Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 24, 2011 in Comic Books
Today everyone is worried about childhood obesity, but let me take you back to a simpler time when parents biggest worry was the violence in junior’s comic book collection. Back during this pre-fast food era the idea of pitching candy and cola to kids didn’t seem that objectionable, and result was an ongoing parade of charming cartoon characters like Bazooka the Atom Bubble Boy, Captain Tootsie and the charming Popsicle Twins. Although from a modern point of view these hooky one pagers are so bad that they’re good — and don’t forget that if you save your wrappers you can trade them in for all sorts of cool prizes: Read more…
It’s a good question, and years ago, I might not have bothered asking, but would Roddenberry really have approved of the direction producers decided to take with Star Trek over the years? Obviously the franchise has been wildly successful, garnering itself a loyal fan-base, while its producers seemed keen on keeping his vision alive in some manner. Unfortunately, whether or not that vision has remained intact still remains in question. I’ve learned a great deal about him through numerous interviews, the second-hand stories from cast and crew, and including writers and directors who worked on the various films and television series over the years, and while I feel that we may owe him a great debt of gratitude for having created a series we love, I’ve come to the conclusion he wouldn’t have approved of much of it.
Over the course of the next few days, Facebook plans to roll out a list of improvements and changes the service designed to increase our privacy. It’s likely the move was made specifically to combat the support garnered by Google+ and its platform of selective sharing. Following their example, Facebook will now make it even easier for users to determine who they want to see their posts, photos, and more without having to wade through their user settings to do so. Instead the options will appear next our their posts, which should cut down on the hassle. On top of that, it looks as though users will now be notified before they’re tagged in a photo by another user, giving them the opportunity to opt out or approve tags before they’re added to your profile. Amazing, right? Unfortunately, many users have already migrated to Google+ and I’ve yet to see anyone bother to look back, which begs the question — are these changes too little, too late? I know many of you keep up with our site through Facebook, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.
The Great Garloo was first manufactured by the Marx toy company in 1961 — this very creepy looking two foot tall battery powered humanoid lizard robot could go forward or backward and turn his arms. And for extra kitsch we wears a “Garloo” medallion and cute leopard print loin cloth. How to Be a Retronaut discovered this great commercial from 1963 for the little green guy: Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Aug 23, 2011 in Videogames
Once again, Square Enix has given us some lovely eye-candy with these latest screenshots for their upcoming sequel, Final Fantasy XIII-2. If you’re feeling like you’ve just experienced déjà vu, I can’t blame you. This isn’t the first time the company has decided to market a direct sequel to one of their Final Fantasy titles by tacking on a hyphen and number. It also helps that they’re using the same exact graphics engine as last time, giving us those jaw-dropping visuals that we’ve come to associate with it. Unfortunately for many of us, we’ll probably experience yet another bout of déjà vu after picking a controller as it looks as though the gameplay — if we can call it that, the game practically played itself — will be similar as well. I wasn’t very fond of the script or plot last time around, but maybe they’ll get it right. The game is currently set for release stateside next January.
As many of you are already aware, Netflix recently secured the license to stream every Star Trek television series ever created via their online service. With the exception of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, every episode ofthe original Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise have been added to its online library, so I’ve spent the last few months slowly feeding my craving for classic Trek. While Netflix subscribers may have to wait until October for Deep Space Nine, Amazon.com announced that every series, including Deep Space Nine, is now available to stream via their Amazon Prime service.
he ultimate dream for many an illustrator is to turn their iPad into a Wacom tablet. Well here’s a hack which shows you how to do that: This Japanese video below shows a cool hack to turn a pen into a stylus for an iPad, iPhone,iPod touch. Read more…
For those who like their old school anime mecha but need their magical girl fix I present the The Puella Magi MS-005 Kyouko Gundam. And for you model making fanboys and fangurls who like a challenge you might want to check out the Puella Magi Madoka Magica – Kyubey Papercraft kit (which is in a Pepakura Designer format). Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 22, 2011 in Star Wars
These wonderful Victorian styled portraits of Star Wars characters were done Greg Peltz whom works at Pixar. And if you’d like to hang these in your parlor you can purchase prints at acmearchivesdirect.com. Read more…
I had always assumed the most intense fanboys in the realm of tech were the Apple fanboys who would camp out on line to get the latest Steve Jobs goodie — well I was wrong! Upon playing with Google+ I’ve come across a growing legion of Android fanboys who are obsessed with the Android mascot. And shown here is the proof of this devotion — I present the Droid_Robot font created by Natsumi Kawashima. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 22, 2011 in Star Trek
This brilliant footage of Brent Spiner doing his killer Picard impression is from Emerald City Comicon 2011. And for good measure here’s Sir Patrick Stewart heckling Brent Spiner: Read more…
“Yeah, we live on Fourth Earth now. You haven’t heard of it? Yeah, of course you haven’t. It’s really indie. It’s like Third Earth before it sold out, you know?” That’s the conversation I figure I’d be having with these hipster Thundercats, drawn up by Zano over on DeviantArt. It’s got all the quality ingredients of a hipsterized character — your thick-rimmed glasses, your sloughing-off-the-shoulder girls’ top, your v-neck. I think the only thing we’re really missing here is a keffiyeh. But I’ll take it. Man. Imagine the kind of vinyls you could find with Sight Beyond Sight.
Posted by Michael Sacco on Aug 20, 2011 in Comic Books
Mixing superheroes with religious iconography? Well, I’m sure it’s not the first time this has happened, but this may be the first time that someone has made stained-glass versions of comic book covers. These awesome (and slightly bizarre) iterations come from Brandon Michael Barker of Man or Monster Studios, who clarifies that the pieces are actually painted glass, which is different than stained glass, but I don’t think that makes them any less cool, personally. “When there were no sets of footprints, that is when I was carrying you while we swung from a web.”
