Now if only I could find the photo of me as the Joker in 4th grade...

[thehefner]

So many things I keep thinking about writing and I just can't do it. I finished Morrison's BATMAN R.I.P., but ugh, I dunno if I'll ever post my thoughts on it. There just seems to be no point. And there've been so many wonderful exchanges that have happened between me and Henchgirl that need to be captured and immortalized here, but ugh, I just haven't been able to pull it off.

I've been feeling really off the past couple of days. Maybe two months of Fringe performance/promotion/schmoozing, long stretches of driving, sleeping in the car, and consuming nothing but fat, sugar, and caffeine, then replacing that diet with pretty much non-stop alcohol for another week and a half, capped off by a massive party with grog... that might have something to do with it. Yeah. My body does not like me right now.

So instead of anything substantially thoughtful, have this schmutzed-up photo I recently found to show how little has changed.



The date is July, 1995. I'm twelve. Mom made me the costume out of stuff we found at the Salvation Army. Note the coin-flipping pose. The coin's somewhere out of focus, and this was but one of several takes.

I put off posting this for a whole day, because I wasn't sure if the entertainment factor quite outweighed the self-inflicted embarrassment. But hell, I still think it looks better than Tommy Lee Jones in BATMAN FOREVER.

Comments

[nectarousness.livejournal.com]

That is like... the best Halloween costume ever. Jealous.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I dunno if I have any of it left. The tie may be somewhere, and the shirt... heh, true story: my stepfather once blindly grabbed the shirt out of the hamper on his way to work.

He wore it the whole day, meeting with clients and going about his business, never once noticing that he was wearing a split pink-and-white shirt with strange purple stains on the pink collar.

[nectarousness.livejournal.com]

LOL

I think I might do that one day just to see if anyone thinks it's a new trendy fashion statement.

1 word, 4 syllables:

[tamburlaine.livejournal.com]

LE-GEN-DAR-Y.

Re: 1 word, 4 syllables:

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

hehehe. They shall sing songs about my flaming geekiness, and how it was embedded within me from way, way back.

[mellifluous-ink.livejournal.com]

Man, all I had were lame costume ideas when I was a kid.

Also: finally saw TDK.

You're a much more Dent-looking Dent. At least, in this picture.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

You saw it? I forgot that you hadn't yet! What think you?

More Dent-looking than TDK's Dent, you mean? Well, in future attempts at Harvey costumes, I really would like to somehow pull off the exposed teeth, and maybe even the bulging eye.

[mellifluous-ink.livejournal.com]

It was surprisingly good. I hadn't expected that. And that is a lovely interpretation of Joker, despite it not being what I consider the core Joker.

The man playing Dent wasn't as handsome as he needed to be; he wasn't anything compared to Bruce, which means he wasn't pretty enough. I also didn't like that they weren't friends to begin with. Aren't they supposed to be?

In other news, where the hell is Gordon's daughter Barbara?

Also: <3 the Gotham General bombin scene, where the explosives have a delay. That was adorable and SO Joker. '...WTF? *clickclickclick--BOOM* Ahhh--HOSHIT RUN'

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have a lot of problems with the film myself, and yet I still find it very effective and enjoyable nonetheless. And yeah, Heath's Joker may not have been the classic Joker outwardly, but the spirit is pure Mr. J all the way.

Yeah, I'm not sure Aaron Eckhart is what one might call "pretty boy" when throwing acid in his face. Nolan cast him because he was going for a Robert-Reford-in-THE-CANDIDATE vibe. He's not my ideal Harvey, but I loved him nonetheless.

Well, Harvey and Bruce being friends was never canon in the comics until the animated series introduced the idea, which itself was a twist on the original concept that Harvey was friends with Batman, which was how it was depicted from the start in the Golden and Silver Ages. Today, some writers have it be that Harvey and Bruce were friends, others sadly do not.

Well, one could say the daughter who has no lines is Barbara. Or they could do the Post-Crisis version of their relationship, where Barbara is Jim Gordon's adopted daughter, actually his niece. They changed that around to have it work with the new continuity established by Frank Miller in BATMAN: YEAR ONE. It's a bit messy.

