Highlights from Rivet Gallery 80's Cartoons art show

A few of my favorites from Rivet Gallery's new show "We'll Be Right Back... After These Messages." You can see all of the artwork here. Links below are to the artists' personal sites:



Masters of the Universe class photo by Chris Lee.






Tiamat, Thundarr, He-Man, and Voltron by Scott Campbell. You know, speaking of the old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, I highly recommend this post by Mark Evanier about his script-writing for the show. It's eye-opening to hear him describe how he was forced to insert the following theme into every episode: The group is always right...the complainer is always wrong.




M.A.S.K. by Clinton Reno.




Danger Mouse by Daniel Elson.




Rainbow Brite by Shannon Bonatakis.

*Previously: Spencer Brinkerhoff III draws my favorite Thundarr villain.

*Buy Danger Mouse toys at eBay.

Astro Boy toy from Hot Toys (link roundup)



Hot Toys posted a photo gallery of some of their upcoming toys, including these great Astro Boy toys.

And a few more links:

1. MMO The Matrix Online is ending this week and the final moments sound pretty cool. Via.

2. The custom Star Wars Mighty Muggs I've mentioned are now up for bid.

3. Arturo Gatti's wife was accused of strangling him to death with a purse strap, but Gatti's death has been ruled a suicide by Brazilian police.

*Previously: Astro Boy screensaver.

*Buy Astro Boy toys at eBay.

Birther link madness!

OK, if you're lucky enough to have never heard of the Birthers, I'm jealous. They're people who believe, against all evidence (and reason) that Obama was actually born in Kenya, and thus ineligible to be president of the USA. For example:







The problem is that various politicians have given at least token support to their claims, and Lou Dobbs has also decided to promote the claim on his show. Over a week ago, Jon Stewart mercilessly mocked Dobbs and the Birthers in general:



The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Born Identity
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorJoke of the Day




But the news networks decided to milk a little more airtime out of the story, such as by having Chris Matthews try to convince G. Gordon Liddy that the Birthers were nuts:







Last week, CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein told "Lou Dobbs Tonight" staffers that the Birthers claim was "dead - because anyone who still is not convinced doesn't really have a legitimate beef."



Case closed. Right?



Wrong. Lou Dobbs keeps discussing the issue, even though he says the Birthers' claims are meritless:









The good news is that Lou Dobbs' ratings have apparently tanked recently. And Media Matters has purchased air time to run a TV ad criticizing Dobbs during Dobbs' show. Media Matters has also set up a minisite detailing Dobbs' embarrassing history.





And I wouldn't have mentioned any of this, except Curt Franklin and Chris Haley found a way to cleverly work the Justice League into the story.



*Previously: This year's Best Actress is a 9/11 Truther.



*Buy birth certificates at eBay.

Villains of Scooby-Doo grand finale

(If you want a recap of the entries to date, follow this link.)

Here are the final six entries to the Villains of Scooby-Doo art contest:


The Beast from Bottomless Lake by Roman Laney. His portfolio features concept art from El Tigre, and he recently posted a beautiful Art Deco image.




Ghost of King Katazuma by M.S. Corley, who recently posted an illustration that was accepted into the Darkstalkers tribute book. He also has a terrific selection of monster prints on sale at Etsy.




Ghost Native Shaman illustration and paper sculpture by Francesca Lasarte. Her portfolio and Flickr gallery are full of art, cheerful and macabre.




The Creeper by Meg of MegaCrafty, which is full of crafts, including these mortar board-topped chocolate pops.




Scooby-Doo villains jam by Necro Visible, who delivers the only Tiki ghost of the contest.



Glow-in-the-dark and light-up Space Kook Munny by Joe D!. Here's Joe's webshop.


Wow, thanks to everyone who submitted an entry. I'll choose the first and second place winners this weekend, and announce them on Monday. And I'm so sorry I have to disappoint anyone and select only two winners.

One hour left....

One hour left in the Villains of Scooby-Doo art contest. I'll be posting the entries I received today at 8.

Japanese House (link roundup)



House in Japan by Suppose Design Works. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Thanks to Comicon, lots of new Samus cosplay photos (armored, Zero suit, and whatever's less than Zero suit).

2. Cave-like entrance to Mayan ruins.

3. Wikipedia logo sculpture.

*Previously: Dimension Diver Samus toy.

*Buy Metroid toys at eBay.

Skyscraper concept art (link roundup)




Design for the 77-story MahaNakhon skyscraper by Ole Scheeren of Office for Metropolitan Architecture, to be built in Bangkok, Thailand. Via.

And a few more links:

1. That "free" netbook from Verizon ain't free.

2. Map of the constellations desktop wallpaper.

3. Former lab employee accused of finding a way to reenter the lab and destroy 4,000 cryogenically frozen crystal protein samples.

*Previously: "My Private Sky" Constellation Plates.

*Buy telescopes at Amazon.

Learn to dance like Peanuts characters




Accordion foldouts by Candy Chang and Kyra Porada show how to dance like Peanuts characters. See also: Fold-out guide with rules for New York street vendors. Via these sites.

