“Water has been detected in the atmosphere of an alien world for the first time, a new analysis of Hubble Space Telescope data suggests. Water was widely believed to exist on the planet, but previous observations with other telescopes had failed to find it.
The planet, called HD 209458b, is about 70% as massive as Jupiter and is scorched by the heat of its parent star, which it orbits 9 times as close as Mercury does to the Sun.
Because it is one of a small number of extrasolar planets observed to pass directly in front of and behind their parent stars as seen from Earth, astronomers have been able to glean a lot of information – such as its size and mass – about the distant world.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 11, 2007 in Comic Books
I recently came across a series of well done DC Comic covers for Rush City (the cover of issue #6 is above) which were simply credited “Cover by Jock”. It took me a bit of creative googling, but it turns out Jock is the pseudonym of British comics artist Mark Simpson, known for his work with Andy Diggle on the science fiction comic book 2000 AD and on The Losers. His website is well worth a visit:
“She’s watched the movie hundreds of times, seen the West End show and even has a lunchbox featuring the magical flying car. Now, thanks to her husband and four years of oil, sweat and tears, Carolyn Pointing has her own full-size Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The 42-year-old police constable, who fell in love with the film as a three-year-old, said: “It’s a dream come true.”
Husband Nick, 41, a manager for Marks & Spencer, spent every spare minute building his creation using the chassis of an old Land Rover. Now the couple, from Sandown, Isle of Wight, plan to take a 12-month career break and tour the world with the car raising money for charity.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 9, 2007 in Comic Books
The comic strip B.C. has been running in newspapers since 1958, and the man behind that was Johnny Heart, who has sadly just passed away. I grew up reading B.C. in the Sunday funnies and was always touched by it’s gentle and philosophical humor.
Heart became a born again Christian in 1977, but while his strips sometimes featured religious themes I would never say that they were heavy handed. In fact looking back at many of those strips I’ve always thought that they were poking fun at religion, or perhaps our human take on the subject.
Heart got his start in Stars and Stripes while he was serving in Korea, and then went on to do work for magazines like the Saturday Evening Post when he retured from the war in 1953. It’s also important to note that he co-created The Wizard of Id with Brant Parker in 1964. And being a true cartoonist’s cartoonist he died at his storyboard this past weekend.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 9, 2007 in Comic Books
The animation fanboy in me has always respected Winsor McCay (September 26, 1867 – July 26, 1934) for his ground breaking work on Gertie the Dinosaur back in 1914, however his work on the newspaper comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland is a cornerstone to the world of comic books. What shocks me when I look at his work is that even though he was a pioneer, his comics looks very sophisticated in terms of draftsmanship and sorytelling. Years before the fine art world began to explore themes like surrealism and dadism, McCay’s strips show an ordinary world turned upside down.
So with the above in mind I was pretty happy to read that the Checker Book Publishing Group will be publishing a series of books showing all of McCay’s comics. I have a few examples of his work in a few books on the history of cartoons, but having a full collection of his work will be on the Christmas list this year for many a fanboy like myself. Here’s the full press release:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 8, 2007 in Animation
Easter always makes me think of the classic 1947 Bugs Bunny cartoon Easter Yeggs. What’s amazing to me is how well the humor holds up today, almost sixty years later (well as of June). By the way it’s interesting to note that the catch phrase of the Easter Rabbit “Keep Smiling!”, is a takeoff of a character actually created by Mel Blanc for George Burns and Gracie Allen’s radio show during the 1940s; Mel’s character was called “The Happy Postman”.
If you want to check out this classic it’s on the web at the Looney Tunes website (gee sometimes big media gets it!).
“Even as British librarians realize that the average child is more interested in Japanese comics featuring androgynous teenage boys ponderously making out with one another than the doily and crumpet adventures of Jane Austen’s Emma, British Publishers Hodder and Stoughton are looking to manga to revive flagging Bible sales. The result? The Manga Bible!
Only two issues have been released so far, but Hodder and Stoughton aren’t playing around. This is the Bible, rawer and more extreme than we’ve ever seen it before! To emphasize the rawness and extremity of Jesus’ ass-kicking adventures through Ancient Jerusalem, the first two volumes of The Manga Bible have the subtitles NT Extreme! and NT Raw!”
