Saturday, June 30, 2012

Upcoming G.I. Joe toys



AFI has a big gallery of new G.I Joe toys.

Link roundup

1. "Count Robert de La Rochefoucauld, who has died aged 88, escaped from Occupied France to join the Special Operations Executive (SOE); parachuted back on sabotage missions, he twice faced execution, only to escape on both occasions, once dressed as a Nazi guard."

2. Westfield is going to spend $500 million upgrading the Century City Mall in Los Angeles. By comparison. Disney's new Hawaiian resort cost $800 million.

3. Also from Fast Company, here are some of the tricks being used in London to avoid building a bunch of facilities that will never be used after the Olympics. For example:
The International Olympic Committee is a picky tenant: It demands housing for 15,000 athletes and officials but doesn't want athletes to cook. The solution was to build 3,000 apartments, each with an empty kitchen space that can be used as a bedroom. After the Games, kitchens will be added and 30% of the units will be sold at below-market prices.

Link roundup

1. "Tecate Decides That Pro-Public Urination Billboard Was Maybe Not A Good Idea."

2. "Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces are equipped with a special ‘safe-busting’ sledgehammer that can be used in an emergency to break open the safe containing launch codes if it fails to open." Via.

3. "No one looks stupid when they're having fun." Via.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Link roundup

1. "Sidney Crosby is a superstitious creature . . . . He was born on 8/7/87, wears no. 87, and negotiated a contract in 2008 that averaged out to an $8.7 million cap hit — a number that he hit once again with this new extension."

2. Redskins tight end Fred Davis is being sued for allegedly assaulting a woman he accuses of being a madam. He's representing himself and so is she. Davis had a lawyer earlier in the proceedings, who was allegedly his girlfriend. The transcripts are available to read.

3. "All three of Tom Cruise's marriages ended when wife was 33."

Link roundup

1. Here's Jess Nevins's annotations to the excellent League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century 2009 (Alan Moore's the best writer in comics, and it's not even close). Sample (SPOILER SPOILER):
Norton, Mina and Orlando are walking into Platform 13, from Eva Ibbotson’s The Secret of Platform 13. In the novel Platform 13 in King’s Cross Station leads to another world.

And, yes, the similarities between Ibbotson and J.K. Rowling’s Platform 9 3/4 has been noted before, though no one seriously believes that Rowling plagiarized or stole from Ibbotson. In Ibbotson’s words, “I think we all borrow from each other as writers.”
And from Rich Johnston's observations:
There’s a certain character that made all the headlines the other week when the comic went on sale in England. And while I am in awe at the tricks Moore and O’Neill use to avoid any trademark or copyright issues concerning him, there is a name they use, found, scorched, in the grounds of a magical school. But rather than having the initials HP on his folder, instead there is the name “Will Stanton.”

Will was the lead in the second The Dark Is Rising novel from 1973, the seventh son of a seventh son who discovers his wizarding heritage on his eleventh birthday, and must collect six “signs” to help fight The Dark. Yes, comparisons have been made. What this means, despite all the newspaper headlines, it may be a very different children’s wizarding character who is actually portrayed on the page…
2. Gawker writer tries out new matchmaking site, gets fixed up with a Gawker writer who works a few computers over.

3. Nightmare fuel.

4. Diamonds don't come from coal.

United Pixelworkers t-shirts






United Pixelworkers tees.

Prometheus poster



Prometheus and Alien posters by Shelby Avila.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Combat Garden Gnomes for sale





Combat Garden Gnomes for sale in Shawn Thorsson's Etsy shop.

Buy a t-shirt, help Colorado wildfire victims




$20 tees on sale at Wild Fire Tees. 100% of the proceeds benefit Colorado wildfire victims.

New tiny figure sculpture by Slinkachu







New little people street art by Slinkachu.

Voltron by Olly Moss



Join, or Die by Olly Moss.

Diablo 3 is a pinata

Penny Arcade on buying weapons in Diablo 3 instead of finding them in game:
the game is, functionally speaking, a pinata. Right? Obviously, you could just go buy candy at the store. It’s not about having candy. It’s about getting candy.

Poler















Poler store.

Typhoid Mary

Gravity Falls concept art






Brigette Barrager posted a big gallery of early Gravity Falls concept art.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Jupiter



Always With Honor's Jupiter logo.

A look at how Doublefine is spending its Kickstarter money




The latest video by 2 Player Productions about Doublefine's adventure game is very good.




Vans sent locked boxes to bloggers



Vans sent locked boxes to bloggers.

Anti-Cheating Ring




Anti-Cheating Ring:
we have created this wedding ring for people intent on cheating. The negative engraving on the inside means that when you are in the ‘Club’ and an attractive woman…or man comes along to chat, slipping your wedding ring off is not an option. The mark left on your skin says…’I’m Married’

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Quantum unhappiness



Mary Jane by Maya Nord:
She’s not allowed to be happy in either universe.

Dissected Mr. Peanut



Mr. Peanut specimen by Brian Stuckey.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Saturday, June 23, 2012

The book Eddie Campbell's seven-year-old daughter made while he was illustrating From Hell



While Eddie Campbell worked on illustrating Alan Moore's Jack the Ripper comic From Hell, his seven-year-old daughter worked alongside on her own book:
The Ripper File: this 'book' consists of 35 A4 size loose pages (regular typing paper to you Americans) on which wee Hayley Campbell, age 7, catalogued, with one or two digressions along the road, all the ways of dying.




Friday, June 22, 2012

The Shining sculptures






The Shining sculptures by Clair Monaghan.