Dave DeVries - Hellboy @ Hasbrouck Heights Comic Show - May 31 2015

Once again it's been quite awhile since my last post on this blog - hard to believe it's been almost exactly one year since the last one! I hope to not go that long until the next.

Here's an awesome sketch by the incredible Dave DeVries of Hellboy. He drew this for me at the Hasbrouck Heights comic show at the Holiday Inn on Rt 17S, Sunday, May 31st 2015.

I also picked up a bunch more Bronze Age Marvel horror books which you can see here in the photo as well.

Dave is an extremely talented illustrator and is perhaps best known for doing a series of painted Marvel trading cards in the early 1990's. He's also known as being the creator of The Monster Engine, a book project and ongoing series of paintings in which he interprets a childs drawings and paints them in a realistic fashion. The results are always fantastic.

Besides the Hellboy, Dave also drew a really cool Sif for my good buddy, Evan as well as a cool Green Goblin for another fan.

New York Comic Con Special Edition Haul - June 2014

Had a great time at the inaugural NYCC SE, held at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC. This show was focused on comic books and their creators, rather than having a lot of the extraneous stuff such as video games, movies and designer toys that the regular NYCC, held in October usually has. That convention is much larger and takes up the entire Javits Center. This show was much smaller and held  in the Javits NorthWing, the space that has been home to the Artist Alley section of NYCC the past two years.

Half the space was devoted to Artist Alley and the other half to dealers of vintage and some new comics, as well as a few toy dealers. There was much less of a crowd than the regular NYCC and it lent to a more relaxed atmosphere. There was still a large list of comics creators, both new and legends in the field. I was able to score a few cool commissions and pick up a bunch of comics to fill in the collection. I picked up my usual assortment of Marvel 70's horror comics, as well as some Cap and FF to fill in spots. I also upgraded a couple of Spider-Man's. The big comics purchase was a very nice  (Fine+) copy of Fantastic Four #28, featuring an early X-Men cross-over. My FF collection is now complete from #19-#293. Of the early issues, I'm missing #1-8, 10,12,13, and 18.  Unfortunately, I wasn't as smart in buying those early issues back in the day, when they were much cheaper, like I was able to with my Spider-Man collection (well, thanks to mom, mainly!), but even still, those books were expensive back then, at least relatively speaking.

Besides the comics, I picked up a bunch of commissions and pre-drawn art from some great artists. Clockwise in the photo, we have:

Mark Texiera (Ghost Rider, Vampirella) Bride Of Frankenstein 11x17 on bristol..Mark really went all out on this drawing. It's amazing!

Michael Dooney (Gizmo, TMNT) Bride Of Frankenstein 9x12 marker rendering. Sweet!

Russ Braun (Batman:Venom, The Boys) Batman - a freebie by my friend in my 7X10 sketchbook.

Jacob Chabot (Mighty Skullboy Army, Voltron) Doctor Doom - 8.5 X 11. An awesome rendition of the King of Latveria. Really great piece.

Ben Caldwell (Dare Detectives) Hellboy. 8.5 X 11. This was a pre-done sketch in his portfolio. Ben had loads of amazing pencil drawings, brimming with imagination, cool characters and poses and gorgeous, flowing pencil lines. His work is superb!

Eric Talbot (TMNT) Leonardo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Also a pre-done painting in one of two large portfolios of Turtles art that Eric brought along. The framed cyclops silhouette robot Batman in the frame at top is also by Eric (the art is a print).  I really love Eric's work and see a kindred spirt in the art he does. He mentioned putting together a Kickstarter, featuring much of his sketchbook work that never gets to see the light of day. He was gracious enough to show me some of that stuff - and it was amazing! Hopefully he's able to get something together in the not too distant future and we can all enjoy it. Great art!

Jacob Chabot - Bride Of Frankenstein - in the middle, next to the Doctor Doom. This one is a cool companion piece to a Monster of Frankenstein he drew for me at NYCC in 2012.

All in all I think it was a great day. My pocket was seriously depleted afterwards, as is usually the case after NYCC...and now it's gonna be worse, since the next, even bigger NYCC is only 3 months away!

You can view scans of all the art at my ComicArtFans gallery here:

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=2246

Original Art Day

Came home from work to find two eagerly awaited packages had arrived.

