In this episode we start with some news and reviews. First we discuss the forthcoming Bristol International Comic and Small Press Expo. Both Scott and Steve will be attending and each will be involved with a talk on both days. We also look at new TV shows, the good, the bad and the indifferent. Scott has some more free online content to share and Steve talks about some free online comics. Regarding our SFF book club, we have now secured an interview date with China Mieville, so send in your questions about The City & The City before 14th May to be on the safe side.

http://www.fantasyevents.org/bristolcomicexpo/

http://www.newsarama.com/topic/spinner-rack-full-comic-books-online

http://forbiddenplanet.com/events/

For our main feature there is a return of an old favourite, Challenge Scott. This episode Steve pitches two comics and a novel to Scott in the hope of attracting him to at least one of them which they will then discuss in a future episode.

As previously mentioned our next book club selection is The City and The City by China Mieville. We are very pleased to announce that we have now sorted out the details and China Mieville has very kindly agreed to come onto the podcast to talk about the book and answer some questions.

So get reading and send in your questions or join in the discussion on the forums and post your questions there.

To be safe get your questions in before week commencing 17th May

Starting with the usual news and reviews we discuss the short movie 'The Gift' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOZkLIwbRrw), Predators, possible movie versions of Y: The Last Man, the future (or otherwise) of FlashForward and V and an award for Felicia Day.

Then we go on to our main feature where we discuss nominations for the Eisner Awards - very much the Oscars of comics.  There's a lot to talk about and we certainly haven't been able to read everything, but we discuss some highlights amongst those we have read, and challenge ourselves to read some of the more interesting offerings that the nominations have highlighted.

In this episode Steve is back from a short break in Prague and before they get into some News and Reviews, Scott and Steve discuss comics shops in Europe and a possible scenario for the future of comic shops everywhere. After that they discuss some TV news, Scott introduced some free online comics and video content, and Steve talks about some recent comic announcements from the WonderCon.

The main feature of this episode is our current book club selection. This episode Scott and Steve discuss The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov, with comments and feedback from listeners. The book is only about 200 pages long and yet it generated a lot of discussion on the forum. As well as talking about the murder mystery aspect of the story, we look at the themes and many ideas, technological, social and behavioural, introduced by Asimov.

We also announce our next book club selection which has recently been nominated for an Arthur C. Clarke award and it won best novel from the British Science Fiction Association which was announced last weekend in London at the Eastercon convention. The novel is The City and the City by China Mieville which was first published in 2009. We will be discussing this book in six weeks time in episode 80, but you can send us your comments and feedback about the book at any time. Contact details are at the end of the show and are available on the website www.comicbookoutsiders.com