Culture – Retrenders

Pixel Pancho: Murals of the Robot Future

January 20, 2014 by Johnny Moreno Leave a Comment

Art about robots is art about our future culture as artist, Pixel Pancho, conveys humanity emotionally interconnected and intermixed with androids and pop icons.

As with any art like the classics of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci to Mexican mural artists such as Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, we can see the glorification of humanity in all its elements of beauty, love, chaos, destruction and yes, even the propaganda – that art leaves you to think and feel your own thoughts of what is the meaning of this?

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Filed Under: Art, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Geeky, Videos Tagged With: murals, paintings, Pixel Pancho, Robot Art, sculpture

Bandai’s 40th Anniversary Mecha Hello Kitty!

January 20, 2014 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

If the Revoltech Hello Kitty action figure wasn’t enough, Sanrio has teamed-up with Bandai to make a special mecha Hello Kitty action figure.

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Filed Under: Collectibles, Otakudom, PopAsia, Toys Tagged With: action figure, Bandai, Chogokin, diecast metal, Hello Kitty, Japan, mecha, Sanrio, Super Alloy, Tamashii

NUMBERCRUNCHER

January 14, 2014 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

My first trade I get to read this year is Numbercruncher from Titan Comics writer Si Spurrier (X-Men Legacy) and artist PJ Holden (Judge Dredd). Numbercruncher was released as a 4-issue mini-series last year and now it’s all collected into one volume. This is not your typical mainstream superhero comic like Batman or Spiderman, Numbercruncher is life-after-death, love, something spiritual and comedy of sorts all wrap-up in one, well kind of.

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Filed Under: Books, Comics, Reviews Tagged With: afterlife, comic book, math, metaphysical, PJ Holden, reincarnation, Si Spurrier, Thyme, Titan Comics, Zane

Frankie’s Garage: Kia GT4 Stinger Concept

January 14, 2014 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

The Detroit Auto Show 2014 is a few days in and Kia known for practical and boring automobiles unveils their GT4 Stinger Concept. It will be a rear-drive platform at an entry-level price. I hope so. The PR reps from Toyota and Subaru say their rear-drive cars, the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ, are entry-level, but when you walk out of the door at the dealerships, you are spending upwards of $28,000 or more for “entry-level.”

Filed Under: AutoStyle Tagged With: concept, Detroit Auto Show, entry level, GT4, Kia, Korea, rear wheel drive, Stinger

Frankie’s Garage: Tokyo Auto Salon 2014

January 13, 2014 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

2014 automobile shows are already in full effect and this past weekend the Tokyo Auto Salon 2014 took place in Chiba, Japan. More than 400 foreign and domestic companies were on-hand and 800-plus cars were on showcase from car manufacturers and tuners.

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Filed Under: AutoStyle, PopAsia Tagged With: Auto Salon, automobiles, Car Show, Chiba, Japan, JDM, models, race queens, Tokyo

Frankie’s Garage: The Nissan Sports Sedan Concept

January 13, 2014 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

With the 2014 Detroit Auto Show already off and running this week, Nissan unveiled their Nissan Sports Sedan Concept which might be the next Maxima. The last couple of generation of Maximas have been kinda of boring and tame. Hopefully, a Nismo tuned version will be down the line.

Filed Under: AutoStyle Tagged With: concept, Detroit Auto Show, Japan, JDM, Maxima, NISMO, Nissan, sedan, sports sedan

Frankie’s Garage: 2015 Corvette Stingray Z06

January 13, 2014 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

Motor Trend takes a first look at the 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z06. It comes with a 6.2L supercharged V8 producing 625 horses and Z06 aero-package. The engine should sound amazing.

Filed Under: AutoStyle Tagged With: 6.2, Chevy, Corvette, muscle car, race car, Stingray, supercharged, track car, V8, Z06, ZR1

Frankie’s Garage: The Next Generation Toyota Supra

January 13, 2014 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

This Downshift episode takes a look at design factory Calty Design Research and their creation of the Toyota’s FT-1 Concept. This might be the next generation Supra.

