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Illustrator Lorena Alvarez was inspired by Marie Antoinette when she created this sketch entitled Killer Queen. I love the fact that the sketch fuses traditional French fashion with a bit of Japanese anime and Aubrey Beardsley thrown in for fun. Lorena is from Bogotá, Colombia and also does some amazing craft work as well.

Iron Man is like so yesterday already! Shown above is the latest trailer for the Incredible Hulk film. While I think that Edward Norton is a great choice for the Hulk, the actor that I'm looking ahead to seeing in the film is Tim Roth of Reservoir Dogs fame.

This is an amazing article, according to one scientist within ten years that we will have strategies that will allow us to re-grow the bones and functional tissue:

The man who grew a finger

"The photos of his severed finger tip are pretty graphic. You can understand why doctors said he'd lost it for good. Today though, you wouldn't know it. Mr Spievak, who is 69 years old, shows off his finger, and it's all there, tissue, nerves, nail, skin, even his finger print. How? Well that's the truly remarkable part. It wasn't a transplant. Mr Spievak re-grew his finger tip. He used a powder - or pixie dust as he sometimes refers to it while telling his story."

Six Million Dollar Man toy photo found via W!L.

Because girls just want to have fun! I realize that Barbie is more of a fangurl icon than fanboy material, but I was quite impressed with the above musical example of how Mattel popularized the well known fashion doll with legions of young fans back in 1961. Also as an animation fan I got a real kick out of the charming reto animated graphics used in the commercial. Here's the actual record:

Shown below is another good example of Mattel reaching out to fangurls with an official fan club that even featured its own magazine:

It looks like Nintendo is ramping up to do a major push for the Wii Fit here in NYC. Shown above is a shot of an ad campaign that will be on top of cabs throughout the city. My gut feeling is that this product will continue to further push open the video game market, and my thinking is that in this case that's a very healthy thing for both my waistline and the industry.

It seems that scientists are discovering young galaxies that are smaller in scale but contain as many stars as a more mature galaxy like the Milky Way:

Tiny Young Galaxies "Full of Stars" Discovered

"While these galaxies are small enough to fit within the central hub of our own Milky Way, they each contain as many stars as larger, more mature galaxies. The light we see from the densely packed galaxies dates to a time when the universe was relatively young, less than three billion years old.

Previously observed tiny galaxies from this time period had correspondingly small numbers of stars. But the newfound galaxies—each only about 5,000 light-years across—weigh in at about 200 billion times the mass of the sun."

It looks like Land of the Lost is in production in Hollywood. The key thing that made this old series great was that they had some A+ science fictions writers doing the scripting, I hope the powers that be keep in mind that it's going to take more than slicker Sleestaks to keep us fanboys happy:

Kitschy 'Land of the Lost' gets a modern makeover

"The Land of the Lost film is now shooting on multiple sound stages at Universal Studios, and the Sleestak surface in a temple where Ferrell's character and his two companions (comedian Danny McBride, Pushing Daisies' Anna Friel) are hoping a giant crystal will return them to their own dimension.

The plot involves three adults (not a dad and two kids as on TV) accidentally thrust into a realm ruled by dinosaurs, monkey-men called Pakuni and the murderous Sleestak. Director Brad Silberling (Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events) says he fought to keep the human shape of the Sleestak from Sid & Marty Krofft's original production, and not give into the urge to render them as spindly computerized beings."

I first discovered Golgo 13 as an anime series in the 80s, but the concept dates back to a manga written and illustrated by Takao Saito in 1969. The series revolves around the adventures of Duke Togo a professional assassin, and a new animated version of the show is now running on TV Tokyo in Japan. To celebrate the series Nescafe is introducing a line of canned coffees to celebrate the stark looking sniper which is shown above (click on the image to view it at full size).

The above commercials for Fruit Stripe Gum and Lifesavers date to the mid-70s. The design for the characters on the Lifesavers spot are wonderfully creative, it's sad to think that so much similar food advertising today is just so bland.

So if global warming doesn't get us first we may get hit by tons of comets:

Did the solar system 'bounce' finish the dinosaurs?

"The sun’s movement through the Milky Way regularly sends comets hurtling into the inner solar system – coinciding with mass life extinctions on earth, a new study claims. Scientists at the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology built a computer model of our solar system’s movement and found that it “bounces” up and down through the plane of the galaxy. As we pass through the densest part of the plane, gravitational forces from the surrounding giant gas and dust clouds dislodge comets from their paths. The comets plunge into the solar system, some of them colliding with the earth.

