Owls in Space!

After deciding on a space nursery, I realized it would be tricky to find pre-made decor at someplace like Babies R' Us or Target. Thankfully, in this age of the Internet, there are lots of other options. One of my favorites for interesting, unique items is Etsy. Etsy is great for all kinds of things and somehow less overwhelming than eBay. Added bonus: I don't have to deal with bidding (which I hate).

Two of my first Etsy orders arrived yesterday, and I have to say, I'm thrilled! Yay for creativity and customization combined with Internet commerce!

First up is this print that marries our space theme with my "pre-occupation" with owls. I'm trying not to dominate BabyO's room with owls, since that is my thing, but I couldn't resist this one from Nancy Lee's shop.

I ordered mine in a larger size than the 6x6 listing, no problem. And it's gorgeous! I can't wait to get it matted and framed. Even when BabyO's moved on from her space theme, I will gladly pull this print into another room of the house.

The second print is this "I love you from here to Cassiopeia" one from HopSkipJumpPaper:

There are a lot of options for paper color, and in keeping with our color scheme I got this one in aqua. It looks great! There are also ones from here to Jupiter or to Andromeda. It was a tough call to choose just one.

This space theme seems to be coming all swimmingly so far!

Who Doesn't Love a Good Propaganda Poster?

Featured on Laughing Squid, but I love me all kind of retro propaganda posters. Seems appropriate that social media get a propaganda make-over.

Great design by Aaron Wood.

For the Little Ones (or Me)

I know a lot of people who have had babies in the last 1-2 years, or are expecting later this year. Might I suggest the following Simpson's Alphabet poster for baby's room? It's both educational AND culturally-relevant(ish). And cute!

For those of you with baby showers yet to attend this year, ahem...see above.

(h/t Laughing Squid)

More Fantasy Travel Posters

I keep coming across vintage/retro-inspired posters from artist Steve Thomas. He creates some of the most amazing images for a variety of themes, often from the geek realm (video games, sci fi/fantasy movies). In fact, I linked to one of his cool Donkey Kong video game posters back in June. Today, I'm in love with the following set of space travel posters (found via @JasonThibault), so I'm featuring Mr. Thomas' work again.

Nicely done - Keep up the good work! And let's book those tickets to Venus, shall we? I hear it is beautiful this time of year.

More Vintage-Inspired Posters

(h/t OMG Posters)

Is it just me, or does it seem to be a good time for the market of vintage-inspired posters, particularly of nostalgic favorites?

One great thing about a blog is that I can keep track of them all without having to buy them. Here are a couple more I liked today, from artist Jorsh Pena (of Gallery 1988).

Red

SuperHeroHype posted images of two new promo posters for the movie, "Red" based on the Warren Ellis comic book of the same name.





The primary characters of the story are ex-CIA agents who are now targeted by the Agency.

Now framed for assassination, they must use all of their collective cunning, experience and teamwork to stay one step ahead of their deadly pursuers and stay alive. To stop the operation, the team embarks on an impossible, cross-country mission to break into the top-secret CIA headquarters, where they will uncover one of the biggest conspiracies and cover-ups in government history.

The movie stars Helen Mirren (featured above, looking stunning!), John Malkovish (also above), Morgan Freeman, and Bruce Willis, and is anticipated in theaters ~10/15. I'm sure we will hear more about it via Comic Con next week...

Looks like I will take in late August to start getting caught up on my comic book/graphic novel reading, so I'll be adding this one to the list!

More Retro-Inspired Posters

It must be a theme this year, as another set of retro-inspired posters are available, this time on ThinkGeek.com (via @wilw). This time, the subject is classic video games. Awesome.

Here's my favorite:



I really am going to need more/bigger walls!

New Scott Pilgrim Movie Posters

After Kick Ass and Iron Man 2, I was worried that the rest of the summer might be slow on the movie scene. But there are a couple movies coming out in the next few weeks I am pretty excited to see, including Jonah Hex (despite Megan Fox) and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

There are some new Scott Pilgrim posters out today, featuring the 7 Evil Exes. (Click to enlarge.)



Note Jason Schwartzman as Gideon Graves (#7) and Brandon Routh (Superman) as Todd Ingram (#3).

And then there is the latest movie trailer. It looks like a campy, good time! But do I really have to wait until August to see it? I hope not! Sigh.

Mario!

(also via OMG Posters)

New print from Gallery 1988, by David Soames. Titled "80mph" and beyond cute.

This one is for Nick!

Evil Dead - Posters and More

(via OMG Posters)

I don't know The Alamo Drafthouse, but I love these recently-created posters for the Sam Raimi/Bruce Campbell favorite, "The Evil Dead." Evil Dead and it's follow-on, Army of Darkness are a couple of my favorite movies and what turned me on to Sam Raimi as a director. So anything that pays tribute to a classic of the horror genre is thumb's up in my book. The only way they could be better is if they had chips with favorite Bruce Campbell clips embedded in them. Ooooooh, would that be sweet.

WTH? More Posters?!?

Yep, believe it or not, I found a link to yet more cool posters. Again minimalist imagery, and again comic book characters as the primary subject. Apparently it's a "thing" now. Note to self: when buying a house, be sure to buy one with a lot of wall space. Extra tall ones would be good too (9+ ft).

