Posted by Michael Sacco on May 20, 2011 in Comic Books
Colorist Moose Baumann, responsible for making some of Marvel’s and DC’s most popular heroes leap off the page, is encountering some financial difficulties. His wife incurred some staggering medical bills during her cancer treatments and it’s been an uphill to keep those bills paid on top of normal expenses (you know, like a mortgage). The couple is in danger of losing their home, and Baumann has resorted to selling high-quality prints of his work to make some emergency money. If you’d like to help Moose and his wife out, you can buy one of his prints by emailing him directly at moosebaumann@mediacombb.net. Prints aside, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind a few bucks tossed his way via PayPal either, which is hooked up to that email address. Good luck, Moose! Read more…
I’ve seen people use Minecraft to create all kinds of awesome maps, but I’ve never seen anything quite like this. Not even the Enterprise-D built to scale could hold a candle to these. The video depicts a number of maps based on the various animated works of Studio Ghibli. You’ll recognize scenes and locations from films such as Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and Laputa: Castle in the Sky, all of which seem masterfully crafted. i can’t imagine how much time and effort was spent constructing these maps, but they’re all really impressive.
Summit Entertainment is once again making noise about their upcoming plans to “reimagine” the Highlander film franchise — I’m not sure how I feel about that term, but it’s probably for the best. In a recent press release, it was announced that they’ve inked a deal with RCR Media Group to co-finance the project. The release goes on to list Justin Lin as still being attached to direct the film, though Lin seems to be in high demand lately. He’s currently set to direct the sequel to his previous film, Fast Five, which proved to be a smash at the box office, as well Terminator 5 — of which, I’d rather see. It also names Art Marcum and Matt Holloway as the script writers. Holloway did a bang up job with Iron Man, so I’ve got high expectations going in. Hopefully the franchise will finally get the treatment it deserves. After all, it’s a hell of a concept, I just wish they had gotten it right the first five or so times.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on May 18, 2011 in Pulp Fiction
Check out this lovely painting by Weta Workshop’s Ben Wootten, who once served as both artist and concept designer for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. You may recognize his work from the various DVD extras and art books included with the various releases over the years. WETA recently made his work available for sale in the form of large poster art prints. Each individual 23.7″ x 11.7″ print sells for roughly $35 plus shipping and comes high quality satin paper, and while you may have missed our chance to receive a hand-signed copy, I can assure you each poster is more than worth that price. Unfortunately, the more I look at them, the more I find myself pining away for The Hobbit. Until then, we’ll just be left craving for more. For an closer look at the poster, or to order one of your own, check out the WETA store for more information.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly three years since Namco Bandai’s Soul CaliburIV hit the market. Better known for its quick, combo-driven gameplay, and scantly clad femme-fatals, the latest entry in the series shocked us all when Namco Bandai teamed up with LucasArts to include several guest characters from the Star Wars universe. Some details have finally emerged regarding its long-awaited sequel.
Feast your eyes on this extremely limited edition “Musha” Darth Vader. Yoshitoku, a long-standing Japanese art and craft house, has decided to design this exclusive figure to commemorate their 300th year in business. At just over a food and a half tall, this aluminum and resin sculpt How limited, exactly? They’ll only be producing 30 pieces total and each figure will sell for around 136,500 yen — that’s nearly $1,675. They’re incredibly detailed but I can’t imagine wanting to pay that much for one. Assuming you can afford it, and know enough Japanese to surf Yoshitoku’s official website, pre-orders are open through June 10th.
Today, 20th Century Fox unveiled their plans for a 21st century reboot the Hannah-Barbara classic, The Flintstones to by co-produced by Warner Brothers Television. Overseeing the production will be none other than Family Guy‘s Seth MacFarlane. However, unlike MacFarlane’s raunchier block of animated programming, the show will probably be a tad more family-oriented. Furthermore, while the production might start later this fall, the show itself may not even air until 2013. It’ll be quite the wait, but considering the amount of red tape likely surrounding a series as old as The Flintstones, and MacFarlane’s target demographic, it’s surprising the project even got the green light in the first place. Whether or not the show will be any good definitely remains to be seen.
