Have you ever wanted to build little paper people but just didn't know where to begin? Then check this site out. All you need is a printer, some heavy paper and 10-15 minutes and you can create these cool looking creatures. I would do this, but my printer couldn't handle the paper. I'm sure there are ways around that, but I'm lazy. Found via Stumbleupon.

Labels: art, cool

Got this today from our good friend Dave Devries of The Monster Engine:

"Hey Len, Recently Heinz ketchup created a contest on Youtube challenging anyone to produce a commercial---a bunch of us at MediaSauce produced one that airs on youtube and could use votes. I did all the comic art in the video as well as storyboarding the pace. It is called 'The Great Condiment War.' "

See the video here. And check out the site with all the other entries here. Go and vote for Dave and his compadres today!

UPDATE: Use this link to vote instead.

Labels: cool, videos

Tonight's show, we celebrate week 3 of this summer cold, we chat about the people waiting in line for the iPhone, talk more about being the perfect podcast listener and also talk about what would happen if something awful befalls me. Enjoy the show!

RUNNING TIME: 48:16

Music:
Howard Jones | Revolution of the Heart


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Labels: podcast

I found this cool cartoon while traversing the forums at Rue-Morgue. Pretty cool little guide. It reminds me of this book I had as a kid called "How To Care For Your Monster". There are some good tips to keep in mind. Please print this and hang it near your shotguns.

Labels: funny, zombies

From the show American Inventor. My one question for this guy is isn't a superhero supposed to save children anyway? Anyway, good try Sal.

Labels: funny, videos

It was pretty hot here today. So how did the kids kill the time while dad slaved over zombies? By making lego faces and people of course. Check out the whole set here.

Labels: family

Something is really wrong with this kid. And the zombification is the least of his problems. Via GiggleSugar.

BTW, Monster By Mail was Product of The Day over at GiggleSugar! Woot!

Labels: funny, zombies

I know the Fourth is next week, but I couldn't wait. Flash gurus Jib Jab teamed up with ThePartyParty.com to create this pretty awesome version of the Star Spangled Banner. I saw this on Leno last night but I had the sound down. Don't make that mistake.

Labels: cool, videos

Tonight I was invited to a new Flickr group called "Terrible Self" started by one of the funniest chicks next to Nora, Sunday AKA Subspace. The idea behind the group had me in stitches, so I decided to contribute this little number to the pool.

All of this is true. I hate the photo even today. I hated it as it was being taken. It was adolescent awkwardness personified.

If you have the guts to post a terrible self-portrait, do so. You'll feel better for a while, and then that will lead back into self-loathing.

Labels: art, funny

Just so you know, the Zombie Factory wheels are turning and undead after undead are coming off the assembly line. Here is a shot of some of the upcoming zombies. I had a stretch that are "art only" meaning I don't have to videotape the process, which means I can work on multiples. This is what that process looks like. It's a technique that Apelad has been using, so I decided to try it out as well.

Labels: art, zombies

You'll love Video Pizza. From the site:

A full hour of spinning pizza montage, with soothing sizzling sound effects adds the perfect ambience to any party experience!

Thanks to Dan for the link.

Labels: funny, weird

The effects are looking pretty damn good, if I say so myself. Thanks to Neil for the link, via Fishbrick.

Labels: funny, movies

Tis that time of year, graduations, weddings, formals...so let's have fun at the attendees expense! Enjoy captioning this one, gang!

Labels: caption

Which four related foods have been merged together?

COP ENK EAC UCO NTA RNM UQI NUT UAT ET

--

Congratulations to Henry Stokes, who guessed the correct word in last week's puzzle was STRAWBERRY!

Labels: braingames

This might be more of a regionism type of reference, but I got this video from a reader named Michael yesterday and although I don't remember this show at all, it really jogged my memory. I'd be interested in finding out who these people are (I know Paul Tapie, because he still works on radio here) but what about some of these other people? Anyway, any local folks who have any insight on this show would be much appreciated.

Until then, enjoy this clip of Neil's favorite restaurant.

Labels: Cleveland, funny

This should prove to be interesting:

"UberPulse has learned that, for the first time in Hollywood's history, a local studio, namely Paramount, will release next month's live-action Transformers movie, on cable pay-per-view, the same day it premiere's in US theatres, on July 3rd. But don't hold your breath... the price tag for that special night might deter more than one: $49!"

Check out the full story. Thanks to Andrew for the link!

