Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Avengers Paper Heroes! New FUBAR art! A new Thing statue! MORE RANDOM NOTES!!


Today was kind of a big day for me.  How to celebrate?  Well, what about another installment of random notes?  These are things that are awesome.  You'll thank me later.  Let's begin!

- Xavier Gale-Sides has done some great things on his My Paper Heroes website, where he creates paper action figures and shares them with a grateful planet.  His latest creations are Marvel's movie Avengers, and they're looking really nice.  The group shot you see above isn't even a complete set - Xavier also has Nick Fury and the Black Widow, not to mention "maskless" versions of Cap and Iron Man.  Best of all, he's got the patterns right on his website, and you can download them for free!

A while ago, Xavier made awesome paper versions of Teddy and the Yeti!  If you don't already have them, you can download them from this site and his, also for free!

Download the Paper Hero Ted HERE.
Download the Paper Hero Yeti HERE.

- Since we're on the subject of the Avengers movie, let me share a few more random thoughts with you.

First, did anyone else catch Loki's "mewling quim" line from his conversation with Black Widow?  Perhaps not, at least if you were part of an American audience.  The only reason I caught this line - which is SUPER offensive, by the way - is because I watch (and love) the British comedy "The Inbetweeners", which is a fantastic, if not crude, program.

It's surprising that this line made it in, and it makes me wonder if it's okay to make rude and suggestive comments in movies as long as they're not part of the local lexicon.  Firefly, for instance (another Joss Whedon production), featured swearing of all sorts, but it was all in Chinese.  It's strange to think that swearing, something American audiences seem to get pretty worked up about, is allowed in this manner.  What about people who speak Chinese?  Or people who emigrated from China?  They get to hear it all.  Yet if it's in English, it'll probably get you a fine or an "R" rating.  Weird.

Next, how about that product placement in the movie?  There were Dr. Pepper sightings galore, but what stood out to me as the most forced was the, uh, interestingly placed Farmer's Insurance office during the big fight scene.  I mean, I know they're a sponsor of the thing.  But come on.  Does anyone say "I think I'll switch my insurance company!" because he/she saw the words in the background of a movie?  Also weird.


- There's been lots of progress on the upcoming third volume of FUBAR, and I'm excited to share some of the art for the first time.  Both are stories I'm luckily involved in.  Above is a clip from a story titled "Old Ghosts".  It deals with a WWI vet and features art by Daniel Thollin.  It's looking great so far.  In FUBAR volume 2, I lettered a story by Stephen Lindsay and Thollin titled "Run Silent, Run Dead".


- This art is from an as-of-yet untitled story that takes place during the Battle of the Alamo.  It's got art by Steve Becker and Jeff McComsey, and it's coming along swimmingly.  I can't give away too much about this or, really, any of the FUBAR 3 details, but things are happening, and if you liked what came before, you'll be happy with what's to come.  I know I'm excited about it.


- I got a new Thing statue in the mail!  I guess "statue" isn't the best word for it...maybe "figure"?  I don't know.  Anyway, here are some pictures of it, whatever it is:



Above and below is the tin it came in!


And inside the lid is a little pamphlet and a pin.  Both are pretty cool.


This is a great figure.  It's funny, because Dark Horse is responsible for this series, which features the rest of the Fantastic Four as well as other Marvel characters.  The figure itself is pretty small, solid, and hand painted.  Obviously it's going for a retro look, and it succeeds in pretty much every manner.  It's a cool new addition to the collection.


- If you have a blog with Blogger, chances are you regularly (perhaps obsessively) check your stats.  I am certainly no exception.  I had more monthly page views than ever before in April - my first time over 4,000 views in a month (thanks, folks)!  This number was no doubt nudged along by the above oddity, where I apparently got over 500 views all at once.  How did this happen?  Online flash mob?  I have no idea, but I'm not complaining.


- Here's another fun stat.  People are finding this blog by searching Google Images for the UHF logo!  I've been hoping for this ever since I posted the UHF Six Panel Cinema and thank goodness at least three people took the bait.  The below image is currently on the second page of Google Images if you search for "UHF movie logo".  Maybe one of the searchers is even Weird Al.  I can dream, right??  Let's bump up those odds by posting it one more time...


There.  Great.  Have a good one, everybody!

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