The Lush Look of Immortal Iron

Immortal Iron Fist is comic book focused on sword wielding ladies, but what impresses with this cover art (for Immortal Iron Fist #7 which is in stores this week) is how it blends the colors and style of an Alphonse Mucha with an inner samurai spirit. The credit for this lush cover goes to Travel Foreman.

Sweeney Todd Movie Poster

Shown above is a detail from a poster for the upcoming Tim Burton film Sweeney Todd. I have no idea how Burton is going to pull off a musical, or even if it will be a musical – but I have to say this poster looks great.

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Snyder on Star Trek

Sadly long time talk show host Tom Snyder passed away today. His interviews were always enjoyable because they gave you the feeling that out were hanging out with the stars and just having a good conversation. Here are some classic clips of him in the 70s interviewing the cast members of the original Star Trek series:

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Heroes for Hire: Chaos vs. Cheesecake!

I love the combined sense of chaos and cheesecake in the above cover for Heroes for Hire #12 by talented Canadian illustrator Takeshi Miyazawa.

Paripo Umachoko

The typography on this package design is A+ in my book! Having the eyeballs on the letters P reminds me of something that designer Paula Scher might create. I was also impressed that the treats inside tasted rather good, the outside had a crisp feeling to it which was a nice contrast to the sweet chocolate goo inside. How often do you get to have a good typography and chocolate experience for $1.89?

Liquid TV: Autoguard 2000

The above segment was directed by my long time friend Brian Cirulnick back in 1991. Autoguard 2000 was featured in the 6th episode of Liquid Television. The nostalgia I get watching this isn’t so much for the days of my youth when people were cel painting, but rather for an era when MTV showed animation and gasp * music videos * all the time.

Some interesting trivia on Autoguard, some of the animation was done with computer animation using the Amiga and the NewTek Video Toaster and many of the title designs and backgrounds were created with in the first edition of Photoshop. There were four other episodes that were shot of Autoguard, but only Bride of Autoguard made it to Liquid Television.

I Spy Fun House Preview

Not to toot my own horn, but my design firm just finished up work on a sneak preview site for I Spy Fun House, an upcoming game for the Nintendo DS platform. The game looks pretty neat as it’s packed with levels of cool brain teaser puzzles.

Italian Animation: Arturo e Kiwi

Above is an episode of Arturo e Kiwi which translates into English as ‘the prescriptions of Arthur and Kiwi’. The series is directed by Andrea Zingoni and went on the air in 2006. Arturo (Arthur) is a chef who’s a dog and Kiwi is his assitant from New Zealand (who has a passion for wine). Each episode feature a specific dish, and so far they’ve covered everything from gnocchi to tiramisu.

It’s Official: Spock is Back

They also seem to be hinting that Shatner might still have a shot at it too:

Leonard Nimoy to have role in new ‘Star Trek’ film

“The 76-year-old actor will don his famous pointy ears again to play the role in an upcoming “Star Trek” film due out Christmas 2008. “This is really going to be a great movie. And I don’t say things like that lightly,” Nimoy told a gathering of 6,500 fans Thursday at Comic-Con, the nation’s largest pop-culture convention. He greeted the crowd with a Vulcan salute. Nimoy was joined by the newly named young Spock, “Heroes” star Zachary Quinto, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Nimoy.

While the character of Captain Kirk has yet to be cast, Abrams said that William Shatner, who played the role in the original TV series, would likely also have a part in the film. “It has to be worthy, of him and of you,” Abrams told fans, adding that production is slated to begin in November.”

Five Versions of Blade Runner?

I have to admit that I’m sort of getting burned out on Blade Runner in my old age, but this DVD set does look like it would make even the most cynical fanboy quite happy around Christmas time:

‘Blade Runner’ gets final cut
DVD set will include five versions of Scott pic

“For a film that defined what it meant to be a “director’s cut” for the masses, “Blade Runner” has waited 25 years to receive a proper one. On Dec. 18, Warner will release “Blade Runner: The Final Cut,” the definitive version of director Ridley Scott’s fusion of film noir and science fiction, which has become a cult classic since its initial failure at the box office in 1982. One of Warner’s most popular titles today, the film will be available in both HD formats and in three different DVD editions, with the final cut also receiving select theatrical playdates in New York, Los Angeles and the Venice Film Fest.”

Two Word Reviews: Get Smart

And just in case you don’t belive me:

Was that suppose to be funny?

Hollywood Discovers the Fanboy Factor

This is an interesting article from USA Today on how Hollywood is now trying to figure out what fanboys want to watch:

Whoever Fanboy is, he has plenty of power

“Who is Fanboy? And more importantly, what does he want with Hollywood? Studio executives know he’s out there, somewhere. Stealing scripts. Pirating films. Firing off reviews before a movie opens. Befriending Snakes on a Plane on the Internet, only to crush it in theaters. Quietly marshaling forces behind 300 to make it the surprise hit of the year.

