Streams and Podcast: Reaching the Audience You Want

     When it comes to marketing a product or service, the difficulty doesn't come from the product itself, but rather the advertisement of the product. I think many would agree this to be true; and with Valentine's Day only a few days away, by now you have probably had your fill of flowers, heart shaped candy boxes and stuffed animals (but probably not.) When I set out two years ago to make a name for myself by making this blog, I never thought it would become, some sort of, a company name. "Angelicomics" doesn't really make a lot of sense at first glance, but it can be pronounced a few ways. I have always preferred it to be pronounced "An-Jel-E-Comics," but I also like that it can be pronounced "Angel-Eye-Comics. The play on words is a form of marketing. We see it every day and sometimes the signs are subliminal.

Get Me Online!

     So, Chris why are you telling me this? Well, the answer is simply that I want to talk about the expansion that is currently happening with this blog. The benefit to you, the reader, is that now there are many new ways for you to enjoy the awesome content that Angelicomics has to offer. This new type of media I will be doing, and have already started, is, of course podcasting and streaming content. This blog has always been focused on bringing fact and opinions of comic book culture to light. To ask the tough questions and to think critically on them is not only scientific, but necessary for progress.

     My friend Spencer has recently started his first podcast, "Cover to Cover" and I have been lucky enough to be a reoccurring guest on it for the last few weeks in a row. Each week we have been getting together to talk about what has been going on in comics and our thoughts on the cinematic universes for Marvel and DC as of late. I highly encourage you, if you are reading this, to hop over to the "Cover to Cover" site and give it a quick like. I think the material, although spoilers may be involved, will be thought provoking and might help give viewers a better appreciation for comics without actually spending money on them each week, (unlike us nerds.)

Cover to Cover Website

and

Facebook Page

     The other new form of media sharing I have been embarking on is my Twitch Channel. What can I say about Twitch that hasn't been said before? Nothing new, that's for sure. I only recently discovered streaming and have had a blast learning to use new technologies to make intellectual conversation a reality. For those that don't know, Twitch is a channel streaming site. I really want to use this stream to spark conversations live with viewers and interact with people in real time. On an interesting note, I am able to stream gaming content while I chat. Until I get a webcam, it seems to make for a more interesting stream than just having me sit there and talk. But I am sure everyone would love that too...right? 

My Twitch Page

     Real quickly, I want to give a shout out to the Gem City Comic Con coming to the Nutter Center for its 10th year. Myself, along with the Comic Book League from Wright State University will be hosting our panel discussion for the second year in a row, regarding the evolution of comics. Hopefully with your help we can come up with some awesome questions that need answering about comics and the media surrounding them. If you have an interesting/ intellectual question, please submit it below or you can leave it on our Facebook page by clicking the picture below. Also, Rob Liefeld will be there. Until next time guys.

Top 10 Comic Book Nerd Gifts

     First, I must apologize for being away from my blog for so long. Since I started my new job as a freelance editor/proofreader, working at home has turned all of my free time thoughts into , "I could be working right now instead of other things," but luckily I need a break every once in a while from that. I was really surprised last month when one of my friends heckled me about not blogging last month. I suppose I should be happy to know someone who reads (and enjoys?) my blog.

 I might deserve this

     I finally thought of something clever to talk about this month, and how much more appropriate can you get for the Christmas season. This is my top ten list of gifts to consider getting your comic book loving friend, spouse, boyfriend, or, I may even go as far as... self, for Christmas this year. With less than a week before the big day, this list may help out a few of you who are needing something quick and thoughtful for those nerds in your life. Even I, from time to time, hesitate when my fiancee asks me what I want for Christmas, simply because I know that in less than a year she might not be letting me bring it into our new home. So, with the short amount of time I have left of being a bachelor, I must be very selective in the things I ask for. Needless to say, this list is purely from my own perspective and may not reflect on the person who you are buying for. But, I want to make it very clear that buying a rare book or single issues for a hardcore collector might not be the approach you want to take. Some people are sticklers about every detail of their books being in mint condition, that they would rather you not waste money of single issue purchases. So, on this list you will not see me telling you to buy This book or That book, but if you want to go that route, I might recommend cash or a gift card to your friends favorite comic shop. But, money has no thought and gift cards are lame, unless for groceries, so lets see what else we can come up with. Keep in mind that this list is in no particular order.

