I am sorry to report that H.R. Gigar is no longer with us; he passed Monday after a fall at home according to this BBC Report. His organic artwork was amazing, and although it appeared in a lot of projects he will no doubt be best remembered for his Starship designs for the film series Alien by Ridly Scott.
Just a reminder the second annual The Future Is Here Festival at the Smithsonian takes place this weekend (Friday through Sunday). Some of the speakers include Adam Steltzner, George Takei, Kim Stanley Robinson, David Brin, and The Mythbusters. At the higher ticket levels the event also includes priority seating on Saturday night for the national premiere of X-Men: Days of Future Past at the National Museum of American History, and Patrick Stewart will be taking questions from the audience afterwards.
Katsuhiro Otomo’s Manga for Akira was impressive, and when they rolled out the Akira Anime it totally changed the way the world viewed Anime in general and Japanese Science Fiction in particular. Several years ago some folks in Hollywood bought the rights to turn it into a live action movie, but so far haven’t done so. Now the fans over at The Akira Project have made their own crowd funded live action trailer, and it looks amazing. If the official Hollywood version ever gets made, I hope it looks half this good. Thanks to the folks at Japanator for the heads-up on this one.
This week we have the latest rebooting of Godzilla, or Gojira if you prefer. The world’s most famous monster is pitted against evil creatures who threaten our very existence. Which was traditionally Gamera, Friend of All Children’s job, if you think about it. Those two were always my favorite Kaiju, so I will be in the theaters to check out this latest incarnation.
In movies we have I, Frankenstein topping the list with its near-Dean Koontz like premise, great cast, and excellent special effects. In a completely different style but still with excellent production values there is Her, a touching story about a man who enters into a relationship with his household operating system. This Spike Jonze movie won a ton of awards, and is more than worth your time to check out. Goodbye World is one I missed in the theaters about the world ending while some old friends hold a reunion, and while the premise sounds ordinary it has the potential to be interesting if they did it right. Special ID has Donnie Yen as an undercover cop with some serious Kung Fu fighting for his life against China’s most ruthless crime syndicate. This looks to be the best week in movies we have seen in a few months.
In TV… not so much. In Anime, the Armed Librarians are back, with the The Book of Bantorra: Complete Collection. When you die, your soul becomes a book that anyone can read, and only the Armed Librarians can keep your secrets safe from the world. This series seems to have a lot in common with Black Lagoon (the anime, not the creature) in my mind. And then there is Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends NEXT, the 2nd season in the story of the school club that is supposed to be about making friends. They receive a warning that some of their activities (stalking, taking candid photos of their peers, playing adult video games, watching adult anime, and building time machines) are not approved club activities at their school. And finally, Deltora Quest is the complete series, 52 episodes of gem seeking adventure, striving to release everyone from tyranny once all the magical jewels are collected. And yes, this series is based on the Australian children’s book series written by Emily Rodda.
I know I keep going back to this artist, but there is a reason. He has an amazing grip on Nerd sensibilities, and a control of word usage that is nothing short of amazing. This time we have only two tracks: Critical Hit and Pitch Dark, both Game-centric and at the core of how we evolved into our current reality.