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Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 10, 2010 in Star Wars 
Franco Bambrilla has this great image, titled “Imperial Minigolf Final Exam,” available in giclee print form. I’m trying to figure out what exactly’s going on. Maybe that stormtrooper’s about to make a free throw. I can’t see the hoop, but I imagine that armor has to augment you somehow, right? It’s probably just off-camera. That would probably be a three-pointer, though. Wait, no, this is mini-golf, not basketball. Maybe you have to make a putt through a two-meter exhaust vent? Read more…
Tags: Star Wars
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 10, 2010 in Cinema 
Bucking the trend completely, Warner Bros. has officially backed out of plans to release Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One in 3D, citing that time constraints wouldn’t allow for a quality conversion. Believe it or not, this actually bodes well for 3D cinema on the whole — it’s the first time a studio has come out in favor of quality over quantity where 3D is concerned. However, Warner Bros. still plans to release the second Deathly Hallows film in 3D, so I’m not sure if we can chalk this up as a win for 3D cinema just yet. Read more…
Tags: harry potter
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 9, 2010 in Fandom 
Tags: cosplay, New York Comic Con 2010
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 9, 2010 in Cinema, Comic Books 
I see it time after time again: A new film opens packed with hype, does poor box office and then fades away within a week. A good pulse check of this is if you see any cosplay related to said property even a month after the film is heading to video — so I was very pleased to see the above Scott Pilgrim cosplayer at New York Comic Con on Friday. I think too many reviewer got lost with the videogame story telling style and lost fact that Pilgrim is really an A+ geeky romance film that speaks to a generation (or two).
Tags: cosplay, New York Comic Con 2010, Scott Pilgrim
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 9, 2010 in Animation, Fandom 
I’ve got to say that I’m very impressed at how in a short amount of time that Reni Mimur has really perfected her Japanese maid show act — and has won over so many fans in the process. This year Reni returned to the New York Comic Con and I think what’s great is that this will give her an opportunity to win over non-anime fanboys while warming the hearts of the local otaku community. Read more…
Tags: cosplay, New York Comic Con 2010
Posted by Christian Liendo on Oct 9, 2010 in Fandom, Hobbies and Collections 
Our fear that with New York Comic Con being kitbashed with the New York Anime Festival that the anime aspect of the show would be swallowed up by the comic book aspect of the show — however the high quality of anime cosplay and lolita fashionistas proved otherwise:
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Tags: cosplay, New York Comic Con 2010
Posted by Christian Liendo on Oct 9, 2010 in Comic Books, Fandom 
With the addition of the New York Anime Festival to the New York Comic Con non-anime cosplayers have been forced to step up their game to gain attention — and from the looks of these photos competition can be a very good thing!
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Tags: cosplay, New York Comic Con 2010
Posted by Christian Liendo on Oct 9, 2010 in Comic Books, Fandom 
New York Comic Con opened up today and this year since it’s been combined with the New York Anime Festival it’s bigger than ever. Here are a few shots from the showroom floor to give to a taste of the show:
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Tags: New York Comic Con 2010
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 8, 2010 in Science 
These awesome photos from the Moscow Aviation Institute depict the aborted Soviet moon lander project. The US ended up winning the space race in the 60s, just as Kennedy promised, but the Soviets weren’t too far behind, as these devices show. Also in this gallery are photos of the Soyuz landing capsule, the docking station for the Internation Space Station, and more marvels of the Soviet space program. Even amidst the metal plating and plexiglass you can see the fragility of it all, the myriad of things that could go wrong in space. It’s a wonder that we ever got to space at all, much less in machines like this, but we did it. Read more…
Tags: Soviet space program, Space
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 8, 2010 in Animation 
For the honor of Greyskull! He-Man’s female counterpart, She-Ra, just celebrated her 25th anniversary. The Princess of Power, whose first adventure aired in 1985, was one of the first animated female superheroes, and the first real role model for girls amidst the male-dominated 80s cartoonscape. Mattel and Filmation have been celebrating Adora’s anniversary all year by releasing new toys based on characters from her adventures, and there’s a new collection of animated episodes available now on Hulu, iTunes, and regular old DVD. Read more…
Tags: She-Ra
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 7, 2010 in Videogames 
Ever get that sinking feeling like you’re about to be devoured by a giant yellow ball but weren’t quite sure how to express it to others? Well, this shirt is the solution to that problem. ThinkGeek recently introduced this killer retro Pac-Man glow-in-the-dark ghost t-shirt. Obviously the ghost in question is about to become a snack, but that doesn’t make it any less cool. What’s more is that they’re giving the shirt away for free! What’s the catch you ask? ell, you have to add it to your cart, and spend $31 on other goods before they’ll toss it in free of charge. I guess that doesn’t really make it free, but $31 isn’t too much to ask, especially considering how many awesome products they carry. Besides, if you don’t want to drop the cash on other stuff, you can buy the shirt itself starting at $15.99, with XL and XXL costing a mere dollar or two extra. If you’re shooting for a free one though, I highly recommend a box of Stay Puft caffeinated gourmet marshmallows.
