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Just in Time for the Holidays, Back to the Future: The Game arrives!

September 2, 2010 in Announcements, Films, Gaming, Merchandise, Multimedia, Reviews by Raven Kai | No comments

Back to the Future: The Card Game

Looney Labs, the creators of the award winnings games Fluxx and Treehouse, has an awesome new addition to its large collection of fun-filled games. In collaboration with Universal Pictures, for the celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the film, Back to the Future: The Card Game hits store shelves September 3rd. As a descendant of one of the characters from the Back to the Future movies, you must not only travel back in time to fix the time line to ensure your birth, but then you have to stop Doc Brown from inventing time travel to begin with! Sounds like a paradox, I know, but hey, with a card game you don’t have to fear a massive universe-ending cascade effect.

Using the game mechanics of their popular Chrononauts time traveler game, it’s a card game that plays almost like a board game. Time Line cards are laid out in 4 rows of 6, chronologically from 1885 (when Hill Valley was in desperate need of a new Blacksmith) to 2015 (the infamous botched McFly Jailbreak). Each of these events is either a Lynchpin or a Ripplepoint, meaning, if a Lynchpin event is changed, it will have one or more “ripples” in the time line (such as we saw when George punched Biff at the “Enchantment Under the Sea” dance and Marty returned to a new and improved future).

Like every other Looney Labs game I’ve played, it’s ingenious in its quick and easy-to-learn, yet complex and ever-changing, game play. The cards basically tell you everything you need to know so you’ll only have to double-check the instructions the first few times you play before getting the hang of things. The illustrations are similar to a comic book and are chock full of images from the films. The cards are also dotted with events, quotes and references from the films so you quickly get a feeling of familiarity with the game, almost like catching up with an old friend.

Back to the Future: The Card Game Contents

As I said, game play is pretty easy. Once you’ve laid out your Time Line cards, you randomly draw an ID card to determine whose great-great-grandchild you are. The ID cards include a set of events that you must make happen in order to preserve your time line and win the game. For example, if you are Marty McFly III, you certainly want to make sure great-great-grampa takes that swing at Biff in the parking lot of the dance but if you are Buffy Tannen, you want to prevent it.

Unlike Chrononauts, where meeting those time line event changes wins you the game, Back to the Future adds an interesting twist: The game ending card has 5 randomly shuffled cards stacked, 4 of which are duds. If you meet your goals and flip the card, you have a 1 in 5 chance of actually winning on that turn, giving the other players a chance to mess up your time line again if it’s a dud.

In order to change those time lines, you use Game cards which include Items (like a case of Plutonium or a copy of George McFly’s first novel), Time Machines (yes, you finally get to drive the DeLorean), DoubleBacks (which let you change events when you travel back in time, maybe twice if you have the correct item on hand), Actions (such as Hitch a Ride, which lets you flip any lynchpin of your choice if the player before you changed time) and Power Actions (like Memo, where you can leave a memo for yourself to remind you to stop another player’s Action before they can finish it).

Looney Labs really paid attention to the details in creating this game. You’ll find the obvious things here (such as various versions of the DeLorean, the Gray’s Sports Almanac and the fading McFly family photo), but you may have forgotten about the bullet proof vest, Mr. Fusion and Frisbie’s Pies. I think my favorite little touch is the back of the ID cards. While all of the other cards bear the Back to the Future logo, the ID card is an Employee ID badge featuring the CusCo logo, address and ID bar-code. For those of you who don’t recall, CusCo was the company that Marty McFly was working for when he received the YOU’RE FIRED! fax.

Between the events on the Time Line cards, to the quotes and other references on the other game cards, you’ll find yourself smiling and laughing a lot as you recall favorite moments from the films. As a matter of fact, every hand we’ve played so far has been filled with pauses as we stopped to discuss the shows, and we have an insatiable desire to have a Back to the Future movie marathon very soon. If, after playing a few rounds of your new Looney Labs Back to the Future: The Card Game, you find yourself hankering to watch the movies, too, more Good News! Universal is releasing a new, digitally remastered Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy box set on DVD and Blu-ray in October.

For 2 to 6 players, ages 11 to 111.

Contents include:

  • 28 time line cards
  • 10 Character cards
  • 62 Game cards
    • 17 Items
    • 6 Time Machines
    • 8 DoubleBacks
    • 17 Actions
    • 14 Power Actions

You can get Back to the Future: The Card Game directly from Looney Labs, or check your local game retailer. While Back to the Future: The Card Game isn’t listed on Amazon.com yet, be sure to keep an eye out for it and check out the other Looney Labs games while you are there!

Looney Labs Website
Looney Labs Fan Club
Looney Labs on Twitter
Looney Labs Community Page on Facebook

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MIMOBOT designer USB flash drive Artist Series: tokidoki

August 16, 2010 in Arts & Culture, Lifestyle, Merchandise, Multimedia, Reviews, Science & Technology by Guest | No comments

Adios & Ciao Ciao by tokidoki

It’s pronounced mee-mo-bot.
Refresh. Enjoy. MIMOBOT!

Flash drives, while extremely useful, aren’t generally the most exciting looking pieces of technology. They’re usually just little lozenges of plastic in a limited selection of solid colours. In 2005, Mimoco changed the face of flash drives forever by introducing MIMOBOT, a line of designer USB flash drives. Inspired by pop culture, and borrowing from the idea of collectible toys, Mimoco turned flash drives from merely practical devices into a means of artistic expression.

MIMOBOT come in three categories: original characters created in-house by Mimoco, a series of collaborations with popular artists, and licensed brands. Currently, these categories include Mimoco’s Core Series, Artist Crossovers (such as FriendsWithYou and tokidoki), Community-Designed ‘bots contributed by talented MIMOBOT fans, and the hugely popular Licensed Crossovers, or “Artist Series”, that includes Hello Kitty and Mimoco’s most well-known output, the Star Wars MIMOBOT Series. There’s even a line of keychain “outfits”, called protoHoodies, that clip MIMOBOTs to bags or clothing while preventing wear to their painted cases.

As if having a beautiful computer accessory wasn’t enough, every MIMOBOT is preloaded with exclusive avatars, icons, wallpapers, screensavers, sound bytes, and other multimedia goodies, including the latest issue of Mimoco’s video publication, mimoZine. Since MIMOBOTs are compatible with Mac and Windows, their bonus contents come in formats for both systems. All drives are available in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB sizes, and feature a tail light that flashes when the MIMOBOT is plugged in.

Aside from their unique appearance, the most interesting thing about MIMOBOTs is that they have a back-story, which claims that the flash drives are sentient creatures who hail from Planet Blõôh. The MIMOBOT designs are merely identities that they adopt on Earth to better enable them to infiltrate human society. One set of these disguises is provided by tokidoki.

Renowned Italian artist Simone Legno’s tokidoki brand is crossing over to the consumer tech world with the introduction of the tokidoki for MIMOBOT collection of designer USB flash drives, another entry in the MIMOBOT Artist Series. tokidoki, which means “sometimes” in Japanese, was named such because of Simone’s love for Japanese culture and his belief that “everyone waits for moments that change one’s destiny.” After his destiny-changing moment arrived in 2003, he went from being an artist who used his website to promote his freelance work to an artist who successfully built tokidoki into a world-famous international brand!

