The Thing "Ben Cooper" Halloween Costume, Dustin Tokarski's goalie mask, Kickstarter(s) and more RANDOM NOTES!

It's been a while since we had some random notes here at blog central, and the masses have been clamoring.  I am, of course, but a humble servant, so here we are with more thoughts about a bunch of stuff, most of which is actually comic related.  And also Franks and Beans.  Away we go!

- Ben Cooper was a company that made popular Halloween costumes a few decades back, and for a while they had a licensing agreement with Marvel Comics to produce costumes based on some of their more popular characters.  One of those costumes happened to be of the ever-lovin' Thing, and I managed to land one of my favorite non-pornographic website in the world, eBay, for a great price.

The costume and box have some scuffs to them, but overall these are in nice shape and I'll be happy to wear this costume to every Halloween party until I die and also if I ever decide to start committing crimes.  I have a feeling, though, that if I would ever start to go down that dangerous path, the goodness and rightness of the Thing would pull me back before I was too far gone.

This costume is, of course, hideous (though the mask is surprisingly well done), but this is part of its charm.  Ben Cooper, as I said, made a number of costumes and all of them were embarrassingly simplistic and/or ugly, but this was the style of a kids Halloween costume in the 1960s, '70s and '80s and I love this find.  I appreciate the sticker on the box, as seen above, that tells you just how one is supposed to wear the costume.  Thanks, B.C.

- I've gotten a few pieces of art framed recently at the Wood Street Frame shop in Pittsburgh, and they've done a good job at what I've turned in so far.  The latest item is Jeff Lafferty's original Teddy and the Yeti art, which I'm relieved to say that I've finally got behind glass.  Much of what I have framed tends to be big and therefore a little cumbersome, but this here is small enough that I can close my hand around it, which should make finding a place for it much easier.

- If you're a fan of the NHL, then you're aware the city of Montreal exists in real life.  They have hockey there, and they speak French.  And also the goaltender for the Canadiens has the Tick on his goalie mask.

Dustin "Tic" Tokarski is enough a fan of his nickname and the popular '90s cartoon that he decided to emblazon his helmet with the big blue hero busting out of the side.

This isn't the first time he's done it, even.  He spent last season with the Tampa Bay Lightning and put the Tick on that helmet as well.  If I had to choose, I'd say that the Lightning helmet is my favorite of the two, as the blue works better as part of the overall scheme.

Should I...should I send this guy a copy of the Free Comic Book Day issue?  Maybe we'll become fast friends.

- There are a couple new Kickstarter projects going on right now that feature work from friends of the blog.  First, Paul Tucker is teaming up with Tim (Hack/Slash) Seeley and others to work on a project called "Mini Comics Included", which takes its cues from those little comics that would be packaged with action figures most famously in the 1980s (He-Man springs to mind).  There are six tiny comics in all and Paul is drawing two of them!  The've got some great rewards up for grabs so check out the page and back it if you can: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1168046118/mini-comics-included-0

The other Kickstarter project I'm backing is a short film adaptation of FUBAR head honcho Jeff McComsey's "American Terror"!  I inquired about how much I would have to donate to play a role in the short of someone who gets killed, but alas, the film is in post-production and the fundraiser is just to get it over the hump.  Regardless, you can check out the American Terror page here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2097901631/american-terror-short-film

Everyone's buddy "Artboy_X" brought this one to my attention from Art Thibert, who might be best known for his work on a whole bunch of X-Men titles.  Thibert is Kickstarting his own title, Chrono Mechanics, about company that specializes in repairing problems in the timeline.  The CM Kickstarter page is here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461073089/chrono-mechanics-potholes-in-the-cosmic-road?ref=home_location

- I bought an early issue of Marvel Team-Up a few months back with Spider-Man and Mr. Fantastic teaming up to, I don't know, battle evil or something.  I thought the first page credits were pretty funny - specifically the inking credit.  At first I thought that it was a charming reminder of the "seat of your pants" attitude that must have reigned at Marvel in those early days, but then I remembered that there are still plenty of books out there today that employ four or five (or more) inkers for a single story.

- Lastly, it's been a while since I've posted any new Franks and Beans.  So here's our 58th episode, "A Watched Pot"!  Enjoy!  Or just watch it.  Please.

Temperature sale swag at Pittsburgh Comics! (and a new Dukes of Hazzard blog!)

