Welcome to the good news episode!  Scott and Steve have a lot of great stuff to talk about and end up having a slightly extended news section followed by discussing the hidden gem, Carnivale.  Running for two season, created by Daniel Knauf, executive produced by Ronald D. Moore (in between Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica) and with an all star cast including Nick Stahl and Clancy Brown.  Carnivale is set in Southern California during the 1930s dust-bowl era and follows the lives of a carnival troup as well as a methodist minister as they all head towards a supernatural battle between good and evil.

Next episode will be the book club and we'll be discussing 'Dune' by Frank Herbert so be sure to get your feedback in.  The next book club book will be announced on the show and is being put to the vote.  We will be reading one of the Clarke Award shortlist, so be sure to register your opinion at:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HRBYY8W

This episode is focused on the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction. Scott and Steve speak to Tom Hunter, the Award Director, about how he got into reading SF and how he became involved with the award itself. They also talk about the perception of the genre and the evolution of the award over the years. 2011 marks the 25th anniversary of the Clarke award and the discussion looks ahead to the next 25 years and challenges in the future.

Our current book club selection is Dune by Frank Herbert and the deadline to send in any comments and feedback is April 11th. For the next book club selection we are going to read one of the 6 shortlisted books for this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award. The decision about which book we choose is completely down to you, the listeners. At the bottom of the show notes, and also on the forum, website and facebook page there is a link to a survey. The shortlisted book with the most votes will be our next book club selection. So select the one you want to read and not which one you think will win, although they could be one and the same. Towards the end of the episode Scott and Steve read a brief synopsis about each of the shortlisted books but there are lots of reviews online as all of the books were published in 2010.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HRBYY8W

After the usual news and reviews Scott and Steve are joined by John Jeebus and Mervyn McKoy two creators who are in the process of getting their first comics published.  They've adopted the unusual route of using kickstarter.com - a crowd based funding site where people publish ideas for projects and solicit donations.  We discuss their route into comics, their experiences with getting their comics off the ground and what the future holds as they build up to their first publications.

In this episode we have a mixed news and review section covering comics, web series, the oscars and novels. There's also been some sad news in the comics industry and a tragic loss which we discuss. For our main feature we interview Cy Dethan, a comic book writer whose current book, Slaughterman's Creed, was just released on the Sony PSP by Markosia. We discuss his previous work and what has changed since we last spoke, what he is working on at present and his creative process.

Don't forget our current book club selection is Dune by Frank Herbert, which we will be talking about in roughly six weeks time. So send us your thoughts, comments and feedback on the book via email, the forums, Twitter, Facebook, you can even send in an audio file of yourself if you want.