The two beautiful ACEO sketchcards are the work of artist Asa Ishino from Japan. They measure 2.5" x 3.5" and are on bristol paper. The color piece is done in watercolors and acrylics, with a bit of colored pencil.  I purchased the two pieces at Asa's online shop, which you can find here:

http://asaishino.storenvy.com

The Batman vs Clayface pen and ink pointillism tour de force is by Erik Martinez, a Texas based illustrator with an eclectic body of work.  You can see more of his art here:

facebook.com/epikmoore

Marvel 70's horror!

Marvel 70's horror comics I picked up at NYCC. Most of these are reprints of late 50's/early 60's Atlas stories, with art by Kirby, Ditko, Ayers and others. Some of the covers, though, feature new artwork.

NYCC 2013 Art Pick-Ups

Some of the commissions I was able to score at New York Comic Con 2013.  Art by Simon Bisley, Adam Hughes, Adam Robinson, Dave Johnson, and Eric Talbot.

Asian Masks

Wizard World NYC 2013 Pick-Ups

Here are my pick-ups from Wizard World NYC, 6-30-13. The Big Daddy Roth style ape drawing is by Michael Golden and was originally commissioned at NYCC, 2012. To see a scan of it and read the back story behind this piece, please go here:

Michael Golden - Ape Rider

Also in this shot is a great Hellboy sketch by fan favorite Humberto Ramos. A scan of the piece can be seen here:

Humberto Ramos - Hellboy sketch

Also in this pic are more Marvel 70's horror comics, a couple of t-shirts and Humberto Ramos' 2012 art book, 'Sabotage.'

Comics!

Some pickups from a local Clifton, NJ comic show in May 2013.

Japanese Toys!

Some recent photos of a few of my Japanese toy collections.

Takara Henshin Cyborg and Denys Fisher (U.K.) Cyborg figures.

Henshin Cyborg costumes and figures.

More Henshin Cyborg, as well as Kaiyodo Assembleborg figures.

 Kamen Rider stuff, incld. Popy die-cast and vinyl as well as some cool Mego/Popy collaborations.

 Bandai die-cast Sentai figures.

Captain Action and Friends!

Here's my collection of the new Captain Action releases by Round 2/Forever Fun toys. These  are really well done figures and costumes. There were some issues with the Captain America shield, however (the small pegs used to hold the strap on easily break off), but overall, the level of craftmanship and attention to detail in the costume sets are fantastic.  Of course, as with the original Captain Action, you buy individual costume sets that you use to dress up your main Captain Action figure.

If you've only got one Captain Action figure, though, you can only have one hero (or villain) set up at a time. The solution? Buy more Captain Action figures!  There are some third party figures that people have been buying to use as the base figure, which are cheaper than buying a brand new Captain Action..that's something I'll have to look into as more costume sets are released.

So far, they've put out Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor and Loki. There's a regular Captain Action figure and an Arctic Adventurer version. There's also a Dr. Evil figure. All the figures (aside from the Arctic Adventurer Captain Action) and costumes come in regular and deluxe versions. The deluxe versions include extra accessories, and in the case of the figures, a retro style box, reproducing the artwork from the original Captain Action figures made my Ideal in the mid-late 1960's.  There's also a  variant edition of the Captain America outfit, with different cover art (a Joe Simon 1940's comic cover). Cap's shield in this one replicated the look from the early Timely comics, with an outer blue ring, as opposed to the more known red. His belt is also different (red as opposed to black). There are likely other variants that I'm not aware of. The deluxe versions of the costumes also come with parts to 'build-a-figure.' The first of these is a Hawkeye, and to complete him, you need to buy the first six deluxe sets. So far, as of January 2013, only four sets have been released.

The new figures are entirely new sculpts, yet are true in feel and look to the original versions- just updated with better poseability and more dynamic sculpting. The costumes as well, have a vintage feel to them, but are all brand new.

Next up in the line is Iron Man and Red Skull (pictured on the packages, but only as drawings). I've seen online a Batman and Superman set (still in pre-production) and there are likely more to come.

