As a magazine publisher Warren Publishing was born out as a result of the infamous comic book code of the 50s which made the genre a bit too family friendly: Along with sister publications like Eerie and Vampirella, Creepy magazine kept alive the tradition of horror comics from 1964 until 1983. Next year on January 27th, 2010 Dark Horse will be publishing a set of trading cards based upon covers of the magazine. Read more…
Nothing could be more cute than a well deserving Pound Puppy toy in the 80s looking a caring child to be an owner: But what if your child is a cat person? Well that’s where the spin off Pound Purries came in (as shown in this advert from 1986). While not as a popular as their dog friends from the other side of the pound these little wonders featured and for just $3.50 more you could get a name tag, stickers and an owners certificate! Read more…
These Robo-Q Transformers toys from Japan are ultra cute! They’re each just a bit over an inch high and come with a radio controller. Manufactured by Takara Tomy there’s an Optimus Prime and a Bumblebee model available: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 20, 2009 in Comic Books
At the end of the silver age of comic books (which was sometime the early 70s) there was a well known cigarette ad campaign which would proudly proclaim to the ladies “You’ve come a long way, baby.” But sadly while the wider world of publishing started to open up to women, the comic book biz was — and still today largely a boys club. Now I can already hear the indignation from my fellow fanboys, but here’s the evidence: Read more…
On the face of it Inglourious Basterds looks like a clear cut “World War II guys film” if there ever was one, but the inclusion of the character Shosanna Dreyfus made me realize that there was a bit more going on here. In fact in interviews Quentin Tarantino states that Shosanna was “always a main character”. Which made me reflect on the wealth and diversity of ladies that Tarantino has always featured in his films — in fact it’s something that makes his films into something much more interesting than what you see out of Hollywood. Of course part of his magic is that often Tarantino will write a role with a particular actress in mind. Here are my favorites characters that he’s conjured up over the years: Read more…
Snout Spout: His knock out nose knocks evil out! You can tell the design department of Mattel was bored to death of Masters of the Universe by 1986 when this commercial came out. I can just see some poor child at Christmas yelping “Mommy why did you get me an elephant? I wanted He-Man!” Don’t get me wrong as a toy it looks very clever but our pachyderm friend seems somewhat out of place with the other members of the Masters of the Universe. In fact the character wasn’t even shown in the series until after the toy came out (you can tell that merchandising was more important than story telling). Read more…
This video shows two things: The first is how a show like Jem can come out of nowhere and give a well established brand like a Barbie a run for the money — and the second thing is just how much cultural mindspace MTV owned back in the 80s when it was new. Inspired by MTVJem and the Holograms went on the air in 1985 and suddenly Barbie who had been around since 1959 seemed slightly old fashioned. Read more…
It was one of the low points of my life: After breaking my ass to build a business for about a dozen years I watched everything go down the drain in just a few short months during the dot.bomb crash of 2001 until 2003. My entire world fell apart on both a meta level (watching 9/11 and then seeing Silicon Alley 1.0 fade away) and on a personal level (seeing friends I worked with for years move on). But in the aftermath I vowed to rebuild, and along the way I learned a few valuable lessons. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 18, 2009 in Comic Books
I don’t have the slightest clue how Citizen Rex escaped my attention, but now I feel that makes it my job to draw attention to this wonderful sci fi themed comic book mini series. But first we need to go back a few decades in time to the 80s: Back then a bit of a revolution was going on in the comic book field, lead by RAW Magazine some very talented artists shook up the field and decided to show that it could be a real art firm. Out were the typical superhero comics that owned newsstands and in came graphic novels and interesting illustrational techniques. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 18, 2009 in Videogames
Everyone knows about the classic game Perfection, but what I love about this commercial is that it mentions the very rare follow up game Superfection. This spot was broadcast in 1986 but clearly dates from a few years earlier: Both Perfection and Superfection were created by Lakeside Games. Superfection which came out in 1975 is harder to find that Perfection which has become a time honored classic. Here’s a video of Superfection in action: Read more…
On the face of it Inglourious Basterds looks like a clear cut “World War II guys film” if there ever was one, but the inclusion of the character Shosanna Dreyfus made me realize that there was a bit more going on here. In fact in interviews Quentin Tarantino states that Shosanna was “always a main character”. Which made me reflect on the wealth and diversity of ladies that Tarantino has always featured in his films — in fact it’s something that makes his films into something much more interesting than what you see out of Hollywood. Of course part of his magic is that often Tarantino will write a role with a particular actress in mind. Here are my favorites characters that he’s conjured up over the years: 
