Star Wars Kites.

Use the Force Wind Power, Luke.  40 credits at ThinkGeek.

Vintage Vietnam-Era Camera Gun.

Via BornRich:

"No doubt, the gun is a notion synonymous to death, but a movie camera in the shape of a gun is really a pleasing idea. The rare movie camera that simulates a military gun is a true handiwork with a black case and 5x lenses mounted on the wooden rifle stock. The rifle stock cameras were used by reporters during the Vietnam War. The weird but attractive gun movie camera, which is available on eBay for a decent $1,318, is a blend of guerrilla art and homemade gadget awesomeness that you can take out in public places and capture your favorite moments with a click of the trigger."

Me want.

WWII Propaganda Posters.

Via Animation Archive:

"By the end of the First World War, the techniques of waging war in the hearts and minds of the public had entered the modern era. Propaganda had become much more sophisticated and powerful. By WWII, leaders realized that battles could be fought and won on the homefront. Propaganda became an important part of motivating the population to work together toward the common goal of defeating the axis powers. Compare the WWI posters in this and the previous post to the examples from WWII presented here. Notice how the design and layout enhance the emotional impact of the concepts. Many of these posters still pack a wallop."

Guac Bowl!

Guac Bowl is this Sunday.  And it's just about the most important thing to happen to holidays (if you, like me, consider Super Bowl sunday a holiday) since, well, Halloween.  The rules are simple: bring a guac, try everyone else’s guac, then vote. There are four categories open to competition:

•Best Traditional Guac (no weird ingredients),
•Best Alternative Guac (some special ingredient, or prepared unusually),
•Best Presentation (which has become, over the years, the most creative and impressive category -- see photos),
•The Icarus Award (for the guac that attempts to fly the highest, only to fall the furthest). 

Last year I won Best Presentation for my GuacAlien, and I'm hard at work creating this year's entry.  It's a secret for now, but I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.  Meanwhile, check Adam's Guac Bowl site for more information, ideas on hosting your own Guac Bowl, and tons of pictures from years past.

www.guacbowl.com

Golden-Age Papercrafts.

Some really cool paper models of Golden Age superheroes.

Happy Inauguration Day.

Poster from ironicsans.com

Brick to the Future.

"You made a time machine out of... Legos!?"

Keep Calm and Carry On.

Local Silver Lake art gallery Reform School is selling reproductions of the famous British WWII propaganda poster that can serve as a great daily reminder that everything is going to be just fine.

$24 at Reform School.

Ralph McQuarrie's Battlestar Galactica.

Ralph McQuarrie is a concept artist/futurist best known for his design work on the Original Star Wars Trilogy (pictured below).  Recently discovered, however, was a whole stash of his concept art for the original "Battlestar Galactica" tv series (above).  No wonder the Battlestar Vipers look so much like X-Wings.

Browse the galleries at the following links:

 Concept Sketches | Concept Paintings

Return of the Blog.

After a very long, wonderful Holiday vacation--the Blog is back!

Happy New Year!

Vast Food Nation.

My friend Adam is super talented.  Check out his new series, Vast Food Nation.  Episodes 1, 2, and 3 are part of your complete breakfast.

Episode 1 - The Green Death

Episode 2 - The "Fun" in Funeral

Episode 3 - Kidnapatorious

While the voices are mostly Adam's friends (listen for me as both a Budweiser Frog and Paparazzo) and the always-hilarious Bill Dwyer, I still think the greatest part is the character designs.  What a challenge it must have been to create characters that have just the right amount of "same-yet-different-ness" to their corporate counterparts.

Anyway, enjoy the episodes, and help Vast Food Nation achieve its rightful moment of internet glory.

Multiple Endings.

Flickr gallery of "The End" in TV shows and movies.

Fun with Post-Its.

See more here.

Who's Johnny?

I like Johnny Yanok's artwork.

Eric Tan's Poster Art.

Eric Tan creates posters for Pixar.  On his work, he says: 

"The bright colors and flat shapes were inspired by the Disneyland attraction posters you see when going through the tunnels at the entrance of the park. Even when I was 6, I remember thinking those things were amazing, so getting to reference them for this project was a thrill in itself."

I love those old Disney posters too, Eric.  See more examples of Tan's work here and here. 

Wall•E Papercrafts.

Paper-replika.com has pretty much the entire cast of Wall•E as free papercraft models.  Just hit the "download" button, print up, cut out, and put together!

My Superman Poster.

Last month I posted on the artwork of Tom Whalen, who makes posters for classic movies.  I said that I'd love to try to do one for Superman: The Movie in this style... so here it is.   I'm not 100% sold on the look of the text yet, but overall, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.  Click the image for a larger view.

Ray Gun, #002.

Smoke Ring Gun, Nu-Age Prod., 1950s.

Hitchfont.

Download Mac Postscript | Windows TrueType

"Hitchcock" was created by designer Matt Terich as an homage to the iconic lettering that so often appeared in Bass’ title work. The font is not a faithful digitization of any particular title sequence or poster — in fact, type designer Nick Shinn notes that Bass didn’t do the actual lettering and veteran Robert Trogman adds that Dave Nagata did most of the drawings — but it does give a general sense of Bass’ rough, hand-cut style.

Jump to Typographica for more Bass-inspired fonts, like this one:

Download "Vertigo."

Helbotica.

Robot made out of Helvetica characters.  Because it's cool.