geekosystem

Okay, folks, we officially need something to brighten our day, and we suspect you're right there with us. So big thanks to Entertainment Weekly's Jef Castro for bringing us this poster of Patton Oswalt's idea of what Star Wars Episode VII would look like. From Moon Knight to Spider Robot Chewbacca, Oswalt's amazing eight minute diatribe outlining a pop-culture orgy for the ages from Parks and Rec is represented nearly in its entirety on this incredible poster, which is frankly just what we could use right now. Keep reading to get a load of the whole shebang.

If you weren't already a fan of Patton Oswalt, this should likely bring you into the fold: Oswalt performed an improvised eight-minute rant/filibuster for an episode of Parks and Recreation. What was said rant/filibuster about? His idea for Star Wars Episode VII, with a few surprising twists mixed in.

If you think a comic written by a five-year-old and then drawn by his 29-year-old older brother would be awesome, you would be right. That's the story behind Axe Cop. It started in 2010 as a webcomic written by then five-year-old Malachai Nicolle and drawn by his older brother Ethan Nicolle. It's grown into a comic book published by Dark Horse Comics, a series of animated web videos, and now a full-fledged animated series. Fox has announced the show will premiere on Saturday, July 27th as part of their new Animation Domination High Definition line up.

Kevin Allison is probably best known for his work with the sketch comedy group The State, which also featured the likes of Michael Ian Black, Thomas Lennon, and many more. When The State broke up, Kevin found himself in a situation a lot of us find ourselves in when a major part of our life comes to a close: He didn't know what to do next. Allison now hosts the popular storytelling podcast Risk!, but the road that got him there wasn't an easy one. Allison was nice enough to talk with us about The State, storytelling, and the process behind Risk!

"I’m not a nerd. I used to be one, back 30 years ago when nerd meant something." - Patton Oswalt A question for my fellow geeks: Could you have ever imagined today's pop culture environment? Especially while some of us were subjected to taunts, name-calling, or physical bullying over the weird stuff we liked? Because we were into horror movies, or science fiction, or video games ... we were the different ones who had to be called out for being different. We couldn't fly under the radar enough. But as much as "normal" kids made our lives miserable, we liked feeling like insiders. We were otakus, with our specific but passionate fascinations. But now, there is a place for all of us, all because of the Internet. The geek stuff we held so dear that some thought we had to be ashamed of is part of the mainstream now because - to our horror - it's become trendy. If something has a Facebook fan page, how underground can it be? It's as if it doesn't even belong to us anymore.

Charlie Kaufman is one of the most respected screenwriters in the business. His screenplays, from Being John Malkovich to Synecdoche, New York, are some of the most original, intriguing works to hit the screen in years. That's why many film fans are a little surprised to read the news from the Hollywood Reporter that Kaufman has been doing touch ups on the script for the sequel to a movie starring Jack Black as a chubby panda who knows karate. That's right, Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom just got a hell of a lot more surreal.