LSCC write up

I've not done very well at writing up a review of the day.  I can't really be arsed to write a full review, so what will follow are a few short thoughts and some pictures.

I got this lot signed:

Which is:
Superman/Batman: Vengeance, signed by Ed McGuiness and Dexter Vines.  I'd been queuing for about 45 minutes and they were about to got for a signing so I'm very glad they took an extra 30 seconds for me.  Standing for that long when pregnant and when you need a wee is not fun... I took this along as it's the story with lots of Supergirls.
Supergirl 26, signed by Yildray Cinar.  I told him I liked his sexy Lobo.
Supergirl: Bizarrogirl, signed by Nei Ruffino.
Supergirl 9, signed by Mahmud Asrar.
Red Lanterns 28, signed by Alessandro Vitti.  I told him I was one of the complainants when I first heard about RL Kara, but this issue completely changed my mind and I actually really enjoyed the arc.
World's Finest annual 1, signed by Paul Levitz.
Superman: Silver Banshee issue 1, signed by Joyce Chin.  She said these issues were a lot of fun to do.
Princeless Pirate Princess 1, signed by Jeremy Whitley, Rosy Higgins and Ted Brandt. It was good to finally meet them face to face, although I fear I may have been a bit awkward at them.  I convinced my friend to buy copies of the books.

I wanted to get Supergirl 38 signed by Emanuela Luppacino but she was only signing at pre-agreed sessions, and I didn't have time to see her.

I bought this pile of comics, a couple of which I may already have, but what the hey:

Me and my friend went dressed as Supergirl and we found the Daily Planet:

And my most favourite thing of the whole day...
Ian Churchill was there selling lots of stuff, including sketches and pencilled pages from his time on Supergirl.  He had a page of his concept sketches from that run... so I bought it:

I am beyond thrilled with this.  I love seeing these ideas he sketched out. I love the dynamism of the poses and the (mostly) cheerfulness radiating out of Kara, particularly in those two poses on the bottom left.  I adore the sketches of her in flight.  I like that there's not much on her face apart from mouth and eyebrows  The body language gives us enough of her mood.  The only things I don't like are the comments about super pmt and getting a Kryptonian pregnant.  I'm not having a political strop about it, it's just those ideas aren't to my taste.  They are interesting when you think in terms of where the story was at the time, so I'm quite happy to have them on there.

I now need to figure out what to do with this.  It's just larger than A4 size so finding a ready made frame will be an arse.  But just having it on a shelf seems like a shame.  I'll have to have a think.

This cost me £50 and I have no idea whether that's reasonable or not.  I decided to pay it because I had the cash in my wallet, and I really really liked it.  So much so I was giggly for the next 45 minutes, and I ran up to Daniel Clifford who writes these great comics and squealed at him about it.  I'm quite reserved and I've only met Daniel at cons so this should give you an idea of my excitement.

Making a Linda Danvers costume - the S shield

Eesh, this might be a long post.  Feels like it will be a long post.

OK.  Making the S shield.  This felt like it took a long time to do because I did it over several weeks, in breaks, but in reality you could probably do it in an afternoon.

I found a tutorial for making the whole costume and spent what felt like several hour studying it.  I went and bought the material - stretchy yellow and not so stretchy red.  This turned out to cause problems.  Not buying a disappearing ink pen was also an error.
Once home, I soaked the material in warm water for about half an hour to see if the colours would run. They didn't.  Then I started studying the instructions again.

The tutorial was pretty good, but I did need to work some things out myself:

• I used this template I found and printed it out on A4 paper.  Then realised I'd probably need more than one copy in case I fucked it up, so I traced another three copies.
• I didn't use a cardboard, or posterboard or any of that stuff.  Because I didn't have any.  Instead I just cut out the shapes I needed from the template.  This is why you need at least 2 templates - one to cut out the bit that will be your red back, and one to cut out the yellow shapes, a la:

• I amended the template slightly as my version of the shield wasn't going to need the topmost yellow bit.  So I just didn't cut that out.
• Iron your fabric.
• Draw the outline of your template onto the red material - I used a pencil and this didn't work great as you could still the pencil marks afterwards.
• If you are going to follow this tutorial exactly it is really important that your shield material is the same stretch as your t-shirt, and that you match the stretch of the fabrics to each other and to the stretch of the t-shirt.
• When marking out the interior outlines (where to cut) be really particular about your half an inch.  Make the half an inch the same on the red and yellow pieces of fabric.
• Baste stitch means tacking.
• When you sew the yellow bits to the red bits make sure your outlines line up.
• It might be better to handsew the corners.