The tokidoki MIMOBOT collection was launched by a pair of tokidoki x MIMOBOT characters, Adios and Ciao Ciao, with the slogan Love is… in the Air:

As legend has it, Adios spent 500 years in fire and brimstone before the devil discovered his good-natured ways and kicked him out of hell. Too mischievous for heaven, Adios was condemned to live forever on earth, in his modern grave-loft with his girlfriend Ciao Ciao. Together, Adios and Ciao Ciao wander the world, sharing with others how to make the most out of this life… A perfect love story for fashion-tech lovers everywhere.

This gothic-anime duo, in a matching “his-and-hers” style for the tech crowd, ensures that couples won’t accidentally grab each other’s data. They make great little gifts for any romantically geeky occasion, and, like true love, will also withstand the test of time — MIMOBOT flash drive cases are made of a thick, sturdy, molded plastic, and the caps, while easy to remove, snap on firmly. The boldly coloured designs are cleanly applied, with no paint overlap or bleed, and Adios and Ciao Ciao’s silver and gold caps offer a hint of metallic flair. Bellissimo!

Transfer Rate: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 (backwards compatible with USB 1.1).

Mimoco encourages the recycling of their packaging and products, so check out the GreenBot USB Recycling Program (GURP). It offers discounts on future MIMOBOT purchases when you send in your old flash drives… assuming that you can bear to part with them. Even non-functional MIMOBOTs still have value as tiny works of art. This collectibility is really the only downside to MIMOBOTs, as soon you’ll have so many, you won’t know where to display them all. Then again, can a techno geek ever really have too many flash drives?

Order now at Amazon.com:
MIMOBOT

Or order directly through the Mimoco website.

MIMOBOTs and protoHoodies are distributed by Mimoco. For more information on tokidoki, please visit the official tokidoki website.

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Writing Tips from Alice Kuipers

August 10, 2010 in Books & Writing, Exclusives, Interviews, Reviews by Raven Kai | No comments

The Worst Thing She Ever Did

I recently read The Worst Thing She Ever Did by Alice Kuipers. It’s the story of a young girl name Sophie who went through a traumatic event and is having trouble going on with her life after it. While my own traumatic events weren’t quite the same as Sophie’s, I could definitely identify with her struggle to express herself and find not only the missing words to do so but discover who she is now that everything in her life has changed.

The Worst Thing She Ever Did is a young adult novel written as Sophie’s journal, so you see inside her head, into what she’s thinking and feeling, as she attempts to open up on the blank pages. At first, the entries are brief with little detail of her daily life and they are spaced days apart. As the book continues, you see her slip a few bits and pieces of the past in as she more fully details her days.

Because a strong theme of the book is finding ways to get unstuck so you can open up and express yourself, I asked if Alice Kuipers could share a bit with us about how she gets unstuck and finds inspiration to get her lost words flowing again.

I’m really glad to be guest blogging for you. Thanks. You asked me to share a few writing tips and so I thought I’d blog a bit about how to get inspired when you’re stuck and you don’t know what to write. In my novel The Worst Thing She Ever Did, the main character, Sophie, is completely stuck with what to say in the face of her suffering. She is lost for words and until she gets unstuck she can’t move on to her future. Turns out, for her, writing is the way forward.

Writer’s block can be something quite terrifying. The blank page stares at you, or more likely the blank screen. That little cursor blinks impatiently. How do you get ideas? Well, there are lots of sources of inspiration so here are five ideas to get you unstuck and get writing.

  1. Read magazines and newspapers especially if you’re writing SciFi because thrilling and weird innovations and events will get your imaginative neurons firing. I saw an old article about giant sinkholes in Guatemala the other day — that could inspire anything from serious melancholy poetry to wild exotic fantasy.
  2. Think of a hero of yours and put them in a challenging situation. What would they do? The harder the challenge, the more difficult the situation, the better the story.
  3. Take a line from something you’re reading and use it to inspire you — it could be your first line for a story or the finishing line that you have to reach.
  4. Put on a piece of music you haven’t listened to for a while but that you used to love. Let the memories the tune inspires get you writing.
  5. Imagine you’ve left every thing and every one you know somewhere far away. You’re in a totally unknown place. Are you still you? What happens? Sometimes writing what you don’t know (as opposed to the old adage of writing what you know) can get you fired up and over being stuck.

Getting unstuck is one thing. But being inspired is just the start of discovering yourself as a writer. It took me several years to find the way I wanted to tell the stories I want to tell.

For me, taking my time was the best way to discover my voice, so I have one final piece of advice on finding your voice:

Experiment with every form and genre you can imagine (and read widely to discover forms you’d never heard of) until you find the one that suits you. You might surprise yourself and discover you’re a sound poet, or a comic playwright, or maybe you’re a screenwriter for children’s movies. The more you write, the more comfortable you’ll be in your writer skin.

I have loads more tips and prompts and links on my website alicekuipers.com for emerging writers.

Come and see me there!

Ali

More Alice Kuipers Links:
Browse Inside The Worst Thing She Ever Did
Writing Tips by Alice Kuipers
Alice Kuipers’ Harper Collins Canada Website
Alice Kuipers on Twitter
Alice Kuipers on Facebook

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GIANTmicrobes + Marshmallow Shooters

August 1, 2010 in Lifestyle, Merchandise, Reviews, Science & Technology by Guest | 1 comment

Sometimes science is gross. It doesn’t have to be, though, especially when it comes to science-based toys. GIANTmicrobes, “stuffed animals that look like tiny microbes — only a million times actual size!”, are more intellectually stimulating than a teddy bear, but still just as cute.

GIANTmicrobes

GIANTmicrobes are available in Original (5-7″), Petri Dish (3 Minis), and GIGANTICmicrobes (15-20″) sizes, with each strain of GIANTmicrobe having regular and miniature versions, and the most popular styles mutating into GIGANTICmicrobes*. (GIGANTICmicrobes, aside from being huge, huggable stuffed toys, are suitable as decorative throw pillows, so if you have a science-themed room in need of whimsy, these jumbo microbes fit the doctor’s bill.) New GIANTmicrobes are spawned regularly, at a rate that makes action figure lines seem like relatively small outbreaks. The complete catalogue of specimens, to date, is as follows:

  • Aerials: House Fly, Mosquito
  • Alimentaries: Acidophilus (New!), Beer & Bread (Yeast)*, Cavity, E. coli*, Listeria (New!), Salmonella*, Yogurt
  • Ambulatories: Lyme Disease
  • Aquatics: Algae, Amoeba (Blue, Orange, or Yellow), Copepod (New!), Krill, Red Tide, Scum, Sea Sparkle, Waterbear (New!)
  • Calamities: Anthrax, Black Death*, Ebola*, Flesh Eating*, Mad Cow*, Typhoid Fever
  • Corporeals: Brain Cell*, Egg Cell, Fat Cell, Nerve Cell, Platelet, Red Blood Cell*, Sperm Cell, White Blood Cell*
  • Critters: Bed Bug, Black Ant, Bookworm*, Dust Mite, Flea, Louse, Maggot, Red Ant
  • Exotics: Bird Flu, Martian Life*, Penicillin*, Swine Flu*, T4
  • Health: Common Cold*, Cough, Ear Ache, Flu*, Sore Throat*, Stomach Ache*
  • Infirmaries: C. Diff, Chickenpox, Measles (New!), MRSA*, Pneumonia, Rubella (New!), Staph*, Toxic Mold
  • Maladies: Athlete’s Foot, Bad Breath, Giardia, Kissing Disease*, Pimple, Ulcer
  • Menageries: Heartworm, Mange, Rabies, Toxoplasmosis
  • Professional: Hepatitis, HIV*, Polio, TB
  • Tropicals: Gangrene, Leishmania (New!), Malaria, Sleeping Sickness, West Nile
  • Venereals: Chlamydia*, The Clap (Gonorrhea)*, Herpes*, HPV (New!), The Pox (Syphilis)*

