Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 21, 2010 in Comic Books
A panel from this unreleased comic book series proclaims that CBGB “isn’t some stupid slogan on a t-shirt” however sadly the now owners of the brand have turned it into that. Once upon a time in the 70s CBGB was the club on the lower east side of New York City where punk rock really started (ha ha not England). Yet sadly a few years ago their rents went up, and by 2006 they closed their doors and then about a year later the owner Hilly Kristal died. Since then the brand has been turned into a cartoon and put onto anything, which now includes a comic book. This isn’t a shock as we live in a world of capitalism but punk rock should stand for the sprit of do it yourself, and this soon to be schlocked out comic misses the point entirely: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 20, 2010 in Science
This amazing video shows Mr. Woo a folk artist from China who builds beautiful homemade robots from scratch. What’s even more amazing is that he has no formal engineering training, in other words he a very talented hobbyist with a passion for robotics. By the way my favorite part of the video occurs at 3:40 when a robot stars walking by with a rickshaw. Found via the very talented Angel Wardriver.Read more…
In the wake of the Flash is doomed movement I’ve noticed quite a few Microsoft developers who are rooting for Silverlight. Silverlight has two amazing advantages going for it: Firstly Microsoft loves their developers more so than any other company that I’ve ever seen — and then add to that it will become a key tool for making apps for Windows mobile devices. But there’s one major catch to this which is that smart mobile is now dominated by Apple and Google, and that there’s a good chance that they won’t let Silverlight onto their platform. Read more…
Yes technically this is the Hello Kitty Kitchen Spice Rack however judging by the icons kitty has a bit of a sweet tooth as there are clearly symbols for cupcakes, coffee and jam! My guess is that you should put in sprinkles into the cupcake canister, hazelnut into the coffee canister (or maybe sugar?) and I still haven’t figured out why you’d have a strawberry jam icon in a spice rack. All in all there are eight containers — two of which come pre-filled with salt and pepper. Bien manger manquez chat!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 19, 2010 in Animation
Dreamworks has a very solid business plan: Churn out as many second rate Pixar looking films as you can. Megamind perfectly embodies this tired formula by having well known comedy stars do the voiceovers to poorly done 3D animation that looks like everything else you’ve already seen before, and then add a soundtrack of songs that were all hits from twenty plus years ago. The irony of this is that I love Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt and Tina Fey — but while two of them are A+ comedy actors none of them are talented voice actors. And things like that which tell you that Dreamworks really has no respect for the art of animation. Read more…
Domokun has many adventures — and for this set of goodies he’s joined the cast of the Japanese costume drama show Ryomaden. The story is based upon the life of Sakamoto Ryōma (坂本 龍馬) who lived in the 19th Century and played a key role in keeping Japan united while allowing for the creation of a modern government which will allow it to avoid be colonized by foreign powers. Ryōma was very much in love with technology, so I think he’d love the idea of westerners learning about his life story via the internet (although I’m not sure how he’d feel about Domo). Read more…
I haven’t been to NYC’s Museum of Modern Art since their admission price hit a serious $20. (Sure you can get info free Friday evenings courtesy of Target – if you don’t mind standing on line for two hours.) I take that back; I’ve been there once or twice since, but gratis, wearing my fedora with the ‘PRESS’ pass tucked in the brim. Read more…
Touch is a manga that ran in Japan from 1981 until 1986 in Weekly Shone Sunday, along with Urusei Yatsura it was on of the most popular comics in that magazine during the early 80s. The manga which became an anime series in 1985 was a combination of baseball with romanic comedy. What’s cool about this commercial is that you can see the wide range of merchandise the show inspired — from a musical album to a “Happy Bag” of goodies that was sold through the Japanese drug store chain Lawson. I love the added touch of having the two characters from the show standing outside an anime version of the drugstore in the last shot. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 17, 2010 in Comic Books
Unless you’re willing to travel to Japan the odds are highly against you coming across vintage manga from the 60s — so coming across a collection is always a cause for celebration: Eico Hanamura dominated shōjo manga in the 60s, and on March 16th a new book titled Happigaruzukorekushon of Hanamura Eiko will show off some of her best work from that primordial era of girls comic books in Japan. This book includes reprints of Some Girl in the Fog, her 1965 series Madeleine Shouwanoto as well as various fashion illustrations. Here’s a gallery to give you a sense of Eico’s style — you can really so how much she inspired how shōjo manga looks today: Read more…
American comic artists tend to love deviantART for showing off their work, however in Japan one of the more favored websites is Pixiv (which is well worth checking out). However the Japanese interface can be a bit much to navigate if you’re not native speaker, so two Pixiv fans mefloraine (who prefers to stay anonymous) and Eugen Rochko have put together a beautifully curated website called PaperDream.net which features an amazing illustration per day from Pixiv.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 17, 2010 in Japanese TV
Both of these quirky ramen commercials are from a 1998 campaign for Nissin. The first spot where the two ladies magically acquire cat ears stars Kikuti Momoko and Miyuki — and of course I love how the second advert makes a Marilyn Monroe reference: Read more…
I was brought up with the belief that coffee isn’t for kids — of course as an adult I see that this was a clever plot to keep more of the good stuff for the grownups who are so addicted to it. So I was a bit surprised to see a line of coffee beverages from Japan designed just for kids! On March 22nd in Japan Pokka will be introducing Café-au-lait Flavor Kizzukafe which features characters from the anime series Penguin Problems: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 16, 2010 in Comic Books
Thanks to the goodness of Goon there is no wrong that Eric Powell can do in my mind — which is why I’m looking ahead to Buzzard which is a comic book miniseries that goes on sale on June 9th. Shown above is a cover by Powell and below is an alternative cover by Richard Corben: Read more…
