Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 17, 2010 in Comic Books
Unless you’re willing to travel to Japan the odds are highly against you coming across vintage manga from the 60s — so coming across a collection is always a cause for celebration: Eico Hanamura dominated shōjo manga in the 60s, and on March 16th a new book titled Happigaruzukorekushon of Hanamura Eiko will show off some of her best work from that primordial era of girls comic books in Japan. This book includes reprints of Some Girl in the Fog, her 1965 series Madeleine Shouwanoto as well as various fashion illustrations. Here’s a gallery to give you a sense of Eico’s style — you can really so how much she inspired how shōjo manga looks today: Read more…
American comic artists tend to love deviantART for showing off their work, however in Japan one of the more favored websites is Pixiv (which is well worth checking out). However the Japanese interface can be a bit much to navigate if you’re not native speaker, so two Pixiv fans mefloraine (who prefers to stay anonymous) and Eugen Rochko have put together a beautifully curated website called PaperDream.net which features an amazing illustration per day from Pixiv.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 17, 2010 in Japanese TV
Both of these quirky ramen commercials are from a 1998 campaign for Nissin. The first spot where the two ladies magically acquire cat ears stars Kikuti Momoko and Miyuki — and of course I love how the second advert makes a Marilyn Monroe reference: Read more…
I was brought up with the belief that coffee isn’t for kids — of course as an adult I see that this was a clever plot to keep more of the good stuff for the grownups who are so addicted to it. So I was a bit surprised to see a line of coffee beverages from Japan designed just for kids! On March 22nd in Japan Pokka will be introducing Café-au-lait Flavor Kizzukafe which features characters from the anime series Penguin Problems: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 16, 2010 in Comic Books
Thanks to the goodness of Goon there is no wrong that Eric Powell can do in my mind — which is why I’m looking ahead to Buzzard which is a comic book miniseries that goes on sale on June 9th. Shown above is a cover by Powell and below is an alternative cover by Richard Corben: Read more…
This is a very clever rhyming ad for Mabinogi from Japan which is an anime themed RPG game that you can play online. The game was developed in South Korea by devCAT and is published by Nexon — the good news for Americans is that the game is available in English, however if you’re a Mac user the bad news is that the game is Windows only. Read more…
As of today the latest Uniqlo anime themed t-shirts are hitting the street — this latest batch includes shirts based on old school favorites Galaxy Express 999, Saint Seiya, Dr. Slump, Dragonball and Devilman. In April a new set of shirts will be released which will be based on Cobra, One Piece and Mazinger Z. Here are the Devilman shirts: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 15, 2010 in Japanese TV
Ikuzo Yoshi and Yuki Nae star in this very silly 1995 Japanese advert for the Yamato Transport Co. Their cat suits are a reference to the company logo which features a mother cat transporting a baby kitten. My favorite part of this commercial is when after marching across the screen they then scurry back accompanied by a cartoonish sound effect. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 14, 2010 in Comic Books
I came across Groo: Hogs of Horder #4 and it then hit me: I’m guilty of having spent my entire life looking at the amazing artwork of Sergio Aragonés and I’ve selfishly have always assumed that I’d be seeing more. It’s high time for us fans to stop taking Sergio for granted (he’s 72 years old!) and starting to treat him like the comic book god that he is. I grew up with Aragonés in the pages of mad magazine, but sadly those issues were so packed with high quality work that Sergio got lost in the crowd. However as of 2002 he’s drawn more than 12,000 gag cartoons for Mad and that deserves some real respect. And then we have his creation Groo the Wanderer which has been running since the 80s — to me this running series ranks up there with Asterix and Tin Tin, and what’s wonderful about is that it has both an American and Spanish point of view. Read more…
For his day gig Tommy Williamson professional artist working in the motion picture industry, but for fun he likes to play with Legos: His latest creation is this wonderful Alice in Wonderland tribute. What’s brilliant about his sculpture is how few bricks that he used to capture the likeness of the Mad Hatter and Alice: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 13, 2010 in Animation
In Japan package design is very influenced by the idea of gift giving — and as an otaku I’ve always love the fact that attention to detail and inclusion of little goodies tends to find its way into DVD packaging. The above illustration is for the DVD set Kimba the White Lion: The Courage to Begin a New Future. Of course Kimba is quite an old lion of anime at this point, but I love how the studio has the courage to play with a new look and take a chance with the illustration. But as if that wasn’t enough the package itself is a mini collection of all sorts of goodies: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 12, 2010 in Fandom, Star Trek
This hilarious fan video is titled Captain Kirk Deals with a Strange Alien Culture. I have to admit that while Kirk’s solution broke the Prime Directive it still shows that he’s the best commander in the whole of Starfleet! By the way the internet meme in the video is Russian singer Eduard Anatolyevich Khil (Эдуа́рд Анато́льевич Хи́ль) giving a performance back in 1976. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 12, 2010 in Comic Books
I first discovered the joy of Japanese anime and manga themed art books while I was in art school — and I have to admit that even though these books are always expensive I have yet to regret ever buying one. The reason is that as an artist I always find myself learning from these books and looking at them years later. IllustStudio Perfect Master is a good example of this genre — it’s a collection of a wide range of illustrators who are each given a page in this volume. From what I can gather each artist in the book is using the software package IllustStudio — and the nice thing about this book is that it also includes a bonus CD-ROM which includes a movie of each artist using the software in action. So it’s almost as good as being an apprentice for a Japanese manga illustrator. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 12, 2010 in Comic Books
To be upfront I’ve always have been more of an indie comic book fanboy having grown up on manga and publications like RAW magazine in the 80s — so on the face of it yet another X-Men spinoff comic book doesn’t get me excited. However for X-23 I’ll have to make an exception to that rule. Firstly what I like about this book is that it isn’t trapped too tightly in the typical Marvel style, and then the draftsmanship of the drawing and the cinematic panel layouts are well done. Alina Urusov illustrated this book and her artwork does a great job of telling a story, and I also liked the fact that Marc Hempel who did the colors didn’t overpower the drawings. The only thing that upsets me is that this issue is a one shot: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 12, 2010 in Science
One way to stop climate change is if everyone suddenly gives up on fossil fuels — however that notion might not be realistic given the political realities. However it begs the question if we should be getting much more serious about geoengineering which is the concept man made intervention to prevent climate change. In this video atmospheric scientist Ken Caldeira asserts that this may be the only realistic way to prevent climate change — and given what we’ve seen the politicians do (or not do) he may be correct.