If you’re a true fanboy at heart you’ll have to see Grindhouse in a movie theater. Yes I know that the DVD will have all of those extra scenes and the director’s comments giving you every reference that will make you want to search IMDB high-and-low. But in a movie theater you’ll get that one special thing you won’t get at home: audience participation!
Half the fun of watching this film was hearing everyone next to me applauding, cheering, laughing, gasping, or saying “ewwwwww….” in unison. The charm of both films is that they don’t take themselves too seriously, and you even get the sense that the actors up on the screen are having as much fun playing their parts as you are watching them. To me the critical test was at the end of three hours I found myself wanting to see several more hours of the film. In fact if there was premium cable channel that showed nothing but Grindhouse 24/7 I dare say that I might never leave my apartment.
The other half of watching this fim for any fanboy will be looking at the wondeful detail that’s up on the screen. Every other scene seems to have a reference to some old slasher film or features a character actor that you haven’t seen in a few years. By the way while both films owe quite a bit to horror films of the 60s and 70s, there are references to quite a few other things to be found, for example the soundtrack had a bad 80s low budget synth feeling to it. And of course you have that non-stop Rodriguez action and quite a bit of clever Tarantino dialogue to wash down your Pepsi and popcorn with as you watch the film.
I’d rate the film as “a must see, and bring a few friends while you’re at it”…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 7, 2007 in Star Wars
The 30th anniversary of Star Wars will leave no merchandising opportunity unturned, and the exclusive Space Slug Enviorama (seen above) is an example of this in action. I mean I love Star Wars as much as the next fanboy, but in all my many years of hanging out at conentions I never heard one person blurt out “Ya know, I wish Lucas would put out a Space Slug model!” The other odd thing is that slug looks oddly, well somewhat, err, I’ll say it: somewhat phallic looking:
“It looks like Hello Kitty’s rampage through the gadget world isn’t showing any signs of letting up, with an otherwise unremarkable iPod car charger / FM transmitter the latest device to get its irresistible stamp of approval. Compatible with 3G, 4G, 5G, Photo, Mini, and nano varieties of iPods, the device will plug into your car’s cigarette lighter and pump tunes straight to your car’s radio at the same time, promising a minimum amount of distortion in the process. We have to say we’re a bit skeptical of the stated 3 mile operating range, however — that seems a stretch even with the mighty Hello Kitty behind it.”
A clip from the 1965 episode ‘The Chase’ where the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki watch the Beatles play ‘Ticket to Ride’ on the Time/Space Visualiser:
…by the way the Beatles were suppose to be on the episode as themselves wearing “aging” makeup representing themselves in the future, however sadly this never came to be due to a schedule conflict.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 5, 2007 in Comic Books
Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian, from the name of his homeland, Cimmeria) is a fictional character often associated with sword & sorcery genre. He is perhaps the most famous fictional barbarian, and indeed one of the best known and most universally recognizable iconic figures in modern popular culture.
Created by Robert E. Howard in 1932 via a series of fantasy pulp stories sold to Weird Tales magazine, Conan has since appeared in books, comics, films, television and video games, contributing to popularity.
Conan the Barbarian is also the name of a Gnome Press collection of stories published in 1954, a comic published by Marvel Comics beginning in 1970, a film and its novelisation in 1982. Conan is a barbarian of the far north. He was born on a battlefield and is the son of a blacksmith. Conan matured quickly as a youth and, by age fifteen, he was already a respected warrior who had participated in the destruction of the Aquilonian outpost of Venarium. After its destruction, he was struck by wanderlust and began his adventures, encountering skulking monsters, evil wizards, tavern wenches and beautiful princesses.
More recently being pulished from Dark Horse Comics with great sucess. Dark Horse started their Conan run by re-printing the now classic issues from Marvel Comics. Right from the beginning Conan was an incredible comic book with such great talent in the comics field working on the title such as Roy Thomas, Barry Windsor-Smith (one of my fav’s), Gil Kane, John Buscema, & Neal Adams just to name a few. All the Marvel comics issues are now availble in trade paper back for a reasonable price.
