In these waning days of 2015, our media tends to look backward at all the great stuff that came down during the previous year. That’s because there’s damn little that happens between Christmas Eve and New Year’s morn and people like me are tasked with filling space. This plays nicely with my powerful sense of cynicism. Hey, it’s a living.
But what the hell. For all practical purposes 2015 is already history (and I hope that comment doesn’t come back to bite me in my ass). Instead, in a fit of optimism I’d rather talk about what I’m looking forward to in the new year.
When it comes to the mother medium, I eagerly await the return of Bitch Planet, easily my favorite new series of 2015. Actually, I have yet to stop being pissed at Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro for having the audacity to take a vacation.
The third and final volume of the graphic novel series March, Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell story of the struggle for civil rights, is due out this coming year. If you haven’t read the first two books, you’ve got time to catch-up. This series carries my highest recommendation. By far.
DC and Marvel have retconned and rebooted and reimag
Bitch Planet, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Valentine De Landro, March, John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell, Savage Dragon, Superman v Batman, Deadpool, Doctor Strange, Benedict Cumberbatch, Agent Carter, Hayley Atwell, Civil War, Skottie Young
ined their respective universes to death, so it’s hard for me to show any enthusiasm for their upcoming projects. Why bother? They’ll only be retconned and rebooted and reimagined still again. Give me the stability and pure fun of Savage Dragon any day.
We’ve got lots and lots of comic book based movies and television coming up because Hollywood lives to run stuff into the ground. I can’t say that Superman v Batman or Civil War makes my pulse race – we’ve seen it before, and besides I have no reason to be optimistic about any Warner Bros. superhero flick. While I hope for the best, the comics movies that are putting the salt on my popcorn are Deadpool and Doctor Strange – which are two different movies.
Our pal Emily Whitten talked about the Deadpool flick in this space yesterday afternoon and backed up her enthusiasm with 32 links, so I don’t have to be repetitious. I will say that from the trailers and the hype this appears to be a movie that will either be a lot of fowl-mouthed fun and a much needed satirical jab at the form… or a complete disaster. I like both the character and the lead actor, and the campaign has been very amusing so I have reason to be optimistic. We can always use a good laugh.
Doctor Strange has been one of my favorite characters since Lee and Ditko invented the psychedelic superhero way back when I was still (barely) a pre-teen. He’s never really been able to hold onto a title of his own, but he’s been a vital – even critical – part of the MCU for over a half-century. And casting Benedict Cumberbatch as the Sorcerer Supreme (which still sounds to me like a Baskin-Robbins flavor of the month) seems perfect.
As for comics-on-teevee, I’m looking forward to the return of Agent Carter because the first series was my favorite comics-based series on broadcast television. Hayley Atwell will also be reprising Peggy Carter in the Civil War movie, which is set in contemporary time. Peggy will be real old and nobody expects her to make it to the end-credits, but, of course, that doesn’t mean she won’t be in future flicks. It’s comics, folks.
What would I like to see in 2016? Hey, I’m glad you asked. I’d like to see a year of solid storytelling that does not reply upon overworked and overproduced “events” and variant covers (except those by Skottie Young) and phony deaths – in comics, that’s redundant – and astonishing resurrections. Honest, comic books are stories; let’s get back to good stories.
You know, the kind from which they make movies and teevee shows.
Have yourself a safe, productive and amazingly entertaining new year. You deserve it.
I hate being bored, so over the years I’ve managed to shorten my attention span to the point when the good stuff runs out, so do I. Therefore, from time to time I have a little to say about a lot of things. For example:
DC / Warner Bros finally gave credit where credit has long been due: appending Bill Finger’s name to Bob Kane’s as the men who made Batman a Day-One success. It is marvelously ironic that the first time I’d seen the “Created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger” line was on Cartoon Network’s Robot Chicken DC Comics Special 3: Magical Friendship, which, for the record, I enjoyed – certainly a lot more than the second one. Hawkman vs Robot Chicken? Priceless. Anyway, Bill’s name is supposed to be deployed in similar fashion on all future Batman stuff, including their electronic comics (left). It’s about time. And lawyers. And egos.