I didn't get as far as appliquing the smaller yellow bits on, because after I'd done the big yellow bits I ended up with this:

The tension affects how the thread goes in and if you are not good at corners you end up with creased, folded up red material.  That is unwearable.

Remember how I said it 's really important to get the half inch outlines accurate and lined up?  I didn't.  This happened:

The stretch on each piece of material don't match, so sewing them together on the machine was tricky.  It also led to the sewn in yellow bits being much larger than the holes in the red bits, which in turn means that the pencil lines are visible:

I know exactly what I did wrong and I knew it would be hard for me to fix it so I decided to try another way.

I used my template again, I cut out all the shape of the red bit and marked where the yellow bits should go.  I cut out the shape of the yellow bits.  I ironed everything again.

Then I got bonda web (it's a glue that comes in sheets that can be ironed onto fabric), cut out the templates of the yellow bits - you need to put the template on the bonda web back to front.  Then I lined everything up and stuck the yellow bits on the red bits.

To do this, you need to place your red fabric on the ironing board.  Take the paper backing off your bonda web pieces, place it on the right places on the fabric.  Place the yellow bits on the bonda web.  Dampen a tea towel, place it over your fabric and press a heated up iron over the tea towel.  Do not do ironing motions, just press the iron down onto the tea towel for about 30 seconds to a minute.  Gently take the tea towel off and poke at your fabric pieces.  If it's not properly stuck down, repeat.

Tips - when cutting out your yellow fabric place the template pieces on back to front.  That way your pencil lines will be on the side of the fabric next to the red material so you won't see anything.
Never place the iron directly onto the material you are sticking together - if you do that you'll destroy the iron and the fabric.
Try and line up the bonda web and the yellow pieces as accurately as possible, otherwise you may have a bit of glue seepage.  It's not a real problem as it's not reall ynoticeable, it's just that I'm a  perfectionist.

You should now something that looks like this:

Once the material has dried use your sewing machine to sew round the edges of the yellow pieces.  This will stop it fraying and if you do it neatly it looks rather nice.

Now you need to hem the edges of the red shield.  You'll need your iron again.  Fold the red fabric over where your pencil lines are, pin them and iron them flat.  Check you have ironed against the pencil lines.  If you haven't, adjust the pins and iron it again until you've got it right.  To prevent the corners being bulky and to help your machine go over the lumpy bits you can cut little triangle shapes out of the corner's a la:

Now hem the shield, keeping the sewing machine as close to the edge of the fabric as you can.  Mine ended up looking like this:

Close up of the stitching, first one including where you can see the escaping glue next to the yellow:

I'm pretty pleased with it.  Some of the stitching could be closer to the edges, and in that last picture you'll see where I didn't quite manage to go over the red stitching and ended up with 2 lines.  It's not a big deal.

For some reason I ended up with a lot of excess thread on the back of the shield, and at various times when finishing a line of stitching I ended up with 4 threads coming out of the machine.  I have no idea why.

Next up - sewing the shield to the t-shirt.  As per advice from my expert friend I put the top on, then placed the shield where I wanted it to sit.  When I took it off I noticed it wasn't sitting right in the middle of the t-shirt, so made adjustments.  This now means that when being worn the shield is slightly off centre, because my anatomy makes it so.  I should have taken more care that the t-shirt was on straight when I tried it on. le sigh.  Anyway, it's not a big problem.

You'll want to pin the shield on the shirt, then sew it on with your sewing machine.  Go slowly so the tension in the different  fabrics doesn't cause problems.  Your machine should have a platform thing which you can put the bit of the t-shirt you want to sew, onto, with the back of it underneath the platform.  As you are feeding the material through be careful not to sew the t-shirt together...

If you do this you need to carefully unpick it.  If you unpick it make sure you don't pull on the t-shirt too much (or you'll end up with holes in the material) and unpick it from the inside.