For all the alter egos and caped conventioneers who will populate this weekend’s Comic-Con gathering in San Diego, only Fanboy’s true identity gnaws at the movie honchos who annually prowl the nation’s largest comic-book convention looking for the next pop hit.

Each year, the suits follow his trail, trying to determine what Fanboy will champion, defend or vanquish. Usually, they come back empty-handed. “I know he’s real, because he makes my job harder,” says Marvin Levy of DreamWorks, which had the geek smash Transformers. “But trying to figure out who he is and what he wants to see will keep you up at night”.”

…I”ll give a hint to the powers that be: Just make some damn good films for a change!

Muppets Move to Atlanta

It’s funny before this I never heard of the Center for Puppetry Arts, but it sounds like they’ll be worth a visit for fanboys traveling to Atlanta:

Retired Muppets Will Move to Atlanta

“Time’s fun when you’re having flies, Kermit the Frog once said. And how time has flown: Kermit, or more precisely one of the many puppets that have played Kermit, will be retired to Atlanta on Wednesday, part of a major gift being made by the Jim Henson Foundation.

The flippered phenom, who began life as a scrap of fabric cut from a green coat discarded by Jim Henson’s mother, will be presented to the Center for Puppetry Arts here. He is a symbol of a large gift of Mr. Henson’s work that will be donated to the center and exhibited in a planned Jim Henson Wing, said Cheryl Henson, president of the Jim Henson Foundation.

Ms. Henson, Jim Henson’s second-oldest daughter, and Jane Henson, her mother and Mr. Henson’s first performing partner, expected to be in Atlanta on Wednesday to announce the gift: 500 to 700 puppets, including some of the first Muppets built; props; scenic elements; posters; sketches; and drawings that Mr. Henson created for shows like “The Muppet Show,” “Sesame Street,” “Fraggle Rock” and “Sam and Friends” (where the Muppets first appeared). Cheryl Henson has also pledged $1 million of her own money to the center.”

Happy Birthday Mr. Kubrick

78 years ago today Stanley Kubrick was born in New York City, and cinema would never be the same again. It sounds selfish but I remember that upon hearing that he had passed away in 1999 that my first emotion was of being cheated out of looking ahead to his next film. Kubrick was always cloaked in secrecy and waiting ten years between film always seemed to add to the anticipation of what was to come.

Here are a few of my recent random thoughts on Kubrick:

Barry Lyndon: I feel like this film has been over looked, yet it has so much to say about life. I’ll always channel surf and come across the Shining and Full Metal Jacket, but never Barry Lyndon. The blame on this one may go to fanboys who prefer science fiction and horror flicks, but as someone who loves cinema I have to say that this film is true gem.

Eyes Wide Shut: Now that I look back on it, the only problem with this film was Cruise and Kidman. Cruise did a great job acting in Magnolia and Kidman was A+ in the Hours, but their lack of chemistry seemed to ruin Eyes Wide Shut for me. Then again I also feel that Leonardo DiCaprio has ruined every recent Martin Scorsese fim.

A.I.: Artificial Intelligence: Looking back on it I think Steven Spielberg did a great job directing this film, I think his only sin was releasing it so soon after Kubrick passed away. I wonder of this film came out today if it wouldn’t get a bit more respect? Even though it looks like a Spielberg it does feel very produced by Kubrick. I think as time goes by this film will get more respect.

Hello Kitty Robot

Danger Will Robinson! This Hello Kitty Robot looks like it might chant “Cute! Crush! Destroy!” It’s also going to cost Kitty fanboys and fangurls a pretty penny too, each robot is $6,299.99 (but they are available for presale right away):

Hello Kitty Robot

“Hello Kitty had release this fabulous Hello Kitty Robo. This robot can communicate with your using the Hello Kitty’s voice. It can chat with you in 3 different situations: 1 As a close friend; 2 With the family; 3 Guessing game. This is a perfect robot for whoever does not have a lot time to stay with child. Hello Kitty Robo can help you to stay with your child to keep them from being lonely.”

Found via GeekAlerts.

The Best Sneaker Commercial I’ve Ever Seen…

The above commercial was created for Nike by Takeo Hatai:

“Takeo Hatai has been in animation and computer graphics for more than 16 years. He directs his first TV commercial in 1997 for MTV which won several awards and nominations such as Siggraph or the Japanese Computer Grand Prix and decide to go abroad in 1999 in the search of “something else”. Having directed 3 commercial films for Bouygue Telecom by that time, he goes to Paris where he decides to reside. Now he directs commercial films for names such as Honda, Nike and Shiseido from “Le Pivot” his 3D post-production studio based in Paris and produces digital art in his spare time.”

If you can read Japanese his blog is here.

