Lego Space and I go way back. I vividly remember going to my neighbor Jason’s house when I was young to play the sci-fi-themed building blocks. It must’ve been 1980 or ’81 and Lego had introduced its space theme just a few years earlier.

Jason was lucky enough to have most every set. We would pool all the loose bricks together and take turns picking pieces. Then we’d head to a separate corner of his bedroom to build a massive space ship. The goal was to out-cool the other person with our creation.

For us it was all about the build rather than imaginative play. We didn’t need to role play to enjoy Lego. That was the beauty of the toys. Lego’s multiple dimensions of enjoyment are part of its success all these years.
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Monsters are an odd phenomenon in the human psyche.  When we’re little, the thing under the bed or hiding in the closet seems entirely too real.  But once those fears have been conquered, kids with vivid imaginations often embrace the creatures of their nightmares, and suddenly the razor-sharp fangs and slimy exteriors become endearing, instead of frightening.  For those kids, Titan Books has just released Monster Massacre, a compendium of comics, short stories, and artwork of those things that go bump in the night.  The book features a wide variety of creepy crawlies, from Lovecraftian cephalopods to mutant insects to demi-gods to good old fashioned dinosaurs.  Essentially, if you like monsters, there’s something here for everyone.  Unfortunately, the quality of the work presented is as varied as the creatures lurking within.

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This past weekend I went somewhere I hadn’t been in a few years and hunted through 72,000 square feet of antiques, collectibles, and weird-ass junk looking for cool geeky treasures. The Exit 76 Antique Mall is about 30 miles south of Indianapolis and is crazy-huge. About 80-90% of the booths there are filled with the type of antiques I have no interest in, but in a place that size there’s about something for every taste.

I was on the lookout for toys, kids’ books, trading cards, and anything TMNT or Muppet related. I did better than I thought I would, and one of the cool things I found was this Muppet Picnic Cookbook published by Hallmark in 1981. Lately I’ve been on the lookout for lots of 80s/90s Muppet related books, and I had just read about this one on the Muppet Wiki, so I was pretty excited when I saw it hanging out with vintage sewing patterns and Good Housekeeping issues.
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I really can’t get enough of concept art.  I love to see the visual creative process put down on paper (literally or figuratively) in order to witness the evolution of an idea.  It’s great to see the drastic changes in character appearances over time, but I even like to see how the little things were developed, like logos for fictional products.  With that in mind, flipping through The Art of Elysium from Titan Books is like a concept art fan’s dream come true.

While he’s only directed two feature films, there’s no question that Neill Blomkamp has a certain aesthetic that he prefers.  That gritty, makeshift look was first seen in the “prawn” camps of District 9, and it carries over to his latest film, Elysium, for scenes that take place on the ruined surface of the Earth.  However, the design changes drastically on the eponymous orbital paradise, filled with the clean, smooth, surfaces that only 1960’s futurists could have envisioned.  In order to create such contrast, Blomkamp brought on two impressive minds in production design – Art Director Phil Ivey, who previously worked on District 9 and The Lord of the Rings trilogy for WETA Workshop, as well as legendary concept artist Syd Mead, who brought us the worlds of Blade Runner and TRON.

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As we look out at the ever-changing landscape of television, we still haven’t seen a web series that has truly captured a wide audience.  There are niche shows here and there with a small following, but unless you’re really plugged into that world, chances are you aren’t tuning into YouTube every week to catch an ongoing series.  That’s not to say that the day won’t come when YouTube becomes just another TV channel (or, more likely, vice versa), but for now, web shows are still far away from the mainstream.

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