I’m looking forward to Marvel’s upcoming Red Wolf series, even though it clearly indulges in usually needless future-continuity winks such as Sheriff Steve Rogers and Mayor Wilson Fisk. Nonetheless, I’ve always been amused to see the standard Marvel heroic fantasy from the standpoint of earlier times – 1872, in this case, or World War I or whathaveyou. Our ComicMix pal John Ostrander has written more than a few of these for Marvel and they always conveyed a sense of fun. Same thing with Howard Chaykin. Red Wolf might be a little-remembered Marvel character – as was the Phantom Eagle – and I have no doubt there likely will be some sort of SHIELD reference. OK, that’s part of the fabric of the Marvel Comics Universe and sometimes it’s difficult to by-pass the opportunity to get cute. If this new series is half as much fun as Skottie Young’s variant cover (right), it’ll be completely worthwhile.
Hey, Supergirl teevee producers! If you actually say the word “Superman” on your television show, just who is going to sue you? Warner Bros? Well, actually, I know one producer who wound up being sued by his own company, so I shouldn’t be quite so sarcastic. But, hell, I am who I am. After a while going so far out of your way to not say “Superman” takes the viewer out the story. If you don’t want to say Superman, you shouldn’t be allowed to use the Big Red S. It was very conspicuous by its absence. And annoying.
On the other hand, I’m surprised I’m enjoying Gotham so much this season. I was ambivalent about it after the end of the first season, but two weeks into this season ComicMix columnist Marc Alan Fishman said I should check it out. He was right: the show improved significantly, particularly with respect to Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon. Of course, the addition of Michael Chiklis to the cast as Gordon’s boss also added to the fun. The story itself ebbs and flows and is too often carried by bravura performances by Chiklis, Sean Pertwee and Robin Lord Taylor – not to mention Carol Kane, who is a national treasure. But it’s fun.
Ed Catto did a wonderful tribute to Murphy Anderson in this space a few days ago, and I second each of his statements. I’d like to bring to your attention his work on a different piece of our modern history. The very first issue of Ms. Magazine featured a story abut Wonder Woman, a worthy idea for the start of America’s first mass-market feminist magazine. The cover featured one of the best Wonder Woman pieces I’ve seen. This cover (left) was penciled and inked by my old friend, Murphy Anderson. Of course we will miss him, and of course he left us with a lifetime of wonderful artwork. A true master of our medium.
As much fun as Turtles Day(as I now affectionately call the Thursday of New York Comic Con) was, it’s most definitely not the only awesome thing about NYCC. There’s always so much awesome stuffed into those four days that it’s hard to sum it up.
This year, to assist me in my round-up, I thought I’d finally try out a New Method of Doing Things, given that my awesome friend Cleolinda Jones finds it so useful, and that she’s been using it to successfully round-up all of the online things we mention during our Made of Fail podcast (which is still going, by the way! Our latest episode was Dragon Con: The Wrath of Con. Lisssstennn!)
So even though I’m still going to hit the highlights below, I’m also going to direct you afterwards to my brand new, shiny first effort at using Storify (woo!) for even more details and pictures and who-all knows what. We’ll see how we like this whole Storify thing, eh? Call it a social experiment. And now, without further ado:
My Favorite Things About NYCC This Year:
Well we already mentioned Nickelodeon’s TMNT. Check out last week’s column for all the details on that!
Artist Alley
This is and always will be one of my favorite parts of NYCC. This year I got to walk the entire room with enough time to stop and look at the art and other items on display, and to chat with some creator and fan friends and meet some new friends. I walked around with one of my TMNT friends who was happy to meet some cool artists (hey, Kathy!), strolled some aisles with my DC-local friend who bought some most excellent My Little Pony art (holla, Petra!), and bounced around to see some creators with Eric Bauza (including taking him, as the Voice of Amadeus Cho, over to meet Reilly Brown, one of the Artists for Amadeus Cho. That was fun.)
Of course, inevitably after the con ended I realized I’d somehow still missed a few people I wanted to see (alas!) but that always happens. I watched some artists working (love doing that! Tony Moy was particularly fun to watch this year), resisted mightily buying everything in sight, and picked out just a few things to take home with me. Chief among them were Jason Hurley and Jeremy Haun’s Beauty, the first two issues of which are intriguing, and have convinced me to keep reading. I also picked up four issues of Runaways written by Noelle Stevenson, with art by Sanford Greene, which I’m looking forward to (I loved Brian K. Vaughan’s original run but got away from it for awhile after he left the book. I’ve been meaning to dive back in!). I got a cool metallic-finish Deadpool poster from Reilly Brown, as well as his new sketchbook.
And since I’m in the process of working on some comics projects myself, I was particularly excited to score a signed copy of Make Comics Like the Pros from Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente; and an X-Files comic with accompanying limited-edition script from Joe Harris. And last but not least, I picked up the most adorable dancing Groot sketchcard from Janet K. Lee, which I’d commissioned at a previous con. Yay!
