Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2178

Fan Art Friday #104 – HOCUS POCUS and More Movie Posters by Alex Kittle

Re-imagined movie and television posters are among my favorite fan art. So, when Alex Kittle sent me samples of her work, I sat up straight and took notice. She uses Photoshop for her digital paintings and puts a different spin on titles from the horror and science fiction genres. Sometimes she’s inspired by the film as a whole, like with the Hocus Pocus Sanderson sister-centric poster below, and other times she hones in on a character, like with Diva Plavalaguna from The Fifth Element (that one’s in the gallery).

[image error] Hocus Pocus

I like how she uses color. It’s sort of a minimalist look but not entirely because there are still patterns and textures to catch the eye.

Alex doesn’t only illustrate posters inspired by films. You’ll see a couple of television inspired designs along with more movie posters in the gallery below, including Twin Peaks and Daria. You can see additional examples of her work and purchase prints of any and all these posters in Alex’s . You can also give her a follow on Instagram.

Do you create any sort of fan art? If so, I want to see it. Whether you focus on a specific fandom or pull inspiration from multiple stories and mediums, I’d like to highlight what you do. If you’re interested in being featured in a future edition of Fan Art Friday, get in touch with me at alratcliffe@yahoo.com with examples of your work. If you’re not an artist, feel free to email me with recommendations for Fan Art Friday!

Images: Alex Kittle

The Todd Glass Show #283: Joe DeRosa

Todd Glass is joined by a very special guest, Joe DeRosa!

Like The Todd Glass Show on Facebook, follow @ToddGlass, Eric Ohlsen and Lyricist Joe on Twitter, buy his album Thin Pig and buy his book The Todd Glass Situation!

Black Canary Hits INJUSTICE 2, and Why That’s Important

After sitting out of the first installment of Injustice: Gods Among Us, one of the best fighters in the DC Universe is coming to the sequel. Black Canary is the newest confirmed addition to the roster of Injustice 2!

IGN made the announcement and dropped the first Injustice 2 gameplay footage of Black Canary in action, battling Blue Beetle, Deadshot, and Atrocitus. Perhaps the most encouraging thing about the clips is that this version of Black Canary lives up to her reputation with her acrobatic moves, martial arts mastery, and signature sonic scream. Those skills are true to her comic book counterpart, and it’s also why Black Canary topped our wishlist for Injustice 2. However it’s far from the only reason we’re happy to see her in this game.

If everything you know about Black Canary comes from what you’ve seen on Arrow, then you’re missing out on a lot of the qualities that made her such a compelling heroine. While different versions of Black Canary have been around since 1947, the character really came into her own in the ’90s as one of the co-leads of Birds of Prey. Back then, there weren’t a lot of female led DC titles, Birds of Prey was unique in that it had two: Black Canary and Oracle/Barbara Gordon. While Oracle advised and assisted from a remote location, Black Canary went on international covert missions that most other heroes would have shied away from. Essentially, she was the James Bond of the DCU at a time when she didn’t even have superpowers.

During Gail Simone’s stint on Birds of Prey, it was reestablished many times that Black Canary was one of the top martial artists in the world, even when was up against Lady Shiva and other expert assassins and fighters. That’s one of the things that has us so excited about Injustice 2. We’re finally going to experience that neglected side of Black Canary’s skill set, since her counterpart on Arrow wasn’t nearly as adroit. And to be honest, Black Canary hasn’t gotten the best exposure on that series, and the show has even pushed her long history with Green Arrow aside in favor of the Oliver and Felicity romance. The Arrow creative team recognized that more fans reacted to “Olicity,” and some of Laurel Lance’s questionable actions seemed to alienate the audience. Eventually, Laurel got a measure of redemption when she finally became Black Canary…at least until she was killed off last season.

In fairness, we think that the Arrow creative team may have realized their mistakes, which may be why they recently introduced a potential new Black Canary for the series. Fans deserve to see a version of the character who isn’t just a great fighter, but also a strategic thinker, a leader (of the Justice League, no less!), and a compassionate heroine with a well-defined personality. The new Injustice 2 footage definitely seemed to capture the spirit of the character, and we can’t wait to try her out in the game!

Are you excited to see Black Canary get her shot in Injustice 2? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

Image: Netherrealm Studios

Cosplay Friday #198 – BLACK SWAN and More from COTC Photography

Cosplayers can spend hours getting every detail from shoe color to wig styling just right. All this hard work deserves at the very least least one quality image showing the costume in its best light. Cosplay photographers help with that, and I’ve met more than a few who started taking photos because they wanted to give their cosplayer friends good pictures of their work. John S., a.k.a. COTC Photography operates with this mission. He takes pictures of cosplayers of the Carolinas (that’s what COTC stands for), and thinks of it as his way of giving back to the cosplay community.

