July 31st is the birthday of The Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter!

In honor of this occasion today, we thought it would be cool to share some photos of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry cake that Darla Wireman over at Bakingdom made a while back for the release of the final film.

The Harry Potter-cake represents the four houses of Hogwarts – Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin – and Darla wrote that she wanted to create a cake that she thinks would be served in Hogwarts’ Great Hall. And, as Darla pointed out, since nothing is as it seems at Hogwarts, the cake follows that same pattern: it’s white and plain on the outside with just a white banner and the four House flags, but once you cut into it, there’s a colorful checkerboard design inside that represents the colors of the four Houses.

Joe Lynch, director of Wrong Turn 2 and the upcoming Knights of Badassdom, has made an interesting fan film based on the infamous Marvel villain, Venom, that premiered recently at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. In the short, True Blood star Ryan Kwanten plays an intrepid, ethically-challenged New York crime reporter who goes about his daily life while being trailed by a French documentary crew in Truth in Journalism.

You can watch the full 17-minute video here below. I’m going to discuss the short in spoiler-laden detail below the embed.

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan
The Sunday Comics, 1931-1933
Hardcover
Script by George A. Carlin, with R.W. Palmer
Art by Hal Foster
Introduction by Mark Evanier
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: July 31, 2013
Cover Price: $125.00

Everyone knows who Tarzan is, right? We’ve all pretended to swing through the jungle on vines while yelling. Heck, Steven Spielberg even had a little homage in his last Indiana Jones film, what with Shia LaBeouf doing a Tarzan impression amidst the treetops. What few people know is exactly how different the character was originally. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan: The Sunday Comics, 1931-1933 gives us the chance to see the pulp hero as he was seen in times gone by.

While I am reviewing this book based upon a digital version, I know that the physical edition is going to be a gorgeous specimen. The strips will be hardbound in a beautiful 15″ by 20″ perfect bound collection. Printed on very high quality paper (unlike the original newspaper editions) and colored exactly as they were before, this will be a worthy addition to the true collector. Written by George A. Carlin (no, not the comedian…he wasn’t even born yet) and illustrated by Hal Foster (who later went on to create the still ongoing Prince Valiant comic strip) this compilation of the Sunday strips is an amazing series of adventures that still grip the reader to this day.

Have you played Dark Souls, the third-person fantasy/horror/torture device RPG from developer From Software yet? If not, you really should…if you enjoy inflicting immense pain on yourself (sicko). While one of the hardest games you’ll ever play, defeating the overwhelmingly intimidating bosses of the game and eventually the game itself is immensely rewarding, and it’s one that every gamer should have mounted on their trophy wall. And with Dark Souls II not far away, you better get to it.

But what if the game was a first-person game instead of third-person? What if your face had to be even closer to the nightmare, ever wonder what that would be like? Wonder no more, as YouTube user SOULSLASHA shows you 11 minutes from the beginning of the game as a first-person RPG.

You can check out the video below.

Syfy has released a trailer for Heroes of Cosplay, a new six-part reality series documenting the lives of cosplayers that’s set to premiere on August 13th. The show will feature a variety of cosplayers, from the most known and respected to the newcomers as they go through their process in creating new costumes to wear to various conventions and events.

You can check out a trailer and read a lengthy description of the show, including a rundown of the cast and who they are, below.