Animated Peter Max Anti-Smoking Commercial

It’s funny to see this vintage early 70s animated commercial with features the work of psychedelic artist Peter Max encouraging folks to stop smoking cigarettes. While his work was very associated with hippy drug culture to my surprise it seems that Max was willing to speak out and urge folks to not smoke:

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Kabuki: Reflections #11 by David Mack

I was looking at what Marvel has coming out for September and I came across the above gem by David Mack which is a wonderful homage to Gustav Klimt:

“This square-bound art book acts as a tie-in to the DVD documentary on Mack’s work, THE ALCHEMY OF ART: DAVID MACK from Herovideoproductions.com. REFLECTIONS #11 includes details and commentary on never-before-seen art and stories – including Mack’s new children’s book THE SHY CREATURES, handmade books and paintings from the DVD. Also featuring step-by-step art techniques, loads of art and extras you’ve never seen before, figure drawings, new paintings, sketches and art for Tori Amos’ new Comic Book Tattoo story, album cover art, large art, live art shows, original scripts and more!”

Billy Batson and The Magic of Shazam: Cover by Mike Kunkel

I love comic book covers when they’re less serious and more cartoony and this cover of Billy Batson and The Magic of Shazam #3 by Mike Kunkel does the trick! The above issue hits the streets on September 24th from DC Comics.

Vintage Animated Japanese Commercials

This first risque soap commercial from 1970 does a nice job of combing live action with animated characters. I love the design of the character with her smiling mouth touching her eyes.

Not only is the stop motion animation in this advert great, but the music it catchy too!

This hipsteresque spot is for Suntory Torys Whisky.

And this last spot is for Vicks cough drops.

Soviet City of the Future from 1969

The funny thing is that although this Soviet city of the future seems utopian, it’s very repressive under the surface: Every building in site looks exactly alike! It’s as if in this vision of the future there is only one architect who designed just one building and then they figured out to leave well enough alone after that point. Also notice how all the vehicles carry multiple parties — clearly mass transit rules the day, but if you want to own a private car jet that’s too bad! The illustration is scanned from a 1969 copy of Teknika Molodezhi (Techniques of Youth) magazine which was a Russian Popular Mechanics magazine of sorts.

Found via darkroastedblend.com.

Panda-Z: The Robonimation

The minute I spotted the above photo I fell in love with the toy! The toy is from the 2004 kids anime series Panda-Z: The Robonimation which is a bit of a parody of giant robot cartoons from the 70s like Mazinger Z. Even though the show is no longer on the air Bandai is still pumping out toys and other goodies based on the series which you can find at the official Panda-Z website. Below is an official shot from their Panda-Z Goods section of their website of the toy that caught my eye:

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The X-Files: I Want to Believe Theatrical Trailer

It’s very strange seeing Billy Connolly in a serious role! Here’s the tease copy from Fox Movies:

“In grand “X-Files” manner, the film’s storyline is being kept under wraps. This much can be revealed: It is a stand-alone story in the tradition of some of the show’s most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes the complicated relationship between Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) in unexpected directions. Mulder continues his unshakable quest for the truth, and Scully, the passionate, ferociously intelligent physician, remains inextricably tied to Mulder’s pursuits. In theaters July 25.”

Tang: The Official Beverage of the Space Race

My parents loved me way too much to give me Tang, so I had to live with the hardship of drinking primitive orange juice every day of my earth bound childhood. The faux sugar fueled orange power was first sold over the counter in 1959 by General Foods. However the drink didn’t take off until 1965 when the above ad campaign tied it to the Gemini program which forced astronauts to risk their lives in more than one way.

Here’s a pre-space race commercial for Tang starring Bugs Bunny from 1959:

However this cute animated spot from the 70s is the one I grew up with (which came after the space race was over):

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Sean’s Suggestions: New York Asian Film Festival

Editor’s Note: My long time friend and fellow Asian cinema fanboy Sean sent me this wonderful email giving his critique on the upcoming New York Asian Film Festival:

Films I’d Like to See

Accuracy of Death: All I have to say is “death and his telepathic dog” – Sold!