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Tags: Namco Bandai, Pac-Man, t-shirt
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 7, 2010 in Cinema 
Universal Design, the guys who brought us those amazing custom Iron Man sneakers, are also known for their replicas — one of which just happens to be this awesome motorcycle outfit from Disney’s upcoming feature film Tron Legacy, set to release later this year. The outfit, which I can only imagine will be worn during a killer light-bike sequence, comes in two fits — the men’s Sam Flynn model and the women’s Quorra model. While each piece of the outfit — jacket, gloves, pants and boots — will be sold separately, each complete suit will run you $995 and $899 respectively. I know that seems a bit pricy, but you have to admit they both look awesome. If you’re interested check their official website for more information.
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Tags: Props, Tron Legacy
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 6, 2010 in Science 
I love NASA, space exploration, and photoshop as much as anyone, but this official — yes, it’s official — poster for one of NASA recent trips to the International Space Station has got to be the most gaudy one I’ve seen since The Expendables. Of course, I’m not going to fault them for wanting to make routine supply and maintenance seem way cooler than it actually was, but I know I’m not the only one who thought it was a bit much. The guys over at titleofmagazine.com even tweeted that they must have “missed the memo” about Michael Bay running NASA , a jab that I have to give them credit for — after all, it certainly looks that way, doesn’t it?
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Tags: NASA, Space Exploration
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 6, 2010 in Design, Videogames 
I’m not entirely sure it was Keita Takahashi’s intent to revolutionize the game industry when he created Katamari Damacy, but somehow a concept as simple as rolling a ball managed to do just that. In fact, many often label his work as art — contrary to what Roger Ebert would have us believe — so it doesn’t surprise me that others would take notice. Having parted with his former employer, Namco Bandai, Takahashi has been forced move on to bigger and better things. Whether or not we see another title on par with Katamari’s success remains to be seen, but until then, Takahashi will be hard at work creating something a little bit different. Read more…
Tags: Namco Bandai, Videogames as art
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 5, 2010 in Comic Books 
Rian Hughes is a very talented illustrator, typographer and designer which is why I’m looking ahead to seeing On The Line which will be published in December by Image Comics. This book will be a complete collection of his newspaper strips drawn for The Guardian newspaper in England. In the strip Hughes draws a great deal of inspiration from the old modernist UPA cartoons that Gene Deitch did in the 50s.
Tags: Image Comics
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 5, 2010 in Comic Books, Tech 
These days, it seems everyone thinks they can have a web comic. I’m sure that’s probably why I don’t often read them, at least, not the ones that lack art in favor of snark. I’m not sure why, but I suppose on some fundamental level, I just object to the idea of reading witty blocks of text that could have been blogged, or otherwise printed instead of uploaded as a JPEG. And then, to call it a comic on top of that just adds insult to injury — it’s not a comic, it’s lazy. Occasionally though, these “comics” hit the nail on the head. One such was The Oatmeal‘s recent rant about the various e-mails we deal with on a day to day basis. Read more…
Tags: Internet Meme
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 5, 2010 in Videogames 
If you had asked me a month or two ago, I probably would have told you that I couldn’t imagine a place like this existing. However, after my recent trip to Tokyo, I could believe anything — of course, that doesn’t change the fact that I totally regret missing this. Apparently, there’s a Dragon Quest-themed bar in Roppongi — Luida’s Bar. For those of you who aren’t big on Japanese RPGs, Dragon Quest , or Dragon Warrior, as it was once known in the states, is almost as popular as Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy here in the States, and even more so in Japan.
