Posted by Michael Pinto on May 17, 2009 in Animation
On the final episode of this season’s Family Guy they’re doing a cute tribute to infamous musical triumph sequence of the 1984 film Revenge of the Nerds. The term “nerd” itself became re-popularized in the 70s due to Happy Days where Fonzie would always refer to Richie Cunningham and his friends as nerds. And of course in the 70s everybody wanted to be Foznie, but by the 80s the baby boomers went in a more yuppie direction and started to focus on wealth — so he financial success of the computer industry (due to folks like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates) started to make it socially acceptable to be a nerd again. Although acceptable still wasn’t cool, that would have to wait until the 90s when publications like Wired made nerds look like rock stars on their covers. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 16, 2009 in Comic Books
Published by Silverline Books The Lava is a Floor is a kids hardcover comic book which is due out in August which looks like a great deal of fun (especially for us fanboys who are still kids at heart). The illustrations by Jeremy R. Scott have a energetic gregarious quality to them which makes you wish you had these devilish creatures as your personal pets to hang out with and to amuse your friends at parties. The story for the book is by Justin Shady and Wayne Chinsang and features the tale of a brother and sister (Blarg and Clarg) who live live in the crater of a volcano: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 16, 2009 in Comic Books
This is a detail of a cover from issue #3 of the comic book Chew which will come out in August. This illustration by Guillory is wonderful because it has a sense of humor which is sadly lacking from most comic book covers these days, I especially love the reference to the the 1958 cult film Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Here’s the full cover (click on it to see it at full size): Read more…
From Spain comes this amazing hand made felt iPhone. This bit of craftwork seems to be a one-of-a-kind object, but as with most gems that you find on Etsy if you see something that’s sold out you can always ask if the artist might create a similar piece on commission. What makes this iPhone work so well to me is that the artist went the extra mile to sew together every little icon on the screen, I just love those geeky details: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 15, 2009 in Japanese TV
As part of my obsession with Japanese comedian Ken Shimura I came across this clever comedy skit from 1984. In 1974 Shimura joined the Drifters who started life a rock band and comedy group in 1964 (think old school variety show routines). They had a very popular show on TBS from 1969 until 1985 which was called Hachijidayo, Zen’inshugo! (It’s 8 p.m., Everyone Together!”). The humor in the show pretty low brow by Japanese standards, although what I like about watching it is that you don’t need to speak Japanese to get the jokes which in this case can be very visual. One friend of mine once derided Shimura as “the Benny Hill of Japan” but as someone interested in animation I rather appreciate visual comedy, so to me Ken is a treasure.
If you’re an anime fanboy (or fangurl) who loves spaceship battles it looks like Infinite Space from Sega for the Nintendo DS will be a role playing game well worth checking out. These just released promotional films from Sega look amazing given the limits of the screen size on of the DS, the game itself allows you to build, control and outfit over 150 different spaceships and features over 200 anime styled characters to interact with during the course of your game. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 14, 2009 in Animation, Design
Saint Paul Police Detectives and Their Work was a public service color stop motion cartoon produced in 1940. The quality of the animation is itself quite crude and done on tabletop, although the design of each scene which represents a criminal activity is fascinating as each screen is well designed and uses everyday objects. The added touch of the art deco lettering gives you a Dick Tracy feeling offset by an almost surreal sounding soundtrack: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 13, 2009 in Star Trek
Burger King is running a funny series of ads to promote their tie in into Star Trek — these spots feature the Kingons who are a parody of the Klingons. The Kingons strike fear into the hearts of burger loving humans who like Star Trek collectables: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 13, 2009 in Comic Books
Nathan Lane will be an amazing Gomez Addams!The Addams Family is being turned into a Broadway musical and is slated to open in April 2010. In addition to Lane, Bebe Neuwirth will star as Morticia Addams. The Addams Family first started life as a cartoon in The New Yorker magazine in 1938 and was then turned into a hit TV show in the 60s. There have also been two films made in the 90s and even two animated TV series. Read more…
It’s ironic that just as Paramount is rebooting the Star Trek franchise with some high quality content that Lucas is starting the run the Star Wars franchise into the ground. A good example of this is this teaser trailer for the videogame which will be based on the the animated cartoon Star Wars: The Clone Wars. You now have an entire game based upon a side story, granted it’s not as bad as the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, but it’s getting closer all the time. Read more…