Labels: movies

I had to post this because I had a real love hate relationship with this recent zombie order. I was scared to death of doing this one because of the fact that it alludes to one of the great masters. Plus, I could draw this really really well, or I could fail miserably.

I'm happy to say that this worked out really well and that I am very please with the results. I actually considered keeping this one or possibly buying it from the customer. But alas, it is packed and ready to ship. Farewell Vincent!

Labels: art, monsters, zombies

Neil joins us for our first show in 2 weeks. I fight through this summer cold to chat about your theories regarding our ghost/burglar, we talk about keeping up with family via the blog and being accused of being a plagarist. Also, cheers for Rifftrax, jeers for skunks and much, much more.





RUNNING TIME: 52:19

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Labels: podcast

I love this idea. I would buy Ghost Pops, you better believe it, baby. Everyday vending machines were rigged with a motion sensor and a recording of a little girl telling passersby to buy Ghost Pops. When they do, the machine mists up and the word "Thanks" appears. Check it out.

Labels: advertising, cool

Thanks to everyone who is finding Monster By Mail and this site via Boing Boing, MetaFilter and all the other bunches of sites that have blogged about the project today. Thanks for your interest and yes, I will be fulfilling orders starting tomorrow (which is actually today where I am). Man, I should just get some sleep. But, please make yourself comfortable and enjoy the buffett -- OF BRAINS! Mwuhahahaha!

Labels: site news

I love this video for Jonathan Coulton's song "I Feel Fantastic" - which incidentally is the winner of the PopSci Video Contest -- for the fact that it is so damn simple and so damn hilarious. Proof that it really is concept over execution most of the time. This happens to do both really well.

Labels: jonathan coulton, videos

Ok, so I know a lot of you have been waiting to hear the aftermath of what the hell happened in our house a few weeks ago. I was fully expecting to record a show last week, but I got laid out by an awful flu/cold. I lost my voice. I was sleeping during the day (which Nora can attest, I never do). I was even wearing my glasses all the time, which is a sure-fire sign that I am not well. Then, last night I got that crazy conjunctivitis "weeping, crusty eye thing" going on.

Ugh, too much info, I know. But the long and short of it is, I wasn't able to get my act together and do a show. I fully expect that by Thursday (fingers crossed) I will feel well enough and my voice would have returned sufficiently enough that we can record. And yes, I plan on letting everyone in on what what we found out regarding our unexpected guest/guests and also play all the wonderful specualtions that you sent via voice mail.

So, in short, thanks for hanging in there. If you don't listen to the podcast and just read the blog -- you should really subscribe. It would make our collective day.

Thanks again for reading/listening to us.

Labels: site news

I went to get the mail today and I got this very important piece of mail:


It's from the Administrative Offices of The Billing Audit Bureau in Naples, Florida. We've all heard of them right? Pretty important stuff. You'll also see that this is a second notice, so it may have been something I missed the first time.



Plus, it has this ultra-important watermark (which is fake, BTW. It's just printed on.)


As it turns out, it's yet another piece of mail from this place called New Hill Services. A few years ago, I subscribed to their Inside Photoshop magazine. It was good, with some interesting tips, but I let the subscription run out. But they just won't let the issue rest. I kind of enjoy getting these mailings from them -- I get about 2 -3 a week, no joke -- because they keep coming up with new tactics to get me to open the junk.

What I find even more amusing is that the use the address in Naples on the front, but they are really in Denver, CO.

Not only that, but the mailing house that this supposed metered mail came from is in Albany.

What I really love, though. is that the note says for me to Please Pay This Amount, but that "This Is Not An Invoice." Oh, so I guess it's just a suggestion then? I wish I could do that with clients I don't have. Send them a bill for services they don't want and then "suggest" a price for the said services.


I guess as long as they keep sending me them, I'll keep reading them. And as long as they are not invoices, I'll keep not paying them,

Labels: funny

Since last week's word balloon seemed to be a lot of fun, I decided to do it again this week. Have at it, captioneers!

Labels: caption

More crazy brain teasers from the place where brains hurt a lot: Here is ths week's challenge:

By changing the third letter of each of the words below, can you make another valid word. You have to change each word such that the third letters will reveal a ten letter word when read downwards. Therefore, what now reads KRZSAPROKD will be a real word.

BAKE
CURE
MAZE
PEST
NEAT
ROPE
PORT
FOOD
POKE
SODA

----
Last week's answer: Congrats to Daniel who figure out the connection first! Martha and David were the grandparents. They gave birth to John and Mary. John married Jessica, who gave birth to Lincoln and Alex. Mary married Justin and gave birth to Tina and Jamie.

Labels: braingames

I've been totally bad about posting submissions that have been coming in from people and I apologize for that. So let me use this time to post about some cool things that have been showing up in my inbox.

First off, Michael in SLC (a regular poster) sends me this image of his Tropical Beach Zombie. Says Michael "I was compelled to take a closer look thru our photos from when we were in Hawaii in February of this year: And sure enough, there had been a "Tropical Beach Zombie" following us the whole time!!!!!" Crazy how these things happen!

While we're on the subject of Zombies, Jen sends me this story from a while ago about Zombies Attacking the SF Apple Store. Eek!


Up next, we head to Belgium where Knightwise's beautiful wife Nyana celebrated her 30th birthday. To commemorate the occassion, I drew Nyana as Six from BSG. Woo! The image (along with some others I have drawn for them) are hanging all over their flat.

As always, keep sending along the images everyone and I'll keep posting them!

Labels: art, cool, monsters, zombies

I feel like absolute crap this morning (on Father's Day of all days), but this made me feel pretty good. Imagine being in studio for this recording. I would have been blown away. Thanks to Paul for this link.

Labels: cool, music

Summer flus/colds are the worst. Can someone kill me now?

Anyway, I was hoping to have a show this week, but it really depends on how I feel. We have lots of feedback from listeners about our weird occurances here and I hope to talk about that on the next show. But until then, I am taking a nap.

Labels: site news

I know I've posted about this before, but I finally got to try Rifftrax out tonight, and they are great! If you are a fan of MST, you'll certainly enjoy these tracks. We watched Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy massacre Star Wars Episode One, and it was wonderful. It brought back a lot of memories of seeing that movie for the first time and how hard I defended it when it came out. And you know what? I thnk that may be one of the biggest disappointments of my lifetime.

Anyway, I'm going to download the Riff on Attack Of the Clones and I may even try LOTR, even though I am afraid of having them ruin that movie forever for me.

Labels: funny, movies

Thanks Dan!

Labels: funny, videos

Got this link today from Dave DeVries. Check out Tom's work. He makes incredible monster clocks, including this very "Code-Monkey-ish" type clock. See the clocks and all his work here.

Labels: art, cool, monsters

I was at the drugstore this morning and came across these American Idol candies. I thought they were real people from the show, but as I inspected closer, I realized they were just generic people who looked like they should be on the show. There was the Generic Non-Threatening Black Guy. The Ultra-Cool, Ultra-White White Guy. And The Non-Offensive Bland White Chick. What I like the best is that the head are on this weird hingy PEZ mechanism that gives them this automaton look. I'll have to take more pictures when I bust one of the packages open.

My one question, where is the Sanjaya?

Labels: funny, weird

Matt in Alaska sets the bar high for Monsters in The Wild. Here is his monster "Yukon Jack, The Undead Gold Prospector of Braaains Claim" as seen somewhere near his home. Spooky! And great PS job...or is it a PS job?

Labels: art, monsters

Walt Ribeiro is a musician. Walt is a Coulton fan. Walt also has access to an 80 piece orchestra. What happens when you mix the three together? You get Coulton's "Code Monkey" done in an orchestral fashion. I don't know if Joco has seen this yet, but I'm sure it will blow his mind. Another reason why CC rocks all things.

BTW, Walt is also trying his hand at filmmaking, hence the video with the song. It's cute, in a glo-wormy/monchichi-ish sort of way.

Labels: cool, jonathan coulton, videos

This week's question should be fairly simple for some. For people like me, not so much:

I was going through some old family photos in the attic when I stumbled upon our family tree. I studied it for a couple minutes then went back down stairs to tell my mom about the family tree. The problem is I didn't study it long enough to remember the whole thing. I only remembered a couple things about it, and recent memories. Can you help me figure out my family tree? There are two grandparents, who had two children, who both got married and had 2 more children each. Totaling 10 people in all (Alex, David, Jamie, Jessica, John, Justin, Lincoln, Martha, Mary and Tina).

1. One of Jamie's ancestors was David.

2. John's sister gave birth to Tina.

3. Mary went bowling with her nephew last Saturday.

4. Alex is cousins with one of the girls.

5. Justin married Mary.

6. Jessica is not an ancestor, nor cousin of Tina.

7. Lincoln's brother showed Justin's son his baseball cards.

Here is the answer to last week's puzzle. Glad to see it encouraged some great answers!

The first guy to guess (guy #10) will be the only one to assume the following value for the words "white" and "black": The answer "black" will mean that there are an odd number of black hats that he sees. The answer "white" will mean that there are an odd number of white hats that he sees. This way one by one all the other 9 people will know the color of their hats.
Let us say that guy #10 (first to speak, and sees the hats of the remaining 9) says "white". That should mean to everybody else that he sees an odd number of white hats. At this time guy #9 will either be wearing a white or a black hat. If he is wearing a white hat he will only see an even number of white hats, and since guy #10 said that there is and odd number of white hats, guy #9 will know that he is wearing white and will say it. But if guy #9 is wearing a black hat, he will see an odd number of white hats (just like #10 did), and thus will know that he is wearing a black hat and will say it. No matter what #9 answers, guy #8 (who heard guy #10 and guy #9) can now easily incorporate the color of hat on guy #9 into the original answer of guy #10. This will allow #8 to know if he should see an odd or even number of white hats in front of him to determine his own hat color. The same thing repeats with #7-1. And they all get it right except of course #10, though he may get lucky.

Labels: braingames

This week's Caption This is inspired by the game Bubble Brain. I horked an image off the web, added a word balloon and the rest is magic.

BTW, last week's LOLCaption winner (as decided by me) is Anony-mouse! Mr. (or Mrs. Mouse), come out of anonymity and e-mail yourr mailing address for a four pack of signed monster buttons, and maybe another surprise!

Have fun with this week's submission.

Labels: caption

Experience the magic of laughing yoga.

Labels: funny, video

Tonight, Nora and I try to figure out what the hell happened in our house this week. We were burgled? Do we have a ghost? We let you decide. Please give us your feedback. Also, new Coulton music!

RUNNING TIME: 42:55
Music:
Octopus | Jonathan Coulton

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Labels: podcast

Just as I promised, here if the video I created for the new Jonathan Coulton song "Octopus". For the past week, Coulton has been writing, editing and recording his first original song since he ended Thing A Week in September 2006. He had the entire process online via UStream for the whole world to see -- including myself, the guy who drew visual responses to all 52 Things A Week. This allowed me to do something I was never actually able to do before, but was hinted at in the forward for the Visual Thing A Week book. That is, installing a tiny spy camera in Joco's studio and draw a visual response as he created the song. Well, as it turns out, he was the one who installed the camera for me. I simply took advantage of it.

The video was done in an afternoon as he put the finishing touches on the song. I don't know for sure, but I think this may be the fastest visual created for a yet to be publically released song. Enjoy!

BTW, you can buy the song from Coulton here. Yes, you can download it for free, but buy a copy too for crying out loud.

UPDATE: You can now buy this image as a print at my Zazzle store. Check it.

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Labels: jonathan coulton, vidcast

Thank you Justin for allowing me to be completely self-indulgent.

Labels: art, monsters, zombies

I drew a chef zombie last night. I suppose I could have gone a lot more gory with the subject matter, using brains, limbs, etc. But the request called for a Chef TO the Undead, which to me means that the chef wouldn't necessarily be a crazed zombie, but would be feeding crazed zombies.

Regardless, those details are neither here nor there. What cracks me up is this blog post from the monster requestee that outlines what a Chef to The Undead would prepare for a meal. High-larious. And very creative. I'd like to attend that meal. I'd have to wear a hazmat suit though, I imagine.

Labels: art, funny, monsters

For the past week, Jonathan Coulton has been recording a new song called "Octopus". He has been broadcasting the entire process via Ustream and showcasing the video on his site. This is the first time I was able to draw a visual response to his music while he was in the process of recording and editing it. It was a pretty cool experiment to say the least.

There is a video that I recorded as I drew this image. I will edit it down and put it to music as soon as I can get the song.

I added an unphotoshopped version of the image for your perusal.

Labels: art, jonathan coulton, music

More monster sightings are rolling in everyday and tehy are at once fascinating and frightening all at once. This photo is from Daryl at Atomic Suburbia. He took advantage of my offer to purchase my monster prints a while back. His creature is now walking amongst his stereo equipment.





And here are two photos from Bonnie who purchased Crypto beasts based off her two dogs. This is Hermione...








And this is Monty. If you have any photos of your Monsters In the Wild, send em along and I'll post em!

And as an added bonus, here is one of my favorite recent monsters, our first president, George Washington!

Labels: art, monsters

This is seriously one of the funniest videos I have seen in a long time. Let it build a little and you'll see why. Hilarious. Thanks to Erin for the video.

Labels: funny, videos

This week's Caption This is a little different this week. Inspired by LOLCoultons, LOLCats and a suggestion by poster anony-mouse, I decided to do a LOL Caption This contest.

Use the image at the left to create a LOLCaption. (For an example of what this, may I suggest this wonderful resource or for more in-depth resource try this). You can write the LOLCaption in the comments, or you can hork the image and be true to the art form and photoshop your caption on the photo. Winner - decided by me - will get a four pack of signed Monster by Mail buttons.

Have fun and good luck!

Labels: caption

This week's question has to do with -- what else -- monsters.

There is an island with 10 inhabitants. One day a monster comes and says that he intends to eat every one of them but will give them a chance to survive in the following way:
In the morning, the monster will line up all the people - single file so that the last person sees the remaining 9, the next person sees the remaining 8, and so on until the first person that obviously sees no one in front of himself. The monster will then place black or white hats on their heads randomly (they can be all white, all black or any combination thereof).
The monster will offer each person starting with the last one (who sees everyone else's hats) to guess the color of his/her own hat. The answer can only be one word: "white" or "black". The monster will eat him on the spot if he guessed wrong, and will leave him alive if he guessed right. All the remaining people will hear both the guess and the outcome of the guess. The monster will then go on to the next to last person (who only sees 8 people), and so on until the end.
The monster gives them the whole night to think.

The Task:
Devise the optimal strategy that these poor natives could use to maximize their survival rate.

Assumptions:
1) All the 10 people can easily understand your strategy, and will execute it with perfect precision.
2) If the monster suspects that any of the people are giving away information to any of the remaining team members by intonation of words when answering, or any other signs, or by touch, he will eat everyone.
3) The only allowed response is a short, unemotional "white" or "black".
4) Having said that, I will add that you can put any value you like into each of these words. For example, "white" can mean "my mother did my laundry" and "black" can mean the guy in front of me is wearing a black hat.

Last week's question was correctly answered by Bill, although it looks like a cut and paste job. I may have to find another resource for my questions. Hmmm....

Labels: braingames

About a year I posted a link to this guy who does a super bang up job of editing his videos to create a totally new song. Well, he's back, this time with drums and a piano. Check it. Thanks to Scott for the link.

Labels: cool, videos

As you may or may not have noticed on this round of Monster By Mail, I am offering a Zombie T-shirt along with the Mondo Monster Package. Well, I got to see the shirts yesterday and they look THE AWSUM! (Sorry, LOLCats on the brain.)

Anyway, thanks much to my sister and brother-in-law for getting this together for me. They do good work those two. They also did the monster buttons for me as well. And here's something else pretty cool. If you sign up for the Monster By Mail mailing list (see the site for details), you are automatically entered into a drawing for Zombie T-shirts!

So you see, when I say it is the Summer of the Undead, I don't lie, folks.

Labels: art, monsters, zombies

I started drawing the zombies tonight. And as you know, the first zombie is always the one you remember.

Anywho, to kick off the first zombie of the summer, I merged Coulton with zombies and art and this is what was churned out. On another note, I have to admit...I love the new bloody opening credits. I had fun making that. Anyway, enjoy the first zombie of the summer.

Labels: art, monsters, video, zombies

A few weeks ago, Jonathan Coulton wrote a fairly lengthy post on his blog answering the question of how he achieved his fame on the internets. I was thinking about it today and I thought it would make a great comic. So here it is, in all it's glory, very paraphrased.

Labels: cartoons, jonathan coulton

Rant! Rant! Rant! Yes our new podcast is a good old-fashioned rant show. We talk about the baby, The Rock Hall, Monster By Mail, Zombies, Basketball and some other stuff I"m sure. Listen in and enjoy the rant! KTHXBAI!

RUNNING TIME: 46:17

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Labels: podcast

Paul and Storm are hilarious. Plain and simple. You want proof? How about this take on the meme, LOLcats called LOLCoultons.

I have to lose some geek cred here. I didn't know what the hell anyone was talking about when they said LOLCats until I drew one for the last round of Monster By Mail. And even then I got it wrong. Now that I know what it is, I can laugh heartily and enjoy these FUR YEERZ TU CUM. In fact, here is mine:


IS I COOLZ NOW?

Also on a related note, ApeLad is starting his new art project concerning the origin of LOLCats. Huzzah!

UPDATE: I was told I got it wrong the first time so here is my second attempt.

Is that better?

Labels: funny, jonathan coulton, paul and storm