Finding great deals is one of the things that makes collecting fun, and a recent "temperature sale" at McMurray, PA's Pittsburgh Comics brought in some hallmark examples that I'm particularly happy with.

Here's how a temperature sale works: the temperature at the time of purchase equals your total discount.  Tuesday was one of those days at the comic shop, and I took full advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to grab a ton of great books.  My discount was a whopping 70% off!

One of the reasons I went to the shop in the first place to was to check out a recently acquired collection of Marvel Treasury Edition, a 1970s oversized that featured mostly reprints.  While grabbing those left and right, I also picked up the two oversized Superman/Spider-Man crossovers, which are just classics. It's interesting to note that Superman gets top billing in both, even though the second book was published as the last issue of Marvel Treasury Edition.

I cleaned up on the Fantastic Four issues of the book, which apparently needed another adjective to show just how great they were.  These pictures don't make it clear just how big these books are.  They're ungainly and I really have no idea how I'm going to go about storing these books...they certainly won't fit in a regular size comic box.  I'm just glad that they came in plastic bags so I didn't have to search for them.  Apparently they're listed as "treasury size bags".

The treasury books alone came to over $130 at the register, but thanks to the sale, I got over $90 off.  This was the only way I was ever going to own a book like the Superman vs. Spider-Man issue, so I'm a lucky guy.

I did all right with regular back issues as well.  I grabbed a number of random Fantastic Four related books (no, that's not the original FF #1 in the top left, but a reprint that came with a Marvel Legends action figure).  Oh, Marvel Team-Up.  The fact that the Human Torch took top billing in a handful of issues is flustering sometimes.

I also got a half dozen issues of the creatively conceived but often poorly executed Tangent Comics that DC put out in the late '90s.  I don't know what it is about self-contained alternate realities in comics, but I usually end up trying to get full runs of these.

Oh!  And I got both issues of the strange Star Trek/X-Men comics put out when Marvel had the license.  The Next Generation crossover was continued in a novel, apparently, which was an odd lead-in.  I remember flipping though the first book when it came out, and chuckling at the Dr. McCoy meets Dr. McCoy moment, and I did the same this time around as well.

Lastly, I picked up two variant editions of the Ultimate Fallout book.  Yes, the only reason I got them was because the Ultimate Fantastic Four is on the front.  It happens.

This blog isn't entirely about the cool comics stuff that I buy, but it's fun to post some of that stuff from time to time.  Our good friend Larry Franks recently started up a blog of his own as a companion to his Dukes of Hazzard website, and you should check it out!  On the blog, Larry discusses all of the great Dukes swag that he has and comes across.  From the perspective of a collector (no matter what it is you collect), this is very cool.  Larry's got some great stuff and he's showing it off a little bit at a time.  Go there now (AND EVERY DAY) by following this link: http://dukescollector.blogspot.com/!

Pictures from the Motor City Comic Con, part 3

Aaaaaaaand one more of these should just about do it, right?  Right.  So let's get to it, one week after the actual convention began.

This was the line to get it.  Look how patient everyone is!  Seriously, one of the best things about exhibiting is that you just get to walk right in every morning.  It's lovely.

This guy did a pretty fantastic Jack Sparrow impression.  And look, he even let Larry wear his hat.

This is a yeti, right?  I mean, it looks like a yeti with horns, and...wait, what?  It's from Star Wars.  Really?  Oh.  Okay.

Shoppage.

Wow!  And a great time was had by all.  Look at how happy I am.

Thursday night, hours before the con, I was lying in bed, about to fall asleep, when I realized that - horror upon horrors - I forgot to bring my Thing sketchbook to this show.  This sucked.  However, I did manage to get a sketch nevertheless: I bought a blank version of the new FF #1 and got the extra talented Katie Cook to draw a cute cover for me.  When I asked her why the Thing was wearing a neckerchief, she answered "because he's got style."  She's right, of course.

I got some swag at this show for sure!  On Sunday, when any bargain hunter knows to look for deals, I snagged some great books that I had been looking for for a while, including Fantastic Four #s 47, 117 and annual #9, Astonishing Tales (co-starring the Black Panther and Dr. Doom!) #s 1 and 4, and a handful of early-ish Marvel Team Up issues, most of them featuring the Human Torch (sometimes as the lead character).

My next post will be about something different.  But I had fun putting these pictures up in any case.