That’s right, May is nearly here and on May 2nd it will be Free Comic Day again.

Free Comic Day is held the first Saturday in May and as the name implies free comics are given out a local comic and specialty shops.  A list of the comics available this year can fe found at http://www.freecomicbookday.com/comics.asp. The comics given away at Free Comic Day are specially printed for Free Comic Day and are a great way to get both kids and adults interested in comics and reading. Support your local comic shop by stopping by and seeing what they have to offer.

As I’ve been catching up on some of the podcast I listen to and I thought I would share:

Super Pocasto Magnifico: When it comes to comic books, movies and television Super Podcasto Magnifico offers a little of everything.  Juan, Squirrel, and Grady talk about all things pop-culture. Super Podcasto post a good amount of stuff on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/superpodcasto

The Sword and Laser: A Science Fiction and Fantasy book club and podcast with forums setup at GoodReads.com. The Sword and Laser offer great recommendations on books and interesting interviews with authors.  If you enjoy the podcast get involved with the community at GoodReads.com

Sarcastic Gamer: Sarcastic Gamer is a gaming community that has several podcast.  My two favorites are The Blue Show and The Brown Show. The Blue Show is all about PlayStation stuff and The Brown Show, while the topics vary from show to show, is just fun to listen to.

SHOW TITLE HERE: SHOW TITLE HERE is a new podcast that is kind of hard to explain except for two guys sharing thoughts about current topics.

I do not usually enjoy fantasy books, but after hearing about Joe Abercrombie on the Sword and Laser podcast I decided to give his books a try. The First Law trilogy is a series three books that take place in an epic fantasy world that somewhat resembles medieval/renaissance Europe.  Within this world are three major nations: The Union, a large kingdom that is very similar to Europe; The Gurkish Empire that is south of the Union and resemble the large Middle-Eastern empires of antiquity; and the Northmen, an alliance of several tribes that lay to the north of the Union led by the warrior king Bethod. The books in the The First Law trilogy are The Blade Itself, Before They Are hanged, and The Last Argument of Kings.  Within these books readers follow characters that are flawed through adventures that are somewhat violent and unlike some other fantasy novels do not end happily for everyone.  My favorite character is Sand dan Glokta, a torturer in the Union’s Inquisition that just happens to be crippled from being tortured as a prisoner of war himself.  Glotka has internal dialogs that are entertaining and even though Glotka does some very nasty things to people, his character leaves you wanting more and more. Logen Ninefingers is another character that a good amount of the story deals with that.  Logen essentially is a barbarian, but not as you would expect. Logen has the name Ninefingers because during a battle he lost one of his middle fingers. There are twos sides to Logan, usually he is a wise and cunning warrior with a reputation throughout the north, while during times of certain death he sort of blacks out and become another person.  This other person is better know as the Bloody Nine.  The Bloody Nine tends to go berserk and kill everyone around him and while Logen understands there are two sides to his personality, others do not and thinks they are both the same person all the time. Abercrombie takes a different approach to describing things within his books that seems to make his characters more real.  Things such as smells and the need to urinate at strange times are just a couple of these these descriptions. I am about a third of the way through The Last Argument of Kings and I am already disappointment that there is not a fourth book with these characters I have been enjoying so much.  There are two additional books that take place in the same world as these books, Best Served Cold and The Heroes, but take place several years after the events in The First Law series.