Michael Sacco is a freelance editor and writer, currently working as senior editor at WoW Insider, part of the Joystiq network.
Doctor Who — a worldwide phenomenon. A genre classic. A pop culture treasure. It only makes sense that, eventually, someone would convert all of the series main characters to cats. I think it’s some kind of fandom law nowadays. These particular cats come from artist Jenny Parks, who’s recreated all of the eleven Doctors in eerily accurate feline form. The Tom Baker Cat is particularly spot-on, I think. I think I’ve met that cat. And the Christopher Eccleston one is, of course, the black … er, cat of the family. Read more…
Ridley Scott is not just a brilliant director but a great storyteller — and to me that’s why him trying to make a new Blade Runner film is a waste of time. What made Blade Runner so brilliant was that Scott made it in the early 80s when everyone’s idea of science fiction was Star Wars. While Alien was a bleak film, it still had that off in the distant future feeling to it — on the other hand Blade Runner seemed like something that could take in your lifetime. And the film drove home that point by making use of 40s film noir and punk rock. Read more…
Why just waste those angry birds by throwing them at pigs when you can make lunch out of them? If you want to recreate this clever bento box recipe you can find a guide at food.insing.com. Read more…
It’s kind of ironic that an anime about racing would find itself perpetually delayed throughout its production, only to be delayed once again during the localization process. It’s an unfortunate situation, but that’s what we’re experiencing with Madhouse’s Redline. The film had been set for release this November but iinstead, we’ll have to wait till sometime next year with no exact release date in sight. Manga Entertainment is still set to distribute the film stateside and had already screened the film earlier this year — unfortunately, I missed out. I’m really sad to see it get delayed, but I suppose I’d rather they take their time and do it right than half-ass the subtitles or screw up a dub. With the amount of blood and sweat that went into producing the film’s 100,000 hand-drawn cells, it’s the least they could. Let’s just cross our fingers and hope that its ready to ship sooner rather than later.
While we’ve seen many new trailers debut at this week’s Gamescom trade conference, the one I’m most excited for happens to be the latest trailer for From Software’s Dark Souls. The game serves as the spiritual successor to the critically acclaimed and notoriously difficult PS3 exclusive, Demon’s Souls. This time around however, Dark Souls will launch cross-platform for both Xbox 360 and PS3 thanks to its new publisher Namco Bandai. While the spirit of the game remains the same, the game’s difficulty has been scaled back slightly. Though I imagine you’ll still find yourself dying all the time, the penalty for doing so won’t be as severe. For example, dying in Demon’s Souls after having been properly revived would actually increase the difficulty of a given stage. Doing so in rapid succession could also cost you your in-game currency. Issues like these might not be as prevalent in Dark Souls, but the developer promises the game will remain “pretty hard,” and that’s good enough for me. The trailer looks fantastic. Dark Soulsshould hit stores on October 4th.
Every time I stare at one of these Hot Toys figures, I get chills. Everything from the photo realistic faces to the detailed accessories they include with each figure shouts quality. Of course, they also happen to be among the most expensive toys on the market. Hot Toys offered up this special edition Bruce Wayne in Batsuit 12 inch collectible as a toy fair exclusive earlier this year, but will also be making it available via Sideshow Collectibles this October. The figure features the visage of Christian Bale and comes modeled after his appearance in Nolan’s Batman Begins, however the head comes with an interchangeable cowl along with several different mouths to swap out. There’s also a ton of accessories included such as bombs, boots, gauntlets, interchangeable hands, and batarangs among others. Sideshow is asking $225 for pre-orders, and the supply is limited so its only one per customer. Too expensive? Bruce Wayne could afford it.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Aug 17, 2011 in Videogames
With Europe’s Gamescom trade event going on, there’s been a lot of gaming news floating around this week. Today EA showed off a brand new trailer for their upcoming shooter Battlefield 3, and like the others to date, the visuals are truly stunning. So far, we’ve only seen shots of the single player campaign, however this latest clip gives us a glimpse of the full 64-man multiplayer warfare. Like in previous titles, you’ll be able to control multiple types of vehicles. The dog fight footage definitely has me excited to see more and I really can’t wait to give it a try, but I imagine flying those jets has to be more difficult than they’re making it look. Still, everything is looking very impressive. Let’s just hope the console version won’t suffer too much in comparison. Battlefield 3 will hit stores on October 25th.
Last month Atlus had surprise hit on their hands when Catherine set a company record by selling over 200,000 copies within the first week. Personally, I found the game to be both entertaining and insightful despite relying on its sexy visuals to market itself. The script is often hilarious and the voice acting has that Atlus-polish we’ve become so accustomed to. Between the increasingly complex puzzles and “choose your own adventure”-esque interludes, I felt it offered a bit more than just lip-service. Puzzles and sex aside though, the game just wouldn’t be the same without some alcohol in the mix. Recently, a Cathrine-themed bar opened in Japan offering cocktails inspired by the characters you encounter throughout the game. While they didn’t offer the exact measurements, you can try to concoct some of these delicious drinks on your own with the ingredients listed below. Frankly, I can’t wait to try some myself, but something tells me they’ll be difficult to perfect. Anyone brave enough to try?
Rocksteady has revealed their latest trailer for Batman: Arkham City featuring none-other than everyone’s favorite snow-cone enthusiast, Mr.Freeze. Unfortunately, Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn’t lend his voice this time around, though it’s probably for the best. After all, Schumacher’s Batman & Robin certainly killed its fair share of careers. Still, I’ll miss those terribly awesome puns. It’s just not the same without the Austrian accent, right? At least the gameplay is looking solid as ever. Batman: Arkham City hits stores this October.