The GIANTmicrobes’ low-pile plush fabric is soft and brightly coloured — a pile of the toys looks like a spilled box of Crayola 64-pack crayons — and accent materials like shiny plastic eyes, embroidery, fringe, cord, felt, and shimmery metallic cloth add tactile detail that make GIANTmicrobes so invitingly touchable. Hang-tag booklets and other packaging on the GIANTmicrobes provide pictures and scientific bios of the real lifeforms they caricature, humorously written in the manner of Bill Nye the Science Guy, allowing GIANTmicrobes to be both educational and fun. Parents and teachers can use them to introduce their little scientists to the world of microorganisms, while school health classes and medical professionals will want to employ them as props in discussions with young people about sensitive topics, such as pregnancy and STDs. Or, you can skip the real-life science lessons and just play. Gather a group of friends to recreate the infection process on a grand scale by throwing GIANTmicrobes at one another and yelling things like “I just gave you kissing disease!” (This game is great exercise, as you’ll need to run and dodge to avoid being “infected” back.)

Martian Life Petri Dish

Perhaps the most entertaining of the GIANTmicrobe toys are the petri dishes. Three mini microbes are sealed in a plastic “petri dish”, a heavy, clear plastic container subtly embossed with the GIANTmicrobes logo on the lid. The paper labels are all loosely attached with bits of transparent tape, so they’re easily removed to give you a fairly realistic looking petri dish. Mad scientists-in-training can amuse themselves for hours, combining the contents of petri dishes to see what “results” they get. The more petri dish selections in the “lab”, the more interesting the “science experiments”! Bookworm + Brain Cell = Smart Bug. Martian Life + Swine Flu = Pigs in Space? Amoeba + Flesh Eating Disease + Rabies = Microscopic Zombie. Yikes!

If you work in a doctor’s office or science lab, and want to add a touch of humour to your formal wear, GIANTmicrobes are printed on stylish neckties in three eye-catching designs. For informal settings, there are t-shirts and hats. Other GIANTmicrobes-related items tailored to your workspace are coffee mugs, keychains, and, for anyone wanting to apply fake cooties to their skin, temporary tattoos.

The GIANTmicrobes brand even has a line of medical supplies. There’s a liquid soap dispenser shaped like a common cold bug, moist wipes, and a digital thermometer. The bright orange and white thermometer is less clinical in appearance than a regular thermometer, and has an adorable picture of a sad cold bug on the handle, a teensy GIANTmicrobes thermometer stuck in its mouth. The digital thermometer comes in a protective clear case, and, being electronic, contains no toxic mercury — seriously, why stick poison in your mouth when you’re already sick? Since the device is American-made, it displays degrees in Fahrenheit, so converting the results will be a necessary inconvenience in other countries, where Celsius is standard. The thermometer only takes about a minute to spit out an accurate reading, however, and its tip is flexible for a comfortable fit under the tongue. A beep indicates when the temperature readout is ready, and a fever alarm lets you know when a visit to the doctor is in order. An auto-off feature conserves battery life, which lasts around 200 hours.

Germs are tenacious little beasts, and frequent hand-washing only controls them for so long. As a last line of defense, you may need to bring in the big guns to keep your playful GIANTmicrobes in order:

Camo Shooter

Marshmallow Shooters, recommended for ages 8 to 88, are similar to Nerf guns, except that instead of shooting foamy, marshmallow-like projectiles, they use real marshmallows as ammunition. Depending on which Marshmallow Shooter you choose, mini or full-sized marshmallows are loaded up and launched, and if you prefer a firearm that’s more medieval issue than a pistol or bazooka, the extensive range of Marshmallow Shooters includes bows and crossbows. Weapons aren’t usually described as Earth-friendly, but these toy shooters hold that unique distinction. Unlike foam pellets, the “biodegradable payload” used by Marshmallow Shooters simply melts away, leaving no trace behind, aside from a few diabetic squirrels who get to the treats before the next rain shower. Everyone knows that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, so blast those microbes into submission with a barrage of sugary sweet marshmallows!

Order now at Amazon.com:
GIANTmicrobes
GIGANTICmicrobes
Marshmallow Shooters

Or order GIANTmicrobes directly through the Giantmicrobes website. Order Marshmallow Shooters directly through the Marshmallow Fun Company website. GIANTmicrobes and Marshmallow Shooters are also available through ThinkGeek.

GIANTmicrobes, GIGANTICmicrobes, and GIANTmicrobes in a Petri Dish are distributed by Giantmicrobes (US) and Stortz & Associates (Canada). Marshmallow Shooters are distributed by Marshmallow Fun Company (US) and Stortz & Associates (Canada).

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“Liebrary” Board Game

July 21, 2010 in Gaming, Merchandise, Reviews by Guest | No comments

Liebrary

Bookworms who enjoy intellectually challenging social games like Trivial Pursuit, Scattergories, or Balderdash will delight in the creative-thinking gameplay of Liebrary, “The Game Where the First Line Speaks Volumes”.

In Liebrary, players are given a book title and the plot summary and then asked to create the most believable first line of the book. The object of the game is to bluff other players into believing that your first line is the correct one. The more outrageous, the better!

Liebrary was co-designed by actresses and best friends Daryl Hannah and Hilary Shepard, who took inspiration for their game from an old parlor game that had the same concept as Liebrary, but required access to hundreds of actual books to play. When Hannah and Shepard decided to create a portable version of the parlor game that could be played in the absence of a library, or taken along on family vacations, Liebrary sprang into creation. (If you do have new or favourite books on hand, though, you can easily incorporate them into gameplay.) A set of book cards lists the title, author, plot, and first line of books, conveniently condensing hundreds of novels into a single, small card box. The card box is styled after a card catalogue drawer, a reference that may likely be lost on younger players, since the card catalogue has largely disappeared from libraries in the age of computers, but players over the age of thirty will appreciate the nostalgic touch. Along with the game board and other playing pieces, the card box fits inside a larger box that, appropriately enough, resembles a thick book. Liebrary’s elegant box cover recreates the look of a worn, green, leather-bound volume, and can be gorgeously displayed on a bookshelf with real books.

Fantasy fans know Hannah best as Madison the mermaid from the classic 1980s film Splash, but she’s also a dedicated environmentalist, so it’s no surprise that a sticker on the front of the package assures eco-friendly game players that Liebrary is “printed on recycled paper using soy-based inks”.

