See you in Pittsburgh!

These are the costumes that I'll be wearing in Pittsburgh: my Dark & Strange Alice in Wonderland and my Susan Storm of the Fantastic Four. You'll be able to find me at the booths of PAUL STORRIE, STORMWATCH COMICS, and JOE SINNOTT. I'll also be taking as much as it allows to walk the floor visiting other great talent like Josh Lyman, Jay Fife & his model Lola Lynn, Andy Harmon, Stauffer, and Ken Haeser.

Thanks for voting! Here are the counts:

ALICE: 24
SUE: 13
FIRESTAR: 12
POWER GIRL: 12
ACE: 7
TWILIGHT GUARDIAN: 1

Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't believe I got something in my mailbox besides bills. Better yet, it was a package from Joe Sinnott with memos from him and Stan Lee with photos that he had Stan sign for me of Joe & I at Superhero Weekend!

If you don't know what Stan is referring to, Joe signed me while I was dressed as Sue Storm, a character they co-created back in the ol' days. See my video on an earlier post.

Joe Sinnott signing my suit!

New Fantastic Four pictures on flickr

This is one of the first costumes I ever made back in 2006 (if I remember correctly). Originally this suit was just for practice and I was going to sell it; I was never going to wear it but a dear friend of mine convinced me that Sue Storm is one of the best female characters in comics. I just couldn't let go of the suit after that.

Sue Storm Richards aka The Invisible Woman from the Fantastic Four (Marvel)
Costume created 2006
Photos from Aug 2009 by Riad Twal
from one of the Flemington Car Shows in front of Comic Fusion.

Marvel 2008 Contest Entry

New Moon Comics pictures

I have to be honest here. I was not really a Fantastic Four fan until recently. As a little girl, I remember seeing the cartoon and thought they were kind of boring and dorky. More recently, I was not impressed with the Jessica Alba casting with bad blonde hair. Well, I couldn't get my hair right either (I look a bit like an Easter Egg with Yellow roots and burgundy-fuscia hair) so I've come to terms with her. Plus, I really loved the movie variations of the F4 suits.

But still, I wasn't excited by the first family of Marvel until I talked to Rob, owner of New Moon Comics. He's a real fan and the fact that he gave me and my suit praise warmed my heart. It was really something to hear someone talk so passionately about a character that he loved. His love of Sue Storm was contagious and made me proud to wear the blue spandex. So, thanks, Rob! I owe you for giving me love of this costume.

Originally, I was just going to make this suit and sell it because I hadn't felt any connection to Sue Storm. Now, I absolutely love this costume and can't part with it.

That's me there with a bunch of artists and writers from Arcana Comics (ShadowFlame, Eve Vampire Diva and Koni Waves).

Continuing with the plaster

It's a good thing I'm not a neat freak. I have been playing with my hydracal (plaster gypsum) today in my teeny tiny laundry room. I was able to sand a decent amount of my Tech Support wire globe logo with the Dremel. Then I brushed a new layer of plaster over it trying to make it nice and smooth. Well, it sure looked nice when it was wet but now brush strokes are severely showing.

I'm going to a different approach to the Fantastic 4 logo as well. I had let some of the plaster harden in the bottom of the bucket I used last time. I was able to pop it out with some muscle. The only thing is the bottom had typical manufacturing divots in it so it's not a plain circular surface. I just tried brushing a new layer on but it wouldn't sufficiently stick to the smooth surface -- probably because I didn't sand it first. Oh well. Live and learn.

Invisible Woman costume update

Here's a CG mock up of what the costume should like when it's finally complete (on the right). Right now I'm working on the casting of the chest logo in Flex Foam and latex. The Flex Foam worked better much to my surprise. I really expected the latex to win. It was my first time doing any kind of moldmaking and casting so the fact that they suck isn't a surprise.

The top image on the left is the Flex Foam III with a very thin latex coating which happens to be peeling off.

The lower image is just latex. I have no idea why huge chunks are missing. There aren't any chunks left inside the plaster mold so I have no idea where they are. Even after two days, there were still parts of that outer circle ridge that were not cured but it didn't seem like it was enough to make those giant craters.

Overall, the costume is not very flattering for my figure. It will most likely be up for sale once it's finished without boots because it's just easier for people to buy their own size.