Artist Michael Myers has illustrated several vintage minimalist posters of DC Comics heroes. I actually prefer the "B-list" super hero posters over those of the Superman & Wonder Woman, so I'm sharing them here. Always nice to see some other DC heroes get some love. (via Comics Alliance) Also check out the dude's Flickr stream which has some other cool poster images (Aquaman, Robin, Dexter) and drawings/illustrations of other TV characters (Lost, Tobias of Arrested Development).

Minimalist Superhero Posters

Maybe it's the incredibly blank, white walls in my new apartment, but I'm obsessing on all the great posters and prints I've been seeing lately. Here are another cool set of posters, via Comics Alliance. Artist Gidi Vigo has created minimalist movie posters of favorite comic book characters. I could see lining my walls with these...

More Star Wars Paraphernalia

Apparently seeing parts of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clone Wars over the weekend wasn't enough Star Wars for me. This is what happens when you are home sick -- Star Wars and detective/crime show marathons. Good times.

But I like these "recruitment" propaganda posters for the Empire by Feng Zhu -- who did designs for Revenge of the Sith (via Unreality Magazine here).

New Black Widow Promo Poster

Hot new promo poster for Iron Man 2 of Black Widow, available at WonderCon this weekend. I'm bummed to miss it this year --reports and tweets will have to do!



Am I the only one who is a little excited about ScarJo's Black Widow? (via SuperHeroHype)

Repo Men

Over the weekend, between packing and more packing, I decided I needed to up the geek quotient a bit and also get out of the house. So I went to see the new movie "Repo Men." Not to be confused with 1984's "Repo Man" (starring Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez), Repo Men stars Jude Law, Forest Whitaker and Liev Schrieber. Seemed to be timely, given the vote on healthcare reform this weekend (yeah, because I totally planned that).

I liked the concept of the movie, a dystopian future where our health is improved by advances in science that create artificial organs for most every body part. But they cost a pretty penny, and if you can't pay the bill (and at 19% interest, who can?) expect to see the Repo Men at your door coming to collect their goods.

I really appreciated some of the catchy tag lines:

• Go Ahead. Have The Cheeseburger.
• We Encourage You To Drink Irresponsibly.
• Bad Heart? Bad Liver? Bad Credit? No Problem!!!

I wanted to like this movie, but something fell flat for me. And in reading other's reviews I see that I wasn't the only one who had trouble with the story (to put it mildly!). The movie is gory and violent to the point of ridiculous. Other than the friendship between repo men Remy (Law) and Jake (Whitaker), the relationships between characters seemed forced and awkward. And the story resolution is a bit too predictable and thus, disappointing. (I don't want to give it away, as I know some people hate spoilers.)

I've also read comments doubting Jude Law's ability to be an action star; I thought he was "meh" in this mode, but not my favorite. Liev Schrieber has a great supporting role as a company salesman though, playing on potential client's darkest fears and encouraging them to sign the dotted line and "Do it for yourself. Do it for your family."

The movie reminded me of some older sci fi movies, but I'm having trouble remembering which ones. Total Recall? eXistenz? Both of those deal with virtual reality, so it's not quite right, but the dark side of science & technology is consistent in this movie too.

Anyway, I'd give it a B-/ C or a 6 out of 10 (did I come up with a rating system yet? I can't remember now...) depending on which kind of scale you prefer. I'd suggest waiting on this one til available on Netflix, or even on Syfy at some point in a couple years.

I'm including a couple of the posters - I liked those. Good marketing, people! Sorry the film wasn't better.

And More Posters - Alice in Wonderland

It's been quite a week for posters/art prints! I didn't plan to do a series, but I think it worked out nicely. Hooray for me.

There is also a lot of Alice in Wonderland product coming out what with the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp version of the movie set to release in a couple weeks. Alice is a classic story that lends itself to some very cool, psychedelic, absurdist, and otherwise mind-bending artistic interpretation. There will be more on Alice-related stuff in the weeks to come, so let's all look forward to that.

So here's a happy marriage of 1) cool poster prints and 2) Alice in Wonderland (again, via BoingBoing and Super Punch). Thank you, Mr. Bluebird!


PS. The Alice poster is part of gorgeous series Mr. Bluebird created of travel posters to imaginary lands. Check out his link to see the rest, but I also really like Neverland.

Poster... Nom Nom Nom

TGIF, people. A whole 2 days to soak in some sun (hooray!) and a bunch of nerdy fun stuff. Huzzah!

Before all that begins, I had to share this poster (via BoingBoing again). There is something about the typeface, color, and design that really speaks to me, even if the ingredients for a Ham & Cheese Hot Pocket kinda grosses me out. At least it's got Riboflavin.

Amazing Posters

Last week, Boing Boing had a great post about some very cool posters that take inspiration from some of our favorite movies & TV shows. The first series, created by Justin Van Genderen, are minimalist travel posters based on the Star Wars universe (link here).




Next are some very stripped down TV show posters by Albert Exergian. I love these even if I don't always understand how the image represents the show (some are more obvious than others, at least to me).






These posters reminded me of another set of vintage-like Firefly travel posters that came out a couple years back (available at ThinkGeek.com). I clearly need a house with some large, tall walls for all the art I want on them.


Star Trek is a pretty obvious set--so many great references could be done. But, can someone do a set that are Buffy/Angel-related? What other TV shows or movies do you think would lend itself to a great series of stylized posters like these? Or maybe inspired by video games? I wish I was an artist or designer; I think I could have fun with this theme...