In addition to the standard, travel-size game, there’s also a deluxe Liebrary: Family Edition, which Hannah introduces in the following 2010 Toy Fair video:

You don’t need to be well-read to play Liebrary, just really convincing, and the gameplay is quite easy to learn, so even children and novice players can jump right in. Up to six players move across the simple game board using wooden, book-shaped tokens called Liebrary Book Pawns. To move ahead, you must earn points: one for every vote your first line gets from the other players, and two if you vote for the book’s real first line. Three points go to the Liebrarian if nobody picks the right line. There are 350 book cards in the card catalog box, divided into five genre categories: Fiction/Non-Fiction, Classics, Mystery/Sci-Fi/Horror, Romance, and Children’s. A Category Die is rolled each round to determine which book category the book card will be drawn from. The Liebrarian then reads aloud the title, author, and plot on the book card (but not the first line!), and sets the sand timer. Players have two minutes to write down their first line — either a creative guess or, if you’re familiar with the book, the actual opening sentence. (The less seriously you take the game, the more fun it is!) The first lines are read out and each player votes for the line that they think is best, after which the Liebrarian reveals the true first line written on the book card. Some squares on the game board also require a random Liebrary Card to be drawn. There are ten Liebrary Cards, and, depending on the messages printed on them, such as “You got a book deal! Move ahead two spaces!” or “Writer’s block! Go back one space.”, will forward or hinder your gameplay. The winner of Liebrary is the first player to make it to the final square on the game board, marked “THE END”.

Liebrary supports 3 or more players, ages 12 and up. Game length: variable.

After playing Liebrary, be sure to check out Discovery Bay Games’ Locale, a geography-themed bluffing game featuring “Exotic Destinations and Hilarious Deceptions”:

The object of Locale is to make up a story by explaining as much as you can about a given location. (Do you know where Bird-in-Hand is? How about Timbuktu?) Bluff your way around the globe!

Daryl Hannah and Hilary Shepard have two more games coming soon, as well. Famous Last Lines, “The Party Game Where You Have the Last Line”, is a movie version of Liebrary, while Call It!, “A Quick-Thinking Game Where There’s a Perfect Call for Every Match!”, is a memory challenge card game.

Liebrary and its fellow games are certain to become playtime favourites… no lie.

Order now at Amazon.com:
Liebrary
Locale

Or order directly through the Discovery Bay Games website.

Liebrary, Locale, Famous Last Lines, and Call It! are distributed by Discovery Bay Games.

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Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XVIII

June 26, 2010 in Arts & Culture, Films, Merchandise, Multimedia, Music, Reviews, Television by Guest | No comments

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XVIII

Shout! Factory relights the Movie Sign for their upcoming DVD box set, Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XVIII.

The Mads of Deep 13 and the loyal yet helpless crew of the Satellite of Love — including Joel, Mike, Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot and Gypsy — cordially invite you to join them as they pay tribute to some of the finest-quality cheesefests this side of Gouda! The 18th laugh-filled edition of Mystery Science Theater 3000 promises to keep you as entertained as ever with four episodes never before available on DVD!

Lost Continent, Season 2:
A group of scientists and military men, their nitwit plane mechanic in tow, set off to find a failed rocket experiment that’s nose-dived into a land inexplicably populated by rubber dinosaur models. You’d think that in a movie featuring dinosaurs, they’d be the main attraction, but no; most of the movie focuses on eternal scenes of the expedition scaling a mountain (“Rock climbing, Joel, rock climbing!”) and slogging through the jungle, with barely a word of dialogue spoken. That the film is in black-and-white only adds to the tediousness of the rock climbing, to the point that the normally unflappable Joel, Tom Servo, and Crow lose their patience and snap at the film. The casting of Hugh Beaumont (Ward Cleaver, Leave It to Beaver) provides an endless supply of Wally and the Beav jokes, and Beaumont (played by Michael J. Nelson) even visits the Satellite of Love during one of the host segments to inform Joel and the ‘Bots that he’s actually one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, spoofing on the iconically wholesome 1950s TV Dad image he secured in his most famous role. Shout! Factory warns at the beginning of the film that the “episode was compiled from the best possible surviving master”, so there are quite a few distracting image and sound flaws, but none bad enough to ruin the viewing experience. The bonus features on this disc are a new introduction by Frank Conniff (“TV’s Frank”), and the film’s original theatrical trailer.

Crash of the Moons, Season 4:
This episode opens with the B&W short General Hospital, the final entry in a three-part riff of the soap opera’s 1963 debut season. Mocking soap operas is almost too easy for Joel and the ‘Bots, who wring General Hospital for every drop of melodrama it has, and mercilessly lay on the camp. The episode’s main feature, Crash of the Moons, is cobbled together from three episodes of the space opera TV series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger to create a feature length collection of 1950s sci-fi clichés. John Banner (Sgt. Schultz, Hogan’s Heroes) steals every scene he’s in as the overly chipper, English-mangling ruler of one of the two doomed moons, and is the target of much good-natured ribbing inside and outside of the Satellite of Love’s theatre. One host segment is dedicated to the promotion of “Bannergrams”, and in the closing segment Bavarro (played by Michael J. Nelson) appears on the SOL’s viewscreen but is quickly redirected to Deep 13 to annoy the Mads with his cheerfulness. Crow and Tom Servo also have a musical number, “The Gypsy Moons”, in which they serenade Gypsy until the escalating competition gets completely out of hand. The bonus feature on this disc is the Crash of the Moons Original Mystery Science Theater Hour Wraps, a Biography-style film intro and wrap-up with host “Jack Perkins” (played by Michael J. Nelson).

The Beast of Yucca Flats, Season 6:
The main feature is preceded by two short films — Money Talks resurrects Benjamin Franklin’s shadow to lecture a teenage boy about managing his 1950s-era budget, while industrial video Progress Island, U.S.A. unenticingly hawks Puerto Rico to potential investors in 1973. In The Beast of Yucca Flats, fan-favourite B-movie star Tor Johnson (Plan 9 from Outer Space) plays a Russian scientist who flees his would-be assassins right onto a military test site, an atomic blast mutating him into a lumbering killing machine. The film, gloomily narrated by director Coleman Francis, is largely silent, leaving plenty of dead space for Mike and crew to fill with riffs. The bonus features on this disc are No Dialogue Necessary: Making an “Off-Camera Masterpiece”, a featurette that examines the making of The Beast of Yucca Flats, done in a style that mimics the film and guest-starring Frank Conniff; Coleman Francis: The Cinematic Poet of Parking, a retrospective look at the director and his filmmaking process; the original theatrical trailer for The Beast of Yucca Flats; and a stills gallery.

Jack Frost, Season 8:
In this trippy Russian/Finnish fairy tale, Ivan, a narcissistic young man with a blonde bowl cut, and the unfortunately named Nastenka, Russia’s answer to Cinderella, find true love despite Ivan being briefly turned into a werebear by Father Mushroom and Nastenka accidentally getting frozen solid by Jack Frost. Along the way to their happily-ever-after, they also encounter the inept witch Baba Yaga, a flying house, menacing trees, a pig transformed into a sled, and a band of unsavoury dwarves. Jack Frost borrows its palette of supersaturated colours from The Wizard of Oz — overcompensating for the lack of colour in the other three episodes of Volume XVIII — which just increases the film’s surreality. The snowballing weirdness makes Mike’s performance as the Lord of the Dance, and an appearance by Yakov Smirnoff (played by MST3K prop master Patrick Brantseg) on the Satellite of Love, seem normal by comparison. The bonus feature on this disc is a new introduction by Kevin Murphy (“Tom Servo”).