Walking the Con floor
Okay, so I admit that this year even I was slightly overwhelmed by the crowd, and had to go hide in the still very crowded but less frantic-feeling Artist Alley from time to time. However, I did get to do some really fun things on the con floor. I saw my wonderful friend Ellen Datlow at the HWA booth, where I picked up a free copy of her The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 7 anthology, and bought a copy of her Nightmare Carnival anthology (creepy carnival stories! I will read them with shivery delight and then never sleep again). I hopped over to the IDW booth, had a nice chat with Dirk Wood, and picked up a copy of God is Disappointed in You, which I am super-curious to read.
I swung by the Marvel booth, and, although I sadly missed the spectacular Daredevil poster, got a great Jessica Jones poster and comic and a handful of other cool swag, including the cutest Skottie Young Secret Wars print you ever did see. I mostly avoided buying collectibles because my apartment overfloweth with them already, but did get a tiny adorable stuffed ram (what, it’s tiny!) and an awesome inflatable Companion Cube ottoman (for my casual dinner parties! Totally practical! I always run out of seating). I got to visit with the ever-charming Mark Gagliardi and meet Hal Lublin, both of The Thrilling Adventure Hour, and stroll around with great friends like fun fellow DC-ite LacyMB, awesome voice actor Eric Bauza, and fellow reporter Ashley B. And Ashley and I got to take creepy crime scene videos of ourselves after being “killed” in the line of reporting duty (probably trampled by crowds trying to get into the Funko booth, yes?) at the Spotless exhibit. All-around good adventures.
Ash vs. Evil Dead
This was a fantastic panel. I love Bruce Campbell (particularly after Burn Notice – he was so good as Sam!) so I really wanted to see him on a panel; plus, I’ve been curious about how they’d make this show work ever since I started seeing the media for it at SDCC. This panel was particularly cool because I went with someone else who was totally excited about it (probably the most excited of anyone there, really) and good panel-going company always makes it more fun. We got nifty swag (Ash4President buttons, and foam chainsaws), Bruce et al. (and host Kevin Smith) were very entertaining panelists, and they showed the entire premiere episode (during which I am not ashamed to admit I jumped a lot. My startle reflex will never disappear. Neither will my desire to hide behind people or couches during scary scenes).
Unfortunately there were no couches at the Hammerstein Ballroom, but I survived. The premiere is exactly what you would want if you’re an Evil Dead fan, I think; and even if you’re not really up on the franchise, it’s engaging enough to draw in a new crowd – that is, if they are people who can handle a lot of gore and gratuitous violence. I was pretty interested in the characters they’re starting to build for the younger leads (Kelly and Pablo, played by Dana DeLorenzo and Ray Santiago) and the storyline they’re starting with the cop (Jill Marie Jones) and Lucy Lawless’s character Ruby. And of course, tying it all together is the always classy (sarcasm, what? I will say I thought the sex scene early on was a little much even for this character) Ash, and a boatload of well-done references to the franchise. My one caveat is that I think in order to keep people interested, they’re going to really have to do some character and story-building with the non-Ash characters – but if they do it well, this show could be a really cool addition to TV horror.
Seeing awesome people!
And so many of them; but primarily here I’m talking about Andrea Romano, who I was delighted to learn was autographing this year (if she has in the past, I’ve missed it). She is definitely one of the uber-talented people of the animation industry that I most admire (plus she’s super classy and nice), so it was great to see her again and get her to sign what is turning into one of the most-autographed things I own, a TMNT pizza box. Phil LaMarr also added his signature to the collection (I love him as Baxter Stockman), and it was great to see him as well. And as it turned out, the delightful and hilarious John DiMaggio was also signing at the same time, so I got a great Joker picture signed by him. Yay!
The ICv2 White Paper Happy Hour
Although I love all the media stuff that goes on at comic cons, I really like to spend time on the comics end of things too. I’d never been able to get to the ICv2 stuff before, since they usually do events on Wednesday before I arrive in town for the con. This year, though, they changed tack and did something during the con. For those who don’t know, ICv2 studies and reports on the statistics and trends about in the industry, including e.g. comics and convention trends. It was interesting to hear the latest on the State of the Industry at the event, and particularly the continued growth in female readership in comics, which was regarded with enthusiasm (good!).
