#I love seeing Starforce art in the modern day

[scificheergirl]

Coffee has been absorbed. Family members have been given their tasks for the weekend. The studio is heating up for a productive day…three hours after I started this post. Let’s take a quick look at the state of things to kickoff this schedule-free weekend!

This end of my work table is the pretty side.

First, a few movie thoughts: Captain Marvel was a delightful film. Monica had better be in Endgame. I want a movie version Kree Starforce uniform for my purple Twi’lek, but I don’t want to make it. Life is hard. Representation is good.

Movie-inspired Monica Rambeau and Business Casual  Carol Danvers

Catching up on the last post: The Dr. Seuss tea time hat was a great success! Using an old party store hat as a base, I added a mini tablecloth made from scrap fabric and lace, and I threw together a teacup and saucer from plastic canvas. The kiddo filled in all of the plastic canvas with yarn. The crocheted mouse is basically an egg shape with ears and a tail, then stuffed with Poly-fil. The eyes are beads and the nose is craft thread. The cheese is more scrap fabric, interfaced with heavy duty iron-on, and stuffed with Poly-fil. All pieces were tacked to the hat with button & carpet thread. I added elastic to keep it on her cute little head.

Our girl is a true artiste.

Full of cheese

Storm is progressing. I might have to take back my statement about polyethylene tubing for panniers. I was forced to take out the bottom hoop because of twisting, and I’m still  really frustrated by the shape the rest of the hoops are making. I’m considering placing a hoop steel order, but that will depend upon how the gown looks after this weekend. I’m just starting the back pleats, which are slightly wider than depicted in the AD book to emphasize Storm’s traditional cape. I’m hand stitching them down and loving every moment…I just wish I had another couple of months to get this all done. Whatevs. Sleep is for the weak. The ensemble is about 50/50-machine versus hand sewn at this point. Most of the interior items were done by machine–petticoat seams, gown back and skirt seams, boning channels on the stays and stomacher. All of the trim will be stitched by hand unless I find an acceptable gimp braid that will hide the machine stitches. The goal is to have only hand sewn stitches visible. We’ll see how I feel about that in a month. Oh, and I also need to embroider the stomacher. I finally finished sketches for the stomacher, fan, and garters last night. The fan will be painted on what I believe is home decor silk and I’ll fancy it up with some sequins. The garters will have French text and modern lightning bolts done by machine as soon as I get that digitized. I already know that I don’t have time to spend on hand embroidery for the stomacher, so I will probably transfer the design to the taffeta in white pencil and use free-motion embroidery to fill it in. Don’t think that I haven’t been scouring my embroidery library and Urban Threads for some X-Men logo-shaped flowers that I can pass as 18th century inspired. Haven’t even touched the wig yet. I have a lot to do.

With March moving along faster than I can deal with, I still have three events before The Great Philadelphia Comic Con, April 12-14. Use my promo code– SHASTA19 –for a percentage off of your General Admission tickets.

First up is the Art of the Belly Dance Festival in less than two weeks. I’ll be learning, volunteering, partying, and performing. This year has a Heroes & Villains theme, so I need to pull out a costume that I can sweat in both onstage and at the after-party. There’s also a balcony decorating competition, for which I do not currently have the decor brain.

The last Saturday of March, I’ll be attending Winterthur’s “Costuming the Crown” opening, which features a costume exhibition and panel with the costume designers. I really want to make a nice 50s day dress from one of the vintage patterns that I was gifted, but time is not on my side these days. That Sunday, Mini-Me and I will be heading to the Museum of the American Revolution for their “Fashioning Eliza” event. Obviously, our budding theatre nerd wants to wear her Eliza Schuyler party dress…that I haven’t started yet. Again, there is not enough time for this hobbied life and tough choices are going to have be made. There also isn’t enough extracurricular money to order her a pair of AD Kensingtons that she’ll outgrow within the year. But she’d be so  cute.

She lost her mind when her taffeta arrived.

