The Plastic Regime

   Venom: Circle of Four is the series kicking off February of 2012. Venom will be allying himself with Red Hulk, Ghost Rider & X-23 in a race to save Vegas. That's right, three of Marvel Comic's biggest sinners are out to save sin city accompanied by the ghost of retribution himself. Strange bed mates straight from the start but sounds like one helluva story. I tend slightly towards the anti-hero's and this is one team's debut I can't wait to see. All this is going on around the time Venom will be joining the ranks of the Secret Avengers, Marvel's covert team somewhat mirroring the X-Men's X-Force but less bloody so far! With Venom, who knows what atrociities the Good name of the Avengers will come to represent. One can only hope for a darker side to the Avengers to replace the previous team Osborn had assembled in the pages of Dark Reign. The creative genius behind all this craziness has been headlined as Rick Remender and Gabriel Hardman. All I can say is " Avengers Assemble" .

This is a link to the pictures of Empire Magazines Covers featuring one of Bats and an alternate cover with Bane. I have heard some mixed media on this movie and after viewing the stolen footage of the stadium scene. I am hoping it is at least better than it sounds. The actor playing Bane (Tom Hardy) sounds like an aging british man with asthma in the footage. I sincerely hope that was caused by bad acoustics. Selina Kyle A.KA. Catwoman will be played by Anne Hathaway. This may be the least talented actress in my opinion to ever play Catwoman. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying she is necessarily a bad actress. She simply lacks the seasoned talent that women who previously played the part had. I am skeptical but still looking forward to the appearance. As long as she's wearing the customary skin tight suit... I'm going to take it with a grain of salt. I am very much looking forward to seeing how they go about Ra's Al Ghul. All I know so far is he will be portrayed as a younger incarnation. Eight more months to go!

Here's the link-

http://enewsi.com/movies/190-21436.html

   Recently I was sent a question via my inquiry form. Strangely, I had not even considered it would be used in such a way.  In tune with some of our own members requests for tutorials the question was asked of what type of sealer to use to give a figure a matte finish. My reply was as follows.

   When it comes to sealing your paint applications on a figure, every customizer has their own way of going about it. Whether you use Hodge Podge, Plaid, or my favorite Krylon be sure to get matte finish. Also be sure the sealer you use specifies the paint type you are using.

  Let's assume you are using an acrylic paint. I use Krylon matte acrylic sealer. It comes in a spray can and costs around $5 at Walmart. Read the instructions before use. It contains harmful chemicals so a mask is recommended. If this is for a child that may put the figure near it's mouth do not use this. Krylon also has a UV protectant which can be a big plus.

   Before painting be sure to wash your figure as factories use a mold release and acrylics won't bond well. Lightly sanding your figure with at least a 300 grit sand paper is optional but provides a surface for good adhesion. I use a plastic film or a pedicure type shining block between coats to keep the paint smooth. I recommend at least doing this before sealing a finished piece. This is also good for clumps. Before applying paint be sure to stir it and thin it out with water or windex. Hope this helps.

If you haven't heard Marvel is contemplating making a movie based on the Avenger's Ant Man, A.K.A. Giant Man, A.K.A. Dr. Henry Pym. So far all they have really done is announce possible intentions, although, one representative of Marvel stated that the movie is an attempt to "Blur the line between action and comedy". This has  me worried as a long time fan of the franchise. Pym is moody at best and such antics may prove very off-putting for fans. If they decide to go with Scott Lang as Ant Man it will be a different story. Lang Ant Man has been everything from a villain to a hero to a gutless pervert. Any comments or news you may have heard on the subject please post them.

I have done this several times and can say it works GREAT! Ok, well... if you have access to an LCBH Clownface, (or figure with a similar midsection), and you aren't worried about making it into fodder?

First you'll need a dremel with a cutting wheel or a hand saw, an awl or icepick, and a hammer! Please remeber to wear proper safety gear! I forgot to put on my safety glasses once and spent the better part of six hours getting a small sharp bit of red plastic out from underneath my eyelid, so, if you enjoy your eyesight, heed this warning!

A dust mask, safety goggles, and gloves should be sufficient but always remeber to be careful as you will be working closely with sharp objects and/or power tools. Kids please, get your parents permission and be sure to ask for assistance if possible.

Take the Maestro Hulk put the awl in the center of the abs. Strike with the hammer to free the upper torso from the existing abs. Careful not to break the joint in the upper torso.

If you look inside the abs you can see the swivel inside where the factory melted the abs to the pelvis. Don't worry it's only attached about halfway through.

Remove the plastic spacer from above the upper torso joint peg using an exacto or wire cutter.

