Culture

If I lived in a world where this was real, I'd be so happy. In truth, it is a fake commercial by Phil Lord and Chris Miller made in 1998 for a series of educational shorts about action figures based on historical figures. It was never aired. Thank god for YouTube.

Alarming but true: IDW and Desperado are teaming to publish this account of Dean Haspiel's early comics and life story. The tale will be...

With IRON MAN @ blasting out with the widest opening in movie history -- it's sure to take over our lives like a big spreaeding fungus. Looking to it as a guide for life, one can only look to Mickey Rourke , who plays the villain Whiplash, as a fashion icon , as shown on Vulture with a slideshow of his looks over the ages. And as for diet, Gwyneth Paltrow shows us the way to look like she does, with a diet of a tablespoon of chicken for lunch and a halved almond sliver between meals to quash the munchies before tucking in to a hearty dinner of a handful of kale. The diet regime is augmented by 4 hour runs through volcanic rock flats while being chased by a rhino.

At the blog for the insanely popular webcomic XCKD, Randall Munroe directly confronts issues of gender, fashion and whether a color can be construed as "dusty" Here are the color names most disproportionately popular among women: 1. ... Kind of an incense-bomb-set-off-in-a-Bed-Bath-&-Beyond vibe. ... Here are the color names most disproportionately popular among men: 1.

o "The Weight of Dead Plot" New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane reviews Iron Man 2 and is relieved, "to find a comic-book hero who...

Perhaps presaged by Warren Ellis's widely quoted musings on weekly comics magazines, Mark Millar has announced he's teaming with Titan Books for CLiNT ,...

Can she get any more awesome?

You might wonder why the first city to stage a major fine art retrospective on the whole career of Jack Kirby is Lucerne in Switzerland. Since Kirby died in 1994, there have been several modest exhibits, including a small display I curated in 1994 at the Cartoon Art Trust in London, as well as the Masters of Comic Art show which began in Los Angeles and included Kirby as one of the fifteen creators spotlighted. ... Of course the idea of an exhibit of Jack Kirby art is enticing enough; but it includes such personal effects as copies of his letters home to wife Roz from the front in WWII: ...Left him enlightened, somewhat calmer but his problem like some problems was laid in the lap of time which is the only other substitute for John J.

Daniel Best interviews Gene Colan as the legendary artist recuperates from a broken shoulder. ... I should be thinking more of retirement, I suppose, but I don’t even think about retiring. I need to draw, I love it, so why should I give it up. The link includes information about other ongoing efforts to supplement Colan's income via auctions and so on.

Things That Should Not Be? or The March of Progress? [via Jackie Chan ]

Elite Beat commenter Torsten Adair reviews almost every Free Comics Book Day Comic. From Mouse Guard to Lady Gaga. WAR OF THE SUPERMEN #0 FCBD...

In an announcement that will turn Tampa, FL into a place of dread and infamy for some a whirlpool of horror for some -- and a much-desureed destination for others -- this weekend's Vulcan Events Convention in Tampa, Fl will attempt to se a world record for Most people wearing ear cuffs in one place Largest gathering of people dressed as Star Trek Character in one place. Now the existing record for more Trekkies in one spot was set just this February in London, England, but there were a mere 99 Romulans, Bajorans and Mugatu gathered in one place -- so given a spurt of enthusiasm, setting a new record seems within grasp. Also, you might think it is a simple thing, but there ARE rules, which are as follows: #1 All participants must be wearing costumes representing characters from the Star Trek universe and extended canon.

...We'd dearly love to see this event unfold in all its natural majesty and beauty, and also to note how Next Gen costumes are faring in the Star Trek popularity race; adherents of the Rick Berman Trek-i-verse seems to have been steadily dwindling away, but that's definitely an outsiders opinion.