#10. Loose Action Figures

     Yes, loose. Preferably not broken or dripping with child spit either. From the nerd perspective, action figures are really cool, but from the collector perspective, a sealed toy is another dust collector. You can find some really great open action figures online which have been lightly used. Being able to customize your work area with your favorite characters in different poses never gets old, but lets face it, if you give a collector a sealed toy, it's as good as saying, "Look at all the fun you could have... if I wasn't MIB, (Mint in Box for those newbs.)" But, I must warn you that if the person you are giving the toy to has a child, you may want to move onto the next gift.

#9. Busts or Statues

     This is the gift that most collectors want to have, but never want to buy for themselves. Statues are really great motivators to get your friends to dust their apartments more often and can be great conversational pieces. Not being articulate like action figures, there is no fear of wanting to play with it and breaking it. For the collector, it means that if they were to resell it for more money later, they can still open it, much like any buyer would, to inspect it for damages. Beware that these can get very pricey, and too many of them in a home can cross the line from collector to herder. So please, only one every couple of years.

#8. Christmas Ornaments

     There is such a thing as going overboard with comic book related Christmas decorations. The idea behind this gift is that once every year your friend gets to reopen the Christmas decoration box and reintroduce themselves to that favorite super hero ornament you gave them 3 years ago. Beware that if you want to keep surprising them with a new ornament each year, it can become expected and boring. This may make a great, one time, gift for an office party.

#7. Novel Adaptations

     Sometimes you just want to slap your friend and tell them that comics books are not real books. Well, now is your chance to politely tell them. There are many great novelizations to some really great graphic novels out there. Not only will you give them something that will increase their vocabulary, but I assure you that they will feel more confident when showing their book collections to their friends down the road. Making people think you are more literary inclined is the gift that keeps giving. (PS: We don't want mainstream stuff like Twilight, Harry Potter, or Lord of the Rings.)

#6. Comic Book Accessories

     Nothing says, "I encourage your habit" like buying long boxes, organizers, and bag and boards to a collector. Its pretty expensive to store comic books properly, and it must be done properly. Take not as to what type of accessories your friends may be short of, what kind of sleeves they use, or just pick up a couple picture frames that your friends can put comic books in to rotate on their walls all year round. Just be sure the frame can hold the comic and the bag and board comfortably.

#5. Be Creative

     If you have an artistic talent, put your interests aside for a few days and try to make something custom that is comic book related. I have recently seen people doing custom art on long boxes that are much more aesthetically pleasing than just labeling the box "Spider-Man" comics. Custom wall art is always eye catching to guests throughout the year, and it may even give you a job down the road if someone else commissions your work because of it.

#4. Home Accessories

     I am not quite sure how to describe the euphoria of hopping out of a hot shower lined with an X-Men shower curtain, drying off with your super soft Batman towel, slipping on your Superman bathrobe and making an ice cold drink with a few ice cubes from your Deadpool ice cube tray. Take your pick of any of the above, all are great ideas.

#3. Banks

     It became, increasingly, aware to me that there is a huge saturation of comic book related money banks out there. This is coming from personal experience, because, I too received an amazing Infinity Gauntlet bank from a friend this year. It is definitely becoming a focal point in my living room. What better way to save for comic books each month, than saving in a bank specifically designed for your needs. There are many figures to choose from. Think of this as a statue, only with a use, and less chance of being broken...unless your planning on breaking the bank!! (oh snap)

#2. Apparel

     This one is relatively simple. T-Shirts, wallets, hats, belt buckle, anything you can use on a daily basis. I feel like this is a pretty weak gift simply because you can get all this stuff whenever and almost wherever you go throughout the year. It's simple, safe, and almost not exciting enough to bother with. But, if you see a friend whose Superman shirt has fades from a giant S to a 5, you might be having their best interest in mind.

