Hello El Moochadores! Once again Titan Books is reaching back into geek history by publishing a wonderful collection of science fiction comics by comic book legends Joe Simon and Jack Kirby! Appropriately titled The Simon and Kirby Library – Science Fiction, this collection of over 300 pages of comics harkens back to a time before Simon and Kirby created the iconic Captain America and goes forward through about twenty years of fantastic stories. Included in the collection are some of Simon and Kirby’s Blue Bolt series of comics as well as their Solar Legion which is where the two first began making comics together.

Though I wasn’t as keen on the Blue Bolt stories (sorry, but they really seemed too much of a Flash Gordon rip off) I very much enjoyed the many “one off” stories that come up later on in the book. In the 1950′s Kirby’s art style improved by leaps and bounds and I especially enjoyed the pairs work on comics like Today I am A–?, or The Chair, which had a (if not goofy) almost The Twilight Zone like appeal. These stories also highlight the 1950 -60′s era space race where in comics like The Thing on Sputnik 4 and Lunar Trap explored the potential for great adventures in outer space! It’s also where we begin to see the formation of The Kirby Krackle which is a wonderful illustrative device!

Science Fiction hit book stores last week and can also be found online at the Titan Books Website. Also look forward to other Simon and Kirby collections like Super Heroes and Crime! I’ve posted a few sample images from the book below, but you’re going to want to see more. Go buy the book!

Hey El Moochadores! In my ongoing exploration of the wonderful world of online comics I just recently came across Ellie on Planet X! Now keep in mind, I have no idea if a Web comic is already popular or not, all I know is what I like and I really like this beautifully illustrated comic about a lone little robot sent millions of miles away from Earth to explore the mysterious Planet X! Created by Michigan based artist/ graphic designer, James Anderson, Ellie is chuck full of adorable characters and funny story lines that reminded me of Bill Watterson’s work on Calvin and Hobbes. That’s not to say Anderson doesn’t have his own unique style and that his little girl robot and her cartoon world aren’t dynamically illustrated in their own unique way, because he does and they do! I included the first three strips to the comic below, but be sure to click the link above to follow new strips every Monday and Thursday!

Enjoy!

Hey El Moochadores! In the past we’ve posted about some of the amazing art work done by Deviant artist Kit-Kit-Kit, and we’re still impressed by his level of talent. Check out the Princess Leia illustration above entitled “Here Goes!” Damn, I love me a tough-blaster swinging-Leia!

Hey El Moochadores! Last month Titan Books released a new novel that delves deeper into the mysterious and exciting world created by FOX’s cult favorite show, Fringe! Written by Christa Faust, Fringe: The Zodiac Paradox takes us back to a time when professors Walter Bishop and William Bell were professional partners working for MIT. Here’s the books synopsis:

In 1971 university students Walter Bishop and William Bell use an exotic chemical compound to link their subconscious minds. Unexpectedly, they open a rip in space through which comes a menace unlike any our world has ever seen – The Zodiac Killer. His singular goal is death, and it falls to Bishop, Bell, and Nina Sharp to stop him.

The Zodiac Paradox is one of three novels Faust is writing that covers the history behind the televisions series principal characters. Though I can’t say I’m a fan of the show, I have seen several of the episodes and I very much enjoyed reading about a young Bishop and Bell who weren’t afraid to experiment with perception altering drugs. Faust’s use of hallucinogens to create portals to other worlds has an almost Lovecraft like vibe and setting the adventure back in the early 1970′s added to the stories drug addled fun.

I’m not sure how I feel about the use of the Zodiac Killer as the main villain for this story. The real life version of the murderer, and what he did to people, is horrific enough. Despite the books title I feel this story could have had any sort of completely fictional monster and didn’t need to try and meld a serialized fiction with real life history. I also felt that having the murderer gain additional, radioactive, powers wasn’t needed. I know this story is on the level of the X-Files, and other spooky procedurals popular on network television, but they pulled a psycho through a frigg’n portal they created with their acid induced minds! For stories that want to wow people with the fantastic and unknown, that’s good enough! I feel that giving the killer an additional ability to melt faces off people pushes the story into a more ridiculous realm and it lost a chance to be truly terrifying. Plus, The character of Allan (the Zodiac Killer) was a great combination of creepy and deadly on his own before gaining a fist full of gamma radiation.

That being my only complaints for the story, I would very much recommend this book. Faust has a knack for characters, dialogue, and (regardless of how I felt about the villain) kept the story fun. Which is the most important element to any novel I read. It has to be fun!

So that’s it for this book review El Moochadores. Make sure to go get your copy of Fringe: The Zodiac Paradox at your local book retailer or online at Titan books! Then come back here and share with me your thoughts on altered states and bad trips!

Good morning El Moochadores! Okay, I found these a few days ago and accidentally lost the original source page, so… Via some geek website (or blog) check out these very cool re-imaginings of modern video games as Little Golden Book covers by artist Joey Spiotto (aka Joebot)! Here’s what Spiotto had to say about the project on his blog:

I recently have been really into the artwork of the classic Little Golden Books. There’s something very charming about their simplicity, and yet they are some of the books that I remember most from my early childhood. As the sun sets on this current generation of video games, I’ve been thinking about some of the classic games that people will still (hopefully) point to years from now and hold them up as games that made a difference, and possibly, for some child out there, Portal or Skyrim will be a memory from their early childhood.

Okay, so I don’t have kids (and that’s probably a good thing) but had I had kids they would totally be getting a bedside reading from the Cake is a Lie! Excellent work Joebot! Click the links above to see more of his excellent work!

Holy crap! It’s another exciting edition of the Atomic Moocast! On this episode, Chudd and I wander through the World of Warcraft and take full advantage of their free to play version of the game! Later; comic maker Jason Lenox joins us to tell us all about his latest anthology of illustrative stories! (Ugli Studios Presents #2) and Kickstarter project! So here we go folks! This is your chance to enjoy low budget, internet radio, at it’s best! Go (right now) and grab that cool soda from the fridge! Then amble over to that comfy (always warm) spot and start listening to the best damn podcast your friends don’t know about!

Enjoy!

Note: because of technical issues (not knowing what I’m doing is a tech issue, right?) part of the interview was lost, but we hope you enjoy what’s there!

Free music used by the Atomic Moo cast is royalty free and was created and composed by Kevin MacLeod and can be found at Incompetech.com. Please support this site!

Songs used:

• Kool Katz
• Wah Game loop
• As I Figure

Links!

Check out Ugli Studios Kickstarter!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:18 — 44.2MB) | Embed

Hey El Moochadores! Okay, so for the last little while I’ve avoided doing any “regurges” for Atomic Moo. That is; the re-posting of content we find on other blogs and geek Websites. It’s not that I don’t like the other sites (because I do and I visit them a lot) but we’ve been trying to move Atomic Moo in another direction and finding our own content helps. However, after seeing these great pieces of artwork, on another site, I feel like I have to regurgitate good and hard! So here we go!

Via Laughing Squid; Check out these amazing, Star Wars themed, pulp styled book covers by artist Timothy Anderson! Each is a unique take on the original Star Wars trilogy. Check out the covers below, but also be sure to go visit Anderson’s Website and take a gander at his many other excellent creations!

Good morning El Moochadores! Yeah, the new Star Trek movies are pretty awful, but a lot of people went to see it and made the studio a lot of money! So (yay!), we get more awful Trek in the future! Fortunately though we don’t have to point out how bad this flick really is. Nope, we can leave that to the professionals over at Red Letter Media! Check out this very funny video where in, Mr. Plinkett demonstrates the similarities between old Trek and new (bad) Trek!

Enjoy!

Good damn morning El Moochadores! Kids, the instructional video you’re about to watch clearly demonstrates exactly why you should always (while in deep space) exist the safety of your spacecraft to go and poke a swirling “unknown” vortex.

Check out this wonderful short animation by the way too talented Ryan Mauskopf (aka Professor Soap, aka Rye-Bread) where in a single cosmonaut finds a swirling vortex of fun! Mauskopf has other great animations and artwork on his personal site and if you visit his vimeo site you can get a free bonus pack with two songs! Along with the animation, I also included some of the storyboards Ryan Mauskopf made for the animation below.

Enjoy!

Spacetime Fabric Softener from Professor Soap on Vimeo.

Hello El Moochadores! Very sorry about the lack of post the last two days, but both Chudd and I have been caught up in that whirling shit storm some call “life.” However, there are some great things out there, and one of the benefits of having my own blog is getting to share those things with groovy people who share my own interests. Things like: Realistic Pokemon!!

Okay, so I couldn’t tell you the difference between a Pokemon, Digimon, or a Mormon (wait… I think the Pokemons and Digimons are less evil…), but I can tell you that concept artist, R.J. Palmer can make some fantastic looking monsters! Right now, Palmer, has a series of prints for sale on Deviant Art that beautifully show what a real life Pokemon might look like. And can you believe the guy is only twenty-three! Goddamnit, I wasted my life. Anyways, if you click the links above you’ll see all the fantastic Pokemon art along with notes Palmer wrote about each creature and it’s abilities. I’ve posted a few sample images below, but for full effect you should go visit Deviant Art or Palmer’s personal website. Now, I’m off to create my own monster game where in we stuff a couple Mormon’s into a ying-yang ball, shake it up, then make them fight!

Enjoy!