[mellifluous-ink.livejournal.com]

The two kids that are Gordon's are both boys, I was watching carefully just in case. Sad is me. But Nolan did say he hated sidekicks.

Ah, well... this Batman doesn't seem to have friends. He's too... growly.

Thing is, I would have loved to see a Gotham Public Works style Joker, or a living animated Joker.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

No, there was a boy and a girl! The girl had long hair and everything! She was just barely shown. And definitely too young to be Batgirl for at least a few more years.

Yeah, and a bit one-note growly at that! Ah well.

Actually...

[american-arcane.livejournal.com]

...that's a damn fine costume.

Re: Actually...

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Thanks, pally! And it's funny, these days I'm actually staunchly against the loud split-suits for my ideal Harvey. I've come to firmly believe that a normal suit (or one subtlely defaced on the bad half) is far more effective and horrific, keeping the focus squarely on the face. Harvey is the one character I want to see shied away from Silver Age silliness.

That said, man, looking at this and remembering how it made me feel at twelve? It seriously makes me wanna do a whole new split suit of my own.

Re: Actually...

[mellifluous-ink.livejournal.com]

See I like the simple split suit. Two-Face's is white with a black shirt, and Harvey's is a black suit with a white shirt. I don't think that's too garish at all.

Re: Actually...

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

That actually is the most stylish of them all. Simple and elegant, without being too campy. If we must go split, it's that one I'd pick.

Re: Actually...

[american-arcane.livejournal.com]

I grew up reading my dad's Silver Age campy stuff and watching reruns of the 60s Batman TV series.

There's a place for every version of these things... as long as they're surrounded by the proper context, they work.

Personally, I'd love to see a group get together and do a series of costumes (either at some consecutive Halloween parties or on different nights at DragonCon) where each takes the same character and does different versions of it.

An exercise in creativity and context. :)

Re: Actually...

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Agreed, there's absolutely a place for every version of these things. BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD is proof of that. It just seems that the older I get, the more I feel like Two-Face is least effective when he's camped up. It really makes sense that he virtually vanished for twenty years in comics--missing out on the TV show and thus the consciousness of the public in general--simply because there's just no way you could make his story NOT tragic and horrific.

And oh man, I would be on that competition like a hobo on a ham sammitch.

[surioara.livejournal.com]

The fact that the picture is dated July makes it an extra 9 kinds of awesome. Your mom sounds as awesome as mine.

[surioara.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Apparently plum vodka reduces my vocabulary considerably. I couldn't come up with an alternative to "awesome" for that 2nd sentence? Oh my god, I'm losing my perspicacity!

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I would do this sort of thing for fun anyway as a kid, since I had no life. But in this case, I was doing it to enter WIZARD Magazine's Halloween costume contest! Y'know, back in the days when I actually gave a shit about WIZARD.

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

That? Is amazing.

I WISH my Halloween costumes had been that awesome when I was wee.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Funny thing is, I don't think I actually wore this when Halloween came around! I think I went as Jessie Custer from PREACHER, while my best friend Justin was Cassidy (thank god for irresponsible comic retailers!). Or maybe we went as the Emperor and a Crimson Guardsman? It's been so long!

I didn't actually bust out a Harvey costume for Halloween until '98 or '99, when I was in high school. Even then, I didn't have anybody to really show it off to. Just a bunch of well-meaning classmates who would look at me and shrug, "That's just John."

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

Small-childrens dressed up as PREACHER folks? My faith in humanity, it has been restored. :D

Hmm. Clearly, you need to build a time machine and take your current, massive online posse back in time to hang out with yourself.

...that made sense in my head.

[sara-lakali.livejournal.com]

This needs to be a meme.

Everyone should post pic of themselves--when they were kids--dressed up as comic book characters for Halloween.

[darkestnova.livejournal.com]

That's one of the cutest things I've ever seen. You're making me want children.