#1. Backpack

     Shoulder bags, book bags, man purse (satchel... Indiana Jones had one,) all are exceptional gifts. A friend from a show once told me, from the retail perspective, that the people that don't carry a bag to a show are not their to buy. I think he is absolutely right. If your making a sale rests on spending time talking to a customer with a bag or talking to the guy in the Deadpool costume, you better believe you will be getting more service while carrying a bag. It only makes sense that people would go to shows and not want to fill their hands with swag, when they could simply have a designated back pack. Going the extra distance to get a back pack that is comic book related is where your true thought and effort goes into getting this gift. Like me, I just buy buttons and put them on my bag at each show, and I love it. It is a must for every comic book collector, in my opinion.

     That's the list! I hope you enjoyed reading over it and, as always, I would love to hear your feedback about the articles. What would you add or take away from the list. Let me know if you actually go buy something from the list for a friend. In the meantime, I hope everyone has a great holiday season and a safe new year.

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DragonCon 2014 Part 3: The Costume

     Halloween is in a few days, and what better way to begin the holiday than to get some great ideas for costuming. Although it may be too late for some of you to start something as intricate as a full body costume, I felt waiting until now to release my final DragonCon 2014 blog, was appropriately timed. Among other things, I have been busy starting a new job, which I am happy to announce is in the same field that I had went to school for, and is pretty awesome. Before it's too late, Happy Halloween!

     A while back when I was trying to find ways to make a full body Steampunk Darunia costume, I ran across another blog that really intrigued me. Volpin props is a costume/prop creator who specializes, professionally, in character creation. With a lot of free time in between calls at work, I read most of his blog and came across some pretty cool costume hacks that I felt would be valuable while starting this process. Another helpful video I found was from the Youtube channel 2DayWithPatrickJ who explains in great detail how to use EVA foam and big gap filler. I felt these two sources needed a shout out, and I highly recommend watching their videos if you are planning a large scale project such as this.

     Why do this project and from where did I get most of my inspiration?

     As I had mentioned in a previous blog entry, the idea to do Zelda was forced onto me, but the idea of making a Darunia costume was really what sparked my interest. The steampunk rendition was chosen as a group with my friends, who respectively went as Zelda, Gannon, Link, and Saria. The steampunk variations allowed for an easy way to customize the character but still remain faithful to the original content. Because of the way the costume turned out, and also because mistakes were made, I allowed the character of Darunia to be more rock like than skin. Below you will see just a few pieces I found on the internet that I tried to implement into the costume. I thought it was really cool that with the recent reveal of Darunia in the Hyrule Warriors game, my costume would be a little more known to younger people, and thought it interesting that the character too, had a Mega-Ton hammer weapon.

     The first part of the costume was the head piece. Without a head, there was no costume, it was as simple as that. I had no idea what to make the head out of, but after researching the internet, I concluded that Big Gap Filler was what I needed. Without the sculpt of my head, I was crafting blind, but ended up using a wrestler's head guard with a football in it as the original frame. The problem I ran into with this, was that I had assumed I would still be able to fit my head into the head guard after the foam was put on top. However, what I had not expected was that the foam would continue to expand inward and implode on the head piece. After about a week, I was content that the foam needed to be carved out of the inside, which I did at a later time. I ripped out the head gear and was pleased with the room it had allowed for me to try it on. The next few coats of foam would be all exterior, and I would expand upon the depth of the helmet as well as the width of it.

     Carving the face went through a lot of trial and error. Sometimes you think you know what the character looks like, and others you realize you have no idea what you are doing. luckily, Big Gap Filler is forgiving when it comes to being carved. If you mess up, you can spray more on and try again. Here are a few transitions I went through till I got to the completed carving.

