a99kitten's Musings

At SDCC, I went by the same booth Thursday and Friday to check out a piece of art. It was the canvas original of “Bad Girls” by Mimi Yoon. In person, this piece was amazing. The colors truly pop out and grab you. It was also almost as tall as me framed on the wall – great, great piece. It was also $15,000 and there was no way I was spending that kind of money on something withOUT Chewbacca in it ;)

Bad Girls original

Besides my Star Wars and Indy collecting, I have always loved collecting the female characters in DC and Marvel. This is a lot easier now than it was when I was younger. I still have carded action figures safe and sound from when I was a kid but they didn’t make too many of them which was pretty silly if you think about it. Pretty (and usually big boobed) super heroes sold to boys? Seems like an easy sell. Although now it’s hard to find the really awesome pieces because those same boys grew up, made some money and now buy them all up :) I think Slave Leia changed it all honestly.

I loved (well…still love) Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Storm, Scarlet Witch, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Batgirl, etc, etc growing up. Not because I’m some feminist girl who wanted to feel empowered/not need men/blah blah baloney though. I mostly loved that they kicked serious ass while they were pretty and wearing cool outfits with high-heeled boots. I’m such a girl :)

They had an artist proof on canvas (and paper it turned out) at a much more reasonable price plus smaller. Edition size was 100 so still a small run (paper was 250.) But SDCC had just started and I wanted to see if any new Star Wars art caught my eye before spending any money (if I spent any on art at all.) The guy at the booth was nice, and showed me some pieces they had that they weren’t allowed to display (very nice), but he was a bit pushy and kept using salesmen mumbo-jumbo “what can we do to get this done?”, “let’s schedule a sit down and talk about this”, etc. And I hate to be sold to. So I eventually got out of there and said I’d think about it.

I walked by again on Friday and looked at the original again. Still gorgeous. But my proof was gone! Sold. Darn. I guess it was not meant to be. But I was sad. I did really like the piece. Walked by again Saturday and the original was gone! (Turns out it was sold by the Chuck Jones Gallery as I learned on Sunday…)

On Sunday I decided to go to the Chuck Jones Gallery. I always stop by there when in town for SDCC. I walk in the front door and there is my Bad Girls artist proof on canvas all framed and pretty! And there is the artist! And she is signing dedication cards for the canvas if you buy one. Oh man. An employee walks up and asks me if I know this piece and gave him the above story. He smiled and and said I guess this is fate then. Yep. He knew I was sold.

Artist Mimi Yoon (and me!) with my Bad Girls :)

Mimi Yoon writing my dedication card for Bad Girls

My dedication card!

They shipped it up to me and the girls arrived all safe and sound. And I just put them up on the wall. LOVE IT. The colors pop and they catch the light as you walk by. #24 of 100. Absolutely ZERO buyer’s remorse. It was, after all, Fate :)

On the wall!

I just finished reading Marvel’s New X-Men “New Worlds” graphic novel. It was third in a series. The first 2 were “E is for Extinction” and “Imperial”. I really, really liked these.

The X-Men have been my favorite comics since I was a kid. Now, there were X-Men, New X-Men, The Uncanny X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, and then of course the New Mutants, Weapon X and Wolverine and then allllll of the cross-overs they did. Seriously could go broke trying to keep up!

Some very fond childhood memories are of having my Dad take me to the comic book store to pick up my new arrivals. Always a good Saturday!! I would pour over them there and then again, in more detail, at home. Other favorite regular titles at the time were Wonder Woman, Justice League, The New Teen Titans, Alpha Flight, Batman and the Outsiders, and of course every new X-Men title/crossover they pumped out.

But I do have to admit, I slowed down and then finally stopped. I always wanted to go back and start back up again but when I would grab a few issues, I seemed soooo out of the loop in terms of story and characters, that I never stuck with them.

I was in line opening weekend for each new X movie and they always made me want to start reading the comics again. My favorite story arcs were the Hellfire Club storyline and, of course, the Dark Phoenix saga. If Hollywood could ever make these 2 story arcs correctly – these would rule! Although can not possibly be done in a 2 hour movie. So maybe best left to pages. I reread my Dark Phoenix comics a few years back and loved them just the same. What I always loved about X-Men (and Marvel titles in general) were they were darker and far more convoluted than the DC titles were back then. DC figured it out and revamped. Good move.

These 3 graphic novels were fairly dark. Murdered mutants, murdering mutants, apocalypse, death and mayhem – just a regular day in the X universe :) I highly recommend reading these. They cover New X-Men issues 114-133. Although not for someone who isn’t familiar with the X and Marvel universe for sure. The continuity for me was a bit hard (especially Scott and Jean’s multiple issues) since I have been so out of the X Universe for so long but I could figure most out and it really made me want to find the before and after stories! My only real complaint with any of them is the artwork in the first 2/3 of the 3rd novel (New Worlds.) I have seen this art type in past X-Men comics and never liked it. Much prefer the normal artist renderings of my beloved characters :)

I guess I do wish they had more Wolverine and Storm. Wolverine is in them but not as a MAIN character all the way through. Storm only appears briefly. They were always my 2 favorites. But seeing Emma Frost was great. And I was quite confused to see James Proudstar and Sunfire since last I read they were dead. So clearly (umm…yeah notsomuch) we are now in a different universe? Or they were reborn? Or never killed after all? Or…..? See why I need to get back issues??

I am desperately waiting for Amazon (or Sony?) to make a color-screen Kindle. And then being able to read my comics using that. I would end up spending so much $$$ in monthly titles (hear that Amazon, Marvel and DC???) I LOVE real books. And real comics. But the fact is it will just be easier to get and store. I have 2 huge acid-free comic boxes holding my individually bagged and boarded comics. I just don’t have more room (my Star Wars collectibles take up a *lot* of room…)

I did see that you can buy Marvel titles on CD. Maybe. But still prefer the idea of a color screen Kindle for comics/graphic novel viewing.

So for now, I will likely pick up a few more graphic novels. And maybe bring out my boxes and start re-reading my old ones :)