The internet as we know it today started began with ARPANET which was the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. Forty years ago on the evening of October 29, 1969 the first data travelled between two nodes of this new computer network. The idea of two computer talking to each other was quite cutting edge in that era. This video shows an interview with Charley Kline and Bill Duvall who were just two young programmers playing with tech back in the day! Read more…
This beautiful video was done by the London office of Google — it does an amazing job of showing off the last 11 years of Google. Two things are striking to me about this video: First the quality of the animation is great, I don’t associate beautiful art direction with the stripped down geeky look of Google. Second it’s shocking to see that Google really has defined the net for the last few years, things they only introduced a few years ago like maps are found everywhere. Although you look at other aspects of the company like Blogger and see that they don’t always hit the mark over time. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 29, 2009 in Comic Books
For the October 29th release of Weekly Shonen Champion the publication features a nice illustration of Tezuka standing next to his manga creation Black Jack. This is the 80th year of Tezuka’s birth (born on November 3, 1928) which nicely fit in with the 40th anniversary of the magazine: Read more…
If you came of age reading science fiction in the late 60s, 70s or 80s you may have come across the illustrations of Don Ivan Punchatz who sadly just passed away. Punchatz’s illustrations were best known in the fantasy and science fiction genres and graced quite a few paperbacks, although his work covered other genres and he even did a cover or two for Time magazine (which is as good as you can get). Videogame fanboys however might best know him for his package art for the original Doom game (shown above), although his paperback cover art for the Isaac Asimov Foundation triology was my first encounter with his artwork: Read more…
First a disclaimer: My opinions do not represent 99% of computer users. Because of my career I’m part of that geeky 1% of computer users who by the nature of their job needs to download and try out new software on a regular basis. Most users really do live in the browser and MS Office, but I’m the guy who’s installed Tweetdeck, has all three major browers up and running and Xobni running inside of Outlook. Read more…
Editor’s Introduction: Journalist Amber Love shared with us these touching photos of Wonder Woman Day which took place this past weekend. The event took place in both Portland and New Jersey — these photos are from the Jersey event which was hosted at Comic Fusion. To me the folks in these photos are the real superheroes — fans and pros like yourselves coming together to pitch in for a good cause. By the way in these photos you’ll see several shots of Joe Sinnott — the man is a living legend of comics, if you don’t know him do yourself a huge favor and check out his bio and you’ll be amazed at his life story. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 27, 2009 in Videogames
3D Dot Game Heroes is an RPG game for the Playstation 3 which is due out on November 5th in Japan. This title which is designed by From Software takes place in a classic retro gaming RPG kingdom whose king declares that his world should be in 3D to celebrate the defeat of a demon lord. What I love about this title is that it pays tribute to old school videogames while breaking the third wall of the medium by incorporating the medium of the medium into the plot of the game: Read more…
Kazuo Umezu (楳図 かずお) is the the godfather of the Japanese horror manga genre. A new film has been released in Japan which profiles the author/artist who got his start in 1962 and is still active. Umezu is best known for such works as The Drifting Classroom, Makoto-chan and Reptilia. The Drifting Classroom was turned into a live action film in 1987. Here are some samples of his wonderfully gothic work: Read more…
While looking at the coverage of the launch of Windows 7 in the Akihabara district of of Tokyo when I came across the coolest feature of the new operating system: The unofficial Windows 7 anime spokesmodel! This moe character design features a girl with dark blue hair who sports a clover symbol which is made up of the official Windows colors: Read more…
When your child grows up to watch the second (or third?) reboot of Star Trek they’ll know that it all started when you first put them into their very own Star Trek Uniform Onesie. There are four options available: cadet gray, science blue and command yellow. However we strongly urge you to not dress your child in operations red: Read more…
Some Stanford students have put together a autonomous running robot car by hacking an Audi TTS. The car was designed so it can race to the top of Pikes Peak in 2010, however the robot car reminded me a great deal of KITT from the 1982 TV series Knight Rider: Read more…
If there are characters that deserve the title non-action figures it would have to be he characters from Family Guy. Sure GI Joe has to go out and fight Cobra, but the Griffins would be more at home attacking a pizza. This Family Guy Mini Figure Boxed Set contains Peter, Lois, Brian, Chris, Megan and Stewie and will be in out in November: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 24, 2009 in Comic Books
There are two things I love about this cover for Marvel Divas #4 by Jelena Kevic-Djurdjevic: First the coloring is wonderfully done, but more amazing yet our divas aren’t forced to be clad in bikinis when fighting those devilish looking creatures! Granted the Marvel Divas look slightly supermodel thin, but this feels like an improvement from other covers I tend to see. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 23, 2009 in Television
