HBO’s Game of Thrones finale got you in the summer doldrums? Need something to pore over while you wait for A Dance with Dragons to be released in stores? A good place to start would be this huge, detailed, spoiler-filled map of the Seven Kingdoms of the Game of Thrones universe (click to embiggen!). This particular map was created by an artist going by the name of Other-in-Law, whose gallery also features a bunch of other GoT maps as well. But this one is probably the crown jewel of the collection, filled with Easter eggs for observant fans. Read more…
Those damn bastards! You spend dozens of hours of hours and hundreds of dollars buying the coolest geeky stuff for your cubicle to keep up company moral — and then some dumb ass forces you to “clean it all”. Heartbreaking video shown below: Read more…
After hours of research most of the cool photos we found this week were cosplay shots from Anime Expo — however we did stumble across a few nice examples of fan art: Read more…
TV Ashii in japan had a nice little segment on Anime Expo which was held in California this weekend. I loved where they were asking American otaku about the earthquake in Japan: Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jun 30, 2011 in Cinema, Fandom
Well, it’s certainly not the worst fan-film I’ve ever seen —Dark Betrayalcomes to mind — but I suppose we can’t really expect much after the hot mess that was John Carpenter’s Escape from L.A. I have a soft-spot in my heart for that film, but even I have to admit that it was terrible. Rather than attempting to follow Carpenter’s ridiculous sequel, director Chris Notarile decided to pen one of his own with his fan-film Escape from New Jersey. I imagine that trying to recreate the feel of Carpenter’s original film would be difficult on a shoe-string budget. Though it’s slow-paced, and lacks polish, the script itself isn’t half bad. While I can’t overlook every issue, I feel the film is a decent attempt worth mentioning. It’s enough to make me wonder if Snake Plisskin will ever make his return. Until then, this might have to do.
Music fans— and horror fans — will doubtless nod knowingly when they hear that Michael Jackson’s trademark red and black leather(-that-looks-like-vinyl) jacket from the music video for “Thriller” has sold for US$1.8 million dollars at auction. That’s nine times the initial estimate of “at least $200,000.” That’s a damn high price, even if you factor in that the jacket is signed. Read more…
HBO aired the last episode of its adaptation of Game of Thrones, the first book in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, last night, and by and large the response is: OMGWTFCoK! CoK, of course, referring to A Clash of Kings— the second book in the series, which HBO will also adapt. And which everyone who watched all of Game of Thrones is now salivating for (even if they already read the novels).
But before we get too excited for the second season, which hasn’t even been slated for broadcast yet, let’s talk about what HBO did right (and wrong) with the series so far. (Spoilers: they did almost everything right.) Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 19, 2011 in Animation, Fandom
There’s only about a week left, but if you love artwork that’s evocative of anime there’s a wonderful show at the Graphite gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn featuring the artist Lisa Alisa. The images here don’t quite do her work that much justice as they’re large scale paintings which combine some wonderful draftsmanship and some very nice detail. The use of color is also quite vivid and powerful as well. Read more…
After 11 days of shooting and nearly over two years of planning the band Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling recreated the opening sequence from The Prisoner in modern day Boston (and surrounding areas). For a comparison here’s the original: Read more…
A few years back when I began my first blog another blogger commented on a post I wrote. I followed back, and I became a reader of his own blog. Kitsune of Kitsune Thought’s, what I always appreciate are intelligent content, and comments, so to my knowledge Kitsune has been a great person to talk to via blog comments. Here’s my interview: Read more…
Posted by Gia Manry on Jun 13, 2011 in Cinema, Fandom
Okay, it’s not really a full film, just a trailer — but seriously, can we please start up a Kickstarter project to fund a full-length feature? I love the joking conspiracy theory that the George Lucas from the original Star Wars prequels and Indiana Jones was kidnapped and replaced with a pod!George who released the prequels and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. What’s not to love? Read more…
Ever since I saw Lady Gaga’s “horns” — an addition she made for the release of her single “Born This Way” — I’ve thought that she would make for a pretty good character in X-Men. The question is just whether she’d be on Xavier’s side, or Magneto’s.
No, no– it’s not about Batman raping hicks. Or hicks raping Batman. It’s a French fan-made film about a Batman getting on in his years but still suiting up for one last fight…against Wolverine.
Yeah. I said Wolverine.
