the fanboy book shop: Emily: The Strange by Cosmic Debris Meet Emily, the peculiar soul with long black hair, a wit of fire, and a posse of slightly sinister black cats. Emily the Strange, her first book, captures the quintessential Emily, featuring her most beloved quips and a host of new ones, i.e "Emily doesnt break rules, she breaks hearts", (or something to that effect). Anarchist, heroine, survivor, this little girl with a big personality appeals to the odd child in us all. One of the best parts of this book is the unique use of ink - figure/ground reversal...implied by the cover, much of the art is silouhette. Another wonderful feature is the printing...they really made use of veneer techniques, i.e. if you look at certain pages at the right angle in the right light, you can see phantasmagoric typography , "cat eyes", and other such hidden treasures. Cine Mexicano : Posters from the Golden Age 1936-1956 by Rogelio Agrasanchez and Rogelio Agrasbanchez Jr. Chronicle Book publishes some of the best books on high “low art” and this collection is a must have for film poster fans. The Golden Age of Mexican film (1936-1956) produced some of the most brilliant and fascinating films in the Spanish language, with themes and characters as big and colorful as México itself. his book features over 100 pages of sultry bandidas, gut-busting cómicos, and terrifying monstruos--they all make appearances in Cine Mexicano. Combining art deco style with pulp fiction sensationalism, the more than 150 movie posters in Cine Mexicano are culled from the Agrasánchez Film Archive--the largest print collection of its kind. With a bilingual introduction that surveys the history of Mexican cinema, Cine Mexicano is an unforgettable exploration of gorgeous graphic art and exotic cinema at its finest. Airfix : Celebrating 50 Years of the Greatest Plastic Kits by Arthur Ward This gloriously illustrated, large-format volume celebrates 50 years of Airfix plastic modeling kits. Hundreds of superb color photos show all the obscure and highly collectible kits, as well as the best-sellers, with illustrations of packaging, box art, advertisements from Airfix magazine, and a mass of period ephemera. The lively text charts the rise, fall, and rise again of Airfix models. It's a nostalgic reminder of kits long vanished, but with a happy ending: Airfix is now re-releasing 40 kits a year, bringing back some models not seen in two decades. Airfix has all the information important to collectors, from complete range listings to production dates. But this book is not just for collectors. Packed with color photos of every model Airfix ever built, this is for anyone who has ever stuck their fingers together with model cement or watched as an Airfix Messerschmitt plummeted to its fiery end from a bedroom window. Hieronymus Bosch: The Complete Paintings and Drawings by Hieronymus Bosch, Paul Vandenbroeck, Bernard Vermet, jos Koldeweij Bosch's panoramic, otherworldly paintings writhe with legions of strange creatures doing strange things, dense and troubling scenes that require the sort of sharp-focus plates and enlargements this scholarly but crisply written and enlightening monograph, now the Bosch book, has in abundance. Koldeweij and his coauthors cite all that isn't known about the enigmatic Bosch, including his birth date, dates for his paintings, or proof that all works attributed to him are actually his. Yet they are able to present a vivid depiction of Bosch's hometown, from which he extracted his name and in which he was counted among the elite, and clear evidence of his "immense erudition," the source of his exotic, often diabolical images. As keen as the book's historical and technical sections are, its most enthralling passages contain the authors' insights into Bosch's original and satiric worldview and cosmic iconography. Fascinated by nature, eroticism, "wickedness and punishment," Bosch, the first artist in his milieu to address social issues, has profoundly influenced all who followed. The Greatest of Marlys by Lynda Barry Shes back! This is a Lynda Barry double-tall: the long-awaited collection of the best strips from her syndicated comics. Way back in the mid-1980s, comic illustrator and writer Lynda Barry introduced the character of Marlys Mullen, her crazy groovy teenage sister Maybonne, her sensitive and strange little brother Freddie, a mother like no other, and an array of cousins and friends from the hood. This oversized book presents the long strange journey through puberty and life that Marlys and company have experienced. Marlyss universe and galaxy are funny, rude, disturbing, tearful . . . in short, very, very Lynda Barry. the fanboy toy store: Avro Lancastrian Replica by Corgi Classics Ltd Relive the history of flight with this silver 1:144 scale model of the Avro Lancastrian, which was first delivered to British South American Airways in 1946. After being sold to Flight Refuelling, Ltd., the aircraft flew 226 sorties during the 11-month Berlin Airlift of 1948 to 1949. The Berlin Airlift, code-named Operation Vittles by the U.S. Air Force and Operation Plainfare by the Royal Air Force, was the Allies' postwar mission to supply food and fuel to Berlin after Soviet forces blockaded railway, roadway, and waterway supply routes to the German city. The mission was successful, leading the Russians to lift the blockade in '49. This 6-inch-long die-cast replica, with a wingspan of 8 inches, will probably appeal most to adult collectors. Instructions and parts are included to display the model either on its undercarriage or on a display stand (with its undercarriage either extended or retracted).

