Fun Stuff In The Mail

I had the odd experience today of getting nothing but useful things in the mail today. One of them was indeed a bill, but there was also a pay stub, so that part kind of balanced out.

But then I got a Christmas card from a friend of mine. Not so unusual in and of itself; I usually get Christmas cards from friends in December. But his came in a padded envelope. The card featured Santa delivering presents via a Santa-shaped hot air balloon, but the package ALSO contained the following...

A collection of buttons featuring my Kirby-fied avatar! That was a great surprise! Thanks very much, Matt!

Let me give a quick shout-out to Matt. I've known him for, I guess, about ten years or so. He used to write issue summaries on my FFPlaza website. One of the things I like about Matt is that he's got plenty of artistic talent, and has readily tackled a variety of creative projects. He runs MaskMasters.com where he makes custom latex masks, and he also runs DumpsterWear.com where he produces custom t-shirts. Not just t-shirt designs like I've done with CafePress, but he actually does the silk-screening himself! Very nice work on both the masks and the shirts, I must say! He's been doing more of the convention circuit the past couple of years, so I'm hoping to catch up with him in person in 2013.

Also arriving by post today was this sculpture that first came out in 1996...

It's not a great photo, but it's the LaserMach Fantastic Four piece. Made from several pieces of steel and cut and etched by laser. I'd seen and wanted one back in the day, but I was recently graduated from college and had no money, plus they were limited to 500 pieces and ran at least $100 as I recall. I had long since given up looking for one, but I completely stumbled across this by accident last week and it was dirt-cheap! I was really pleased to see it arrive today and, even though I don't want to overload on superhero stuff in my libray, this will be a welcome addition!

(I also just snared, for a slightly higher but still quite reasonable price, a similar sculpture LaserMach did of Cerebus. I expect that'll arrive early next week.)

For as much of a Scrooge as I can be about this time of year with all the idiot drivers and unyielding throngs of shoppers and wailing children and incessant holiday songs, a couple of nice, small pieces like this while my S.O. is here with me does make for some joyous times. If I just have to make it through the end of the year without having to leave the house, I'll be all set!

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