Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 30, 2010 in Science
In this video planetary scientist Joel Levine states his case why we need to explore Mars. Levine feels that the geography of Mars makes the case for exploration — if we really want to understand our Earth and the idea of extraterrestrial life exploring the red planet is the best place to start. I think that given the state of NASA as geeks we really need to get our voices heard to accelerate this as a priority for our space program.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 30, 2010 in Comic Books
Looking at this first issue of Officer Downe I’ve got to say that at first glance I was not blown away with the cover — however once I looked inside the book my sirens were going off. The illustrations by Chris Burnham remind me of a cross between classic EC comic books, Gary Panter’s work for RAW magazine in the 80s with just the right touch of French comic book art. The story by Joe Casey is sort of an American take on Judge Dredd, and it also reminded me a slight bit of the first Mad Max movie (which is a good thing). This comic is a one shot published by Image and is due out in July. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 29, 2010 in Fandom, Star Trek
John Krietzer assembled this stunning radio controlled version of the Enterprise A! When I first looked at this video I expected a brief voyage at best, but I was quite tickled to see the Enterprise taking a full tour of the galaxy — err the park: Read more…
This prologue trailer from Sega for the Iron Man 2 videogame looks terrible. It sort of reminds me of everything I hate about bad Dreamworks computer animated films: the voice acting is terrible, the animation is stiff and the humans have this very creepy not quite human feeling to them. My gut tells me that Iron Man 2 will be a great deal of fun, but my guess is that the videogame might be a bit rusty.
So I found myself at my local Asian grocery store and looking in the corner of the ice cream section I spotted a pile of GeGeGe no Kitaro ices. I went ahead and tried the iced bar and after doing a bit of research it seems that it was actually “milk flavored” — although it wasn’t ice cream, but more like an Italian ice. It also turns out that in Japan there is a soda flavored version as well. Here is the entire package design: Read more…
Patrick Stewart (better known to us Star Trek fanboys as Captain Picard) will be showing off his acting skills in Hamlet which will play on most PBS stations tonight at 8pm (check your local listings for Great Performances). Stewart will be playing Claudius, however Dr. Who fans should also take note of this production as David Tennant will be playing Hamlet. In the clip above Stewart talks about making Shakespeare appeal to today’s audiences. And below is a clip of Stewart sharing his feelings on tech issues like Twitter and the iPhone. Read more…
Bandai is releasing a limited edition of 100 official Luffy straw hats. Now these aren’t just any old hats made to make a quick yen — these hand made hats will be crafted fourth generation milliners who live by the Inland Sea in Japan. The hats will be shipping in mid-June and sell for ¥4980 each, although my guess is that the competition will be pretty stuff from the many other One Piece fans. Read more…
What you’re looking at is page 48 from the 1987 JCPenny catalog which showcases many popular cartoons from the era! The first two on the top are characters from Brave Starr (Marshall and Tex-Hex), in the middle row we’ve got Thundercats and on the bottom are the Transformers. And the the robes on the right all glow in the dark! Nope it doesn’t get any more tacky than this… Read more…
Sengoku Bushô translates to The Lords of War — and this memory stick collection features ten different samurai who honor their master by carrying up to two gigs of memories. By the way it’s important to note that these aren’t just cartoon samurai, in fact they’re based on historical figures. Included in the set are the likes of Hanzou Hattori, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, Kenshin Uesugi, Masamune Date, Nobunaga Oda, Shingen Takeda and Yukimura Sanada. Although a hazard of being a digital samurai is that often you’ll be decapitated, only to have to be put back together again: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 27, 2010 in Comic Books
As a creative professional one of my favorite forms of inspiration is to visit Japanese bookstores and look through the most recent manga and magazine covers. Unlike the United States there is still a strong market for illustration — and even better yet the variety of styles that you see is just amazing. So I’ve put together a gallery of covers that have caught my eye over the last few months to share these gems. Shown above is the cover for Gee Not which started life as a web comic. I love how the main character and her cats are surrounded by a colorful variety of colorful pachinko machines — another nice touch is how the typography is boxing her in as well. Below is the cover for Ctrl + T which is a book cover for a collection of manga by several artists: Read more…
