San Diego Comic Con is happening this week, and each year, like clockwork, I end up catching some form of illness from interacting with the masses who attend the event. I haven’t quite turned into a zombie just yet, but it’s certainly a possibility — or so this novel would like me to believe. Night of the Living Trekkies, from the publishers of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, tells the story of some uniform-clad, prosthetic-eared fanboys who happen to be attending their annual Star Trek convention when suddenly aliens decide to unleash a zombie plague. Needless to say, their pseudo-Starfleet training suddenly comes in handy. The book is supposedly littered with countless references to the show, and fanboy culture, making it a must buy for people like you and me. Best of all, the book goes on sale just in time for the con. It’s scheduled for release on July 22nd.
Posted by Christian Liendo on Jul 19, 2010 in Animation, Fandom
Mechacon was held this past weekend in New Orleans and we captured some of the best cosplay going down in the big easy! While there were many sexy cosplayers (see above) this young lady below in the Lucky Star outfit wins our award for cutest cosplayer: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 19, 2010 in Animation
The above video is from the 80s British television series Spitting Image which ran from 1984 to 1996: The show never made it over to America however the characters did get some exposure with the Genesis music video Land of Confusion. What amazed me about this segment (aside from the parody of Madness) is how much the 80s are like today — I knew there was a serious unemployment crisis in England at the time but I don’t recall hearing much about a collapse in the housing market.
Shigeru Mizuki is the master of Japanese horror manga and he’ll be honored with a large scale exhibition in Japan which kicks off on August 11, and runs until August 23, 2010. The exhibit will show off original work from GeGeGe no Kitaro (ゲゲゲの鬼太郎) and Mr. Devil manga series and other personal item associated with the master. Here’s a preview of some of the drawings that will be on display: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 18, 2010 in Animation, Tech
Shocking as it may seem Miffy isn’t Japanese, but in fact is the creation of Dutch artist Dick Bruna who drew the cute little bunny back in 1955. However the graphic cuteness of our bunny friend has always done well in the land of Hello Kitty — and the recent evidence of this is the Miffy Netbook by Onkyo show above. The coolest thing about this netbook is that it features its own Miffy user interface: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 17, 2010 in Comic Books
Illustrator Shigeyuki Fukumitsu created this hamburger themed manga shopping bag for Village Vanguard, a bookstore chain in Japan. What’s funny about it is that the illustration reminds me a great deal of the character Wimpy from Popeye who unlike his vegan sailor pal loved hamburgers: Read more…
Moguera (モゲラ) made his debut in The Mysterians which was released in 1957 — in the film he’s a mole robot used by the Mysterians to attack humanity with his drills. Revoltech is celebrating this magnificent mole mecha creature in their Sci-Fi Revoltech Series, and he’s available for pre-order now and will then be shipping in September. Read more…
It’s been the long time dream of science fiction to produce a ray gun that won’t kill, well it now looks like that’s now reality according to this BBC article: Read more…
Too often I see fanboys build amazing tributes to the imagination of others — but this rejects the original thing that made science fiction fandom so cool: It’s the idea that the fanboys who grow up reading something become the authors of the next generation of new things. So I was very happy to come across an original Lego creation called Containment which is the handy work of Tyler Clites (Legohaulic) and Nannan Zhang (Nannan Z.). Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 16, 2010 in Dr. Who
The funny thing is that when Dr. Who was being developed in 1963 the iconic police-boxes could be spotted all over London and where very commonplace — however in 21st Century England where cell phones are commonplace there are that many to be found anymore. So ironically the TARDIS itself is as much a celebration of a bygone British era as it is a prop from a well beloved science fiction series. This TARDIS-Soap is a great way to keep the series close to your heart every day while giving you a slight caramel-apple smell — and best of all for this fanboy the soap uses all vegan materials. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 15, 2010 in Videogames
Nimble Strong is a new bar-tending themed game for the iPhone which combines the charm of an old school Nintendo role playing game with an otaku-friendly anime art direction style. However unlike so many Nintendo DS games where you’re challenged with a unrelated quiz at every turn (like Professor Layton) what makes the gameplay here so wonderful is that to advance in the game you have to mix a drink. And you’re not just blindly clicking on a tumbler to score points, but actually learning to bartend as you go along: Read more…
It wasn’t programmable but the Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC) was one of the first digital computers ever created. Sadly the research surrounding it ended with World War II (the machine dates to 1942), but the computer designed by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry got its due in 1973 when they awarded patents for their work which pre-dated the ENIAC. This video from 1999 shows a demo of a reconstruction project which cost over $360,000 to create. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 15, 2010 in Animation
I’m not sure what short this footage is from but it shows a recreated animation meeting at Disney for the 1955 film The Lady and the Tramp. While the meeting itself is clearly staged for the camera it gives a very good insight into the classic Disney animation process from that era where music was integral to the production (I also had no idea that Peggy Lee actually wrote lyrics for Disney!). By the way notice that the scoreboards all have animation peg holes on the bottom of the paper: Read more…
Like most of you I’ve been watching in horror as Mel Gibson goes into full self-destruct mode, which is a tragic ending for Mad Max to say the least. And making things worse rumor had it that the beaver film that Mel was working on was suppose to be great (as in Oscar material), but will now be shelved. I think this video by talented puppeteer Loren Feldman sums up this situation the best with an exclusive interview with the beaver!