Filed Under: AutoStyle Tagged With: Calty Design Research, concept, FT-1, Japan, JDM, Supra, Toyota, twin-turbo

The Wrong Quarry

January 13, 2014 by Stephen Jang 4 Comments

Over the weekend, I was excited to get my hands the new Quarry book “The Wrong Quarry” by author Max Allan Collins (Road to Perdition). His long-running series is about a former US Marine sniper Quarry (no need to know his real name) turned professional hitman. Quarry offers clients that are marked-for-death a unique service, dependent on the fee paid, he gets rid of the hit team after the clients and investigates who hired the hit.

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Filed Under: Books, Reviews Tagged With: crime, Hard Crime, hitman, killer, Max Allan Collins, noir, pulp, Pulp Fiction, Quarry, Titan Books

Frankie’s Garage: Honda Civic Type R Hillclimb

January 8, 2014 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

Watching this video makes me wanna watch the anime Initial D. This Honda Civic Type R EP3 powers up the mountain roads and carves the Swiss Alps like nobody’s business. The Civic Type R corners and sticks to the concrete.

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Filed Under: AutoStyle Tagged With: Civic, Daniel Kammer, EP3, hillclimb, Honda, Initial D, JDM, mountain, Swiss Alps, Swiss Race, Type R

Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Newspaper Comic Strips Collection

January 6, 2014 by Stephen Jang 2 Comments

Over the years, the British have crossed the Atlantic with iconic entertainment, like The Beatles, One Direction (LoL), Monty Python, Are You Being Served?, Mr. Bean, just to name a few, now in the animation realm, it has to be Nick Park and his animated creation Wallace & Gromit. Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Newspaper Comic Strips Collection collects the comic strips published in the UK daily newspaper The Sun, from 2010-2011.

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Filed Under: Books, Comics, Reviews Tagged With: Aardman, animation, British, comic strips, England, Gromit, newspaper, Nick Park, The Sun, Titan Comics, UK

The Casebook of Newbury & Hobbes by George Mann

January 6, 2014 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

I am ready to kick off the New Year with more Retrenders stuff, but I had some left overs from last year, like this George Mann book of short stories – The Casebook of Newbury & Hobbes, Volume 1. Over the weekend, as I watched American playoff football in-between breaks, I was able to finally finish reading it.

I am new to the Newbury & Hobbes books and the various characters created in this universe. I was a little weary reading these all-new short stories in this collection, wondering if I needed to read the “The Affinity Bridge”, “The Osiris Ritual” and “The Immorality Engine” to get what is going on, but I was well relieved by Mr. Mann kicking off with nice introduction chapter about his characters and his first book. Newbury & Hobbes revolves around 3 main characters, the sleuth Sir Maurice Newbury, assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes and police friend Sir Charles Bainbridge as they solve crimes and murders in Victorian London. The book collects 15 short stories as Newbury and Hobbes face the weird and strange crimes. Mr. Mann also includes a helpful timeline of where these short stories took place over the course of his 3 books and a chapter of story notes on all the short stories (they include spoilers, so please read the short stories first!).

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Filed Under: Books, Reviews Tagged With: dectective, England, George Mann, Hobbes, Holmes, Newbury, Sherlock, short stories, steampunk, Titan Books

Freestyle Breaking Session with Project Prepix Asia

January 2, 2014 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

Like Jackie Chan’s “Drunken Master” flicks, this international break crew Project Prepix Asia gets their drink on and shows-off some hip-breaking moves:

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Filed Under: Music, PopAsia Tagged With: Asia, B-boy, break dancing, breakin', crew, Dance, Korea, Mike Song, Project Prepix Asia

Lost Planet: First Colony

December 30, 2013 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

Well, if you’ve been playing Capcom’s Lost Planet 3 on your PS3 or Xbox 360 and really want to figure out how this all happened on ED.N. III, you can now read this hardbound trade Lost Planet: First Colony. Humanity thought they found the hope for Earth on E.D.N. III, but the first colony was tragic failure unleashing an icy storm and bad-ass monsters.

