Thursday, July 28, 2016

Snack World Taking Its Sweet Time

The game we've all dreamed of, Snack World, has a date for release, sadly that date is only in Japan. Next year the game comes out on mobile devices in April and on the 3DS in July. Nothing for the U.S.A, eh? Level-5 is sure waiting to release a game we've been holding our breath's for. It's not because of the cartoonish Dragon Quest style world of dungeons & convenience stores, though we really like it.

It's because of the real world items, little swords, shield and wands, perfect for keychains that'll have chips in them that you can touch to your 3DS and mobile device that unlocks the weapons or items in game.

The items are so realistic that they made mock commercials as though they were real products from different companies. Check them out below.

Are real questions remain as to when Level-5 will get this game to the U.S.A. and if we don't have a new 3DS by the time it comes out.

via ANN

Don't Scare Yourself Let Them: Shock Feature Theater & Escape Hotel

We're not even a horror site, but we sure write about horror related events quite a lot. Maybe the people of LA just want a year round haunted house; still no word on Delusion, a year-round haunted house other than a 2016 opening date.

Anyway, this weekend has Shock Feature Theater, a fake local channel horror movie night hosted by Rob Schrab in a dress. Watch as Rob, in the guise of Mini Coffee and a puppet make fun of whatever horror film is on the chopping block. This time it's a film about super soldiers created to fight the war in the Middle East via 1990. (Why are we still there?) The mutant super soldiers don't take orders in "Syngenor."

The film is joined by a live band and terrible commercials that should not exist.

Shock Feature Theater
Saturday, Jul 30, 2016 10:30 PM
The Cinefamily
$12.00

If you want something you can ponder and play out forget about the escape room in Little Tokyo. A brand new escape room or should we say escape rooms opened up in Hollywood. Escape Room Hotel has opened up its doors well before Halloween. 

Now you may try and escape before time runs out in ten different scenarios. Five right now, the other scenarios are coming.

Press so far says the lobby is just to die for and that some better skilled staff are required. The place did just open July 19th, so we'll give it some slack until we here of more escapes.

Not all scenarios are horror based, but try getting through the lobby without some chills.

Escape Hotel
6633 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028


via LAist

KCon LA This Weekend


Time to celebrate everything we like about Korean culture, the good side, not North Korea...we don't like those guys. The happiness not living under a dictatorship of a man baby has created a culture filled with K-Pop, delicious food and a love of gaming, all present at this year's KCon.

K-Con 2016
July 29-21
LA Convention Center
Staples Center
$50.00 - $250.00

Kpop Battles XIX: KCON Los Angeles
JULY 30th, 2016
4:30 PM - 6 PM

Who will win the top spot?

Summer Soda Tasting 6 This Weekend

Summer Soda Tasting 6
Sunday July 31, 2016, from 5 – 8 p.m. 
Galco’s Soda Pop Stop
5702 York Boulevard
Los Angeles CA 90042
$15, children under 5 free


When the rest of LA has its wine and beer tastings Galco's has soda from all over the world to try. Yes, finally, the time has come once again for the Summer Soda Tasting! Nice cool sodas over a hot weekend in LA will have you relax to the sound of...children burping? Oh, yeah, it's the first year of the "Burp Off!," a burping contest for kids 6-12 years. While drinking down the fine sodas of not only America, but the rest of the world you'll have some music entertainment in the background.


Spend an evening drinking down some of the rarest sodas and even get some sodas you've never even tried or heard of.



Pokémon Go Go: All Your LA Pokémon GO Events This Weekend

Saturday, July 30, 11am-6pm Weller Court, Little Tokyo, L.A.
123 Astronaut E S Onizuka St, Los Angeles, California 90012
 
Enjoy the game in Little Tokyo, you have Delicious Little Tokyo going on at the same time for some good eats.
Pokemon Go Meet Up At Meltdown Comics' Pokemon Gym
Saturday, July 30, 1pm-6pm
Meltdown Comics and Collectibles
7522 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, California 90046
 
Come to Meltdown Comics for our Pokemon GO meetup!Meltdown's Art Wall is not only a Pokestop, but also a Gym!We'll be having a cosplay contest, our Pokestop will be lured ALL DAY and there will be prizes/swag for our GYM LEADER at the end of the event.  
 
