"Exceptionally."

Featuring possibly my shoddiest prop yet, but is it weird we haven't had a Ringmaster figure yet...no, hearing it out loud, no, not surprising at all. I'm serious about the nine-volt though, as you can see in the diagram from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #15, the Book of Weapons, Hardware, and Paraphernalia.

That hat (and Peter David!) are largely responsible for the smart 90's Hulk, the persona that would later be called "the Professor." Banner's multiple personalities were allegedly integrated, but that may have been backpedaled later, under the explanation that maybe a hypnotic hat maybe isn't going to solve all your problems. (Guys would rather stare at the hat than go to therapy...)

I don't know if we've ever seen Moonstone and Ringmaster actually interact, but with their shared interest in therapy--or short-cuts to same--it made sense. As did the return of one of Moonstone's former teammates, the Radioactive Man. I had to look, I don't think they were ever on the Masters of Evil at the same time, but they were on the Thunderbolts more than once. The Radioactive Man--or, Chen Lu, since Radioactive Man makes me think "Up and atom!"--actually went after Moon Knight during Civil War, and he and Karla also faced him in Punisher #15 (#243) and thereabouts. They appear to be mutually griping about their boss Zemo having lost the reality knob at that point; but maybe weren't as close as I'd thought...

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"Gwenshelf."

Oddly, I'm not sure Gwen would be an Essential or Showcase collector: I think they predate her by a few years, and I suspect she would be a digital girl. But, I love them, and wish I had bought more of them when they were first coming out. I just bought the Adam Strange Showcase off of eBay, so there are still a few floating around. My local comic shop still has a few in stock, which I grab on occasion.  I need to sit down and update my list, since it sucks to see some in the wild and struggle to remember which volumes of Thor I have; and here are the lists of DC Showcases and Marvel Essentials.

Gwen's shelf, though, is actually mine; my most recent craft nonsense project! It's a 1/12 version of one of my own bookshelves. I have um, like four of the same, inexpensive mass-market particle board shelves; all crammed about as full as I can get them. (I strongly suspect some, if not all of the shelves; will have to be replaced the next time I move. They hold up fine where they are, but aren't the most durable things.) For a change, I didn't have to work completely from scratch; there was a very nice instructional video that pointed me in the right direction, but I didn't like the corners and resorted to my chosen medium, black duct tape!

Hmm, I think I left a big open strip there, because I was going to scan some of the smaller zines that are usually on that shelf: we got a Jhonen Vasquez Fillerbunny, but I missed scanning Evan Dorkin's Milk & Cheese: the Special Edition. But all the books, not unlike the actual Showcases and Essentials, are filled with newsprint, hacked out of the local free weekly and bound up with tape. So, you could arrange or even (gasp!) organize the shelf, but can't flip through them. Still wish I remembered where I put Essential Frankenstein; and I'm almost positive I've read Showcase: the War that Time Forgot but I can't recollect if I just got it out of the library or something. Mileage may vary, but the more oddball collections are probably the hardest to find but the ones to get. 

Satana turning a spell on Gwenpool, is the equivalent of cocking a loaded gun. Just to show she means business...Do Gwen's powers work like this? I thought so, but I could be wrong, and it could change at any point anyway. 

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"Collection."

Quick one today, since I'll be out; but I posted most of this on Twitter...two weeks ago? When things were mildly less than terrible than they had been. They're still pretty horrible. To distract myself, I made a 1/12 scale longbox, with comics--some of which I bagged and boarded! That was fun to make, and the comics in this one are some of my favorites.

Take care of yourselves this weekend, everyone!

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"Hey, this saves me $45 on a set!" (Immediately buys another set.)

And some tape, since that's a good chunk of this: I wanted to make Marvel Legends-scaled restaurant booths, for our heroes to sit around and grouse in. There are sets you can buy on eBay or Amazon, but sometimes "1:12" doesn't quite mean Legends-scale; and I would've hated to drop $40 and it look too small. Better to just cobble it together myself out of packing foam inserts and duct tape!

It still feels like too much black, like I need something to break it up a bit. Although, that Nightcrawler figure does sit in it a lot better than I thought he was going to; and that old Mary Jane figure is a perfect waitress! She may need a notebook for orders...maybe a gold one. I put together two booths, but need to work on another (hopefully better) table and I want something for the floor. Like, not-great restaurant carpeting? If I could remember, some place was selling prints or in-scale versions of old arcade style carpeting...or maybe they were selling actual arcade style carpeting. That's a bit garish; I don't want to go quite that far...

Honestly, I did spend a few bucks on what I'm hoping will be another location later! Maybe the guys will get out of that alley for a bit. Maybe. I've been shooting these strips for some time, and it's made me way more forgiving of artists that just don't wanna draw a background this panel; or yet another episode of a show filmed in that quarry or something. I also kind of wanted a Mystic Seer for the table, but not at that price!

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Other people use 3-D printers to make protective gear or tools, I wanna make action figures FOR my action figures.