John uses whatever backgrounds he has at convention host hotels and makes them work. Look at this Black Swan and White Swan:

Black Swan and White Swan | Cosplayed by Waters of Glass Cosplay and Levinsies Cosplay

More of John’s impressive work is in the gallery below. You’ll see an original Mandalorian merc design from Star Wars, costumes from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and more. Don’t forget to take a close look at all the photo captions because all the cosplayers are linked so you can view more well-executed costumes. Keep up with everything John posts by following him on Facebook or Instagram.

Do you cosplay or take photographs of cosplayers? Then I want to see your work so we can talk about highlighting your creations in a future Cosplay Friday gallery. If you’re interested, please get in touch with me at alratcliffe@yahoo.com and send hi-res photos you’d like me to feature. Be sure to provide credits for the cosplayers or photographers for each image because giving credit is good manners–bonus points if you include links to relevant Facebook pages or websites. Though I wish I knew all the geek franchises, I don’t, so please let me know who or what is being cosplayed.

Images: COTC Photography

Every DOCTOR WHO Series 8 Episode, Ranked

In light of recent news that Doctor Who Series 10 will be premiering on April 15, and that it’ll be star Peter Capaldi‘s final series, I’ve been reflecting on the Twelfth Doctor’s seemingly all-too-short reign and how much it’s changed even just in the two series we’ve seen. He started out incredibly abrasive and shouty — prone to telling people to shut up — and he’s become one of the most passionately compassionate Doctors of the bunch. Love the way that happens.

I took a look at Series 8, which I ultimately liked but it took a while. That series, quite different from all of the rest of New Who, dealt with a Doctor and a companion who don’t get along very well, but also desperately need each other. It was a weird co-dependent relationship, and it even led Clara to lie to her boyfriend. She was addicted to Doctorish pursuits. I really appreciated this aspect in retrospect, but it didn’t necessarily make me like the individual episodes any more than I already did.

Anyway, to that end (and because I did it for Series 7 lo those many years ago) I’ve decided to rank Series 8 (and later 9). These are my personal choices, of course, and your experience, I’m sure, will vary. This was a series of almost entirely single, standalone episodes, the same as most of Series 7, though I’m going by official story-numbering to denote the one two-parter. Also I’m including the Christmas special “Last Christmas” in this list, because it seems to fit thematically much better with Series 8 than Series 9.

Here we go!

12 – “In the Forest of the Night”

There’s no beating around the bush here (pun intended), this episode is dumb. In an incredibly strong back half of a series that has (spoilers) four of my top five stories, right in the middle there was this story, written by Frank Cottrell Boyce. I know the show is sort of for kids, and sometimes the occasional child can make for a great episode, but this series’ fixation on Clara’s students really got on my last nerve. A forest suddenly, overnight, grows to engulf not just London, but the whole world, and one of Clara’s students gets weird visions (“The foughts….the fooooooooughts!”) that tell the Doctor that the plants are protecting the Earth from a solar flare. Ultimately nothing happens, and it would have happened if the Doctor were there or not, which is the hallmark of an episode I say “nope” about.

11 – “The Caretaker”

Remember what I was saying about children? Please, by all means, let’s have a whole comedy episode taking place in a school. While there’s definitely some funny stuff in the interactions between Capaldi and Jenna Coleman, my big problem with this episode is the Doctor’s reaction and attitude toward Danny Pink. Why does he hate soldiers all the sudden? And why would he hate someone who isn’t a soldier anymore? It made no sense to me, and it made me actively dislike the Doctor to a degree I wasn’t comfortable with.

10 – “Deep Breath”

About halfway through Capaldi’s first episode, he and Clara meet in a restaurant in Victorian London and have one of the funniest and best written scenes of banter Steven Moffat’s ever written. I was dying; it’s so good and well played and each character thinks the other is the one who printed the ad that got them both there. This leads to a great and tense final act with Clara surrounded by clockwork people wanting to steal body parts to rebuild themselves and their ship is amazingly well done. The problem is pretty much everything leading up to that is sooo forced, and Capaldi’s so manic that it doesn’t really work. And Clara’s complete refusal to accept this man as the Doctor seemed painfully out of character. So, start this 75-minute episode at like the 34 minute mark and all is great.

