MoCCA 2008: Jim Campbell

Above is Jim Campbell at MoCCA 2008. In addition to his comic and illustration work Jim is in two bands: Paper Fleet and The Ottomen Empire. Below is issue #2 of his comic book Krachmacher:

MoCCA 2008: Erik Falk

Shown above is Erik Falk from Jippi Comics at MoCCA 2008. Erik was showing me a few issues of Angst – The Best of Norwegian Comics which just looked amazing. Below is a detail from a cover illustration:

MoCCA 2008: Aapo Rapi

Shown above is Aapo Rapi (who is from Finland) at MoCCA 2008. He’s reading the Spring 2008 issue of Kuti which is an amazing 24 page tabloid color newspaper which is a colorful collection of Swedish and Finnish comics:

MoCCA 2008: Lars Jakobsen

Shown above is Lars Jakobsen at MoCCA 2008. Lars travelled all the way from Denmark to attend the show, below is a sample of his work:

MoCCA 2008: Keith McCleary

Shown above is Keith McCleary at MoCCA 2008. McCleary is the writer and illustrator behind Killing Tree Quarterly shown below:

MoCCA 2008: A Video Review

Above is my video review of the MoCCA Art Festival 2008 which is being held at the Puck Building in New York City this weekend. I only got to spend a few hours running around, but I have to say that this is one of my favorite shows of the year. Firstly the profits go to support The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, but secondly going to the event is like getting into the best art school in the world — only it’s crammed with nothing but comic book majors! This year I was able to meet people from every place from Norway to less exotic Vermont. The creativity on display would put some museums here in Manhattan to shame, and yet most of the folks in the scene aren’t doing it for money (although they may be trying).

Lolita and Maid Fashion Day

I just got back from Lolita and Maid Fashion Day which is being held at the Kinokuniya book store here in New York City. The event was held today to celebrate International Lolita Day and it was very relaxing and low key. I’m about to run off to cover the MoCCA Art Festival next, but here are some photos to give you a taste:

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The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. Comic Book

It’s funny I’ve heard of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. but I never heard of The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. until I came across the above comic book cover which was found by digital archivist Frederick Barr. I did some research and it seems the spin off-series lasted for one season from 1966 until 1967 when it was cancelled due to low ratings. The show starred Stefanie Powers who would later find fame as the lead in Hart to Hart in 1979.

Below are some other covers from publisher Gold Key:

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Joker Comics: Starring your Laff Favorites

Shown above is the cover from Joker Comics #24 which was published in August 1947 by Timely Comics (just a little over sixty years ago!). By the way Timely Comics is still in business today, they would go on to evolve into a company called Atlas Comics which would then go on to become Marvel Comics.

Found via Jello Kitty who is based out of Dallas, Texas, USA! Check out his Flickr page here…

ComicMix Online Reader Upgrade

The crew at ComicMix just did a nice job of upgrading their online comic book reader. As a usability geek I like what they’ve done — it’s a hard task to bring print to the web and the new interface helps to bridge that gap. I also love the range of titles that the site has been adding since they launched, shown below is a sample of The Adventures of Simone & Ajax: The Case of the Maltese Duck:

The Hakone Toy Museum

There’s something wonderful about the sense of both scale and chaos in this photograph of the Hakone Toy Museum in Japan.

Photographed by Louise who lives in London and has two cool blogs: Louise makes stuff and hole punch.

Gay Dalek

I always wondered why the cast of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy never rescued a fanboy living in Mom’s basement? Although this Dr. Who cartoon by Darryl Cunningham shows what the results may have looked like.

Back to the Future: Own a Flux Capacitor

As much as I hate Huey Lewis he must have been on to something as it’s now over 20 years later and I still can’t get the theme song from Back to the Future out of my head. Of course the film was a true classic — in fact I may be wrong but I recall another blogger Twittering how that was his favorite film of all time. And I have to say I count myself as a fanboy of that film, so if you’re like me here is a chance to own your very own Flux Capacitor:

Flux Capacitor Replica

“You’ll have to pump in your own 1.21 gigawatts (pronounced and written in the script as “jigowatts,” which was the accepted pronunciation at the time) to actually travel in time – and that’s up to you. Or you can be content to just pop in 3 AA’s and use the two knobs to adjust the lights. One adjusts the sequential lights behind the temporal firing pins and the other adjusts the flash unit in the middle where the spark of chrono-spacial displacement occurs. Details down to the warning messages from Doc Brown stuck to the front door will awe anyone who sees it.”

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Jim Henson on the Making of Dark Crystal

I love watching this footage — it’s so sad that Jim Henson passed away so early in 1990. Henson could have gone on making Muppet films forever, but in 1982 he took a real chance and directed Dark Crystal which was so different than anything else at the time. The amount of faith it must have taken to think that puppets could sustain a serious film for over an hour. It’s because of Henson that the way was paved for someone like Tim Burton to make The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Video by Ira Gallen.