Posted by Linda Yau on May 16, 2011 in Comic Books
In a life time, a quarter life is a milestone and put this in the context of Viz Media, who just so happens to be celebrating 25 years of being in business this upcoming year. Does it call for a celebration or what? The American manga industry has been having stormy weather recently, so for manga fans, knowing that Viz Media’s age is actually a positive one. Read more…
Above: Rica ‘tte Kanji!? really proved to an American audience that manga didn’t have to be about magical girls or robots, but could tell personal stories about the real world. Currently an Rica ‘tte Kanji!? Omnibus is being produced.
When you are around manga and graphic novels a lot, one voice or genre might pop up, and that is the alternative press of gay and lesbian that is quite popular among readers and fans. You don’t have to even be a fan for this genre, but be open minded to know that it is there. Within the past couple of weeks, there has been an issue of censorship in graphic novels on Amazon Kindle. So this week we are happy to have an email interview with ALC Publishing and Yuricon founder Erica Friedman. Erica’s blog is called Okazu which are the wonderful Japanese bread with savory fillings. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on May 15, 2011 in Television
NBC may have passed on picking up the much-maligned Wonder Woman pilot, but that doesn’t mean that they’re done with genre TV for 2011-12. In fact, they picked up two pilots — the first is called Grimm, and it’s about a cop who finds out supernatural creatures are real and has to protect the city from them. The second, Awake, may be of special interest to Harry Potter film fans, as Lucius Malfoy portrayer Jason Isaacs is playing the lead. The plot? Isaac’s character is a cop (yes, again) who lives in two worlds after an automobile accident: one where his wife survived, and one where his son survived. It’s pretty high-concept and Isaacs is a great actor, so with any luck the show will survive.
Netflix actually has a lot of genre stuff available to watch instantly, so you may suffer from what I like to call Netflix Indecision Disorder: the condition that forces you to just aimlessly browse Netflix for two hours instead of actually picking something to watch. Suffer no more, friends! SF Signal concocted this excellent chart that’ll help you find the perfect scifi show or movie to watch on Netflix based on your interests or capricious whims. That reminds me … I need to go watch Alien Nation again. Read more…
Not a live-action one, though; don’t get your hopes up for that any time soon. Roberto Orci, half of the Star Trek reboot’s writing team, tweeted last night that he’s been talking with someone about putting together another Star Trek animated series. Details were left out, of course, given the 140-character limit, so we’re not exactly sure who he was talking to about it or whether it was just musing, but you have to admit that with how far TV animation has come, there might be some potential here. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on May 13, 2011 in Television
Warehouse 13 is apparently SyFy’s most popular show ever, so it makes sense that they’d want to milk it for all it’s worth. Enter spinoff! Yes, showrunner Jack Kenny announced he’s working with the scripted content-starved channel to create a Warehouse 13 spinoff starring, of all people, H. G. Wells. No, not the author. Well, kind of the author. See, on the show, Wells is actually a woman who let her brother write stories based on her real adventures with crazy inventions in the late 19th century, so the spinoff would focus on said adventures in that time period. Kenny describes it as “steampunky environment.” I worry whenever the term “steampunk” is used by a professional.
Posted by Michael Sacco on May 13, 2011 in Pulp Fiction
No, not that kind of song, and not that kind of cover either! We’re talking book covers here. George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is getting a Japanese translation via Hayakawa Publishing, and a few well-known manga and video game artists have provided covers for the series’ run. Ken Sugawara and Yasushi Suzuki have some of my favorites on here; it’s pretty great to see such a different take on the characters compared to HBO’s recent (very successful) Game of Thrones TV series. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on May 12, 2011 in Design, Fandom
While many of you may recognize some of her work from around the net, you probably don’t know the name behind some of these nerdy Art Nouveau-inspired character portraits. Her name is Megan Lara, a 22 year-old aspiring artist and self-proclaimed fangirl and her art’s been turning quite a few heads as of late. Her art isn’t limited to these portraits either. Megan’s portfolio also includes fine art, general prints, and more. Currently, a large portion of her works are available on t-shirts via Level Up Studios, but her designs can be found everywhere from RedBubble to, most recently, ThinkGeek. If you’d like to check out more of her work, you can visit her official site or browse on over to her Deviant Art.