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Filed Under: Books, Comics, Reviews Tagged With: 3rd person shooter, Capcom, EDN III, First Colony, Izu, Lost Planet, T-ENG, video game

EDM Festival Tomorrowland Graphic Novel

December 30, 2013 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

One of the great yearly weekend music festivals these past few years takes place in Belgium – the EDM (Electronic Dance Music) Festival known as Tomorrowland. Now dance fans and comic book aficionados come together in this genre mixing story Tomorrowland from writer Paul Jenkins (Wolverine: Orgin). Originally printed as a 4-issue mini-series this past summer 2013 by Titan Comics, now we get the whole saga in one volume in this hardbound trade – Tomorrowland. It’s like Glastonbury getting its own graphic novel! Tomorrowland follows DJs Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike on their DJ gigs as they battle evil from other dimensions on this cosmic/portal opening/spiritual/metaphysical journey to save Earth! It’s kind of like the anime The Super Dimension Fortress Macross and Macross Frontier (or Macross Plus, or just whatever Macross incarnation/reboot you prefer) as the heroine uses her singing prowess to stop war and save the universe.

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Tracklist 1 – Epic Stadium-Masher: 1. Armin van Buuren feat. Trevor Guthrie – This Is What If Feels Like [Audien Remix], 2. Zedd feat. Hayley Williams – Stay The Night [Extended Mix], 3. Adventure Club – Do I See Color [Dubstep Mix], 4. NERVO – You’re Gonna Love Again [Extended Version], 5. Coldplay – Every Tear Drop Is A Waterfall [Swedish House Mafia Remix], 6. Calvin Harris feat. Florence Welch – Sweet Nothing [Extended Mix], 7. ATB feat. Ramona Nerra – Never Give Up [Club Mix], 8. Filo & Peri feat. Eric Lumiere – The Anthem [John O’Callaghan Remix, 9. David Guetta feat. Usher – Without You, 10. Armin van Buuren & DJ Shah feat. Chris Jones – Going Wrong, 11. Alice Deejay – The Lonely One [Hit Radio Mix], 12. Ian Van Dahl – Will I [UK Radio Edit], 13. Benny Benassi feat. Kelis, apl.de.ap & Jean-Baptiste – Spaceship, 14. Kaskade feat. Rebecca & Fiona – Turn It Down, 15. Avicii – Levels [Extended Version] and 16. Swedish House Mafia feat. John Martin – Don’t You Worry Child [Extended Version].

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Filed Under: Books, Comics, Music, Reviews Tagged With: Dance, Dimitri Vegas, DJ, EDM, electronica, Like Mike, Paul Jenkins, Stellar Labs, Steve Aoki, Titan Comics

Cosplay model YAYA HAN at NYCC

December 24, 2013 by Johnny Moreno 1 Comment

Ramen and a Half’s Jonelle Marie interviews pioneering cosplayer model – Yaya Han, at New York Comic-Con.

Cosplay Model – Yaya Han

Back then when the term “Cosplay” was unheard of – Yaya Han and very few alike, simply loved the art of creating costumes of super heroes, villains, and not to mention fantasy and science fiction characters in between. The art of what became Cosplay for them was simply how convincing, how imaginative, and how ornately detailed their costume design can be from make-up to inseam.

Yaya Han : www.yayahan.com facebook/yayahan yayahan.bigcartel

Filed Under: Art, Comics, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Fashion, Geeky, Interviews, Ramen and a Half, Series, Shows, Videos Tagged With: Cosplay, New York Comic Con, NYCC, Power Girl, Yaya Han

Frankie’s Garage: NISMO Festival 2013

December 23, 2013 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

This past November 2013 in the “Land of the Rising Sun” Japan, the NISMO Festival 2013 took place at Fuji Speedway. Over 30,000 Nissan fans gathered at this annual special event. NISMO TV recaps the festival with some amazing highlights and classic iconic Nissan rides.

Check out all the latest NISMO Nissan info @ YouTube – NISMO Channel.

Follow on social media @ Facebook – NISMO TV.

