The Otamatone...

It's a musical instrument from Japan, which pretty much tells you all you need to know...

Man's Best Friend...?

My Little Pony as Iron Man...

Movies in black and red...

Again, here's a little something from Olly Moss...





You can see more of Olly's work at his website.

Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs Inc.

I have no idea what this is all about, but, hey, the Scratch Perverts are involved, so that's good enough for me.

Happy Birthday Jack Kirby!

Better late than never, I suppose, here's Jack Kirby's cameo in The Incredible Hulk:

The cheeky bugger...

Zarjaz 08 - Now with added prizes!

Zarjaz #8 is fast approaching - and now has added competitiony goodness!

Courtesy of the Nerve Centre at Rebellion, there's going to be two copies of the V.C.'s collection, 'Back in Action' up for grabs. What do you have to do to win these Ghafflebette prizes? Why, buy a copy of Zarjaz #8 and solve the puzzle within, of course!

Zarjaz #8 officially goes on sale at the 2009 Birmingham International Comics Show, with a cover by 2000AD art droid PJ Holden, so make sure you grab a copy!

After Superman defeated him...

...General Zod was reduced to seedier lines of work...

Wow... There really IS an iPhone app for everything...

Ultimate Muscle Roller Legend

Fair warning here, this video is NSFW. And not because it's completely insane...

But it's actually really normal and makes a lot of sense if you read the YouTube description:

Deep in the forest lived Billy and his charming companions. They peacefully honed their bodies and listened to music there. But a wave of development came upon the forests. One who would turn all to road. Kagamine Rin had come. Billy must stop the construction before all is turned to road.

Yeah, OK... Maybe not...

Video Game Classics...

Following on from Spacesick's "I Can Read Movies!" and Littlepixel's Lost Gramaphone Recordings image set, Olly Moss gives us some retro video game re-designs...

You can see more of Olly's work over at his website.

From the mastermind behind The Room...

Following on from The Room, Tommy Wiseau's next project is a sitcom pilot for something called The Neighbours, and for your...appreciation, here's the trailer:

I don't know about you, but I so want to see that picked up and made into a full series...

Not a lot of people know...

...about David Attenborough's visit to Endor...

Strange Times by Dave West

ANOTHER quick plug...

Dave West (one of the masterminds behind Accent UK) has just released the first printed collection of his web comic Strange Times. They're in hardback, A5 format, but are limited to 100 copies, so get in quick if you want a copy.

The book contains all pages on the web (and a few that aren't there yet), extra pages here and there, and pin-ups from the likes of Andy Bloor, Garen Ewing, Shane Oakley, Colin Mathieson, Will Kirkby, Dave Hughes, Steve Holder and INDIO.

The books cost £10 each and will be available from upcoming UK conventions or you can hop on over to the Accent UK website and order a copy directly from there. And while you're there, be sure and get yourself a copy of the Accent UK anthologies ROBOTS (Previews order code: MAR083379), WESTERN (Previews order code: JUN090671) and check out some previews from the upcoming PREDATORS (due for release in 2010):

All three of those books do actually contain strips written by me...

Hey, it's my blog, so I've got every right to shill my own work, too!

Omnivistascope #5 Out NOW!

Just a quick plug here...

Paul Scott's Omnivistascope reaches it's fifth issue, and features a strip with artwork by my some time collaborator Bryan Coyle, which makes it worth the asking price alone, I reckon.

As well as the usual strips (with art by Julia Bax, Darren Stephens and Leigh Shepard), there's also a look at the The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy radio plays that didn't make it into the books and an interview with Kim Newman.

Omnivistascope #5 is a 100+ page, perfect bound A4 book with colour cover by Oliver Redding and monochrome interiors.

Cost including UK postage is £5 and it is available via Paypal on the Omnivistascope website.

"B is for Bantha..."

From Tweedlebop (aka Michael Fleming) comes the Star Wars Alphabet!

God, I wish I had these when I was a kid... Click the images to see the complete set!

"You're tearing me apart, Lisa!"

