"The Sun is Shiny." "And The Ice is Slippery." - Professor Roy Tam and Lamont Cranston, 1994



The Shadow by MarshallMade Collectibles 



The Shadow became one of my favorite characters pretty simply because he was a source of inspiration for the pre-crisis Batman and I share in this version of Batman's tastes.  Of the many versions of the Shadow that have been produced over the years there are two that have lodged themselves in my mind whenever think of him.  The first is a favorite of just about every shadow fan that I've had the pleasure to meet; the Michael Kaluta version.  Mr. Kaluta first drew the Shadow for DC comics in the seventies. This is the incarnation of the Shadow that I first came to know after I found an issue of Batman that served as a lead in to the Shadows on debut with DC.  I remember buying that the first issue of the Shadow for ten of my hard earned dollars back in 1989 or so and loving that the stories mystery was one that if I followed along with the ever present clues than I had as much a chance of solving it as the Shadow or anyone else.

The second version of the Shadow that sticks out to me is the 1994 movie version. Now, I know that the radio shows and pull magazine versions are far better than the movie but I believe that not only was the movie well done but it also captured a certain spirit that you rarely see in film today.  The only other films from the nineties on that I feel have latched onto this so called "spirit" are the Phantom (1996), Dick Tracy (1990) and the Rocketeer (1991).  The only other current films that try to match these in tone are Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) and Captain America (2011), and even though I love those movies there still not on the level of the aforementioned.

Well that was a long winded way of getting to the real reason for this entry. I recently took a look around at my collection and realized that the only shadow figure that I had was from the 1994 film. For what it was, it was decent but I wanted something a little more detailed.  I did a search of eBay for customs and I was pleasantly surprised to find an auction for a Marshallmade Collectibles Shadow custom.  I was expecting to  find an adequate 6 inch figure, but instead I found a piece of art that could rival the collectibles that Hot Toys and Sideshow are currently making.  Not only was the figure a work if art but it's creator, Jason Marshall, is an extremely nice fellow who let me customize certain aspects of my Shadow figure ensuring a unique creation. 

For this figure, Jase not only sculpted and painted his own Shadow head but he also stitched together the shadows shirt, overcoat, pants, and short cape.  He also hand made the Shadows unique hat and holster, and in a bit of attention to detail that was just outstanding he made the Shadow's Girasol ring. 

  

The Famous Girasol Ring





 

As originally intended


Lastly, Jase made a robe for my Shadow to wear so that he could mirror the "Living Shadow" version of the character that Walter B. Gibson first wrote about.  This version of the Shadow was made using the DC Direct body which means he's slightly taller than other 12 inch figures but this works out well as enables the Shadow to stand imposingly amongst the others.  Add to that a custom Shadow stand and you get a collectible figure that stands with if not taller than any mass produced collectible on the market today.  Not only does he fill a hole in my collection but I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to obtain this work of art.  Who knows when something like this will come around again...?

                          The Shadow knows.....

p.s.  There's a new Shadow series that just came out this last week produced by Dynamite Publishing and created by Aaron Campbell and Garth Ennis.  I picked it up along with a couple of the variant covers.  I've yet to read it but I hope to get a review up soon.  The variant sketch covers are fabulous though.   

    The Shadow #1 exclusive sketch covers by Alex Ross...


    

 

...and Jae Lee



"You are ugly, but you are beautiful!" -Tars Tarkas, 2012




Cover to A Princess of Mars painted by Michael Whelan

 

My grandmother got me interested in Edgar Rice Burroughs when I was around ten years old.  She had a wonderful children's library that had a Tarzan and John Carter of Mars section and whenever we would go over to her house I'd gravitate towards that part of the room.  Now, Tarzan I had a fondness for mainly due to the Filmation cartoon series from the early eighties but John Carter was new to me. I really didn't know if I would like the series, but I gave the first book, A Princess of Mars, a try. It was the prologue of said book that enthralled me.  It detailed the author's own contact with his uncle John and created a sense of mystery with the inclusion of a uniquely opening tomb.  Edgar Rice Burroughs created something that felt like it actually had roots in real life and I admired that.  It also seemed to have hints of Indiana Jones and The Time Machine.  How could you not love that?  My grandmother ended up giving me her Edgar Rice Burroughs collection (with some first editions) a few months before she passed. As I look back on it now, her premonition of passing on was eerily similar to how John Carter dealt with moving on to Mars and how that's relayed to his nephew Edgar both in the book and film.  That definitely caused my emotional ties to the books to tighten ever so much more.  

 
Now, the film adaptation of John Carter hasn't been doing to well at the box office here in the U.S. but I loved it.  For some reason critics have disparaged it but I feel as though the film hearkens back to the Walt Disney adventure movies of old.  I'll be honest though.  When it was first announced I was a bit skeptical.  I didn't know much about the cast save for Mark Strong and Willem Dafoe.  Some desert epics really put me to sleep (Dune), and Disney's Prince of Persia wasn't helping things.  Then I saw the first teaser trailer and my interests were peaked.  The full trailer came out and it took all of one quote to turn me into a true believer. The above quote from Willem Dafoe's Tars Tarkas summed up the heart of the movie and conveyed an emotional necessity that's so rarely used well in films, camaraderie.  The friendship that's built between John Carter and Tars Tarkas the Thark is extremely well done and it was one of the things that kept me invested in the film. 
So I saw the film a couple weeks back and I've been trying to hunt down some collectibles from the film.  I found a great movie poster on eBay done by an artist named J.C Richard (check it out here) but I really wanted a 6 or 12 inch collectible figure.  Triad Toys has a pretty cool classical take on the character in 6 scale form (have a look see here) but besides that there's nothing.  Then I started to think about what I could put together on my own and it dawned on me that Hot Toys had made a long haired head that, when used with one of their true type muscle bodies, would make a great base for a John Carter figure.

Adding in the awesome costume and weapons from the Triad Toys release I found that John Carter had come to life.  In a wonderful bit of serendipity I found out that the long haired head that I was going to use was actually modeled on the actor who plays John Carter in the film, Taylor Kitsch.  Everything came together to create a pretty interesting semi-classical take on the movie version of John Carter. I gave him a Roman gladiator's gladius to go along with the Triad Toys sword, as I've yet been able to find a screen appropriate sword.  I also tried to find some material that was semi-sceen accurate so that I could fashion a sarong for Mr. Carter.  I'm pretty content with how he turned out...

Now I just need to figure out how to put together a 13 to 14 inch tall four-armed green Thark. 



Without...


  



...and with sarong.



All that being said, there is so much more that I want to talk about in regards to the film but I'm going to hold off on that until the blu-ray comes out and I can really go in-depth into why I like the film so much.



Bring on the white apes!!

*All the thanks in the world to Hot Toys and Triad Toys for making awesome figures and parts for customizing and to Edgar Rice Burroughs and his estate for creating these wonderful stories.
**A special thanks to Toy Anxiety in Phoenix, AZ. for all there help. 

***Go see and support John Carter now so we can get it's sequel, Gods of Mars!!! :) 

Beneath the Waves

A mere few feet beneath the waves their reign ceases, their evil drowns. Here on the ocean floor is the only independence. Here I am free!  -Captain Nemo, 1954

Those words have stayed with me ever since I saw 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at the age of seven.  Why, I don't know.  Maybe it was because I though that it was cool that this guy had an awesome submarine and he chose to be at peace in the vastness of the ocean.  What's cooler than that, right?  Anyways, that quote is applicable in that this journal provides me with my own little ocean floor where I can showcase the amusements and arts that keep life interesting.