Waits Family Annals

A Christmas/Birthday present for my sister-in-law over at Waits4theBus– I decided to make an epic cross-stitch of Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. After completing the Mega Man project in June, I started looking around for a video game based cross-stitch pattern. I LOVE Sprite Stitch and Stitch Please for inspiration. As I was looking through various video game patterns, I was leaning toward a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle theme. Rather than use a pattern created by others, I wanted to do a Todd Waits original. I started looking for sprites used in TMNT video games from the NES and SNES. I found a good resource that I have since forgotten, and found a sprite of Krang. I new exactly what I wanted at that point! I grabbed another sprite of a dialog box saying “Tonight I Dine on Turtle Soup,” and used Photoshop to combine the images. I then used PCStitch Pro to convert the gif into a cross-stitch pattern with corresponding DMC floss colors, and created what has to be one of the coolest patterns EVAR!

Before I even started working on the actual stitching in September, I knew that I was not going to keep this for myself. My sister-in-law loves the TMNT, and I knew this was going to be her Christmas/Birthday present (they are the same day) from me. The whole pattern came out to about 8 x 14 inches. It was big, but so much fun. I really slacked off in October and November. For the first two weeks of December, I essentially watched movies and cross-stitched in order to finish in time. Every time I would finish an identifiable section, I would get so excited and think how much Wendy was going to LOVE it. I also couldn’t wait to post it online, but had to wait until after Christmas otherwise ruin the surprise. So Christmas has come and gone. She loved the gift, and I quote from Twitter: “@DarkYodeler Wow. That’s all I gotta say. Cross stitch has made it to a whole new level for me.”

Enjoy a full res shot and printable pattern after the jump:

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I keep going back to this video over the last few days. Beautiful.

Almost as hotly anticipated as The Death of Super Man, The Death of Glucose Man chronicles the life of Glucose Man and his “arch villain”, Glycolysis. So, Glycolysis wants to rule the world. The only way to do that is to steel the aptly named power rings of Glucose Man: Pyruvic Acidium 1 and Pyruvic Acidium 2. With those rings, he can rule the world by harnessing their power. So he goes and cuts Glucose Man in half because the rings are embedded in his torso. (?!) Harnessing the energy released from cutting Glucose Man in half, Glycolysis is able to create two more rings and alter their molecular make-up slightly. With his FOUR power rings he calls ATP, he throws them into the Super Electron Transport Chain Modifier to create 34 rings. Now he can rule the world. But don’t worry, according to him, “My motives were pure… honest! Oh, I’m so misunderstood.”

Hit the jump for the entire comic. It’s riveting. A precursor to Austin Grossman’s Soon I will Be Invincible.

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While in fifth grade, I created a character I could really relate to. His name is The Vilosher. He was a super-violent teen whose family was murdered by corrupt mob men and police. With no one to trust he turned to his scientist friend to create an arsenal of weaponry to take on the people who murdered his family.

I wish I still had the short stories I wrote about him. Actually, there was only one. It had chapters. It was to be my capstone project for the fifth grade. I don’t remember the grade I received. In fact, I though I had lost all traces of The Vilosher, but I found this in my sketch book I used two decades ago. I think there is a gem here that may turn into the next big thing. Check out his arsenal after the jump.

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