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!

Top 20 Black Action Figures

In honor of Black History Monty, gunaxin.com has a list of the 20 greatest black action figures. Spoiler alert: Samuel L. Jackson comprises 20 percent of the list. Find out who made the cut (with photos) here.

Fight Club wallpaper

Scrappy Days

Scrappy Doo is one of the most divisive fictional characters in animation history. A lot of this depends on your age. If you were old enough to have something invested in the various Scooby Doo cartoons by the time his nephew, Scrappy, was introduced in 1979 then you might be more than a little resentful of the character. If you were very young and new to the whole idea of Saturday Morning Cartoons, then you probably have some fondness for the pup. The same rule applies for Jar Jar Binks, oddly enough.

Mark Evanier wrote for Hanna-Barbera animation when Scrappy Doo was added to the cast. He's posted a very detailed story about the character's creation and thinks Scrappy Doo played a significant role in keeping Scooby Doo on the air when it was in danger of getting axed. Here's a sample:

"He did not destroy the show, as others claim. He was born during a time at that studio when characters were treated a bit too much as a commodity and in that context, he served his purpose. And every now and then, I come across someone — usually someone a lot younger than I am — who absolutely loves Scrappy to pieces. That's great. I don't share the sentiment but I'm glad to have had a hand in giving those folks something they like."

Read the five-part story at his website News from ME. It's one of my favorite sites to visit, btw.

8-Bit Sweaters

T-shirt of the Day

"Every Night I Have the Same Dream" from Treadless.

Vampire Over London

It's no secret that the Internet hates copyright laws. If you've got the creative rights to a property that can be translated to ones and zeroes, then get ready to spend the rest of your life sending out cease and desist notices.

Or you can do what the folks at OpenFlix have done: seek out public domain films, take advantage of existing (and user friendly) programs and share them with the world. Above is an example of what's available at the OpenFlix Youtube channel, the full-length feature Vampire Over London. It's a B-movie by anyone's definition, but it's got Bela Lugosi in it so that makes it good. You can find more movies (such as Metropolis, M and Night of the Living Dead) at FilmHound.TV.

(To Kill a Mockingbird appears to be posted at FilmHOund.TV ... is that public domain? I somehow doubt it.)

Real Life Mario Kart

(More) Fun with Imperial Walkers!

TotalFilm has a feature posted called 14 Cool Vintage Star Wars Images which puts the famous Imperial All-Terrain Armored Transport (I use the full name in hopes of receiving manna from the Gods of Geekdom) into various historic scenes. Via Nigel Leitch and, of course, TotalFilm. There's a sample from this feature above. The images below are just some I've stumbled on at other sites.

The Killing Joke

A Death in the Family meets The Simpsons.
Via Spingfield Punx (which also has Simpson-ized versions of Batdance Prince and the cover of Thriller.)

If Apple made water

Via Scoopertino.

T-shirt of the Day

Darth Vader works on  his parenting skills in Who's Your Daddy, from splitreason.com.

Phantom of the Flopera

Bach's Toccata and Fugue In D Minor played on vintage floppy drives.

A Dalek on an Egg

Via Springfield Punx. As you were.

(Bat) Man of Fire

Mina Mikhael put America's intermittent fascination with fireworks to good use last summer with this display of "light graffiti." Here are the technical specs, for those of you interested in creating a similar image.

The Flaming Lips destroy the Internet

The Flaming Lips are reviving the Zaireeka concept for the 21st century.

Back in 1997 the band released the experimental Zaireeka "album" as eight songs scattered over four stereo CDs. The goal was to have the listener play the discs simultaneously, each song being broadcast through no fewer than eight speakers. It didn't exactly catch on, mostly because the idea required a lot of work from the listener to create the experience.

It seem that time has finally caught up to the band, though. The Flaming Lips have recreated the experience for smart phones, posting 12 videos to YouTube slugged as "Two Blobs Fucking." The video above shows band members Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd showing how it works.

At least, I think that's what they're doing. You can find the videos at their YouTube channel.

T-shirt of the Day

 Squirrel Girl from Mighty Fine.

SuperHarmony.com

"Who the hell is this Robin bitch?"

Prehistoric Dog by Red Fang

LARP-metal from Red Fang, who are among the bands on the Cartoon Network Metal Swim anthology.

Tatooine's Most Wanted

Ever read the online Troops of Doom comic strip? If not, hit the link and give it a try. The strip is updated several times a week and features hundreds of back issues in the archive.

Anyway, this post actually has a point. (Don't worry ... I won't make it a habit.) ToD's creator is giving readers the chance to appear in a "wanted" poster within the strip. Here are the details:

Donate $10 or more and you can have your own personalized "Wanted" poster appear in the comic. Or surprise a friend and put their face on the poster. Even better, surprise an enemy! Posters will be put on the wall of a set and become a permanent part of TOD. After making a donation, email a good head-shot photo and one name to use on the poster. (First, last or nickname accepted. Shorter is better.)

Happy VD!

That's about all I got to say on the subject. Is it Halloween yet?

Abigail Larson Vs Edgar Allan Poe

More from the artist here. Prints are also available.

Jamie Mantzel builds a giant spider robot

Jaimie Mantzel has spent the last three years building a giant spider robot. I'll give you a moment to let that soak in. A GIANT SPIDER ROBOT.

Jamie has been documenting the creation of the KillSpider 2000 (it's not really called that) on YouTube. There are a number of videos of his work there, but I've posted a film below of the droid's test run from December. There's no word yet on whether or not Jamie's going to be added to the National Supervillain Watch List, or it such a list actually exists (it doesn't.)

Fun with Imperial Walkers