Anyone who has ever played with action figures has had the thought. What would it be like to be as small as the figures and roam around with them in their vehicles, or what if they were as large as life and roamed around with us? Daniel Picard enjoyed collecting the high-end, Sideshow Collectibles 12-inch “statue” figures. He was also a photographer. So Picard blended them together and posted them online. He then sent some of his photos to Sideshow Collectibles’ management and the result is Figure Fantasy: The Pop Culture Photography of Daniel Picard, a hardcover collection of his creations, published by Insight Editions.
What makes Picard’s photographs work is the “magic” of lining up light and shadow so that his photographs of real world situations blend seamlessly with spliced-in images of 12-inch figures. The Sideshow Collectibles figures are exclusively used in this collection–these are the figures that sell for hundreds of dollars because of their highly detailed production quality. (Sideshow made the borg.com Best of 2016 list here last year, and we discussed the Star Wars line last year here). So this line of figures was ideal for Picard’s project.
The situations Picard selects, the clever humor, the juxtaposition of the fantastical and the mundane, all combine to make Picard’s work stand out from the standard attempts at similar combinations you might find on the Internet.
, a series of comic books that when compiled read like classic children’s storybooks. Norton and Petersen have this niche in common with their books–you want to sit down and have storytime. These guys are among the best Eisner Award winning comic book artists that write as well as they draw, and they are both among the nicest guys in the business you’ll ever meet. With Battlepug you have beautiful images, interesting and funny surprise characters, and a narrative structure and tale that would fall alongside any other classic tale on your bookshelf. It’s no wonder Norton was recognized by the Eisner committee–this isn’t only crazy silliness, it’s a story with roots in classic fiction and the beginnings of a character who could hold his own with Conan and Tarzan.
