MondoCon 2015: Mind Blowing Fan Art

An amazing piece at MondoCon 2015 by Dave Rapoza.

MondoCon 2015 was the second annual convention put together by the Mondo team that took place this past weekend here in Austin.  If you don’t know (and you should), Mondo is an awesome company that puts out limited edition variant movie posters, vinyl movie sountracks, and other cool things like toys or VHS tapes.  And for a second year in a row they decided to host a convention for all things Mondo.  I missed out on the first year but knowing it was coming back I bought tickets the day they went on sale–a short six months later and I was able to attend the convention.

What I saw was mind blowing.  Head after the break to read more about my time at Mondocon 2015.

Gabbing Geek 54: Look Out

Gabbing Geek 54: Look Out

Watson and Ryan hold down the fort for Episode 54 of the Gabbing Geek podcast while Jenny recovers from Tiredofputtingupwithalltheircrapitis.  It’s going around.  So the Y chromosomes talk about Star Wars, Hunger Games, Mars, Alexander Hamilton, movie villains, and the summer of 2016 in movies.  You should listen to it right the heck now, or jump after the break to read even more!

Gabbing Geek 53: Slice And Dice

Gabbing Geek 53: Slice And Dice

Gabbing Geek 53: Slice And Dice, has 100% more female whale genitalia than you were expecting!  First we cover Lego Dimensions and some Marvel TV news before bringing you an epic, impromptu space adventure featuring things about whales you never knew you always wanted to hear. Finally, we wrap things up with an upgraded spelling test to see who knows their fictional swords!  You can listen to the episode right now or jump after the break to read more!

First Impressions: Parallaxium

First Impressions is a column where we review comic books that meet two criteria: they must be Comixology Submit titles (self-published digital books) and they must be a first issue.  The comic book genre is a treasure trove of creativity even outside established publishers–you owe it to yourself to check out some of these gems.  This time we’re reviewing Parallaxium.

Gabbing Geek 45: Geek World Cup Draft!

Gabbing Geek 45: Geek World Cup Draft!

The latest podcast episode covers new July movies, Star Wars news, Ghostbusters, and an amazing all-geek all-female soccer draft that will blow your mind!  Give it a listen now or jump after the break to read more!

Nerds Choose Their Favorite Geek Movies

Not included on even Eddie Murphy’s list…

 

Popular Mechanics, something so far past geeky that it counts as nerdy (I mean, even Ryan can beat them up!), polled scientists to indicate THEIR favorite Sci-Fi movies.  What made the cut?

Gabbing Geek 30: Future Directions

Gabbing Geek 30: Future Directions

The latest episode of Gabbing Geek is now up.  Come listen to the audio if you didn’t get a chance to watch our live streaming Meerkat of the whole session!

Background Geek of the Week: The Stuff of Nightmares

You’re terrified aren’t you?  No, he isn’t the man hiding under your bed right now waiting for you to go to sleep….but he has created images that haunt your dreams all the same!  Who is this terrifying creature?  He isn’t the devil.  He isn’t a dark wizard.  He isn’t even the bike shop owner that molested poor, pitiful Dudley in Diff’rent Strokes.  No.  This man is our Background Geek of the Week!

Suprise Casting News: Mr. Bean To Appear In Neill Blomkamp’s New Alien Film!

 

Wow.  I really never saw this coming.

Aliens Considered

Starfire’s people supposedly evolved from cats. The X-Men’s Shi’ar supposedly evolved from birds. Too bad that was never followed up on during the X-Men/Teen Titans crossover of 1982.

Most superheroes at some point deal with aliens.  Heck, many of them are aliens.  I’m looking at you, Superman.  The same holds true for science fiction that goes into space in any way, shape, or form.  In fact, space-based sci-fi that completely omits aliens might be more noteworthy than the ones that include them.  Aliens have a tendency to be silly at times when they aren’t handled right, and it is way too easy to not handle them right.  Glue a forehead ridge on an actor, give him a couple of odd quirks, and then call it a day.

Aliens in fiction offer too much of an opportunity to really stretch a creator’s creativity.  It is easy to see why so many would look down on aliens, so let’s consider some of the more successful attempts to create otherworldly races and cultures.