The Cardiff team found that we pass through the galactic plane every 35 to 40 million years, increasing the chances of a comet collision tenfold. Evidence from craters on Earth also suggests we suffer more collisions approximately 36 million years. The periods of comet bombardment also coincide with mass extinctions, such as that of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Our present position in the galaxy suggests we are now very close to another such period."

Shown above is the Robot XL500 designed by LockWasher Design. What's great about this design is that it's sleek and futuristic, yet when you look closer you see the everyday objects that make up the details to this delicious droid.

I spotted the above gem in the preview for Suburban Glamour Volume 1 which will be out this upcoming week and is published by Image Comics. What I like about the above panels by Jamie McKelvie is that they tell a story with no words, giving you the cinematic feeling that you'd get from a well done silent movie. Too often comic books force a story along with endless talking heads only to be interrupted by fist fights. With a series of 14 panels McKelvie brings you inside the world of his teenage protagonist Astrid Johnson.

Sadly the rest of the book falls back into conventional storytelling with the talking heads which populate daytime television. In fact you'd think that the above panels were the cover art, but sadly the publisher has tucked them inside the book. McKelvie also has a good eye for fashion, although I'd love to see him take it a step further and bring some texture into the book. Yes I get the fact that he's going for a Patrick Nagel look, but after a few pages this gives you a sort of stark look which takes away from the story. Besides you don't have to be too slavish to the 80s. Although McKelvie does seem to be off to a good start with the series, and I'll look forward to more of his work.

I admit it: I had my doubts and frankly who could blame me for being a cynic after what happened with Star Wars? But I have to say that this new Indiana Jones flick is looking good and I'm getting the sense that Spielberg might be able to deliver the goods. Yes it looks like more of the same, but maybe sometimes that's a good thing?

When you're mayor of New York City there are so many real things to worry about like terrorism, the economy, a deteriorating infrastructure, unaffordable housing for the middle class, improving our impoverished public school system and the recent disturbing Sean Bell case.

Q. So what does New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg worry about the most?

A. The videogame Grand Theft Auto IV!

Rants Begin Against Grand Theft Auto IV

"As was the case with the previous games in the series, activist groups, police, politicians, and surviving victims of violence criticized Grand Theft Auto IV last week, beginning shortly after the game was launched nationwide. Regarding the game's violence, the NYPD association president Pat Lynch told the New York Daily News on Wednesday that, "being involved in a shootout in a video game has no consequences and that is the wrong message to send to young people."

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and the mother of a killed NYPD officer echoed similar sentiments in the same report, saying GTA IV "doesn't exactly teach the kind of things that you'd want to teach your kids," or more descriptively put, "teaches children to kill"."

Published by Image Comics Lucha Libre #4 hits stores this week. What I hate about so many comic books is that while the cover knocks you out the interior artwork just isn't up to snuff. However in this case the team behind Lucha Libre (Bill, Tanquerelle, Fabien M., Gobi, Witco and Jerry Frissen) have done an amazing job as seen above. Every panel in this book looks rich and luscious which makes you want to turn the page. I also like the fact that the book doesn't take itself too seriously and has a cartoony look to it. Shown below is the cover art:

The Star Wars Han Solo Animated Maquette will set you back $80 — and that doesn't even include a cute Chewie sidekick! What's up with that?

As usual Batman works best when the bad guy steals the scenes, and this latest trailer for the Dark Knight doesn't disappoint.

It's funny but in the last few years I've found Google translation tools pretty handy for looking at various websites, but the the thought of being able to turn a cell phone into a Star Trek Universal Translator would change the world:

Star Trek's Universal Translator - Within Just a Few Years?

"Progress being made by European researchers on automatic speech-to-speech translation technology could help the EU tackle one of the biggest remaining boundaries to internal trade, mobility and the free exchange of information - language. Though the system still cannot match the accuracy of a human translator or interpreter, they're is convinced that, with further research a commercially viable automatic speech-to-speech translator will be feasible within a few years, at least for some simpler language pairs."

El Estratografico collects cropped Spanish comic book images and posts them to Flickr, I just love the Roy Lichtenstein quality of his picks. What I love about the above image is how poor Bugs Bunny seems to have had his head cut off!

Yeah you aint goin' to mess with us! I got my friend here in the MS-09R Rick Dom which features a large clip-fed beam cannon (often referred to as a "Beam Bazooka")...

Fukusuke-pon 福助ぽん is a cute rabbit from Japan whose adventures can be followed on Flickr.

To me one of the best parts of being a fanboy is accidentally discovering the traditions of other societies after getting to know their pop culture (as I sit here writing this I'm enjoying a chilled bottle of Tea's Tea Golden Oolong). Shown above is an amazing photograph I came across by Chizuru Ohmae. You should check out her blog, it's like traveling to Japan without needing a passport.

