The Batcycle! 1967 Aurora Model Kit Re-Issue! BATMAN! Adam West! DC Comics!

Here comes the bat-tastic Batcycle, from the 1966 BATMAN TV series (tho this sensational cycle debuted in the '66 BATMAN theatrical film)! This 2003 Polar Lights Aurora re-issue zooms your way! Painted with enamels and acrylics, this Bat-bike is a gem! It's small (about 5 inches long), but was a blast to assemble!  Incredibly authentic and detailed! Click images below to enlarge!

The figures were painted to evoke the look of the TV versions of 
Batman and Robin! Note the detailing on the sidecar!  

Holy separation issues! A great feature is that Robin's 
sidecar includes a detachable go-cart! 

    

The Monkees! Custom Mego "Action Figures!" Davy Jones! Peter Tork!

Take a look at these colorful and fun custom "action figures" I assembled around 2005! It's the Monkees, created with an eye toward replicating the kind of product the prolific Mego corporation would have produced around the mid-70s, like their STAR TREK, WALTONS, and "World's Greatest Superheroes" line of toys! Click each image below to enlarge!

Above: All four custom MONKEES 8-inch figures, sealed on carefully-crafted custom cards!

Above: Davy was made using a STAR TREK "Chekov" (what else?) action figure!
Tons of molding clay and added accessories were used to craft
the figure, along with lots of sculpting and painting!

Molding putty was used to craft Mike's hair, over a 70s STAR TREK "Bones McCoy"
head. A custom hat was added, then that head was used as the "master mold"
for the final plaster cast noggin! Clothes from the 70s STARSKY & HUTCH Mego 
line were used for his threads!

Peter sports a custom-made psychedelic top, made
from some paisley-patterned material!

Above: The original heads used to create the Monkees! Left to right: "Bo Duke"
was used for Micky, "Bones McCoy" was turned into Mike, and "Luke Duke"
was crafted into Peter!

True Tales of a Young Comics Fan! "The Great 1976 Marvel Steal!" Bronze Age Mayhem!

And now for something completely different! Here is an all-new custom comic strip, detailing an emotional encounter I had in 1976 (at age 11) with a stack of (what then seemed like) very old Marvel comic books, a heap I had to own! Read about my reaction to those still-treasured comics, and my conscience-tossed final decision, in this fun and frivolous funny fumetti! Click below to enlarge!

Almost every comic Miss Serpico (yes, that was her name) had stowed in 
that rear cubby all came from late 1972! She said they once belonged to her 
brother, so he musta went on a one-month comic-buying kick...

It was actually fun trying to fit the 4-year old books into then-current (and 
fairly new to me) Marvel continuity ("There was a 1950s Captain America and 
Bucky?! The Vision has issues with the Grim Reaper? Neal Adams drew for Marvel?!)...
I had also never owned comics with the famed (and short-lived) Marvel "box design" 
covers, and loved that look then and now!

BONUS! Peer below to see the exact comics involved in the above loopy love story!

The Incredible Hulk and Friends and Enemies! And How! 1980 Albert Bigley Art! Marvel Comics?!

Wow. Talk about the "big one!" Dig this repugnant painting I whipped up (in 1980 at age 15) of the ever-incredible Hulk and his cast of thousands! Inspired by the work of Jim Steranko, as well as the many wrap-around panoramic paintings that adorned such books as the HULK! magazine of the day, I wanted to include every darned Hulk friend and foe in one big (18 by 30 inch) watercolored wall-busting whopper! You can see I tried to tell the Jade Giant's tale, in a left-to-right fashion starting with his origin, his main cast (General Ross, Betty, Rick, etc.), then added his early foes, characters who appeared later in his drama-drenched strip, some of his superhero pals, even slipping in a nod to the then-current HULK CBS-TV series! Oh, to be young and have this kind of time and boundless energy again... Click to enlarge!

Note the influence of actor Bill Bixby on my depiction of "Dr. Banner!" Bixby, of course,
was then portraying the good doctor on the CBS HULK TV series!

Bonus! Click below to see a pic of me, in 2013, holding up this oversized art, displaying the size of this colossal canvas!

Al Bigley, holding aloft this 1980 watercolor-and-ink poster,
elicits reactions on the streets of Detroit, Michigan!

Claw Long and Prosper--Part Two! STAR TREK! Khan! Spock!

It's been many long years since I first spotted that odd knock-off "Mr. Spock" cloth figure in one of those ubiquitous claw machines you see outside of department stores, but take a look at his newly arrived company inside those plexiglass prisons! Due to the newest STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS flick, it looks as if Spock has been joined by Khan, Kirk, Scotty, Uhura (I think), "mirror" Spock, Klingons, and other tiny-tot TREK toy characters! Is this a dastardly plot by some evil space rapscallion? Click below to enlarge and engage!

Besides the ever-intrepid TREK crew, this machine also inexplicably featured odd knock-off
figures of Domo and a multi-colored "Patrick Star" from SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!

WONDER WOMAN vs. the Nazis! 1975 Albert Bigley Original Art! DC Comics?!

Another bombastic blast from the past! Dig this 1975 Wonder Woman pencil drawing by me, age 10, from 1975! Obviously inspired by the then-new ABC-TV movie, THE NEW ORIGINAL WONDER WOMAN, here is the Amazing (and quite mannish) Amazon fighting high-flying Nazi felons (using her famed "Bullets and Bracelets" gimmick) in a World War Two setting! Click to enlarge!

Note the personalization in the upper left corner! Looks like I meant to give
this to my next-door neighbor of the time! But, since I still have it, that means
she somehow never took ownership of this dynamic drawing! Why she didn't
accept this fabulous masterpiece of modern art remains a mystery!


BONUS! Below is the custom logo used for the long-running ABC/CBS WONDER WOMAN TV series! You can tell it was what I had in mind (going only by memory in those pre-VCR or DVR days) when placing my own hand-drawn logo into the drawing above!

The Batboat! 1967 Aurora Model Re-Issue! Batman! DC Comics!

Wow! Here is my bulit-up version of the 2003 re-release of the fabulous original 1967 Aurora BATBOAT model kit! Click below to enlarge each image!

The gloss effect on the body of the craft was created using 
a spray gloss over the basic black/blue body! It was a real effort 
to precisely paint the red and chrome piping and the white side oval shapes!

Where's Batman? I used his figure in another Bat-vehicle, saving Robin to pilot 
this right-hand-side steered craft solo! I created new custom stickers 
for the rear fins and base! I also added plastic "flames" swiped from a Lego set!

The TV Batboat made its debut in the 1966 BATMAN theatrical film, but
wouldn't appear as an Aurora model kit until the following year!

A very fun (but challenging) model to build, one I was too young for (but always
wanted) when it debuted in the 60s!  I was very grateful for the recent re-release!