Steve Vance continues to illustrate the film poster style covers of the slimline DVD cases, copies of which are included in each MST3K box set as exclusive mini-posters. Their campy, retro comic book design perfectly fits the tone of the cheesy movies, and the easy-to-frame prints are ideal MSTie decor. The discs’ animated menus, always of exceptional quality, have practically become a bonus feature in their own right. Sound clips from the movies are cleverly edited together to create new scenes of interaction between Crow and Tom Servo, the vignettes serving as previews of the films they accompany.

Shout! Factory has obviously been listening to fan suggestions, as Volume XVIII is another solid set of most-wanted episodes. If you’d like to help keep the hits coming, be sure to e-mail Shout! Factory or post on their Cult Faves message board.

Pre-order at Amazon.com:
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XVIII (Canada)
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XVIII (US)

Or order directly through the Shout! Factory website.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 is distributed by Shout! Factory. For more Mystery Science Theater 3000 information, please visit The Official Mystery Science Theater 3000 Website and Satellite News: The Official Mystery Science Theater 3000 Fan Site.

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J!NX’s “Buffy Staked Edward” Hoodie

June 15, 2010 in Arts & Culture, Books & Writing, Films, Merchandise, Multimedia, Reviews, Television by Guest | No comments

Tired of sparkly vampires? Are you on Team Buffy, as opposed to Team Edward or Team Jacob? J!NX now makes it possible to express both sentiments on one article of clothing. When you’re out hunting vampires, you’ll definitely want this fashion statement in your arsenal. That way, your immortal enemies will know exactly where you stand on the issue of Buffy vs. Twilight.

"Buffy Staked Edward" Hoodie

The Buffy Staked Edward Hoodie began life as a hugely popular T-Shirt and Women’s Tee, both of which are still available in the J!NX Shop. Since Vampire Slayers are traditionally female, there’s also a smaller Women’s Hoodie, cut to be more form-fitting than its male counterpart.

Thick enough to deflect the marble chill of a shirtless vampire, with a lined hood for extra warmth, the Buffy Staked Edward hoodie will keep you protected as you search the forest for Cullens to stake. Its sturdy, double-stitched seams will survive multiple maulings by Twihards seeking vengeance on behalf of their beloved Edward — if you wear this item in public, especially near movie theatres showing Eclipse, then durability is an important selling point — and the roomy kangaroo pocket provides a perfect place to conceal Mr. Pointy. Just be sure to concentrate on hiding your thoughts so Edward doesn’t read your mind and spoil your special “surprise” for him.

Sparkly vampires are unnatural. You know it; Buffy knows it. The world would be a better place if archetypes were respected and the Twilight saga came to a quicker demise, concluding “…And Then Buffy Staked Edward. The End”. Sorry, Bella. It looks like your choice between Edward and Jacob just got a lot easier.

For ladies who’d like to add a hidden touch of sexiness to their vampire butt-kicking ensemble, J!NX offers pairs of novelty underwear in matching black…

"Speak Friend and Enter" Boy Brief Panties

Remember when Cameron Diaz drove the fanboys wild in Charlie’s Angels by dancing in front of her bedroom mirror in a pair of Spider-Man Underoos? J!NX’s Speak Friend and Enter Boy Brief Panties raise the nerdiness level a few more notches by featuring a quote from The Lord of the Rings. The Underoo-style briefs are trimmed in white, a delicate thread of feminine pink running through the waistband elastic, with “speak friend and enter” written in an Elvish font across the front, a context that gives Gandalf’s famous words of advice a much naughtier meaning. Password indeed!

"Follow the Rabbit" Hot-short Panties

Even less subtle than the Tolkien undies are the Follow the Rabbit Hot-short Panties, inspired by The Matrix. If you’re not a Matrix fan, but still love Alice in Wonderland, then feel free to interpret “Follow the White Rabbit…” as a direct reference to Alice instead. Either way, these black short shorts are soft and flattering to female curves. (J!NX’s underwear tends to fit small, so you may need to order up a size.) Plus, the bunny illustration printed on the hip in white ink is cute, unless you’re Buffy‘s Anya — then it’s more terrifying than vampires.

Order directly through the J!NX website.

The Buffy Staked Edward T-Shirt and Hoodie, Speak Friend and Enter Boy Brief Panties, and Follow the Rabbit Hot-short Panties are distributed by J!NX.

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“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” Blu-ray

June 10, 2010 in Films, Merchandise, Multimedia, Reviews, Web Series by Guest | No comments

"Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" Blu-ray

If you’ve already watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog in its online and DVD incarnations, you now have a third option: Blu-ray.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog was such a huge viral hit that it went on to win an Emmy Award, despite having never actually aired on television, a feat that assured it was only a matter of time until Dr. Horrible earned Blu-ray treatment. A Hugo Awards nomination and a win at the 2009 People’s Choice Awards surely helped fast-track the title to the Blu-ray list, as well.

For those who haven’t already memorized Joss Whedon’s Internet spectacular, here’s a recap:

Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) stars as Billy, A.K.A. Dr. Horrible, a budding supervillain whose plans for world domination continually go awry. His two goals: getting accepted into the Evil League of Evil, and working up the guts to speak to his laundromat crush Penny, played by Felicia Day (The Guild). The only thing standing in his way is Captain Hammer, Billy’s superhero archnemesis played by Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle). With one big score, Billy could get into the E.L.E. and earn the respect of Penny, but only if he can keep her away from the dashing Captain Hammer.

The Blu-ray’s special features are the same as those included on the standard-definition DVD. Some may seem new, but they’re actually the hidden bonuses from the standard DVD’s Easter Egg Hunt, now made much easier to find and access. If a 42-minute movie seems a bit skimpy to warrant buying a Blu-ray disc, then over 90 minutes of bonus material and multiple viewing options should change your mind:

  • Commentaries/Special Version
    • Watch Commentary! The Musical — in this first-of-its-kind, musical meta-commentary, the cast and creators ignore what’s happening on the screen to sing 42 minutes of all-new catchy tunes: “Commentary!” by Company; “Strike” by Company; “Ten-Dollar Solo” by Stacy Shirk (as Groupie #2), Neil Patrick Harris; “Better (Than Neil)” by Nathan Fillion; “It’s All About the Art” by Felicia Day; “Zack’s Flavor” by Zack Whedon, female backups, Joss Whedon; “Nobody Wants to Be Moist” by Simon Helberg (as Moist); “Ninja Ropes” by Jed Whedon, Neil Patrick Harris; “All About Me” by Extras; “Nobody’s Asian in the Movies” by Maurissa Tancharoen; “Heart (Broken)” by Joss Whedon, backups (Jed Whedon, Zack Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen); “Neil’s Turn” by Neil Patrick Harris; “Commentary! (Reprise)” by Company; and, “Steve’s Song” by Steve Berg.
    • Watch Filmmaker’s Commentary — the regular commentary track, in which stars Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day, and Nathan Fillion, and writers Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Zack Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen discuss the movie.
    • Watch with No Commentary — self-explanatory.
  • The Making of Dr. Horrible Featurettes
    • “The Movie” — a behind-the-scenes look at the movie’s production process.
    • “The Music” — a behind-the-scenes look at the writing and recording of the songs.
    • “What Just Happened?” — the cast and creators share their reactions to Dr. Horrible‘s launch, the after-effects of the movie’s release, their popularity at San Diego Comic-Con, the overwhelming response from fans, and how Internet distribution has empowered artists.
    • Play All Three — again, self-explanatory.
  • ELE Application Videos — the top 10 video applications submitted by fans who sought to join the Evil League of Evil.
  • Outtakes — a blooper reel (originally an Easter egg on the standard DVD).
  • Behind-the-Scenes — rehearsal footage (originally an Easter egg on the standard DVD).
  • Evil League of Evil Interview — candid group interview with the members of the ELE (originally an Easter egg on the standard DVD).
  • Teaser Trailer — the Internet’s first glimpse of Dr. Horrible.
  • Set Up
    • Audio — 5.1 Surround Sound, Stereo 2.0.
    • Subtitles — English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese (no fake Wiccan this time, like the standard DVD had as part of its Easter Egg Hunt).

