Jen of Epbot attended the recent Tampa Bay Comic Con. With her camera in hand, she documented at great length the excellent works of cosplay on display. We've previously mentioned a gem from her first cosplay post: hipster versions of Anna and Elsa from Frozen.
Jen also posted part 2 and part 3 of her photo collection. My favorite from the latter are these two girls dressed as the Eleventh Doctor and K-9, the Doctor's robotic dog.
Countries around the world make movie posters their own way, using their own native art techniques and imagery that appeals to their own people, and whether the movie is local or imported from LaLaLand every release gets its own custom poster treatment.
Nigerian artists have a very unique style when it comes to creating a painted movie poster, and this style is partly derived from the subject of their paintings- the freaky films being created in Ghana:
Movies like Wondeful Dog, Why Should I and Blood Money look like the African equivalent of Grind House cinema, and they've inspired some wonderfully terrifying movie poster masterpieces which can be found in a gallery created by Imgur user iliketechno.
Oh, and there are a few whacked out versions of Hollywood movie posters in there too:
Check out the rest of these bizarre Nigerian movie posters at Imgur (Contains NSFW images)
The internet is full of first person footage these days, whether it’s fun action footage or boring everyday stuff, because everyone loves their GoPro cameras or their Google glasses, and they’re dying to share their video view of the world with the world.
However, that footage is usually way too long, with lots of camera shake and bounce, so even when it’s shortened into a time lapse the footage is really hard to watch.
A new Microsoft Research Project is concerned with creating a solution to those first person footage problems, and they’re about to introduce an app that will allow users to create hyperlapse videos that run at 10x the speed of the original video without all that shake.
You'll be able see the world through someone else's eyes without feeling sick to your stomach, although you still may feel a bit queasy after watching some of those stunt videos...
-Via TechCrunch
Nobody knows how old you are when you’re playing a game online, but there are certain things that can tip you off about the age of your opponent- overly cheerful cursing, lack of post-pubescent knowledge and the sound of a mom's voice in the background are all clear signs you're battling a bunch of kiddos.
So how do you properly handle the pimple faced masses online when you're busy growing a beard and having a girlfriend, and other rather grown-up activities?
You act like a grown-up and shove that game aside, for the good of your love life...and your sanity!
See the full comic at The Oatmeal
(Contains NSFW language)
With all of the presentations in the Star Trek franchise, it can be a stretch for the more soft-core Trek fans to stay ahead of the game. Neil Cicierega comes to the rescue with this video guide to end Star Trek alien species confusion. Via The Presurfer.
A pristine issue of Action Comics #1 from June of 1938, featuring the debut of a new superhero named Superman, is up for auction at eBay, with proceeds going to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. Want it? The current bid is $1,750,100, and there’s more than a week left before the auction ends. Good lulck! -via Boing Boing
Benedict Cumberbatch, who my wife informs me is "a hottie," is not just a fine actor. He's also an excellent impersonator.
MTV host Josh Horowitz interviewed him at the San Diego Comic-Con. During their conversation, he asked Cumberbatch to give his impressions of Jar Jar Binks, a Star Wars character widely despised by fans, and Gollum, a mutated hobbit from The Lord of the Rings.
Cumberbatch did a great job! He should definitely play either of those roles in future movies. Or, preferably, both in a crossover film.
-via Pleated Jeans
Oh myyyyyy!
George Takei, the actor who played Hikaru Sulu on Star Trek, loved the episode titled "The Naked Time." In that episode, many Enterprise crew members became mentally unstable. Sulu expressed his madness by stripping off his shirt and running around the ship with a rapier.
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Takei visited the set of The Today Show. With a sword in hand, he relived that moment from 48 years ago. He kept his shirt on, though.
The giant green Kaiju known as Godzilla has always had a love-hate relationship with humanity- we love him when other giant monsters attack us and he comes to the rescue, hate him when he stomps our cities into dust, and hate how much we love to watch him on the big screen.
He’s an enduring, yet monstrous, figure in the world of film, and people all over the world have enjoyed watching that rubber behemoth bash his way to becoming king of the monsters over the last six decades.
This wonderful collection of rarely seen Godzilla movie posters on io9 features some unique, and very modern, promotional artwork created for various international releases of the Godzilla films, and it's safe to say you've never seen Godzilla portrayed quite like this!
The ridiculously outdated forces of anti-Dungeons & Dragons righteousness are about to rear their ugly head in the most modern way possible- with a video available to stream via the internet.
The movie is called Dark Dungeons, and it's very appropriately based on Jack Chick’s tract (mini-comic) of the same name, which reveals the link between D&D and witchcraft.
It’s full of ominous messages like “roleplaying games are the perfect gateway to embracing Satan” and (unspoken) "frat guys are starting to host massive rpg parties", and the only real problem with this movie lies with the people who actually take it's message seriously.
