Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 14, 2010 in Fandom, Tech
La Carmina is one of my favorite subculture bloggers, so I was a bit upset to see that YouTube had censored one of her videos by claiming that it violated their community guidelines. But I’ll let you be the judge — shown below is her video. Now before you watch this clip I will warn you that there is some fetish footage at the end. However some of you may be a bit disappointed as the model in question is clothed (she’s wearing underwear), and that may be hard to see as the scene is shot in a low light situation: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 14, 2010 in Comic Books
I was pleasantly surprised to see that on Wednesday BOOM! Studios be taking their first steps as a publisher and putting out a real book which will be a collection of New Yorker styled cartoons by Shannon Wheeler with the title I Thought You Would Be Funnier. On the surface creating a New Yorker cartoon seem dead simple — they’re black and white, not always exquisitely drawn and have to have a clever punchline. However just try coming up with a few of these on your own and you’ll see just how hard it is to do something original or even just funny. So the few artists that can get their work published are always worth taking a look at — and in this case Wheeler deserves your admiration as he paid his dues with the cult comic Too Much Coffee Man. Here’s a preview of his book which make me smile a few times: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 14, 2010 in Comic Books
There was a magic moment in my life when I first ventured into Japanese bookstores here in New York City. Mind you that this was many moons ago, but as an art school student I knew that shows like Star Blazers came from Japan. Not speaking Japanese the first books that caught my attention were the Roman Albums, which were (and still are) published by Tokuma Shoten. These books were miniature coffee table guides to a series, but they left me with a hunger to see the comic books that inspired these amazing animated shows. Nippon Books was a tiny store (which went out of business a quite a few years ago) so it was with a great delight that I discovered the Kinokuniya book store. Read more…
I’m a journalism major, not a design major, but I have to say that the logos for the upcoming film adaptations of Marvel comics’ Thor and Captain America are…less than thrilling. And I mean that in the literal sense. They’re pretty boring. Let’s have a look-see. Read more…
In certain video games, there’s a phenomenon I’m going to call “Boss to Minion Progression” (or you may know it on TVTropes as Degraded Boss) in which an early level’s boss reappears– weaker, and perhaps a different color –as a regular-occurring baddie in a later level. Nearly every Final Fantasy has had this, along with games like Castlevania, beat-’em-ups like Double Dragon and Streets of Rage, a bunch of the Legend of Zelda games…it’s pretty common. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jun 11, 2010 in Videogames
I’m sure most of you were expecting to see the Mortal Kombat: Rebirth teaser that’s been floating around the internet the past few days. Well, instead we have a trailer for the upcoming Mortal Kombat game that, I could only imagine, would have been announced at E3 next week. This year however, everyone seems to have wanted to let their cats out of their proverbial bags, so we’re getting to see this stuff ahead of time — lucky us.
Medicom’s at it again with their ever-so-popular Be@rbrick line — this time, featuring characters from Star Trek’s original series. While I’m sure most of you were probably hoping to see Spock and McCoy along for the ride, Kirk’s instead joined by Uhura. A bit of a surprise, but definitely nothing to complain about. Being sold as a set, they’re current listed for 2604 yen, which comes out to about $28 USD. No word on when they’ll be available for order, though I’m sure we’ll end up seeing them for order via Hobby Link Japan in no time.
Glee is sort of an odd topic for this website. Sure, it’s got a growing and devoted fandom, plus the kind of soap opera drama, colorful characters, and just the right level of fandom gap* that gets fanfic authors’ motors revving. On the other hand, it’s a (slightly) grown-up version of High School Musical– pretty far from the genre, game-related, and foreign materials that usually qualify for their own geekdoms. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jun 10, 2010 in Cinema, Horror
I absolutely love Japanese action films — more often than not, they’re a total tongue-and-cheek gore-fest filled with over-the-top acting and ridiculous special effects. While I admit that some of them can be a bit exploitative, I’m remarkably good at stomaching it and trying to enjoy the films for what they are. Needless to say, Go Ohara’s upcoming film looks to be no exception. Gothic and Lolita Psycho features the beautiful Rina Akiyama, popular gravure model, who plays a young woman who finds her mother murdered by assassins, and exacts revenge while dressed in gothic lolita fashion. There’s plenty of blood, women and a parasol loaded with bullets ala The Penguin in Batman Returns. Sounds awesome right? Watch the trailer and see for yourself. Read more…
The other week, we posted some photos of this amazing Star Wars-themed car mod known as the H-Wing. Shortly after that, I was contacted via Facebook by the man who built it, Shawn “ObiShawn” Crosby, who provided some additional info about the vehicle and his work. ObiShawn works as a toy, prop and game designer, and had constructed the car’s modifications himself — an effort he attributes as the culmination of these interests. So what was it that really impressed me?
