Solomon Grundy, grab you by your undies! That was Solomon Grundy’s battle cry when visiting Miami Beach for Spring Break ‘98.
1898, that is. See, according to the comics, Solomon is a murdered gangster who was dumped in a swamp. But not just any swamp. A magic swamp. But in comics, is there any other kind? However, in the Super Friends cartoon, Solomon Grundy–and who knows why–had an incredibly moronic accent that can only be described as, well, Mississippian.
Grundy even had an idea to beat the Super Friends–now I’m not saying that this wasn’t a smart decision by the Legion, but I’m thinking that my sock drawer could come up with better ideas than Grundy. The guy is made of swamp bits, for god’s sake. Could you imagine the smell? Ewww.
Only kidding about that Mississippi crack up there. Hell, I’m from Arkansas. Seriously, thank god for Mississippi. Otherwise, