Comic Book Resources

Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

Before we get started, a couple of links. First, our own Stephanie Chan found a great Japanese shelf porn site called Otacool, which appears to being trying to answer the question “How much Gundam is too much?”

On a similar topic, Chris Butcher posted pics of the manga section at Kinokuniya’s flagship store in Shinjuku. If you’ve got a hankerin’ for manga-flavored bookstore shelf porn, you’ll want to click on that link.

Moving on, our guest this week is Alice W. Lynch of Jonesboro, Arkansas, who goes by the handle DareDiva, for reasons that will become all too apparent as you read the rest of this post. In addition to making Braille T-Shirts, Alice is quite the craftsperson, having made a number of Daredevil-related quilts and other items.

Remember: to send pics of your own shelf porn, all you have to do is email me at cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet.

But enough of that. Let’s let Alice take us on a tour of her collection …

Top photo: My David Mack prints and an Andy Lee watercolor framed and leaning against the wall on the top.  On the shelves are some assorted Daredevil figures, a custom polyclay from the UK, Elektra Barbie and DD, and some GI Joes I’ve converted to customs as Matt Murdock and the pre-DD costume Matt wore in the Frank Miller Man Without Fear series.

Below: My desk in all its glory. This, of course, doesn’t BEGIN to encompass my collection, just what fits on the shelf above the computer.

I have two computers on this desk, and my shiny new green Perkins brailler. (I’m studying to become a braille textbook transcriber.) I have a wallpaper on the left that I did myself, and one from the movie that a friend sent to me. Some of my collector cards are behind the monitor, and my DD plushie from one of those Sega games stands between them, behind my DD pencil cup.

The view when I look up from the monitors. Again, not nearly all the figures I have, but all that will set up there, so I rotate them out every once in a while. (When I dust.) Elektra Barbie and Daredevil Ben stand in the space that used to house my cds.

Closer shot of the DD figures, minimates and Kubricks, with a few villains and Marvel compatriots thrown in. I’ve reconfigured a couple of Minimates to do Matt Murdock versions. Under the shelf, you can see my Matt Murduck and Duckdevil rubber duckies, as well as a pair of promo sunglasses they gave away at the movie premier, and a wallet card case from Hong Kong that was a movie promo.

Tighter shot of Elektra Barbie and DD Ben, and a tiny ceramic DD plate I got from the UK.

I once got to display my collection at the city library for the summer reading program. It took up four huge glass cases that spanned more than 25 feet, plus more than 6 feet tall. I set it all up and then sat back and watched the reactions. A couple of kids about 10 or 12 years old were pointing and exclaiming over things, and I asked them if they liked the display. One of them said, “This is like a dream to me.” He was pretty shocked to find out all this stuff was mine. So I gave them the ten cent tour, explaining how old some of the stuff was. (I had a 1966 trading card in there. Ancient history!)

Here are some custom Mighty Muggs that I painted, as well as some pics of the inside of my sewing studio/office:

Armored Daredevil Costume: this was the first Hasbro Mighty Mugg that I painted. He started as a blank white Mugg. Next time, I’ll start with a black one. Sheesh. His bo staff is made from two pencils connected at the eraser end.

Matt Murdock Mighty Mugg: These things are addictive to paint. Matt’s white cane is a whittled down wooden chopstick.

Red Costume Daredevil Mighty Mugg: Hasbro hasn’t released a version of Daredevil, so I painted my own. The billy clubs are cut from a pencil and painted white.

Yellow Costume Daredevil Mighty Mugg: Where there is Red DD, there has to be a yellow one. This Mugg accompanied me on vacation to San Antonio, and we had fun photobombing with him.

Inner Sanctum of the Domestic Goddess: aka my sewing room/office/studio. I have the stand-up from the display that held the Daredevil movie soundtrack album, and my movieverse DD swings from the ceiling fan.

The Holy Grail of DD memorabilia (if you don’t have Stan Lee’s sig on #1, which I don’t): A sketch from Joe Quesada and David Mack, and an autograph from Kevin Smith on the first hardcover volume of Volume II. I got them all on the same weekend in Dallas.

And here are some detail pics of my Daredevil art quilts. if you want to see more, head over to my flicker page.

The piece of art that got me pretty much ostracized from the quilting group. Joe Quesada’s iconic image of DD draped around the steeple of a church. Really a hard piece to do, because I had to work backwards from all that black fabric up to the highlights.

Alex Maleev’s Matt Murdock rendered in thread. One of my faves.

Armageddon splash page from Born Again. I handpainted the flame fabric background.

Probably my favorite piece that I’ve done. Murdock’s Law splash page from Parts of a Hole, Joe Quesada art. This one rocks some hand-beaded fringe you can’t see here.

Iconic pose from Frank Miller’s Born Again.

My rendition of Tim Sale’s art from Daredevil: Yellow

How a piece first looks as I begin to stitch.

Another view of my sewing room where I created the Daredevil art quilts that showcase art from the first forty years of the title. Two of the panels hang on the back wall.

I have a lot of other toys and movie memorabilia, but they are stored at present. I brought everything out once to display at the library, and it took quite a long wall and several cases to set it all up.

Collecting Daredevil stuff is a lot more fun than collecting some other characters, because it’s so hard to find. I still need a #1 issue. Someday…