You know it’s funny I’ve never have been too crazy about James Cameron as a director, however listening to this very relaxed interview with him was quite energizing and inspiring. It’s wonderful to hear not just about his creative process — but also his take on Hollywood then copying everything (his example is the 3D craze which he inspired). And as much as I wasn’t crazy about Avatar I almost felt sorry for Cameron watching the Oscars because you could sense not just a level of insecurity and slight hostility to his technical skills, but also even the idea that a science fiction film might get best picture. So even with the success of his box office, it gave me a real sympathy seeing him within the Hollywood hierarchy.
For decades fanboy wine connoisseurs have debated if Star Wars works best while enjoying the red or white wine — but alas the idea of opening up multiple bottles to see what goes best with each film could be quite wasteful. So coolstoppers.com have solved this issue by creating a series of Star Wars wine stoppers: So you can have the likes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Princess Leia, Han Solo and a Stormtrooper guarding your vino. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 10, 2010 in Japanese TV
This Canon Autoboy Luna camera commercial from 1996 has everything that a fanboy would want in life: A chance to get to hang out at a space station with a pretty model and her adorable doggie! By the way I half suspect that the space station motif was inspired by the Michael Jackson music video Scream which came out about a year before this — and of course that production owed a great deal to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Read more…
In the real world there are working dogs who have been bred to perform a specific task — and Dodobongo is not based on any of those canines! The entire “purpose” of USB Dodobongo is to entertain geeks. By plugging Dodobongo port (because geeks have so many free ports) your reward is to watch him bark, run or move his head. Sadly this cute critter is designed for the Japanese market, so I’m not 100% sure that all of his tricks will work for you: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 10, 2010 in Comic Books
I’ve been following Kill Audio for a few issues now and I’ve got to say that I’ve been really won over by the look of this book which is illustrated by Sheldon Villa and Chuck B. Except for some manga back in the day I haven’t seen many comic books that are colored with a two color combo — in this case blood red and black. It makes the comic stand out the minute you see it from the piles of bad full color but poorly photoshoped work you see every where these days. Add to that the fact the artwork has a unique style to it, and the result is that with Kill Audio you get to see something unique, which makes this reviewer happy. Here’s a preview of issue six which will be out today: Read more…
This is the full trailer for Tron Legacy and I like what I see: Disney has some amazing luck — not only does it look like they’ll please the fanboys with this film, but now they have an Oscar winner in Jeff Bridges starring in the picture. I like the fact that the art direction of film stays very true to the original, which makes the Syd Mead fan inside of me happy. Here are some stills from the trailer to ogle at: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 9, 2010 in Animation
So I’m looking at this coffee commercial from Japan and at first I think that there’s nothing too special about it, but for some reason there seemed to be something very familiar about it which was uncanny. And then it hits me — the theme song is a parody of Gatchaman, which is known to Americans as Battle of the Planets: Read more…
All props due to Pete Docter, he was long overdue an Oscar & yeah Up‘s a great film… but why do I get the feeling Academy voters see ‘Pixar’ & check off that box without even thinking about the other nominees it? Who knows the Oscar rules around here? People in the animation field pick the final five, but does the entire Academy vote for the winner? If that’s the case, maybe nobody should bother submitting their films the same year Pixar has one in the running… then again, I’m sure those other producers will happily settle for “OSCAR NOMINATED BEST ANIMATED FEATURE” on their movie’s DVD box. Read more…
If you’re a fan of horror manga you’re going to like this: Shown above is a GeGeGe no Kitaro collectable which is from a larger line of monster balls. The first set of these goodies will go on sale in Japan on May 6th and there are plans to create 120 for the full series. Below are the first eight which will be released: Kitaro, Nezumi Otoko, Neko Musume, Nurikabe, Medama-oyaji, Ittan Momen, Konaki Jijii, and Sunakake Babaa: Read more…
Unless you’re willing to travel to Japan the odds are highly against you coming across vintage manga from the 60s — so coming across a collection is always a cause for celebration: Eico Hanamura dominated shōjo manga in the 60s, and on March 16th a new book titled Happigaruzukorekushon of Hanamura Eiko will show off some of her best work from that primordial era of girls comic books in Japan. This book includes reprints of Some Girl in the Fog, her 1965 series Madeleine Shouwanoto as well as various fashion illustrations. Here’s a gallery to give you a sense of Eico’s style — you can really so how much she inspired how shōjo manga looks today: Read more… 