Once I found the shape I was looking for, I decided that if any part of the costume would be bonded with Bondo, it would be the helmet. It took 2 small cans of the stuff, but since I had never used it before and was on a time constraint, I had to make due with how it turned out. The Bondo didn't come out as smooth as I would have liked, and since I was working out of my apartment, I had to leave it inside of my car on hot days. A word of advice: when leaving Bondo in heated areas, it may crack. There were a few cracks and it was only layered once, but since it added to the rock like effect I was looking for, I felt the end product was pretty good.

     I wasn't sure at first how I wanted the body to fit together, but decided later on that I was going to be making a shoulder pad with a front and back piece. The rest of the lower torso would be covered by a loin cloth. For most of this costume I started with something from a thrift store, and for the chest and shoulder piece, I took an old sleeping pad you would use under a sleeping bag as the frame work. It was sturdy, but pliable, and was easy to cut. Having someone make the cuts is necessary for this part, and so I was able to make some shoulders that would bend when tied with string on the hinges, and I was able to get a chest that was still in one solid piece. This is a photo of the foamed piece.

     I apologize for the lack of photos here, but my next step was creating a chest that was later glued under the front of the shoulder chest piece. it was just a big piece of cardboard that had articulation points and light foam that I was able to make look like muscles. Another shoulder pad was made from cardboard and placed on top of each existing one that added to the bulk of the costume and hid the gap that you see above. At one point I tried to use some old hockey gloves and some of the padded foam to make gloves, but because the foam imploded when expanding, the idea was scrapped last minute and I bought some gloves without tips and attached some pvc pipes that looked like fingertips on them. I did keep the foam wrists that are pictured below and turned one into a steampunk mechanical arm with a light up Goron Ruby in it with some steampunk style furnishings. The other arm remained natural with a Goron Bracelet around the wrist.

     The feet for this project were all built around some Nike knee pads and shin guards I found at a thrift store. They didn't have feet on them, so I ended up bending and measuring cardboard around the shoes I thought I might be wearing to get the frame. The tape and foam did the rest to hold it together. A final touch was some EVA foam that I cut and glued to the bottoms; this allowed me to walk around with only socks on. It was quite comfortable.

The back piece was quite crude. i simply made a backpack out of the shell and once I carved the foam, I put some random slices of padding, you find in cushions, on the back in a rock like formation.

The final part of the main costume was the Mega-Ton hammer. I knew I wanted more lights on the costume and something original, and so I decided to make the hammer look like flowing molten lava with the Fire Seal as the head piece. The frame for the hammer was actually a metal frame lamp shade that had the glass pieces removed. With a few zip strips to fill in the gaps, I was able to make the foam stick to it well enough to harden. I put 2 push lights inside the larger side of the hammer which I made holes to reach in and push them. The back piece was separate and has one light inside of it. It was simple enough and didn't require a lot of wiring.

     The final part of the costume was the cosmetics. I had purchased some PVC flanges and various piping to make the goggles. The vinyl straps around the goggles house the 9 volt batteries on the sides of the head to power 4 LEDs on each flange. Plexiglass was custom cut to make the goggles as well. PVC pipe was also used to make the handle for the hammer and gloves. The hammer handle didn't withstand the weight of the hammer head, which was ok, because it made it easier to carry while walking around.

     The hair for this project was all 1 inch thick pieces of carpentry foam. I manually painted it with whites and browns, and the green from the foam gave it a mossy look.

I wore a desert color Under Armor shirt and tights under the costume to get the full effect. I had created a Bombchu as a throw in, but I never got around to showing it off. The following images are of the finished project.

     Well, that about raps it up. I hope you guys learned something from my experience, and please, if you have any questions (I know this was rushed) just submit a comment below and I will try to facilitate the best I can. Happy Halloween!