With having to buy the figure and the costume it does get to be expensive per fully clothed figure. The regular edition costume sets are generally available at most Toys R Us' or online at around $20-$22 each, while the figures retail for about $30. The deluxe versions are more expensive, usually in the $40 range for the outfits and $45-$50 for the figures. Some might be cheaper online, rather than at your local comic book shop. (although it's nice to shop and spend your money at your LCS!)

Overall, I'm very happy with these figures and look forward to the next set of releases.

Besides Captain Action, in this pic is also a standard 8" Mego Spider-Man, c. 1974, two of the 12" Mego Spider-Men from 1978 (one boxed and one loose), a vintage 14" Kenner Boba Fett and an Ideal Knight of Darkness (also boxed and a loose one). To the far right, peering over the shoulder of the new Dr. Evil is the Praying Mantis version, released in the mid 1990's. Those versions were repros of the original toys from the 1960's.

Hiding behind some of the figures, and pretty much out of view in this pic, is a boxed Sir Galahad from the Mego Knights line of the early 1970's. I also have a boxed King Arthur, not pictured here.

Too Much Horror Business

I highly recommend the great new book by Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett that showcases his incredible collection of horror movie posters, props, toys, and original art, including a bunch of Frazetta's and some super sweet model box art. There's info on all the entries, plus three very cool interviews with Kirk on the nature of his obsession with horror stuff, another on collecting and the last on his music. A hardback book, with over 200 pages of color glossy pages. A Must have!

Japanese Toy Shop Videos pt 1

During my last trip/toy excursion to Japan, in October, 2011, I filmed a number of the toy shops and stores that I went into. For the most part I used my Veho Muvi mini spy camera, a pretty neat little piece of equipment. I just snapped it onto the left hand arm strap off my backpack and hit record. No one knew any better.

A big shout out must go to the guys at Super 7 and their essential book 'Tokyo Underground (1 and 2)'...pretty much a must if you intend to find any of the more hard to find toy shops scattered around Tokyo.

Here are the first two videos, from Third Uncle/Characters in Koiwa and Toys Golden Age, in Akihabara.

I'll be adding more in the coming days and weeks. You can always check my YouTube channel (Kamenliter) for updates.

As the Super 7 book says, the prices at Third Uncle were pretty crazy, but to their defense, the toys they had were in great shape, in nice boxes..but still, many high prices. Since it was one of the last stops, money was dwindling, and the exorbitant prices didn't help matters, but I finally decided on a nice Kamen Rider Stronger Popy vinyl (w/ removable helmet) and a smaller Popy Red Baron vinyl. Even just those two items set me back 30,000 yen. That transaction is documented on the video.

I didn't record my purchases at Toys Golden Age, but for the record, I picked up a cool Henshin Cyborg style purple horned cyclops figure...don't know who he is, but it was only 2100 yen for the figure and costume.

All the photos below, btw,  are from Third Uncle/Characters.

Ray Harryhausen:Special Effects Exhibit at MOMA, NYC 1981

These photos were taken by my dad during the Summer of 1981, at an exhibit of Ray Harryhausen's stop motion figures and drawings (not pictured here, but which can be seen in his various books) at the Museum of Modern Art, in NYC. The show was entitled Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects and ran from May 28–September 1, 1981, coinciding with the Summer release of Clash of the Titans.

Dark Crystal Exhibit pics - c. 1982/83

I took these photos at an exhibit for The Dark Crystal, the great Jim Henson puppet film, at the Astoria Motion Picture Studios in 1982 or '83.

Robot 6 - Shelf Porn and Figure.Fm Toy Pics!

I've been featured this week on Comic Book Resources weekly ode to people's stuff. It's 'Shelf Porn' - a section of the Robot 6 site. You can read a little about me there and see a bunch of pics from my collection. Here's the link:

Robot 6 - Shelf Porn

I'm also on the very cool Otaku site Figure.Fm. You can see some of my stuff there as well:

My Studio Room Shelves

My Basement Toy Shelves

The Amazing Spider-Man Issues 31-40

Over time, I'll post the covers to the first two hundred issues of The Amazing Spider-Man. Here are the covers to #'s 31-40, December 1965 - September, 1966. Artwork on #'s 31-38 by Steve Ditko, #'s 39 and 40 by John Romita, Sr.