Monday, November 04, 2013

Quest for Comic Book Beards

The first of November provides me with the quick opportunity to combine two of my favorite "activities" (or activity and non-activity) , collecting comic books and not shaving. With both No Shave November and Movember upon us, it is time to offer tribute to some comic book icons who (despite no longer living in a Sixties day-glow world) currently, or in the past, have rocked facial hair.

Based on this pic, the last 9 years have been
much harder on me than I thought!
My goal, in addition to this quickie intro, is to attempt to identify as many mustachioed or bearded characters from "mainstream" comic books  in my collection. Some choices may be sort of obvious (at least to comic book fans) such as Marvel's Thor or DC's Chief of Doom Patrol. Having never really given it much thought in the past, it occurs to me that there just may be 30 panels with (fairly) significant characters to choose from... though as evidenced by my most of my previous past truncated "count downs," whether I have the time is another matter.

In addition to simply digging through long boxes for epic facial hairiness, I continue my search for an alter-ego. There was a time when I fancied the idea of trying cosplay at comic conventions (very cool, I know), but despite occasionally dressing up in a homemade Mister Fantastic costume for some Halloween 5k fun runs, such as the 2006 Johnny's Run Like Hell (pictured above), I could not commit to a hero/persona because of my disdain for shaving--which often results in an on-again/off-again stated of beardedeness. (Note: In recent years, however, Reed Richards, a.k.a.Mister Fantastic, has been featured with  beard in the "regualr" Marvel comics universe. Let me further refine my previous statement  by suggesting that rather than hoping for an appropriate alter ego, I would like to find an accessible alter ego--is it really an alter ego if no one but the geekiest of fanboys can recognize who one is dressing as... even one as well known as a member of Marvel's First Family?

So it is with my razor firmly secured in the medicine cabinet, and my comic book long boxes at the ready, that I jump into Movember/No Shave November on a quest for Superfriends with a propensity for facial hair...

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