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When I saw the above X-Men poster I was blown away! The credit for the illustration goes to Eric Tan who works for Disney in California, his inspiration came from old German film posters.

Found via Neatorama.

There's something so creepy about about the Blythe dolls, it's like they're always watching you...

Which science fiction author are you? According to this fanboy friendly quiz by Paul Kienitz I'm none other than Isaac Asimov:

"One of the most prolific writers in history, on any imaginable subject. Cared little for art but created lasting and memorable tales."

This made me rather happy on a silly level as I grew up reading the Foundation series and chaired a small science fiction convention on Long Island in the 80s that had Asimov as a guest of honor. Although credit for getting him as a guest has to go to Elyse Rosenstein who was very involved in organizing the Star Trek conventions in the 70s and the Lunacon science fiction conventions in the 80s.

Quiz found via Web Metrics Guru.

I'm starting to hear some good things about Cloverfield, but the Statue of Liberty treatment reminds me a bit too much of the end of Planet of the Apes and we've already seen the blowing up New York City thing in Independence Day. And not to make it personal but in my mind JJ Abrams is still not on my "friends list" until he patches things up with William Shatner over the next Star Trek film. Although that won't stop me from standing in line to see the movie on opening day of course...

P.S. Although I have to say that Cloverfield's marketing campaign is very blogger friendly which makes me happy!

I recently enjoyed myself spending much time exploring the website GRIN: Great Images in NASA, which has an amazing collection of over a thousand images which any fanboy would love! Below are some of my finds, make sure to click on each photo to see a larger image:

Saturn V, S-II Stage is Lifted into Test Stand: The S-II stage of the Saturn V rocket is hoisted onto the A-2 test stand in 1967 at the Mississippi Test Facility, now the Stennis Space Center. This was the second stage of the 364-foot tall Moon rocket. The second stage was powered by five J-2 engines.

Every day Ian Stone starts his life, at some point during that day Ian dies a terrible death only to find himself in a new life with an unsettling feeling that he’s been through something horrific. Thus the plot setup for the Deaths of Ian Stone for the best movie to come out of Horrorfest in 2007.

A graphic novel about old school phone phreaking and computer hacking? How could an old school fanboy not be sold on this concept! And from the looks of it Ed Piskor has done a great job with this comic book which features everything from acoustic modems ala WarGames to a scene with the Woz and Jobs selling blue-boxes in a primitive pre-iPhone world:

Wizzywig Volume 1: Phreak

Found via Brian Cirulnick.

Thanks to the marketing division of Bandai shown above (click for a full image) is Deslar Wine. It's no secret that Star Blazers was quite an inspiration to me growing up, well it seems a generation on wine drinking fanboys in Japan have now arrived — and want to enjoy more sophisticated memorabilia associated with Space Cruiser Yamato:

Shown above is an animated vintage commercial for Fujiya Peko cakes. In her kimono Peko looks cuter than Minky Momo ever did, in fact I'd say it's high time she lands her own anime show!

Werewolves are back in the movies! Underworld and it’s sequel have managed to make the wolf man a popular topic for film in the new century and the latest release in this genre is Skinwalkers. With a PG-13 rating and a pretty formulamatic plot Skinwalkers was perceived as another tired retread from a Hollywood in desperate need of originality. Yet as the movie progressed it showed itself to have a little spark and a cast of actors and characters that you found yourself caring for.

Shown above are the covers for Witches Tales from August 1971 and Strange Galaxy from February 1971. They're part of a wonderful collection on Flickr put together by Shawn Murphy:

Eerie Publications

"Welcome to the strange and gruesome world of EERIE PUBLICATIONS. These magazines were cheap knockoffs of the more popular CREEPY and EERIE magazines put out by Warren Publishing. These are some of the most insane, bloody and violent magazine covers you will ever see. Ever since I saw my first one I've been obsessively collecting them. This is a large sampling, but I still need many more. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!!!"

The first thing about the above video that's amazing to me is that Isaac Asimov is talking about global warming as a threat to humanity back in 1989. Keep in mind that this was before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. At that point in time the main concern with most folks was nuclear war, for example Carl Sagan talked about this in his epic TV series Cosmos.