Methinks Italiano Spidy likes his pasta just a wee too much! Although the bad guys seem out of shape too so maybe that's not so critical to his crime fighting skills...

What's funny about this Western Electric ad from 1968 is that it reminds me a great deal of the webcams of today. I suspect as the technology for those webcams becomes cheaper we'll see those as stand alone objects disappear over time, but that signature lens will continue to be found everywhere from cell phones to TV sets.

Found via Pink Ponk.

The Animation Show is a showcase for independent animated short films which is put together by Mike Judge (of Beavis and Butt-Head fame) and Academy Award nominated animator Don Hertzfeldt. If the film isn't coming to your local town don't worry too much as they play to release a DVD as well.

I wonder if somewhere out there we have an orphan moon wandering the cosmos?

Did Earth once have multiple moons?

"The ancient catastrophe that gave birth to the Moon may have produced additional satellites that lingered in Earth's skies for tens of millions of years. A new model suggests moonlets may have once occupied the two Earth-Moon Lagrangian points, regions in space where the gravitational tug of the Earth and the Moon exactly cancel each other out. Objects trapped in these points are called Trojans and can remain stationary forever if left undisturbed.

Scientists think the Moon was created when Earth was struck by a Mars-sized object some 4.5 billion years ago. "The giant impact that likely led to the formation of the Moon launched a lot of material into Earth orbit, and some could well have been caught in the Lagrangian points," says study team member Jack Lissauer of NASA Ames Research Center in California, US."

I've starting to hear quite a bit about Sleep Dealer which is a low budget science fiction film from Mexico which sounds interesting:

Cool Indie Sci-Fi Film Sleep Dealer Gets A Distributor!

"I personally saw the film at last month's screening here in NYC at NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS and loved the film! I think the movie is hot and consider the hybrid movie to be a "Mexican Matrix." Hybrid in the sense that it is both in English and in Spanish, something the trades forgot to mention. The futuristic film creates an environment where Mexican immigrant labor is outsourced from Tijuana via cyber network, with remote-controlled robots working in the United States."

...here are some video clips from the film:

Check out these cool official Indiana Jones desktop icons designed by Anthony Piraino.

The photos shown above are of various Japanese toys:
• Lunch Time photo by katsuboy
• Baby and Box photo by gwennan
• Shokupankun Arrives! photo by rilakkumaworld

Countless science fiction films from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Alien (my favorite was Planet of the Apes) have used the idea of suspended animation as a technique to allow for prolonged missions in outer space. Well now it looks like that concept may become reality:

Rotten egg gas may save Mars mission

"Dr Warren Zapol and colleagues report in the latest issue of the journal Anesthesiology how hydrogen sulfide slows mouse metabolism without cutting blood flow to the brain. There are many questions and years of research before healthy people like astronauts would be put into hibernated states. But the procedure could find an earlier application in cases of traumatic injury when life itself is at risk. Zapol plans additional experiments on larger mammals, probably sheep. "Before you use it on astronauts, you want to make sure it's very, very safe," he says."

Meow! Japanese horror punk rock band Balzac has adopted Hello Kitty into their act. Shown above is the result of this collaboration which includes a line of t-shirts to show off your claws of cuteness.

Found via Hello Kitty Hell.

I have to admit that I had my doubts about Disney-Pixar's upcoming movie WALL-E, although slowly my mind is being changed on the subject. For starters a friend who saw a few clips at the recent New York Comic Con told me that he was blown away with the quality of the work that he viewed. And today I could sense the buzz building up as I spotted a poster for the film on a bus shelter here in NYC.

Shown above is the Ultimate WALL-E which will sell for $190 this summer. This interactive robot comes with a remote controller and sensors that'll allow him to respond to his environment in numerous ways, including obstacle, sound, and touch detection. This fanboy thinks that this looks like a fun toy and makes me look forward to finding out more about the film.

Found via gearlog.

I'll always root for Pixar over Dreamworks, but this film may not be half bad...

These photos look great! Harrison Ford looks like he's in top form:

Yes I know that there were quite a few talented folks who made Star Trek great, and I'll grant you that he has a huge ego — but I feel like William Shatner is being treated like crap by not including him in this upcoming Star Trek film. Don't tell me that they can bring back Nimoy for a leading role but they can't work a 5 minute future flashback into the damn script?

Adding insult to injury is the Star Trek Ultimate Captain Kirk 1:4 Scale Figure which looks like a bad cartoon sculpture of Shatner. Of course I'll grant you that Paramount has never had the same approach to quality merchandise that say Lucasfilm has had with Star Wars, but I think that they could do a little bit better on the small and big things that count to us fanboys.

