Sadly Evel Knievel has passed away, but his legend lives! No fanboy’s childhood in the 70s would be complete without wishing for an Evel Knievel toy for Christmas! Looking back at it I can see why kids liked Evel, back in the 70s it was the era of the sensitive man from Woody Allen to Alan Alda to the lovable loser Ziggy. But it’s hard for a boy to see these complex characters as role models, while Mr. Knievel’s simple philosophy was “I’m not sure if I’ve run out of bones on my body to break”. Everyone looked up to Evel, even Fonzie from Happy Days – but when Fonzie tried to imitate Evel he only managed to jump the shark. Here’s a commercial from that now gone golden age:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 30, 2007 in Comic Books
Alex Ross brings his characters to life, not just by using a photo realistic technique but through the emotions that he brings into his illustrations. On this cover for Justice Society of America Vol. 2: Thy Kingdom Come Part 1 you get a real sense of isolation and age in the man of steel. My hat is off to DC Comics for this cover, in another era this amazing artwork would have been rejected for not being upbeat enough or action packed, and the result is that we get something much more powerful and compelling.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 30, 2007 in Animation
I watched the above video clip and raced to the Anime Network website, and man was I let down! I’m what you call a pre-sold audience, I’m an anime fanboy and I love watching stuff on my computer. Well I launched their player, it started up a bit slow but so far so good. Next it played a commercial, now I’m willing to watch a bit of advertising before the show (that’s what pays the bills!) but the commercial skipped and jumped and timed out. It was for a horror film too, so I wanted to watch it but I couldn’t make out what was going on.
Next the Anime I wanted to watch started to load up – and load up – and load up – and then it crashed my browser! Nope it’s not me, I watch video all the time on YouTube, DailyMotion, and even CNN (which plays well enough that I don’t mind the commercials) and I have a broadband connection too, but the Anime Network Online Player just doesn’t like my computer. I hope Anime Network can fix the tech side of things because the service looks interesting (and would be worth a second try).
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 29, 2007 in Comic Books
It’s a trick of the trade, you see it all the time: You have an amazing cover, but then you get the olde “bait and switch” and the interior of your comic book looks like it was the intern’s lucky day. Well what I love about Archibald Saves Christmas #1 is that the interior panels look even better than the cover art! I also love the originality of both the concept and look of this book, the plot reminds me a bit of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the artwork looks like RAW Magazine from the 80s kitbashed with a black-and-white Max Fleischer cartoon. It’s nice to see Image Comics doing something innovative, and the illustrator Grant Bond and the writer Dwight L. MacPherson are worth adding to your check list.
I came across the above can of grape flavored Bingo Bongo soda that I found in an Osaka vending machine. I can’t help but to notice more than a little resemblance to Oingo Boingo’s Danny Elfman. Well as per Bingo Bongo there’s not much more to it than seeming to be a pretty odd potential infringement case…
Nick Kent is a New York based artist who works with electronic media and is an occasional pop culture pundit.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 28, 2007 in Comic Books
Back in the day (the era of Robotech) if I wanted to buy a manga I had to travel all the way into Manhattan from the burbs and hunt down one of the two or three Japanese bookstores in town. But I’m so happy to see that American publishers like DC Comics are not only bringing in manga, but shojo manga at that! Shown above is the cover for Go Go Heaven!! Vol. 5 by Keiko Yamada. I love the soft water color quality of the illustration, it’s a nice change of pace from the typical superhero stuff.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 28, 2007 in Star Trek
Shown above is the Talking Translator, which in a crude way reminds me a bit of the Universal Translator from Star Trek. Although this primitive 21st Century version will only cost you about $70. Speaks and displays 12 languages, including French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Swedish, Portuguese, Dutch and Turkish but not Klingon. Silly humans!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 28, 2007 in Science
The good news is that this sounds like a serious proposal to go to Mars, the bad news is this is planned for the year 2031. You know I think the genius of JFK wasn’t so much announcing a moon mission, but the idea of doing it within the same decade:
“A 400,000kg (880,000lb) Marship would be assembled in orbit using the Ares V cargo launch vehicle for a 900-day mission to the red planet, according to details that have emerged about NASA’s new Constellation programme’s manned Mars mission. The spacecraft would take a “minimal crew” to Mars in six to seven months, with the crew spending up to 550 days on the surface, according to the programme’s design reference architecture 5.0, currently in development.
