Below you can see the magazine poly-bagged with the figurine.  The white circular sticker is a warning that if you get the lead figurine anywhere near your house your entire family will die an agonizing death.  Well… something like that.  Its lead folks, don’t put it in your mouth.

Below is a close-up of the lead figurine.  Dude, this thing is a work of beauty!  He’s about 3.75 inches tall, just a bit shorter than the recent Infinite Heroes action figure.  This is probably the most faithful representation of the Ronnie Raymond/Martin Stein Firestorm costume ever produced for a figure.  The 1985 Super Powers figure and the 2004 DC Direct figure are probably the closest behind this lead figurine.  They got everything correct – chest emblem, gloves, boots, puffy sleeves, design on the briefs, even the headgear.  It looks great!  It’s just a shame it’s made from lead, rather than plastic or pewter.

The magazine itself provides a detailed history of Firestorm in all his incarnations.  Included are recaps of some classic Firestorm story lines, specifically Legends and Firestorm the Nuclear Man: Reborn (trade paperback collecting the post-One Year Later adventures). There is also a feature on the people who have united to become the Nuclear Man.  Finally, installment #37 of the DC Timeline covering 99 BC to 1 BC (not specific to Firestorm, but obviously a feature every issue of the magazine).

The magazine does a wonderful job breaking up the text with gorgeous images from Firestorm’s history.  I’ve provided a few snapshots below to give you a flavor of how the magazine looks.  Stephen Wiacek, writer of the articles, clearly knows his Firestorm history.  The only thing I found unusual was the disproportionate amount of time spent on the “Blank Slate” incarnation of Firestorm.  While I like the “Blank Slate” version, it was odd to see more space dedicated to him as compared to the Elemental version or Jason Rusch.

Overall this was a great purchase!  The figurine is fantastic and the magazine is an enjoyable read for Firestorm novices and experts.  If your local comic shop doesn’t have it in stock, ask if they can order it.  It’s worth your time and money.

Support Firestorm! Fan the flame!

John recently had some very expensive surgery.  Without the surgery, he would not have been able to retain his sight.  Unfortunately, the resulting medical bills are more than John can afford.  This is where we come in…

A benefit auction has been announced to raise money to pay the medical expenses of John Ostrander.  His friends and colleagues Mike Gold, Adriane Nash and Peter Katz have organized the benefit auction with the aid of Wizard Entertainment to help pay the medical bills after John’s insurance ran out. The event will take place on the Saturday night (August 9) of Wizard World Chicago Comic-Con in a nearby hotel.  If the auction isn’t an option for you, they are taking donations as well.

John gave us years of excellent Firestorm stories (as well as numerous other comics).  This is your chance to give something back to him.  I feel this is important enough that I’m posting it both here on FIRESTORM FAN and on my other blog, ONCE UPON A GEEK.

Please visit Comix4Sight.com for all the details and how to help.  Anything you can give would be appreciated.

Today we’ll be looking at Who’s Who in the DC Universe #10 (June 1991).   This was the fourth Who’s Who mini-series and was published in a loose leaf format (you can see the hole punches in the images below).  This was an interesting volume of Who’s Who because they weren’t tied down to the alphabetical format.  Since it was loose leaf, they could cover whatever characters they wanted each month.  It certainly made for more timely entries and the binders were fun.  Each issue included 24 character write-ups and sometimes a bonus fold-out poster or map (of places like the Batcave).

The particular entry we’ll be looking at today is the second Elemental Firestorm (Martin Stein).  The text was written by John Ostrander with art by Tom Mandrake. Look at that gorgeous image of the elemental Firestorm!  I love that hair!  Tom Mandrake did such a great job on this series.  The coloring below is a bit odd on the stomach, but it doesn’t detract too much from the line work.  When this Who’s Who was published, Ostrander and Mandrake had just finished up the Firestorm monthly series about 10 months prior.  It was nice that DC included Firestorm in this volume of Who’s Who, especially since he didn’t have a monthly book at the time and wasn’t really active in the DC universe.

In addition to being loose leaf, this format was a little different than previous Who’s Who formats.  First, it was oversized.  Each page was about the size of a sheet of notebook paper (larger than a standard comic page).  This was nice because it helped showcase the phenomenal art for each character.  Second, each character had the front and back of a sheet of paper.  So below you’ll see the front-side picture of Firestorm and the following image will be the write-up on the back-side.  If you are interested in reading the text, click that image for a larger version.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mayfair Games published a role-playing game set in the DC universe called DC Heroes.  From everything I’ve read the game was well-received, however, don’t ask me as I’m biased.  I played the game for years with friends so I think it was fantastic!

