Japanese Batman

Batman: The Brave and the Bold is airing an anthology episode (tonight, I think) that includes nods to the Batboy and Rubin Mad Magazine parody, appearances from Scooby Doo and Weird Al, and this little gem ... which shows what a Batman and Robin cartoon might have looked like in Japan in the 1960s.

Darth Vader Vs Rebecca Black

It was my plan to ignore the whole Rebecca Black thing until it went away. But when Darth Vader showed up on Youtube singing that dreadful piece shit "Friday" I decided to lift my embargo just his once. I pray he doesn't alter my plan any further.

Some chocolate vampires are always trying to ice skate uphill

Via.

Zombies, World of Hurt, Chris Brown and other assorted oddities

 Live in Oregon? Swing by The Buzz on Broadway 

and check out their chocolate-bacon Twinkies.

The trailer for Pride & Predjudice & Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After

An Open Letter to GMA concerning Chris Brown

Stan Lee poses with a fan dressed as one of the few 

Marvel Comics characters he didn't create.

Help make The World of Hurt graphic novel a reality!

Worf is Beautiful

'I am Beautiful' by Joshua & Nathan Flynn from Joshua Flynn on Vimeo.

A short stop motion animated sting created as an introduction for the 'Best Stop Motion' award category of the 2009 University of Glamorgan Glammies Awards. Created and animated by Joshua & Nathan Flynn. This years awards theme was Star Trek. Starring Commander Worf and Cadet 'red shirt' Wilhelm.

"Goodnight, Dune"

Remember that Dune book cover parody of Goodnight Moon that made the rounds a while back? Julia Yu has stepped up and made the book a reality. Head on over to goodnightdune.com (natch) to get a surprisingly thorough lampoon of Dune.

How thorough? It mentions a no-room, a bit of Dune-related tech that doesn't appear until the fourth book of the series, God Emperor of Dune ... which is my second favorite of the series for those of you keeping score. There will be a test later.

Predator: The Musical

Someone get Julie Taymor on the phone ... NOW!

Free Droid Wallpaper: Watchmen

More free wallpaper for your Android phone.

T-shirt of the Day: Star Wars "Family"

We Are Family, today's custom tee from Tee Fury. It's $10 and is available only until midnight tonight!

Disney's new TRON UPRISING TV series to actually feature Tron

And make sure you stick around for the credits at the end of this trailer. That's one hell of a cast.

T-shirt of the Day: Alien Brew!

Here's another design from Kurt's Shirts. It features the logo of Aspen Beer, the fictional brew enjoyed by the crew of the Nostromo in my favorite movie ALIEN.

Free Droid Wallpaper: Tron Legacy

Finding good wallpaper for your Droid smartphone can be a chore. Most of the wallpaper available at the Droid Marketplace is crap. It might look nice from a distance but, as soon as you install it you find that the content is poorly cropped.

I've been making my own Droid paper for about a year and thought I'd share, starting with a few Tron Legacy images that ought to fit the aspect ratio of the Droid touchscreen. Whether or not you like the selections are another matter entirely ...

Riverdale: R-Rated Archie spoof

WARNING: geek-for-life.com is not responsible for any post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms you may experience after watching this video. Use only as directed.

Batman Vs TV Censors

Your Barista is Rorshach

A cup of Maxwell House and a Starbuck's Organic Blue Java contain the same number of particles. Structurally, there's no discernible difference. So why the fuck am I paying $8 for a cup of coffee?

Goat-hoof shoes bringing sexy back

I can't explain why, but I think these are really cool. 

DON'T JUDGE ME!

T-shirt of the Day: Rom: Spaceknight!

Rom: Spaceknight is among the kick-ass
retro-style shirts available at Kurt's Shirts.

(Even More) Fun with Imperial Walkers!

Herbie the Love Bug AT-AT Walker is among the Star Wars-themed AT-AT redesigns over at Bite.ca. Among the designs are AT-ATs "painted" to resemble the A-Team van, the Scooby Doo "Mystery Machine" and the General Lee (though I think they missed an opportunity to fit in a General Grievous reference with that one.)

T-shirt of the Day: Sho' Nuff!

The late Julius Carry as Sho'nuff, from The Last Dragon. 

Available at Kurt's Shirts.

Y'all owe Adam West an apology

And maybe Burt Ward, too.

Here are comparisons of screentests for Lyle Waggoner and Peter Deyell/Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin for the 1960s television show. While I prefer the darker, faux realism on modern Batman stories, there's a lot of room in the world for different interpretations of the character. As great as Christian Bale is as Batman, Adam West was equally great, though for different reasons. I'm not suggesting he was Brando, but West was a charismatic actor who was capable of more than he was ever allowed to do.