Next use the dremel to cut the abs from the pelvis being careful not to cut the swivel joint in the center as you may want to modify and use that, or you can use just about anything from Clownface's swivel to bolts and washers.

Then, carefully crack open the midsection you removed from Clownface and remove the joint peg. Turn the back half of the midsection sideways to slide onto Maestros joint. This is the only way it will raise up the spring high enouh to attach. Lay your modified hip joint inside Clownfaces midsection and attach the front half.

Be sure to glue all pieces once they are in place.

You can replace the knees or legs with almost any Hulk-sized figure.

You have now made the Maestro about the height of Abomination. If you opted for FA Gray Hulk knee and lower legs retaining the feet of Maestro, you now have a figure that looks down sadly at the poor, pathetic, Abomination with his lack of ab articulation. Makes a pretty mean Terrax!! Hope this helps! If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Having spent a better part of the morning traversing through my geeky, tatted, pierced, long unkempt haired comic worshipping brethren at every comic store in my area and finding some great deals, I woukld like to thoroughly apologize to anyone who may be reading this for not doing my homework beforehand. By this I mean Jesse James Comics and Collectibles on 43rd ave. and Peoria, Glendale, AZ, (Jesse James is a Director of PHOENIX COMICCON). I of course entered on the wrong side where I met the DJ who was, well, deejaying this event. From there a friendly staff member directed me to the free comic table. Choose any three. Every other store had been divying out only two per customer but wait, there's more! Having already checked out their action figure room, yes, they have a room dedicated to comic related toys both old and new. Some toys I recalled from my child hood but fought the urge to call my best friend up and ask if he'd like to play TMNT with me. They next directed me to the back where they had a mecca of diverse titles; BOOM, DC, IMAGE, MARVEL, VERTIGO, IDW, and many, many others. They said choose any seventeen free!!! As i refrained from urinating myself right there, I fought my way through the gentleman in front of me who had brought his whole block of non-comic reading friends to take advantage of the free comics. He had done his homework and cheated on the test. They had some extremely rare comics mixed in and very HTF titles from Civil War, Blackest Night, Annihilation Wave, all the way back to first appearances by 60's characters. Mostly Direct Editions and ranging from F to M. Some of these were even bagged! They have amazing sales and Artist signings as well! Upon check out the friendly staff member refered to earlier even took a family photo. I f you haven't gotten down there. DO SO NOW! The doors are open until MIDNIGHT tonight!

After searching for several minutes to find a seat in the packed theater, I finally asked the teenagers who had been saving places and using up several rows with apparently empty seats to kindly move down. I had been waiting for a movie version of the Mighty God of Thunder since I was a small child and the day had finally came. I was not going to let anything ruin it for me or my son who had begged me to take him. After a year of swinging his replica hammer around the house, I decided and earning a character award for his respective grade level, I decided he had earned it. As the movie began to roll I was offput but not totally stunned to see the futuristic styling of the Asgardian halls. I had seen the previews and was well aware that another of my favorite heroes would be somewhat butchered by Hollywood. I have, as I always say, been made to suck it up and enjoy what little solid comic-based background the writers provide. I tell myself the ancient norse warriors would have had the same view of the comics that I have of the retelling of the stories on film. To my surprise the film did a decent version of the Ultimate reality Thor and with that I was quite pleased. The film overall had excellent effects and in my opinion was suttle as they could be dealing with the subject matter. The God of Lighnting can't exactly go without a little pinache. I was happy to see Destroyer, Sif, The Warriors Three, Heimdall, and others. I do wish they'd have showed Balder, but.... The allusion to the upcoming Avengers film through the use of a mostly random cast of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents was a nice surpise. (SPOILER) HAWKEYE! This was got major points from me as I am a big Hawkeye fan and despite the opinion of others, even a fan of the Ultimate version. As well the confusion with Destroyer being possibly another one of Starks armors. Ha! All in all I was surprisingly happy with this movie and would recommend that if you haven't gotten there yet get there now.

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2011 is here. For those of you who will be attending and live in the phoenix metro area I will be listing some of the events as well as a link to the comics and the official site. Happy hunting!

http://www.freecomicbookday.com/comics.asp

Arizona

Glendale

Drawn to Comics

Eric Mengel - Writer, illustrator and publisher of OCHO, a 20 page mini-comic that comes out six times a year. Eric will be giving away free OCHO mini-comics from 1:00PM to 5:00PM.

Chris Wood- Worked in the video game industry for the last 17 years but has decided to dedicate 2011 to falling back in love with making art. Chris will be on hand to sign for fans.

Albert Morales - Working on various Marvel Comics projects, 5Finity production works and applying any help he can to the HERO Initiative. Currently on his own book Bandalero: Head Honcho! Albert will be on hand to sign for fans.