*Previously: You've got crabs Charlie Brown.

*Buy Peanuts toys at eBay.

Disc Demon and the Ghost of King Katazuma strike up a friendship



Disc Demon and the Ghost of King Katazuma share ice cream in this entry by Evan Hodgins for the Villains of Scooby-Doo art contest. See also: Bulked-up Mega Man.

*Previously: Dimension Diver Mega Man toy.

*Buy Scooby Doo toys at eBay.

Dozens of new paper toys

Speakerdog Paper Toys Series 6 has been unveiled and features dozens of paper toys available for download (Scroll horizontally). Below, are a few of my favorites and links to the artists' personal sites:


Clawed robot by Carlos Araujo.



Weird guy with mustache by Themeekshall. See also: iPhone desktop wallpapers.



Yeti by Angie Vázquez Cilia.



Dog by Togui.



Hot Dog Saleseman/Spaceship by Stephen Chan. See also: Robot bird paper toy.


*Find dozens of additional papercraft projects here.

*Buy Bigfoot toys at eBay.

Philadelphia has solar-powered trash cans, artistic recycling trucks





Philadelphia has solar-powered trash cans and artist-decorated recycling trucks. As to the "Big Belly" trash cans, they're motorized and compact trash. When they're full, they seal themselves and send out a notification to headquarters. They open like a mailbox, so they'll presumably become disgusting to touch almost immediately, and something tells me that any energy savings earned by the fewer required pickups will be outweighed by the sophistication of the cans' construction and need for upkeep.

*Previously: Trash can with built in hair-removing comb.

*Buy garbage truck toys at eBay.

Pac-Man/Tron mashup desktop wallpaper



It's Pac-Man meets Tron in this image by Pixel Fantasy. You can download it as a desktop wallpaper here. And don't miss sad Mac and Blue Screen of Death iPhone wallpapers. Thanks, Gery.

*Previously: High-res stills from the Tron Legacy trailer.

*Buy Tron toys at eBay.

Hand-crafted Adventure Time weapons (link roundup)



The Adventure Time crew posted a gallery of hand-crafted weapons. Pictured is a sea urchin mace by Sevonne Tuvia.

And a few more links:

1. Scott Campbell draws Ray Bradbury (with friend) and Jules Verne (with several friends). Rod Serling, too.

2. Stark Industries is a viral site for Iron Man 2. No content yet, but they are willing to take your contact information.

3. Realtor ad for the "Gay Realtor" could also star at the museum of improper use of quotation marks.

*Previously: Dave McKean illustrated a short story by Ray Bradbury.

*Buy Iron Man toys at eBay.

Wonderbread parody by Rich DeSimone (link roundup)



Wilco concert poster by Rich DeSimone on sale for $30 here.

And a few more links:

1. Adam Koford was interviewed at Star Wars.com about his blasted Greedo custom Mighty Mugg.

2. Which makes this a perfect time to point out that orders over $25 get free shipping at Zazzle with the code WEPAYFORSHIP. Buy a t-shirt featuring the Super Punch chimera logo Adam designed.

3. The International Space Station should finally be completed next year. So, NASA intends to crash it into the atmosphere in 2016. Via.

*Previously: Retro-futuristic space station.

*Buy concert posters at eBay.

Villains of Scooby-Doo art contest finishing strong

There's about 24 hours left to enter the Villains of Scooby-Doo art contest and try to win a $100 Threadless store credit. As we near the finish line, here's a two more wonderful entries.

Nancy Dorsner submitted a Demon Shark tormenting my Chimera:



She also drew a nature-loving Space Kook. Here's her webstore.


Carlos Melgares, who previously submitted a plush, glow-in-the-dark Space Kook, also completed this Russian propaganda-style image of Charlie the Robot:



Carlos also drew his own, somewhat lewd, version of Space Kook.


Finally and relatedly, Rich Page, who was the first to submit art for the contest, has a t-shirt up for vote at Design by Humans.

Thanks to everyone who has submitted an entry, although I will soon face the miserable, thankless task of trying to pick a winner and runner up. To everyone else, there's still a bit more time. No one's brave enough to try their hand at the Ghost of King Katazuma?

*Buy Scooby Doo toys at eBay.

Book cover roundup

Five book covers that recently caught my eye. All links are to Amazon.


Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School




The Management Myth: Why the Experts Keep Getting it Wrong




The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday: Unexpected Encounters in the Changing Middle East




Seven Days in the Art World




A Monster's Notes


*See more book covers here.

Classic books stay with you (link roundup)



One of the "Unputdownable" series of ads by Saatchi & Saatchi for Penguin.

And a few more links:

1. Here's what the Dante figure by NECA, from the Dante's Inferno video game, looks like.

2. Thomas Barnett's short and sweet prescription for improving third world countries: "shrinking the Gap means liberating females and killing the hardline males who stand in the way." I highly, highly recommend his site for foreign policy news.

3. Consumer Reports reviews various home teeth whitening products and recommends Crest Whitestrips Supreme, which are available for a hefty discount aat Amazon.

*Previously: Spock shows a variety of hand gestures.

*Buy NECA toys at eBay.