Posted by Guest Author on Jan 15, 2008 in Comic Books
With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:
Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service
Five university students with abilities that range from channeling spirits to dowsing (finding dead bodies) to ESP form a company called the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, an organization that communicates with the dead and transports their bodies to wherever they need to go in order to allow their spirits to move on to the next world.
I’m sad to report that Maila Nurmi (known to us fanboys as Vampira) has passed away. Her career highlights include starring in Ed Wood’s classic epic Plan 9 From Outer Space and had her own TV show in Los Angles. This is the notice from her website:
Posted by Guest Author on Jan 14, 2008 in Comic Books
With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:
Kodomo no Jikan (“A Child’s Time”)
This may seem like an odd choice for underrated manga, seeing as this series gained infamy throughout the English-language manga world when Seven Seas licensed it and then cancelled it because the content was too racy. Well, the problem isn’t just that the content is racy— it’s that it’s racy and it involves primary school students. It didn’t help that original creator Kaworu Watashiya wanted them to call it Nymphet.
Shown above is the special secret surprise package from Coris Whistle Candy. The small package within a package contains a surprise toy, which turned out to be a pink racing car. This candy itself will drive parents up the wall, because when you blow into it you get a painful playful whistle-like noise:
Ah the good old days when being a NASA fanboy was in style! This November 1965 fashion spread from Mademoiselle features a prototype of the Mercury Space Suit (click to see the page at full size). The photo is by David McCabe (a young British fashion photographer of the era who worked with Andy Warhol) and discovered by digital diva archivist Sugarpie Honeybunch.
The above photo is a “Dirty Deeds” variant of World War Robot Bertie by Ashley Wood. I just love the rusty look of the metal and the nice touch of the decorative graphics…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 12, 2008 in Comic Books
Is it me or does that Iron Man head look more like a missing toy part than the scene of super hero slaughter? This cover for Mighty Avengers #7 by Frank Cho is available in your local comic book shop this week…
Posted by Guest Author on Jan 11, 2008 in Comic Books
With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:
Ouran High School Host Club
Haruhi Fujioka is the only scholarship student at the swanky Ouran High School, an unenviable role at a school full of kids so rich that they actually have a host club as part of their after school activities. A host club is a place where women pay large amounts of money to spend time with good-looking men, just chatting and flirting.
I was looking at the latest Dark Horse offerings for April of this year and came across the above cool looking statue based on the character uRac from Jim Henson’s Dark Crystal.
Posted by Guest Author on Jan 10, 2008 in Comic Books
With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:
Bokurano
North American publishers seem wary of Mohiro Kitoh’s manga Bokurano— possibly due to the difficulty that Dark Horse had with Kitoh’s Narutaru, which began reasonably family-friendly before it took a serious turn for the dark side, preventing Dark Horse from even releasing later volumes. No one yet has licensed Bokurano.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 10, 2008 in Star Wars
The concept is simple: Recreate a vehicle from Star Wars in steampunk style using LEGO! The Bricks to Bothans Forum (dedicated to LEGO Star Wars) is holding a Steam-Wars Contest, where fans get to submit their LEGO creations of Star Wars vehicle done in steampunk style. Shown above is a steampunk X-Wing fighter by Brickshelf user Jerrec. For info on the contest go here:
Posted by Guest Author on Jan 9, 2008 in Comic Books
With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:
Antique Bakery
Odds are good that if you’re not a fan of yaoi— boy/boy romance manga for women —you haven’t read Fumi Yoshinaga’sAntique Bakery, which is technically not yaoi (barely). Her series is part slice-of-life comedy and part drama about four men working in a bakery together. Primary among the men is Keisuke, the son of a wealthy family who has an odd fixation on sweets because a man who kidnapped him as a child fed him cakes.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 9, 2008 in Japanese TV
Shown above is a funny skit starring Japanese comedian Ken Shimura from the the Fuji TV series “Ken Shimura’s Lordship like Vaca”. I got a real kick out of this skit which is based on Bjork’s swan costume:
Posted by Guest Author on Jan 8, 2008 in Comic Books
With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:
Hajime no Ippo (“The First Step”)
George Morikawa’s boxing manga Hajime no Ippo is probably the longest-running underrated manga out there. A full 81 volumes have been produced since its inception in 1990, all of which remain bereft and unlicensed. Oh, and it’s still running, too.
Posted by Guest Author on Jan 7, 2008 in Comic Books
With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:
Gintama
This actually is a combination underrated manga and anime— the anime, in fact, is unlicensed in spite of its immense popularity in Japan. VIZ has started releasing the manga in the U.S., but with so little marketing that many are barely aware of its existence. Which is a shame, since it’s a fantastic (and funny) series!
At first glance you might mistake this package for something from Japan, but Lotte is based out of Korea. This love themed package design is a bit more inspired than the mini chocolate cookies inside. Although I found that this cute illustration on the back of the package was rather cute:
The first thing about the above video that’s amazing to me is that Isaac Asimov is talking about global warming as a threat to humanity back in 1989. Keep in mind that this was before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. At that point in time the main concern with most folks was nuclear war, for example Carl Sagan talked about this in his epic TV series Cosmos.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 5, 2008 in Pulp Fiction
Shown above are the covers for Witches Tales from August 1971 and Strange Galaxy from February 1971. They’re part of a wonderful collection on Flickr put together by Shawn Murphy:
“Welcome to the strange and gruesome world of EERIE PUBLICATIONS. These magazines were cheap knockoffs of the more popular CREEPY and EERIE magazines put out by Warren Publishing. These are some of the most insane, bloody and violent magazine covers you will ever see. Ever since I saw my first one I’ve been obsessively collecting them. This is a large sampling, but I still need many more. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!!!”
Werewolves are back in the movies! Underworld and it’s sequel have managed to make the wolf man a popular topic for film in the new century and the latest release in this genre is Skinwalkers. With a PG-13 rating and a pretty formulamatic plot Skinwalkers was perceived as another tired retread from a Hollywood in desperate need of originality. Yet as the movie progressed it showed itself to have a little spark and a cast of actors and characters that you found yourself caring for.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 4, 2008 in Japanese TV
Shown above is an animated vintage commercial for Fujiya Peko cakes. In her kimono Peko looks cuter than Minky Momo ever did, in fact I’d say it’s high time she lands her own anime show!