Pug Vader

Just admit it, you think this is cute!

Found on Cute with Chris via Neatorama.

Goon Cover is a Class Act

What I love about this cover for Goon #19 by Eric Powell is that it combines a very cartoony feel with a painterly technique that you might see in a classic pulp fuction magazine cover. It’s so rare to see a cover with so much humor that also features a great lighting technique at the same time. Although I have to admit that when I viewed the final cover Dark Horse had ruined it by putting a purple banner over the top of the artwork and used second rate typography to boot. But anyway the description of the book sounds interesting as well:

“The long winter of our discontent is over-feast your eyes on the return of Eric Powell and The Goon! That’s right, Powell has finally escaped Albatross’s basement and returned to the sweet, nurturing bosom of funny books. The regular ongoing series picks up right where it left off as the Zombie Priest’s sanity cracks up. His endless swarms of beastly little minions attack the Goon and Franky en masse, and there’s no telling how long the brand-new Norton’s Pub will last this time around!”

Stop Motion Vintage Video Games Tribute

The above tribute to vintage video games was created by PES:

The wonderful world of PES

“The concept of Game Over was to take something electronic and remake it by hand, and essentially do it in this style that I’ve been developing where familiar objects that look like other things are swapped in. This is a style that obviously I’ve been working on for a few years now, and I used it in KaBoom!, but this is basically a re-creation of something that’s computerized or electronic, done by hand. And also, a lot of the lore surrounding old video games is virtually unknown to the general public. For instance very few people know that the original Pac-Man character was modeled after a pizza. And this is confirmed by the creator of Pac-Man in a couple interviews that are online. And I thought that that was a beautiful idea – but let’s put that together in the most direct form. Let’s actually animate a pizza as a Pac-Man with a missing slice. That’s just an example of some interesting background thing that I thought was cool to bring to life.”

Tastes Like Chocolate Tree Stumps

Shown above is the playful package design for Bourbon Kikori No Kirikabu which are cookies with a chocolate coating shaped to look like tree stumps. To be honest the cookies didn’t taste that great, but I love the look of all of the cute little illustrated creatures that adorn the box art:

Dynamo

I found the above short animated film on DailyMotion, it took my a bit of Googling but I found some information on it:

“Dynamo is the graduation film by Fabrice Le Nezet, Mathieu Goutte and Benjamin Mousquet three Supinfocom students. It’a a 3D animated short made up to look like stop-motion. “Dynamo tells the story of two characters who live on a planet and work together to keep it rotating. The mechanics of the planet are dependent on its two inhabitants”, but one day it just stops.”

If Trekkies Ruled the World

There’s a great Photoshop competition at Worth 1000 with the theme If Trekkies Ruled the World. Shown abobe is ‘Mr. President’ by CocaCasta.

Cat’s Eye at a Glance

Above: The manga from Cat’s Eye.

So after a week of hard work I got to catch up with my DVR and watch Cat’s Eye which is playing on ImaginAsianTV (thank you Time Warner Cable). The last time I saw this classic anime show was back in the 80s. Back in the day the only way to see this stuff in the United States was to watch it on VHS tapes. The problem for most early anime fanboys like myself was that you were watching a copy of a copy of a copy, so my first shock in looking at Cat’s Eye was the lack of static and high audio quality. It was also a real pleasure to hear the audio without any tape hum, and back in the day there were no subtitles so it was a real treat not to guess what was being said by each character.

In fact the nice thing that ImaginAsianTV is doing is that unlike Adult Swim they’re showing the episodes in Japanese so you get a better flavor for the show, it’s like having a high quality version of a YouTube experience. Although I admit that it’s odd to shift gears when they go to a commercial which is always in English.

On the whole I have to say that Cat’s Eye has held up pretty well for an anime tv show that was made over twenty years ago. Looking back at it I can see why I became an anime fan in the first place, the quality of the animation looks better than pretty much any animation made in the United States at that time for television or even theaters. The other thing the show reminded me was that in an era before the Simpsons, Cat’s Eye was aimed at an older audience which American animation was avoiding in the 80s.

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Barack Obama: Harry Potter Fanboy?!

The more I get to know about Barack Obama the more I like him:

Barack Obama Is Potter Fan

“Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama is the “Harry Potter parent” who has read all six books about the boy wizard’s adventures with his older daughter, his wife said Wednesday. In an interview with The Associated Press, Michelle Obama said her husband has read the books aloud with 9-year-old Malia and saw the latest movie, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” with her last Sunday.

Both are awaiting the release of J.K. Rowling’s seventh and final book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” this weekend, but finding time to read won’t be easy, she said. “The challenge will be scheduling Harry Potter reading time in between Iowa and New Hampshire and fundraising, but I guarantee you they will figure out a way to do it,” Michelle Obama told the AP. “Harry Potter is huge in our house”.”