The Only Map You Will Need Of The MoCCA Fest 2009 Floor.

DESIGN FETISH: Alan Clarke’s 2012 Olympics Posters

Designer Alan Clarke’s proposed event-specific posters for the upcoming Olympic Games are minimal pieces that display how we process even the most stripped-down and abstract into a coherent image . You can view them all on his website.

GO READ THIS: Scott Morse’s THE SHOGUNAUT

Click now go go go go!

THE RACK: Not Safe For Work

LYDIA: Maniac Braniac Winning The Game

So, that’s it! The first month of Lydia is a wrap! Come back on June 1 for more!

This is an odd little ad on Robot 6.

So, I’m reading Robot 6 this morning and the above ad catches my eye. Alongside The Boys and Project Superpowers, Dynamite Entertainment publishes a fair amount of licensed work and material based on established IP, stuff like Battlestar Galactica and the new Sherlock Holmes comic. One of the works it doesn’t have the license to, however, is Star Trek, which is currently being handled by IDW, and as I’ve discussed before, you shouldn’t advertise what’s not yours.

So why does this ad feature Jim Kirk and Spock with a big Dynamite Entertainment logo? Because Dynamic Forces is running a collector’s show featuring Star Trek on QVC a week in the past¹.

The relationship between Dynamite Entertainment (who makes comic books) and its parent company Dynamic Forces (offering collectible comic books and tchochkes) is fairly well known, but this is just plain confusing to the audience. I clicked on the ad because I wondered if Dynamite had gotten a license to NuTrek while IDW kept the older material, similar to way that Malibu and DC each published DS9 and TNG comics in the 90s, not because I was interested in getting a Vulcan Science Academy Spork² set, autographed by Zachary Quinto. This is just an embarrassing, sloppy mistake that shouldn’t have gotten as far as it did. While I’ve got no doubt that the companies share marketing resources, this should have been caught immediately, not by a third party when it was on a major blog a week after the fact.

¹ With time travel being essential to the plot of the new Star Trek movie, I’m going to assume this was intentional.

²The Spork is the most logical of eating utensils and its name honors Surak, so stop making that face.

No, I am not going to look in “Casual Encounters,” Master Bruce.

Click to view Blockbuster-Sized!

THE RACK: No Easy Way Out

The Tony DeVito Saga reaches its penultimate moment.

DESIGN FETISH: Jorge Colombo’s iPhone Paintings

Jorge Colombo’s iPhone paintings and sketches earned him a New Yorker cover. Fantastic.

WIN THIS: A Galactus Mighty Mugg Courtesy of BeaucoupKevin(dot)com!

Yes, it’s another giveaway, right on the heels of the Potter’s Field contest! This time, though. we’re making it a challenge! Inspired by the Steve Lieber “Hawkeye So Poor” Twitter Extravaganza, I’m asking you to finish this sentence: Galactus so hungry, one time he… in the comments below.

My favorite (yes, you’re subject to my own capricious whims) will get their very own Galactus Mighty Mugg. This contest will run until Midnight EDT on Saturday May 29. (That means that Sunday, 12:01 AM is too late, suckers.)

LYDIA: Cult Of Snap

Lydia goes further down the corporate rabbit-hole.

THE RACK: Staff Picks for the Week of May 29, 2009

What’s this? A new banner? And perhaps a new look for your favorite comic strip about a comics shop? Why don’t you go look for yourself, eh?

DESIGN FETISH: Latte Art

When I talk about design with people (yes this happens, shut up,) one of the things I emphasize is how much I enjoy design that positively impacts people in their day to day lives in a way that they don’t quite notice until it’s pointed out. Good signage and communication are two things that resonate with me in this fashion, as are architecture and furniture, but what I can really get behind is something like this:

This person has made a nice playlist of latte art videos. So much fun!

I love absolutely everything about this splash page from Gold Key’s STAR TREK #58.

LYDIA: Ted Turner would be proud.

Lydia finds out that when you open your big fat mouth at a company meeting, there are surprising consequences.

THE RACK: Morning in the Valley

If you thought Tony DeVito was a dick before, you’ll be amazed to see that he was just getting warmed up.

My site is back and we’ve got CONTEST WINNERS, people!

So, that outage is over now, I guess? The working theory is that we ran into a known issue with wp-cron.php, a scheduler that Wordpress uses to talk to servers so there was a lot of advanced UNIX stuff being used that just passes over my head like a pteradon. Thankfully it happened on a holiday so you, the teeming masses, weren’t left completely without inane ramblings and poorly photochopped comic book panels.

But that’s not why you’re here, is it? You want to know if you got yourself some fancy comic books, right?

Something that I realized I didn’t do with the post announcing the Potter’s Field contest is to let you all know that there were actually three copies of Mark Waid and Paul Azaceta’s book up for grabs. Silly me! Anyway, there were over 300 entries from around the world, but the random number generator at Random.org made sussing them out pretty simple. The winners are as follows: KT Wiegman of Los Angeles; Jeff Metzner from Exton, PA; Chicago’s own John Pontoon! I’ve forwarded your contact information to Chip Mosher at BOOM! and you can expect to see something in the mail in the very near future, gang!

We may have another contest as early as tomorrow, so come back soon, y’hear?

It’s sort of egotistical to wear your own medallion, isn’t it?

And then there’s this, for which I apologize:

(At least it’s not as blasphemous towards PE as this.)

DESIGN FETISH: Movie Titles By Saul Bass

ALSO PICTURED: Rice Cooker, Mugs, Toaster Oven, Tacky Countertop.

Debuting at MoCCAFest 2009.

More details here.