Of course, it was also nice to grab a drink and a chat with comics friends, and engage in some more serious discussions regarding news such as the most recent sexual harassment in the business (which I will be addressing more in another column). I’m glad these things are being discussed rather than ignored.]
And finally…
Just all of the fun and energy of going out and about with all of the awesome people who are in NYC during Comic-Con. That includes the Image party, at which everyone in comics showed up (seriously, I mean I didn’t personally run into everyone, but I’m pretty sure they were all there) in a maze-like bowling alley/arcade/bar/dance club with many levels and rooms and cool chairs I wanted to steal. Also the several lovely breakfasts and dinners I had with high school friends and law school friends and con friends (and apparently this year’s accidental restaurant theme was seafood, since I ended up at Grand Central’s Oyster Bar, Crave Fishbar, and L&W Oyster Co. all in the space of three days. Not that I minded! Such gooood foooood). And the fun bar scene, which this year included the Campbell Apartment which I had no idea existed and which is exactly the sort of place I love to discover (thanks, Dennis!). And of course the wrap-up of my NYC trip, which ended with a great long-form improv show featuring Phil LaMarr at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, which I’d never been to. It was fantastic; and I haven’t laughed that hard in some time!
And that was pretty much my show this year! But if that isn’t enough excitement for you, or if you’re hurting for my usual linkage to tons of pictures, for even more round-up, click here or just scroll down to check out my NYCC Storify (and let me know if you like it, as a thing. Should I do it again? Feedback, people! Do tell!).
Even though I get to go to a lot of fun conventions, I can’t make them all. One that I particularly hate to miss, because I’ve been before and know how great it is, is Heroes Con. Like the Baltimore Comic Con, Heroes Con retains a strong focus on the comics creation part of a comic con; including by holding a great art auction every year.
The auction features amazing, quality work from the pros who attend, and I had a blast when I went a previous year, both for the atmosphere (they keep the auction moving with a fun, energetic pace) and because seeing so many quality originals by artists I love hanging in one place was super-cool. A lot of the artists create, or at least finish work on, their pieces during the con; and of course they’re also generally doing commissions throughout the con while hanging out at their tables in Artists Alley. I love walking through a con like Heroes Con and seeing the amazing things these talented artists can produce in a loud, chaotic exhibition hall amongst crowds of people with just the art supplies they brought with them.
Although of course I wish I could have experienced Heroes Con first hand this year, at least thanks to Twitter I was able to see some of the fun art auction pieces and commissions that have come out of the weekend. Today, I’d like to share some of my favorites. So here we go!
Two favorite con pieces I saw in the Twittersphere were the work of Skottie Young. Skottie’s style appeals to me for possibly the same reason it logically shouldn’t; where so many artists’ work has a finished, polished look to it, Skottie’s art has deliberately rough edges and lines. Done badly, this might make the work ugly; but done well, this style makes his art stand out; and despite the roughness, it’s somehow still playful. This really adds to the feeling of creepy pieces like this one of Death, who looks both pretty scary and like maybe he’s appreciating a private joke in between reaping souls. I love it.
But I won’t lie, my favorite works of Skottie’s are his adorable baby comics characters. Which I know is really shocking – me, liking cute things? Cute things that retain a slightly snarky edge? Nevahhh! I like the baby superheroes so much that I even made a clay version of the Deadpool one. So that’s probably why Skottie’s baby Spider-Gwen, done for the Heroes Con art auction, makes me so happy. Lookit iiiiiit!! It’s darling.
Of course, Skottie’s not nearly the only artist who was posting fun art on Twitter. One of my consistent favorite artists, Reilly Brown, posted a great Disapproving Colossus. I always love the expressions and attitudes of Reilly’s characters, and this one’s no different: in Colossus’ Russia, art disapproves of you! (I feel like this needs to be a meme.) Disapproving Colossus makes me happy.
Speaking of disapproving, Chrissie Zullo’s Scarecrow clearly disapproves of all of us. He is disappointed in our niceness, and is probably thinking up ways to kill us in our sleep. Beware!
Ryan Lee had a couple of cool pieces I encountered. This one for the art auction, of Hellboy “charging into a demon with reckless abandon” is great; and I am absolutely in love with this Rocket Raccoon and Groot. The energetic plunging-into-the-fray that is Groot! That joyful face of destructive glee on Rocket! I want this.
Comics artists are used to team-ups (both in the stories and in creating them!) and sometimes they’re super-awesome. This Super pair done by Babs Tarr and Joe Quinones is one of those times. There’s a lot of life in this piece, despite it not being an “action” pose. Nice!
