Every day here at Doom HQ we receive tons of tips from our readers about really cool stuff from the world of geek, as well as promotional materials for new films, comic books, collectibles, and much more. While we do our best to bring you as much of it as possible, we don’t always have enough geek manpower available to cover it all on a daily basis. But we hate the idea of all of this really cool stuff wasting away in our inbox. How could we NOT cover it? Hence why we’ve resurrected our long-defunct column Bits Of Doom, now rebranded and revamped as Doom Digest, a collection of easily digestible bits of news, videos, photos, and other goodies.

Today: Comic book artist Alex Ross to receive prestigious alumnus award, a custom R2-D2 coffeemaker complete with sound, celebrate Roller Coaster Day today at your nearest theme park, Leonard Nimoy talks Star Trek, and Universal Studios Orlando theme park’s Superstar Parade, plus Bits Of Doom.

Alex Ross

The American Academy of Art has named famed comic book artist Alex Ross, whose artwork has graced the covers of over a hundred of comic book issues, the 2012 recipient of its Distinguished Alumnus Award. Ross, who graduated from the Academy in 1989, is best known for his work on DC’s Kingdom Come series.

[Source: Chicago Tonight]

R2-D2 Custom Coffeemaker

Instructables member iminthebathroom is now the envy of every Star Wars fan, thanks to this custom R2-D2 Coffeemaker he created, complete with sound!!! He was even cool enough to put up a tutorial and video.

[Source: iminthebathroom via Bit Rebels]

Roller Coaster Day

Apparently, today is the third annual Roller Coaster Day at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Los Angeles starting at 10am PST, hosted by Freddie Wong and Brandon Laatsch. If you can get there today, go for it! If not, go to your nearest theme park and celebrate the day in your own way. Either way, if you tweet about it, use the hastag #RCDay2012.

Universal’s Superstar Parade at Universal Orlando

Speaking of theme parks, Universal Studios Orlando has rolled out a new parade called Universal’s Superstar Parade, a daily parade with themed floats, hundreds of street performers, and music and dance performances. Also new to the park is Universal’s Cinematic Spectacular, a nighttime show that takes place across Universal’s central lagoon that features powerful movie moments.

Leonard Nimoy Talks Star Trek

LA Times’ Hero Complex reporter Geoff Boucher interviews the legendary Leonard Nimoy for the Nerdist Channel. In this first part of the two-part interview, Nimoy talks about his thoughts on the original Star Trek series and making of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, as well as his encounter with Jimi Hendrix and much more.

Bits Of Doom

• Spiritgreen has a Legend Of Zelda-inspired shirt called “Ocarina of Timepieces” up at Shirt Punch for $10, today only. [Shirt Punch]
• The long-awaited Diablo III will be released tomorrow. Paul over at Unreality Mag has wisely come up with “Ten Rules I’m Setting for Myself While Playing Diablo 3.” [Unreality Mag]
• Rick Baker will designing Angelina Jolie’s look for Maleficent. [Diszine]
• Dear Everyone Who Was Angry When Marc Ruffalo Was Cast As the Hulk: Thanks! Love, Marc Ruffalo. [The Mary Sue]
• 10 High-Risk Sci-Fi/Fantasy Careers. [Topless Robot]
• Artists pay tribute to the late Maurice Sendak with original art pieces. [The Laughing Squid]
• Select Marvel digital comics on sale only for today for just $.99 each. [comiXology]

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