9 – “Kill the Moon”

This episode looked great, and the basic premise — the moon threatening to crack apart because a creature inside is popping out and whether Earth has the right to kill it — is one with many implications. But the Doctor’s complete abandonment of Clara when she needs his guidance the most is, again, not great. Pretty much, if the Doctor feels especially un-Doctory, I don’t like the episode.

8 – “Time Heist”

[image error]

This was an episode I was absolutely fine with. Nothing objectionable, except a bit of a sidelining of Clara, and it worked quite well was what was intended — a sci-fi version of Ocean’s Eleven. The only reason it’s not higher is because I forgot about it entirely until I looked at the episode list.

7 – “Robot of Sherwood”

This episode gets a lot of needless disdain, and while it doesn’t quite fit in the overall arch of the season, Mark Gatiss’ love letter to the Robin Hood myth proved to be one that I rewatch time and time again. Why? Because it’s so damn funny! I’m a huge fan of needless hostility when there’s no weight behind it, and the scenes of Robin and the Doctor bickering while trapped by the Sheriff of Nottingham never fail to have me howling. The only reason this one isn’t not higher is because we’re getting into some excellent sci-fi territory and that will always take precedent in a sci-fi adventure series.

6 – “Into the Dalek”

Now I’m no fan of Daleks, in general. I find them boring if used too frequently, and the show does rely on them a lot. But this one was such a weird and cool idea: could you change the thinking of a Dalek from the inside? The result is a cool Fantastic Voyage pastiche, as directed by Ben Wheatley who rocks the proverbial casbah. Still early in Capaldi’s tenure, he’s particularly prickly in this one and even doesn’t care when members of the shrunken crew get murdered by Dalek antibodies, but as far as a treatise on what makes a Dalek tick, it’s a damn fine ep.

5 – “Flatline”

[image error]

Every year, there’s what are called “Doctor-Lite Episodes,” or ones where the Doctor’s not in it very much or where they can get all of his scenes done in a day so that he can take a break for a week. Often, these episodes are among the best, because they force the writers to try to shake up the concept a bit, and this one — the second of writer Jamie Mathieson’s back-to-back episodes — gives us a great reason for the Doctor being sidelined: he’s stuck in a slowly-shrinking TARDIS. This makes Clara take the lead, be the Doctor as it were, and it provides us with the beginning of Clara’s eventual downfall. And the notion of a two dimensional alien that devours the dimensionality of other objects is also supremely cool and weird.

4 – “Last Christmas”

[image error]

Christmas specials are hit and miss, but for me, this one hits a whole lot, as it mixed the idea of Santa Claus and his cadre with the notion that what we see might not actually be what’s happening. Despite Nick Frost’s excellent portrayal of St. Nick, the episode is mostly a mixture of Alien, Inception, and kind of weird David Lynch stuff, and it put a capper on the fractured relationship between the Doctor and Clara that had been bubbling through all of Series 8.

3 – “Dark Water/Death in Heaven”

For a season that wasn’t my fave all around, it ended with a really great pair of episodes — written by Moffat and directed by the excellently great Rachel Talalay — that reintroduced the Master (aka Missy) in excellent style and also gave us one of the darker endings in the show’s history, with Danny Pink dying and becoming an undead Cyberman slave. It also set up the character denouement between the Doctor and Clara that we later saw in “Last Christmas” but did so by having Clara literally threaten to destroy all the TARDIS keys in a volcano. Her actions lead to the Doctor’s lovely “Do you think I care for you so little” line. Man, this finale is killer.

2 – “The Mummy on the Orient Express”

By time we got through episode 7 of the series, I thought “Nope, this one’s not really doing it for me,” but then this episode came along — written by Jamie Mathieson, the first of his back-to-backers — and I was back in! On a space train which tries to look like a Victorian Orient Express, a mummy is killing people in a specific span of time, but they’re only visible to the person who’s about to get killed. The Doctor only has that amount of time to learn anything; he doesn’t save them, he just has to learn about the mummy. It’s a great mix of Speed, Agatha Christie, and Hammer Horror.

1 – “Listen”

And finally, friends, we have the best episode, in my humble opinion, from Series 8. This is the stand-out, and might go down with other Moffat-scripted masterpieces like “Blink” and “The Day of the Doctor.” The conjecture is simple: what if whenever you think you’re alone, you’re not really alone? That already scares the crap out of me, but add to that timey-wimey meddling in Danny Pink’s history (and future?) and some chances for literally nothing to be terrifying and we have a creepy classic. Tying into “The Day of the Doctor” and our hero’s childhood was really icing on the cake. “Fear makes companions of us all, in the end.”