In a completely different vein, Francesco Francavilla, king of pulp and retro style, posted this great Ghost Rider; and his Swamp Thing is a thing (pun intended?) of intricate, twisty beauty (beauty being relative when we’re talking about Swamp Thing, but still).
And again in a different turn of style, we’ve got Jamie Cosley’s small and menacing but also cute Darth Vader. He’s got big cute eyes and little guy swagger – you can almost hear him thinking, “Look at me and my light saber. Oh yeah! I’m so cool.” Bless.
I already know well that Sanford Greene is a talented guy, so I’m always happy to see what he’s working on. I liked his Batgirl from this weekend, for her expressive face and the great shading. And also that moon. It’s just cool.
Speaking of cool, Deadpool is always cool (always!), and this Deadpool piece by Shawn Crystal and Brian Reber is totally rad (that’s like, old-school cool). Deadpool is definitely about to take all of us out. I love the attitude and action.
One great thing about cons is that I encounter the work of artists I’m not already overly familiar with, and then I often become a fan. On Saturday, Christian Ward’s Silver Surfer caught my eye, and his other work is pretty great as well. This piece is eye-catching for the attitude of the Surfer (I get a kind of proud/defiant/determined vibe off of it) and the colors and space-y feel.
I also like seeing more from folks whose work I’ve seen in passing before. This Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix piece by Dan Govar and Tony Moy is an excellent reminder of why I need to seek out more of their work. I love the concept and the execution. Stellar!
And finally, both because the work is marvelous and the plan for it was way more than 12% awesome, I adore this Guardians of the Galaxy joint effort from Ryan Stegman, Mike Rooth, Ryan Browne, Skottie Young, and Dave Marquez. It looks like whoever commissioned it had everyone add a character to the mix, and the result is amazing! I’m very jealous.
I’m also sure there were many other amazing pieces which I didn’t happen to see; but at least I (and now you!) got to share in some of the fun thanks to the posts. That’s the good part of social media like Twitter.
So until next time, feel free to say hi (or send me links to more cool art) on The Twitters, and Servo Lectio!
Skottie Young has always had a unique style, but I particularly love his little chibi versions of comic book characters. When I first saw his Deadpool “Screw U” chibi art on the badges for Baltimore Comic Con a couple of years ago (and then on the Deadpool #001 Variant Cover it immediately went on my mental favorites list. Young has also done very cute chibi covers of other characters, like Wolverine and Spider-Man. So this past weekend when my fella (who’s a huge Spider-Man fan) and I decided to do some clay crafting, Young’s grumpy but adorable little Deadpool and his adorable upside-down Spider-Man were excellent tiny sculpture project choices for us.
I’m fairly pleased with how my Tiny Grumpy Mercenary turned out, and, I gotta be honest, having him slouching irritably on a shelf with my family of Deadpools makes me happy in my nerdy little soul. So in case you are craving a happy nerd soul too and are in the mood to give crafting a try, I thought I’d share a tutorial on how I made by newest little buddy.
Step One: Suggested Tools and Supplies
Fimo, Sculpey, or other colored sculpting clay, in red, black, brown, white, blue, and purple
wax paper (to work on – I usually tape it down to the table) and a bright desk or work light
aluminum foil, and an old cutting board and sharp knife or other handy cutting tool
basic sculpting tool set (this is the set I have). You can also use toothpicks or other household items if you don’t have official tools.
wire and wire cutters
Step Two: Photo References
It’s always good to get a reference for whatever you are going to make from all angles possible. Of course, if it’s just one image, that’s all you’ll have to work with. But if you search and and save a good-sized version of the image, you can also at least zoom in as needed to look at the details. In this case, of course, your reference is this image.
Step Three: Making Your New Friend!
This process is going to vary for everyone, but generally, if what I’m making is a creature or a person, I like to start with the head. Having the head done first helps me gauge how big I will want to make the rest of the character; plus, making the part of the character that expresses the most personality first just makes sense to me.
To make a tiny Deadpool head, start with a round red ball and trace out the black eye holes very lightly with a knife tip. Pro tip: rolling the clay in the palms or your hands is a good way to get a good round ball (after kneading the clay .to warm it)
Once you’ve got the eyes traced to your satisfaction, trace them again with a deeper cut, angled inward at a shallow angle. Next, lever the middle area out to make a little hollow where the eye will be.
Use your finger or a tool (the ball-tipped tool does well for this) to smooth the edges and insides of the eye sockets and get rid of any clay crumbs.