the fanboy DVD store: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Special Edition) (1964) Arguably the greatest black comedy ever made, Stanley Kubrick's cold war classic is the ultimate satire of the nuclear age. Dr. Strangelove is a perfect spoof of political and military insanity, beginning when General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden), a maniacal warrior obsessed with "the purity of precious bodily fluids," mounts his singular campaign against Communism by ordering a squadron of B-52 bombers to attack the Soviet Union. The Soviets counter the threat with a so-called "Doomsday Device," and the world hangs in the balance while the U.S. president (Peter Sellers) engages in hilarious hot-line negotiations with his Soviet counterpart. Sellers also plays a British military attaché and the mad bomb-maker Dr. Strangelove; George C. Scott is outrageously frantic as General Buck Turgidson, whose presidential advice consists mainly of panic and statistics about "acceptable losses." With dialogue ("You can't fight here! This is the war room!") and images (Slim Pickens's character riding the bomb to oblivion) that have become a part of our cultural vocabulary, Kubrick's film regularly appears on critics' lists of the all-time best. Related Fanboy Trivia: • Kubrick intended the film to end with a custard pie fight between the Russians and the Americans in the War Room (which is why we see a big table of food there). The footage was shot, but he decided not to use it because he considered it too farcical to fit in with the satirical nature of the rest of the film. • Strangelove apparently suffers from "alien hand syndrome," an actual affliction that can be caused by a stroke or other brain injury causing damage to the nerve fibers that connect the two brain hemispheres (the corpus callosum). Neurologists discovered that loss of connection between the hemispheres allows them to function independently, including independent motor control of each side of the body and even independent personalities that are often in conflict. • When Strangelove is talking about the doomsday device, Turgidson says, "Strangelove. What is that, German?" The reply he receives is "He changed his name; it was originally Merkwurdigliebe" -- which in German means Strangelove. Barbarella (1968) Barbarella is the infamous 1968 camp classic from Roger Vadim that made Jane Fonda the most fantasized-about woman in the world for a while (I think she was replaced by Raquel Welch, but do not quote me on that one). Of course a decade later Fonda would be attacking her ex-husband for his sexual exploitation of women, but it was certainly pretty much impossible to ever take "Barbarella" seriously. Based on the European comic strip which emphasized the sex at least as much as the science fiction, this film was originally rated X and then censored to get a more commercially viable rating. I think the main problem with this film is that the title sequence, with Fonda doing a weightless strip tease while floating in some sort of giant test tube (?) promises so much more than the film actually delivers. Ultimately, what we have here is pretentious soft porn, and, even with Fonda in her "queen of the galaxy" outfit or cuddling with the blind angel in the loincloth (John Philip Law), it is unrelentingly, um, uninspiring soft porn. Fonda plays it straight, which is why "Barbarella" is much more enjoyable as a camp classic. Otherwise the visually stylish but emotionally devoid sequences are just going to depress you big time. Too bad that flock of killer hummingbirds could not inspire the eight screenwriters to come up with half that many good ideas for this film. the fanboy soundtrack shop: The Royal Tenenbaums The magical triad behind Rushmore's spunky, starry-eyed soundtrack--music supervisor Randall Poster, composer Mark Mothersbaugh, and director Wes Anderson--leaps forward a decade from that beloved soundtrack's '60s gems, in the process adopting a more pensive feel for The Royal Tenenbaums' musical backdrop. It may lack the euphoric sing-along feel of, say, Creation's "Makin' Time," but the rock and folk tracks here perfectly match the film's crumbling characters and their dilapidated relationships. The Ramones' "Judy Is a Punk" is a burst of nostalgic rebellion but surely causes a sad twinge in light of Joey Ramone's untimely death in 2001; gloom-folker Nick Drake's "Fly" and Elliott Smith's excellently depressing "Needle in the Hay"--which is used to chilling effect during a wrist-slashing scene--further deepen the dark thread running through Tenenbaums. But those who prefer the sunny disposition of Rushmore will be thrilled by the calming concoctions of Mothersbaugh, who heralds the coming of a new scene with graceful woodwind/string parts ("Scrapping and Yelling") and playful sitar pieces ("Pagoda's Theme"). Throw in the Clash's squalling "Police & Thieves" and the Velvet Underground's petal-soft "Stephanie Says" and you've got another winning soundtrack from the film biz's most in-tune music lovers. And of course Christmas Time Is Here by the Vince Guaraldi Trio will bring back the Peanuts fan in you. Tenenbaum or not, you can go home again.