Each of the three to four Ares V rockets used to launch the Marship elements into low Earth orbit would need a 125,000kg payload capacity and use a 10m (32.7ft) fairing. Crews would be sent every 26 months, will need up to 50,000kg of cargo, use an aerodynamic and powered descent method and the 40min communications delay between Earth and Mars would require autonomy or at least asynchronous operation with mission control.”
“This project started with an idea to create a set of collectible dolls to capture the personalities, sites, and sounds of a rapidly gentrifying brooklyn neighborhood complete with the less-than-reliable mass transportation that we must all deal with to get us to and from our homes, works, and playscapes. The Love Train itself is of course a reflection of the vehicle of choice in our neighborhood. The experiences and characters seen within have all been observed during the frequent ventures into the dark underbelly of this city.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 27, 2007 in Animation
From 1980 comes this public service announcement showing that Spiderman would prefer an orange over a cash reward. Although I wonder how he would eat it with that mask?
I saw this giant decoration in a Sendai shopping arcade. Presumably having no Thanksgiving holiday as a start date means a couple extra weeks of Xmas decorations. Now to me this looks a lot like Buddha dressed up as Santa Claus but I don’t know.
A friend who happened to be carrying her own Chinese knockoff toy with half the features of Mickey Mouse and Astro Boy in combined into one hybrid character disagreed as to the Buddha I.D. but couldn’t explain what was going on here. So at the very least, he’s a very meditative Asian department store Santa.
Nick Kent is a New York based artist who works with electronic media and is an occasional pop culture pundit.
“Ms. Simone was talking about her rise from hairstylist to online commentator to professional comic-book author. This month she added a new title. With the publication of issue No. 14 of Wonder Woman, which hit stores two weeks ago, Ms. Simone has become the regular writer of that amazing Amazon’s super-adventures, published by DC Comics. She is the first woman to serve as “ongoing writer” (to use the industry’s term) in the character’s 66-year history. It’s an assignment that will only increase Ms. Simone’s profile. It’s also the latest move by DC Comics to push Wonder Woman, the company’s third-ranked hero, behind Superman and Batman, into the spotlight.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 26, 2007 in Science
Shown above is a photo that shows a part of the Moon’s surface from a camera aboard China’s Chang’e One lunar orbiter. I hope the Chinese keep it up because the best thing for NASA would be another space race:
“China’s leaders celebrated the first images sent from the country’s first lunar satellite on Monday, saying they showed their nation had thrust itself into the front ranks of global technological powers. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, visiting the scientists who have guided the lunar probe Chang’e 1 into space and around the moon, proclaimed the mission a success after it began to send back images, according to Xinhua news agency.
“The full success of our country’s first lunar exploration mission is helping to turn the Chinese nation’s 1,000-year old dream of reaching the moon a reality,” Wen said. The picture on the Xinhua Web site showed a patch of grey moon surface splotched with craters.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 26, 2007 in Comic Books
It will set you back about $100, but this variant cover by Marko Djurdjevic for Howard The Duck Omnibus looks great to me (I love the use of color and the painting technique). The Omnibus sports over 800 oversized pages featuring the complete comic adventures of Howard.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 25, 2007 in Comic Books
But Noooooo! It’s my cover!!! This superhero cat-fight reminds me a bit of the relationship between Betty and Veronica ala Archie Comics rather than what you’d think you’d see on a typical DC Comics cover featuring Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl. This cover was illustrated by Sanford Greene and Nathan Massengill and for me the energy found in the composition more than makes up the coloring which feels a bit flat and faint to my eye. My favorite little touch is the snarl on Wonder Woman’s face, simply priceless…
“Giant-sized telescopes such as Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra offer unprecedented views of the cosmos, but astronomers are eager to put more powerful tools into orbit around the Earth. Without the extra help, said Rachel Somerville, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, it may be impossible to resolve some of the universe’s greatest mysteries.
“We need better observations to make our models better,” Somerville said, noting her search to understand galaxy formation and mysterious quasars. “… If you just put theorists in a room for the next 15 years with the biggest supercomputer you can find, it will never happen”.”