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Tags: Dragon Quest, Japan, square enix
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 4, 2010 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections 
Do you want to look like Fujiko Mine from Lupin III? Well here’s your chance: Bandai will be rolling out a line of cosmetics that are based on the beloved anime series by Monkey Punch. I love the fact how some of the items in the line are shaped like bullets — although I’m surprised that Bandai isn’t doing a line of jewelry given Lupin’s occupation. Read more…
Tags: Anime, Japan, Lupin the 3rd
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 4, 2010 in Comic Books 
Shown above is a preview of the cover for Viking, Vol. 1: The Long Cold Fire which will be published in December 8th by Image Comics. What drew me to this illustration by Nic Klein is the wonderful level of detail in his model combined with a feeling of motion that reminds me a great deal of Japanese manga panels. But the two things that make this cover stand out are the nice use of negative space in the upper left where you eye first reads the artwork — that an the bold use of yellow is a real wiining combination. As this is a preview the artwork may change, but like what I see here.
Tags: Image Comics
Posted by Gia Manry on Oct 4, 2010 in Star Wars 
The above photo is of an umbrella shaped like a star destroyer from Star Wars. I think. I’m not enough of a Star Wars nerd to know the difference between all these things. Anyway, it’s bizarre because it’s such an artsy-fartsy photo and it’s such a dumb shape for an umbrella. Which begs the question: where the hell is the Death Star umbrella?! Read more…
Tags: Death Star, swag
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 3, 2010 in Comic Books, Fandom 
Most studios are okay with just using ads and merchandising tie-ins to drum up publicity for their upcoming animated films, but not Dreamworks. No, they had something much bigger in mind to promote Megamind, Will Ferrell’s upcoming CG superhero movie: they wanted to break a world record. Specifically, the record for most superheroes gathered in a single place. And they did it! In Los Angeles’ Nokia Plaza, over 1501 people showed up in superhero garb, edging out the previous record gathering of 1500 costumed crimefighters. Let’s hope that the movie, out November 5th, is worth this kind of (admittedly awesome) publicity. Read more…
Tags: Guinness World Record, Megamind
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 3, 2010 in Tech 
While I’m trying not to establish myself as the “concept art guy” around here, sometimes a gallery of images is so cool that I just have to link it. And, not to play semantics or anything, these are concept cars, which are totally different from concept art. Not really. Specifically, though, these are concept cars from Japanese auto companies from the last 50 years, ranging in design from “sporty” to “swanky” to “kind of looks like a mechanical caterpillar” (like the above). Some of them seem straight out of a sci-fi movie — and some of them actually are. Read more…
Tags: Concept Cars
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 2, 2010 in Animation, Comic Books 
…he showed up at Marvel HQ and told them so! Isaiah Mustafa (himself a big ol’ geek who even went to Comic-Con) has said several times that he wants to play Marvel brawler Luke Cage in a movie, but this time he took matters into his own hands, showing up at Marvel in the flesh. They filmed this great riff on his famous “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” ads with Old Spice while he was there, using action figures and superimposing Mustafa’s head over Luke Cage’s plastic incarnation. Personally? I think he’s got the chops. The karate chops. Read more…
Tags: Isaiah Mustafa, Luke Cage
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 2, 2010 in Comic Books, Fandom 
San Diego Comic-Con is the biggest event in geek culture, the Mecca toward which all self-respecting nerds point themselves once a year. But it almost became Los Angeles Comic-Con, or Anaheim Comic-Con, thanks to price gouging by local venues and hotels looking to capitalize on the 130,000 fans who flock to the area every year. Negotiations were fierce to cash in on the $150+ million dollars the event brings local tourism — Los Angeles reportedly offered the administrators convention space at no cost — but in the end, the con’s old home beat out all comers. Comic-Con will remain in San Diego, at least until 2015. Sorry, Anaheim — looks like you’ll have to lean on BlizzCon for another five years. Read more…
Tags: comic-con
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