This week I am personally fired up for the new Marvel series S.W.O.R.D. #1 by new Thor writer Kieron Gillen and Steven Sanders. The last time I saw Sanders he did the Five Fists of Science with Matt Fraction that feels like it was a century ago. The series is a spinoff from Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men where we follow Agent Brand, Beast and Lockheed through the cosmos.

Following that is the new Doctor Strange spinoff, Strange by Mark Waid and Emma Rios. Being a nut for all things Deadpool, the latest issue of Amazing Spider-Man guest stars the Merc with a Mouth. But that’s not really why I’m buying the issue, its ’cause the awesome Eric Canete draws the issue.

For Matt, this week we have a Doc Savage special guest starring Batman. Written by the brilliant Brian Azzarello and drawn by Phil Noto, the Man of Bronze encounters the Dark Knight in non-period specific Manhattan.

A personal favorite of mine is the new Escapists trade paperback. This is a fairly old story, written by Lost’s Brian K. Vaughan and based on a Michael Chabon character. The Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Chabon created a new character called the Escapist.

This comic is about the character being re-imagined by Cleveland indy comic creators.  Its a fun read about friendship and comic creator rights written by the superb Vaughan through Dark Horse comics. I can only give it my highest possible recommendation.

As always, we here at The Flickcast care about what you read, so leave us a comment and let us know what you liked/didn’t like from this week’s comics. For a more complete list of what comes out this week, check out the one at Midtown Comics.

This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt jump in after a week off with a whole bunch of new topics including the new Doc Savage movie, written and directed by Shane Black, the performance of Paranormal Activity and Saw VI, the reboot of Short Circuit, horror films in general and much more.

The guys also make some great picks this week including Matt’s pick of teen horror zombiefest Dance of the Dead and Chris’ pick of the 1979 horror classic Phantasm, featuring Angus Scrimm as “The Tall Man.”

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

Thanks for listening.

Not many people outside of the world of film know Shane Black by name, but most certainly do by reputation. Black is best known for being the driving creative writing force behind such films as Monster Squad, Last Boy Scout, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and all of the good Lethal Weapon films.

Black has been bouncing around for the past few years, with rumors that he would be working on a revamped Doc Savage property, with Schwarzenegger as a strong contender back in the 90s. Well, Arnie may be out, but Black is most definitely in, definitely writing and possibly directing, according to Collider.

“[the film] will be set in the 30s and not modernize the story….The producers of “Doc Savage” are Neil Moritz and Ori Marmur.  They’re the guys who are also producing “The Green Hornet”, “Battle: Los Angeles”, and “Jack the Giant Killer.”  Furthermore, they have a deal at Sony so if the film gets made, “Doc Savage” will be made at Sony.”

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