At first glance you might mistake this package for something from Japan, but Lotte is based out of Korea. This love themed package design is a bit more inspired than the mini chocolate cookies inside. Although I found that this cute illustration on the back of the package was rather cute:

The above Billy Blastoff Space Base commercial dates from 1969. According to Wikipedia Billy Blastoff was sometimes packed with his friend Robbie Robot, who as it turns out isn't the same as the famous Robbie THE Robot from Forbidden Planet:

With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they're not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don't always get the attention that they deserve! So here's one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:

Gintama

This actually is a combination underrated manga and anime— the anime, in fact, is unlicensed in spite of its immense popularity in Japan. VIZ has started releasing the manga in the U.S., but with so little marketing that many are barely aware of its existence. Which is a shame, since it's a fantastic (and funny) series!

Shown above is a vintage commercial for Lotte's Koala's March cookies:

With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they're not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don't always get the attention that they deserve! So here's one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:

Hajime no Ippo ("The First Step")

George Morikawa's boxing manga Hajime no Ippo is probably the longest-running underrated manga out there. A full 81 volumes have been produced since its inception in 1990, all of which remain bereft and unlicensed. Oh, and it's still running, too.

Shown above is a funny skit starring Japanese comedian Ken Shimura from the the Fuji TV series "Ken Shimura's Lordship like Vaca". I got a real kick out of this skit which is based on Bjork's swan costume:

With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they're not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don't always get the attention that they deserve! So here's one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:

Antique Bakery

Odds are good that if you're not a fan of yaoi— boy/boy romance manga for women —you haven't read Fumi Yoshinaga's Antique Bakery, which is technically not yaoi (barely). Her series is part slice-of-life comedy and part drama about four men working in a bakery together. Primary among the men is Keisuke, the son of a wealthy family who has an odd fixation on sweets because a man who kidnapped him as a child fed him cakes.

The concept is simple: Recreate a vehicle from Star Wars in steampunk style using LEGO! The Bricks to Bothans Forum (dedicated to LEGO Star Wars) is holding a Steam-Wars Contest, where fans get to submit their LEGO creations of Star Wars vehicle done in steampunk style. Shown above is a steampunk X-Wing fighter by Brickshelf user Jerrec. For info on the contest go here:

Don and dW's Steam-Wars Contest!

Found via the always entertaining Neatorama.com.

It would be sad if Russia beat the United States to Mars, but on the flip side if they could do it by 2013 that would be amazing:

Russian Space Chief Says Mars Mission Is Realistic

With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they're not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don't always get the attention that they deserve! So here's one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:

Bokurano
North American publishers seem wary of Mohiro Kitoh's manga Bokurano— possibly due to the difficulty that Dark Horse had with Kitoh's Narutaru, which began reasonably family-friendly before it took a serious turn for the dark side, preventing Dark Horse from even releasing later volumes. No one yet has licensed Bokurano.

I was looking at the latest Dark Horse offerings for April of this year and came across the above cool looking statue based on the character uRac from Jim Henson's Dark Crystal.

With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they're not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don't always get the attention that they deserve! So here's one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:

Ouran High School Host Club

Haruhi Fujioka is the only scholarship student at the swanky Ouran High School, an unenviable role at a school full of kids so rich that they actually have a host club as part of their after school activities. A host club is a place where women pay large amounts of money to spend time with good-looking men, just chatting and flirting.

Is it me or does that Iron Man head look more like a missing toy part than the scene of super hero slaughter? This cover for Mighty Avengers #7 by Frank Cho is available in your local comic book shop this week...

The above photo is a "Dirty Deeds" variant of World War Robot Bertie by Ashley Wood. I just love the rusty look of the metal and the nice touch of the decorative graphics...

Photograph by Toybot Studios.

Ah the good old days when being a NASA fanboy was in style! This November 1965 fashion spread from Mademoiselle features a prototype of the Mercury Space Suit (click to see the page at full size). The photo is by David McCabe (a young British fashion photographer of the era who worked with Andy Warhol) and discovered by digital diva archivist Sugarpie Honeybunch.

Check out those those tacky 80s gaucho pants which are featured in the above vintage Pocky ad!

Shown above is the special secret surprise package from Coris Whistle Candy. The small package within a package contains a surprise toy, which turned out to be a pink racing car. This candy itself will drive parents up the wall, because when you blow into it you get a painful playful whistle-like noise:

With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they're not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don't always get the attention that they deserve! So here's one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:

Kodomo no Jikan ("A Child's Time")

This may seem like an odd choice for underrated manga, seeing as this series gained infamy throughout the English-language manga world when Seven Seas licensed it and then cancelled it because the content was too racy. Well, the problem isn't just that the content is racy— it's that it's racy and it involves primary school students. It didn't help that original creator Kaworu Watashiya wanted them to call it Nymphet.

