The Making of ALL NEW Big Shots!

August 5, 2008 on 5:57 pm | In Big Shots |

So next week, on August 13, a really important issue of ToyFare hits comic shops. Is it important because of our awesome world-premiere cover of Skeletor from Masters of the Universe Classics, or because it contains the second part of our epic Manly Movie Men Twisted ToyFare? Yes and yes.

But the real reason you should be psyched for the issue is that it features the long (we’re talking four years here)-awaited return of Big Shots to the magazine! Read on for your first EXCLUSIVE look at the newest Big Shots, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re making Big Shots these days!

So I said “how we’re making Big Shots these days” because the process has changed. Back in the day a photographer would just throw a couple of random toys together on a background (which resulted in some truly weird combinations), then a bunch of photos were printed up and physically handed around on a clipboard for the staff to suggest jokes for. Then-Editor-in-Chief Pat McCallum would then pick his favorite and in the mag it would go. It was a really time-intensive process, and I can remember many an afternoon spent staring at a clipboard with NOTHING coming to me in terms of ideas.

Now that Big Shots are back, we’re using a slightly different method to putting them together. First, myself (this is Justin, by the way), Jon and TJ hit the toy library. We spend about 20 minutes rummaging through boxes of toys and pulling out the weirdest, most random toys we can find. Then we sit on the library floor and try to pair the toys up for Big Shots - either toys that seem to fit together thematically, or toys that are weird in complementary ways that we think would make for a good Big Shot.

Next, we drop the toys off with Staff Photographer Dylan Brucie along with suggestions for backgrounds and let him get to work. When he’s done all the photos, we’ve got a half-dozen or so that may or may not make the 4 Big Shot slots that are allotted in each issue nowadays.

I then take the photos and email them to our in-house and out-of-house writers to send back joke suggestions. (Pretty smooth process - during my senior year of college, then-editor Rob Bricken used to physically mail me photo print-outs for me to make Big Shot suggestions for.) I then choose my favorite and the final four go into the price guide, courtesy of Designer Jairo Leon.

To give you an idea of how this works, here’s an ACTUAL BIG SHOT PHOTO from issue 134, as well as some very funny but rejected captions for it. Enjoy! And don’t forget to pick up issue 134 for the real deal!

Adam and Eve and the Daleks

REJECTED CAPTIONS:

ADAM: Okay, these things are from ‘Dr. Who,’ right?
EVE: How the hell should I know? Do I look like a British nerd?
ADAM 2: Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge my ASS!

EVE: Wait…if I was created from your rib, what
Part of you did THOSE come from?
ADAM: I’d rather not say.

Dalek 1: EAT THE FRUIT FROM THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE
Dalek 2: THE FRUIT IS DELICIOUS
Adam: The snake made it sound better.

ADAM: God’s really serious about keeping us away from that tree, huh?
EVE: Is the brown one God or the black one?