On this episode of Word Balloon, John’s got four great conversations about books that are on the racks now and coming up in the weeks ahead.

Brad Meltzer joins us to discuss his latest novel The Fifth Assassin which is out in bookstores this week. It explores the four U.S. presidential assassinations from Lincoln to JFK and postulates a serial killer connection to them all. Meltzer also has an update on his History Channel show Decoded and talks about an upcoming children’s book project he has collaborating with cartoonist Chris Elliopolis.

We go behind the scenes with another Marvel NOW! Press Conference as writer Brian Michael Bendis and editor Steve Wacker discuss the new Guardians of The Galaxy comic which debuts in February, drawn by Steve McNiven.

Artist David Marquez talks about jumping from Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man to All-New X-Men starting with this week’s issue #6. We also discuss his new Archaia graphic novel with writer RJ Ryan called The Joyners In 3-D.

Finally, writer Jay Faerber is here to talk about his new digital comic for MonkeyBrain Comics that debuts next week: Denali with artist John Broglia. Denali features a post-apocalyptic setting with a female warrior and her minions on a mission and is a one-shot pilot concept that could become an on-going series. Faerber also talks about the upcoming trade paperback collection for his Image mini-series Point of Impact, and we talk about the current television season.