And finally, the convention prep outside of what I’ll be wearing: What do I do about my table? This part will require a longer post about showing my value as a hobbyist cosplay guest, but I’ll start with: I have a crap-ton of prep work and packing to do. I take guesting very seriously–perhaps more seriously than I should having only ever spoken on panels and helped out at booths, rather than holding down my own table for an entire weekend. While I’m not inexperienced, speaking as a costumer and as a con attendee in the last decade, I know what I expect of other people. In short, I want to help people have a fun time, make sewing more accessible for new learners, and I don’t want to be bored out of my mind.

Photo by: SeryusFoto

Bonus Update: Sadly, I’ve pushed Livewire out indefinitely. I’d like to say that I can get her finished in time for Free Comic Book Day, but I have so much love for this character, that I won’t do her a disservice by turning out anything less than a well-made suit. I’m going to start drafting a good bodysuit pattern as soon as Storm is complete. This will make a couple of other future costumes easier too. The time and effort will be well worth the wait.

Thanks for hanging in there, Team!

Springing Forward Like My Hair Is On Fire Coffee has been absorbed. Family members have been given their tasks for the weekend. The studio is heating up for a productive day...three hours after I started this post. 1,078 more words

[efguffey]

This time on Heroes and Villains, we’ll be looking at a variety of comics out this week and last, from a variety of genres. Meet me after the jump for my thoughts on Zodiac Starforce: Cries of the Fire Prince #1, Patriot-1, Wonder Woman #25, The Flash #25, All-New Guardians of the Galaxy Annual #1, Secret Empire #5, and The Rook Archives, Volume 2… be warned, there may be spoilers…

Zodiac Starforce

These high school girls aren’t just studying for their math tests, they’re saving the world from alien invasions and giant monsters. That’s the premise of Zodiac Starforce from Dark Horse Comics. In this return of the series, the team, fresh from defeating a former member and her bad girl force, face new big bads in the form of demons. It’s an American try at manga, looking a lot like it, feeling a bit like Sailor Moon meets Power Rangers, but trying a lot harder, and producing in the end a fine product.

Just a few pages in, the story and the characters pulled me in. I loved the simple straight forward art, which in hindsight is more Silver Age than manga, and the colors are vibrant. This comic is a solid reminder to a lot of folks out there in the creative end of this business that comics should be in color. This is a great jumping on point for the series, but I would also heartily recommend the first series, Zodiac Starforce: By the Power of Astra as well.

Patriot-1

This graphic novel from TJ Comics has been out for a while, but what better time to take a look at Patriot-1 than the day after we’ve celebrated American independence? Now I’ve talked about war comics before, and of course, nobody does it better than BBP’s own Ensley F. Guffey, both here and over at FreakSugar, but my point is there aren’t many war comics out there that aren’t really period pieces. Patriot-1 by Kevin Powers and Dexter Wee is a modern day war comic that pulls no punches, without being bloody and graphic. It’s violent, yes, but it’s war.

This is real. This feels real. Seriously, Homeland and 24 should take notes. I was impressed by the cinematic feel, the quick read, and the investment I had in the characters. These days when I hardly know characters I grew up with any more, I felt attached to the cast of Patriot-1. And all of that before this becomes a superhero comic, and that transition, well over a hundred pages in, is smooth and feels real. At a time we can neither trust Captain America nor our President, we have Patriot-1, highly recommended.

Wonder Woman

After making over $400 million worldwide with her film incarnation, I thought it was time to check in on Wonder Woman, and last week’s issue #25 of her DC Rebirth run. I kind of dug the opening with Diana and the Justice League facing off against the Shaggy Man, it pulled strongly on my nostalgia. From there the tale moves on. We are in the middle of a story, but the writers, as was done back in the old days slowly bring the reader around so we’re all caught up. This is how Marvel used to work back in the day. They would give you enough story to lure you in while giving you a complete chapter. I dug this a lot, and despite my misgivings about Diana’s Rebirth origins, I might give it another try, just as most of the world is giving her film a first try.

The Flash

While I miss the television series The Flash, and cannot wait for its return in a few months (it just started shooting its fourth season this week), I thought I would check out the comic. Since Rebirth, it has been a bit different, with its status quo mirroring its TV counterpart, as well as pulling continuity from the New 52 as well. Admittedly I haven’t been following it, despite the Barry Allen Flash being a favorite since before I could read the comics I had with him in it. I have sampled the title only intermittently since Frances Manapul left it.

