It started this past Sunday, a fairly systematic sweeping of my local and semi-local (ie. two hour radius) comic book shops I am not really sure what sparked this crazed endeavor or what exactly I was hoping to find but I was pretty determined that if I looked hard enough I would find something even if I wasn’t sure what it was I as looking for. I hit Buried Under Comics in Manchester on Sunday, I picked up Batman: Cacophony written by Kevin Smith.I am still kind of torn about what I think of Smith as a writer, for the record I loathe his films (not a big fan of stoner films in general) but I am trying to be fair when judging him as a comic writer. I am not always a fan of the directions he takes certain characters like Poison Ivy in Widening Gyre for example but I had heard a lot of mixed reviews about Cacophony and knew it had a lot of Joker so I decided to pick up the hardbound collected edition of it. I was not a fan of the art, the story was somewhat interesting though it wasn’t a bad read but it wasn’t really reinventing the wheel either. I did really enjoy the scene where Batman visited Joker in the hospital after Batman had chose to save the Joker’s life versus apprehending Onomatopoeia. There was some interesting ideas in Cacophony but I am still unsure of what to think of Kevin Smith as a writer. I am really just a novice when it comes to comics, so maybe it’s just me. Anyway, I digress Cacophony and whether or not I actually liked is not the main purpose of this post… I did find something else interesting at Buried Under they had the DC lead figures, I had seen them before at BBTS but hadn’t really thought much of them but seeing them in person they looked pretty damn unique and interesting. The figures, are actually lead as in lead poisoning lead so needless to say they were not made by an American company but an European company called Eaglemoss Publications. They come with a 20 page magazine summarizing the character’s history and background, they are actually a kind of interesting read and a large warning label proclaiming the dangers of lead (including a stern warning not to place product in your mouth :O ). They had a Harley Quinn which I enthusiastically snapped up.
I stopped at the local Newbury comics but I didn’t find anything of interest at all plus they were super crowded and I was losing my patience but another shop had opened next to them and they had a bunch of really old stuff. They had a lot of interesting stuff but nothing perked my interest enough to buy, I did kind of impulse buy a Silent Mobius figure as it was on clearance for like $3 mainly because I hadn’t seen one on the shelves anywhere in years. I was pretty happy with having found Harley but I had the day off yesterday so I decided to make a pilgrimage to Toy Vault‘s first store located in Rhodes Island. The mall it was located in was rather creepy as it was kind of small, which isn’t remarkable but somewhere about 80% of the stores were closed and long gone so just walking in there kind of gave a Dawn of the Dead vibe. The store itself was kind of unremarkable, I picked up some back issues of Batman but that was about it. Since I was already in the area kind of in the area, I decided to stop at Newbury Comics as well and they had the Poison Ivy lead figure so I picked her up to go with my previously purchased Harley Quinn and a Kick-ass poster (hitgirl) . I realized my chances of finding the Joker on the shelf were probably pretty slim so I ordered him as well as a Kia Asamiya Harley Quinn from eplantetx.net last night.
I plan on hitting one more shop tonight to pick issue 8 of Kick-ass as well none of the local stores seemed to want to keep to the street date on it and a few are already sold out. I leave with you an in-progress picture of pullip Harley Quinn by Requiemart
Pullips and Junk 
I love shopping without a clear goal/point sometimes. It feels like I’m on the hunt for something unexpected that I’ll really love. When I went to my first figure store in person last week I wasn’t really impressed with what I saw…I’ll probably be sticking to online purchases when it comes to figures myself.
When you posted your Harley Quinn process on the forums I completely swooned over HOW AWESOME she looks! She is on on her way to becoming the best Pullip I’ve ever seen. Good luck fighting off all the offers you’re going to be getting on her from envious fans. I think this will be your best work yet.
Will she be getting a wig? Or will you just keep her jester’s hat on?
PS – I offer you $50!!! That’s a generous offer! Just Kidding LOL
I think I finally found the item I was actually looking for last night, I found a silver age Batgirl/ Joker figure set that is fairly old. Tokyo Kid is a decent store, I used to do all my shopping in the real world I would just continually save up until I would fly out to California and basically fill up a car ^^;
Requiemart is making her for me, I didn’t make her myself I am no where near that talented. She is probably the most epic custom pullip I have ever seen, I can’t wait to see her in person this Saturday. I’ve already gotten a few offers for her and she isn’t even completed yet lol.
I have another doll that is going to be Harleen Quinzel basically Harley when she doesn’t have her make up on, we are still kind of talking about what type of wig she is really going to have on underneath the jester hat (it’s the last thing that needs to be made) I think the current leaning is to have a fur wig on underneath the hood just to keep the shape (otherwise it would be a bit flat) and change her to a blond pigtail wig if I decide to take her hood off. Building the jester hat with enough room for a full-on pigtail wig would probably be troublesome and look a little funny unfortunately.
What color wig will she have? If I remember right isn’t Harley a blonde? Or is that just in the old cartoon series?
Does Requiemart ever get copy cat requests of your customs?
She claims to not actually be a blond in one episode of the cartoon but she is always depicted as being a blond, so she will have a blond wig.
She probably has but at the same time, she pretty rarely accepts commissions in the first place. I just happen to be really lucky with suggesting things at the right time that provide an interesting challenge Harley Quinn for example was the first time she had attempted that level of carving so in a way she is a just a warm up for my eventual Joker custom.