Happy Saturday and welcome to Shelf Porn! Today's shelves are a return engagement by David in Florida, who first shared bis collection back in August 2011. Four years later, things have changed -- which he explains below.
If you'd like to see your collection featured here, you can find all the details you need at the bottom of this post.
And now here's David ...
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Everyone has to deal with growing old, but growing up is a matter of choice. I am, once again, honored that Comic Book Resources has allowed me to feature my collection on their website. This is especially true given my change in circumstances. In 2011, when I was first featured I was single. Today, I have a blended family with two young boys and my first daughter on the way. I thought it might be interesting to differentiate how my collection has transformed in substance and showcase between then and now.
The first, most obvious, adaptation that I needed to make with a family of four (soon-to-be five) is that space is at a premium. I was no longer going to be able to dedicate an entire room to my collection. As a result, my collection has thinned and I needed to become more creative with my display. Fortunately, I have a baby girl on the way and a nursery to decorate.
The touchstone of the nursery is this assemblage of baby heroes charging forward from DC and Marvel that was produced by Paper Lab Studios with markers, inks and pencils. The creativity employed with many of the characters accessories makes this a one-of-a-kind treasure and reminds me of Jim Henson's Muppet Babies from the 1980’s (a property deserving of a DVD release). My wife found the LEGO Green Arrow-themed, original toy photography by Jonathan Roberts through ETSY. Our youngest is obsessed with LEGO’s and I show both boys every LEGO superhero animated adventure I can find. We also watch Arrow on the CW. In the end, though, we just thought this was the funniest photograph they offered.
Another crown jewel exhibited is my Excalibur mobile that I acquired in 2007. The only character that is omitted is Lockheed. I try to get my hands on any memorabilia I can find associated with Alan Davis’ run on the mutant book. The Cross-Time Caper captured the fun that can be had traipsing through the multiverse and poking fun at a company’s intellectual property in a non-canonical way.
You might notice there is a lack of pink. Superheroes and their varied costumes populate the entire color spectrum and we wanted the room to reflect this fact; although, She-Hulk and Wonder Woman hold a special place in the hearts of my wife and me. We believe they represent the right balance of brains, brawn and beauty. Hence, the bedding and furniture will have the purple and green accents. I was especially happy to find the green foam word balloon at IKEA. We can add dialogue for She-Hulk on a whim or pin pictures to it. It is very versatile.
Finally, The Powerpuff Girls fit nicely into our girl power superhero theme. I remember watching the pilot "Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins" as part of What A Cartoon! on the Cartoon Network in 1995 and voting for The Powerpuff Girls to get a broadcast series. I would say that my vote made a difference but living in Florida you learn that is not necessarily true. ☺
As alluded to earlier, my comics-themed room from 4 years ago must now share space with our office and exercise equipment in a smaller room. The transformation was facilitated by consolidating my collection. I favored quality over quantity, which allowed me to acquire some big ticket items from my idols.
Anyone that has frequented my ComicArtFans gallery knows that my holy trinity of artists is Brian Bolland, Alan Davis and Kevin Maguire. Brian Bolland's meticulously rendered covers are among the most sought after original art pieces of the past couple decades and his DC covers are among his most popular works in the medium. For many years, Bolland has been doing his art exclusively in digital form – getting any original art from him is so difficult because he dislikes putting pencil to paper these days. The Animal Man series was a perfect fit for Bolland's unique style and I was introduced to his work from reading this title. The prime comic collecting of my youth was from 1987-1990 and I was swept up by the British Invasion, especially Grant Morrison and his famous run on Animal Man. This painted cover allows us all to experience a small taste of what life was like for Buddy as Animal Man and family man.
On that note, to finally get a commission from Kevin and meet him at Tampa ComicCon was a dream come true. Further, my two favorite DC characters are Animal Man and Firestorm. My youngest brother was born in 1988 and, while we were waiting at the hospital for his delivery, my aunt brought me a large box of Bronze Age DC comics left by her tenants that abandoned their apartment and their overdue rent. That box contained the first 66 issue run of Firestorm’s second volume. I have always thought Firestorm was one of the more powerful characters in the DC universe but never treated as such. Maybe the Flash TV series will help his public awareness.
So my life has been dramatically altered in the last 4 years and I would not have it any other way. I may not have the more traditional man cave from my past but, instead, I have a humble home with a loving family that enjoy going into these rooms and quizzing me on trivia or asking me to recount exciting adventures of the heroes depicted. You can view the full gallery of pictures at https://www.flickr.com/photos/27509899@N03/albums/72157655501361334. You can find all of my original art at http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=20474.
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If you’d like to see your collection featured here on Robot 6, here’s what you need to do:
1. Take some photos and save them as jpgs.
2. Write up a little something about your collection.
3. Send them to me in an email. Please put the text into an email and attach the images as separate files; don’t embed them into a Word doc. Uploading them to Dropbox or a similar service also works. Please use the subject line "Shelf Porn: (Your name) (Your location)."