Sadly Soupy Sales has passed away, born as Milton Supman he earned his nickname Soupy from his childhood. During World War II while serving in the Navy he entertained his shipmates by telling jokes and playing crazy characters over the ship’s public address system. After the war he became a disc jockey and used his material from the Navy to eventually launch a long lasting career during the golden age of television. A generation of children grew up with Lunch with Soupy Sales which launched in 1953 and lasted until 1966. Soupy did everything else from game shows to voice acting in cartoons in his life, but his pioneering work from that golden age of television put him into the hearts of baby boomers who thought of him as family.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 23, 2009 in Science
In this video Bethany Cobb does a great job of explaining how astronomers search for planets in orbit of stars. In the full video she further explores NASA’s Kepler Mission and its search for Earth-like planets in other solar systems. Here’s a previous video with Cobb talking about the expanding nature of the universe: Read more…
For the fourth year in a row Portland, Oregon will celebrate Wonder Woman Day and use the day to raise funds for three local domestic violence prevention-intervention agencies. The popularity of the day has inspired Stacy Korn, co-owner of Comic Fusion in New Jersey to do an east coast event by having local artists do sketches for charity. I have to say that I love the idea of taking Wonder Woman who is an icon of strength and equality — and using her to raise awareness for a good cause: Read more…
The thing that makes this commercial for me is seeing Sally from the Peanuts gang scratching records — and of course having Snoopy, Marcy, Peppermint Patty and Lucy back up J-pop star Kaela Kimur (木村カエラ) singing her Hot Pepper song pushes this advert to the next level. And so what is Hot Pepper? It seems to be some sort of food website which is sponsored by Recruit which is a job placement service. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 21, 2009 in Comic Books
Shown above is the cover for Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #59 by Skottie Young which is due out in January. I never get tired of looking at Skottie’s work, it always pops out from the pack every time I see the Marvel previews. I like the fact that by taking a cartoony approach with the classic Marvel characters that he’s able to give them some personality that you never see in the more serious action packed and over photoshoped covers you see elsewhere.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 21, 2009 in Videogames
Shown above is the trailer for The Beatles: Rock Band Abbey Road download which is available on Xbox LIVE (and will be available later this week PlayStation Network). Watching this footage I realized why from a conceptual point of view that I hate this game: The Beatles started life as a “Rock Band” but when they made it they really became a pop music act. The quality of their work is second to none, but it’s unfair to call them a rock band when other acts from that era really did earn the title like the Rolling Stones: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 20, 2009 in Animation
On the surface Soul Eater looks amazing, in fact the animation in this clip is very well constructed. Yet for me it feels like the studio isn’t taking any chances or trying anything new: For starters the plot is pretty much Bleach and the character designs remind me a great deal of One Piece with just a dash of Jamie Hewlett thrown in for fun. The show looks entertaining yet it’s evolutionary not revolutionary in terms of the field. Frankly is it just me or is the character of Black Star very similar to the character 2-D from the Gorillaz? Read more…
As an old time anime fanboy one of the greatest pleasures I take is in seeing just how far anime fandom has come in the United States from the 70s when it first started. Back then anime fans would meet up at local clubs or science fiction conventions and if 100 people showed up you were blown away. So when I look around at cons today I love the fact that there might be 100 fans standing in line waiting to get badges at a convention. But one thing breaks my heart: The fact that those who killed themselves with little reward to help popularize the medium can too easily be forgotten. Read more…
Back in the day my friend Ardith Carlton (who now lives in Japan) would keep telling us about this amazing anime series called Tomorrow’s Joe (あしたのジョ) which she claimed at the time was one of THE best anime series of all time. Of course none of us believed her because the subject matter in the show was boxing and this being the 80s our obsessions at the time were giant robots and cool looking spaceships and of course Joe offered none of that. Little did we know what a cool series that we were missing out on! Ashita no Jō is now seen as one of the heavyweights of its genre. And in celebration of the series Kaitendoh is releasing a huge 1/6th scale collectable statuette which will come out in December: Read more…
The Star Wars Battlefront videogame asks the big question: What’s it like to be an everyday character in the Star Wars universe? The answer is that it looks action packed! This is a teaser trailer for the latest chapter in that series which is titled Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron and is designed for the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. Of course what you’re seeing above sadly isn’t the actual gameplay, but it shows the level of love that Lucasarts has put into this game which is due out on November 3rd. Below is a beautiful promotional illustration followed by actual screenshots from the game (which feature a nice variety of settings): Read more…
The internet as we know it today started began with ARPANET which was the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. Forty years ago on the evening of October 29, 1969 the first data travelled between two nodes of this new computer network. The idea of two computer talking to each other was quite cutting edge in that era. This video shows an interview with Charley Kline and Bill Duvall who were just two young programmers playing with tech back in the day! Read more… 
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Back in the day my friend Ardith Carlton (who now lives in Japan) would keep telling us about this amazing anime series called