Unfortunately, he came up in a time when comicbooks were only a rung or two higher than horror and porn on the entertainment social ladder.Today he's kind of like William Shater's less-ironic cousin. And he deserved better.

While I've never been a particular fan of Burt Ward, it's clear he's still the best actor to play Robin on screen (this will likely be the case for many years to come, given that Warner Bros has even less interest in Dick Grayson than DC Comics.) If you watch the video above you'll see that Peter Deyell certainly looks more like the youthful Robin as depicted in the comics ... but he lacks screen presence.

Patrick Boivin's Black Widow Goes Wild

 

French Canadian director Patrick Boivin gets the most out of his collection of Sideshow Collectibles dolls action figures.

T-shirt of the Day: Springfield 5K

First Annual Springfield 5K, from Busted Tees. And the best part of this shirt? It features the logos for the many fake Springfield businesses to fake sponsor this fake event! Fake!

Batzman Meets the Green Horned Bee!

Here's a nice supplement to the Mad Magazine/Batman parody I posted a while back: Cracked's parody of Batman and the Green Hornet.  The art for this story appears to be by the great Marie Severin, but I could be mistaken.

I used to love Cracked as a kid, though popular opinion held that it was Mad's poor relative. Cracked really came into its own in the late 1980s when it became much more timely and relevant than its rivals.

FREE MUSIC: Hip-hop album inspired by Duncan Jones' MOON

I try to keep things positive around here. The last thing the Internet needs is more snark, hate and negative energy, so my rule of late has been to ignore the stuff I don't much like. Which is easier than it might sound.

I was hesitant to share this link at first, because I didn't much care for it. Not only that, but I found it's inspiration, the Duncan Jones film Moon, to be a bit overrated. It was a competent, bright movie that was only sporadically engaging and (IMHO) seemed a lot more novel than it really was because it was surrounded by crap like the Transformers movies.

BUT (and here's where I bring back the positive vibes) ... just because I didn't like it doesn't mean you won't. So, here it is: Selene, a concept EP by Richard Rich and Max Tannone (and features elements from Clint Mansell's film score.) It's a five-track album available for free download, no strings attached. I've pasted the Soundcloud streams below.

Selene by Max Tannone

101 reasons to love Nicolas Cage

Movies are difficult to make; good movies are even harder. Like Michael Caine and Samuel L. Jackson, Nic Cage is one of those actors who understands the best way to make a good movie is to appear in as many as possible and hope for the best. Consequently, people's feelings on the man can vary throughout the year, depending on what's currently screening.

The Shiznit has a list of 101 reasons why you shouldn't hold Season of the Witch against him. My favorite is #51: Nicolas Cage has a 20 year-old son called Weston, who is the lead vocalist in a black metal band called Eyes Of Noctum.

See the whole list HERE.

T-shirt of the Day: Doctor Doom riding a unicorn

Doctor Doom riding a unicorn. From Mighty Fine Tees.

Operation Reese's Pieces

What an R-rated sequel to E.T. might look like.
(Brownie points for C. Thomas Howell cameo!)

Ty Mattson illustrates "Dexter"

 Artist Ty Mattson's work appears on a few Dexter-related items over at the official Shotime website. There are quite a few products available showcasing the Saul Bass-inspired work, including the silk screen print above. Check out the rest of the products HERE.

Understanding Pac-Man Ghost Behavior

Chad Birch has an interesting look at the "Ghost AI" used in the classic Pac-Man arcade game. It's a surprisingly complex system given the simple nature of the game (not to mention that the original game ROM is smaller than today's average cell-phone photo.) Here's a sample of the work that went into crafting the personalities of the individual ghosts:

The orange ghost, “Clyde”, is the last to leave the ghost house, and does not exit at all in the first level until over a third of the dots have been eaten. Clyde’s English personality description is pokey, whereas the Japanese description is お惚け, otoboke or “feigning ignorance”. As is typical, the Japanese version is more accurate, since Clyde’s targeting method can give the impression that he is just “doing his own thing”, without concerning himself with Pac-Man at all. 

Read the entire Pac-Man analysis over at Game Internals.

Steampunk Star Wars

Just when you think the whole "Steampunk Star Wars" concept has run out of ... well, steam, along comes another artist to give it a kick in the pants. Bjorn Hurri has a fun gallery of steampunk concepts in his CGHUB gallery, including a stoner Yoda, a slightly dandy Han Solo, Jabba the Hut and more. Check it out!