Sure your kids’ scrawlings are a work of art, but here are some redrawn by professional artists. Some of them are just plain imaginative, what a neat idea!

Finding yourself less than obese? Well here’s a product guaranteed to get children and adults fat as pigs. Over one and a half million bottles of Groves Tasteless Chill Tonic sold! I don’t know what it is, but it might just be semisolid pig renderings. I know this ad is from the 18th century, but doesn’t this little piggy remind you of Bobby Hill from the TV show King of the Hill? It also reminds me of a picture I took of Jermaine Rogers - Life-Sized Squire vinyl toy, at the San Diego Comic-Con last year.

I went by my local comic book store and picked up my comics along with the latest copy of the Comic-Con Magazine (#2). It’s not available online yet (at the time of this post) and it’s got a nice little list of exclusives we can look forward to this year. I’d seen the Hasbro Cobra Commander exclusive and thought it looked quite unique, to say the least. Here’s an early list of some of the toy exclusives you’ll find this year:

1. Action Figure Xpress: Decepticon Skywarp Bust (Limited to 400 pieces @ $60 each)
2. Diamond Select Toys: Transformers G1 Animated Optimus Prime Bust (Limited to 750 pieces @ $60 each)
3. Funko: Gold Edition Iron Man Mark 1 Armor Bobblehead (Limited to 1008 pieces @ $17 each)
4. HasbroToyShop.com: G.I. Joe Cobra Commander Figure (Black Suit) w/ protective case
5. Mattel: Masters of the Universe Classics King Grayskull w/ shield, battle axe and sword
6. Mezco Toyz: Heroes - Future Hiro 7″ Figure w/ sword and sheath (quantity TBD)
7. Peanuts: Vintage Charlie Brown Bobblehead (Limited to 600 pieces @ $15 each)
8. Sideshow Collectibles: Star Wars Aayla Secura 12″ Figure (Limited to 3,000 @ $64.99 each)
9. Top Cow Productions, Inc.: Witchblade #118 SDCC Variant - Cover by Marc Silvestri (Limited to 2,000 copies)

This list will continue to grow as the San Diego Comic-Con draws closer.

Update: The new spring issue of the Comic-Con magazine is now available online in PDF format.

The Anime Expo is the nation’s largest anime/manga convention, with the largest collection of import and domestic anime and manga merchandise anywhere in America. AX 2008 will be held July 3 – July 6, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Southern California. I’ll be attending for my first time this year, so I’m pretty jazzed. If you’re planning on going, don’t forget to sign-up early for your tickets and hotel. If you’re not attending, stayed tuned and I’ll keep you informed.

Cubeecraft papercraft toys are free to download and some assembly is required. Each figure features interlocking tabs for construction so you don’t need for tape, glue or other messy adhesives. Just find the character you like, download and print on a standard piece of A4 letter paper, cut and fold. Lots of creative fun for all ages. Characters like Stormtrooper, Mr.Stay Puft, Kirby, Usagi Yojimbo, Dr.Zoidberg, Strongbad, Bender, Mega Man, 60’s Batman and lots more. With new ones weekly!

(via theBBPS)

I woke up this morning to the blue light Wii special and a new update from WiiWare. It’s a new Wii channel called the Nintendo Channel and was just released in the U.S. today. So I downloaded it and then proceeded to start it up. I was greeted with a digest video that showcases many recent Nintendo games and commercials. It was a pretty smooth playback, even though the videos are streamed. (I just watched a neat interview with Shigeru Miyamoto.) I’ve not had time to play with it much, but I know you can also download demos and game patches, as well as rate games.

I’m pleased to announce that our good friend Gabe Swarr is part of a new site. It’s called Dumm Comics, which is a new independent website devoted to the entertaining comics of Gabe Swarr, Sean Szeles, Katie Rice, Luke Cormican, Ricky Garduno, and Fred Osmond. A new comic each day for you to enjoy! Gabe does Mondays, Sean does Tuesdays, Luke and Katie do Wednesdays, Ricky does Thursdays and Fred does Fridays! These guys are already 3 months ahead and there’s plenty more fun coming your way!

Let me start off by saying that for most of my life I’ve been a fan of Wil Wheaton. I’d first seen him in the movie ‘Stand By Me’ and was instantly enthralled with the movie when Wil regaled his friends with the pie eating contest story. My friends and I howled with laughter and proceeded to rewind the tape and watch that part a few dozen times more. (The part with the leech in his underwear had the opposite effect on us, but we still watched that part a lot too.)