Eventually you'll end up with this:

Now feel very proud of yourself, make yourself a cup of tea and have a biscuit.  But don't spill anything on the t-shirt.

Next post will be a write up of the con with pictures :)

Making a Linda Danvers Supergirl costume - the black hems

As I said in an earlier post, I was under the impression that the black hems on this costume were called piping:

First lesson: they aren't.  As far as I know they are just called hems.

So, how did I do it?  The material was about one and a half metres in length, and about 30 cm in width, I think.  I bought whatever the minimum was.  As it has lycra in it it quite curly and efforts to iron it weren't successful.

We measured the circumference of one of the arms of the t-shirt and then cut the black material to the same length.  If you can, cut a longer length (by 5 or 6 centimetres) than what you think you need.

We laid the material out on the table and somehow managed to fold over the straightest edge by half a centimetre, then folded it over again.  We pinned it and sewed it, a la this:

So long as you sew close to the edge of your folded over bit (and not next to the hem_ you will catch both folded over layers when you sew.

When you're sewing it (and I'm assuming you are using a sewing machine) use black thread on both the bobbin and the needle and be as steady as you can.  If you go fast then slow it mucks up the tension and the needle kind of jumps around the fabric and can make it bunch up.  Not good.  It also pays to keep the edge of the folded bit as straight as you can - my machine has little lines on the silver bit you place the fabric on, which helps.  I imagine most machines have this.

Next, we measured how deep we wanted the black bit to be.  My t-shirt had capped sleeves which I thought would be really difficult to sew as there isn't much space on the bit under the armpit.  My friend pointed out we could use the black material to lengthen the arms.  A-ha!  This is why I needed help,,,

We decided 4cm would be a good length for the black hems.  We measured 4 cm from the bottom of our sewn hem (above picture), folded the material over and then pinned it to the outside of the t-shirt, so that the hemmed bit we'd done above had the folded over bit on the inside.  From the bottom of the hem to where we'd pinned it was 4 cms.  Like this:

The next bit is tricky to explain.  We'd pinned the black material on the tee so that the pins were on the inside of the black material.  We then flipped the material up so the bit that would be visible was inside out and we sewed on the inside of the material, against the t-shirt hem line.  When you've gone all the way around you flip the black material back over so that the edges meet, and you sew them together so that the meeting material is on the inside.  Then you turn the t-shirt (or just the sleeve) inside out and chop off the excess material.

If you're like me that last part will only make sense when you begin to do it.

One sleeve worked fine like this, but I ran out of my pre-hemmed material on the other one.  I was by myself by this point and couldn't quite manage to hem a new length of material by myself again, so I opted to sew on what my friend has helped me do, then sew in a patch.  The patch ended up being quite messy, partly because I hadn't put the first one quite straight.

I had trouble using the machine to sew the edges of each part together so ended up hand sewing them together.  If you look closely it's a mess, but as the patch is only under the armpit it's not really noticeable.  You cna also see where I failed to sew against the hemline... don't do that.

Lessons learned here are that tension matters even more when you are sewing one type of fabric onto another.

Next we did the hem on the bottom of the t-shirt.  We weren't interested in lengthening this so we measured 9 cm height of material and pinned it so that 4 cm were visible on the outside of the t-shirt, and about 1cm was folded over, so you didn't have a raw edge on display.  Et voila: 

 Then we pinned it and sewed it, trying to make sure we got the hem on the outside, and the black material on the other side.  It's fine to have a raw edge on the inside as no one will see that.  We hadn't cut the material quite the right length for his, so like the sleeves, there's a patch.  I managed to do this a lot more neatly than the sleeve, thankfully.

One thing you do want to be careful of us not bunching up the top you are sewing onto, because if you have to unpick it it is likely that you will leave little holes like this:

I think they'll close up in time but it's better to not do them in the first place.

The finished product:

It looked neater on.

Next post - making the S shield.  Twice.

Making a Linda Danvers Supergirl costume - the preparation

I will start by saying that I am in no way good at using a sewing machine, or good at working out patterns.  I am new to this.  Last year I made reusable wrapping paper and an apron.

Then I made (customised) this t-shirt for this costume, with copious help and advice from a friend:

This year I considered making a Captain Marvel maternity skirt but since doing the above t-shirt I expect that I'll end up just customising another maternity tee instead.

It took me a long time to build up to doing any part of this Supergirl top, because new things scare me.  I made a lot of mistakes along the way and I will try to share all of them so anybody else making something similar will hopefully not repeat my mistakes.

Choosing the t-shirt
I have been told by my friend that making tops is really hard as it's tricky to get the measurements across the shoulders, back, bust and waist right.  So I picked a white maternity t-shirt I already had, that I knew fitted me.  It's not exactly perfect. It should look like this:

I didn't want to wear another crop top so I'm happy with it being long.  I just could not find a white tee with a high neck.  The sleeves on mine are quite short, I think they are referred to as cap sleeves, and again, finding a white mat t-shirt with the right length sleeves was impossible.  So I settled for what I had.

Choosing the material
I bowed to the shop assistants knowledge here.  I went to Anglian Fashion Fabrics and explained what I wanted to do and the cotton/lycra mix of my t-shirt.  They sold me stretchy black fabric for the sleeves and hem, stretchy yellow fabric for the shield, and red fabric with barely any stretch.  As I'm a starter they said the non stretchy red fabric would be easier to work with as stretchy material curls and frays at the edges.  I think they were right.  They also sold me bonda web (a glue for material sold in sheets) to put the shield together.

I soaked the red and yellow material in warm water for half an hour to see if the dye would run.  I had to soak the black material overnight, and in the morning it was still leaking black dye.  I have no idea if it will run when I wash the finished tee, fingers crossed it won't.

Finding a pattern
I had no idea how to look up a pattern for the black bits, initially I thought they were called piping.  They're not.  But I did find a tutorial for sewing the S shield, here: http://theleagueofheroes.yuku.com/topic/1851/t/SUPERMAN-COSTUME---DIY-S-SHIELD-CAPE-BOOTS--BELT-MERGED.html#.VMJMZLCsWSo
It is a pretty good tutorial, although not really aimed at beginners.  I found some parts of it confusing but I shall elaborate on that when I explain how to make it.  Given how nervy I get about doing new things I had to read it over and over and over and over before I felt comfortable starting.

Equipment needed
A good pair of fabric scissors, black, red and yellow thread, pins, iron and ironing board, a sewing machine, a ruler, a pencil (not ideal but what I used), a flat surface and lots of space.

Making a Linda Danvers Supergirl costume - why Linda?

In case you aren't familiar this is her:

She is my blogspot avatar.  She is not Kryptonian, she is an earth girl who was merged with the then Supergirl, also not Kryptonian.  The series was written by Peter David with art by various people.  The two images above are pencilled by Ed Benes.  I reviewed the book these panels came from on New readers...start here! a few years ago.

I adore this costume.  Always have done and have always wanted to make it, but was concerned about wearing a crop top.  So this year I figured why not make it maternity style.  In the final trade (Many Happy Returns) Linda does get pregnant, and she has a daughter, and then due to universe shenanigans loses her daughter in the process of saving the universe.

When I first read the story I never got it.  I didn't understand Linda's emotions, I didn't understand the big deal and I knew that the finale was out of my grasp.  I know now that is because I didn't have the experience or maturity to get it. Obviously I now do.  When I re-read this run in full over last summer I got it, in full.  It was a comfort to see Linda's raw grief laid out in front of me like that, and it is one of the strongest and most relatable portrayals I have seen.  The creative team - Peter David, Ed Benes, Alex Lei (inks), Brad Anderson (colours) and Comicraft (letters) created something very personal and very affecting and I am very grateful to have it and to be able to read it.

Anyway, due to my love of Linda's costume, the fact that I think we have something in common, the fact that it seemed a do-able costume to pull together (and I sure as hell didn't want to wear my Aquaman one again - repeating last year in it's entirety does not feel right), I opted for bringing together this outfit for London Super Comic Con 2015.  Here's what it looked like:

I am really pleased with it!
I bought the gloves, skirt and boots off ebay. I am also wearing a blue alice band but you can't really see it in the picture.  The white t-shirt I already owned but I put the black bands on the sleeves and hem, and I made the shield.  I had help with the sewing and I had to do the shield twice.  I will explain in a later post about how I did the black bands and the shield, but for now I will admire my handiwork.  I'm very proud.

