I don’t know how I hadn’t heard about this sooner, but I squealed like a little girl when I read this news. Later this summer the wife and I will be heading down to Orlando for a much overdue vacation to celebrate our anniversary, and we were already planning on hitting up Universal Studios in between our beer-from-every-country-days at Epcot. I was pumped about seeing the Harry Potter park, but I had no clue there was going to be more Simpsons stuff too.

I’m a crazy-huge Simpsons fan, and just getting to walk around a section of Universal modeled after Springfield would be amazing, let alone getting to actually try Duff Beer, Krusty Burgers, and Lard Lad donuts. From the official press release:

For the first time ever – anywhere – fans will be able to walk down Fast Food Boulevard and visit the places that helped Springfield stake its claim as “Shelbyville by the Sea.” They will be able to grab a Krusty-certified meat sandwich at Krusty Burger, snatch the catch of the day at the Frying Dutchman, get a slice at Luigi’s Pizza, go nuts for donuts at Lard Lad, enjoy a “Taco Fresho” with Bumblebee Man and imbibe at Moe’s Tavern.

They had me at Krusty-certified meat sandwich.

There is no solid opening date, but the site Orlando Informer expects the restaurants to be open by June 20th and the waterfront attractions (the Kang & Kodos ride and Duff Gardens) to not open until September. All I know is that if there’s not some awesome Simpsons stuff open by late July, I’ll be a sad panda.

I wonder if they’ll sell Bort license plates?

Via Cartoon Brew

I was going to just add this to the next Missing Links post, but I think it’s awesome enough to warrant it’s own. How crazy is this life-sized X-Wing model that LEGO unveiled today in Time’s Square?

The thing uses 5,335,200 LEGO bricks, which I’m sure would cost a pretty penny on Bricklink or eBay. LEGO is showing the model off today to promote The Yoda Chronicles, a new animated LEGO Star Wars show that premieres next Wednesday. In other news, there’s a LEGO Yoda show coming soon? Nobody tells me nothin.

Head over to Gizmodo to see a ton of awesome images, videos, and more details about this crazy LEGO model. What would you like to see LEGO make life-sized next? Personally I’d like to walk through a life-sized Millenium Falcon. Hey Internet, get on it!

Update: THS friend and blogger Amy Kraft got to check it out first hand, go read about it on Geek Mom!

Lately I’ve become preoccupied with being a comics creator. You know, writing and drawing cartoons and other funny stuff. Much of my time has been spent sketching and writing notes. Lately I’m concentrating on the digital side of art. I’ll scan my inked sketches and attempt to color them. They’re pretty crude but I’m learning.

The rest of my free time has been spent observing artists I admire. One of my biggest inspirations these days is writer and illustrator Roger Langridge. He’s best known as the man behind The Muppet Show and current Popeye series. Langridge has such a fun vibe to his work while also being technically precise. Some people say he reminds them of legend Carl Barks. I cannot disagree.

Recently Langridge posted this inked sketch on his blog. The individual who commissioned the work was not me but it easily could have been. The piece combines a favorite subject of mine, The Muppets, with the vintage Marvel Comics series I avidly collect, Marvel Team-Up.

Since I started collecting comic books in the early ’80s, I’ve been in love with Marvel Team-Up. I preferred the tidy, self-encapsulated storylines. There was no need to religiously follow each issue like you do with episodic series. The issues paired Spider-Man (usually) with another random hero in tights. It was a great way to sample the Marvel legion.
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I was about negative six years old when The Muppet Movie came out, but it’s always been my favorite movie. Even now I go back and forth between this and Jurassic Park when it comes to my Ultimate Favorite Movie Ever™, but I’m sure after the Blu-ray is released on August 13th and I rewatch it a million times, it’ll come out on top.

Kermit, does this film have socially redeeming value?

I sincerely hope Disney shoves this movie down the throats of all the young kids who may not have caught it on VHS or DVD. It’s a classic buddy movie, road movie, and well…Muppet Movie, and the humor, music, and heart still hold up after all these years. Featuring a steller soundtrack (referenced in this hilarious Onion article), a bunch of cameos, and some great one-liners, I kind of want to stop this sentence and just go watch it.

Go preorder it on Amazon!

Via Blu-ray.com

I lumping hate Monopoly. It’s long, it’s boring, and I never win, but my love of Adventure Time is much greater than my hatred of Monopoly. That’s why I’ll probably be playing it sometime soon just so I can use Finn on a raft or Lumpy Space Princess in a car as my game piece. Collecting properties in the Land of Ooo sounds fun, and using Treehouses and Castles sounds way better than houses and hotels.

Adventure Time Monopoly is available on Amazon now and hopefully will be in my hands in a few days. We’ll see if the art and humor of the show makes the game fun again. I’m crossing my fingers.

Via The Mary Sue. Ps – The Mary Sue is right, how did an Adventure Time Candyland not happen first? That would be ridiculously appropriate.