So, once again, this is just my own personal ranking, but I want to hear yours! Let me know in the comments below!

Images: BBC

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor and the resident Whovian for Nerdist. Follow him on Twitter!

This STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Collector’s Vinyl is Gorgeous (Exclusive)

If you’re finding yourself missing the sweeping, iconic scores of Sir John Williams in Rogue One , then I AM SHARK has just thing to properly whisk you off to the galaxy far, far away. The pop culture boutique retailer is in the midst of releasing four beautiful collectors’ edition vinyl and we have the exclusive announcement of their fourth and final installment of the series.

Pressed onto two 180-gram discs, the colored vinyl are the color of the Jakku desert and fit into either sleeve of the immaculately designed gatefold jacket. Dan Mumford’s design features Rey watching a golden sunset on Jakku, an optimistic complement to the inside art recreating the traumatic scene aboard the Starkiller Base when Kylo Ren impaled and shoved his papa off a bridge.

[image error]

If you are a Star Wars completist, then you will also want to check out the other three entries in the series. The other scenes depicted include Poe Dameron surveying a battle scene from his X-wing, Captain Phasma causing mayhem (something we wished actually happened in The Force Awakens), and Finn’s face-off with Kylo-Ren.

These limited vinyl (around 500 pressings of each) will run you about $46, so you might have to play favorites. Check out the rest of the vinyl right here and the tracklist below.

The Force Awakens Tracklist

Disc 1 / Side A

1. “Main Title and The Attack on the Jakku Village” 6:25

2. “The Scavenger” 3:39

3. “I Can Fly Anything” 3:10

4. “Rey Meets BB-8” 1:31

5. “Follow Me” 2:54

6. “Rey’s Theme”

Disc 1 / Side B 3:11

7. “The Falcon” 3:32

8. “That Girl with the Staff” 1:58

9. “The Rathtars!” 4:05

10. “Finn’s Confession” 2:08

11. “Maz’s Counsel” 3:07

12. “The Starkiller” 1:50

13. “Kylo Ren Arrives at the Battle” 2:00

14. “The Abduction”

Disc 2 / Side C 2:23

15. “Han and Leia” 4:41

16. “March of the Resistance” 2:34

17. “Snoke” 2:03

18. “On the Inside” 2:06

19. “Torn Apart” 4:19

20. “The Ways of the Force”

Disc 2 / Side D 3:14

21. “Scherzo for X-Wings” 2:32

22. “Farewell and The Trip” 4:55

23. “The Jedi Steps and Finale” 8:51

Image: I Am Shark

TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT Will Be the “Final Chapter”

This Sunday, the new trailer for Transformers: The Last Knight is getting one of the prime ad spots during the Super Bowl. Director Michael Bay has been shepherding the live-action franchise for over a decade now, although he’s spent the last few years promising to move on. This time, Bay may really be serious about stepping aside from the Robots in Disguise, and it could mean the final chapter of his Transformers run as well as a new beginning. Today’s Nerdist News is opening the AllSpark for answers!

Join host, and Sam Witwicky’s distant cousin, Jessica Chobot, as she goes through Michael Bay’s latest message for Transformers fans and the newly released synopsis for The Last Knight. On his official site, Bay wrote:

I’ve been living in this franchise for over 10 years now. For Transformers: The Last Knight, we put together a writers’ room designed to greatly expand our mythology, integrating our films in a whole new way. Every movie will interlink … I can safely say that there’s never been a Transformers film with the huge visual scope and expansive mythology as this movie, The Last Knight.

We’ve known for a while that the Transformers movies were getting their own cinematic universe, including a Bumblebee solo movie. But could the series also be venturing into the Hasbro Cinematic Universe as well? A G.I. Joe and Transformers crossover seems inevitable. As for The Last Knight, we can’t help but notice that the film is teasing a dark turn for Optimus Prime while also introducing his successor, Hot Rod. If Hot Rod becomes Rodimus Prime, does this mean that Optimus will finally be killed off for good? Because that would definitely close the door on the Bay era, while leaving Rodimus to lead the Autobots in the era that follows.

Are you eager to see the Transformers cinematic universe crossover with G.I. Joe and the other Hasbro movies? Roll out and let’s discuss in the comment section below!