As a NASA fanboy I’m very envious watching China put so much energy into their space program. Maybe they’re playing catchup with us and the Russians, but it’s refreshing to see someone who’s serious about funding space explortion:
“Chinese scientists have shown off a prototype Moon rover that could lead to the country’s first unmanned mission to the lunar surface in 2012. The 1.5m (5ft) high, 200kg (440lbs) rover should transmit video in real time, dig into and analyse soil, and produce 3D images of the lunar surface. Engineers have unveiled a prototype at the Shanghai institute where work on the six-wheeled vehicle is underway.
Rival rovers are being developed at institutes in Beijing and elsewhere. It is not clear when the successful candidate will be selected. Engineers at the Shanghai Aerospace System Engineering Institute have created a specialised laboratory that mimics the lunar surface for their rover.”
Wow! I don’t know if there will be a plot or even good acting, but the special effects looks fun on this film. To see the above image larger, just click on them.
No it’s not a prop from a Dr. Seuss story, but a green tea flavored Japanese pastery with a sweet sticky center (click the photo to view it at a larger size). I love how the color of the package design plays off the color of the pastery. Here the description of the treat under the logo:
“Using the fine ingredients, we’ve arrived at a fantastic harmony of deliciousness.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 3, 2007 in Animation
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit will be back on DVD! Poor old Walt lost his pre-Mickey hit to Universal – it’s too bad that he never lived to see his company get his character back, but somewhere he must be smiling:
“Walt Disney Home Ent. continues the popular Walt Disney Treasures series with three new two-disc DVD sets, available Dec. 11. Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, who predates Mickey Mouse, is one of the highlights, having recently returned to the Disney fold. Oswald comes out of the vault for the first time ever on DVD. The silent shorts made from 1926 to 1927, with Walt’s personal touch, are revitalized with a brand-new score specifically made for Walt Disney Treasures Wave VII.”
Here’s a non-restored version of Oswald in “Oh Teacher!” from 1927:
Here’s yet another example of playful product design from Japan, Fujiya Peko Poko Chocolate (click on the image to see it full size). The girl character on the left is can be found on other Fujiya products. My favorite is the little piggie in the middle. The back of the package was designed for an American audience, and you can tell this because it warns you not to let your child consume the small plastic sticks.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 2, 2007 in Animation
This is a rare find, it’s a Japanese WWII animated propaganda film designed to educate civilians on how to respond to incendiary bomb attacks from American planes:
Here’s a description of what’s going on:
“The cartoon characters in this video introduce the concept of incendiary bombing and explain how citizens can extinguish the fire from each bomb. The methods range from simplying putting a bucket of water over the bomb to throwing wet blankets over the fire. After the explanation there is a short cartoon showing the cute animals of Japan responding to an American bomber attack and putting out the fires from bombs before any major damage is done. If you look closely, you can see the evil face of President Roosevelt appear in one of the fires shortly before the Japanese citizens eliminate it.”
I love to collect (well in the short term sense) examples of Japanese package design. Seen above is “Fujiya Choco Enpitsu”, which features four chocolate pencils. The object in the center is a button that has a sticky back so you can put it any where, which is a nice keep sake. However I have to say that I was surprised that the chocolate pencils didn’t taste too bad!
The above shots are from an amazing photo essay that shows all of the step-by=step pre-flight work that goes into getting the space shuttle setup for blast off. Shown above is the engines being attached and the shuttle being lifted into place to attach it to the external tank.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 31, 2007 in Star Trek
In 1965 William Shatner starred in a horror movie called Incubus. It’s the only movie to be filmed completely in Esperanto. It’s bizarre and now being released back onto home video for you Star Trek fanboys. Here’s the trailer:
I love Japanese package design! Not just the high end items, but the silly stuff as well. This is a recent purchase from the m2m market on the lower east side here in Manhattan. Seen here is “Kabaya” Hello Kitty Stawberry Pretzel (click to see full size), although from a casual glance the product looks like a Pocky knock off. I sampled the contents, and let’s just say that the packaging is the selling point of the product!