Saturday, July 30, noon
Disneyland
1313 S Disneyland Dr, Anaheim, California 92802

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Batman: Assault on Arkham (Suicide Squad Movie Money)

Just in time to cash in on Suicide Squad is the the new cover for Batman: Assault on Arkham. This piece of animation was a strange mash-up of the promise of Arkham game series finally being animated and the concept of the Suicide Squad from the comics. It comes well before the live action movie came into production. It's a bit of a mess.

See a white version of Deadshot.

Oh, weird the cover is missing Killer Frost? Odd choice again. I write again, because the orgianl cover didn't have her on it either.

Now I wonder if there's just a number of people allowed on covers rule from DC or that Killer Frost isn't allowed on certain media.

I'd rather write about it more than what takes the smile off the Joker's face, Batman: The Killing Joke. Uggh, don't waste your money on that.

If you want to see something in no real way based on the upcoming movie or it's vision, though, hmm the Joker is in in both and the team does have three of the same  Suicide Squad characters in it... Batman is in the other movie too, huh.

Anyway, rent it here.

Sam Bosma Interview On Fantasy Sports 2: The Bandit of Barbel Bay



Sam Bosma
We have an interview with the grand artist Sam Bosma, you've probably seen his work on Steven Universe. He started a series not long ago about Fantasy Sports and this July the second book in the series came out. We got to ask Sammy a few questions about it.

In this newest chapter we find Mug, a grouchy stout macho man and Wiz a young powerful wizard girl somewhat stuck in a fishy village and I mean really fishy with fish people. One thing leads to another and they must do battle...in the form of volleyball?!!

TTDILA:First off, where do you get off making such a great book and then not giving the readers more. Seriously, you've made me want more stories of Wiz and Mug to be turned into an anime, because, darn, it looks more like an anime than a cartoon.


Sam Bosma: Haha, well, it takes a long time to make these books, and I’ve gotta keep them short if I want them to be nice and snappy. I don’t think FS would work super well as a 200 page book (though I guess the inevitable Omnibus will test that out). Cartoons would be cool, though there’s a lot of extra brainstorming I’d have to do to figure out how to translate the story into something more episodic. I think it would work pretty well, though.


If I have a kid, I'm just going to scan the repeating characters on the inside of the cover of this new book to make wallpaper for their room. You really made a wonderful design there.


Thanks! Those are just developmental sketches to figure out characters before the book is actually written. Some of them never made it in and some of them got their own scenes.


I just love going through the pages and looking over the art. It's like reading a children's book from ages ago, but it's strange to think its only just come out. Can you tell me a little bit about you character design process or why I just seem to want action figures or little statues of everyone I see in the book.

With character design I try to make everyone look like they live their own lives outside of the context of the story. I know that, for the most part, background characters will be drawn once and then never seen again, but I want you to be able to imagine a bit about their lives outside of that one panel. I don’t know if any of that comes across, but it’s what I try to do, at least.



I like to think about what people’s clothes are made of and where they get them, and if any other characters shop at the same store. I think it’s really boring in stories to have each character have an absolutely individual design with absolutely individual articles of clothing that nobody else in the universe has ever had before. I think most of us are taught in art school to make each character totally individual, which works on a lot of levels, but it doesn’t bind people together into a world or community.

Sports, who really cares in fantasy other than you? Really, I'm unsure why I like the book when I myself care so little about sports as do many other fantasy readers. It isn't Quidditch in your book, but volleyball. G-d damn, only-used-in-summer-episode-volleyball and no bikinis even. Is there a reason you really wanted sports to be in your fantasy book, you could've gone fantasy all the way. Why include basketball, baseball and volleyball so far?

Yeah, I here this all the time — that nobody in the comics community likes sports aside from me. It’s sort of true, but if they don’t like sports, they probably do like games. I’m trying with these books to see if I can strip sports of all the negative associations that comics readers might have and bring them back to what they are at their core — a game. I think a lot of older sports video games did this — NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, NBA Street, Super Spike Volleyball, Mutant Team Football, etc.



