Tag Archives | Comics

Student Creates LEGO Helmet So You Can Listen To Comics

By on May 27, 2011 in News 2

Lego-Helmet-Book-Reader

Kirstin Butler writes on i09:

A student in product design at the University of Dundee in Scotland, Robson created the toy with his own memories as inspiration. He said:

When I was young I played with LEGO a lot and all I used to read was the comic stories in LEGO Club magazines, I’d like to give something back to them as they helped me learn to read… I’ve been looking at what I enjoyed in my childhood to apply to new ideas and solutions of today.

By inserting the LEGO-brick USB into a slot in the helmet, the lucky kid wearing it can follow along with the comics, games, and puzzles in the subscription-only magazine.

Our only question is, when can we order the adult-size version?

… Read the rest

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Batman Arrested On Rooftop In Michigan

By on May 16, 2011 in News 9

So often, real-life superhero-ing goes terribly, terribly awry. WDIV Detroit reports on a bizarre arrest — the photo below is the actual suspect in question:

A 31-year-old man dressed as the comic book character was arrested Wednesday in Petoskey after he was seen hanging from the wall of a downtown business on East Mitchell Street. The Petoskey Department of Public Safety said officers pulled the man back onto the roof and found a baton type striking weapon, a can of chemical irritant spray, and a pair of lead lined gloves.

The suspect, a Harbor Springs resident, was arrested for trespassing and possession of dangerous weapons. He is being kept in the Emmet County Jail.

batman

… Read the rest

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Lost At The Con

By on May 14, 2011 in News 6
[disinfo ed.'s note: The following is an excerpt from Lost At The Con, new fiction from Big Shiny Robot's Bryan Young.]

lostattheconA political writer for a second rate, online news magazine, Michael Cobb is assigned by his editor to cover a sci-fi and fantasy convention in a bid to humiliate him.

Since Cobb can’t afford to turn down the job, he heads to Georgia and dives head first into the world of Griffin*Con, renowned the world over as the Mardis Gras of geek conventions. In Atlanta he finds a place that takes geeky debauchery to new heights: science fiction and fantasy, cosplay, booze, sex, comic books, drugs, slash fiction, and more.

This scene takes place on Cobb’s first day at the con:

My heart sank, killing the warmth of the drugs. The urge for locomotion finally returned to my legs and I continued my sojourn to the elevator.

That feeling of flying high without a safety net returned as the elevator doors I’d finally reached opened with a sharp DING.

And there before me was a Darth Vader…

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Superman Giving Up American Citizenship

By on April 29, 2011 in News 48

SupermanWhat I want to know is why he didn’t do this after the Bush administration lied through its teeth in order to launch two never-ending preemptive wars. Needless to say the usual suspects are outraged at Superman’s perceived lack of patriotism. The Guardian reports (thanks to Lynne C. for sending us the link):

After years of declaring he stood for “truth, justice and the American way,” Superman has provoked the ire of rightwingers by threatening to renounce his US citizenship.

In the latest issue of Action Comics, which went on sale on Wednesday, the Man of Steel decides to take the step after he intervenes in a protest against the Iranian government.

After the Islamic regime brands his non-violent protest as an act of war taken on behalf of the US president, the DC comic hero says he will renounce his citizenship before the United Nations.

“I’m tired of having my actions construed as instruments of US policy,” he says.

… Read the rest

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Interview with Comic Artist and Writer David Mack

By on March 16, 2011 in News 0

I had the opportunity to conduct a series of interviews with one of the more inventive illustrators and writers working in comics today, David Mack.

I still remember the first time I encountered his graphic novel series, Kabuki. I was just browsing around a Barnes & Noble, buzzing on caffeine, and this beautifully illustrated hardcover book found its way into my hands.

It’s not hard to be taken in by the art, really, it is both graceful and bold — but I actually laughed out loud when I started reading it — there was a section where the characters were talking to one another, and then moving through a building. Now most sequential artists would draw panel after panel of them walking and talking, West Wing style, maybe breaking it up with different angles and whatnot so it’s not just a bunch of talking heads. But you just give us a top down view of the building, and little talk bubbles as they wind their way around the maze.

… Read the rest

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Teenager Builds His Own Homemade ‘Death-Ray’ (Video)

By on February 14, 2011 in News 55

Solar Death RayWhat a great hobby for the budding comic book super-villain. Could Lex Luthor do this in his youth? Nice work. Via Eric Jacqmain’s YouTube:

The R5800 is my latest and greatest solar creation. Made from an ordinary fiberglass satellite dish, it is covered in about 5800 3/8″ (~1 cm) mirror tiles. When properly aligned, it can generate a spot the size of a dime with an intensity of 5000 times normal daylight. This intensity of light is more than enough to melt steel, vaporize aluminum, boil concrete, turn dirt into lava, and obliterate any organic material in an instant. It stands at 5’9″ and is 42″ across.

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A Look Into DR Congo’s Comic Book Industry

By on January 21, 2011 in News 1
Panel from 'Luve ya muntu' by Bruno Luya Muzuka.

Panel from 'Luve ya muntu' by Bruno Luya Muzuka.

Fascinating stories and art from a country which has seen incredible unrest. Thomas Hubert reports from Kinshasa for BBC News:

For comic book fans around the world, a handful of cities evoke strong images: superheroes jumping from skyscrapers in New York; Tintin running across a building in a Brussels mural; wide-eyed schoolgirls looking for romance in Tokyo.

But colourful cityscapes, designed by local artists, are finally putting an African capital city on the comic map. The place is Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and it is not difficult to see why.

Complete with dusty boulevards, monster traffic jams in blazing sunsets and so-called shegue, or street children, such comic portraits of the Congolese capital are among the main features of the style developed by home-grown talent.

Decades of shared colonial history with comic-mad Belgium certainly had an influence on the emergence of the Congolese comic scene.

… Read the rest

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Real-Life Superhero Prevents Seattle Carjacking

By on January 6, 2011 in News 41

A dorky but effective way to fight crime? A Seattle-area man was being carjacked when a local “superhero” named Phoenix Jones intervened to chase off the criminal. Jones is a part of a crime-fighting unit called the Rain City Superheros and keeps his true identity hidden, transforming into his alter-ego each night in the back of a comic store.

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