A ways back, we had a strip where Deadpool, looking for the missing Nightcrawler, sadly pulls out an action figure of him to talk to. It's a little rubber figure from...Brazil? South America? eBay. I'd totally buy more if I could, especially since Nightcrawler's tail is about one molecule thick and ridiculously fragile; but I've never seen them since: there were other Marvel characters as well. I used that figure multiple times, but one problem: it wouldn't be Marvel Legends-scaled!

I know there was a recent Johnny Cage Mortal Kombat figure that came with a figure of himself; but action figures for your action figures are mighty rare. And, the scale of Johnny's figure's figure would be 1/6 at least, twelve inch scale. Although I see why McFarlane went that route, since a Marvel Legend-scaled figure of an action figure would be 1/12 of about six inches, or about half an inch! (Please do not ask to see my work; it's sad to watch.) Man, that would not only be way past choking hazard territory; but painting something that size? With a jeweler's loupe; it'd probably still be guesswork just hitting the broadstrokes.

Well, I may keep trying to recreate a boxed figure. I'll let you know if I nail it! I don't think in proper Marvel continuity Gwenpool has any of her collection with her, but maybe.
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The (already checked out) Hodge and the Podge:

1. Huh, I haven't done one of these since two years ago when I went on vacation? Well, I'm on vacation again, and as always the blog will continue to trundle along aimlessly while I'm out. My internet connectivity may be worse than usual this time, but...y'know, I think I'm okay with that. I have a small mountain of stuff to read.

I could've sworn I had more than that. I finished Stephen King's Bazaar of Bad Dreams and Stan Lee's graphic memoir Amazing Fantastic Incredible, and I have a stack of those Marvel digests and a couple of the DC 100-pagers waiting as well. I don't necessarily need to plow through all of it, but now would seem the time.

2. I tweeted these, but didn't put them up here yet:

So this was my most recent arts-n-crafts type project: 3D-printed Mystery Science Theater 3000 Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot from Shapeways! Like many of my little projects, it was fun, but also reached a point where I just wanted it to be done. I had never purchased 3D-printed items before, and it was interesting. One thing I noticed: it's not tooled the same way a plastic model might be, so everything doesn't 'click' together the way you think it ought to. It was also somewhat more expensive than I'd like; both the printing and the paint. I was very specific to get the right colors for them! But my painting is probably not going to get much past the point of 'passable.'

I'm sure we'll see them in the backgrounds of something sooner or later; but usually when I do something like this, that just means a real version is coming any minute now. YOU'RE WELCOME.

3. I don't talk movies very often here, but I got Moviepass a while ago, having decided to enjoy that ride as long as I can before they sink like the proverbial stone. The Wife had it for a bit before she got pissed at them for changing their terms midstream, which they have a few times now: you can only see a movie once, and they can implement a "surge pricing" surcharge at certain times. The latter, in my neck of the woods, is grade-A bullcrap. Maybe opening weekend for some movies, but I got dinged three extra bucks for Ant-Man and the Wasp two weeks after it came out, on a Thursday, for a half-empty showing. I was so mad I went back the next day and bought a ticket for Hotel Transylvania 3 and left. Don't test me, Moviepass.

The Youngest and I did like Ant-Man and the Wasp; and I have seen a few more in theater than I usually would have: Hereditary, Hotel Artemis...I kinda hated Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. I might hate that whole series. Every single one, "Ooh, these dinosaurs are majestic, noble creatures," that then go on to kill a bunch of people. The teaser at the end of this one; I felt like everyone responsible for making those things and letting them loose should be up for war crimes, because people are going to die because of their willful negligence and gross incompetence. Errrg. Look, if you cloned an ankylosaurus--okay, they're my favorite--they'd still be fairly dangerous just due to their size, but you'd have proved you could do it, yay science, and you could stop there without creating dozens of man-eating remorseless killing machines and crapping all over the environment. Man, when is Turok: Dinosaur Hunter getting a movie, put me down for one for that...

Anyway, Moviepass is starting to delineate for me what movies I'll expend the least little effort to go see, and which ones I won't until they end up streaming on Netflix or something. Depending on that effort, I may or may not go see the First Purge this afternoon. I'm kinda doubting it, but maybe. (EDIT: Yeah, I went, it was okay. It dodged at least a couple clichés I thought it would hit, and there's a couple good jumpscares, but I don't think you can shoot plastic explosive and blow it up, and I don't think it would make a fireball, either.) Not unlike the Jurassic World movies, I think Purge films raise a lot more questions than they have any intent of answering. If all crime is legal during the Purge, wouldn't corporations just cash in then? Do all their bribes and illegal dumping and trade violations at once? "Hey, you're federally protected from being fired the rest of the year, but tonight? Yeah, you're fired." Maybe I'll hold out for Jurassic Purge, where you can kill all the dinosaurs you want.