Dainipponjin, aka Big Man Japan: Okay, as someone who grew up watching Godzilla movies this fake documentary about a bumbling super guy who fights Tokyo’s giant monsters appeals to me.

Dead Time: Kala: Okay, more than one person has compared this film to Dark City a film which I think had such great unrealized potential! I will go see it just for that fact.

L: Change the World: I’ll admit it, I saw both Death-note films and thought they were okay made for TV movies (but they weren’t made for TV), and a result I am interested in seeing this film which is part of the Death-note Phenomena…

Love On Sunday: So this one looks like a chick-flick but it’s directed by former soft-porn director Ryuichi Hiroki.  I saw his first “commercial” film Vibrator (named for the fact that the protagonist leaves her cell phone on vibrate, but also a reference to her depressed feelings of no one being able to ‘hear’ her – so get you minds out of the gutter!) and very VERY impressed, plus the reviewer compares it to a John Hughes film. For those reasons I am willing to face what appears to be a  chick-flick.

Mad Detective: Sounds like TV show House meets a HK gangster film!

Sukiyaki Western Django: I know it’s not going to be good, but there has been so much hype over Miike’s Japanese Western costarring… Quentin Tarantino in his first Japanese acting roll, my curiosity has gotten the best of me.

This World Of Ours: The review of this film really piques my interest. A manifesto written by a hikikomori (literally an anti-social individual who locks themselves in their room and won’t come out) ! How can I pass it up?

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Green Hornet Uniform and Equipment for Captain Action

We’ve got everything here: the official uniform, gas pistol, shoulder holster, hat, Hornet face mask, signal watch, string ray, gas mask, phone adapter, shoes and the official ring! So who is Captain Action? He was launched in 1966 by Ideal as competition to G.I. Joe — but unlike poor Joe the Captain had outfits so he could be Superman, Batman, Captain America, Flash Gordon and even the Lone Ranger. The Green Hornet version came out in 1967 and is one of the most in demand by collectors of the ill fated action hero series. Here’s a commercial from the original Captain Action sans his Green Hornet or Lone ranger uniform:

Photo via toysfortheages.

Exploring the Moon in 1965

The above illustration is from an illustrated Spanish book from 1965. The oversized space suits remind me of the Lost in Space robot:

Illustration found by one size fits all who lives in Barcelona, Spain.

Big Buck Bunny

Big Buck Bunny is an “open movie project” which was produced by Ton Roosendaal, the author the 3D software tool Blender. It’s exciting to think that these tools for doing high quality 3D character animation are getting out there, so far these films are just shorts — but we could see a full length indie 3D film one day in the near future.

Found via cgindia.org.

Happiness is a Warm Wookie

My best guess is that this photo is either from 1980 or 1983 when either The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi came out. Although if you forced me to place a bet I’d say that with her hairstyle and the t-shirts with the iron on lettering the photo is from 1980.

Photo found via digital archivist superbomba!

Vintage Animated Korean Commercials

This first commercial tells a of tale of the tortoise, the hare and an underwater sea king — it’s for some sort of drink.

You can tell this Jinro spot is from the 60s from the go go dancing.

This animated cosmetics spot seems to be inspired by the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The animation on the second commercial is a bit more cute.

This last spot is a public safety announcement from the 70s.

Parody Preview: Conan the Cimmerian #0

As a nerd I’ve always hated the character of Conan who always seemed like the poser child for stupid. Shown above is my improved version of the upcoming cover of Conan the Cimmerian #0 which will hit the street on June 25th from Dark Horse Comics.

LEGO Batman Nightwing Trailer

Yeah get him LEGO Batman! I like how they always have to have the ESRB rating at the front, as if we couldn’t figure out that LEGO wasn’t real or something. Anyway plenty of action here, the game is due out September.