This is a very clever rhyming ad for Mabinogi from Japan which is an anime themed RPG game that you can play online. The game was developed in South Korea by devCAT and is published by Nexon — the good news for Americans is that the game is available in English, however if you’re a Mac user the bad news is that the game is Windows only. Read more…
As of today the latest Uniqlo anime themed t-shirts are hitting the street — this latest batch includes shirts based on old school favorites Galaxy Express 999, Saint Seiya, Dr. Slump, Dragonball and Devilman. In April a new set of shirts will be released which will be based on Cobra, One Piece and Mazinger Z. Here are the Devilman shirts: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 15, 2010 in Japanese TV
Ikuzo Yoshi and Yuki Nae star in this very silly 1995 Japanese advert for the Yamato Transport Co. Their cat suits are a reference to the company logo which features a mother cat transporting a baby kitten. My favorite part of this commercial is when after marching across the screen they then scurry back accompanied by a cartoonish sound effect. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 14, 2010 in Comic Books
I came across Groo: Hogs of Horder #4 and it then hit me: I’m guilty of having spent my entire life looking at the amazing artwork of Sergio Aragonés and I’ve selfishly have always assumed that I’d be seeing more. It’s high time for us fans to stop taking Sergio for granted (he’s 72 years old!) and starting to treat him like the comic book god that he is. I grew up with Aragonés in the pages of mad magazine, but sadly those issues were so packed with high quality work that Sergio got lost in the crowd. However as of 2002 he’s drawn more than 12,000 gag cartoons for Mad and that deserves some real respect. And then we have his creation Groo the Wanderer which has been running since the 80s — to me this running series ranks up there with Asterix and Tin Tin, and what’s wonderful about is that it has both an American and Spanish point of view. Read more…
For his day gig Tommy Williamson professional artist working in the motion picture industry, but for fun he likes to play with Legos: His latest creation is this wonderful Alice in Wonderland tribute. What’s brilliant about his sculpture is how few bricks that he used to capture the likeness of the Mad Hatter and Alice: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 13, 2010 in Animation
In Japan package design is very influenced by the idea of gift giving — and as an otaku I’ve always love the fact that attention to detail and inclusion of little goodies tends to find its way into DVD packaging. The above illustration is for the DVD set Kimba the White Lion: The Courage to Begin a New Future. Of course Kimba is quite an old lion of anime at this point, but I love how the studio has the courage to play with a new look and take a chance with the illustration. But as if that wasn’t enough the package itself is a mini collection of all sorts of goodies: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 12, 2010 in Fandom, Star Trek
This hilarious fan video is titled Captain Kirk Deals with a Strange Alien Culture. I have to admit that while Kirk’s solution broke the Prime Directive it still shows that he’s the best commander in the whole of Starfleet! By the way the internet meme in the video is Russian singer Eduard Anatolyevich Khil (Эдуа́рд Анато́льевич Хи́ль) giving a performance back in 1976. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 12, 2010 in Comic Books
I first discovered the joy of Japanese anime and manga themed art books while I was in art school — and I have to admit that even though these books are always expensive I have yet to regret ever buying one. The reason is that as an artist I always find myself learning from these books and looking at them years later. IllustStudio Perfect Master is a good example of this genre — it’s a collection of a wide range of illustrators who are each given a page in this volume. From what I can gather each artist in the book is using the software package IllustStudio — and the nice thing about this book is that it also includes a bonus CD-ROM which includes a movie of each artist using the software in action. So it’s almost as good as being an apprentice for a Japanese manga illustrator. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 12, 2010 in Comic Books
To be upfront I’ve always have been more of an indie comic book fanboy having grown up on manga and publications like RAW magazine in the 80s — so on the face of it yet another X-Men spinoff comic book doesn’t get me excited. However for X-23 I’ll have to make an exception to that rule. Firstly what I like about this book is that it isn’t trapped too tightly in the typical Marvel style, and then the draftsmanship of the drawing and the cinematic panel layouts are well done. Alina Urusov illustrated this book and her artwork does a great job of telling a story, and I also liked the fact that Marc Hempel who did the colors didn’t overpower the drawings. The only thing that upsets me is that this issue is a one shot: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 12, 2010 in Science
One way to stop climate change is if everyone suddenly gives up on fossil fuels — however that notion might not be realistic given the political realities. However it begs the question if we should be getting much more serious about geoengineering which is the concept man made intervention to prevent climate change. In this video atmospheric scientist Ken Caldeira asserts that this may be the only realistic way to prevent climate change — and given what we’ve seen the politicians do (or not do) he may be correct.
You know it’s funny I’ve never have been too crazy about James Cameron as a director, however listening to this very relaxed interview with him was quite energizing and inspiring. It’s wonderful to hear not just about his creative process — but also his take on Hollywood then copying everything (his example is the 3D craze which he inspired). And as much as I wasn’t crazy about Avatar I almost felt sorry for Cameron watching the Oscars because you could sense not just a level of insecurity and slight hostility to his technical skills, but also even the idea that a science fiction film might get best picture. So even with the success of his box office, it gave me a real sympathy seeing him within the Hollywood hierarchy.
A panel from this unreleased comic book series proclaims that CBGB “isn’t some stupid slogan on a t-shirt” however sadly the now owners of the brand have turned it into that. Once upon a time in the 70s CBGB was the club on the lower east side of New York City where punk rock really started (ha ha not England). Yet sadly a few years ago their rents went up, and by 2006 they closed their doors and then about a year later the owner Hilly Kristal died. Since then the brand has been turned into a cartoon and put onto anything, which now includes a comic book. This isn’t a shock as we live in a world of capitalism but punk rock should stand for the sprit of do it yourself, and this soon to be schlocked out comic misses the point entirely: Read more… 