I'm sad to report that Maila Nurmi (known to us fanboys as Vampira) has passed away. Her career highlights include starring in Ed Wood's classic epic Plan 9 From Outer Space and had her own TV show in Los Angles. This is the notice from her website:

“Vampira” Maila Nurmi

With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they're not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don't always get the attention that they deserve! So here's one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:

Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service

Five university students with abilities that range from channeling spirits to dowsing (finding dead bodies) to ESP form a company called the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, an organization that communicates with the dead and transports their bodies to wherever they need to go in order to allow their spirits to move on to the next world.

It’s the beginning of a new year and is starting to look like the last good batch of movies we will see in a while. The Writer’s Guild of America remains on strike and until that is settled Hollywood will be starting to look rather barren around the end of this year and the start of ‘09. Television is already beginning to feel the sting with the cancellation of 24 this year and a load of Reality Shows ready to hit the mid season lineup. So I thought I would take the opportunity to look ahead to 2008 and see what’s coming up for us in theaters this year:

With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they're not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don't always get the attention that they deserve! So here's one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:

Lunar Legend Tsukihime

A high school boy named Shiki is suffering from a life-threatening injury, and as a result he has started to see "death lines" on the people around him. He discovers that if he traces the lines with a sharp object he can kill people. He protects himself from his ability by wearing a special pair of glasses that prevent his ability to see the lines.

Shown above is the latest photograph of the surface of Mercury taken by the Messenger probe, it's the first time we've looked at the planet since the 70s (click on the image to see it at full size):

Messenger Reveals Mercury in New Detail

"As NASA's Messenger spacecraft approached Mercury on January 14, 2008, it captured this view of the planet's rugged, cratered landscape illuminated obliquely by the sun. This image was taken from a distance of approximately 11,000 miles, about 56 minutes before the spacecraft's closest encounter with Mercury. It shows a region 300 miles across including craters less than a mile wide. The large, shadow-filled, double ringed crater to the upper right was glimpsed by Mariner 10 more than three decades ago and named Vivaldi, after the Italian composer."

With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they're not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don't always get the attention that they deserve! So here's one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:

Yubisaki Milk Tea

There once was a boy named Yoshinori whose face was remarkably similar to his sister's. As a result, he once had to take her place in a modeling session, dressing in a bridal gown for a local photography shop. Ever since then he's had a taste for both cross-dressing and photography, and Yubisaki Milk Tea follows his exploits both as male Yoshinori and female "Yuki." Yoshinori winds up in a love triangle with his childhood friend Hidari, who doesn't know about his cross-dressing, and a classmate named Minamo, who hates men and will only talk to Yoshinori when he's dressed as Yuki.

Richard Knerr the co-founder of the Wham-O toy company, died on Monday at the age of 82. Shown above is a commercial for Super Elastic Bubble Plastic, and below is a commercial for one of my childhood favorites Silly String:

To boldly post an "Under Construction" sign where no fan has gone before! Nothing real on this website yet, although you can sign up to be spammed by Paramount when the time comes...

Our Top Indie Cartoonists to Watch For in 2008: Keeping true to our "Anti-Superheroes in Tights" mood at fanboy, we took a look back at the comic books and graphic novels that caught our eye:

My Brain Hurts, by Liz Baillie

Being a gay teenager is tough. Being a punk teenager is tough. Both are marginalized by mainstream society, and put them both together and you have a minority-within-a-minority situation, because lets face it, anyone who's spent time in Chelsea can tell you that queer culture and punk culture don't overlap nearly as much as they should. But when they do, you usually end up with an explosion of creativity that brings us very very good things. Things like Liz Baillie's My Brain Hurts, an outstanding mini-comic series, the first five issues of which have been collected by Microcosm Publishing why, just this last Fall!

With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they're not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don't always get the attention that they deserve! So here's one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

How can the manga adaptations of a light novel and anime series so immensely popular that even protesters in Gaza use her on their signs go unlicensed and unloved? Haruhi has two manga adaptations: one started in 2004 and was cancelled due to its unpopularity; fans maintain that it's a poor adaptation. A new version started in 2005, shortly before the anime aired, and no