iTop iTen Dept.

I don’t watch late night TV anymore but when I did I was a Letterman guy, and this top ten list is pretty funny. It’s the top ten excuses from the guy who lost the prototype next gen iPhone in a California bar last week.

If you have ever run across some of the incredibly inane videos on YouTube offering “expert” advice on stuff like drawing caricatures, then you will be laughing until the tears are running down your cheeks over the video above.

Don’t get me wrong, there are many useful and good video tutorials and resources on YouTube and about the web, but so many of them are useless and contain no real information whatsoever. Witness these incredibly lame caricature instructional videos I blogged about some time ago from the so-called “Expert Village”. Not only does the lady doing the instruction not tell you a single piece of useful info, but the drawing she is “working” on was lifted from a caricaturist named Kirk Bjorndahl.

The above video was done by caricaturist Jeremy “Jert” Townsend and perfectly lampoons these types of no-info instructional videos. The only flaw to it is the length… most of the useless how-to videos only last 2 to 3 minutes total. Jert worked too hard on it! He should produce an entire series of “SuperExpertUSA” videos, they’d be a YouTube sensation.

Okay, this might just be the ultimate toy for the Trekkie/Trekker/Total Star Trek Geek…

A WORKING phaser?!? Wow. I’m not even a very big Trek fan and I think that is on a whole ‘nother level of cool.

You would think that an innocent, unsuspecting lobster would be safe in a place like Sandusky, OH… but that is far from the case. Especially if they are unlucky enough to be kidnapped by a vending machine company!!!

From WickedCoolStuff.com comes some awesome Monty Python and the Holy Grail goodies:

The Black Knight backpack!

The cow (and other farm animals) catapult!

A complete horse action figure!!

If none of these items make you instantly laugh out loud go immediately to your local movie rental store or your Netflix cue and rent “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, sit down and watch this hilarious film, then come back.

Marginal Talent Dept.

That headline is a joke, or course. The only thing marginal about the talents of Sergio Aragonés is the placement of one of his ongoing MAD magazine contributions (i.e. those great cartoons in the margins of each issue). You can see for yourself now that his original art show is now on exhibit at the Ojai Valley Museum through October 4th. There are several events Sergio will be appearing at during the show, including:

Opening Reception – Saturday, August 22, 5-7 pm
$25 per person
By reservation only

Download invitation and reply card (pdf)
August 30:  Cartooning with Sergio
October 4:  Sergio on Comics & Humor

Current 2009 Members: $6 per person
Nonmembers: $8 per person

Major Payne Dept.

One of the most respected and recognized illustrators working today has finally gotten into the 21st century and put up a web page. C.F. Payne, whose client list is wayyyy too long and impressive to even begin to list here, has his own little corner of the web where you can check out his work, prints he has of some of his incredible paintings and even contact him for a private commission!

Shadowhare… NO MORE! Dept.

Readers may remember my posting this little piece about “real life superheroes” patrolling the streets of our cities making life… uh… safe for citizens. The news piece I linked to specified several heroes and one in particular, “ShadowHare” from Cincinatti, OH.

Well, it seems Shadowhare is being targeted by a gang of supervillians and a reward is being offered by the evil mastermind ‘The Dark Side” for information about Shadowhare’s secret identity. He’s serious… he posted it on Craigslist:

Hard to believe it never occurred to the Joker to advertise for Batman’s secret identity on Craigslist in “The Dark Knight”… somebody would have squealed. Of course, if I was the Joker I’d have just called up Michael Gough, who would have promptly let him into the batcave like he did everyone else who happened by in the first four movies.

TMZ reports that the mysterious “The Dark Side”, a member of the dreaded “Consortium of Evil“, could not be reached by telephone as the number to his secret underground Lair of Evil is unlisted.

Apparently the Consortium of Evil’s 401k must have been gutted by the recession, as ten bucks is not exactly one MEEEEEEEEELLION dollars. Could there be a disgruntled sidekick ready to cash in on Shadowhare’s secret, thereby putting his family and loved ones in harm’s way as targets for the revenge of all the scum he’s sent to the slammer?

You just can’t make this stuff up.

Oh… wait. They’ve been making this stuff up since 1939!

Happiness is a Warm Carcass Dept.

I ran across this on MAD production artist Ryan Flander‘s Facebook page. Like him I think it’s unbelievable:

Tauntaun Sleeping Bag

My favorite parts are the intestine print on the interior lining and the disemboweling light saber zipper pull…. and the fact that the kid in the picture is smiling pleasantly instead of screaming in terror. Nothing like snuggling your young Jedi up in the simulated stinking carcass of a dead tauntaun at bedtime. Sweet Dreams!

In fact it is unbelievable. It’s a April Fools prank. Apparently they do something like this every year on ThinkGeek.com. Brilliant, though.

“Alliance, Assemble?” Ummmm. no.

You know that silly super-deep voice Christian Bale used in the Batman movies suddenly doesn’t seem so ridiculous.

Interesting video from Wimp.com. The “icons” they cite as evolutionary seem to fluctuate between Batman’s chest emblem from various film/animation incarnations and the logo used on a given comics title, film poster or mini-series cover graphics. It’s not really an “evolution” of the “bat symbol” as much as a collection of different takes on it from different sources in roughly chronological order.

Sorry, can’t embed the video so click on the image or this link to see it. Nicely done, although I find it interesting the creator refuses to let you embed the video but has no problem violating U2′s copyrights for the music.

Top o’the hat to Rick Stromoski at the Wisenheimer board for the link.