The skirt is a maternity skirt - I'm amazed I could find a blue lycra one, let alone in the right shade of blue.  Most maternity skirts are flowy and knee length, rather dowdy,  I hate maternity clothes.  Whereas this one was pretty darn perfect.  I had to pull it up so the top of it sat next to my bra, but that worked out fine because the white t-shirt is rather see through otherwise.

The gloves are elbow length ones that are folded over to be wrist length.  I should really have sewn them up so they were at the right length, but I didn't think of that until I was at the con.  I may shorten them when I wear the costume again.

I was wearing very see through maternity tights from Marks and Spencer - they're bloody great!  They are the only pair of mat tights I've found that don't fall down!  I love them.

The red boots aren't exactly right but I had these from my Supergirl and Wonder Woman outfits from Thought Bubble last year and didn't want to buy another pair.

I didn't make a cape because I feel silly in them.  In my next post I shall talk about how to do the t-shirt.  It will be from the point of view of someone who has never done this sort of thing before..

Happy International Women's Day

I finished my Linda Danvers top:

I will be doing a lengthy blog post about how I made it, never fear!

Ma and Pa Kent

You know what I'd like to read? An account of Martha and Jonathan Kent's time before they found Clark.  An account of why they were childless - are they infertile or did they have miscarriages or did they lose a child (children?) towards the end of a pregnancy?  I doubt they lost a child in late pregnancy because I don't characterise them as a couple who would deny that Clark had a sibling.  If a writer were to retcon that in, I'd have problems.  However, I can see that they never fell pregnant or that they had repeated early miscarriages.

In short, I'd like to read about who they were before they became Ma and Pa Kent, and how trying for a child affected them and how they dealt with it.

Has there been a story like this and if so where would I find it?

The Super family books have a lot to say about grief and familial connections and at some point I'll probably write something about Clark, Kara, Ma and Pa Kent, the Els and Linda Danvers.  But not today.

What I have bought recently

So I mentioned I was going to lay off the comic reviews for a while, and that's true. instead you get pictures of my recent (ish) purchases!  Check them out:

Comics review - catch up

These will likely be three sentence reviews as I'm really behind and have to start cooking dinner in half an hour.. I will talk about:

Justice League America 7, Animal Man Annual, X-Men 3, Fearless Defenders 7, Princeless Tales of Girls Who Rock, Adventures of Superman 3, Resurrection Man 17, Supergirl Annual 2 (1997), Legion of Superheroes (5 years later), Demon Knights 23, Thor 11 and Fearless Defenders 8.

I'll never get these all written in half an hour...

Another week, another set of reviews (and a Bamf session)

I guested on Radio Bamf again on Sunday. I feel a lot more positive about this episode, although I have come to realise that I suck at verbally summarising and reviewing books. I’m much better responding to other people’s thoughts and ideas. Anyways I had fun, I think it was a good show, so go have listen to episode 15 either at the website or  on Youtube (with automatic captions) and iTunes.  Links are on the we Are Arcade page.

Thanks again to the Bamf team for having me on. Catch them on twitter and facebook.

Now read ahead for comic reviews and spoilers of Supergirl/Prysm Double shot, Signs and Voices, Professor Elemental, Adventures of Superman 1, JLA 4, X-Men 1, Fearless Defenders 4 and Princeless # 3 (second volume).

Supergirl comics from LSCC

I'm writing this on a Sunday, sat in my conservatory and I'm struck by how good life can be with enjoyable stories, fresh air, sunlight greenery and birds.  I've spent the morning looking outside and have been delighted with our visitors - we've had a nuthatch and either a greenfinch or a siskin.  I've had a pretty rubbish week but so far, Sunday seems OK.

And now, I get to talk about these comics.

I read Peter David's run illegally a few years ago.  I then went out and bought the two trades which exist of this series - Supergirl (collecting the first 10 issues) and Many Happy Returns (collecting the final issues, 75-80).  I think it's a crying shame that DC haven't released the comics in trades, or even on Comixology.  Peter David has a vocal and large fanbase and it seems like they would make some money on them.  Perhaps there are other issues (pun not intended) around re-publishing, or perhaps this just isn't a priority at all.  It's pretty difficult to find the back issues on ebay or Amazon, at least from UK sellers, so this year I decided to bite the bullet and go hunting for them at the trade stands at LSCC.  Not many stands had any in, but I did pick up what I could, and luckily I got the Plus One issues, 11, 13, 14, 15 and 18, and a Supergirl: Team Luthor collection which is pre David, but I couldn't resist.

I should have resisted because I think I already owned the Plus One and Team Luthor issues.

Anyway, these are (thankfully) just as enjoyable as when I first read them.  Plus One has Mary Batson possibly getting groped by a police officer and fighting back as Mary Marvel.  It's not as crass as it sounds, and deals with a complicated situation intelligently.  Mary is a mess of emotions at the time and it's possible she misinterpreted the copper's actions.  Supergirl gets involved and tries to sort out the issue, but it doesn't really get resolved. Readers can make their own minds up about what really happened.

There's a back up with Buzz, Cutter and Mattie where Linda takes her art in a new direction - from sculpting demons to angels.  It signifies her new, happier attitude to life.

Supergirl 11 - Supergirl accidentally frees the Silver Banshee and discovers the Chaos Flow under Leesburg.  I adore the Banshee and loved this issue.

Supergirl 13 - Many young women in Leesburg talk of paralysing dreams and scary but arousing prescence in their room.  So Supergirl encounters demonic possession for a second time.

Supergirl 14 - This is part of the Genesis crossover, which I really don't know much about.  However Leesburg doesn't seem to be affected.  Then Comet turns up, Supergirl visits the Kents, Linda's parents have sex then Linda tells them she's Supergirl, and they disown her.

Supergirl 15 - A really terrible supervillain team called the Extremists turns up.  Linda's parents still don't want to know her, a new comedian turns up in town and Supergirl's powers start changing.  We get the first hints of the earthborn angel she really is.  We also get this gorgeous piece of art:

Supergirl 16 - The Extremists are still causing trouble but thankfully Power Girl has turned up to help out. Unfortunately she is now vulnerable to unprocessed, natural material, like wood, so she gets stabbed by a branch.  Jeez.  Who made that decision?  We get the backstory of Twilight, the Extremists' leader.

Supergirl 18 - Wally, the weird kid who is really God is in this a lot. The issue switches between Wally and his grandparents and Despero/L-Ron fighting Supergirl, who by this point is properly manifesting her flaming wings.  Linda's Dad forgives Linda/Supergirl and makes up with her.

I cannot recommend this series highly enough.  I am going to make a concerted effort to find all the other issues now.

I haven't actually read Team Luthor yet.

LSCC prep continues..

So, I have ironed my patch onto my dress.. I am also taking safety pins in case the glue fails...
I tried makeup again today and came up with another style...
I have nearly everything in envelopes and bags.... I just need to buy my train ticket and snacks and sort out lunch on Friday evening..

In terms of getting stuff signed I am bringing -
New 52 Supergirl issue 1 - For Mahmud Asrar
Pre New-52 Supergirl 10 - for Ian Churchill
5 Thundercats issues (from the original 80s run) - for Simon Furman
Daredevil Parts of a Hole and Vision Quest - for David Mack

And I've just realised that Gary Frank who drew part of the first trade of Peter David's Supergirl run will be there, so I'm bringing that book too.  This will be a fabulous Supergirl filled day!

There's tons of people there who I like but I am not going to chase, because I cannot carry everything down that I want.  And I don't want to spend the entire day in queues.  So I'm going for the most important ones.  Although I am still tempted to bring a Bill Sienkiewicz comic down.  Perhaps that Mad Hatter one he did with Landry Walker.  Who did Supergirl Cosmic Adventures. And then there's the Fallen Angel artist, J K Woodward.  And Fallen Angel is a kind of Supergirl.  Also Nick Spencer will be there, and he did one issue of Supergirl.  Perhaps I shall bring that one down too.  Although I expect he won't be best pleased to see it.

I should be going as Kara shouldn't I.

Super Sexy Saturday

Not neccessarily for the short skirt and bared midriff, but for the utter self assurance and confidence, and the knowledge that she can take anyone on.

(Darn, accidentally hit post on Monday... have now rescheduled for Saturday...)

Supergirl with wings

I will never get tired of seeing Supergirl with her fire wings:

From Adventures of Superman 580, 582, 583, 583, 580 and 582 again.

This panel from issue 529 is also gorgeous: