This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt try to keep it a bit more civil and, well, almost succeed. They also manages to discuss several new topics (and a few old ones) including Mark Millar’s love of digital comics, new Pacific Rim trailer, the new Wolverine trailer and what Summer movies they are most looking forward to seeing.

They also talked about the upcoming games Grand Theft Auto V, the recently announced Call of Duty: Ghosts and how Matt loves all-things side-scrolling and hates the smell of death. And no, sadly, they don’t really go to Japan. We just thought that title was funny.

And, as usual, the boys made some picks this week with Matt’s being the side-scroller game Battleblock Theater and Chris’ being his new favorite desktop computer: the iMac from Apple.

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 | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

Do you love Star Wars? Of course you do. How about comics? Yep, us too. So when these two awesome things can be combined, it’s even better, right?

Well, you’re in luck because out friends at Dark Horse are stepping up to do something pretty great in celebration of tomorrow’s ‘May the 4th’ Star Wars celebration (and Free Comic Book Day. Bonus!). What is this pretty great thing you may wonder?

Well, read on for more:

Get blasted into a galaxy far, far away with two amazing May the 4th MegaBundles! One MegaBundle is for devout comics readers, and the other is for the younger Star Wars fan in all of us!

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.

Do you love comics from Marvel and prefer them in digital format? Are you a current or future Marvel Unlimited subscriber? Have an iPad or iPhone?

Well, if you fit the quickly expanding segment of the population who can say “Yes” to these questions, Marvel has a new iOS app just for you. That’s right, today Marvel released its new “Marvel Unlimited” app for iPad and iPhone.

The free app allows subscribers of Marvel’s digital comics subscription service to access their comics from their iOS device, even when not connected to the internet. Non-members can also use the app, but they are limited to accessing free comics and previews of other issues in Marvel’s digital collection.

Heck, that’s pretty cool. Get the app right here in iTunes.

In what surely is another nail in the coffin for printed comics, DC announced this week that they are making their entire catalog of comics available for Apple’s iBooks, Amazon Kindle and the Barnes and Noble Nook. This includes all DC Comics and Vertigo titles including Justice Leagues, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and more.

Check out the full press release from DC below. Time to start selling your closet full of print comics before it’s too late? Maybe.

DC Entertainment, the #1 comic book publisher in the U.S., announced today its entire line of periodical comic books are now available for download from the top three e-bookstores including Kindle Store, iBookstore and NOOK Store™. The precedent setting new digital availability brings bestselling DC Comics and Vertigo periodical titles, including JUSTICE LEAGUE, BATMAN, SUPERMAN, DETECTIVE COMICS, ACTION COMICS, BATGIRL, WONDER WOMAN, GREEN LANTERN, FABLES and AMERICAN VAMPIRE, among many others, to an even broader audience of digital readers.

Yes, it may seem like a rather cumbersome title for a comic/graphic novel, but Marvel’s upcoming Castle: Richard Castle’s Storm Season still looks pretty cool.

Written by Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly Sue Deconick with art by Emanuela Lupacchino, the hardcover graphic novel is based on the best-selling novel by Richard Castle. Here’s more from Marvel:

In this “adaptation” of Derrick Storm’s second novel, the private investigator is hired to find a missing a woman—but what should have been a routine mission quickly spirals out of control when Storm overhears the woman’s terrifying scream on the wire. Plagued by the victim’s helpless cry, Storm—despite an ominous warning—investigates. Soon, he’ll discover an international conspiracy reaching further than he ever imagined—and perhaps the truth about Clara Strike, a CIA agent the world thinks is dead.

Look for Castle: Richard Castle’s Storm Season to hit comic shops, the Marvel Comics app, iBookstore, the Nook Bookstore and more on October 15th. Check out some preview pages after the break.

If you’re one of the millions of people who read comic books on your iPad or iPhone, this post should be of particular interest to you. That’s especially true in this case if you love Marvel Comics.

Why? Well, today ComiXology and Marvel Entertainment have announced a multi-year deal where Marvel will distribute its digital comic single issue titles excessively through ComiXology. According to the report and interview with Marvel SVP and General Manager of Digital Media David Phillips, the deal was actually signed on May 1 but the announcement was delayed to coincide with the release of Marvel’s The Avengers.

“This partnership will allow us to innovate and advance the digital storytelling and reading experience,” said ComiXology co-founder and CEO David David Steinberger.

Phillips added that ComiXology’s “technology is by far the best.”

In addition to the Marvel deal, ComiXology also announced that over 65 million digital comics issues have been downloaded on all of its platforms, including mobile and desktop. That number is quite a jump from the 50 Million the company announced in January.

Certainly there’s other options for reading comics on the iPad, but it would seem with this latest deal, and the one they already have with DC, ComiXology is definitely asserting its dominance in the digital comics space.

