F

Flavorwire

Calvin and Hobbes

Pop Culture

The Greatest Imaginary Friends on Film and TV

By Jennifer Lewis on

Did you have an imaginary friend as a kid? If so, was it another child? An adult? An animal? A bizarre creature? A ghost? Before we get too far — if you haven’t seen The Sixth Sense, A Beautiful Mind, or Fight Club, stop reading now, go watch those films, and come back (or don’t get mad about having them spoiled). Cool? Cool. After the jump, we’ve gathered some noteworthy “imaginary” friends from live-action TV and film. Check ‘em out, and hit the comments to tell us about your own childhood and/or adulthood imaginary buddies. … Read More

Comics

Charming Comics-Inspired Nail Art

By Judy Berman on

In some ways, comic books would seem to be an unlikely subject for nail art — the comics world has a reputation for being nerdy and male-dominated, while nail art is among the girliest of concerns. But this is the 21st century, when everyone reads comics (and gets excited for superhero movies) and even geeks are getting into the nail art craze, the juxtaposition has actually become quite common. In this post, we’ve rounded up some of the most fun and skillful examples we could find, from Marvel and DC superheroes to Sunday funny pages favorites to indie comics with cult followings. Let us know in the comments whether you’ll be trying the sequined Avengers, the stylishly matte Tank Girl, or a different comic-book manicure of your very own. … Read More

Partner Buzz

The Greatest, Craziest Time Travelers in Pop Culture

By Doug Levy on

There are few notions as compelling as the idea of time travel. Whether it’s the chance to make good on a past mistake, the opportunity to change the course of history, or the possibility of witnessing the far-flung future, moving through time has always held a particular fascination for the more imaginative folks among us. That’s why it’s not hard to envision the idea of a person getting a little too obsessed with the notion — and maybe going a bit bonkers in the process.

In the new film Safety Not Guaranteed, indie fave Mark Duplass (Humpday, The League) plays a man looking for a time-traveling companion via a classified ad in Backwoods magazine. Parks & Recreation‘s Aubrey Plaza is the woman who responds, as part of a journalist’s attempt to see just how crazy this guy is. But is he really nuts or is there something more to the story? Watch the trailer after the jump and decide for yourself, then join us for a look at some of our other favorite chronally challenged figures in pop culture, from an overstimulated boy and his tiger to a murderous cyborg with the face of a governor. … Read More

Comics

The Debut Comic Strips of 10 Famous Cartoons

By Jennifer Lewis on

Folks, this might come as a shock, but the original Charlie Brown didn’t have zigzags on his shirt, nor eyebrows above his alarmingly wide-set eyes. Okay — maybe we’re being a little nitpicky with the eyebrows, but there’s certainly something strange about good ol’ Chuck in his 1950s Peanuts form. The same goes for Jon Arbuckle, whose eyes have grown tenfold in size since the downer’s first Garfield appearance. While wandering the depths of the Internet for our previous roundup of early character sketches, we kept bumping into these fascinating first comic strips of Charlie Brown, Garfield, Calvin, Hobbes, and more. So, since it’s always enjoyable to note the not-so-subtle changes in popular characters, we decided to save said strips for a roundup of their own. Click through for a good laugh, a bit of history, and ten debut comic strips featuring our favorite cartoon characters. … Read More

Books

10 Beautiful Literary Box Sets

By Emily Temple on

This week, we caught our first peek at the beautiful American paperback edition of Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84, arranged as a mini box set and designed by John Gall (the guy behind pretty much all of the American paperbacks of Murakami’s books). Since Chip Kidd’s hardcover design was so amazing, we have to say that we’re impressed and excited that the paperback version is living up to it. To tide us over until the book is actually in our hands, we’ve taken a look at a few other beautiful box sets — from the simple to the extravagant — that we totally covet for our shelves. Click through to drool along with us, and let us know if we missed your favorite in the comments. … Read More

Books

25 Literary Quotes About Luck

By Emily Temple on

As we’ve already noted, tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day, and while it may have originated as a holiday commemorating the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, it’s now commonly observed as a celebration of Irish culture as a whole. The Irish are famed for their luck – although, if we look at the history of the people, “lucky” may be a questionable takeaway – and the phrase “luck of the Irish” comes from the relatively large number of highly successful miners of Irish ancestry during the gold rush. So to help you fill your pockets with gold, or just celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by expounding on the nature of luck, Irish or otherwise, we’ve compiled some literary quotes about luck for every occasion and personality. Click through to read our list, and let us know if we’ve missed any of your own literary explorations of luck in the comments. … Read More

Pop Culture

A Comprehensive Rule Book to Pop Culture’s Fictional Games

By Jennifer Lewis on

It’s getting colder, folks, which means we’ll be spending more and more time indoors. How do you like to spend the winter months? Watching TV? Playing games? Reading Flavorpill? Well, let’s combine all of three, shall we? Every now and then, our favorite fictional characters will use their fictional brilliance to invent some awesomely fictional games, and we’ve been itching to play ‘em. The rules of these fake games, however, are often left somewhat unexplained, so why not piece together what we do know and add a few guidelines to create real, playable games? Gather some pals, order a pizza, and read on for the real life rules to 10 of pop culture’s most competitive creations. It’s game night! … Read More

Pop Culture

10 Fictional Games We'd Really Like to Play

By Emily Temple on

Now that Labor Day has come and gone, it seems like the months for playing games are over — it’s time to hunker down and get serious as the weather gets colder. Not so! Even as the real life days get shorter and we’re forced inside, we can still live vicariously through our favorite fictional characters, whose games are never threatened by weather or sleepiness. There are about a million fictional games, documented in all mediums and genres, and though some of them have blossomed into a certain kind of reality — as you probably know, Muggle Quidditch is now a thing, as is the 3d chess from Star Trek — most remain just out of our reach. But we have hope! Click through to see our list of games and sports from literature, film, TV and comics that we’d like to play in real life, and let us know if we’ve missed any of your favorite fictional pastimes in the comments. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Norio Ohga, a the former president and chairman of Sony and the man credited with developing the compact disc, has died at the age of 81. [via NME]

2. Take a look at the first new art from Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson in 16 years, a painting that… Read More

Books

When Real Books Inspire Fake Books

By Chelsea Bauch on

Whether retroactively penned by adoring fans, postmodern literary pranksters, or the original authors themselves, imaginary books have a way of eventually making their way into reality, evolving from two-dimensional plot props into real published tomes. Although we’ve already made a wishlist of reads we wish fictional characters would write — and indeed over in TV-land, characters from Mad Men’s Roger Sterling to Californication’s Hank Moody have also had their fictional volumes published on this side of the screen — here are five real books that exemplify literary life imitating fictional art. … Read More