This has to be the ultimate Japanese in-joke peripheral: A mini-speaker for your computer or iPod that looks exactly like a miniature version of a Thanko Rice Cooker! Of your course your non-Japanophile friends will be left wondering what’s hooked up to your computer, but then again that’s what makes clever conversation piece. Read more…
In Japan there’s an amazing charity exhibition of Blythe dolls which take their inspiration from well known manga characters. Included in the exhibit are Blythe dolls dressed up as Tezuka’s Black Jack (shown above), Cardcaptor Sakura, Cyborg 009, Felix the Cat and Minky Momo: Read more…
Some of you might recognize the man above as Guan Yu, the 3rd century General of Shu, who was later deitized as the god of war, and brotherhood. However, I’m sure most of you noticed that he looks an awful lot like a certain Autobot — and not just any Autobot, but the big man himself, Optimus Prime. Recently, some students at China’s Central Academy Of Fine Arts claim to have created this 9.7 meter monster out parts from an an old truck, costing them roughly $4,500 USD. Supposedly, the only original parts are the face and blade. While I have my doubts, you have to admit that it still looks pretty cool. Now if only someone made a toy out of this, I’d buy it in a heartbeat. Read more…
Awhile back, Del Rey published the novel Star Wars: Death Troopers, and ever since I’ve been wanting to sit down and read it. The concept sounds absolutely fantastic, take Star Wars and mix in a bit of good old fashion horror — how could you go wrong? I’ll be honest, I’ve been holding out for the paperback which is due out in October, but after seeing this fantastic bust, I’m about ready to just give in and by a copy of the hardcover. The bust is actually a 1/6th scale model of the zombie Stormtrooper as depicted in the upcoming graphic novel, based on the book. If you’re looking to obtain one of these bad boys, Entertainment Earth has them for about $75 and is currently taking preorders and will ship in November. Read more…
Olivia Munn is many things: a Chinese-German-Irish American who speaks Vietnamese, a host for G4’s Attack of the Show, a bikini model, a sports reporter, and a film actress. But a comedienne? …I dunno about that. Read more…
I don’t want to brag but back in the day before all the new kids (who are no longer kids) discovered Ranma ½ I already knew who Rumiko Takahashi was because I had already fallen in love with Urusei Yatsura — which by the way I always felt was a much more humorous series. So when I set my eyes on this amazing sculpture of Lum needless to say I was quite smitten. I’m also impressed with the fact that this model comes in one version with green hair and another with magenta hair. This collectable figurine of Lum is designed by the ever so talented Bome who is a Japanese sculptor whose primary focus is the ladies of anime. Read more…
It took me a bit of hunting to find the mysterious origins of this Animal Town Panda Speaker and it seems that he’s a character from a series of ultra cute stationery goodies from a company called Q-LiA. Although the flat graphic representations I’ve seen of him don’t quite have the same surrealistic magic of this speaker which has a sort of air balloon quality to him. And making him stranger yet when you plug your device (either an iPod, iPhone or CD/MP3 player) his red nose actually shines just like Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. Read more…
This is a sneak preview of the new series The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! which is coming to PBS Kids in September. The show isn’t based on the original Dr. Seuss books but an education series of books that feature the cat explaining life, the universe and everything to kids. What I like about this show is that the animation studio did a nice job of staying true to the designs of the cat in the books.
This nice clip shows a few minutes of an interesting panel discussion on Is Civil Discussion Possible on the Anonymous Internet? The panel featured Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, although I found the commentary by Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur to be the most insightful. Keen feels that there’s a feeling of entitlement with the net and no sense of responsibility and what’s needed is a social contract of sorts.
Standing at ten inches tall this crafted doll of David Tennant is perhaps the first Time Lord that you’d want to adopt and take home! Although it should be pointed out that this is a collectable art toy and sadly not for the kids. The crafty Time Lord was created by GirlCalledRic who has a nice geeky shop on Etsy. Read more…
Both the Disney and Apple fanboy in me fell in love with this Snow White MacBook laptop skin decal that I spotted on Etsy. To me an appreciation of old school Disney is what sets the casual fans apart from the real connoisseurs, and if you love the medium you’ve got to worship Snow White for the landmark film that it was.
I just love the amazing amount of detail that has been put into this Star Trek The Wrath of Khan Communicator Replica. In addition to detailing the communicator features three play modules: voice clip mode, hail/call-back function and our all time favorite — Screaming Kirk Mode! This goodie will be out in November, but you can pre-order it here.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 5, 2010 in Star Wars
This Star Wars themed Adidas spot was created to celebrate the World Cup and while I’m not a soccer fanboy I have been a fan of the Adidas since Run DMC celebrated them in song many moons ago. This ad features quite a few sports and music stars: David Beckham, Daft Punk, Snoop Dogg, Franz Beckenbauer, Noel Gallagher, Ian Brown, Ciara, Jay Baruchel, DJ Neil Armstrong. Read more…