Filed Under: AutoStyle Tagged With: 370z, 510, Datsun, Fuji Speedway, GT-R, Japan, NISMO, Nissan, R32, R33, R34, Silva, Skyline, z

A1: The World’s Greatest Comics, Vol. 1 Annual

December 11, 2013 by Stephen Jang 1 Comment

Get ready for some fun and laughs ‘cuz don’t you get tired of reading typical Marvel and DC superhero stuff all the time? Take a break, try out A1: The World’s Greatest Comics, Vol. 1 Annual from Atomeka and Titan Comics. This graphic novel anthology brings together top writers and artists from various comic backgrounds and art styles like Alan Moore, Jim Steranko, Kevin Eastman, Simon Bisley, James Robinson, D’Israeli, Dave Elliott, Bill Sienkiewicz and others. You know, it’s kinda of like a 2CD compilation of Now That’s What I Call I Music. What is it up to now in the UK? Like Vol. 90? Okay, let’s move on to the wild action, mystery, art exhibit coolness and coffee trivia from the A1 Vol. 1 Annual.

The James Bond Omnibus Vol. 005

December 11, 2013 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

Many of you are too young to remember James Bond in daily black and white comic-strips in newspapers back in the day. Titan Books’ James Bond Omnibus Vol. 005 collects 9 full stories: Till Death Do Us Part, The Torch-Time Affair, Hot-Shot, Nightbird, Ape of Diamonds, When The Wizard Awakes, Sea Dragon, Death Wing and The Xandadu Connection from the original daily comic strips re-sized and reprinted for the first time.

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Filed Under: Books, Comics, Entertainment, Movies, Reviews Tagged With: 007, Cold War, comic strips, Ian Fleming, KGB, MI6, spies, Titan Books, USSR

DVD release of “I RIDE”- A biker documentary by Daron Ker

December 10, 2013 by Johnny Moreno Leave a Comment

I RIDE has just been released on amazon.com and you can find it at your local participating WalMart, but what I’d like to tell you here is my personal take behind the making of the film.

Documentary filmmaking can be tough, unpredictable at times, and you have to capture it as best as possible every step of the way.

I’ve had the opportunity to take part in the making of Daron Ker’s “I Ride” and I would like to tell you my experience from the past to the present. There were moments that I had to endure and moments that I enjoyed behind the making of the film, because the physical path, the communications involved and the decisions made during filmmaking is what ends up shaping the story.
Initially I was introduced to Daron Ker and Marcus Bruno through Stephen Jang. We all had nine to five jobs and Daron was the only one at the time with funds to begin making a film about a biker band that played to America’s motorcycle culture movement. The inception to make I RIDE began by meeting the Fryed Brothers Band back in 2005.

Live-Action Kiki’s Delivery Service!

December 10, 2013 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

We get a first look of the live-action film Kiki’s Delivery Service in this mini-teaser trailer.

Frankie’s Garage: The 2015 Ford Mustang

December 5, 2013 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

Ford hopes to take the iconic Mustang pony car into the global markets with the 2015 Ford Mustang. Motor Trend takes a sneak peek at the 2015 Ford Mustang.

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Filed Under: AutoStyle Tagged With: aftermarket, euro, Ford, Ford Mustang, JDM, Mustang, Scion, SEMA, tuner

Hungry for Recipes: Roy Choi’s Simple but Perfect Instant Ramen Dish

November 27, 2013 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

Who hasn’t had instant ramen? You are definitely missing out if you haven’t had it. Well-known chef Roy Choi has perfected his instant ramen dish and it’s simple to make. And the secret ingredient is: American cheese.

http://vimeo.com/79105938

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Filed Under: Culture, Food Tagged With: American cheese, instant noodles, Korean, ramen, Roy Choi, Tasting Table

Medicom Toy x BAPE x Milo x Star Wars

November 25, 2013 by Stephen Jang 1 Comment

If you’re a fan of cute vinyl collectible figures then this 2-piece collection might be for you. Medicom Toy known for their BE@RBRICK figures teams up with fashion apparel brand A Bathing Ape (BAPE) for a Milo and Star Wars collab.

This first piece is Star Wars x Baby Milo VCD Darth Vader figure with removable mask.

Frankie’s Garage: Nissan @ 2013 Tokyo Motor Show

November 25, 2013 by Stephen Jang Leave a Comment

The 2013 Tokyo Motor Show recently took placed in Tokyo, Japan and Nissan unveiled a couple of street montsers. First, everybody thought Nissan was going to bring back the Silva (240) or a replacement model of the 370Z, but instead Nissan brought out 2 concepts. The Datsun 510 Bluebird is back with these two models: Nissan IDx Freeflow and the NISMO tuned IDx.