Other Worlds, Other Sounds

When you look at the science fiction from any previous era you get an insight to what they thought was modern and thus futuristic. You also get an insight into how they looked at the future itself: This RCA Victor album cover from 1958 views modernism as a moonscape (this was the dawn of the space age after all) and the dancer shows a certain amount of humor — and with a booming economy there was good reason to be optimistic at the time.

Cover found by Thomas Hughes of the Spinto Band.

Ruining Classic Characters

Just look at how American Greetings has ruined poor Strawberry Shortcake — don’t get me wrong she looked tacky back in the day (she was really a pink rip off of Holly Hobby) but this modern makeover has taken out all of the character out of the character. The modern version misses the point that a shortcake is a cake, and poor Strawberry must be allergic because her cat is out of site:

Beloved Characters as Reimagined for the 21st Century

“Strawberry Shortcake was having an identity crisis. The “it” doll and cartoon star of the 1980s was just not connecting with modern girls. Too candy-obsessed. Too ditzy. Too fond of wearing bloomers. So her owner, American Greetings Properties, worked for a year on what it calls a “fruit-forward” makeover. Strawberry Shortcake, part of a line of scented dolls, now prefers fresh fruit to gumdrops, appears to wear just a dab of lipstick (but no rouge), and spends her time chatting on a cellphone instead of brushing her calico cat, Custard. Her new look was unveiled Tuesday, along with plans for a new line of toys from Hasbro.”

And here is a berry blast from the past from 1980:

Pluto is Now a Plutoid

Frankly until we’re able to see a few more planets outside of our solar system up close it’s a bit early to make judgement calls on what is and isn’t a planet. I say we go to the Star Trek model and start to classify different types of planets by letter:

Plutoid chosen as name for solar system objects like Pluto

“Almost two years after the International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly introduced the category of dwarf planets, the IAU, as promised, has decided on a name for transneptunian dwarf planets similar to Pluto. The name plutoid was proposed by the members of the IAU Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN), accepted by the Board of Division III, by the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) and approved by the IAU Executive Committee at its recent meeting in Oslo, Norway.

Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the Sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighbourhood around their orbit. The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris. It is expected that more plutoids will be named as science progresses and new discoveries are made.”

Quiet Yuki Nagato

Shown above is a wonderful photo by Inga P. of Yuki Nagato from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I love the way Inga set up this photo, and the cute touch of the cat makes the photo. Inga looks after the biggest English speaking Pinky:st community at pinky-street.com and she’s based out of Nottingham, UK.

Disney Distorted by Javier Gonzalez Burgos

These distorted caricatures are great because Javier Gonzalez Burgos has taken these well known Disney icons of the 20th Century and added that extra special touch of 21st Century anxiety with just a dash of information overload. Javier is an illustrator based out of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

These Robot Fish Remind Me of the Matrix

The movement of these robot fish is quite creepy — they remind me of the Sentinel I-Series (“Squids”) from the Matrix movies:

Star Trek: To Boldly Not Allow Embedding

The Good News: CBS now has all of the original Star Trek episodes online!

The Bad News: You can’t embed them into your blog!

Old media just doesn’t get it — and the “it” is economics. On the web page views equal cash, so if nobody can find your video you won’t do so well. You’d think with an army of Star Trek fanboys allowing embedding would be obvious, but to me it’s just another sign of old media not understanding the medium. I also wish that CBS had done a deal with YouTube — as a brand CBS is dead to me because it’s a TV network which is something I make it a point to skip when channel surfing (and I’m an old guy!). There’s something quite sad when a show about the future is married to people stuck in the past.

Scene Stealing Hippo on the Cover of Elephantmen

Yes I know perfectly well that the character seen above is in fact a giant hippo and not an elephant, but that doesn’t take away from the high quality of this gritty cover by Rob Steen and Ladronn for Elephantmen #12 which will be released this Wednesday by Image Comics.