Seriously, who cares about Superman versus Batman? Watch the epicness after the jump– the important part starts up at about 4, 4:30. Before that is introspection in French, which is apparently a requirement of all French cinema. Read more…
The first time I believe I heard about Ed Sizemore was on the Manga Movable Feast for Mushishi, then on Twitter, and subsequently on the con scene. Of course from those interactions, I started to pay attention to his activity on the internet, and he is pretty busy, involved with ComicsWorth Reading and other sites. As I was tapped to interview anime/manga bloggers on the web, I definitely wanted to included Ed in the schedule, so here via an email interview are his thoughts to my questions. Read more…
Fans can exist not just in the United States, but just about anywhere in the world. Take for instance this week’s blogger interview with Lissa Pattillo, our neighbor up north in friendly Canada! Okay corny geography jokes aside, Lissa runs a very nice guide to manga news and reviews via Kuriosity. She is involved in way more websites than Kuriosity, and I will leave it for you to read under the cut. So I have notice/lurked her site from her interaction with the defunct Boys on Boys on Film website. She provides the fact that irregardless of geography, reading and love for manga has no boarders! Read more…
It’s been several months since the magnitude 9.0 Tōhoku earthquake devastated Northeastern Japan, and while the subject no longer dominates our headlines, the entire region remains in need. To help support the relief efforts, a group of relatively well-known cosplayers have gotten together to create a cosplay calender for charity with 100% of the proceeds going to the Japanese Red Cross society. The full sized calender will open to 11″ x 22″ with the actual photos measuring at 11″ x 17″.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this question asked in recent months, be it on Facebook, Twitter, or in real life: “what is the deal with all my friends getting into My Little Pony all of a sudden?!” So I thought I’d save you fan-persons a bit of trouble and trot out an explanation (get it?). I’ve split it into two sections: first, how adults come to the new animated series from Hasbro, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and second, why they tend to fall in love with it. Read more…
With the many blogs that I have encounter searching for great graphic novel recommendations, one of them is Kate Dacey of The Manga Critic. To my knowledge she had became a fan of graphic novels as an adult, and therefore provides a pretty interesting perspective from her reviews. She provides insightful responses from her email interview, to which I am quite pleased to include under the cut. Read more…
My parents are nerds, but they’ve never been the dress-up kind (not including that one Star Trek-themed murder mystery dinner party they went to, shocking me by renting very nice Next Generation outfits). However, this never stopped them from taking my brother, me, and occasionally our friends to our nearest Renaissance Faire for many years. The Faire took place in the Blackpoint Forest in Novato, California, for some years…until the land was sold and it had to relocate to— I kid you not —what was essentially the enormous parking lot of The Nut Tree, the “legendary” road stop in Vacaville, CA. The first year it was held there was the last year I remember going, although the faire continues to this day (now held at the Casa de Fruta, a similarly large truck stop in— *shudder* —Hollister, CA). Read more…
The Onion’s A.V. Club site is currently reporting that Hook & Ladder Company 8 of Tribeca, also known as the firehouse that became Ghostbusters HQ in the popular ’80s flicks, may join a number of other fire stations being shut down later this year as the result of budget cuts. Read more…
Above: Rica ‘tte Kanji!? really proved to an American audience that manga didn’t have to be about magical girls or robots, but could tell personal stories about the real world. Currently an Rica ‘tte Kanji!? Omnibus is being produced.
When you are around manga and graphic novels a lot, one voice or genre might pop up, and that is the alternative press of gay and lesbian that is quite popular among readers and fans. You don’t have to even be a fan for this genre, but be open minded to know that it is there. Within the past couple of weeks, there has been an issue of censorship in graphic novels on Amazon Kindle. So this week we are happy to have an email interview with ALC Publishing and Yuricon founder Erica Friedman. Erica’s blog is called Okazu which are the wonderful Japanese bread with savory fillings. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on May 12, 2011 in Design, Fandom
While many of you may recognize some of her work from around the net, you probably don’t know the name behind some of these nerdy Art Nouveau-inspired character portraits. Her name is Megan Lara, a 22 year-old aspiring artist and self-proclaimed fangirl and her art’s been turning quite a few heads as of late. Her art isn’t limited to these portraits either. Megan’s portfolio also includes fine art, general prints, and more. Currently, a large portion of her works are available on t-shirts via Level Up Studios, but her designs can be found everywhere from RedBubble to, most recently, ThinkGeek. If you’d like to check out more of her work, you can visit her official site or browse on over to her Deviant Art.