Namco Bandai revealed the latest trailer for the upcoming fantasy action title, Dark Souls. Like it’s spiritual predecessor, Demon’s Souls, the title promises brutal, highly difficult and unforgiving gameplay while providing one of the most immersive experiences the genre has seen to date. I have to admit, I found the previous title to be a bit too difficult at times, often needing to take extended breaks to prevent myself from stressing out. In addition, the game’s environment, though arguably beautiful at times, can be extremely creepy. It had been a long time since a game sent those kinds of tingles down my spine. Nevertheless, this upcoming release looks spectacular and I really can’t wait to give it a try. The trailer also reveals an October release date — unfortunately, the game will be available exclusively for PS3. Given Namco’s involvement, we can always hope that it’ll get ported, but only time will tell.
Like many of the newer cable networks, the Science Channel lies on the fringe of my available HD programming. I almost never catch any of the shows, but I once happened upon it while an episode of Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible was airing. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the program, the host Dr.Michio Kaku takes concepts from Science Fiction and tries to explain how he thinks they’d work using current scientific knowledge and technology. The guys from Devestator Quarterly threw together this little parody showing us that some fanboys out there might take issue with his often liberal approach to some of the lore we hold so sacred. Campy? Sure, but it’s worth a laugh or two. Read more…
The other month we wrote about Mark at Major League Mods and his amazing R2-D2 Xbox 360 projector mod. His design was astonishing enough to make any Star Wars fanboy green with envy. Now, he’s at it again, this time with a fresh take on his original Millennium Falcon Xbox. Years ago, Mark combined the innards of Microsoft’s old black box with a classic Kenner ’79 Millennium Falcon. Microsoft recently released another black box, and while this one is much slimmer, it didn’t stop mark from throwing together another great mod for a customer. This fully functioning 360 slim looks absolutely fantastic. The engines and running lights are a great touch as well. To see how everything works, check out the video below. You can also check out the Major League Mods website for more of Mark’s mods.
I’ve lost track of how many Dragon Ball games have flooded market in recent years. The license has been spread pretty thin with most of the titles retelling Akria Toriyama’s original plot from start to finish while taking a few liberties along the way. In addition, most of these games have featured similar cel-shaded visuals and gameplay, leading many people to believe that once you’ve played one, you’ve played them all. Of course, I’ve had plenty of people tell me that’s simply not the case. They’ve made improvements with pratically every itteration of the series and while we many have chosen to ignore them in the past, this latest entry might cause you to take notice.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on May 10, 2011 in Cinema, Horror
The New York Timesrecently released this photo of the upcoming film Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter — a film I still can’t believe is actually in production. I have yet to actually sit down and read the novel its based on. The concept for the film just seems so far fetched, not that it isn’t the least bit awesome. Imagining Abraham Lincoln waging war on the South while taking the occasional sabbatical to axe a few vampires sounds pretty cool, and the trailer for the novel did a great job of selling it. I just hope the film lives up to the hype.
Directed by Takeshi Miike the film 13 Assassins is playing at quite a few art houses — if you’re into samurai films this looks pretty amazing. Here’s the trailer: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 9, 2011 in Comic Books
I’ve been following a new web comic by Carolita Johnson named Oscarina. The one panel cartoons feature the precocious young lady who’s on a mission to showcase the hypocrisy of adults with cunning comments on everything from allergies to religion. Over the past few years Carolita Johnson has done some amazing work for New Yorker magazine, but what I really love about this strip is that she’s focusing on a single character who has a very strong voice.
Recently I was at Anime Boston, and met an interesting cosplayer with a rich in potassium banana. I also definitely attended panels hosted by this person of interest. Meet Charles Dunbar aka Anime Antropologiest of Study of Anime. From the time I have met him to now, his panels at conventions will pack rooms. This is a scholar that has made my appreciation toward anime more interesting and academic in a sense that is away from the college environment. I hope to see more of this man speak, so I happened to be able to conduct an email interview with him. Read more…