I like sports. The only one I really follow is basketball (and boy do I follow it), but there’s something pure and beautiful about the drama of it, people dedicating their lives to a game, treating each part of it as life or death. Why not make a book about it? There’s already a manga for every sport under the sun, I’m not really treading any new ground here.



But after Fantasy Sports is done, I’m going to take a deep dive into fantasy. I’m gonna wallow in it.

Where ever did you get the idea of the Yahms ( the antagonists in this chapter)?

I love bad guys who are a pair — Jesse and James from Pokemon, the Androids from Dragonball Z, those two twin characters from Sailor Moon. I just really wanted to have a pair of villains who could banter back and forth. From my brief time playing rec league volleyball, I figured out how important communication was to the sport, and what better way to communicate than by sharing one mind?



Also I love slime enemies in games. Pretty simple.


It looks like we have a third chapter with golf set-up, just how far down the line do you have the story. Will you and other artists make some sort of American Weekly Shonen Jump of great artists we could get behind and follow?


Golf is next, and then a mYsTeRy sport to finish things off in volume 4. I think an anthology is a great idea — maybe if I fall behind and need a year off, haha. I know a lot of great artists who I’d love to commission for it.

Nice Ultraman pose on pg. 32.

He’s the best.

Get the book here

Friday July 29, 7pm
The Secret Headquarters
3817 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
Free


Sam Bosma will be signing his latest book, Fantasy Sports Vol. 2! Come join Sam and the SHQ crew for adult beverages, new books, and good times.

Weekly What To Do: Soda Tasting, Del Toro Exhibit @ LACMA & More


Animation Breakdown: Fantastic Planet 2k Restoration
July 26- Aug 3
The Cinefamily
611 N Fairfax Avenue
$12

Animation Breakdown is back with your favorite blue aliens in the 1973 cult French classic Fantastic Planet (La Planète Sauvage), the hypnotic sci-fi masterpiece by director René Laloux and illustrator Roland Topor, newly restored by Janus Films.

Figures of Action by Jason Brockert
Opening Thursday, Jul 28, 7pm -Aug 6
Iam8bit
2147 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, California 90026
A solo exhibition by JASON BROCKERT, featuring would-be toys inspired by iconoclasts & pop culture characters.

Book Signing: Guillermo del Toro
Friday, July 29, 5pm
Free and open to the public
Note: This event is first-come, first-served; guests may begin lining up at 3 pm. Book signing is limited to two books per person and a receipt as proof-of-purchase from a LACMA Store is required. 

A rare opportunity to have Guillermo del Toro sign your exhibition catalogue or another title by him purchased at a LACMA Store.
 
 
The Devil's Backbone
Bing Theater
Friday, July 29, 7pm
$15

Bring on the horror movies!
Fuel for Nightmares is a curated series of Guillermo del Toro’s inspirations, influences, and favorite films. Screening in conjunction with Guillermo del Toro: At Home with Monsters.


Friday July 29, 7pm
The Secret Headquarters
3817 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
Free

Sam Bosma will be signing his latest book, Fantasy Sports Vol. 2! Come join Sam and the SHQ crew for adult beverages, new books, and good times.







 Violent Cop
Fri, Jul 29, 7:30pm
Egyptian Theatre
6712 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood, CA 90028
$

Originally a TV comedian, “Beat” Takeshi Kitano defied expectations to make his directorial debut with this tough-as-nails crime drama. He stars as Azuma, a police detective notorious for roughing up suspects, whose ruthless tactics become indistinguishable from those of the gangster he pursues after his sister is kidnapped by yakuza.

Friday, July 29 - Sunday July 31
Little Tokyo
This includes Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC)'s 10th Annual Sake & Food Tasting Event, Starry Night in Little Tokyo happening Friday.

#GoLittleTokyo for a weekend of delicious food and drinks harvested from the streets of Little Tokyo! Delicious Little Tokyo invites all foodies to experience the vast area of cuisines that the restaurants of Little Tokyo have to offer.

