Monday, August 28, 2006

Ready for Teen Titans #38...

(*tap tap tap*) I'm trying to keep myself busy until Wednesday. I really need to be packing for DragonCon. I'm spending most of my time prepping for the writer's workhop on Thursday and Friday. I'm really looking forward to the workshop.

As a child of the 70s/80s, I found this blog entry rather amusing. Even those of you who have not read comics from this era might find it humorous. This post is from Comic Book Resources.

What We Can Learn and Questions That Are Raised by Early 1970s Comic Books

Most of the images and disucssions are from old Marvel comics. I did read more Marvel back in the day since I was a big X-Men fan (who could forget the Brood? The best Alien wannabes around!). I also enjoyed ROM, any story with Ben Grimm, and What If?




Since I posted the link to Tony Daniel's Wizard interview a while ago, I thought I would post his latest Newsarama interview. Go Tony!

Tony Daniel Interview with Newsarama

I was sad to hear that we won't see his pencils in #38, but I am curious about his fill-in artist. We shall see on Wednesday.

Monday, August 21, 2006

The Costume!

I'm still tweaking the bird's beak on the hood, but the body of the costume is done, thanks to the big, big help of my wonderful husband.

The shirt is actually 2 layers: one long-sleeved shirt with a zippered neck covered by a sleeveless spandex workout top. I embroidered the raven crest on there. We have yet to see consistent pictures of Raven's costume, so I just created an "idealized" version of the breastplate. I created a paper template and transferred it to the spandex top with tailor's chalk. And that was harder than it sounds! Then I embroidered it with a simple backstitch in a metallic thread. Again, spandex and metallic thread are very difficult to work together!


Here's a back view.





And a front view (ignore my hair, it was being naughty).






And a view of the hood, the beak is folded under because it, too, was being naughty.


A closeup of the embroidery

Sunday, August 20, 2006

DragonCon Costume Almost Finished!

Hooray! The cloak is almost done. All I need to do is shape the hood and do a little tacking of the liner to the main cloak body, and I'll be done. WHEW! The hubby and I have worked on it very hard for the past few weeks. I'll post pictures when the hood is totally done, hopefully this week.

Now I've got to get some sleep before I slog back to the salt mines tomorrow. This weekend was far too short.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Boots!

I'm about to laugh myself silly.

You know how I spent that time and sweat looking for the pixie boots for my Raven costume?

I went to Payless last night. New Fall shoes are out. I found: suede, no-heeled boots.

The only difference is, my boots are ankle boots, and these are knee length. And mine were cheaper to boot! (Pun intended. (Groan))

I just thought that was supremely ironic. I thought I'd never see boots like that again. Maybe they'll make the ankle-length ones again, too.

And I may have to buy some knee length ones purely on principle.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

I Need a Titans Fix... help!

(*sigh*) I'm still trying to be patient, waiting for the next issue of Teen Titans...

The cloak is almost done. We really tried to finish it, but we ran out of steam. However, we do have time to get it finished; but we are both ready for this little project to be finished! We attached the hood. The lining is attached on the sides. We just have to trim and hem the bottom of it so I don't drag the floor. The cloak is taller than I am! I was standing on a stool, letting my husband mark the hem, when I felt like Fezzig in "Princess Bride" -- I was wearing a holocaust cloak! I started to say "I am the Dwed Piwate Woberts", and without skipping a beat, my husband said, "Dere will be no survivors!" He knew EXACTLY what I meant. We think so much alike.

I had to make a large cloak to accomodate my slightly rotund torso. Unfortuntely, most clothing and pattern manufacturers assume that if you are large around that you are also tall. I am living proof that this is not necessarily true. We have to cut 9 inches off the back of this cloak just so I can walk in it! I'll have to watch out for escalators at the con, too. And there are bunches of them at DragonCon. Safety first!

I did not get any writing done this weekend. However, I did give my truck the first bath she's had in a while. BITT (Basham Industries 2000, KITT's cousin, she's a truck) is much happier now. It finally cooled off enough to where I could stand to be outside for more than a few minutes. Praise the Lord and pass the cold front!

Friday, August 11, 2006

Tony Daniel Interview on Wizard

It's the weekend! Hooray! Well, almost. Four more hours, and I'm on my way to the old homestead. I think I can hang on that long.

Wizard has conducted an interview with Tony Daniel on his latest run of Titans, including a few tiny hints about the future:

Tony Daniel Interview

It's a good read, and I hope you enjoy it.

I'm really, really going to try to finish my cloak this weekend.

Have a good one, guys!

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Patiently Waiting for August 23rd...

... and working on the prewrite for "Dawn Child". I took a lot of notes for it last night, and it's coming along nicely.

I did work on my cloak this weekend, but only on the hood. Maybe I'll get it finished this weekend.

Feeling kind of blah tonight, but the hubby and I made some popcorn chicken and tater tots for dinner, and I feel a little better. It's like magic comfort food; no matter how lousy I feel or how un-hungry I am (and I'm hypoglycemic and I have to eat) I can always eat that.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Wizard World Chicago This Weekend...

... and I'm not going. Mainly because DragonCon is just around the corner, and I need my $$ for that. There are some neat things going on there, though, and I enjoy reading about them on the Newsarama and Wizard websites.

Here's a good article on a writing class conducting at WWC:

Paul Jenkins: Writing Soup to Nuts

I'll post other articles that pique my interest -- maybe you'll like them too.

The Raven costume for DragonCon is coming along nicely. I got my boots in the mail this week. My wonderful, lovely, 1980s black suede pixie boots. I wore these little cuffed boots in high school, and I wonder why they ever went out of style. They are the most comfortable shoe ever made. (Here's a real head-scratcher -- they brought back JELLY SHOES, for crying out loud, but not pixie boots.) But I think these little boots are perfect for the OYL Raven costume. I hope to get my cloak finished this weekend as well. Just a few more weeks to go!

I got "52" #13 this week. Creeepy. I really feel for Ralph. The poor guy has been driven over the edge. I really want to see how this all turns out for him; we are only 1/4 of the way through their year, and I know we have more twists and turns going. Was that really Sue's spirit talking to him? Was it a trick of the Cult of Conner? Was it just wishful thinking that was so strong that he made himself see it? I don't think anyone else saw it, did they? Brrrrrr.

I loved the "Outsiders". What a great view into the Brain/Mallah relationship. They are becoming some of my favorite villains (although non-psycho Slade will always be my true fave). It really made me see why these two would have that kind of relationship -- they can talk about deep subjects on the same level. No matter who is involved in the relationship, that's something you've got to have, I think, in order to keep a good relationship going: the ability to really communicate and talk to each other. These two seem to have what a lot of good guys seem to lack in their own relationships. Scary.