Posted by Michael Sacco on Sep 14, 2010 in Cinema, Horror
Bruce Campbell leveraged a long and successful career out of Sam Raimi’s cult classic horror film Evil Dead, but he’s hardly forgotten his roots, according to a recent interview with the LA Times. Campbell says that working on the Dead films was a long, grueling experience, and the advice he gives fledgling filmmakers is “get two other friends and be prepared to sink four years into your project.” Besides a lot of other interesting tidbits — Evil Dead‘s production was funded by Detroit-area doctors and lawyers, for example — the coolest thing by far mentioned in this interview was Campbell’s desire to make an Expendables-style horror-comedy ensemble movie. He says it could happen in the next year or so, and that he wants horror greats like Robert Englund and Kane Hodder to be in it with him. There’s even a script! The only problem? “It just kind of blows right now.” That’s Bruce Campbell honesty for you. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Sep 13, 2010 in Videogames
It looks like even the folks behind the Iron Curtain couldn’t resist the appeal of an arcade. Dangerous Business highlights their visit to the Museum of Soviet Arcade Games with shots of the amazing arcade machines therein, from the undoubtedly thrilling “Torpedo Attack” (above) to the slightly more mundane “Traffic Sign Quiz” to the incomprehensible “Turnip Strength Tester” (below). What’s notable is that none of these machines seem particularly jovial — all hard edges and dull colors, the hardware equivalent of “programmer art.” Connal Hughes of Dangerous Business noticed it too, commenting that they “looked like they were designed with the same sense of fun that an engineer would use to construct a hospital waiting room.” Who would’ve known that Brutalist design could even producethese kinds of machines? I guess when things in your country are as bad as they were for the Soviets, you have to take what you can get. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Sep 13, 2010 in Star Trek
The Star Trek reboot was one of the biggest cinema hits of 2009, for good reason — it was a great movie. Director J.J. Abrams did a lot of things right, and he’d like to keep that pattern going for the film’s sequel, according to a new interview with SFX Magazine. Fans have been clamoring for Klingons to be featured in the second film of the rebooted series, and Abrams says he isn’t deaf to those pleas, but it’s a matter of seeing what works in the lens of this slightly different film universe. He said that adding something that’s popular with fans to the franchise for the sake of likeability isn’t necessarily the best idea, but if it can work, they’ll do it. He also told fans not to worry — the tone of the first film should be carried over to the second, in terms of humor interspersed with the drama. Good news there. No evidence of gritty sequelitis found — put that needle away, Bones. Read more…
Hello Kitty has no mouth yet these kitty speakers can amp up your iPod: Available in white and pink each Hello Kitty Dock Speaker for iPod features two speakers and a remote control. Although the cool thing about this neko gizmo is that you can also control the sound caressing kitty’s ears to turn the volume up and down.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 12, 2010 in Animation
Wanting too much of a good thing is a very American trait — we eat too much fast food, consume way too much oil to drive automobiles that are way too big and our tastes in entertainment slouch towards mental comfort food. If we like a TV show chances are that the creators will ignore their better instincts and run the show into the ground. Such was the case with Happy Days and thus the phrase “Jumping the Shark” was born. So this is clearly a uniquely American bad habit? Wrong! Anime is suffering from the very same sin of more and more of the same. Read more…
Yes I know on the surface that this USB Oshaberi Talking Chopper seems like a typical superficial useless office toy — but the reality is that it’s highly educational linguistic device! This talking Tony Tony Chopper can not only blink his eyes and move his cheeks but he can also speak up to 70 lines (in japanese of course) from One Piece. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 11, 2010 in Comic Books
Gangsta is a new manga series that will be put out by Comic Bunch. This artwork is just a preview, but I love the look of the character designs which feels like a cross between samurai and a wild west film: Read more…
It would look like this! Designer Satoshi Fumihara the genius behind the Japanese MTV series Golden Egg designed these funky Cubic Mouth Disney Key Cover which look cutting edge yet retain the cute qualities of Mickey and Mini. I’ve always admired how Disney has adapted to local culture in Japan by taking chances and this is always reflected in the merchandise — something which I wish Disney would do more often in the United States where the brand play it a bit too safe. Read more…
Word on the streets is that the University of Mississippi, which apparently everyone in the known universe refers to as Ole Miss as though it was a crazy cat lady living down the street, was home to a movement to pronounce Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars as its mascot. Read more…
“Candy isn’t really a geek thing,” you might say in response to the video I am about to show you. But if you think of a nerd as someone who is obsessively knowledgeable about a topic then you can’t deny that what follows has got to be nerdcore, even if it’s about the history and awesomeness of chocolate and peanut butter combined rather than about, say, differential calculus or the extended adventures of Wesley Crusher.