Armand Villavert - A comic book illustrator whose published works include three children’s manga from Tokyopop entitled ZAPT! He is also the writer and artist of a story in the Princess Ai anthology. Currently doing a project for Image comics titled Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors with writer Mark Smith. Armand will be on hand to sign for fans.

Denae Frazier - A pin-up/sketch card artist who has done sketch card artwork for Star Wars Galaxy 6, Tudors Season 1/2/3 (card release To Be Determined), Classic Sci-fi Horror, Woodstock Generation, and the upcoming set of Vampirella. Currently writing her own take on the fabled Red Riding Hood, that coincides with her Red Riding Hood line of art, with future plans on putting it into comic book form. Danae will be on hand to sign for fans.

Dennman - Published over 10 mini-comics, two different webcomic series and a couple of trade paperbacks (collecting those series). Works include Get that Chicken, Lollygaggin’ Adventures and CHEESE starring Harold. He also has an up and coming webcomic series entitled Jenny Spookawski – Ghost Girl, debuting early summer 2011. Denmann will be on hand to sign for fans.

Scott Shehi - Owner of T.R.I.B.E. Studio Comics. Most recent projects include T.R.I.B.A.L. Stories (Rat, Logistik, Kid Intense, Marked, Shadow), Hot Dog Man and Micron. Scott will be on hand to sign for fans.

Oddity Commodity - Formed in 2008, Oddity Commodity is the brainchild of artist Christopher Burkheart and is creatively overseen by a small group of friends: sketch/concept artist and creator Christopher Burkheart, web/graphic designer and contributor Steven Gomez, head writer Eric Chanen, writer, inker, and sculptor Jason Mandell, and writer and business cooridinator Sam Gomez. Started as an idea for a series of t-shirts, Oddity Commodity has quickly grown into a stable of characters and concepts that are meant to stimulate the minds and imaginations of the masses through various mediums including clothing, sketch art, fine art and comic books. They will be on hand to sign for fans.

Jonathan Ziegler - Creator of the graphic novel Price Check. Jonathan will be on hand to sign for fans.

Shawn McGowan (Zedin) - Graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design and does editotial illustration, interior decor design, children’s books illustrations, product design and more. Zedin will be on hand to sign for fans.

Chris Crainey - Local artist. Chris will be on hand to sign for fans.

Kevin Anderson - Local freelance artist who contributed art to the comic book Troubling Signs, which which is dedicated to a community anti-graphiti campaign. Kevin will be on hand to sign for fans.

Shelby Roberton – Illustrator, colorist, and writer who started at the age of 15 with the British Aeronautics Magazine as a lead artist and concept illustrator. He has worked on Rascal from the Black Flag comic serialized tale and his own book, Crypt, and tons of fill in pagework. Shelby will be on hand to sign for fans.

Deejay Fuzion - A graduate of the Art Institute of Phoenix and a Music Deejay.

Frank “Gauge” O’Rourke - Freelance graphic artist.

Adriano “Andy” Carreon - Illustrated children’s magazines and worked as a cartoonist for a local comic book company. As a freelance illustrator, Andy has illustrated a variety of art such as turbine engines, portraits, architectural renderings, and cartoon/comic book illustrations. In the last year, he drew sketch card/trading card sets for Rittenhouse Archives to include X-Men Archives, Spider-Man Archives, and Marvel’s 70th Anniversary collection. Adriano will be on hand to sign for fans.

Events also to be located at Downtown Glendale Murphy Park, Velma Teague Branch Library, and Glendale Visitors Bureau main office.

Drawn to Comics

5757 W. Glendale Ave.

Glendale, AZ 85301

623-847-9090

www.DrawnToComics.com

Phoenix

Hero Comics

Vince DePorter - Artist on Spongebob Comics and Scooby Doo. Vince will be on hand to sign for fans.

Mike Macropoulos – Artist on Spooky Girl. Mike will be on hand to sign for fans.

Andy Bohn - Local artist. Andy will be on hand to sign for fans.

April Grady-Reyna - Local artist. April will be on hand to sign for fans.

Mickey Chaney - Local artist. Mickey will be on hand to sign for fans.

