Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 18, 2010 in Comic Books
This amazing video is from a 1931 silent promotional film which featured the cartoonists from the Tribune chain of newspapers. Shown at work are John T. McCutcheon, Gaar Williams, Carey Orr, Sidney Smith of The Gumps, Frank King of Gasoline Alley, Frank Willard of Moon Mullins, Carl Ed of Harold Teen, Martin Branner of Winnie Winkle, Walter Berndt of Smitty and Harold Gray of Little Orphan Annie. Here’s a quick gallery of these artists to give you an appreciation: Read more…
I was given an opportunity to play with the new iPhone app Fullmetal Alchemist: State Alchemy Exam and enjoyed having an anime themed game at my fingertips. Now if you’re a serious gamer you might be let down with this app, but if you’re a fanboy (or fangurl) looking for an entertaining casual game then State Alchemy Exam is worth checking out. Exam is the key word here as this is a trivia quiz app which tests your knowledge of Fullmetal Alchemist with physics and chemistry thrown in for fun: Read more…
On this day in 1929 artist Elzie Crisler Segar added a new character to his Thimble Theatre comic strip named Popeye the Sailor Man. It’s hard to believe but Thimble Theatre was running for ten years before the sailor was introduced to American readers — Popeye would go on to take over the strip which was followed by quite a few animated films and television shows. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 17, 2010 in Animation, Fandom
The year is 1985 and anime fandom is buzzed about new shows like Macross: This amazing video shows a cosplay competition from this long gone pre-internet era when fans traded VHS tapes from Japan. Keep in mind that if you had an anime gathering of any sort back then even having a hundred fans show up was nothing short of astounding.
It’s amazing to me to think that Futurama has been around for over ten years at this point (it went on the air in 1999). While I’ve always admired The Simpsons there’s something about the sci fi theme of Futurama that makes it closer to my fanboy heart. To celebrate the series there are three sets of Futurama Action Figures: Fry and Bender (shown above), Farnsworth and Hermes (shown below) and Leela and Zapp Brannigan (whom I wanted to see the most of all but couldn’t find an image of). Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 16, 2010 in Animation
How is it that they’re making the fourth film in this retched series yet they still can’t come even close to the quality of animation that Pixar was doing ten years ago? Over time Shrek has come to represent everything that I detest about bad computer animation films: Stiff movement, flat lighting, lamentable scriptwriting, poor comedic timing for gags, lackluster voice acting, uninspired music, predictable plots and sequels that aren’t even good enough to go direct to video.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 15, 2010 in Science
According to this article at the BBC News website the European Space Agency’s Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain is pushing to keep the ISS going until the year 2020. This is critical as support for the station is up for review, and signs are pointing to pulling the plug by 2015: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 15, 2010 in Japanese TV
Nicknamed Ro-chin actress and fashion model Kato Rosa (加藤ローサ) was born in 1985 in Naples, Italy — her mom was Japanese and her father was Italian. At age 6 her family moved to Japan but sadly lost her Italian language skills by the time she grew up. Since 2005 she’s been very active starring in both television shows and films, although I get a kick out of her commercials which I’ve collected here: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 14, 2010 in Animation
I’ll be honest: I’m not quite sure what the functionality of this Pikachu USB Computer Companion actually does. Although one might divine that if you’re any sort of self respecting Pokémon fan that you’ll need this office toy: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 14, 2010 in Animation
In the good old days animation was limited to the likes of Cartoon Network, so I’m glad to see other channels getting into the game: Tonight on FX a new animated comedy series called Archer will debut. The show features master spy Sterling Archer who works for the International Secret Intelligence Service:
