Happy New Year in 2011 from our buddy Bill (artist of Red Demon and Dr. Destruction). To join in his 2011 celebration, Bill decided to show how extraterrestrials from the other side of the galaxy PARTY! Krrpk and his fellow party peeps are from Bill's KRRPK comic book series.

I hope you all have a wonderful year in 2011. It's because of you guys that we can build our little corner in the zany world of comics and toys. For that we are eternally grateful! Let's hope 2011 is a fun, adventurous and fulfilling year for us all!

Below are Happy New Year's illustrations by Ohm (Figure designer for our Tcho! Minis) and Fabien M (King Katch character and figure designer).

Here's a lovely shirt designed by long-time Muttpop fan and talented artist/cartoonist Alexis Ziritt. A strong "Dos Rayos" mask design is cool in and of itself... but is brought to a whole new level with his green flesh and purple eyes. As huge fans of anything Hulk-inspired, we love the design. The shirt is on sale today only (Thursday, July 8th) for just $10. The catch is, it'll only be on sale for another ten hours at Ript.com. After that they're gone! If you're interested in purchasing one, you can CLICK HERE to get more information about purchasing.

I had the fortune of being in Chicago this past weekend. A family friend (who I've known for so long and so well that I can call him my little bro) graduated from Northwestern's Undergraduate school of Engineering. It was a great excuse to visit Chicago, celebrate, and bum it with my old college roomie who lives in the heart of Downtown Chicago.

The verdict? Chicago is the prettiest and most exciting city in all of the USA... if you can get past the schizophrenic weather. When it was sunny, it was as awesome as a city can get: tons of people and a magical sense of energy. But within the span of an hour it would go from bright beautiful sunshine to heavy rain and thunderstorms. At 3:30pm we were enjoying an uncomfortably hot, humid, and sunny Chicago-summer day. An hour later, at 4:30pm, we were being pelted by huge droplets of rain as lightning and thunder roared. When you factor in the bone-numbingly cold winters, there's a lot of Elements to battle in Chi-town. But when the weathers nice, it's awesome!

The streetlamps used in the city give nights a mystic and ominous hue of golden brown (just like those recent Batman films!). When the weather's good, it feels like one big party. Everybody is out and about and happy to enjoy the great weather. The positive vibe is addictive and endearing.

What I also found shocking was how distinct nearby parts of the city were. My former college roommate has a nice place in Lakeshore, right by Lake Michigan. A five minute walk from his place takes you to either an immense towering landscape of high-rise buildings, a Family-friendly Pier with gargantuan ferris wheel, or beaches crowded with youngsters enjoying the sun and playing volleyball.

Food was good but very heavy on the stomach. Restaurants tend to be more traditional American and Italian in cuisine. Portions are HUGE and typically smothered in butter, sauce and/or fried. I sense a couple of years in this town would have me 50 pounds heavier.

All in all, good times and an enthusiastic thumbs up to Chicago and Chicagoans. I'm just glad the Weather Gods gave me (mostly) clear weather and sunshine.

For the last 2 weeks I've been steadily playing basketball in my new shoes: the Nike Cradle Rock Lows in the Steve Nash 'Home' colors. I'm a bit old school in my shoe tastes. I like my shoes to look like shoes (sorry, not into that pseudo-sci fi flywire stuff). So when I came across photos of the Cradle Rock Lows, I KNEW I had to get a pair. Thing is, you can't purchase them in the USA.

Steve Nash has been wearing them for the majority of the 2009-10 season. Rajon Rondo wore them during the first half of the season (he even had a nifty blue pair for the 2010 All Star game). And yet they can only be purchased from retail outlets in Asia and Canada. I ended up buying mine from Taiwan via eBay. And I absolutely love them.

The White Nash editions cleverly use the PHX Suns Purple and Orange colors on a white shoe. There are plenty of nice touches like a shiny patent white leather on the front and back edges of the shoe, the "(re)fresh" nike logo and purple plaid detail on the tongue, and orange lace holes. It's got the old school basketball styling of many of Nike's Skateboarding shoes.

Performance-wise, I found that it took about 2-3 hours of gameplay to break the shoes in. But after that they felt very comfortable and stable. The puffy tongue and lacing system kept my foot firmly in the shoe (I found it helped to use the outer lace hole at the top to keep my foot in place). The "cushlon" foam felt as reactive as my Nike Zoom shoes with a little more spring upon impact.

I love these shoes so much that I'm debating whether or not to buy another pair (or two). While every other player is sporting their Kobe IV and Kobe V's, I'll be happily playing in my Cradle Rock Lows.

It's pretty cool how certain songs will forever be linked with memories in your life. For me, many of those happened during my years in College (from 1996-2000). It's during that time that I found myself exposed to tons of music that I wouldn't typically listen to. You're around so many different people with passionate tastes that want to share their favorite song of the moment with you. Once in a while, you end up discovering something that resonates with you for a lifetime. Below are a few songs that instantly bring me back to College. Links to playable tracks are found below.

CRIMSON TIDE Theme & Madonna FROZEN: My roommate, Ankush, had this odd ritual of looping these particular songs on his computer to sleep to. Every evening I'd be listening to this stuff BLARING as I'd go to sleep. After a while, I kind of dug listening to them (even though I still have a hard time seeing Crimson Tide as appropriate "nap-time" music).

Prodigy- BREATHE: This was something I just heard and instantly fell in love with. As a dude raised on hip-hop, I wasn't big on Electronica or Drum & Bass... but the Wu-Tang-like Sword Slash Sound FX and menacing beat would immediately get me amped up. I completely forgot about this song until Jerry mentioned Orbital's music. I mistakenly thought Prodigy was Orbital (sorry!) but it ultimately got me to search and find this track. Still love it.

Cake- THE DISTANCE: Once again, my taste in hip-hop can be easily seen in my love for this track. I fell in love with this song the moment I heard it. I was SHOCKED to find that Ankush ended up buying the CD it was on (Fashion Nugget). I loved the album so much that I bought a copy for myself and now consider it an all time favorite.

CRIMSON TIDE THEME:

MADONNA-FROZEN:

PRODIGY- BREATHE:

CAKE- THE DISTANCE: