I think one of the most creative uses I’ve seen of Halo is This Spartan Life which is a clever machinima driven talk show. For geeks these episodes are always pure gold as you have the ironic contrast between Charlie Rose intellectual chatting with a backdrop of a sci fi version of Apocalypse Now. The show has had some amazing guests to date but they need funding help to get it to the next level so they’re making use of kickstarter.com to raise funds from the fans. Most of us will never get to be big wig Hollywood producers, but this is a small way you can do that — but rest well knowing that you helped something of quality.
Editor’s Introduction: Journalist Amber Love shared with us these touching photos of Wonder Woman Day which took place this past weekend. The event took place in both Portland and New Jersey — these photos are from the Jersey event which was hosted at Comic Fusion. To me the folks in these photos are the real superheroes — fans and pros like yourselves coming together to pitch in for a good cause. By the way in these photos you’ll see several shots of Joe Sinnott — the man is a living legend of comics, if you don’t know him do yourself a huge favor and check out his bio and you’ll be amazed at his life story. Read more…
While looking at the coverage of the launch of Windows 7 in the Akihabara district of of Tokyo when I came across the coolest feature of the new operating system: The unofficial Windows 7 anime spokesmodel! This moe character design features a girl with dark blue hair who sports a clover symbol which is made up of the official Windows colors: Read more…
For the fourth year in a row Portland, Oregon will celebrate Wonder Woman Day and use the day to raise funds for three local domestic violence prevention-intervention agencies. The popularity of the day has inspired Stacy Korn, co-owner of Comic Fusion in New Jersey to do an east coast event by having local artists do sketches for charity. I have to say that I love the idea of taking Wonder Woman who is an icon of strength and equality — and using her to raise awareness for a good cause: Read more…
As an old time anime fanboy one of the greatest pleasures I take is in seeing just how far anime fandom has come in the United States from the 70s when it first started. Back then anime fans would meet up at local clubs or science fiction conventions and if 100 people showed up you were blown away. So when I look around at cons today I love the fact that there might be 100 fans standing in line waiting to get badges at a convention. But one thing breaks my heart: The fact that those who killed themselves with little reward to help popularize the medium can too easily be forgotten. Read more…
As a fanboy I thought that the tech sector could get a bit catty at times (example: TechCrunch 50 vs. Demo) but that’s nothing compared to what just went down today in comic book fandom! The leading comic con in NYC is the New York Comic Con which is produced by Reed Exhibitions — the show has been building up huge momentum these past few years. And while it’s not as huge as the San Diego Comic Con, it dominates the Javits Center. Read more…
I always love how in japan they’re willing to go that extra mile to promote a anime series in some special way! In this case the show Usavich (ウサビッチ) which features computer animated rabbits on MTV Japan was featured on an automobile: Read more…
Lauren Gregg is an illustrator/animator from Athens, Georgia who has created a wonderful series of paintings which pay tribute to several genres of nerds in a cartoony style. All of these illustrations are available on Etsy as limited edition prints, shown above is Trekkie Nerd, and what follows below are just a few nerds from her collection: Read more…
While wandering through the streets of Manhattan today I came across this brilliant Simpsons themed poster making fun of the current race for Mayor which features Charles Montgomery “Monty” Burns. Behind this humorous campaign (official website here) is a serious message: That despite how good of a mayor Bloomberg may be, many folks are quite upset (including yours truly) that he eliminated term limits without a public vote. Adding to this irony is also the fact that Bloomberg came in as a result of terms which drove Rudy Giuliani from office right after 9/11. Read more…
All 48 team members of AKB48 didn’t show up for the New York Anime Festival, but we were very happy to have even just a few of the ever so cute J-pop divas at the show! Read more…
Posted by Christian Liendo on Sep 28, 2009 in Fandom
Yes cosplay often offers more cheese than cheesecake, but the art of looking sexy while being dressed up as a cartoon character is a challenge not to be underestimated. And in our case that craft is not unappreciated; here are our picks (which are by no means scientific) for the sexiest cosplayers that we crossed paths with at the New York Anime Festival 2009: Read more…
Posted by Christian Liendo on Sep 28, 2009 in Fandom
Cute and anime go together like peanut butter and jelly, and cosplay is no exception! Here are the cutest cosplayers that we found at the New York Anime Festival 2009: Read more…
Posted by Christian Liendo on Sep 28, 2009 in Fandom
Oh sure anyone otaku can dress up as a character from Sailor Moon, but it takes that extra bit of creativity and hard work to come up with a costume for Sailor Moon Zombies! And thus we salute the coolest craziest cosplay that we spotted at the New York Anime Festival this year: Read more…
Posted by Christian Liendo on Sep 28, 2009 in Fandom
Editor’s Note: My deepest thanks to Christian Liendo to taking some amazing photographs of New York Anime Festival.