New to the Blu-ray is the completely redesigned menu. The standard DVD had a rather basic, amateur-looking menu, whereas the Blu-ray opens with a highly professional one that combines slick graphics and animation. The Dr. Horrible theme song plays in the background, and the selections pop up and expand in the style of a computer’s start menu. Scene selection is split into three sub-menus: Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3, which was how the original web series was divided. The picture and sound are crystal clear, as expected from an HD movie presented on Blu-ray, the colours popping in sharp contrast and minute details coming into focus for closer fan inspection.

The Dr. Horrible Blu-ray is the polar opposite of horrible, so if you already have the standard DVD, it’s well worth the upgrade to the Blu-ray edition.

Order now at Amazon.com:
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog Blu-ray (Canada)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog Blu-ray (US)

Or order directly through the New Video Group website.

The Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog DVD and Blu-ray are distributed by New Video Group.

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“Instructions” by Neil Gaiman

May 31, 2010 in Arts & Culture, Books & Writing, Multimedia, Reviews by Guest | No comments

Instructions

Neil Gaiman’s Instructions follows The Dangerous Alphabet, Blueberry Girl, and Crazy Hair as the author’s fourth children’s picture book in the span of two years. It’s also his second collaboration with artist Charles Vess in a little over half that time, with both Instructions and Blueberry Girl being adapted into children’s books from Gaiman’s popular poems of the same title. (Crazy Hair, illustrated by Dave McKean, was also based on a previously written poem, so this appears to be a new picture book trend for Gaiman.)

Instructions is essentially a list of survival tips for anyone who finds themself wandering through a fairy tale world, much like Alice tumbling into Wonderland, and covers all the common situations that have become beloved clichés of fairy tales. Written in 2000, Instructions was first published in the anthology A Wolf at the Door and appeared on the Endicott Studios website, where you can still read the full text. The poem is a natural fit for a children’s picture book, since its charm and humour is best appreciated when read aloud, as demonstrated in one of Gaiman’s live venue readings or his narration of the animated book trailer.

This is actually the second time that Instructions has been professionally illustrated. An exclusive poster version of the poem was included as a special feature in the 2007 book Brian Froud’s World of Faerie, with original art created by British artists Brian and Wendy Froud. Charles Vess’ artistic interpretation is just as fantastical, but better suited to a younger audience. While both styles draw heavily from traditional fairy tale designs, the Frouds’ art is more adult-oriented, with a darker palette and themes that may be slightly scary to children. Vess’ watercolours are light and whimsical, full of bright colours and fun hidden references. Children and adults alike will delight in spotting archetypal characters, such as Red Riding Hood and the Three Billy Goats Gruff, who make subtle appearances in many of the backgrounds. In Blueberry Girl, the main character’s age and race was depicted differently on each page, which made her relatable to a wide spectrum of readers. Vess goes a step further in Instructions, choosing to portray the protagonist as an anthropomorphised fox instead of human, a sort of Puss in Boots who transcends age, nationality, and even gender. Besides serving as a readily accessible stand-in for anyone who picks up the book, the classic animal guide gives the paintings a timeless feel, like they were reprints from lavish old volumes of fairy stories rather than modern works.

Instructions is a much smaller picture book than Blueberry Girl, which is handy, because it’s the sort of book you’ll want to carry everywhere, just in case you suddenly have need of the valuable advice it contains. Kirkus Reviews notes that the poem “could be instructions for a child, a writer, a newly minted adult or an elder,” with publisher HarperCollins adding that “its message of the value of courage, wit, and adventurousness makes it a perfect gift for anyone embarking on a journey, especially graduates of any age.”

Whether your travels take you through the otherworld or real world, be sure to read your Instructions and have a safe and wonderful journey!

Recommended Reading Level: All Ages.

Order now at Amazon.com:
Instructions (Canada)
Instructions (US)

Instructions is distributed by HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollinsCanada and HarperCollins Publishers. For more information on the book and its author, visit the Neil Gaiman website and its related website for young readers, Mouse Circus. Neil Gaiman may also be followed on Twitter.

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“RiffTrax Live: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza!” DVD

April 23, 2010 in Films, Merchandise, Music, Reviews by Guest | No comments

RiffTrax Live: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza!

It may seem seasonally inappropriate to be watching a Christmas DVD at this time of year, but RiffTrax has just released RiffTrax Live: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza!, the follow-up to their first live DVD, RiffTrax Live: Plan 9 from Outer Space.

The RiffTrax Live: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza! show was recorded in San Diego, California, on December 16, 2009, and included “Weird Al” Yankovic as its guest riffer. On the DVD case, “Weird Al” and Rifftrax regulars Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy invite you to join them “for a festive night of hilarious holiday comedy that is destined to become traditional Christmas viewing”.

What do ice-skating reindeer, pipe-smoking santas and a parade of aquatic champions have in common? You’ll see them all in the RiffTrax Live: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza! The stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 have a sackfull of delightful and demented shorts to riff live onstage. Some of the forgotten gems of Christmases past prove to be the perfect targets for the rapid-fire riffs of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. And if that wasn’t enough, they’re even joined by comedy legend “Weird Al” Yankovic for a musical short about the wonders of pork! It’s funnier than Ernest Saves Christmas and far less creepy than The Polar Express!