Moldmaking

Here's the progress of my moldmaking in different stages on two different projects:


Wireglobe logo in wax for Tech Support Fan Club (WWTBASH: S1). With any hope, I'll get a great master casting and can make lots of good quality latex logos. I'll set up a Pay Pal button and page to purchase this for Tech Support members.




Fantastic 4 logo in wax.









Fantastic 4 plaster casting waiting for latex which I just ordered from Smooth-On (with ridiculously expensive UPS shipping when I live close enough to go pick it up if they had that option).

yes, there's progress

We got to hang out with Joanna and Jason yesterday and see baby Bea for the first time. Then Jason and I got to play with plaster and start the mold casting process for my Invisible Woman costume chest logo. He gave me a lot of tips like add plaster to the water not water to plaster; use hot water with a little salt, and you don't need an expensive moldmaking box (we just took ducting tape and a piece of floor tile and make a containment area). It's humid today but I'm sure the plaster will be cured by this afternoon. Then comes the part of removing my wax sculpture from the plaster. Next step -- LATEX! Woohoo!

J is very encouraging and since he knows so many people in the special effects business, it's amazing that he thinks I be good at this. So... hopefully... (yes, another career possibility) I can get cranking into the latex casting business and make the things that people who just want to sew or purchase base items will need. That way, if you buy your bodysuit from a dance company and need a chest logo or badge, that means, I'll be able to supply that piece and you can just glue it in place. Yay for plans for the future! Huzzah!

I have also given more consideration to auditioning for Season 3 of Who Wants to be a Superhero? if there is one. I watched a few more YouTube videos of the Texas Titans (that's a bunch of people who auditioned for Season 2 and have stayed friends and make fun cosplay movies) and it inspired me. I have realized that there's no need to be nervous about auditioning because it's so unlikely that I'd get chosen. BUT, I'd be there and I'd be connecting with other fans and maybe a Titans East could be formed. Ya never know.

progress report on Invisible Woman

I had tried crafting the chest emblem design out of Sculpy but was just too difficult. It was not the right medium. I messaged another costumer through myspace about what she uses for her accessories and she sculpts out of plaster and casts the latex from there. I could not find plaster at my closest hobby shop which I know I saw there previously; instead I picked up some blocks of wax and spent most of yesterday trying to work in that. Every time I thought I'd get a smooth surface, it would dry wavy and lumpy. It's still better than the Sculpy.

completely changed my mind

After thinking about it and after I started working on the new project, I completely changed my mind. I'm going to do the old fashioned Sue Storm/Invisible Woman in her classic two-color style. I need to get a zipper and then get the supplies for making the chest emblem. I also need to make the belt, figure out what to do for the boots and gloves too.

new project

With all that new blue spandex I bought, I was trying to think of costumes that I could make. 'Lo and behold, it dawned on me today that Sue Storm/Invisible Woman of the F4 is the perfect outfit for the shades of blue that I purchased. I'll have plenty of the bright robins egg blue but probably just enough of the navy to make the neck piece, belt, and I'm adding stripes for the more modern look of Sue. I don't have boots or gloves but I'm not on a deadline for it right now. Instead of the large chest emblem of the "4" symbol, I'm going to do it more like the movie version and have a breast pocket area patch. That way I won't have to worry about having the zipper go through the emblem and I'd rather not move the zipper to the back because that just makes life difficult.

So far, I only have the muslin cut out. I've been transferring the commercial Kwik Sew pattern to the muslin so that I can make all the necessary new design pieces. Then I'll just use the muslin as the pattern pieces. I'm also thinking of adding some detail -- this is the kind of stuff fanboys hate -- like white or black piping around the stripes on the side pieces and maybe some horizontal lines on the stripes to give it some texture so it doesn't just look like a different color of plain ol' lycra and more like a different kind of fabric. I'm sure people will not like the design but it's all artistic interpretation.

I looked at a number of pictures today on ComicVine showing the different variations of Sue Storm through years and across titles plus the movie shots. Overall, I like her color scheme a lot. Sometimes there's white, sometimes it's blue with black and others it's blue with dark navy. Like the other outfits I've designed, I'll take the elements of each one that I like best and put them together.