4. I still buy the occasional Star Wars Black figure, although I'll often try to hold out for a deal. Which I did here, but I had wanted the landspeeder, not because of the movie though, but because of Star Wars #31! Luke's got his hat and macrobinoculars right there on the splash page; but later in the issue Luke, the droids, and Han and Chewbacca make a guns-blazing escape from Mos Eisley on the landspeeder...somehow. I mean, Threepio's probably not the quickest getting in, then you have to stow Artoo, and Han has to sit on Chewie's lap? It's like having an El Camino and three friends.

I re-read one of the trade reprints I have of the next issue, and although they're still in the 'speeder, Carmine Infantino cheats like crazy with long shots or framing the panel without everyone in it. Still a favorite couple issues of the old Marvel run, though.

5. Some bad news: per Bleeding Cool, Bongo Comics was putting out their last issue of the Simpsons, #245; and SpongeBob Comics was going on indefinite hiatus as of #85. The Simpsons had been running for 25 years, and my son has been reading SpongeBob for a good seven years. Although Bongo had stopped their Futurama comic a while back, this end still seems sudden; I know they had Free Comic Book Day books just this year.

Along with those, the Transformers titles are ending for an end with Unicron; or at least a substantial reboot. I thought B.P.R.D. was wrapping up as well, but not quite yet; yet it still feels like a lot of my pull list is going away. I know there's a few titles still to come that I'm still looking forward to, like the Mystery Science Theater 3000 comic, and Ann Nocenti's the Seeds. But it still feels like a net loss. We'll just have to see if anything new jumps out later.
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I kinda made this for someone, but didn't stop me from playing with it.

I wanted to slap together another miniature comic book spinner rack, and I reckoned Sally of Green Lantern Butt's Forever could use one! (Shoot me a PO Box or something, and I'll slap it in the mail!)


Hmm. I told Dale I'd mail him one some time back, but he's used to me mailing things whenever I arbitrarily decide to...
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Build your own miniature comic book spinner rack!

I do a craft project here maybe once or twice a year, and usually my Wife suggests getting a 3D printer and knocking it out in plastic instead of glue and backer boards. This time, she suggested just buying the damn thing instead of building it: a miniature comics spinner rack! Best of all: it's mildly functional! (I think I'm often described as such...)

Nerdist mentioned this, which I don't think has come out yet, and I don't know if it's going to be that price either. Maybe? DC Comics Miniature Comic Tiles Collection, which looks neat, but is 13 inches tall. That'd be closer to 1:6 scale, roughly; and Marvel Legends (and DC Multiverse, and a bunch of other stuff) is in a ballpark 1:12 scale. So, we have to do it ourselves!

Here's a scan of the backer board and some issues: for some reason, I had a scaled-down scan of 2011's My Greatest Adventure #1. That ended up being my template for the size. Then, I'd look up comic covers (and a few back covers) and paste them over that. I did waaaaay more than I needed to. So should you!

Cut out the backing board pieces. (NOTE: The last one I did, felt just a smidge wide, you might try shaving a centimeter or two off there.) Next, you'll need 28 paperclips: placing them on the lines, then bending them at a 90-degree angle. (The above one didn't come out as I wanted, but you can see how the paperclips are bent.) I had a sheet of foam from something the Wife ordered off Amazon, and I like to reuse that stuff: I cut a little piece for the middle, then hot-glued it and the four sides together. Once dry, you can put all the comics you want in the racks: I recommend at least two, but you could probably get three depending on how stiff the paperclip is.

On the bottom of the above scan, you can see two of the "Comics for All Ages/Hey!! Kids Comics" pieces: mount those on a piece of backing board, then take a kebab skewer and poke it through the foam. My base is just a couple of Powerade lids; you can do better than that! Still, while it won't spin like a real one would; doing it this way, the comics are removable, and you can change up the display!

We've got two unfinished ones to the left, have to finish up there.

Ah, I have a ton of fond memories of a very specific spinner rack: my hometown grocery store had one, that I would park myself in front of while my mom did the week's grocery shopping. There's a few books in the scan above I know I got there: Star Wars Annual #1 and ROM #25, for sure. Later, I started getting most of my books at a Circle K that I could badger the staff until they put the books out on Wednesdays. When I graduated, by then comics were being phased out of grocery stores, and I saw my old rack out behind the store. I considered stealing it, but I didn't know if it was free to take or not; and to this day I regret not taking it. (I at least should've asked!) Those racks are somewhat rare now, although you could probably find a non-vintage one...which would kind of defeat the purpose!

Now, if you wanted the advanced class; you could look up all the books that were on the racks during a specific month and create a more historically accurate version. An easy one to start with would be Marvel's 25th Anniversary covers, cover dated November 1986. I also thought a full rack of comics homaging Kevin Maguire's Justice League #1 could be doable, with a bit more digging. Which I did!

Which led to the homage cover from the TV show Fringe, an alternate universe's cover with Jonah Hex in Guy Gardner's spot! The Maguire inspired covers before, while most of them probably never hit a spinner rack, I think all were actual comics you could buy! Or with some tweaking, you could do a full rack of homage covers, books that never were.

I saw my sister this weekend, and she does a bit of antiquing: I asked her to keep an eye out for a spinner rack for me, but not to go nuts. Maybe someday...



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