04/19/05

I think the first question on most people’s minds is "What the heck happened with you and AFT?" Good darn question! I’m still trying to figure that out. They all have their side of the story, and I have mine and the truth must lie somewhere in between. It’s a pretty strange sensation to wake up and have the column that you built from the ground up for 4 years pulled out from under you. But I guess God is trying to teach me a little something about change, because change is something that I’m not a big fan of. So now there is someone else at over at AFT doing some of my schtick. I like to think that I’m not that interchangeable. But that just propels me to the next evolution of what I want to do with my writing and the way it is presented.

What you are now reading is a pet project that Jason and I have been tinkering with – looking at Julius and Otter v2.0… or it may be v3 or v4 for Jason. The guy has been around! Because of the recent actions of the AFT senior staff my "maybe someday" project became my "right away" project this past week. So here it is. We’re still letting some of the paint dry and hanging some pictures, but this is my new home, which means this is where I will be hanging out. So, if you have a question for me, here is the place to ask it from now on.

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A Closer look at Tim Bruckner’s Joker and Wonder Woman

At Comic Con in July we got a sneak peek at the 3rd assortment of DC Direct’s Justice line, based on the art and comic series of the same name by Alex Ross, in the form of the Hal Jordan Green Lantern figure sculpted by the uber-talented Karen Palinko. This week DC Direct solicited the entire third assortment that includes: Green lantern, Poison Ivy, The Joker, Plastic man and Wonder Woman.

DC Direct and their talented stable of sculptors are still working out innovative ways to disguise useful articulation in their artist specific figures that maintain the look and feel of the artists work brought to three dimensions, but still serve the fans so not every piece is a preposed slightly articulated statue. With that in mind DC Direct has allowed us this closer look at the Joker and Wonder Woman Justice figures sculpted by fan-favorite Tim Bruckner.

The challenge they faced in translating Alex Ross’ Joker into an action figure, was to be able to pose him in the iconic "hands resting on cane" position and yet have the articulation flexible enough to allow him to strike alternate poses, such as having his arms to the side. They gave him modified ball jointed shoulders, a redesigned inverted ball jointed neck, ball jointed wrists, redesigned elbow joints and V-crotch articulation to give him a broad range of poseablity while keeping the integrity of the sculpt intact.

The redesigned inverted ball jointed neck, for instance, maintains the look of the head and neck being one solid piece instead of a cut or swivel just below the jaw line, and hides the articulation in the collar of his tux so that you can still have him look up or down as well as side to side.

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