Skipping the host segments, non-RiffTrax-created videos, and musical performances that supplemented RiffTrax Live: Plan 9 from Outer Space‘s movie and pre-feature short film, Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza! opens with a brief introduction by Mike, Bill, and Kevin, then jumps directly into its line-up of riffable short films and commercials:

  • Christmas Toyshop (B&W) — On Christmas Eve, a boy and girl are visited by Santa, who tells them a bizarre story about a toyshop where the merchandise comes to life after the store closes for the night. The toys mindlessly sing and dance until a giant, villainously-dressed “spider-dog” kidnaps one of the dolls, in stereotypical Snidely Whiplash fashion, forcing her friends to take up arms (in the true spirit of holiday peace) to save her. The short begins as live action, switches to animation to tell Santa’s story, then reverts back to live action when the story is revealed to be a dream (or eggnog-fueled nightmare, depending on how you view it).
  • A Visit to Santa (Colour) — Two children express a desire, in badly dubbed, unintelligible dialogue, to visit Santa on Christmas Eve. The equally garbled Santa has one of his elves whisk the children to his castle, the interior of which looks more like a washed-out, 1970s basement rec room. A narrator then abruptly takes over Santa’s storytelling duties, describing Santa’s travels and activities around the world. After the tedious story, Santa unceremoniously dismisses the children and wishes the viewers a “Merry Christmas”.
  • Christmas Rhapsody (B&W) — Shot in the style of a nature documentary, this live action short follows the life cycle of a little tree that, after reciting a depressing litany of reasons why it’s so “small and of no account” in comparison to the surrounding trees, is predictably chosen by an undiscerning family as its Charlie Brown-esque Christmas tree. Despite waxing rhapsodic about the honour, the melancholy-voiced tree fails to ever achieve the “rhapsody” of the short’s title.
  • Three Magic Words (B&W) — Weird Al, a vegetarian, teams up with the RiffTrax guys to riff on an ode to the quality, freshness and flavour of pork. The short stars a trio of musical butchers who praise the virtues of pork in endless song as they attempt to help Mrs. Newlywed, possibly the dumbest housewife who ever lived, prepare a special meal. It’s not clear how this short qualifies as a holiday selection, unless Mrs. Newlywed’s dinner party is supposed to be a Christmas season get-together, but it’s still one of the funniest entries on the DVD.
  • Gaylord (B&W) — An old TV commercial for a walking toy dog is presented to Kevin as a Christmas gift from Mike and Bill, supposedly because it made them think of Kevin, much to Kevin’s indignation.
  • The Night Before Christmas (B&W) — The classic poem is retold, in a combination of live action and animation, by Santa, who foists his lame toys and cheesy acting on a pair of children whose father evidently inherited some DNA from the Three Stooges, minus the comedic talent.
  • Jimmy Jet! (B&W) — Bill receives his gift from Mike and Kevin, an overenthusiastic TV ad for a toy flight simulator.
  • A Christmas Dream (B&W) — A girl opens her gifts on Christmas morning, then, inexplicably, goes straight back to bed. Santa appears in spirit form to give her a moral-laden dream in which the old ragdoll she discarded comes to creepy life, via stop motion animation, to battle the girl’s new toys for her affection.
  • Sports (Colour) — It’s a “Parade of Aquatic Champions”, though the swim stars don’t seem to be very champion calibre, and many don’t actually swim on-screen. There’s no Christmas theme, either, other than Bill saying that the short is a holiday viewing tradition in his family. (Bill begins to sing a modified Christmas carol, another family tradition, but is quickly cut off by his co-riffers.)
  • Ding-A-Lings (Colour) — Mike’s gift from Bill and Kevin, an ad for a line of toy robots, is targeted to children but rife with unintentional innuendo.
  • Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Colour) — Rudolph’s screen debut, a poorly animated precursor to the beloved Christmas special that airs on TV every year, gets the biggest laughs of the DVD, particularly a scene between Santa and Rudolph that’s undermined by a naughty double meaning in what Santa says to the young male reindeer.

The performers are presented in small, individual boxes on the right side of the screen while they’re riffing, the same set-up used in the first RiffTrax Live DVD, except that on that DVD they appeared to the left of the screen. As noted in a review of RiffTrax Live: Plan 9 from Outer Space, the boxes only show up intermittently, and it would be preferable if the riffers were always in view. The primary attraction of a live performance is getting to see the entertainers do their thing, and the riffers’ physical reactions to what’s happening in the films really enhance their lines. (As a side note, fans of Doctor Who‘s Fourth Doctor may be distracted by the long, multicoloured striped scarf that Bill wears throughout the show.) A contest winner is announced during Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza!, but less intrusively than in the previous DVD. The winner’s two appearances are fairly brief and, rather than simply dropping the contest announcement into the middle of proceedings, it’s fully integrated into the show’s flow, with Kevin teasing the contest winner and making him a part of the act.

Red and green theatre curtains add festive flair to the menus, with Christmas music playing pleasantly on the main screen and part of the Scene Selections sub-menu. The single bonus on this DVD is a behind-the-scenes slideshow of photos set to an instrumental version of the Christmas carol “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear”. The images aren’t captioned, like in the other RiffTrax Live slideshow, but text isn’t really necessary for such self-explanatory pictures.

For anyone who enjoys MST3K and Cinematic Titanic‘s riffings of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, RiffTrax Live: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza! is a merry addition to your holiday DVD collection.

Order directly through the RiffTrax website.

RiffTrax Live: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza! and RiffTrax Live: Plan 9 from Outer Space are distributed by RiffTrax and Legend Films.

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The Complete Ouija Interviews

April 13, 2010 in Books & Writing, Comics, Reviews by Guest | No comments

The Complete Ouija Interviews

Chances are that you’ve played with a Ouija board at some point in your life, as part of a childhood slumber party, slightly inebriated college gathering, or Hallowe’en dare. Typical of the majority of spirit board sessions, the answers to your questions were probably disappointingly vague, a “yes” or “no” interspersed with a bunch of random gibberish.

In The Complete Ouija Interviews, author Sarah Becan shows how interesting conversations with the dead can be when you’re lucky enough to make contact with ghosts who have good communication skills. Even more compelling, Becan reveals, “The collected stories in this book all come from actual Ouija board sessions, which occurred during the three years that my brother Jeff lived and worked at a hostel on Nantucket Island.” Who needs an Interview with the Vampire when you can read interviews with real otherworldly spooks?

The Complete Ouija Interviews was originally published as a short series of handmade mini-comics:

Sample panels from the mini-comics are posted at each of the links above, and an excerpt from the Ouija Interview #1 mini-comic is also available to read online, serving as a preview of the Ouija Interviews.

Assisted by a 2009 Xeric Foundation Grant, the mini-comics were then collected into one volume by Becan’s Shortpants Press, “an independent small press from Chicago dedicated to making unique, interesting, and really cool minicomics, zines, prints and art books.”

At the beginning of The Complete Ouija Interviews is a foreword written by Becan’s brother, Jeff, in which he gives a brief history of the Ouija board and the time the Becan siblings spent on Nantucket, including a description of a Ouija board session that may convince some readers that the toy really is a conduit to the deceased. The four Ouija interviews then follow, in the order that they were published as mini-comics. In the first interview, we’re introduced to Theo, who was murdered after getting caught cheating on his wife with a woman he gleefully describes as having “big knockers”. Despite being an unrepentant womanizer, it’s hard to dislike the villain in this tragic romance, as he claims to have sincerely loved both women, and takes full responsibility for the transgressions that led to his untimely demise. Next, we meet Chip, a young, gay ghost who’s a smart aleck with a penchant for telling truly tasteless jokes. It’s difficult to tell whether anything Chip says is serious or truthful, especially when he claims to have been reincarnated as a strawberry, but he does reveal some potentially intriguing information about the afterlife. Chapter three features a conversation with an adorable little girl who was murdered when she was only ten years old. Becan and her brother David sat at the board during this session, and Naomi indulges in a bit of shameless adolescent flirtation with David, telling him that she loves him. Naomi’s story becomes less light-hearted, though, when she’s asked about the identity of her murderer, and her answers imply that she was killed by a pedophile who was known to her and her friend. The fourth installment in the Ouija tales, the longest and most in-depth of the interviews, takes up about a third of the book, and is also the darkest and saddest of Becan’s stories. The brother and two sisters interviewed were murdered by their father, who killed their mother, as well. As if that weren’t horrifying enough, it slowly becomes clear, to the reader’s discomfort, that murder wasn’t the only crime committed against one of the sisters. It’s Agatha’s story that will haunt readers most, long after the final page of the book is read.

