Awesome Leisure

Tech journalist and print historian Glenn Fleischman teamed up with other experts to create How Comics Were Made: A Visual History from the Drawing Board to the Printed Page. The book takes readers through 130 years of newspaper cartoons with the help of high-resolution original art, newspaper reproductions, and interviews with cartoonists.

“If you wanna know what you look like, just ask me, and I’ll tell you.” A young woman struggling with body dysmorphia and eating disorders meets a man who’s too nice for his own good. This straightforward yet refreshingly sincere drama tackles the blurry line between love and dependency. Premieres 4.5.2024.

MSI joins the growing handheld gaming PC market that Valve’s Steam Deck blew wide open. The Claw A1M is powered by an Intel Core Ultra laptop chip. It has a 7″ 120Hz 1080p IPS touchscreen, Hall Effect joysticks and triggers, and a Type-C Thunderbolt 4 port that supports up to 65W charging. It runs Windows 11, but it also lets you install Android apps.

Konami dusts off the ’80s run-and-gun classic for today’s generation. While Contra: Operation Galuga mainly offers new graphics and audio to the NES arcade shooter, it also has a few new stages and enemies and adds a four-player arcade mode. It’s time to steal lives from your kids.

Stressed after a long day at work? Head over to the Pluvior website, go full screen, and unwind to the pitter-patter of raindrops on your screen. As the virtual rain falls, you can tweak other sounds like wind, lightning, and urban ambiance. We wish the raindrop simulation was tied to the sound intensity, though.

Borrowing a page from Drumeo’s book, the YouTube channel Pianote invites keyboardists to create their interpretations of popular songs they’ve never heard. In this video, Snarky Puppy’s Justin Stanton takes on Dua Lipa’s Don’t Start Now, imparting the dance-pop hit with a smooth blend of jazz and funk after only hearing the drums and vocals.

For over 40 years, legendary music producer Rick Rubin has been helping a diverse array of artists create their seminal and most significant works. The Creative Act: A Way of Being sees Rubin share his observations on creativity and how being creative isn’t about what you make but how you see the world.

Frolk’s whiskey glass set comes with two 11 oz. crystal glasses and a matching 30 oz. decanter, both with a unique twisted base design. They come packed in a pinewood box, along with two XL spherical whiskey chillers, a freezer pouch, tongs, and two slate coasters. Makes a great gift for whiskey lovers.

Why you would want to glide around on skates made out of ice is anyone’s guess, but Works By Design got us to watch his video regardless. He started by testing various mixtures of water and binders for strength. After that, he fabricated custom metal blades and a special silicone ice mold. Our feet are freezing just looking at this thing.

Musicians Alexandr Misko and Alexander Boldachev performed this powerful acoustic arrangement of The Cranberries song Zombie as a tribute to fallen Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The duo’s nuanced performance serves to remind us not to be indifferent zombies and to stand up to oppression.

A small-time con man gets the break of his life when he’s hired to go to Italy and persuade an acquaintance to go back home to the States. Irish star Andrew Scott (Sherlock, Fleabag) stars as the antihero Tom Ripley in this miniseries adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s classic crime novel The Talented Mr. Ripley. Premieres on Netflix 4.4.2024.

High N’ Wicked’s Foursquare Whiskey is one tasty spirit. The distillery achieves its depth of flavor by aging single-grain Irish whiskey in bourbon barrels and finishing it in casks from Foursquare’s award-winning Mark X 2007 Barbados rum. It starts sweet, like tropical fruit, giving way to bold and invigorating spices as it hits the back of your throat.

Play all your favorite pinball games on one cabinet with a virtual pinball machine from The Pinball King. Their premium models have a 43-inch 4K playfield, an HD backglass, an analog plunger, a shaker motor, haptic feedback, a real DMD (dot-matrix display), and more. They also make a 32″ model. Save $300 on any Kings Choice system with the code “awesomer”.

A coil gun is a weapon that uses electromagnets to accelerate a metal projectile through its barrel. It’s possible to build your own, but the high voltage electricity involved can be dangerous. Using the utmost caution, Jamie’s LEGO built a slightly less deadly coil gun using Technic parts, a bunch of 9-volt batteries, and some 100-volt capacitors.

The Hamster toy blaster from Shanye X Phantom Tech isn’t much thicker than a phone, so it fits easily in your pocket. It can fire a single foam dart or .50 caliber rubber balls. It accepts short or long darts and primes easily with the pull down on its powerful spring-loaded mechanism. Luke from Out of Darts shows how it works and has them for sale in his shop.

TheBlockZone sells models inspired by supercars, trucks, and motorcycles. The kits are designed by car fans and brick-building experts and range from 500 to 11,000 pieces, many with remote-controlled features. Some of our faves are the Widebody German Coupe, the British Off-Roader, The Ultimate Italian Classic, and the Time Machine Pickup.