And wouldn’t you know it, I’m all out of peanut butter cups? But I have this jar of Skippy and a bottle of Hershey’s chocolate sauce…
Gia Manry is a professional writer specializing in geek culture. She currently writes primarily for Anime News Network, but also likes being followed on Twitter. She can be contacted via her website.
Only children are supposed to be able to see Totoro, Miyazaki’s friendly furry forest spirit, but it looks like exceptions are made when he’s crafted of fondant. Carolyn Lengel made these adorable cupcakes with her daughter Harriet to celebrate Harriet’s 11th birthday. Seeing all eleven together will likely make you use the word “cute” several hundred times, and you might even want one for yourself, but alas — you can’t have your Totoros and eat them too.Read more…
Disney’s making a long-term investment in Tron Legacy, and fans of the original film (or of the actually-decent Tron 2.0 game) should be pretty pleased with that effort — the studio even secured electronica greats Daft Punk to score the film, and the genius of that is difficult to overstate. When I saw the Legacy trailer for the first time, the gritty, thumping soundtrack immediately stood out to me, and I wanted more. Thankfully, it looks like Disney is ready to help in that regard. TronSoundtrack.com just opened its doors, and though there’s not much there right now (a looping theme from the film and a mailing list sign-up), it should be populated with a lot more great tracks like the sneak peeks we’ve heard so far. If you’re a Tron fan and you haven’t already bookmarked the site by the time this article is over, I’d go ahead and sign up for voluntary de-rezzing. Read more…
Do you ever look down and think “Golly, my shoes just aren’t cute enough”? If so, you may be one of the millions of people worldwide suffering from Sanrio Shoe Deficiency (SSD). Thankfully, there’s a cure: Sanrio and Doctor Martens have teamed up for their respective 50th anniversaries to bring you these overwhelmingly adorable shoes themed around Hello Kitty. Available in both the classic white/blue/red and a punkier pink/black palette, these limited-edition Doc Martens with Hello Kitty bow details are available as boots or Mary Janes. At over a hundred dollars, they’re not cheap, but they’re certainly unique. Perfect for stomping around after your roller derby match or going to the malt shop with your steady. Now where are my Chococat Converse All-Stars, Sanrio? Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Sep 8, 2010 in Star Trek
From a modern sci-fi enthusiast’s perspective, the original Star Trek TV series is a pretty campy experience. In fact, let’s just extend that to “everybody.” But you can’t deny its unique brand of futurism, which continues to influence science fiction (and regular science) in the decades since it first aired. The newly-released hardcover Star Trek 365 features a treasure trove of over three hundred pieces of art from the series’ 71-episode run, from set photos to concept art to beautiful newly-remastered stills. There’s even rarely-seen licensed art, like the box art for the first plastic Spock model shown above. The only way the book could be more compelling for fans of the series (or retro futurism) is if it was bound in corbomite. Read more…
Visionary director Terry Gilliam recently visited the Deauville American Film Festival in France, speaking about the collapse of financing for his long-beleaguered project The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. He says he still wants to do the film, and Robert Duvall and Ewan McGregor are still attached to the project, but the film has been beset with so many slings and arrows for so many years that I wouldn’t hold my breath to see it released. That wasn’t the only interesting bit of news that came from the panel, though — it turns out that the director is in talks to produce a 3-D conversion of his beloved film Time Bandits! I’m not sure I really think a 3-D conversion of a film like Time Bandits is strictly necessary, but when has Terry Gilliam ever stopped at “necessary”? Read more…
Okay, so maybe Dune’s original theatrical release was just a little bit before my time, but I’m still plenty familiar with the series, largely thanks to the copy of Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials I received at a ripe young age. These pieces of concept art from Jock, the artist behind 2000 A.D., were intended for use in Paramount’s planned Dune remake. While the concepts may have been shelved due to a change in directors, it doesn’t make the art any less compelling, and they really reinforce my belief that no matter what planet you’re on (or netherworld you’re in, in Beetlejuice’s case), you just don’t mess with sandworms. Not that you were probably planning on it, of course, but I like to help a Fremen out.
The world of personal electronics is currently in an arms race to see who can come up with the smallest, coolest-looking entertainment devices, but there was a time when the mere concept of a “home computer”was almost unbelievable. Atari may not have had decades of staying power in the PC market, but the Atari name will always be synonymous with early efforts in home computing and video gaming, and these amazing technical drawings and pieces of concept art drawn up by Atari industrial designer Regan Cheng in 1981 show why. Read more…
You know, a lot of our favorite movies and TV shows deal with some sort of fictional company, from the independent business (Paper Street Soap Co.) to the megacorp (Massive Dynamic). We always see the men and women who run the show, but we rarely see the men on the ground, the salt-of-the-earth types who keep keep these fictional businesses going by performing mundane tasks in low-paying positions. Does Jack Tesler, part of Umbrella Corporation’s maintenance personnel, even know that he’s technically a henchman? Probably not, but at least he’s been provided with a cool business card, courtesy of Fro Design Co. Fro’s latest collection, titled “Day Jobs,” features mockups of business cards belonging to normal people who just happen to work at twenty-one made-up companies covering the entire geek spectrum, from Cyberdyne Systems all the way down to Duff Beer. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 5, 2010 in Comic Books
The Devil is So Cute is a collection of the work of manga artist Takako Shimura. What I really love about this cover is not that it’s just a good manga cover, but that the fact that it’s a beautiful illustration and well designed. Honestly when was the last time you found an American comic book that featured the color combination of chartreuse, pale yellow and mauve with polka dots? And even though I can’t read Japanese the ultra thin typography in gray looks wonderfully elegant.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 5, 2010 in Comic Books
Could it be that maids are about to go out of style? Shown above is a promotional illustration for Military High School Joshi-Kouhei which will be a new manga series by Matsumoto Zirou in the monthly comic magazine Bunch. The series will harken back to the good old days of manga and anime and prominently feature sci fi themes in the tradition of Leiji Matsumoto (which I think is a good thing).
The videogame Harukanaru Toki no Naka de (also known as Within the Expanse of a Distant Time) was so popular that it inspired music CDs, a manga series, an anime series and even a live action film and now — a set of Hello Kitty collectables! This is being done to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the franchise which first started off in 2000 as a PlayStation game. Shown above are special stickers and below are cel phone straps: Read more…
If you were a fanboy child of the 70s you’ll well remember the Mego Star Trek action figures. Of course there was Kirk, Spock and McCoy but sadly if if you wanted that one other character you had to * gasp * use your imagination! Well progress being what it is there is an entire series of all of those other characters you wanted to play with in the backyard but who never were (except on the small screen). Shown above is the Captain Pike action figure which is a nice tribute to actor Jeffrey Hunter who passed on the role of captain in 1965 in favor of a film career — and sadly he passed away in 1969. And on the silly side is the Salt Vampire whose proper name is the now extinct M-113 creature from the episode The Man Trap: Read more…
There’s an infinite galaxy’s worth of things that could be said about this photo, but more or less I’ll just say that it warmed my cold cold heart and made me smile, and I hope it does the same for you. And by the way… Read more…
So word on the streets is that Neil Gaiman’s seminal ’90s comic Sandman is going to be adapted into a TV series. In the grand old tradition of nerds being horrified of adaptations of their favorite works, I have a few words to share. Read more…