If you were a fan of the CW show Smallville you probably already know that the show has continued on in digital comic book form with Smallville Season 11. What you may not know is that, according to DC, once three issues of the digital comic are released, they will be collected in a print version and sold in comic book stores.

That first three-issue printed version is now available. But wait, there’s more. Not only will the printed comic contain the first three issues of Smallville Season 11, it will also include new, bonus content like episode guides and more.

The first print issue is available now with the next digital chapter of Smallville Season 11 coming out on Friday, May 18. Check out the full release schedule after the break.

Much like the upcoming Avengers big screen movie, in the comics Marvel heroes are fighting each other. Only in the comics, it’s the Avengers fighting the X-Men and not fighting among themselves — although that happened a few years back with Civil War.

Anyway, we’ve got a preview of the latest installment of Avengers vs. X-Men for you today. To tell you more about this book, here’s some info from the official Marvel press release:

The war is here! Today in Avengers VS. X-Men #3, by the blockbuster creative team of Ed Brubaker and John Romita Jr., Captain America splits the Avengers up all across the Marvel Universe to find Hope before the X-Men do! But Cyclops and his team are hot on the mutant messiah’s trail and are not letting Earth’s Mightiest get in their way. With Wolverine’s loyalty still in question – Captain America must make a harrowing decision and the result will have everyone talking!

Avengers vs. X-Men #3 is in comic stores and Marvel’s digital app now. Click through to check out the preview pages.

Let’s face it, print comics may not be completely dead, but they’re probably on life suport. The future is here now and that future is digital. With that in mind, Marvel has announced, as part of its ReEvolution concept, the upcoming Marvel Digital Comics Shop.

What is it? Well, for the best description, let’s let the folks at Marvel speak for themselves, via a handy press release:

The Marvel ReEvolution grows even bigger this month as Marvel is proud to unveil the Marvel Digital Comics Shop, the newest place to find and read Marvel digital comics. This convenient online destination gives fans the chance to purchase all their favorite Marvel comics in one location and have it sync to the Marvel Comics app for Apple iOS and Android devices. Not only can you read your comics anytime and anywhere – but now you can read them on your desktop or laptop! With all Marvel Universe and Ultimate Comics Universe titles available the same day they hit comic shops, there’s no better time to jump into comics!

Okay, so, that’s pretty cool. But wait, there’s more:

Then, come June – all Marvel super hero comics priced at $3.99 at your local comic shop will include codes for free digital copies of those same issues on the Marvel Comics app for Apple iOS and Android devices, the Marvel Digital Comics Shop and the Comics by comiXology app and web store all at no extra cost!

See, the future is here. Now where are the damn jetpacks and hoverboards!

For you comic book lovers torn between Amazon’s upcoming Kindle Fire and the newly announced Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet — with all its reported Marvel comics goodness — here’s a bit of news to help fuel your debate. Or, perhaps, solve it.

ComiXology has officially announced their app, which features an array of thousands of comics from several publishers, will be included as a built-in with Amazon’s device and will ship with it at launch.

“Launching with a $199 price point makes Amazon’s Kindle Fire a great device for making comics accessible to the masses and the vibrant 7” screen is perfect for our Guided View™ reading system,” said CTO and co-Founder John Roberts.

This is good news for anyone who was worried the Nook Tablet might have the advantage over the Kindle Fire in the comic book reader competition. ComiXology has so many great comics it doesn’t seem like those who ordered a Kindle Fire, and wanted to use it to read comics, have any reason to be jealous of their Nook-using pals.

The Amazon Kindle Fire is available for pre-order now. Although, if you want one any time soon you better hurry as demand has been pretty big.

Check out the full press release from ComiXology after the break.

It was bound to happen sooner or later as the comics industry needs to do something to shake things up. What is this something? Read on.

This week DC Comics announced it will release Justice League Issue 1 digitally on Aug. 31. This will kick-start an initiative in which the company will renumber its entire line of superhero comics from No. 1 and launch them day-and-date with their print counterparts. Yep, you read that right.

Justice League marks the first collaboration between DC Entertainment chief creative officer Geoff Johns and DC Comics co-publisher Jim Lee and will reportedly tell an origin story for the superhero team. DC Comics says it is the first major American comics publisher to release all of its superhero titles digitally the same day as the print version.

So what does that mean for you? Well, it means you will be able to either buy your comics the old fashioned way in print or, if you’re so inclined, download them to your iPad or other digital reader and enjoy them. This marks a significant change from the previous method where you usually had to wait quite some time for a digital version of a comic to be available. Now, you won’t.

It remains to be seen if this will prove a successful move by DC and if it is, if other comic publishers will follow. If they do, it would seem that at least one group is going to suffer the most if this shift continues: comic book store owners. We’ll be following this as it develops.