That’s right. It’s time for a brand new episode of The Flickcast. And because we don’t really keep to a regular schedule these days, let’s just say this one arrived right on time. Cool? Cool.

On this week’s show Chris and Joe pretty much devote the entire episode to the latest Marvel blockbuster Captain America: Civil War. It’s a big movie and it deserves a lot of time for discussion. So, the boys take a lot of time.

They do manage to discuss a couple other things too, but that’s pretty much near the end. So if you’re looking for some Civil War talk, you’ve come to the right place. If you want something else, well, there’s always next week.

Picks this week include, you guessed it, Captain America: Civil War. Unanimously. But really, we don’t have to tell you to go see this one, do we?

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship, or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook, Google+ or shoot us an email.

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It’s time for an all-new episode of The Flickcast! And it’s even on time. Yes, we’re excited too.

On this week’s show Chris and Joe discuss all sorts of new and recurring topics, like they always do. Some of these topics include developments at the recent D23 Disney show in Anaheim, Star Wars theme parks, Colin Trevorrow directing a Star Wars movie, more Marvel stuff including Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange, Mr. Robot, a potential cameo appearance in an upcoming Star Wars movie by Darth Vader himself and a whole lot more, more more.

Picks this week include Chris’ pick of The End of All Things, the latest novel by John Scalzi, and Joe’s pick of Kyle Baker’s graphic novel Why I Hate Saturn.

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

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | TuneIn | Spotify | RSS

At the SXSW Film and Interactive festival over the weekend, Marvel took the wraps off of several new digital initiatives during the company’s panel. Among the items highlighted were new content that will tie the company’s film, animation, comics, and web programming together with reality programming, news and documentaries.

All of these will be anchored by the newly announced program Marvel’s Earth’s Mightiest Show, a weekly pop culture program covering all-things Marvel and the world. Former G4 star Blair Butler will host the show, which will cover movies, comics, video games, and television with celebrity interviews and first looks at upcoming Marvel Studios films.

So yeah, you know that’s gonna be amazing. To see just how amazing, check out the preview for the show after the break.

In addition, the company also announced it is offering free downloads of more than 700 first issues of many of the company’s favorite superhero comics at no charge. The promotion began Sunday and runs until 11 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Historic issues based on classic characters in the Marvel Universe including Spider-Man and Iron Man will be available, as well as contemporary titles like Civil War and Astonishing X-Men.

It may seem like an odd choice for a company famous for its books with all the pictures, but Marvel has announced they will be taking their most famous superhero creations and putting them into a brand new format: prose novels. The first of these novels will tell the story of Civil War, Marvel’s “event” from a few years back.

From the official press release:

“Releasing our most acclaimed graphic novels as prose fiction not only allows us to reach a different audience with these stories, but also gives us a chance to bring those readers back to the comics that started it all,” said David Gabriel, Senior Vice President of Sales, Marvel Entertainment.

“Civil War is easily our best-selling graphic novel of the past decade and certainly one of the most influential in recent memory, so it was the perfect launch title for this new line. Not only will you get all the action that Mark Millar and Steve McNiven delivered in comic form but no fan will want to miss the new wrinkles we’ve added in this novel. ”

Well then, there you go. You really can’t blame Marvel for trying to find a way to make more money off of its comic book properties. After all, the comic book business is not doing that well and they already have these stories just sitting there so, why not?

Anyone got a problem with it? Sound off in the comments.

“What did you expect? ‘Welcome, sonny’?  ‘Make yourself at home’? ‘Marry my daughter’? You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know . . . morons.” — Blazing Saddles

But dang, did they cut a dashing figure in a gray uniform. I’m talking about you, Rock Hudson. Look at the rakish bend of your hat brim! Aren’t you just the handsomest Confederate I’ve seen since Bill Compton traded his uniform for a pair of fangs!

One of my new cinematic fascinations (if you’ll forgive such a pompous label) is the way Hollywood and pop culture imagines the Civil War. It’s not something I ever thought about beyond Gone With the Wind,  Firefly, and True Blood, but it’s an intriguing subset of American culture.

Since no cannonball has been left unturned when it comes to the War Between the States, I’m sure there are already twelve books about this very topic. If there’s not, well, maybe I will write one when Western Wednesdays is through.