Today, I found out about a 2003 film called The Room.

Apparently, it's built up a cult following akin to the one enjoyed by The Rocky Horror Picture Show; with a monthly showing at the Laemmle Sunset 5 Theater in Hollywood, it's garnered legions of devoted fans. It doesn't have kitschy dance numbers or OTT costumes, no, no. It doesn't need it, because The Room has been hailed as "The Citizen Kane of bad movies."

One look at his wee taster and it's not hard to see why...

The film is the brainchild of Tommy Wiseau (the guy with the long black hair and the, er, nice pecs), who served as writer, director, producer, executive producer and star, and was, apparently his stage to show off his acting talents...

Originally, the marketing materials for the film included phrases like "A film with the passion of Tennessee Williams...", which I think this clip shows perfectly...

God, this film looks absolutely fucking awful in every sense of the word, but...I need to see it! If only so I can see this:

God Kitteh sez...

"A wretched hive of scum and villany..."

Bea Arthur in Star Wars.

Oh, yeah. I went there...

City Of Shadows...

These images are from Alexey Titarenko’s “City of Shadows”, a series of haunting, gorgeous long-exposure shots of street-scenes in St Petersburg, Russia. The long exposure-times turn the people in the shots into ghosts and suggestions of motion.

You can see the full collection, and more of Titarenko’s work, here.

JCVD Teaser

Following on from my gushing over JCVD, here's the original teaser from the 2007 Cannes Film Festival...

"If it wasn't for you, he'd still be in Hong Kong shooting pidgeons."

OK, cards on the table here: I like Jean-Claude Van Damme. Yes, he does some crappy films, some of which barely deserve anyone's time and attention, but he also does some absolute gems - Legionnaire, Hard Target and In Hell being some of my personal favourites.

Possibly more surprising, though, is that as Van Damme's got older, I've started to rate him more as an actor.

Yes, I really just said that: I started to rate Jean-Claude Van Damme as an actor. His performance in the above mentioned In Hell was a good, solid, turn. I felt his pain and anguish; I felt sorry for him as he descended further and further into an animal-esque existence in that prison. Watching him recently in Until Death, I was actually stunned by his characterisation; rather than the usual clean cut Van Damme high-kicking his way through a selection of bad guys, here we had a a tired, drained looking guy, badly in need of a shave and a shower, who's a pretty shitty piece of work. It's an astounding piece of acting, but it's let down by some dodgy 80's style action sequences and some poor acting from the other actors (Stephen Rea is a great actor, but here, he's clearly doing it for the money).

But last night, on Channel Five, I watched JCVD for the first time.

For those of you reading this not in the know, JCVD is a film from first time director Mabrouk El Mechri that casts Van Damme as Jean-Claude Van Damme. He's a washed up action star, doing terrible films for the money and fighting for custody of his daughter; he returns home to Belgium and is caught in a post office robbery, where everyone expects him to be the hero and save the day, but we see that he's just a guy who's as scared as the hostages.

It's a film reminiscent of Dog Day Afternoon, with elements of Pulp Fiction; it's got good direction, a good script, and, on it's own, it would be a pretty good little crime thriller. However, with Van Damme at the centre of it, it becomes something more. Rather than an overly arrogant star, desperately clinging to whatever level of celebrity he still has, we see what could be the real Van Damme: an ordinary man with every day troubles who's once promising career seems to be stuck in an endless spiral of low budget straight-to-video dross thanks to the fickleness of the Hollywood machine (there's something kind of sad about the scene when he discovers that he's lost out on a part to Steven Segal). He displays a talent and range that you'd never expect and leaves you wondering if he'd done more films in his native language, could he have been taken seriously as an actor?

JCVD truly is an astonishing film, anchored by a jaw dropping performance from The Muscles From Brussels. But it will be criminally overlooked simply because of it's star. It'll be written off as more straight-to-video action that shouldn't be bothered with, destined to be nothing more than action movie filler for TV schedules. So, I implore you, if this comes on TV again soon, watch it and be amazed.

