“The Red Planet was too salty to sustain life for much of its history, according to the latest evidence gathered by one of the US rovers on Mars’ surface. High concentration of minerals in water on early Mars would have made it inhospitable to even the toughest microbes, a leading NASA expert says.
Clues preserved in rocks that were once awash with water suggest the environment was both acidic and briny. The observations were made by the US space agency’s Opportunity rover. It has spent months examining rocks on an ancient Martian plain.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 15, 2008 in Comic Books
Eric Powell covers always feel more like a good old fashioned pulp fiction magazine rather than showing super heros covers which always feature guys running around in their underwear — shown above is a detail from the cover of The Goon #24 which will be out on May 14th at a creepy comic book shop near you.
When I first read the The Pentagon is going to shoot down an ailing US spy satellite, my first thought was “I want that job!” But sadly instead of sending up fanboys on the space shuttle armed with ray guns (like the Japanese Tin Space Gun pictured above) the Pentagon will just do the conventional solution of firing a missile from boat:
I hare to admit it, but this looks pretty darn good! I know I made all of those jokes about Geriatric Jones but come May 22nd I get the feeling that this old dorky fanboy is standing on line waiting all day.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 14, 2008 in Videogames
Shown above is the 3D work of talented interactive media pioneer Larry Rosenthal. Larry has just opened his own 3C Skybase (shown above) and Star Trek Tribute Lounge in Second Life:
“Second Life, Jan 21, 2008: Cube3 the creators of the Starbase C3 Online World and RPG, has created with the sponsorship of the StarFleet Command Second Life Quadrant Roleplayers ( SFCSLQ) a new multilevel floating outpost at the groups sim at Sovereign. The Outpost , named the C3 Skybase Sovereign is now open and all aliens, avatars , etc, are welcome to attend.
“A beautifully preserved fossil of a tiny pterosaur suggests that the giant pterodactyls that roamed the skies during the late Cretaceous period may have come from much smaller, tree-dwelling ancestors. The new fossil, which was discovered in 2004 in western Liaoning province, China, is about 120 million years old.
“This is a very, very complete specimen of an unusual little pterodactyl,” says Michael Caldwell, a vertebrate palaeontologist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. The new fossil also sheds some light on another mystery of pterosaur evolution – whether pterosaurs began to fly upwards from the ground, or whether they first climbed into trees and then began to glide downwards.”
“A new era of Star Wars entertainment begins in 2008 when Star Wars: The Clone Wars, from creator George Lucas, premieres as an all-new feature film in August, followed by the television series debut in the fall, in a partnership announced today between Lucasfilm Ltd., Warner Bros. Pictures and Turner Broadcasting System Inc.
Produced by Lucasfilm Animation, Star Wars: The Clone Wars takes audiences on incredible new Star Wars adventures, combining the legendary storytelling of Lucasfilm with an eye-popping, signature animation style. Star Wars: The Clone Wars will open in North American theaters Friday, August 15. International release dates will be announced soon.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 13, 2008 in Animation
This latest trailer for Kung Fu Panda doesn’t look too bad, although to be honest I’ve always preferred Pixar to Dreamworks. I think it’s that Dreamworks always relies upon sitcom jokes with well known actors while Pixar films are always about the story itself with the humor playing a supporting role. Also Pixar uses animation to tell the story while with Dreamworks you might as well use puppets.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 12, 2008 in Videogames
Chris is a videogame fanboy who made the above documentary on The Top Ten Worst Mistakes by Sega, even though the production values are crude his insights into the game industry of the 90s are great. I found myself laughing a few times watching this, it’s amazing to think how many times Sega would become their own worst enemy. Part two is below:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 11, 2008 in Videogames
Shown above are just two examples from an amazing collection of Atari game manuals and other associated items collected by designer Joe Kral. I have to say that I was blown away with the quality of the print design work associated with Atari in the 80s, I tend to associate good taste from that era with IBM and Apple but their taste wasn’t too shabby.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 11, 2008 in Animation
The above film was produced by 18 animators living in St. Petersburg, Russia. I love how the entire film was created by drawing on Post-It Notes. The song featured is by Oppa Novy God.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 10, 2008 in Star Trek
The folks behind the lolcat website I Can Has Cheezburger? now have a site for dogs! Being a Star trek fan I loved the loldog shot above from the episode The Enemy Within from 1966. As you’ll recall the poor horned space puppy went red shirt in the episode when used for unethical transporter testing, causing Dr. McCoy to comment “It’s dead, Jim”. Arf! Arf!
Shown above (click on the image to see at full size) are two pages from the 1988 Sears catalog, which featured quite a bit of Mickey Mouse merchandise. At this point in Disney history Michael Eisner was busy turning the company around, with the Great Mouse Detective (a good but under appreciated film) having come out in 1986 however they were still working on the Little Mermaid which didn’t come out until 1989 and put the studio back on the map. But in the meantime the studio did quite a few merchandising deals — some of the goodies shown above include a Mickey Mouse necktie, 101 Dalmations sweat suit, a tacky 80s black satin jacket, a Mickey phone, matching his and hers nightshirts (tacky!), underwear and yes an ultra light weight Minnie-Vac!
When ever I think of Fritz Lang the film Metropolis comes to mind, but often folks forget that he did a nice body of film noir projects in the 40s and 50s. It seems that RKO hasn’t forgotten this and is now in the process of putting together a remake of the 1956 Lang film Beyond a Reasonable Doubt with Michael Douglas:
“The movie in question is a film noir by Fritz Lang, who made such unquestionable classics as M and Metropolis. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt was a sturdy flick starring the underrated Dana Andrews (Laura, The Best Years of Our Lives) as a writer who pins a murder on himself to prove the folly of circumstantial evidence. Heady stuff.
Variety tells us that this time around, Michael Douglas, Amber Tamblyn and Jesse Metcalfe will star in a contemporary remake of the film to be written and directed by Peter Hyams (who’s a far cry from Timecop here), and production is expected to begin next month. Having adored the noir touches of Hollywoodland a couple years ago, I wish they’d kept it in the period. I guess with the litigous nature of modern America, it makes sense to skewer the judicial system in the here and now, but I can’t help thinking it would be more special as a traditional film noir.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 8, 2008 in Videogames
If you’re an animation fanboy (or fangurl) who owns a Nintendo DS you should check out the the American website for Professor Layton and the Curious Village which just launched (nicely designed by POP Multimedia in Seattle). A friend showed me the Japanese version of the game a few months ago which features Hayao Miyazaki inspired animation set in a charming Victorian world. The gameplay features characters that you would find in a Charles Dickens novel solving a Sherlock Holmes mystery. Here’s the game trailer to give you a taste:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 7, 2008 in Animation
Today marks the start of the Chinese New Year, so we’re exploring fanboy themes relating the Year of the Rat. Shown above is The Rat on Chaos a clever short animated film I found on YouTube from sanewave. Warning: This film contains some profanity and an animated rat going to the bathroom. Although no rats were harmed in the production…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 7, 2008 in Animation
Today marks the start of the Chinese New Year, so we’re exploring fanboy themes relating the Year of the Rat. Shown above is Dougal and the Rat a short animated film directed by Morgan Williams of Club Cocoanut Animation (which also features the work of illustrator/designer Julie Williams).
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 7, 2008 in Animation
Today marks the start of the Chinese New Year, so we’re exploring fanboy themes relating the Year of the Rat. Shown above is Roland Rat Superstar, a British puppet character from the 80s. Roland was first conceived and voiced by David Claridge in 1983. The show would become so popular that it would inspire three UK chart hit singles and a video game. Here are some clips from the show:
