The Wolverine!

I made this guy, Wolverine from Marvel Comics X-Men, in record time (about two days). My superhero main body is completely figured out which made things easy. But with this guy I wanted to try a new cartoony body. I had a dream...this is true...I dreamed a whole toy store, filled with amazing new toys that when I awoke I was disappointed to realize were not real! I sketched as many of the toys as I could remember (notepad by the bed, kids, is essential!!)

The little drawing of Wolverine in costume is the sketch I made based on the dream Wolverine. He was in his Byrne era costume but with the stripes on his side from the blue and yellow costume. I don't know my Wolverine history but I don't think he ever mixed the two eras in costume form. Anyway, once I started sketching my plans I realized that what I really wanted to make was not the costumed Wolverine at all. What I wanted was a jeans and t-shirt Wolvie! Just the casual cool Logan character seen in more leisurely scenes.
So off came the gloves and boots. This made it a whole lot easier for color as well. I don't know that I've got the yarn for Wolverine's Brownish-red/tan-yellow costume. But I do have deep maroon and grey-blue yarn! I also sketched up a profile of Wolverine's head in order to figure out the parts I'd neet to make to get the right shape. "Keep It Simple, Stupid" is a motto I always try to follow in my work (drawing and crochet). Busying something up almost never turns out well. In my past crochet projects I've tried to make the head shape by increasing and decreasing as I go around the head. Bah! Too much trouble.

Wolverine before hair! You can sort of make out that I made a long tube for his head and neck. Just straight up stitching until it felt like the right length. Then I made a chin, again based on scale of everything and my profile sketch, until it looked right. Add ears and nose which are just flat stitched and curled or folded into the right shapes. Pop on some eyes and Bob's your uncle.

Here's the completed Wolverine by the light of day! The body is exactly the same as my generic Superhero body pattern, the arms are almost the same. I think I increased the diameter of all segments for cartooniness and Popeye style forearms. I returned to mitten hands for this guy because it just seemed to call for a simpler approach (K.I.S.S.)
You will notice two things are missing - arm hair and claws. Claws are coming. Arm hair I tried in several different ways but nothing looked right. Once I get it figured out I'll post new pictures with the arm hair added.


Here's Wolverine's butt! You can see that he's sturdy enough to actually stand on his own. Most of the male hero dolls are able to. The girls can't at all because I give them such tiny feet.
"You lookin' at me, bub?"

Yarn!
j.

Metamorpho! The Element Man!

Pretty much my favouritest of all the superheroes is Metamorpho, due in large part to his artist Ramona Fradon. I love Ramona's art! I tried to capture the way she drew his face but it was difficult to recreate with yarn. For the most part I like how it all turned out...only his mouth still sticks in my craw as being "off". Ramona had a very distinct way of drawing Rex Mason's mouth and I didn't get it with yarn.

Ah well...at least I've now got my own Metamorpho doll to cuddle up with! 

best,

j.

Doom Patrol! Robot Man and Elastigirl!

Robot Man is one of my favourite comic book heroes. I don't remember when I first saw the old Bruno Premiani Doom Patrol but I know it was love at first sight. There's just something about the cast of characters that I love. So with Robot Man I finalized my Hero body. I kinda find it's best to create a new pattern with a character who has very little body detail...that way when you pull out stitches in an unsatisfactory shape it's all the same colour yarn.

Like Doop, I couldn't resist showing off Robot Man's brain. His is pink, though, because it's all that's left of race car driver, and human, Cliff Steele.

Cliff welcomes Rita Farr to the fold. Welcome, sister Rita. Elastigirl is my Female Hero body test subject. There are still some kinks to work out with her. For one thing the arms are too long...not a failing on a character called Elastigirl, but something I'll want to fix in later Yarn Sculptures.

The only thing I'd like to redo with Rita is her face. She's a little too harsh looking. Like the headmistress of a school. She looks like Eve Arden or Agnes Moorehead. Classic beauties in their own way but not the bright eyed beauty I think Rita should be.

"Hello, sailor", says Rita as she reclines in her boudoir.

Oh yeah, check out the newest issue of Wizard Magazine issue #207 for an article on yours truly. It's all about my little hobby and showcases my early superhero Yarn Sculptures (which is my new name for these things...it's so much more "arty" than calling them "dolls"!

best,

j.

Doop!

All right, this guy is probably one of my favourites ever! Somewhere online I saw someone's Frankenstein creation with an exposable brain. I'd started sketching a Doop doll and just knew that he'd have to have a full on removable blue brain. I don't know why his brain is blue. I don't think his brain is blue in any of the comic books. But MY Doop's brain is blue :)

I made the initial Doop for myself, he being one of my favourite of the newest characters to come along in the past few years. The second Doop was made for the Doc Allred because he wouldn't exist without the brilliance of Mike (and, I'm sure, Peter Milligan too). And the third went to Darwyn Cooke because he and I worked together on the Wolverine/Doop mini-series. I absolutely love the way Darwyn drew Doop.

Construction-wise this was the first character to get fingers. Until now everyone had mitten hands.

j.

Villainous Heroes!

Doom based on my "cute" pattern where cute = big head and stubby limbs. Second to Kalibak in detail. The eyes had to be made of felt because crocheted parts get too thick when layered. The hood and cape are knitted. I'm not all that quick with my knitting so it took a while to make even this small cloak.

My second attempt at creating a Hero body...this time larger than Orion. Namor stands a little under 18 inches. I like how he turned out but in the end decided that the body was just too big. More detailed heroes would take too long to make...this is supposed to be a hobby, after all, not a full time job :)

j.

Kirby's New Gods!

Kalibak was made shortly after Orion. He has so far been the most detailed character and therefore took the longest to make. I aimed for the Kirby Kalibak as seen in the early issues of the New Gods...before he started carrying around his power staff. The sash and gun belt are knitted with crochet elements.

He kind of looks a little like a Klingon.

One of my first Hero characters was Kirby's Orion. Kirby's characters fit perfectly in the world of rounded Amigurumi. However, you do lose the agressive toughness of a Kirby hero when you make him out of yarn.

This is the early Hero body. The later guys are sturdier and thicker around the waist and ankles. Early Hero also has "mitten" hands.

j.