opinions on.  Alex goes on and on about GameStop again.  Then we get into headlines!

The News:

• Three Brothers Killed Over Xbox 360
• A bunch of game announcements and release dates that’ll take up too much space to link individually.
• Guard plays Plants vs. Zombies. Inmates play Run Away!
• Bow Wow Loses $100k to the Game in Madden Beatdown
• NCSoft sued for making games that are too addictive.
• PS3 Cracked via USB Dongle
• Australian iPhone Censorship, Developers Threaten Pullout

See ya next week for a headline that ballooned into its own topic!

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Sidescrollers written & drawn by Matthew Loux, letters by Doug Sherwood

Some days you just want a story about three slackers and their quest to stop the douche football jock from scoring with the hot new girl. Also included: beat downs inflicted by girl scouts, scorpion shenanigans, video game jokes, cereal mascot mockery, ninja stealth mode and Ceiling Cat vs. Basement Cat. All at no extra cost…

We jump right into the action this week, as Sam rejoins us to gives us his Top Ten, plus a few runners-up.  Not a lot to post here without giving the show away.  Enjoy!

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Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire: Seer’s Digest by Michael Terracciano

This is the first collected volume of Michael “Mookie” Terracciano’s long-running webcomic. “Seer’s Digest” introduces the strip’s two main characters: Dominic Deegan, the grumpy but kind-hearted Seer, and Luna Travoria, a talented mage afflicted with tusks and crushingly low self-esteem. The comic starts out light enough, concentrating on Dominic’s frustration and contempt for the majority of his clients. It quickly gets more serious (well, mostly more serious), introducing Luna’s mother and her attempts to get her daughter killed. Added to the mix are arrogant knights, infernal wizards and really creepy necromancers…

A good deal of long-term set-up takes place in this volume. Future stories involving Dominic’s brothers (one a optimistic “White” magic caster, the other that really spooky necromancer), the crazy-ass Chaos cult The Chosen, the Knights of Callan and the demon-tainted Infernomancers. One important warning though: many of the characters can’t seem to resist punning. *shudder*

Sorry, folks.  No new Way of the Game episode this week.  Jonathan and Alex are both dealing with some unexpected and less than pleasant circumstances, which have kept them from being able to get Episode 34, Sam’s Top Ten, edited.  We’ll be back on track next week.

Maintenance vol.1: It’s A Dirty Job… written by Jim Massey, illustrated by Robbi Rodriguez, tones by Jared Jones, lettering by Douglas E. Sherwood

Maintenance has everything you could want in a book about two janitors who work at a mad science lab that supplies super-villains. Its got man-sharks and aliens and time-travelers who look like Captain Caveman and zombie kittens stuck in the vending machine. Even secret crushes on the cute secretary. “Heroes” Doug and Manny are likeable everyman schlubs. Just like you! If you had to clean up living fetid piles of goo and get sent back in time occasionally for your job. Which you might. I don’t know…

But you probably don’t! So why not live the dream vicariously? By reading Maintenance!

The Holmberg and the Writer get together to discuss the inevitable coming of ebooks. This all stems from a thread on the Spooky Outhouse forums.

We start about talking about music. You knew it was going to come up, so we take care of it right away.

Piracy and why ebooks are now viable.

The inconvenience of living in a market transition. What do you do when you own a book in paper but you want it digitally?

Point of view: what is a book to a reader, a writer, and a publisher. Here are some of the things consumers should take into account. Here are some of the things the industry should consider. Let’s all work together, eh?

The Big 6 of Publishing: Random House, Simon and Schuster, Penguin, Macmillan, HarperCollins, and the Hatchett Group. Will they survive the transition to digital publishing? Do they have relevance when paper isn’t involved in books?

Organic growth, market share, and why ebooks are a certainty. Here is the projection graph for 2010 sales that Joe mentioned.

What happens when a book doesn’t sell

Want to learn more about the industry? Look into Pimp My Novel, Nathan Bransford, Janet Reid, Kristin Nelson, GalleyCat, Publishers Weekly, Publisher’s Lunch, and others. There is a lot of information out there.

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We’ve got a very focused show for you today.  No banter, no week in review, we’re all about the topic today.  What’s the topic?  Money!

We’ve got Sam (also known as Neosect on the forums) along for the ride, and we’ve got some answers from Brad, one of our Australian listeners.

If you’d like to follow along, you can check out the questions in the forums, and be sure to post your own answers there, as well, when you’re done listening.

Next week: Sam’s Top Ten!

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