Sadly Futurama fanboys (and fangurls) unlucky enough to not be at Comic Con will miss out on an opportunity to take home the plus version of Nibbler in Shiny Jumpsuit. Although the good news for us stay at home fans that this is the first item in an entire line of Futurama plush dolls which I hope are equally as cute. Read more…
I know some of you miss having your flip phones for the sole reason of getting to pretend you were Captain Kirk asking to beam up. Who could blame you, though? They looked just like the Star Trek original series communicators, after all. Unfortunately, some of you probably gave that up the moment you purchased your first iPhone. Well, thanks to CBS Interactive, you might not have to. Their recently released Star Trek Communicator app manages to reproduce the look and sounds of the original series handset using your iphone’s interface. In fact, you can even use it to access your contacts and make real phone calls via the app — assuming you’re using an iPhone and not an iPod Touch , of course. The app will cost you $1.99 via the app store, but I’d say that’s a small price to pay for the novelty. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 14, 2010 in Animation
Right now Old Spice is doing a brilliant job feeding the narcism of the blogosphere — however it made yearn for a more simple time in my life when a splash of Old Spice was that mystery product in dad’s medicine cabinet. This made me do a bit of research and I came across the wonderful animated spot shown above from 1957. Read more…
Forbidden Planet in New York City is still very much open, but sadly the shop today is less than 50% of the size that it was in the 80s. This stunning set of videos gives a tour of the place and serves as a vivid time capsule what a comic book shop on steroids looked like back in the day. My art school was just a few blocks away from this place and I spent so many lunch hours there back in the day, so this video brings back a ton of memories: Read more…
With the upcoming release of Tron Legacy, so many companies are rushing to create toys and games to hype the new film. Fortunately for fans of the original, there are a few new products designed specifically to pay homage to the original film, such as this one here. This Tron “Vintage Figure” will be exclusive to San Diego’s upcoming Comic Con International, and apparently comes with some neat little features, such as a case that lights up, and special arcade cabinet packaging. In addition to looking fantastic, they’ll only cost $40 each and will be limited to only 1,500 units, so you’ll need to pick one up while supplies last. Read more…
The Han Solo SL72 sneakers are the latest addition to the Adidas x Star Wars footwear line that was announced last year. The silver scheme, and tongue design is inspired by Han’s carbonite coffin from Empire Strikes Back, but the shoes also feature small details from his costume, including his signature belt and the red trim from his pants. Pretty slick if you ask me. No word on how much they cost, but they’ll be available later this fall. Until then, you’ll have to make due with Hoth-inspired Rebel duds, and a pair of sneakers fit for the Dark Lord himself, which currently retail for $167 and $133, respectively. Check the Adidas online store for more details. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 12, 2010 in Comic Books
To commemorate the July 13th release of the second volume of Koharu Perfect Weather there will be a competition in japan to win the really cool fan shown above. While the language barrier to enter the contest be a bit much for English speaking otaku you can order the manga in Japanese via Amazon.co.jp if you love dog themed manga: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 12, 2010 in Comic Books
With X-Force: Sex and Violence #1 illustrator Gabrielle Del’otto has done a great job of making an everyday Marvel comic book feel like a graphic novel. What makes the artwork look so good is that Gabrielle has abandoned the traditional ink lines that have defined comics since their inception and has instead made every panel look like a painting. Usually Marvel might do this with a cover, but not the entire book — and I’d wish that they’d do this more often looking at the results: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 12, 2010 in Videogames
Born twenty four years ago in 1986 the blue Slime is usually the weakest character in each Dragon Quest game — and now he’s being celebrated with his own non-carbonated soft drink! The Dragon Quest Slime Drink comes in two flavors: Hoimi Cider (shown on the left) which is looks like windex and Mera Tropical (shown on the right). Fanboys should be warned that actually drinking the beverage will ruin any future collectibility value. Read more…