In addition to the main stories, the book includes a half dozen mini-interviews, bonus material brand new to The Complete Ouija Interviews. Scattered throughout the compilation, these vignettes spotlight ghosts who pop in to offer brief, yet poignant, comments or words of advice to the living.

The Complete Ouija Interviews is a very professional-looking independent publication, the perfect-bound volume covered in a heavily textured feltweave paper that feels hand-made and is embossed on the front with an image of Theo. While it resembles, in size, the cute novelty gift editions sold as impulse items at bookstores, The Complete Ouija Interviews is distinguished by its elegant sepia-toned art and meaningful content. The presentation is deceptively simple, but effective: Pages consist of single panels with narrow caption boxes containing Becan’s interview questions running unobtrusively across the top. The interviewees float against a plain background that approximates a Ouija board with the numbers and letters wiped off, their answers printed in traditional comic strip speech balloons. Like in Peanuts, the characters manage to display a remarkable range of expressions and emotions with very few drawn lines. The minimalist ghosts, using slight head tilts and subtle eye and mouth shifts, are far more expressive than the fully rendered superhero figures found in big-name comic books.

If you’re looking for a comic that will truly touch your heart, then passing over The Complete Ouija Interviews would be a grave mistake, since reading it is sure to lift your spirits.

Recommended Reading Level: Young Adult and up (12+) for implied violence, adult themes, sexual content, and crude bodily humour.

Order directly through the Shortpants Press website, or check with your local comic book store.

The Complete Ouija Interviews is distributed by Shortpants Press. For more information on the book and its author, visit jakze.com. Shortpants Press may also be followed on Twitter.

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The Slanket

April 9, 2010 in Arts & Culture, Lifestyle, Merchandise, Multimedia, Reviews by Guest | 1 comment

The Slanket, Walk the Slank

Nearly everyone has heard of the Snuggie Cult by now, but “The Original Fleece Blanket with Sleeves!” was actually The Slanket. Slanket founder Gary Clegg came up with the idea in 1998 as he huddled in his freezing dorm room, bundled up in a sleeping bag with an arm hole ripped in it. His mother sewed the Slanket prototype soon after. Multiplying quickly as the popularity of its design spread, the innovative sleeved blanket soon turned into a pop culture phenomenon. A description on the packaging explains why it’s become an inevitable object of desire for geeks: “Reading, channel surfing, snacking, working on the computer, or playing video games; We’ve got you covered! Here at the warm world of Slanket, we take comfort Seriously!”

While the Snuggie only offers a handful of styles, The Slanket comes in a dazzling variety of colours and patterns. Plus, to make choosing a colour even more interesting, each Slanket has a colour-themed story associated with it. For example, the Moss Green Slanket is paired up with cryptozoology:

The cool temperate rain forests of the Pacific Northwest are home to the legendary Sasquatch, aka Bigfoot. Some speculate that Sasquatch is really the ancient ape, Gigantopithecus blacki. Either way we know one thing, when the beast kicks back after a night of roaming the lush forest, he snuggles in with a Moss Green Slanket. Comfort for every creature.

Some Slankets have punny, trademarked names, as well, like the Royale with Sleeves, a light purple robe fit for a fairy princess to lounge in:

Hear ye, hear ye! By proclamation of the Grand Wizard of Blankets, we hereby present our most magical Slanket to date. If you are traveling to exotic lands, fighting dragons, or rocketing around the galaxy, you’ll want to have your Royale with Sleeves Slanket. Protection against chills, monsters and laser beams! Plus, your hands are free, so piloting your space craft and waving your wand is easy. Space craft and wand not included. Please be a responsible adventurer and remember to share any ancient stock piles of gold with the less fortunate back home.

Walk the Slank, the first Slanket print produced, combines geek-chic black with a pirate theme for extra geek points:

Well this is a fine mess, a cutlass at my back prodding me out beyond the edge of the gunwale, and the swirling ocean below. If only my blunderbuss hadn’t misfired in the humid South China sea air… It wasn’t the water I feared, but the man eating sharks that followed the ship, feeding on the garbage thrown overboard, in this case, likely to be me. If I get out of this, I’ll never forget the mark on their flag… Walk the Slank.

One touch of The Slanket lets you know that this luxurious sleeved blanket is far superior to all of its imitators and cheap knock-offs. It’s made of a thick, super-soft fleece whose 100% polyester microfibers will survive multiple trips through the washing machine without pilling or getting that ratty look that fleece often does when it’s repeatedly washed. Stitching along the hems and seams is flawless, and durable enough to guarantee many years of use. The Slanket is also oversized to keep every inch of you warm, its overflow of material stretching well past your toes; you’ll start to feel the fleece’s cocooning warmth the moment you wrap up in it. (Slankets don’t have pockets for your hands, like the Snuggie Deluxe, but who really needs pockets on a blanket anyway?) The Slanket is so warm, in fact, that you can earn Eco-Geek points by turning the heat down or completely off while wearing it, saving money on your heating bill that could be better spent on things like DVDs and video games. Just one warning: when others see how cozy you are in your Slanket, they’ll immediately covet it, so it’s best to leave spares lying around to avoid having your own Slanket filched.

In addition to the standard Slanket, there’s a Kids Slanket for children and adults under five feet tall, a Travel Slanket that’s cut shorter than the regular 60″ x 95″ Slanket so you can wear it in public without tripping over the hem, and a double-occupancy Siamese Slanket. The Siamese Slanket seems to defeat the purpose of a blanket created for ease of mobility, but, if you’re snuggled up with the right person, it offers an obvious alternative benefit.

The Slanket isn’t all about self-centered creature comfort, though. Dedicated to humanitarian causes, the company is “Spreading the Warmth” by donating a portion of sales to charitable organizations. Currently, these include the H2O Africa Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. It’s a corporate attitude that Clegg sums up in these terms:

Everyone behind the The Slanket is on the same level when it comes to life. Besides creating a product to make people comfortable and warm, our life goals are not to accumulate mansions, SUV’s, expensive watches and closets just for shoes. What we want in life is to travel the world and experience all its cultures while representing humanity positively. Whether surfing in Costa Rica, snowboarding in Austria, or studying language in South America and China, we love to spread our sleeves and let them flap in the wind, giving back in the process.

In case that doesn’t give you sufficient warm fuzzies, here’s the note that’s attached to shipping receipts:

Thank You for Your Slanket Order!

We value you as a customer and appreciate your business very much.

You are now part of the coalition of comfort. Our Slanket army has one top priority, to spread the warmth. Now that you have your Slanket sit back, relax, and enjoy it!

I hope you love yours as much as I love mine.
– Gary

A tag sewn on the right sleeve of The Slanket proclaims it “The Best Blanket Ever”, and it’s not an empty boast. After getting a Slanket, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without one.

Order directly through The Slanket website.

The Slanket is distributed by The Slanket and its international affiliates. For all the latest news and special offers, follow The Slanket on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, and sign up for their newsletter.

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