Previously on Aquaman Zen: Alarmed Viewers | Giant Crabs Help | Everyone Hears the Voice
This little tableau was one of the first photographs that I ever took — maybe around age 12 — with my very first camera, a cheap plastic Vivitar 110:
It shows three Masters of the Universe figures that belonged to my brother and I — Jitsu, Tung Lashor (in the Land Shark) and Battle-Damage Skeletor — lined up against the wood panel & linoleum backdrop of the trailer-with-added-rooms that we grew up in, and I f*cking LOVE IT.
I remember the spot where this photo was taken, and I remember that just down the hall under our bunk beds, and under the desk in my father’s “office” there were plastic tubs and wooden boxes of other action figures and vehicles… Transformers, G.I. Joe, Hot Wheels, Marvel Secret Wars, DC Super Powers, M.A.S.K., M.U.S.C.L.E., Battle Beasts, Centurions, and probably others that I’m forgetting. We also had a giant-sized bin of LEGO blocks, all jumbled in together like an 8-bit plastic gumbo. I can remember the feel of the blocks’ corners and the shooshing, tinkling sound as I rummaged through them looking for just one more clear red dot to cap off the wing of my spaceship.
We still have a few of these things in a closet at my mother’s house. (Or we will until I steal them this summer. Heads up, Mom.) But the bulk of them were given away to our nephews or other kids-of-friends-of-the-family, and from what I hear, many were promptly broken. (*single tear*)
So in pining for my lost clumps of cast plastic and rubber, I decided to fire up the group nostalgia engines. I asked my fellow contributors Jeff, Brad and Cyndi if they had any thoughts along these lines to share, and indeed they did…
I spotted this in Hereford, England:
(Which apparently is a thing.)
All day, I kept imagining Spider-Man bounding around the UK, constantly running into this problem:
Previously:
Ten Spider-Man Appearances That Will Never Hit Hollywood
Previously on Aquaman Zen: Alarmed Viewers | Giant Crabs Help
Previously on Aquaman Zen: Alarmed Viewers
A while back, I came across a 1968 Big Little Book featuring Aquaman, in a story titled “Scourge of the Sea“. The book is beat to hell, with the binding glue failing and pages falling out, the cover is creased in half with Aquaman’s face gouged out by repeated scribbling with a ballpoint pen, and there are a few holes where the assailant then stabbed the book with said pen… but the contents are gold. Specifically, the captioned illustrations… which are weird and wonderful little self-contained tableaus when taken out of context. I plan to share these illustration pages here for your quiet reflection, in no particular order and without their supporting story text, whenever I feel like it.
This is… Aquaman Zen.
So, I have a cold. Or something. And it effing SUCKS.
I’m on day 5 (or so) of this weird illness that appears to be using a random symptom generator each morning. Today, I practically need to take direct snorts of menthol or pepper spray or sulfuric acid just to smell or taste anything, and it feels like I’m sucking in a quarter pound of sand every time I open my mouth to take a breath, only to erupt in a wheezy coughing jag when all I wanted was some sweet, sweet oxygen.
But lucky me, formerly-DC-but-now-LA-based artist — and apparently very funny dude — Zach Storm has my remedy. In 20 easy steps, Zach has the cure for the common whatever, and I love him for it. Here we go:
I’m talkin’ X-Acto knives and rubber cement, y’all!
This Friday, December 12th, 2008, Civilian Art Projects in Washington DC opens their last show of the season, entitled Media.Mix: 21st Century Collage.
They were nice enough to invite me to participate, thanks in part to my friend and former roomate Steve Frost, an excellent artist who has work in the show himself.
Sadly, I won’t be able to make it down for the opening, so if you’re in the DC area, go and represent!
If you do plan on going and want to pretend that you’re me, these are the new collages about which you’ll need to make up something to say in art-speak:
I recommend heavy use of the word “recontextualized”.
Your Monday morning Batman, from the Flickr page of Rosemary Travale:
Rosemary says:
I saw this walking home from the train station after I was at the Speakeasy Illustration show in Toronto. The crosswalk box thing made this shadow on the ground and someone drew a most perfect Batman face on it! I laughed so hard when I saw it. So unexpected and awesome!
Spotted near the corner of Iroquois Shore on Trafalgar road in Oakville Ontario.
(Via Wooster Collective)