Hero Comics

3415 W.Thunderbird #1

Phoenix, Az 85053

602-843-6320

Anyone who has seen Young Justice I think can agree that DC has done a decent job here of recreating a Teen Titan based cartoon. Superboy is an awesome addition to the series. I hated the erasure of Superman Superboy from the mainlined continuity. It was just absurd to say that none of that ever happened. With the nineties came a Conner Kent, the new Superboy. A clone of Superman and Lex Luthor. Seeing the characters rebirth, albeit, a clone of the original was certainly iconic. The only prior appearance in media other than comics Superboy clone can be seen in was The Death and Return of Superman a video game relesed in '94, ( if your a classic gamer check it out for some beat 'em up styled fun ). The hit tv series Smallville has as well hinted at a character that appears as Alexander Luthor/Conner Kent a clone of Lex and Clark . As well, Alexander Luthor, ( not to be confused  with Earth One, New Earth, Earth Two,or Earth Three versions), can be seen wearing the same black t-shirt featuring the red Superman emblem as Kon-El. Superboys presence brings an essence of power to the team that was sorely lacking in the animated version of the Teen Titans whom relied on Cyborg as their heavy hitter. This critic is not sad to see the anime style comedy taken out of the new series either. Although fun, it certainly draws from both the dramatic storyline and the seriousness in the action scenes. So set your DVR''s and Tivos if your a fan. This promises to bring fun viewing for all.

I’ll try to take it easy on the spoilers here but DC has finally made an animated feature whose storyline can appeal to everyone. The newest in an ever growing flood recently pouring out of DC’S animation studio, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All Star Superman, was adapted to make an animated feature of the same title. So far this seems to be, at least to me, the best animated film DC has come up with. Although, once again in an attempt to make comic-based merchandise more universally friendly they have mostly botched what was a great storyline to begin with. The gross alteration of The Man of Steel's persona is degradingly horrific. Such instances as Superman’s indifference to destroying a sentient life form, allowing both his opponent and his allies to die - this can be seen earlier in the film as well when he allows Parasite, who was after Supes I might add, to drain inmates lifeforces in a prison. Not to mention the men he indirectly killed when he froze them next to the rampaging alien Parasite and they subsequently were shattered. The storyline was an accumulatively decent re-telling and just altogether animated fun. As a hardcore fan you may not like the changes. Everything else aside, I as a lifelong fan of the Man of Steel have come to be more accepting of on-film interpretations of my favorite characters. I would recommend this as entertaining fun.

Good news, well, for me at least. I have recently aquired a prototype of this figure and first thing I notice is the head sculpt is GREAT, maybe a tad long but who can tell as the comic is 2D and different artists have shown vastly different styles on many characters. Especially nowadays! I remeber when you could at least expect them to have chiseled jawlines but now, MEH! The retool is apparent but very well done IMHO. Mine isn't colored, so can't comment on the paint but the X-MEN symbol from cyclops can still be seen under the belt. The articulation is standard for the Hasbro ML ICONS line. Thankfully they are still making these with the double knees and elbows and not that weird Hasbro joint. All together, a nice figure. I wouldn't pay the $100 on Ebay for it but a free prototype I couldn't pass up.

DC Comics has been busy with their animated releases and for the coming year seems to have focused more on there animated based films with special attention to direct to video versions. I'm NOT complaining. I think, well hopeing, as I am a fan of both Ryan Reynolds and Mr. Green Ring, that the movie will be awesome. The hype certainly has been. Playing Wade and Hal ? That has been as big a topic as the movie itself. I believe an actor as talented as I perceive Reynolds to be can pull it off as long as they go full mask on DP. A fanboy can only dream though.

Movies

Green Lantern- 2011

Dark Knight Rises- 2012

Animated Films

All-Star Superman 2011

Green Lantern : Emerald Knights -2011

Batman: Year One- 2011

With the soon to be released movie version of Thor and the toys popping up around the country, along with Captain America: The First Avenger I can't wait to see what Marvel has in store. We have all seen our favorite characters butchered on film over and over. Deadpool''s character in Wolverine: Origins being a prime example but not the only example. Though, the alternative, being not made seems much more bleak  and well worth the shot at my fanboy pride.

Scheduled Movies

Thor- Marvel Studios

X-Men: First Class- 20th Century Fox / Marvel Studios

Captain America: The First Avenger- Paramount Pictures / Marvel Studios

2012 Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance- Columbia Pictures / Marvel Studios

The Avengers- Marvel Studios

The Amazing Spider-Man- Columbia Pictures / Marvel Studios

Announced

2013 Iron Man 3- Marvel Studios In development

Animated Releases

Thor: Tales Of Asgard

It seems the new  12" BLACK GOLIATH and the `12" FROST GIANT from the Hasbro MARVEL UNIVERSE GIGANTIC BATTLES has been appearing at stores across the country. I have yet to see one but they were originally supposed to be a Walmart exclusive. Currently they are selling on Ebay for ridiculous amounts. Some as much as $100! I know the Bill Foster is a retool of the previous GOLIATH from the MU toy line A.K.A. GIANT SKRULL, ICONS CYCLOPS, ICONS MAGNETO, ICONS HUMAN TORCH, but I think it's a solid figure. I will probably be picking one up when they arrive at my local stores but Ebay for a retool, not a chance.