Scientists are Turning Dragonflies Into Genetically Modified Cyborgs

Summer is great for obvious reasons: Sun, beaches, ice cream, music festivals, shorts, campfires, and so on. As wonderful as that all is, though, with the end of winter comes the re-emergence of bugs, and boy does it feel oppressive. If only we could make some practical use of them. That’s what biomedical solutions company Draper is doing with their latest project, an ambitious endeavor to turn dragonflies into genetically modified insect cyborgs (via Engadget).

The DragonflEye project aims to turn dragonflies into miniature drones that we can control. While humans have created drones that are small and easy to control, nothing we’ve made compares to the precision movements of natural flyers like dragonflies, so instead of trying to beat them, Draper is trying to join them by creating tiny backpacks that harvest energy via solar panels and let us control the insect by activating the insect’s “steering neurons” with pulses of light in the dragonfly’s nerve cord.

“DragonflEye is a totally new kind of micro-aerial vehicle that’s smaller, lighter and stealthier than anything else that’s manmade,” says Jesse J. Wheeler, a biomedical engineer at Draper. “This system pushes the boundaries of energy harvesting, motion sensing, algorithms, miniaturization and optogenetics, all in a system small enough for an insect to wear.”

The project wrapped up its first year and has yet to test on actual dragonflies, but now that the technologies are further along in their development, they are “preparing to equip dragonflies with first-generation backpacks in a motion capture room that can monitor their precise flight movements as data is captured from navigation system.”

If this research proves successful, it could be applied to other similarly sized insects, and turn them into drones, pollination machines, and other non-sinster bots. Personally, we’d try and get them to put food directly into our mouths, so perhaps it’s best we’re not the ones pioneering this technology.

Featured image: Draper

Want to Eat a POKÉMON? Head to Japan and Grab a Magikarp

In Pokémon Red and Blue, players can buy a Magikarp from a shady salesman for 500 Poké dollars. To our knowledge and off the top of our heads, that’s the only time in the main Pokémon games where you can directly buy a Pokémon… not counting the various Game Corners, although those Pokémon are purchased with coins won from the Game Corner, not the game’s actual currency.

Anyway, we bring this up because while it might seem like Magikarp is a lame product and a waste of money, it’ll become a mighty Gyarados if you train it long enough. If that seems like too arduous an adventure, (Magikarp only learns Tackle at level 15, and those are absolutely the longest 15 levels in the game) you can also eat them… in real life… in Japan… sort of (via Kotaku).

pic.twitter.com/sh0ZKQzArH

— (@hauyne330) January 24, 2017

If you’re familiar with Japanese cuisine, then turning Magikarp into food is a no-brainer thanks to taiyaki, a fish-shaped cake that’s usually filled with red bean paste or custard. Kurikoan is a shop known for its taiyaki, and they just came out with a Magikarp-shaped taiyaki, which they’ve dubbed Koiking-yaki, a play on Magikarp’s Japanese name, Koiking.

At 106 yen (about 94 cents), it’s a reasonably priced treat, that even comes with the lyrics of Nintendo’s official Magikarp theme song printed on the packaging. If you’d rather make your own Koiking-yaki at home, there’s a kit to do so, but it appears to only be sold in Japan and is out of stock.

Featured image: The Pokémon Company

Say Bonjour to Build-A-Bear’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Collection

Dressing up stuffed animals is a tale as old as time. I remember giving my plush toys fashion makeovers when I was young with whatever tiny clothes I could get my hands on–maybe I stole them from my younger sister’s drawers. Kids these days don’t have to resort to such desperate measures though, because they have Build-A-Bear Workshop. It’s the ultimate destination if you want to customize your plush toys and choose stylish apparel and accessories for them, because why not? And now, your bears can cosplay as Belle and the Beast from Beauty and the Beast.

The premiere of Disney‘s live-action Beauty and the Beast is just over a month away (the film arrives on March 17), and the new bears and costumes are here just in time to celebrate. The beary cute costumes are the latest Disney additions to Build-A-Bear’s offerings, and they take inspiration from the memorable ballroom scene. Build-A-Bear has Beast’s fancy blue coat and Belle’s elegant yellow gown; you can buy them separately and put them on plushes you already own or get them with Beast and Belle themed bears. Belle has gold sparkly fur and would you just look at the Beast’s face and little horns!

If you want to include these fairy tale bears to your collection or purchase them as gifts, you can do so by going to a Build-A-Bear Workshop store or visiting their website.

Do you dress up your stuffed animals? Tell me in the comments. I promise we will not shame you.

Images: Build-A-Bear