Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 5, 2009 in Comic Books
Marvel has has released a series of comics based upon classic books which have been unimpressive on every level, but a wonderful exception to this has been the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz which features illustrations by Skottie Young. It’s hard to reinvent the universe of Oz because the visual style of the story has been so defined by the 1939 film — but Young manages to reinvent this world while staying true to the story. Issue #5 in the series comes out this Wednesday, above is a detail of the cover art and it just looks great. I also love the powerful palette of colors by Jean-Francois Beaulieu who brings Skottie’s drawings to life. Below is another wonderful panel: Read more…
Disclaimer:Reverse engineering the mechanisms of Digg is always a guessing game — and a hard one because Digg is always changing the rules of that game to stay one step ahead of spammers. So everything in this article is just my speculation — it’s not a “how-to get to the front page” methodology.
Not too long ago (around February) Digg cracked down on power users by limiting the number of diggs in a 24 hour period. Now this isn’t a science but after 150 or so diggs a user would be greeted by the warning “Whoa there cowboy! Itchy trigger finger? Digging fast is so lame. How about reading some stories instead?” Now notice that last line about “reading some stories instead” — it’s always been my theory that while Digg never prints a rulebook that they always give your humorous hints as to how to succeed on Digg in their interface design. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 3, 2009 in Star Wars
You’ll need the Force to get these goodies off of Esty because there’s only one set left! Above are the Star Wars Storm Trooper cufflinks and below are the Shadow Storm Trooper Helmet set — but my favorite is the tie tack below that. Also Gr0glmann offers a ton of other nerdtastic cufflinks that are well worth checking out…Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 3, 2009 in Star Trek
This is a demonstration of the sound effects on the new Diamond Select Toys Star Trek Deluxe Chair — as you can see below the chair also includes a replica Kirk. However when I first spotted this video my hopes were for a full sized chair… Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 2, 2009 in Animation
This is a trailer for the upcoming anime series Shangri La which is based Eiichi Ikegami’s novel. Here’s a crude translation of the description for the show: “Due to global warming Tokyo has been transformed into a tropical city, to fight these effects the center of the city is being transformed into a forest — a utopia (Shangri-La) where global warming does not exists. In the center of Tokyo the privileged citizens live in an Atlas-like tower city while ordinary people are intimidated and lead a life of squalor. Houziyou Kuniko is an 18-year-old heroine with her massive boomerang made of carbon fiber leads a fight against government forces.” Read more…
“Little Indiana Mouse loves to go on adventures and find hidden treasure! As handsome as his human counterpart, he comes complete with hat, gun holster, bag and whip. Indiana Mouse was hand made using felt, silks, fake leather, ribbon, cardboard, glue, monofilament and he is stuffed with polyfil. He stands approximately 2.5inches tall (6.5cm) His costume and accessories are not removable.”Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 31, 2009 in Star Wars
I wasn’t aware of this — but it seems that back 1989 at Tokyo Disneyland they had a Star Wars themed attraction called Mickey’s Space Fantasy. After some research I found out that the ride featured in this old advert is in fact Star Tours which was advertised as “The Ultimate Star Wars Adventure!” which was the direct result of Lucas working with Disney back in the 80s on several projects. But best of all, I found out that the ride is still running to this very day…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 31, 2009 in Star Trek
Kirk is the original, but I have to say that Sisko is pretty much the coolest commander that I’ve come across in every incarnation of Star Trek. Kirk is a bit of a hot head, Jean Luc Picard is just too damn mellow, Janeway was generic and Jonathan Archer was just a tad too lovable: And that leaves us with Benjamin Sisko! Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 30, 2009 in Videogames
Prototype is an interesting looking game which is set in NYC (it’s due out for the holiday season on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC) and what I’m seeing so far looks pretty amazing. The plot sort of reminds me of 28 Days Later with a slight bit of Men in Black: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 30, 2009 in Animation