The tongue-in-cheek nature of the film is undeniable, and the filmmakers clearly find the Chick tracts as hilarious to read as I do, but is it worth the five bucks to watch the whole thing?
Check out the first eight minutes and decide for yourself, and if it’s a go head to the official website to stream the movie, download some sweet anti-rpg propaganda, and discover the dark truth about roleplaying games- the gateway drug to magical evil.
-Via Christian Nightmares
Video game characters often look impossibly extreme, with bodybuilder physiques and perfect hair. They are supposedly drawn that way because the players want to be those guys, you know, identify with them. But when does identification and admiration go just a little further than you might be comfortable with? Not that there’s anything wrong with that. After all, female game characters are also a fantasy, but there’s no pretense that they aren’t drawn to be attractive to the game player. The Warp Zone had fun with that idea in this parody of “She Looks So Perfect” by 5 Seconds Of Summer. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Doctor Who is such a beloved character in the world of science fiction that it’s really quite surprising he hasn’t landed his own Hollywood blockbuster yet, and it’s doubly surprising that the entertainment powers-that-be have yet to bring an animated series to the small screen.
Animator Stephen Byrne decided to help the process along by showing the online world what the intro sequence to the animated Doctor Who show might look like, and now every Whovian in the world knows what they've been missing in their lives:
Don't expect Peter Capaldi to look this smiley and happy-go-lucky during the upcoming season of Doctor Who, but the animated versions of fictional characters are always a bit cheerier than their previous incarnations, right?
-Via Nerdist
Pretty much everyone who has read a comic book with Groot in it since the "friendlier version" reappeared in the Marvel Universe in 2006 knew he'd be a fan favorite in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, but when you add the fact that his best friend is Rocket Raccoon the appeal is undeniable.
After seeing the film artist Patrick Delahanty wanted to bring home his own dancing baby Groot, so he picked up one of those annoying dancing flower toys and got to work on a custom Groot creation.
Patrick was kind enough to include photos and instructions on how to make your own dancing baby Groot via Facebook, but if you're crafty his description of the process might be all you need:
I made this using a “Movin’ & Groovin’” flower I got from eBay, cut off the dumb daisy, and covered the stem on felt and twine. My fiancée sculpted the head from Model Magic. We then painted everything with brown and tan paint. He can now dance to Peter Quill’s “Awesome Mix”…or to my own mix.
-Via Laughing Squid
It's one of the best time travel franchises ever made and a rare gem of a film that people from different age groups and different backgrounds can all appreciate. But even if you can recite all of Doc & Marty's conversations because you've seen it so many times, chances are you still don't know all of these juicy trivia bits.
The fifties were chosen for the past setting not because writers Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale had a soft spot for the era, but instead because they were easy. Essentially, the two wanted to make a time travel story that didn't require knowledge of the past to enjoy it. They figured the fifties would be far enough back that it would seem like a different setting, but still allow the main character to connect with people that he knew from his regular life.
It took the writers a while to come up with the perfect time machine. In fact, at one point they thought it would be cool to use a refrigerator that had to be powered by an atomic explosion to return home -until they started worrying that kids would lock themselves into them. Spielberg ended up using this idea as inspiration for Indiana Jones' nuclear safe-guard in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Ultimately, they decided on a DeLorean because the stainless steel construction seemed like a good method for flux dispersal during time displacement. Three DeLoreans were purchased for the original and another three were bought for the sequels. After the film's release, Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis received a letter from John DeLorean thanking them for using his car in the movie.
Robert Zemeckis had to hit up quite a few studios while trying to sell the film. Since the biggest comedies at the time were much more raunchy, like Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Revenge of the Nerds, a lot of studios turned down the idea because it wasn't risque enough. But then when Zemeckis took his idea to Disney, they rejected the story because they thought it was too scandalous to have a mother fall in love with her son.
It looks like a tiny cafe from the front door, but open up and you'll see an immense spread of artful Whovian decor at the Pandorica, a restaurant in Beacon, New York. It's named after a prison in the Doctor Who universe. Redditor jacquelinesarah describes the day she discovered it:
I spent the day in the quiet little artist town of Beacon, NY and passed a restaurant called "Pandorica" as I walked down the main street. I smiled to myself but didn't think much of it. On the way back, I looked inside and saw the giant mural of the exploding TARDIS. Of course, I then ran in and started talking to the owner (dressed head to toe in TARDIS blue). She took me around the entire restaurant pointing out every tiny detail, from the sunflowers on the tables to the "fish fingers" (aka french toast sticks) and custard on the dessert menu. I told her that I'll be moving to London this autumn (the mecca, really) and she replied that she's actually from there. It made a lot of sense seeing how much British influence is in the food--they do an afternoon tea that looks lovely.
As you can see, the menu is appropriate. It includes Whovian favorites, such as fish sticks with custard and K-9 corn dogs.
(Photos: jacquelinesarah and the Pandorica)
-via The Mary Sue