Shown above is illustrator Eric Maruscak working on an amazing Soul Eater themed chalk drawing. What follows is a photo essay of what it was like to walk around the convention floor which was packed: Read more…
In wilds of suburban New Zealand special effects artist Dean Johnstone has designed a living room worthy of Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea for his client Wayne Eyre. This steampunk entertainment room features “plutonium-leaking” torpedoes, rusting steel beams and giant screen television to keep the ships crew happy: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 25, 2009 in Animation, Fandom
I came across this very odd photo essay from a Japanese blog that shows some poor store manager in the Akihabara district of Tokyo who is forced to wear a suit and a Keroro mask in order to sell snacks based on the anime series that features frog stories aimed at fanboys: Read more…
The main selling point of the Coffee Prides Motion is that unlike a Japanese maid café not only can you read a manga while drinking your coffee but that you can actually draw a manga too. This first café in the cyber city district of Zhongguancun (which is in Beijing, China) is that there are classes on how to draw cartoons. The building which houses the café also sells all sorts of anime goodies as well: Read more…
My latest net addiction is the Japanese website cat.piq.jp which is essentially a cat version of the the old “hot-or-not” meme. Even though the instructions are in Japanese the game is pretty simple: You just click on one of the two cats that you think is the cutest. In return that kitty will keep getting higher ratings and thus appear more often. And if you’re more of a dog person there’s also dog.piq.jp…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 10, 2009 in Animation, Fandom
Sadly all good things come to an end sooner or later: And thus I’m afraid for yours truly it’s a bit too soon as the giant Gundam on display in Tokyo is being taken apart! Part of me always assumed that the Gundam would be on display forever, but sadly I was wrong. And what makes it worse is that the damn robot just sits there and does nothing to defend itself against a wimpy looking crane…Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 2, 2009 in Fandom, Tech
If you live in my neck of the woods you may want to think about attending the Vintage Computer Festival East this year: It’s running from September 12th until 13th at the InfoAge Science Center in Wall, New Jersey. Shown above is an amazing video from last year which shows an ancient PDP 8 computer running Space War. This year the fest will feature an 8-bit music concert, a by-the-pound book sale, a build-your-own PockeTerm workshop, and the BASIC Programming Challenge. The keynote speaker is Ted Hurewitz who worked on RCA computers in the 1950s. A single day is $10 and a weekend pass will cost you $15 (hell that’s coat check tip at one of those fancy web 3.0 conferences).
Above is author Neil Gaiman at the opening of Worldcon 2009 in Montreal. What’s a Worldcon you ask? Well for those of you not in the know Worldcon is the world science fiction convention which has been held every year since 1939 except during World War II (because most of the fanboys were being drafted). As someone who was active in fandom going back a bit I can tell you that once upon a time Worldcon was THE place where Hollywood would show their latest. Read more…
This segment from a Japanese game show features quite a bit of silly cosplay. I’m not sure what show this is from, but it was titled “An Idol and a Pair of Geeks”. Two of the idol singers featured in this skit are Seira Sakurai and Matsumoto Wakana. My favorite part of this video come at the 4:21 mark where the singer is beating up the poor otaku while performing her song.
While looking at 
As a fanboy I thought that the tech sector could get a bit catty at times (example: TechCrunch 50 vs. Demo) but that’s nothing compared to what just went down today in comic book fandom! The leading comic con in NYC is the 
