Courtesy of Corey Helford Gallery

The Cat Carrier by Shag/Josh Agle

​"When [Mad Men] first started, all of my friends, everyone who knows me, said, 'You've got to watch it. You'll love the costumes and the sets,'" says Josh Agle, the artist best known as Shag.

Agle, though, wasn't necessarily interested in checking out the mid-20th-century costumes and interiors that mark AMC's hit series. And when he finally walked in on his wife watching Mad Men, it was the stories and characters that sucked him into the show.

"I hope that's the same thing with my paintings," he says by phone. "They might be set in the '50s or '60s or '70s, but the real content is in the characters and stories they're telling as opposed to the window dressing, the way they are dressed and the furniture that they're sitting on."

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Liz Ohanesian

Keith Baker and Satine Phoenix

​Actors, writers and artists got together on Saturday afternoon at Meltdown Comics for a day of Dungeons & Dragons with a purpose. Celebrity Charity Dungeons & Dragons set out to raise funds for Reach Out and Read, a national literacy organization that provides books to pediatric healthcare practitioners to give their young patients while teaching parents the importance of reading aloud to children.

Satine Phoenix, who hosts Meltdown's twice-weekly meet-up DnDMelt as well as the comic shop's DrawMelt life-drawing classes, organized the event. Phoenix, who has been playing D&D for 17 years, had been itching to do some charity work. Finding participants wasn't a challenge.

"If you put out that you want to play Dungeons & Dragons, you find all the other people who want to play Dungeons & Dragons because we're all in the closet," says Phoenix. "Nobody really talks about it, but a lot of people play it."

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Liz Ohanesian

Beavis and Butthead in Real Life by Kevin Kirkpatrick

​When artist Chet Zar was offered the chance to curate a show for CoproGallery last year, he brought together his friends from the special effects world with a variety of other artists for a sculpture show.

"You don't see a lot of sculpture shows," he says.

Titled "Conjoined," the show broke attendance records at the Bergamot Station gallery. Like massive Hollywood hits, Zar's event spawned a sequel, the cheekily titled "Conjoined II in 3D: The Sequel", which opened Saturday night and runs through February 11.

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Amy Lachat

Mike Monreal shoots some Gauntlet demons on the Christmas episode of Co-Op Life

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It sucks when your Christmas party is invaded by Gauntlet demons. You have to don your warrior gear, get your party guests cross-bows, and try not to shoot the food. Luckily, roommates Jake Hames and Mike Monreal have plenty of practice battling video-game bad guys around their apartment. Gifted director Shane English gives them a new one to face every week in his expertly crafted live-action video-game parody series Co-Op Life, hosted on Machinima.com

Each episode is shot in the style of a different video game, ranging from modern first-person shooter games like Bio-Shock to hack and slash retro arcade games like Gauntlet. As Monreal and Hames banter and play the game-of-the-week in their run-down apartment, the reality around them begins to fuse with the world of their game until the action is no longer on their console, it's all around them.

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Liz Ohanesian

Shadows of Dangerous Men by Scott Listfield (The Venture Bros.)

​See more photos in "The Best Art Inspired by Adult Swim."

Gallery 1988 has hosted plenty of group shows that explore the influence of pop culture. From video games to cult films, Garbage Pail Kids to Watership Down, artists have come together at the Melrose Ave. space with a mission to transforms well-known works into something new.

On Friday night, Gallery 1988 took a slightly different approach. Where group shows often touch on nostalgia and early influences, in "[gallery 1988 x adult swim]," artists took inspiration from their peers, the creative teams behind the shows that comprise Adult Swim's programming schedule.

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Shannon Cottrell

Spotted at Animé Los Angeles.

​I think I'm hooked on Homestuck.

Homestuck is a web comic, the fourth story in the MS Paint Adventures collection created by Andrew Hussie. It started in April of 2009 and is ongoing, with five acts completed and a sixth one underway. If you want proof of its popularity, go to a comic book or anime convention and look for the gray kids with orange and yellow horns. You'll see a lot. And, if you can't get to a convention, check out the fan-generated work on Tumblr.

I started reading Homestuck last summer, after seeing a large group of people cosplaying characters from the series at Anime Expo. After reaching the midpoint of Act 1, though, I got busy and put it aside for a long while.

Then last weekend at Animé Los Angeles I wandered down to a Homestuck cosplay meet-up with a couple friends. It was massive, at least 100 people from what I saw. The following day, I asked my pal Charleett, who has become something of a Homestuck evangelist, about the comic.

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Shannon Cottrell

​See more photos in Shannon Cottrell's slideshow, "Anime Los Angeles 2012."

I've been to Animé Los Angeles five times now. For my first three years, I visited ALA as a regular attendee (unlike many other conventions, they don't offer press passes). But, for the past two years, I've attended as a panelist. For ALA 8, which took place last weekend at the LAX Marriott, I organized the panel, "Shibuya-Kei and Japanese Indie Music," featuring Tune in Tokyo DJs Greg Hignight and Del Martin, as well as musician Tommy Pedrini (Cats on Mars).

There's a reason why I keep going back to ALA and why I seem to get more involved with it each year. ALA manages to stay under the radar of many in the convention world, perhaps because of the lack of press passes, but it is growing steadily. The convention program notes that the first ALA, back in 2005, had 616 members. These days, ALA draws more than 3,000 members.

But, ALA isn't just growing in size. It's members are maturing too.

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Shannon Cottrell

​Read more in "Kevin Eastman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Co-Creator, Takes Over Meltdown Comics for 35 Days." See more photos in "Kevin Eastman @ Meltdown Comics."

Stacy E. Walker has done a lot of modeling for artists. She's appeared on book covers and has worked with video game and animation companies. Her best known gigs, though, are with Heavy Metal. Walker has graced the cover of the renowned science-fiction and fantasy magazine a whopping twelve times, having posed for artists like Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell and Alex Horley. Several statues have been made in her likeness. She's also appeared on a number of Heavy Metal posters and t-shirts.

Wednesday night, Walker appeared at Meltdown Comics for Heavy Metal's 35th anniversary, part of the "Lost Angeles: 35 Days with Kevin Eastman" event. I met up with her during the party to ask about her career.

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Frances Delgado, anime figure collector and host of Toybox on AX Live

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The world has been taken over by monsters. You and your family are forced to live in the bowels of the Earth. Against all odds, you decide to fight the evil beings above you and save the human race. And you do it all in a tiny bikini and knee high tights.

This is the plight of Yoko, a 14-year-old red-head with a rifle, and one of Frances Delgado's favorite anime characters. "She's so resilient," Frances enthuses. "Her life is so tragic, but she manages to hold on to the small happiness she has."

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Shannon Cottrell

Helmetgirls at San Diego Comic-Con

​See more photos in "2011: The Year in Cosplay." Read more in this years "Best of the Cons," Part 1 and Part 2 and "Top 10 Cult Stars of 2011."
While some conventions attract more people in costume than others, there's no denying that cosplay has become a very important aspect of the fan convention circuit. From how-to panels to masquerade events to impromptu meet-ups, cosplayers are everywhere.

This year, we put together a slideshow of 50 great cosplays from events like Anime Los Angeles, Anime Expo, San Diego Comic-Con, Dragon*Con, Comikaze Expo and Pacific Media Expo. Here, I'm giving a shout out to five that stood out either because they were unusual or they saw an unexpected surge in popularity this year.

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