TOYS III - Jasmine

This is a statuette of Jasmine, one of the main characters from John Byrne's Next Men.

Being a huge fan of John Byrne and particularly of his Next Men comic book series, I couldn't let this pass. I didn't get this statue when it came out but I have managed to buy it last year from e-bay. It's part of a limited numbered series (this is 338) and it's a reproduction from a sculpture done by John Byrne himself.

John Byrne's Next Men was a comic book that was originally released back in the early '1990s. It came right about the time the first Comic Book Shops were starting business here in Portugal, so it was one of the very first original american comics I collected and read - until then, the only versions of american comics we had around were translated brazillian anthologies usually sold on kiosks.

This year, IDW publishing has started to re-release the series in big-thick black and white phonebook collections. Check them out at amazon.

TOYS II - The Bat-Man

Next in the line, the "1st Appearance Batman". This is an action figure which was part of a series supposedly reproducing the original look of several DC characters, as in how they looked when they were first conceived back in late 1930's and early '40s. I've always been a fan of this Batman, back when he was THE BAT-MAN, so I had to get it.

As far as the rest of the characters in this series of action figures, some seemed pretty faithful to the intent of the series, but others seemed to miss the mark.

TOYS I - Superman

Ever since I was a small kid I always liked...what should I call them? Dolls? Figures? They're not necessarilly "action" figures as I like them just fine even when they don't move. Statues seems a bit pompous and it doesn't emcopass the so-called action (as in articulate)figures, which I like too. Miniatures might be a possible name...

Anyway, even as an adult I still have a fondness for these little toys. So here follows a series of posts with my most prized current possessions.

First of the line is "The Kingdom Come Superman". This was a wedding gift from a couple of great friends (Hi, Ivo and Nelson!) who are just as hopeless comic book geeks as me. It's a beautiful statuette of Alex Ross' design for his version of Superman. As years have gone by I have come to like less and less Mr. Ross' artstyle, but I still have a certain fondness for his visual approach to this character, taking him back to the roots of the strongman Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster originally imagined.