When you look at the science fiction from any previous era you get an insight to what they thought was modern and thus futuristic. You also get an insight into how they looked at the future itself: This RCA Victor album cover from 1958 views modernism as a moonscape (this was the dawn of the space age after all) and the dancer shows a certain amount of humor — and with a booming economy there was good reason to be optimistic at the time.
Just look at how American Greetings has ruined poor Strawberry Shortcake — don’t get me wrong she looked tacky back in the day (she was really a pink rip off of Holly Hobby) but this modern makeover has taken out all of the character out of the character. The modern version misses the point that a shortcake is a cake, and poor Strawberry must be allergic because her cat is out of site:
“Strawberry Shortcake was having an identity crisis. The “it” doll and cartoon star of the 1980s was just not connecting with modern girls. Too candy-obsessed. Too ditzy. Too fond of wearing bloomers. So her owner, American Greetings Properties, worked for a year on what it calls a “fruit-forward” makeover. Strawberry Shortcake, part of a line of scented dolls, now prefers fresh fruit to gumdrops, appears to wear just a dab of lipstick (but no rouge), and spends her time chatting on a cellphone instead of brushing her calico cat, Custard. Her new look was unveiled Tuesday, along with plans for a new line of toys from Hasbro.”
And here is a berry blast from the past from 1980:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 12, 2008 in Science
Frankly until we’re able to see a few more planets outside of our solar system up close it’s a bit early to make judgement calls on what is and isn’t a planet. I say we go to the Star Trek model and start to classify different types of planets by letter:
“Almost two years after the International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly introduced the category of dwarf planets, the IAU, as promised, has decided on a name for transneptunian dwarf planets similar to Pluto. The name plutoid was proposed by the members of the IAU Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN), accepted by the Board of Division III, by the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) and approved by the IAU Executive Committee at its recent meeting in Oslo, Norway.
Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the Sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighbourhood around their orbit. The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris. It is expected that more plutoids will be named as science progresses and new discoveries are made.”
Shown above is a wonderful photo by Inga P. of Yuki Nagato from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I love the way Inga set up this photo, and the cute touch of the cat makes the photo. Inga looks after the biggest English speaking Pinky:st community at pinky-street.com and she’s based out of Nottingham, UK.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 11, 2008 in Animation
These distorted caricatures are great because Javier Gonzalez Burgos has taken these well known Disney icons of the 20th Century and added that extra special touch of 21st Century anxiety with just a dash of information overload. Javier is an illustrator based out of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 11, 2008 in Star Trek
The Good News: CBS now has all of the original Star Trek episodes online!
The Bad News: You can’t embed them into your blog!
Old media just doesn’t get it — and the “it” is economics. On the web page views equal cash, so if nobody can find your video you won’t do so well. You’d think with an army of Star Trek fanboys allowing embedding would be obvious, but to me it’s just another sign of old media not understanding the medium. I also wish that CBS had done a deal with YouTube — as a brand CBS is dead to me because it’s a TV network which is something I make it a point to skip when channel surfing (and I’m an old guy!). There’s something quite sad when a show about the future is married to people stuck in the past.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 10, 2008 in Comic Books
Yes I know perfectly well that the character seen above is in fact a giant hippo and not an elephant, but that doesn’t take away from the high quality of this gritty cover by Rob Steen and Ladronn for Elephantmen #12 which will be released this Wednesday by Image Comics.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 10, 2008 in Science
This is an interesting article: It seems that since we are in the middle of the galaxy it’s very complex to reverse engineer what we’re seeing — until now that is thanks to computer aided astronomy. And it seems that the results are changing the way we think about the shape of the our galaxy, it seems that the Milky Way is two large spiral arms rather than four:
“Astronomy concepts are always changing as new information comes to light. The latest theory to undergo revision is our concept of the structure of the Milky Way. As we reside in the thick of it, it’s tough to see the proverbial forest for the trees. New findings may make a compelling case that the Milky Way has two major spiral arms, rather than four that have been theorized in the past.
A team led by Robert Benjamin of the University of Wisconsin used the recently completed Spitzer Space Telescope infrared survey of the Milky Way, spanning 120° of sky. Previous studies led astronomers to conclude the galaxy has a pronounced central bar and four major spiral arms named for the constellations we see in their directions: Sagittarius-Carina, Scutum-Crux, Perseus, and Norma-Cygnus.”
Quick Robin! Stop him with the Batscope! Ah yes the good old days when for a $1.49 you could battle an evil doer with your never-miss powerful Batscope that shoots darts as far as 50 feet. My favorite part of the packaging is the back which features Batman and Robin taking on everyone from the Joker to a cute fuzzy monster:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 9, 2008 in Comic Books
I think the best part of MoCCA 2008 was getting to shake the hand of comic book legend Gary Panter who played a major role in putting RAW magazine on the map in the 80’s. He was showing off a limited edition model of his famous character Jimbo:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 9, 2008 in Comic Books
Shown above is a photo of Craig Yoe at MoCCA 2008. Craig was asking me why more folks weren’t buying Comic Arf? And looking inside the latest book to tell you the truth I was stumped, it was crammed with all sorts of goodies by some amazing comic book legends like Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman. So if you’re a true comic book fanboy do yourself a favor and order a copy:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 9, 2008 in Comic Books
Shown above is Brian Wood at MoCCA 2008, I follow Brian on Flickr so it was nice to see him in person! Below is a sample of his graphic approach to illustration:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 9, 2008 in Comic Books
Shown above are Hyeondo Park and Jeanette An at MoCCA 2008. Jeanette was showing her comic book The Side Story of Mei-Lan and below is an illustration by Hyeondo Park:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 9, 2008 in Comic Books
Shown above is Liz Baillie at MoCCA 2008 — she’s one of our favorites here at fanboy.com: Indie comic book critic Jenny Gonzalez praised her as a breakout cartoonist for her work on My Brain Hurts:
P.S. Have you ever noticed that only cool people wear Black Flag t-shirts?
? And looking inside the latest book to tell you the truth I was stumped, it was crammed with all sorts of goodies by some amazing comic book legends like Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman. So if you’re a true comic book fanboy do yourself a favor and order a copy:
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