Let me leave you with this quote from TIME Magazine: "He deserves not a black belt, but an Oscar®."

Romantic kitteh sez...

Anne Robinson kitteh sez...

How I feel today...

"If you have a problem, if no one else can help..."

Um...

Says it all, really...

Ninja Cat...

...hates bubbles...

The Periodic Table Jumper...

Yep, it's practical AND educational...

You can get more about this at the This and That blog.

"Enough is ENOUGH!"

The infamous line from Snakes On A Plane re-edited for TV...

More Marx Brothers

To compliment yesterdays Marx Brothers clip, here's one of their most famous (and funniest) scenes...

"I said the girls had to work fast, not your friend..."

God, that scene is still at least six different kinds of awesome...

Force By Northwest by Jim Hance

Call me childish, but that's all kinds of awesome...

Dancin' Kitteh sez...

Possibly the greatest sandwich in the world...

KTN News with a shocking report...

An Awkward Silence...

The Infamous Raygun Interview

I read about this on the soon to be defunct Teletext yesterday, and, well, I thought it was my duty to track it down. The "band" Raygun are a...well, they're vying to the be new McFly, as far as I can tell, but with shitter songs. They also apparently think that This Is Spinal Tap wasn't a piss take, as you can witness from their interview on 4 Play...

And if that wasn't enough to make you despair for humanity, here's part 2...

It's worth noting that the band's record company, BMG, have been pulling those videos from YouTube as fast as they can, so watch it while you can...

Giant Waterslide Jump...

Pearl one, drop one...

Cakeyvoice loves to knit. She loves to knit so much that she's knitted just about everyone you can think of from the world of SF and Horror, like Han Solo...

...Michael Myers...

...Hellboy...

...and Tom Savini...

Cakeyvoice also likes to knit bands and rock stars, such as Slash...

...and Kraftwerk...

Cakeyvoice is awesome. Go and check out her other knitting projects (including Dawn Of The Dead!) at her blog.

DC vs Marvel - Street Fighter IV Style!

So, Street Fighter IV hit the PC, and, since PC gamers usually do this kind of thing, loads of character mods soon followed. For some, it means giving Akuma a nice pink wardrobe and someone else's moves. For others, it means the inevitable nude female cast. And for one truly awesome guy, it means making Zangief into Mr. T. However, the truly dedicated geek modders made these...

Planet Hulk Trailer

This kind of took me by surprise - largely because it actually looks pretty good...

The Amazing Stalker-Man!

Looking through some old issues of Amazing Spider-Man, I came across this cover by J Scott Campbell:

Nothing wrong with that, you might think. Mary Jane walks along the street, being checked out by a lot of guys and watched over by her husband partner, Spider-Man.

However, if you didn't know that was Mary-Jane Watson Parker, you'd assume that it's a pretty redhead walking along the street, being checked out by guys. OK, that's cool. Hey, she's hot, she's stylish, she's got places to be. She's a modern woman in a modern city. Now, look again at Spidey. Doesn't it look like he's stalking her...?

OK, so maybe she's a criminal mastermind that he's been tracking down, and now he's waiting for her to make her next move, maybe at the jewellery store further along the street. Maybe it's The Chameleon in disguise. Or maybe this is what Spidey does when he's not fighting Doc Ock or Venom; he stalks pretty red headed girls around the city...

But we all know it's Mary Jane, so it's OK. We know they have a healthy marriage relationship. Maybe this is a little game they play to spice things up in the bedroom. However, when you look at the cover for the next issue, you have to wonder if their game's gone a bit too far...

Again, let's imagine we don't know that that's Mary Jane. It's a pretty red head who looks genuinely curious about something she can hear outside... Is it Spidey skittering up the wall, looking for an open curtain he can peer through and get a good look at her as she steps into the shower...? Will he hang outside her bedroom window all night watching her sleep? Look at her! She looks almost too scared to leave her apartment now, having been stalked around the city by your [overly] Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man...

Maybe J Jonah Jameson was right all the time, maybe Spider-Man is a menace.

Especially if you're a pretty red head...