The festivities run from Friday (7/29) to Sunday (7/31), and feature selected Little Tokyo restaurants offering special menu items, discounts, giveaways and workshops. Come explore the culinary gems of Little Tokyo with your family and friends!
Friday, July 29, 10:30pm
Think Tank Gallery
939 Maple Ave, Ste 200, Los Angeles, California 90015
$$
Can you think of a better way to celebrate Harry Potter’s birthday than enjoying a night out at one of the most iconic American wizarding bars? We didn’t think so. Witches and wizards alike are invited out for a special evening of drinking, dancing, and a night of magic!

Saturday, July 30, 7pm
Meltdown Comics and Collectibles
7522 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, California 90046
 
Londyn Jackson, host of Meltdown Comics' podcast History of the Batman with Londyn!', is curating a show paying tribute to comic book writer and illustrator Darwyn Cooke.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


July 30July 31

Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center
300 E Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, California 90802
$tarts at $25
Two fun-filled days of frights, freaks, spooks, and scares! Your ticket includes admission to dozens of presentations from creative professionals, celebrities, and influencers from in and around the horror, entertainment, and Halloween industry, along with a massive show floor and onsite haunts.

The 2016 Long Beach Dragon Boat Festival
July 30 - July 31
Marine Stadium, Long Beach

In addition to hosting one of the largest dragon boat competitions in California, there will be Chinese traditional art demonstrations, Chinese Acrobats, traditional dance, hip hop, music and martial arts performances. Come join them for all the fun, food and excitement!
Saturday, July 30th, noon
Hollywood Hills
$25
21+

The Mystikal Misfits invite you to LEVEL UP into our pixelated poolside oasis, where a day of old-school arcade-themed awesomeness awaits! Get ready player 1 for the sounds of....


Saturday July 30th, 2016
3pm – 7pm
VIP Hour 2pm – 3pm
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
3911 S Figueroa St.
Los Angeles, CA 90037
21+
$37.50 and up


LA Weekly's second annual craft beer and artisanal burger extravaganza.



Tiki Night 2016
Sat, Jul 30, 4:00pm
Egyptian Theatre
6712 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood, CA 90028
General Admission: $18
Student/Senior: $14 (with I.D. at door only)
American Cinematheque members (w/ membership card): $12.

A tropical breeze blows through Hollywood for the American Cinematheque's 12th annual Tiki Night hosted by King Kukulele, who will also perform with his band the Friki Tiki’s. As always we will have vendors, cocktails from the Tonga Hut!, made with DonQ Rum,, food, fashion, movies, dancing and more Tiki entertainment!
Summer Soda Tasting 6
Sunday July 31, 2016, from 5 – 8 p.m. 
Galco’s Soda Pop Stop
5702 York Boulevard
Los Angeles CA 90042
$15, children under 5 free

In a world where wine and beer outings are a constant there is one place that demands the refreshing taste of soda to be shared. It's name is Galco's Soda Pop Stop and the annual Soda tasting is back this Summer. At the end of July you'll be able to sample refreshing sodas from around the world and locally.

This year they're having their first "Burp Off!", a burp contest for kids 6-12. Prizes will be awarded to the best burpers. We only ask they make an adult competition too, but make it down wind.


Sultry Sweet Burlesque & Variety Show presents "Burlesque Bingo"

Sunday, July 31st 2016
El Cid. 4212 W Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90029
Doors at 7:30, Seating at 8:00pm, Show at 8:30pm
General Admission $20 Online/$25 At the Door. VIP $35 online/$45 

What is Burlesque Bingo? It's not just Burlesque.... It's not just Bingo. It's the striptease game show where we take it off and you win!Celebrities and civilians alike have been shouting out 'Bingo!' at Audrey DeLuxe's game show ever since it's premiere at the world famous Viper Room. She and her cast of bingo girls have been playing games with L.A. ever since. Now, these bombshells are set to take over the world one bingo card at a time. Win fabulous prizes every round!

Guillermo del Toro: At Home with Monsters
August 1, 2016–November 27, 2016 
LACMA
5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036
 
Taking inspiration from del Toro’s extraordinary imagination, the exhibition reveals his creative process through his collection of paintings, drawings, maquettes, artifacts, and concept film art. Rather than a traditional chronology or filmography, the exhibition is organized thematically, beginning with visions of death and the afterlife; continuing through explorations of magic, occultism, horror, and monsters; and concluding with representations of innocence and redemption.