I dare you to knock this battery off my shoulder! This Canadian fanboy took a bear suit and modified it for futuristic combat situations ala Halo. I have no idea if this invention would work, but man would he clean up with the cosplay awards at any convention!

Found via Yeah, It’s Pretty Cool

This is amazing because they're thinking is that Mars isn't a dead planet after all, but in fact has a more active climate than Earth:

Glaciers Reveal Martian Climate Has Been Recently Active

"The prevailing thinking is that Mars is a planet whose active climate has been confined to the distant past. About 3.5 billion years ago, the Red Planet had extensive flowing water and then fell quiet - deadly quiet. It didn't seem the climate had changed much since.

Now scientists think Mars' climate has been much more dynamic than previously believed. After examining stunning high-resolution images taken last year by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the researchers have documented for the first time that ice packs at least 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) thick and perhaps 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) thick existed along Mars' mid-latitude belt as recently as 100 million years ago.

In addition, the team believes other images tell them that glaciers flowed in localized areas in the last 10 to 100 million years - akin to the day before yesterday in Mars' geological timeline. This evidence of recent activity means the Martian climate may change again and could bolster speculation about whether the Red Planet can, or did, support life."

Found via dailygalaxy.com.

In August of this year Buck Rogers will be 80 years old! The franchise which takes place in the year 2419 first started life as a short story in the pulp magazine Amazing Stories has has spawned comic books, novels, toys, serialized movies and two TV series (first in 1950 on ABC and then the disco version in 1979). Now it looks like Nu Image/Millennium Films has acquired film rights to the property and will create a live action film:

Nu Image gets 'Buck Rogers' rights

"Nu Image/Millennium's Avi Lerner got the rights from the Dille Trust, which is run by the surviving family of series originator Frank Dille. Those rights had once been with Disney, but the Dille family was attracted to moving them to a small movie and gaining more control over the direction of the film. Despite web reports that Frank Miller had boarded the project, sources at Millennium disputed than any creatives had yet aligned to the project."

Shown above is the animated film Kings of Power 4 Billion% by Paul Robertson. It's hard to see all of the detail in the YouTube video (I'd suggest downloading a torrent) but Robertson's animation technique is drawn pixel by pixel like an old school video game. In addition to video games he also draws quite a bit from anime and pop cultural references. Here's part two:

Space:1999 (Thermos 1975)

I still have high hopes for this film based on other things that I've seen and have heard, but frankly the above video game trailer doesn't get me too excited. I wish that Disney and Pixar would get more directly involved with their games ala LucasArts.

This interesting study debunks the popular myth that growth in videogame sales are linked to youth violence:

Video games don’t turn children into blood-thirsty killers – Harvard research

"A pair of Harvard researchers say violent video games don’t turn children into killers. According to a newly published book, ‘Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do’, psychologists Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson dispel common myths about violent games. In their two-year study, they found that there was no data to support any causation between games and real-life violence.

Kutner and Olson studied 1200 middle-school children in a $1.5 million federally funded study. Instead of studying the children in the laboratory, like other studies, the pair actually sat down and talked to kids after long bouts of game playing – sometimes in excess of 15 hours a week. The lucky kids played a variety of games from the very non-violent The Sims to grandma shooting, pedestrian bashing Grand Theft Auto."

Introduction: I first discovered Fan History back in 2007 when long time Anime fan Steve Pearl passed away. To me Steve was a real hero in the anime scene, yet when I did a search I found very little about his contribution to the field. So I was very happy to find his entry at fanhistory.com. The website is still in an early phase yet they have a wealth of information on fandom. As pulisher of fanboy.com I encourage everyone to contribute to helping this amazing resource grow. And without further ado here is my interview with Laura Hale who started the site:

For folks not familiar with fanhistory.com (and wikis in general) can you give us an introduction to your project?

Where to start? Fan History is a fandom run project dedicated to doing a couple of things.

First, it is about sharing the history of fandom. It explains what was going in specific fandoms, in regards to specific topics in fandom, gives an idea as to who some of the big name fans are, shares some of the historical activities that took place in a fandom and continue to take place in fandom, and where to find fandom.

Second, and complimenting the first, Fan History is about creating a directory of people in fandom. The directory information contains a history of a person's involvement in fandom, what fandoms people are involved with, any fanworks they've created and links back to their sites or blogs.

Fan History is a project in wiki format. A wiki allows anyone to edit the content. In the case of Fan History, it means that anyone can help contribute to project, adding information on the history of fandom.