China to Beat the U.S. Back to the Moon?

The United States hasn’t had a serious investment in NASA since the early 70s. Both Republicans and Democrats have never seen the spin off benefits which have been a boom to our economy. Well maybe a little bit of shock treatment might help NASA get some over due funding:

China likely to beat U.S. back to the moon, NASA says

“Here’s one Olympic-style event that China is likely to win: landing the next humans on the moon. Chinese astronauts are on schedule to beat the United States back to the moon by two or three years, the head of NASA’s lunar exploration program said Wednesday. “If they keep on the path they’re on, they can” land before Americans do, said Rick Gilbreth, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems.

The goal of NASA’s Constellation program is to return astronauts to the moon by 2020, as proposed in President Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration. Gilbreth said the Chinese could accomplish that by 2017 or 2018. The Chinese lead will be even longer if the American schedule slips, as some space experts predict.”

A-Kon: Texan Style Anime

Artist David Foox gives us his account of going to A-Kon which is the oldest continually running anime convention in North America which was held this weekend:

By the time Fanboy had requested we do an editorial/article on the Dallas A-Kon Event, I had already given the subject matter much thought. In fact, I had already drafted my overview of this fun day in my head. So putting it down on “paper”, so to speak, was quite easy.

We (and by “we” I mean Jessica (my wife) and I) arrived at the Adams Mark Hotel and found ourselves thrown in at the deep end of this pool of costumes, freaks, geeks, musicians, artists, and gamers. In hindsight, I try and imagine that space prior to the event and void of all the color and realize that it really is the people, art, and games that make this event successful. A dry, dead space with a good dose of desperation/depression was overcome by livery that only hardcore gaming geeks and artist nerds (of which I am proudly both btw) could muster up in good ‘ol DFW (editor’s note: DFW = Dallas/Fort Worth).

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Japanese Spiderman & Leopaldon Duo Pack

I think I would have gotten even more into Spiderman as a kid had I known that he had a matching giant robot! This Japanese toy set is from 1978 and photographed by tOkKa.

Please Don’t Do Your Makeup on the Subway

I got a real kick out of this graphic poster from a subway in Tokyo I’d love to own a copy! Here’s a description of the artwork from the photographer who goes by the name TenguTech:

“It seems that too many Japanese do their makeup in the train. And Tokyo Metro train line want to discourage people from doing it. Must be a way to make use of all time available. ”

Tuning Rubik’s Cube into Pac-Man

I love the conceptual idea of taking Rubik’s Cube which is an analog game and turning it into a pixel representation of Pac-Man one of the early digital video games. This sculpture was designed by Omino71 who is an anonymous Italian artist.

Lightsaber Construction Set

Pouring a lightsaber out of a can just isn’t any fun! After all why go with a ready made lightsaber when you can do it yourself? Well industrious Star Wars fanboys can rejoice with this new lightsaber set allows you to create your own personalized Jedi experience:

Star Wars Force FX Lightsaber Construction Set

“To be a Jedi, you must construct your own lightsaber. Finding the right crystals and metal pieces to forge your own weapon can be difficult, but the Star Wars Force FX Lightsaber Construction Set makes it easy for you. In just seconds, you can assemble 5 pieces, a blade, and some batteries to forge one of over 700 possible configurations of lightsaber! Use a variety of pommel, handle, and detail parts to create a personalized weapon that looks just like the ones that belong to Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker, or Obi-Wan Kenobi… or something totally new that’s uniquely you!”

Here is a video demo:

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Core Memory: Visuals of Vintage Computers

Recently I was wandering through on of my favorite local bookstores here in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and I came across a beautiful coffee table book which featured some delicious photos of vintage computers:

Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers

What blew me away about the book was the sharp design and the photographs by Mark Richards. What’s amazing to me about these artifacts is that theyshow just how fast everything has changed in the world of computers in the last few decades. If you look at an automobile from 1970 the industrial design may be a bit different, but what’s under the hood is pretty much the sam car that you’d see today. However with computers what would take up a room and require a team of experts to operate can now fit into a cell phone which can be operated by a child.

You can check out the website of Mark Richards here, and below are just a few of the technolicious photographs from the book:

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Mr. Kone-Monster

I love the power and humor in this illustration by Cesar Evangelista Bautista who is based out of Mexico City, México.

Hello Kitty Hole Punch

This is purrfect solution for making Kitty confetti! What makes this item special is the fact that the punched out paper is in the shape of Hello Kitty, which is a very nice touch to what might be just another cute collectable sporting a logo.

Found via kittyhell.com.

Invasion of the Giant Cheese Mites

I got quite a kick out of this video from NewScientist.com which shows off the first scientific films from the dawn of the 20th Century.