In an effort to capitalize on the popularity of DC’s Who’s Who, Mayfair published role-playing supplements in 1992 and 1993 that served as companion pieces to DC’s Who’s Who in the DC Universe.  Mayfair’s supplements featured role-playing statistics for each character, tips to role-playing the character (such as personality and subplots), and a complete list of comic book appearances for the character.

Mayfair’s Who’s Who supplements were laid out in the same loose leaf format and used similar design elements, such as the colored borders and topic headers. While they didn’t look exactly like DC’s Who’s Who pages (Mayfair’s pages were slightly bigger and they used a different font), they were pretty darn close.  This made it very easy for fans to insert the Mayfair Who’s Who pages into their binders right next to their DC Who’s Who pages.  So you could have the DC artwork and character history right next to your role-playing stats.  Pretty cool for role-players like myself.

Mayfair published three volumes of their Who’s Who supplements, with each volume covering the same characters that were covered in four issues of DC’s Who’s Who.  For example, the first volume of Mayfair’s Who Who’s supplement featured the exact same characters that were presented in issues #1-4 of DC’s Who’s Who in the DC Universe.  Since Firestorm appeared in #10 of DC’s Who’s Who in the DC Universe, he was featured in the third (and final) volume of Mayfair’s Who’s Who supplement.

Below you will find the front-side and back-side of the Mayfair Who’s Who Firestorm entry.  I realize the role-playing statistics may be meaningless to you, but I still think this piece of Firestorm memorabilia is worth posting.  If you are interested in reading the text, click the image for a larger version.

Come back tomorrow when we talk about Ronnie Raymond flying solo!

Support Firestorm! Fan the Flame!

Welcome to the FIRESTORM FAN blog!  You may be asking yourself, “A blog about Firestorm?  Seriously?”  Well, I say YES!  I’m a huge fan of the character and think he’s deserving of the attention.

I’ve been running my other blog, ONCE UPON A GEEK, for almost a year.  While I love writing a blog about anything and everything geeky, I wanted to start another site that really focuses on one subject.  In the past year, I’ve become interested in some comic book character blogs, such as: The Aquaman Shrine, Speed Force (dedicated to the Flash), and Idol-Head (dedicated to the Martian Manhunter).  Firestorm has always been my favorite character and after searching around the web I haven’t been able to find an active blog dedicated to the character.   There are a handful of good reference sites and some defunct sites, but no currently active blog.

So, combine the following ingredients in a large mixing bowl (a.k.a. the world wide web)…

• My interest in starting a more focused site
• My long-standing interest in the Firestorm character
• The lack of a blog dedicated to old match-head

Take the resulting crackpot idea, bake for 8 to 10 seconds in preheated oven. Allow insanity to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely… and viola – FIRESTORM FAN is born!

THE PURPOSE OF THIS BLOG

This blog was created to cover anything and everything Firestorm-related.  You’ll find things here such as merchandise, comics, toys, cartoons, news, and my thoughts and feelings about the character.

While I’m primarily a Ronnie/Martin Firestorm fan, I’ve really grown to like the Jason Firestorm.  I may be critical of Firestorm related matters from time-to-time, but this site will not degenerate into a “Jason-hater” site.  I have the utmost respect for all the creators of the various Firestorm series and wish to honor all incarnations of the character.

Also, this blog is not intended to be an all-knowing reference site.  If that’s what you are looking for, there are some great sites with reference information out there already.  Here are just a few:

• Nuclear Reactions – A very informative fan site
• Wikipedia – Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond) entry
• Wikipedia – Firestorm (Jason Rusch) entry
• The Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe – Firestorm Chronology
• Wikia DC Database – Firestorm Entry
• ComicVine – Firestorm Entry

Finally, I expect to post here only once or twice a week for now.  Given my hectic schedule (work, wife, kids, etc), my commitment to my ONCE UPON A GEEK blog, and the finite amount of Firestorm-related items out there, I think this is the best strategy.  Otherwise I risk running out of things to talk about or burning myself out too quickly. If this situation changes, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Support Firestorm!  Fan the flame!

]]> http://firestormfan.com/2009/01/10/why-a-firestorm-blog/feed/ 5