Our fourth episode features news, reviews and an interview.  Check it out and make sure to rate the episode here and comment on it here!  In addition, check out the video player at the bottom of the page featuring another episode of the old TV series.  Mike Fichera, who is appearing in this episode of the podcast, appears in the TV episode dealing with the effectiveness of special effects.

Table of Contents

1. Each of the gang brings something cool and new to the table.
2. Andrea reviews reviews What It Is by Lynda Barry, Dilbert 2.0: 20 Years of Dilbert by Scott Adams, and Nerds on Parade by Dave Kellett. (21:50)
3. Rhymephile fills us in on the releases of X-Files: I Want to Believe and The Dark Knight.  (25:30)
4. David looks at some great gift ideas, including the Grant Morrison All-Star Superman collections, for the comic collector we all know and find odd. (35:00)
5. Keith reviews Primeval and Sanctuary, plus fills us in on Sons of Anarchy. (41:50)
6. Orenthal speaks with Mike Fichera about Marvel Comics' newsest release, Amazing Spider-Man 08 Yearbook, a recap of the dramatic events in the life of Peter Parker in the past year. (49:25)
7. Orenthal opines about this year's Philcon in his Pop Fiendish segment. (1:06:25)

 Mike Fichera - Inspired by the death of great-grandfather Cacciatore ("the Hunter"), killed by a spider bite on a Sicilian farm, Mike began a lifelong interest in the wall-crawler. Like Peter Parker, he grew up in Queens, NY playing with microscopes, computers, and science kits, hoping to create web-fluid and gain spider powers. His sister provided his first comic: Spidey Super Stories #12. Faithfully scrapbooking the newspaper dailies for many years, he joined Spiderfan.org when the web was young becoming a staff writer. After helping write and organize the Spider-Man Encyclopedia, Mike's first official writing credits began with the Spider-Man 2005 Handbook and subsequently in the 2006 A-to-Z series.

Since then, Mike has contributed to the A-to-Z 2007 Updates, the "Legacy" Handbooks for the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, various spotlight Handbooks for Iron Man, Hulk, and X-Men, as well as the Marvel Atlas. In 2007, he led theSpider-Man: Back in Black Handbook, and this year, he's led the 2008 Spider-Man Yearbook coming out on his birthday, Christmas Eve, December 24. The Yearbook is half "Saga" - which will be a recap of 2008's Spider-stories, and half Handbook focusing on the new characters to debut this year, as well as some old ones who popped up (including the Squid and Scorpia). He's currently working on the A-to-Z Permiere Hardcovers, which repackage all the various Handbooks from 2004 to the present, with updates and polishing of the graphics.

In addition to image refurbishment, his artwork has been featured in a few Handbooks including the Spider-Slayers, and a biology text-book cross-section of Spider-Man's arm back when he had organic webbing.

His expertise has been featured on AM Atlanta with Tom Hughes and the syndicated Mitch Albom Show.

With this episode, we're splitting up the content and running the show twice a month.  Our first episode up is a Roundtable episode.  Keith rejoins the fold as he and John discuss the longest running science fiction television series with James Moran and Louis Trapani.

 James Moran was born in York in 1972. He studied journalism in Dublin before moving to London, and wrote short stories while working in the computer industry. He won the UK Sci-Fi Channel short film competition, and had his script Cheap Rate Gravity, made into a short film. His first feature-length screenplay was Severance, a horror movie starring Laura Harris and Danny Dyer. James has written episodes for Doctor Who, Torchwood, Primeval, Spooks, Spooks: Code 9, Law & Order: UK, and Crusoe, and his typing fingers are currently resting in a bucket of ice. He loves movies, TV, reading, photography, and documentaries about things that explode.

 New media producer, Louis Trapani founded the Gallifreyan Embassy, aDoctor Who and British science-fiction fan organization in June 1985 after seeing that there were no localDoctor Who fan groups in the south-eastern New York area. The Gallifreyan Embassy of Long Island quickly established itself in the '80s volunteering on PBS pledge drives, appearing at conventions, interviewing variousDoctor Who related cast and production members of the television series. Since that time, it now has a world-wide membership and audience. Louis has appreciated science fiction all his life and this interest goes beyondDoctor Who. He currently hosts and produces Doctor Who: Podshock, a weekly international podcast covering all of Doctor Who, The Sonic Newsdriver, a podcast covering current Doctor Who news, The Hitchhiker's Guide to British Sci-Fi, as the name implies a show which covers all British science fiction media, as well as other shows set to launch that cover broader science fiction and fantasy. Louis has majored in the media arts department at the School of Visual Arts and has worked in the creative media realm in various ways. He has spearheaded Art Trap Productions for the last 15 years in that field. He is an artist, activist, tech addict, Mac geek, producer and director.