Like many people I grew up watching Star Trek:TNG, with a young Wesley Crusher on board the Enterprise. Whenever he would help out Data with his human endeavors, I always had to laugh. The two of them made quite the team. Even as a kid among adults Wil handled the situation deftly and with a boyish charm, which reminded my mom a lot of me. (Being compared to Wil was quite the compliment, even if it comes from your mom.)

Well, over the weekend I was fortunate enough to meet Wil Wheaton in person. He came to a local brewery promoting his most recent book, The Happiest Days of Our Lives. It’s a collection of fabulous stories about him growing up as a geek in the 70s and 80s. He dazzled the adoring group as he read through parts of his book, pausing occasionally to enjoy some tasty Arrogant Bastard beer.

Afterwards we had a Q&A session. He was asked how he met his wife, how he got into acting, how it was like working with River Phoenix and many other questions. He was open, down to earth and eloquent with his responses and was quite entertaining. I took some candid pictures of Wil at the event for posterity’s sake. A big thanks to Wil for chatting with me and signing my copy of Happiest Days! His book is quite entertaining, as is he; check it out. (I look forward to seeing him at the San Diego Comic-Con again.)

Free Comic Book Day celebrates the stories, artwork and long history of the entertaining medium that are comic books. Every year, on the first Saturday of May, this amazing event takes place. Don’t forget to grab your free comics at your local participating comic book store today! All across North America and around the world they’ll be giving away comic books absolutely free to anyone who comes into their stores. They are fun to read, so go enjoy yourself!

Iron Man Movie! I can’t believe I haven’t posted about this yet and it’s out this Friday! I imagine all of you will be going to this movie, right? You know that Iron Man is based on Marvel’s best-selling Iron Man comic book character. Even though I’m a big Marvel fan, I’ve only collected a few of his comic books. It’s probably because he wasn’t a mutant or the Hulk, but boy does this movie look better than the upcoming Hulk flick. (I’m also not a huge fan of Robert Downey Jr. and with my oldness and swiss cheese memory, I get him mixed up with Johnny Depp often. But from what I’ve seen in the previews, he’s got the character down pretty well.) Heroes aren’t born, they’re built.

Update: Great quote from io9:

Iron Man is the first comic-book movie that’s actually better than its source material. That’s partly because Iron Man is one of the most boring characters in the history of comics, but it’s also because the movie manages to transcend its source.

Now even more reason to go see the film!

Update 2: After watching the film I can say that it unequivocally rocked!

Qix - A classic game from early 1980’s, which I recall playing at the arcade. You’ve gotta draw boxes to claim as much screen as possible (75%) without getting in the path of the “Qix” and “Sparx”. Draw slower for more points, but keep an eye on the time meter located at the top of the screen. Simple and very, very addicting! Here’s your Qix emulator and a game strategy to get you started.

Want to add an air of of ruggedness and Paul Bunyan-ness to your school or TPS reports? Why not use Tim Yarzhombek’s cool beard font? More fun fonts for you.

I’m not sure how I feel about the upcoming film The Lost Boys direct-to-dvd sequel, Lost Boys: The Tribe. Sure I was a fan of the Coreys and the movie back in 1987, but this seems to be another attempt to sully a “classic”. It’s hard to beleive that fans would blinded by the nostalgia of the original film to be ga-ga about this sequel. Corey vampires would be neat to see, but I think they’ve lost their boyish charms that garnered a lot of their attention decades ago. These “Lost Boys” did grow up.

I’ve watched and rewatched Ghostfight a few dozen times now and each time it’s different and really cool. There’s a ton of action as these stick figures battle it out with swords. With it’s great music, dazzling effects and fluid animation, there’s always something a bit different each time you watch this fun Flash movie. Speed, perspective, background colors, music and angles change each time you watch it. There’s even some interactivity to it too! Watch it for yourself and be sure to check out Justsolo’s blog to see how he did it.

I am crushing your head!

I so missed The Kids in the Hall! So it’s great to know they’re back together performing. You may recall that the show itself ended in 1995, but lived on in constant re-runs on Comedy Central. Their kind of humor is edgy and warped, but a whole lot of fun. (The show’s sketches were more reminiscent of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.) The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy group, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson. Enjoy some of their new (NSFW) skits and perhaps you’ll catch them on their new 2008 North American tour, titled “Live As We’ll Ever Be”.