It’s a sad for fanboys the world over, Momofuku Ando the inventor of instant noodles has died in Japan. But on the positive side he often ate his noodles and lived to the age of 96, although I don’t think that still qualifies ramen as “health food”:
“Mr Ando was born in Taiwan in 1910 and moved to Japan in 1933, founding Nissin Food Products Co after World War II to provide cheap food for the masses. His most famous product, Cup Noodle, was released in 1971.
Mr Ando said the inspiration for his product came when he saw people lining up to buy bowls of hot ramen noodle soup at a black market stall during the food shortages after World War II. He developed his first instant noodles, Chicken Ramen, in 1958.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 5, 2007 in Comic Books
There’s a great interview with Ben Roman over at Comiccon.com on his new comic book series the Cryptics, published by Image Comics. The interview is a great read, but what stands out is the fresh look of the comic itself.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 5, 2007 in Comic Books
In the real world having an obsessive compulsive disorder is a bad thing, but if you run a blog, it’s a great thing! And Bat-blog is a great example of this, it’s a daily dose of everything Batman. The site does a great job of showing off a wide variety of toys, videos and anything else related to Batman:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 4, 2007 in Animation
Afro Samurai is on tonight at 11pm on Spike TV. So I dropped by ther website to look at the first few minutes of the show, and I have to say that the quality of the animation is A+for a television series. However I wasn’t that impressed with the writing or the editing of the story. I think my problem is that I tend to associate Samuel L. Jackson with a ‘Pulp Fiction sense of humor’ so I tend to be let down if the plot takes itself a bit too seriously. But of course being the fanboy that I am I’ll be DVRing the first show tonight, and then watching at least two out of the five episodes before I give up…
“Adult Swim’s feature version of surreal animated series “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” has been set for a March release by First Look Pictures with an opening of more than 800 playdates. The 86-minute pic, written, produced and directed by co-creators Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis, marks First Look’s initial theatrical foray into animation as well as Adult Swim’s first feature under the Williams Street banner.”
Well one things is for sure, with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Transformers film coming out t’s loking like 2007 is going to feel very much like the 80s! By the way for more Ninja snaps IESB.net has a gallery of over 150 images…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 2, 2007 in Animation
80s anime classic Robotech is back! For those who are too young to recall, Robotech came out before Tranformers and featured sophisticated spaceship-shifting techniques. Robotech was created from three anime series from Japan: Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada.
The new Robotech movie will have a limited run in theaters across the country:
– ImaginAsian Theater in New York, NY from January 8th – 14th
– Studio Movie Grill in Dallas (Arlington), TX from January 15th – 17th
– Key Cinemas (Beech Grove) in Indianapolis, IN from January 5th – 10th
– The Hollywood Theater in Portland, OR from January 5th – 7th
– Alamo Drafthouse in San Antonio, TX from January 15th – 17th
– The Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA on January 19th and 20th at midnight
– Studio Movie Grill – Copperfield in Houston, TX on January 18th and 19th at 9pm
– The Crest Theatre in Los Angeles (Westwood), CA on Feb. 3rd from 12:00 Noon
If you can’t catch he movie in theaters don’t panic, the DVD is coming out February 6th. The official websites are here:
“A Diamond Select Release! An Art Asylum Design and Sculpt! When beaming down to strange alien planets, rest assured that James T. Kirk can be on your side with this Star Trek Landing Party Kirk Statue! Each piece of this series can be displayed individually or combined with the upcoming Spock and McCoy statues for the ultimate Away Team!”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 30, 2006 in Comic Books
Twenty years ago the graphic novel started to impress comic book fanboys like myself: At the top a cover and a close up of Batman punching Superman from ‘Batman: The Dark Knight Returns’, and some interior panels and a cover from ‘the Watchman’ are shown below.
Not only aren’t there any new ideas left in Hollywood, it seems there aren’t any new actors either! It’s looking like they’re going to cast Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in a new film that will start shooting in ’07. Ford is now 64 years old, and while he still has that dapper look (see the recent photo above) he’s moved well past the “Admiral Kirk” zone. Like the latest Rocky film this seems to be part of a new formula where ” It ain’t over ’til it’s over and over and over again!” Anyway here’s the breaking news:
“George Lucas on Dec. 29 said that filming of the long-awaited fourth Indiana Jones movie will begin next year, the Associated Press reported. Harrison Ford, who appeared in the three earlier films, is set to star again. Lucas said he and director Steven Spielberg recently finalized the script for the film.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 29, 2006 in Comic Books
Minneapolis based illustrator Kevin Cannon is working producing a webcomic as part of a “288 hour comic book challenge”. In this cartooning marathon each chapter is produced in a single day (twenty four pages in twenty hours, and one chapter per month).
The resulting work is “Far Arden” which is a very enjoyable read. The story tends to go all over the place, but the chaos has a sort of charm that draws you into the book. So far Kevin has three enjoyable chapters online, and the next chapter is due out around the end of January 2007.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 28, 2006 in Comic Books
Forty years ago the Silver Surfer (top left) was introduced for the first time, and on the top right fanboys were watching Batman on TV in FULL COLOR and reading ‘The Fantom’ by Lee Falk (shown on the middle right). In 1966 comic books tackled heroin abuse, shown below are two panels from ‘Hooked!’.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 28, 2006 in Comic Books
Forty years ago fangirls were going through a Beatlemania phase as seen in the above comic book ‘Summer Love’ published by Charlton Comics in 1966. For only twenty five cents you can learn how “The Beatles Saved My Romance”! Hint: ‘She loves you yeah yeah…’
