Rogue's Gallery Sandman Bust
If you want to choose a popular name, Sandman might be the best choice you could make. You would have a comic named after you, be called Mr. Sandman (to bring some dreams), be another song by Metallica and be one of the earliest (and coolest) Spider-Man villains. Plus it sounds way better than 'Dirtguy' or 'Soilmale'.
Of all the above listed sandmen, the one that concerns us now is the latter - the antagonist of the Amazing Spider-Man. William Baker (or Flint Marko if you prefer) was a crook for years after a bad childhood. His life wasn't easy and he learned to steal at a young age, and save for his abilities at football, he had little prospect for legitimate work (assuming you consider playing football legitimate work). After throwing a game for money his future was placed on a single path - that of crime where he took on the name Flint Marko.
His life of crime wasn't all peaches and cream, and along the way he spent a great deal of time in prison. (See kids, crime doesn't always pay!) If you've ever seen the HBO show 'Oz' it isn't hard to see why he might want to live somewhere besides prison, so he escaped from Ryker's Island in New York and headed south to escape from the police and the FBI. Along the way he ended up near scenic Savannah, Georgia and he was hiding near a nuclear test site. Since nuclear sites aren't very safe in the Marvel Universe he was exposed to radiation, which transformed his body into a type of living sand. I guess he was extremely lucky he didn't get that dose while hiding in their waste water facility, or he might have needed to change his name!
This was the genesis of his new career as the super-powered Sandman, where he could easily elude police. Too bad he forgot about all the super-powered heroes, because turning yourself into sand just doesn't impress a guy who can stick to walls and swings around the city on a webline! As if taking regular beatings from Spider-Man weren't enough, he also traded blows with a variety of other heroes from the Marvel Universe, and pretty much lost against all of them, too.
After losing so many times you'd think he'd give it up and go straight, and you'd be right. For a time he joined the side of good where the rewards aren't always so great but the winning percentage always goes up! He was truly reformed for a time until he was brainwashed by his old ally the Wizard, and then he returned to his evil ways and could count toothpicks just like Rain Man. I guess those brainwashings sometimes have side effects if you don't use all temp-a-cheer or put it on an extra rinse cycle!
As with any evil deed there is usually a beating, and this time it was Venom who dealt it as he bit off a piece of Sandy, causing him to basically fall apart. Eventually he was totally dissipated and ended up running into a New York City storm drain, never to be seen again until the next time he's seen.
 This is the second bust in the 'Rogue's Gallery' line created by Art Asylum and Diamond Select. The motif for the line is to cover classic villains of Spider-Man from the original Marvel Universe. The initial character was the Lizard, followed by Sandy here and the next is Carnage. Art Asylum's approach is not to mimic a single artist's style, but bring their own interpretation to the table.
The scale on this bust is larger than Bowen busts but slightly smaller than the Ultimate busts from Diamond Select (and much smaller than Dynamic Forces). Instead of building the bust out of actual sand, he's made of resin, though he looks to be made of sand. The busts in this line don't have arms (which is more in the vein of classical bust sculpture), but the Sandman cheats a little by having and arm coming out of his malleable body from his back. He is also shown in mid-transformation in parts, so some is pure sand, some pure human appearance and bit in between.
See the Big Picture
The base is an integral part of the figure and it looks as if a sand dune has exploded to attack you (probably every scrawny kid's nightmare after seeing the Charles Atlas sand-kicking bully ad on the back of comic books). As the second bust in the line it maintains the same quality and attention to detail as the first one, just much sandier. Taking him in the shower for rinsing isn't recommended, and taking him in the shower for any other reason is probably sick. The bust is done in scale with the Lizard so they look great together and when the line is finished it will be an impressive collection. With the sculpting detail, design and consistency in this line, it's shaping up to an outstanding group.
Art Asylum created everything, from the concept to the final piece, and Steve Ditko and Stan Lee created the Sandman. The bust comes complete with non-sandy Styrofoam for safe transport and a non-sandy certificate of authenticity that is numbered and signed by possibly sandy Digger, the president of Art Asylum.
More Pictures of the Sandman
| Where to buy the Sandman Bust: This piece is limited to a run of 6500, and you can find it at your local comics shop and various online retailers such as TowerRecords.com for between $35 and $45 USD. |
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