Look, up in the sky!

My Mother made this bear for my cousin's eldest son, who just happens to have the same name as me. Apparently he is really obsessed by super-heroes, so my Mom had the idea to make a super-hero bear. I told her that a super-hero bear needed either an arch-nemesis, or a secret identity, so she made a suit and tie for him. I provided the glasses. The design for the costume is actually based on Chris Ware's Super-Man -- not the DC character, obviously, but the super-hero that shows up in Acme Novelty Library occassionally. (See for instance, the first panel of the story "Thrilling Adventure Stories (I GUESS...)" in the Quimby the Mouse book.) I told my Mom, primary colors for the hero, secondary colors for the villain. To be honest, the bear's trunks look a little like a boxer's shorts, which means that whenever I see the bear, I think of George Foreman. The gloves look like thumbless mittens. The tie was one that I found on the street in Kalamazoo in 1992, which we had cleaned, and which was much too short for me. My Mom did get the Clark Kent-ishness of the alter ego, although I wanted the bear to have a little hat to go with the suit, with a slip of paper slipped into the band saying: "PRESS". Actually, I'm impressed that the bear turned out as good as it did. If anybody has a special order, I can see what the going rate for a Mrs. S. original is!! (Sorry about the poor quality of the pictures; I have a really lousy digital camera, and I don't really have any reliable programs on my computer to correct the lousy color and poor focus.)

My Mom wanted me to write and illustrate a story to send with the bear, but I think I did my part. Besides, I always liked coming up with the names and the powers by myself; I renamed all my super-hero action figures and gave them different powers when I was a kid. Plus, I haven't drawn since -- well, since a long time ago.

In other news, Veronica had a problem patron at the reference desk today, angry because the book that had been held for him had been taken back to storage. It was from 1874, and it doesn't circulate. His paper's due tomorrow. I ended up having to take another patron, and show him where to check to see what journals we have, and where they are, because Veronica was tied up for so long. I think I did a decent enough job of it. As I left, she told me she didn't know what she was going to do once the practicum is finished. That was gratifying, because I don't really know what I'll be doing, either.

Song: Donovan, "Sunshine Superman".