THE RACK: A Game Of You

DESIGN FETISH: Mike Monteiro’s Paintings

You can get your hands on the original paintings by clicking above, or check out reasonably-priced prints from 20×200.

Happy 92nd Birthday, Jack Kirby

Thank you for: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Amazing Adventures, The Avengers, Black Panther, Captain America Comics, Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers, Challengers of The Unknown, a slough of crime comics, Destroyer Duck, Devil Dinosaur,  Fantastic Four, Forever People, Green Arrow, The Incredible Hulk, Journey Into Mystery, Justice, Inc, Kamandi, Machine Man, Mister Miracle, The New Gods, O.M.A.C., inventing romance comics, Sgt Fury And His Howling Commandos, Silver Star, Strange Tales, Strange Worlds, Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish, The  Newsboy Legion, The Demon, The Eternals, The Inhumans, The Losers, The Mighty Thor, The Sandman, World of Fantasy, The X-Men and so, so much more.

See Also: Ten Reasons Fantastic Four #51 Is My Favorite Comic Book

DESIGN FETISH: Greaseball, 1943

There is nothing I don’t love about this picture from 1943. Go look at it at a proper size over at Shorpy.

Coming Soon: She Died In Terrebonne

TJ Kirsch and I have a new comic strip starting in a couple of weeks. Go, bookmark, subscribe, etc.

J. Jonah Jameson by Jon Adams

I asked Truth Serum‘s Jon Adams for a Jonah. What I got back was something so beautiful, it’s not made for this world.

DESIGN FETISH: The NASA “Meatball”

STARWARIOUS BASTERDS

I normally put links on Twitter, but I needed a post today, so…

• Michael Kupperman has some magazines for you to look at.
• Everything Is Terrible ruins art and sex simultaneously.
• Are you reading Rob and Elliot? You should be.
• The Retroist has a nice, “I Love The 70s” redesign going on, but without people who weren’t around in the 70s telling you how wacky they were!
• Design Observer has a really interesting post about a diplomatic MMORPG.
• One of my favorite DJs, Jaguar Skills has a blog where he posts his mixes. They’re all on MediaFire and ZShare and those other horrible file-storage sites, but his cut-ups are worth it.
• Finally, Michael And Michael have an interview. I’ve not kept up with this show like I should, but Showalter and Black never not make me laugh.

THE RACK: The Devil You Know

DESIGN FETISH: Georgia Coffee

Japanese canned/botted coffees usually have good design, but this is like something that Mark Farrow’s studio put out. The way they use open space, the minimal type that places importance on what’s inside, the fact that it’s full of delicious, sweet coffee…man.

INGLOURIOUS MARVELS

THE RACK: Staff Picks for the Week of August 26, 2009

DESIGN FETISH: 8-Bit Trip

Just when I’m convinced 8-bit art is done, someone goes and does the most obvious thing with Legos and I fall in love all over again.

WHAT I’VE BEEN WATCHING: Inglourious Basterds

I want everyone who sees it to be as surprised as I was, so I’m just going to keep it brief: it ranks just below Jackie Brown as my favorite Quentin Tarantino movie, a great meditation on the power of cinema. With dialogue and performances that are honed to a fine polish buoying a plot that’s much greater than the marketing campaign indicates, Basterds is funny, smart, and willing to defy expectations left and right.

THE RACK: Lonely At The Top

Because there’s never a wrong time to make a RoboCop video post.

DESIGN FETISH: Man’s World, August 1968

Kevin Versus Star Trek: Part 1

If you enjoy Star Trek but, like me, tend to be vague on the finer points of continuity and anything that doesn’t feature James T Kirk, Memory Alpha is the site you’re looking for. It’s a nerd-wiki with pretty high standards, offering up insights into episodes, “factual” bits about the Star Trek universe and, of course, ridiculous shit that comes about when you’ve got an obsessive-compulsive audience and 40 years of television and cinematic minutiae to cover in extreme detail. I thought I’d do us all a favor and mimic The Internet’s Own Chris Sims and dive into their fetid swamps (OK, I’m cicking the “random entry” link) and see what we can pull out for examination.

First up: two minor characters and an episode!

KURROS

First Appearance: “Think Tank,” Voyager

Yes, that’s Jason Alexander, playing a vagina-skulled alien who worked for a pan-galactic problem-solving consultancy known as The Think Tank.  They zipped around to and fro, taking care of treaties and ensuring peace was to be had in as many places as possible, as long as they got paid, sort of like Blackwater without the whole shooting-civilians-in-the-face schtick.  The plot of “Think Tank” revolves around Kurros wanting compensation from the crew of Voyager after helping them handle a sticky situation, demanding payment in the form the ship’s quantum starslip drive, one of Neelix’s recipes, Chakotay’s Ace McCloud toy, and…Seven of Nine.

Of course Space George Constanza asked for the zeppelin-breasted robot chick.

Voyager happily acquiesced, causing the show’s abrupt downward spiral and cancellation three weeks later.  (Please note that this did not really happen.  Voyager limped along for two more seasons, culminating in a finale that I don’t remember anything from outside of the re-appearance of Alice Krige’s creepy head-and-cleavage-with-no-body Borg Queen.)

RAY TSING TAO

First Appearance: “And The Children Shall Lead,” the good Star Trek

Ray was part of a group of children that survived the mass suicide that swept the Federation’s colony on Triacus, following the teachings and demands of a malicious space ghost (no, not that one) they named Angel.  This perfectly idiotic plot point occurs because kids are stupid and have never seen an episode of Star Trek. Guess what?  They get rid of the creature (which, naturally, feeds off their devotion) thanks to some emoting on the part of William Shatner.  Heir to a beer fortune, Ray was a favorite guest on the Starship Enterprise, particularly in the Engineering, Medical, and Getting Crazy Fucked Up departments.

“A PIECE OF THE ACTION”

Original Air Date: January 12, 1968

Everything you need to know about this episode is contained in this image:

THE RACK: Freeway