The Batman Villain Project – #83 – The Octopus, originally uploaded by wanderingbert.

Wanderingbert (I don’t think that’s his real name!) is the creator of The Batman Villain Project, an ambitious attempt to draw every villain Batman has ever fought. And we are not just talking about the comics, which would be daunting enough, considering that Batman first appeared in 1939 and has been in publication ever since, but baddies from all TV and movie incarnations (everything from the 60’s live-action show, to Batman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond) are fair game as well!

The current villain in the series is The Octopus, an awkwardly costumed criminal whose first and only appearance was World’s Finest Comics #131 (Feb 1963).

Be sure to check out The Batman Villain Project on Flickr to see the previous 82 entries and to see which costumed obscurities appear next.

Now it has been well established that hovercraft are awesome. This one claims to be a “Nautical Research Vessel”, yet it has a massive harpoon cannon on the foredeck. That’s pretty awesome, I guess, but it begs the question, what kind of research requires a harpoon? (Other than “What can we harpoon today?”) I suppose it could be used to defend their hovercraft from the deadly Kraken…

This particular Kraken (which seems to be officially called the “Black Kraken Monster”) resembles a cross between an octopus and a squid. Its head and tentacles are arrayed in a very octopus-like pose, but it’s head extends into a long squid-like mantle. It appears to have only seven arms, and each ends in pointy club. The mantle ends in a similar arrowhead point, so it almost seems as though it might have been intended to be an eighth tentacle. It has malevolent red and yellow eyes, purple spots OF PURE EVIL.

More recently, the Kraken figure has shown up in the Matchbox Hitch ‘N Haul series, specifically the Wild Water™  set. The Kraken is now being called a giant squid, and it is joined by a shark and scuba diver. The hovercraft has been replaced with an (infinitely less interesting) SUV pulling a jet ski on a trailer. The squid has been repainted a sort of purpley-blue and, in case you were wondering, the SUV is a Chevy Suburban.

There is also this variant version with a powder blue squid, shark, and diver, a red jet ski, and a Land Rover Freelander.

Earlier this year Quirk Classics took the publishing world by storm with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Will their new literary mashup be able meet such great expectations? I say YES!

A) It has sea monsters, B) it has illustrations…

and C) OMG! The book trailer!

It goes on sale on September 15, and you can pre-order it from Amazon.com.

design by Ross Zietz

This is the first of many cephalopod designs from Threadless that will be featured on T-shirt Tuesday. I also think this was the first Threadless shirt I ever saw. I don’t own it because either a) I’m afraid the color doesn’t quite look right on me, or b) it’s never in stock when I decide the buy it anyway. One of these days it shall be mine!

Buy it from Threadless

Also available as a print!

Note: At the time of this writing, both the shirt (in adult sizes) and the print are sold out. However, it has been reprinted several times over the years, so keep trying…I know I will!

leviathans 9, originally uploaded by Ryan Rubino.

Behold the glory that is Lego Sperm Whale vs Lego Giant Squid! I thought about saving this for Flickr Friday, but I just couldn’t wait!

For more photos of these beautiful brick behemoths, visit Ryan’s Flickr set.

The Humboldt Squid (Dosidicus giga) is a large predatory squid found all along the Pacific coast of North America. Also known as the Jumbo Squid, the Jumbo Flying Squid, and the Red Devil, Humboldts can grow up to 7 ft long and weigh as much as 100 lbs. They generally inhabit deep water, but come to the surface at night to feed. They can be very aggressive, and have reportedly attacked divers and fishermen.

Could a realatively minor earthquake (magnitude 4.0) really cause a school of squid to beach themselves? The experts seem to think it is just a coincidence, and point out that these type of strandings, while rare, have happened before.

octopus pajamas by Kim Rogers®

This girly six-armed octopus was sighted in the “intimate apparel” section at a Belk department store.

Octopus two-piece Gymmies™ by Gymboree®

Gymboree gets bonus points for giving their octopi the correct number of arms! We saw this pajama set at the Gymboree store, and you can buy them online here.

Sepiadarium austrinum

[Image originally published in Cephalopods: A World Guide by Mark Norman.]

PZ Meyer’s Pharyngula is a blog about evolution, development, and a myriad other aspects of the biological sciences. Meyer is a fellow cephalopod enthusiast, and every Friday he posts an image of a cephalopod (such as the one shown above, from today) as part of a feature called, oddly enough, Friday Cephalopod.

Pharyngula is a member of the ScienceBlogs family, the source of many of the subscriptions in my blog reader.

A Friendly Face, originally uploaded by Frank Peters.

In a similar vein of what I’ve started doing on Tuesdays, every Friday (beginning today) I will share a cephalopod image that I’ve found on the photo site Flickr.com.

Today we have a cuttlefish from the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. Even I can admit that as fascinating and awesome as cephalopods are, they are rarely “cute” in the traditional sense. However, this little guy proves that you don’t have to be fuzzy to be adorable!