Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 23, 2012 in Comic Books
What were fanboys and fangurls reading fifty years ago? Well here’s a selection of over fifty comic books from January 1962. The first thing that’s interested about this selection is the variety of genres — superheroes only represent a percentage of the titles that were on newsstands: In 1962 you could find comic books that took place in the old wild west, World War II, outer space and there were also romance comic books for the ladies and quite a few cartoony kid friendly titles as well. Read more…
Her name may not be Mary, but one Jennifer Jhonson (if that’s a typo, I can blame it on TechEye) claims to have conceived a child in a fashion that could be called…”immaculate”? Or perhaps just “desperate.”
See, when her hubby Erick came home from a tour in Iraq he found his wife pregnant– but according to her, there was no earthly father. But rather than laying the child at the feet of a holy deity, Jennifer claimed to have been impregnated as the result of watching a 3D porno flick.
Perhaps even more amazingly, Erick has proven as willing to take this explanation was as Joseph a couple thousand years ago. But let’s face it– 3D films have been around longer than the current trend. In fact, many of the following films are old enough that they could theoretically have “fathered” you and me. So without further ado: five 3D flicks that might impregnate a female viewer! Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 5, 2009 in Cinema, Horror
This is where science fiction ends and fact begins! On this day in 1962 the post-apocalyptic film Panic in Year Zero opened. The film was directed by Ray Milland and also stars him in the lead role of Harry Baldwin, a man who takes his family out on a simple fishing trip only to find out that that loud noise that they heard was the destruction of Los Angles by a nuclear attack. But it turns out that radiation sickness, looters and killers are the real issues of the day — what’s makes you civilized is the ability for a man to get a decent shave: Read more…
The famous rocketship of Coney Island is looking for a new home as the long time amusement park Astroland will be forced to close down on January 31st. As a fanboy this breaks my heart as the spacecraft captures the excitement held by America for the high frontier at the dawn of the space race in the early 60s. To me this rocket belongs in the Smithsonian or the Seattle Science Fiction Museum, although I’d love to see it stay here in old New York: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 8, 2008 in Comic Books
I’m sorry I couldn’t help myself with that headline! But the sight of cowboys and indians hanging out with dinosaurs (well minus the cowboys) brought Sarah Palin’s creationism to my mind right away. However that shouldn’t take dissuade you from checking out Turok: Son of Stone whuch will be coming out in February 2009 from Dark Horse.
My favorite John Barry theme is from the 1960 film Beat Girl, but with the current James Bond buzz I’m happy to see John Barry get some long overdue recognition for his talent.
“Very few composers can be said to have created a new style of film music,” says David Arnold. “John Barry single-handedly created the spy genre.” Arnold, who recently completed scoring “Quantum of Solace” (his fifth James Bond score), has a long way to go to catch up to Barry’s record of 11 complete 007 scores (not counting his arrangement of the original “James Bond Theme” for “Dr. No”).
About a week ago I was very saddened to hear about the passing away of Lou Dorfsman. While Lou didn’t design the famous CBS eye (that was William Golden) from the 60s until the 80s he put the tiffany in the tiffany network. The CBS of today is but a shadow of what it was during that era, but back then it was one of three corporations that dominated American media and Lou gave them their signature look.
In my last year of art school my father purchased a copy of the book Dorfsman & CBS for me which showcased the entire career of Lou Dorfsman and it inspires me to this day. The first thing that you’ll notice is that most of what Lou does is in fact print design, and while he did do his share of animated titles and set designs it’s the medium at which he excelled. What I love about his work is that it’s not just about pretty pictures, but about using words and typography in clever ways to communicate his message. The other thing to keep in mind that as a creative director Lou was a manager, so what you’re seeing here is the word of many other talented people including typographers, photographers, illustrators and even printers.
The first time I viewed this ad was in a course on the history of graphic design, and I was blown away! It’s a newspaper ad from 1962 showcasing the CBS News coverage of the John Glenn space flight. What makes it brilliant is that Dorfsman has taken the graphic convention of the american flag and by turning it 90 degrees and adding a rocket made it represent the hopes and aspirations of the space program. Simply put this is conceptual graphic design at its best.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 20, 2008 in Animation
This Jetsons Little Golden Book is from 1962 — and what’s refreshing to me about this cover is the bold sense of optimism which you don’t see much these days. Authors like Isaac Asimov always felt that dividing line of modern science fiction was that it viewed technology as a positive force in the universe. However I think science fiction (and other imaginative literature) is a reflection of how society views the world at that point in time. So while attempting to predict the future these cultural documents tell us more about the present — or in this case the past.