Then make a ball of black clay of a size to fill the eye socket, shape it slightly to fit the socket’s edges, and press it into the socket.
Use your fingers and the flat-tipped tool to smooth the edges of the black to the red.
Next, repeat for the other black eye, and the white inner eyes. Pro tip: if you are using white clay, ensure you first wash your hands and are careful smoothing the edges so other clay colors don’t transfer onto the white. You can also lightly scrape the top surface of the white clay after you are done to remove any color tint.
Once you have the eyes done, squinch the nose area just a little bit to get a grumpy look. Then roll a tiny red cone, and affix it to the back of the head, using the flat-tipped tool to smooth the edges of the cone onto the head and get rid of the seam where the two meet. Bend and pinch the tail of the Deadpool mask as per the original image, and use the flat-tipped tool to make tiny “wrinkles” in the tail of the mask.
Hey, look! You have a Deadpool head! Hooray! But don’t forget the excellent crowning touch, i.e. the little dart. Roll a piece of brown clay out into a thin snake, and cut to the size of the dart handle. Make another little snake of blue, wrap it around one end of the brown in a circle, cut to size, and use the flat-tipped tool to smooth the blue onto Deadpool’s grumpy little forehead until it looks slanted like a suction cup dart. Pro tip: to stop the dart handle from drooping, put a little extra blue or brown on the underside of the dart to support the handle.
Now, put the head aside and move on to the body. For Deadpool, I chose to make the whole body out of one solid red piece of clay. Pro tip: For larger objects or complex shapes, you can also shape aluminum foil into a relatively smooth core for the object, to save clay and/or make the sculpture stronger. You can then roll out a thin sheet of clay, cut it as needed, and mold it around the foil like a skin, smoothing it with tools and fingers afterwards.
For the body, start with shaping Deadpool’s round tummy, and then shape the legs and feet, and then body and arms. Once you have the basic shape to your liking, roll out a thin sheet of black to use for the markings on his uniform and for his belt. For the uniform, you can cut several shapes with the knife tool and then fit them together and smooth them into one piece on each side of his body. I cut five shapes for each side: the front and back strips that also jut out a little near the top, a strip for around the top of each arm, a small piece to go on each arm where the black goes further down, and a piece for under the arm to connect the front and back strips. You can always cut less shapes if you want to.
After smoothing these into the uniform, roll a thin black snake to go around each wrist, and a thin silver snake for his zipper, and attach these. To make the zipper tab, you can form a tiny ball of silver into a little rectangle using, e.g., the flat of a knife blade and your flat-tipped shaping tool simultaneously on opposite sides of the shape. Once you have a flat little rectangle, attach it to the top of the zipper line, and use the tool that rounds to a point (or a toothpick) to make a little indent for the tab “hole.”
Now you can go back to your black sheet of clay and cut a long thin strip for the belt, smoothing it together in the front where the buckle will be. Finish up with the four brown pouches (made like the zipper tab, and using the flat-tipped tool for the crease of each pouch “flap”) and a little light purple oval for the belt buckle.
Your final step will be to attach the body to the head. Once you’ve lined up where you want the head and body to join, you can cut a short piece of wire and insert it in the top of the body and bottom of the head. Before attaching the head, knead a small piece of red clay and shape it around the wire in the body; that way when you join the two, they will also be held together by clay. Finally, use more red clay to fill in the cracks between body and head, and smooth those together until the seams disappear. And voila! You have a little Deadpool.
Now, follow the baking instructions (and keep an eye on the light clay colors on your Deadpool to ensure he’s not baking too long – if he is they will begin to turn brown, like a marshmallow would). I recommend baking your clay in a glass dish.
When the bake time is up, take him out very carefully, and let him cool completely before touching him. Pro tip: For some reason white doesn’t always bake as brightly as you might like. If you see that your whites are dull or translucent after baking, you can always use paint on your figure to brighten him up; and also, there are clay glazes available if you ever want to make a shiny critter. And now, your tiny Deadpool is done! And you can sit him up somewhere and enjoy your awesome handiwork every day! Hooray!
Good luck with your tiny creations, and until next time, Servo Lectio!
Doctor Strange has been one of my favorite characters since Lee and Ditko invented the psychedelic superhero way back when I was still (barely) a pre-teen. He’s never really been able to hold onto a title of his own, but he’s been a vital – even critical – part of the MCU for over a half-century. And casting Benedict Cumberbatch as the Sorcerer Supreme (which still sounds to me like a Baskin-Robbins flavor of the month) seems perfect.