This issue concerns the Reverse-Flash, a villain that one might think folks would be tired of at this point. If I was a TV fan and picked up a comic with him in it, I might put it back, so sick of the character from the show, and as a comic fan, being beat to death with the character’s actions in the Flashpoint storyline, I’d be sick of him too. As a comics and TV fan, if I ever hear the words Reverse-Flash and Flashpoint again, I might scream.

Still, this issue, the first part of a new arc called “Running Scared,” is really quite good, and plays on themes and stories that we have, granted, seen before in both media, but not like this. We have been brought a new version of the origin of the Reverse-Flash, one that is visually fluid because of the nature of time travel, and could quite possibly continue to change. I liked this, and would like to see more. Flash #25 is recommended.

Guardians of the Galaxy

With so much talk of changing continuities and reboots and rebirths, it was both refreshing and frustrating to read the All-New Guardians of the Galaxy Annual. While I could dive right into this with only my knowledge of the two Guardians movies, there were continuity glitches. The characters are right out of the movies, even more simplified than they are in even the animated series, and notably changed from the last comics I had seen them, but also they were dragged into that nasty Secret Empire crossover event business… and that’s where the trouble starts.

As I said, these are streamlined movie/cartoon versions of these characters, vastly different from the Guardians of the last event, Civil War II. They are approaching the Marvel Universe as those happy-go-lucky space bums who happen to save the galaxy occasionally, and are struck with the harsh reality of Secret Empire, and still take the humorous route. Yes, it is amusing, yes, it is fun, and yes, once again I hate their portrayal of Mantis, but in the end, it feels icky, like laughing at an episode of Hogan’s Heroes.

Secret Empire

Anyone paying attention knows how I feel about Captain America being Hydra, I won’t beat the dead horse, or even link to it. Secret Empire #5 had some moments, had a few beats that were good, but in the end I think all of us have to ask – is it worth the damage done to the character of Captain America in the public perception to tell this story? That said, I also think it has gone on too long, and that’s not to be sarcastic and say I can’t wait for it to end, but because I think writer Nick Spencer himself is tired of it. His work in the past year on this storyline, even though I did not like what was going on, was quite good. Secret Empire on the other hand is a drop in quality, nowhere near as good as his writing in Captain America; Steve Rogers. I think even he is ready to put this horse in the ground.

As I said, there are moments. The bit of intimidation with Mjolnir and the Beast, Hercules fighting Gorgon, the Black Widow negotiating with Madame Hydra (or Viper, or whatever she’s calling herself these days), how the Avengers are controlled, and yes, the revelation of the Hulk at the close of the issue, but is any of that worth it? Back in the day, when a writer wanted to tell a story like this, Marvel had a comic called What If?, maybe it’s time to bring it back, before any more characters are destroyed…

The Rook

Until I got my hands on this collection, The Rook Archives, Volume 2, now available from Dark Horse, I had never read any of the title character’s adventures, but I had heard about him, and what I heard was wild. Originally published by Warren in the late 1970s, The Rook was Restin Dane, the grandson of the man who traveled through time and told his story to H.G. Wells, inspiring The Time Machine. He was also a wicked cross between Doctor Who and Doc Savage, dressed like an old west gunslinger and travelled through time in a giant castle shaped like a rook in chess, thus the name. Some have said he may even be the inspiration for Stephen King’s Roland Deschain. This is mad eclectic scifi-horror of a bygone era, and highly recommended.

Filed under: comics, Glenn Walker, heroes and villains, reviews Tagged: Captain America, civil war ii, Dark Horse, dexter wee, doc savage, Doctor Who, ensley f. guffey, Flashpoint, freaksugar, guardians of the galaxy, H.G. Wells, heroes and villains, Justice League, kevin powers, mantis, Nick Spencer, patriot-1, Reverse Flash, secret empire, Stephen King, the flash, the rook, war comics, warren publishing, What If, Wonder Woman, zodiac starforce