Sadly not many animation fans know who he was, but today is the the 96th birthday of legendary Disney animator Marc Davis who was born on this day in 1913 (and passed away in 2000). Disney had a core of talented animators who were known as “Disney’s Nine Old Men” and Davis was a member of that dream team. His did character design work and animation on Thumper from Bambi (1942), Tinker Bell in Peter Pan (1953) and my favorite Cruella De Vil of 101 Dalmatians (1961). He was also involved in creating many characters for Disneyland rides including working on the costume design for the Pirates of the Caribbean. Here’s an amazing video profile of Marc from the Disney Family Album which will inspire any fanboy: Read more…
Just released this past week in Japan is an Ultraman themed soda which comes in two flavors and 12 different can designs (the flavor shown in the video is cider). But just I love the way this fanboy documented his purchase — not too dissimilar than a tech fanboy doing an unboxing video. By the way if you’re looking for an amazing collection of all things Ultraman check out this Flickr group.Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 28, 2009 in Animation
Not to date myself, but I grew up watching Lupin III episodes on VHS from Japan — my all time favorite episodes of the show were the ones directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki as we all known known is an animation genius, but when you put that together with Lupin there was a real sort of magic. Lupin III started life as a manga and the first episodes date back to the 60s, but when Miyazaki got his hands on the show it went from being a manga adaption to a place in television history. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 28, 2009 in Japanese TV
Shown above is a segment from the March 25th episode of AKBINGO! a variety show which features the J-Pop group AKB48 which includes some 46 divas (well they started with 48 young ladies but that was several years ago) divided into three teams. The group is unusual in that once a week they preform at their own theater which is located in the Akihabara district of Tokyo. Read more…
I’ve seen so many tin toy robot sin my day so it’s a nice break to see a retro plaything that’s based on War of the Worlds for a change. This Martian Invader tin wind-up toy is available from zerotoys.com and harkens back to yesteryear with a fanboy affordable price of $13.95. Found via nerdapproved.com.
This sneak preview of the upcoming Family Guy episode which features the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation looks pretty good. The episode airs Sunday night on Fox…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 27, 2009 in Animation
How can’t you be gonzo for the Great Gonzo? Shown above is a new Great Gonzo puppet replica based on the glory days of the Muppet Show. What I love about this Jim Henson creation is that Gonzo is an ugly creature, but yet it hard not to love him. He’s very proud just to be himself — and what’s interesting is that unlike the Muppets he’s not based on any known animal, so he’s a true freak. The other endearing quality about Gonzo is that he represents the eternal optimist in all of us: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 26, 2009 in Comic Books
Shown above is a nice gory detail from a cover illustration by Rob Guillory for the comic book Chew #1 which will be released on June by Image. But what makes this cover work so well for me is the sense of humor, which you only notice when your eye moves off this scene of carnage: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 26, 2009 in Animation
It’s amazing to me that Hollywood can do such a good job adapting American comic books to live action films, but when it comes to manga or anime they don’t always seem to know what they’re doing. A good case in point is this latest trailer for Dragonball Evolution which falls flat — and if the trailer doesn’t get you excited you know you’re in trouble! Fox is convinced that this film will indoctrinate a new generation of Dragonball fans, but it may have the opposite effect…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 26, 2009 in Science
You know it’s not quite as cool as a space station that you’d see in 2001: A Space Odyssey but on the whole now that the ISS is 80% done it doesn’t look too shabby! This footage was shot by the space shuttle before it heads home. Here’s an amazing photo from a space walk earlier in the mission: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 26, 2009 in Comic Books
It’s going to be hard to top Watchmen for movies based on comic books this year, but that said X-Men Origins: Wolverine isn’t looking too shabby. The film hits theaters on May 1st and if you’d like to decorate your desktop in anticipation here’s some wallpaper to get you started: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 25, 2009 in Videogames
To celebrate the 31st Anniversary of Space Invaders Taito is shipping this very cute replica of an original tabletop Space Invaders game. This cute collectable allows you play an actual game and its even is coin operated like the original — except for the fact that you’ll need Japanese coins to make it work.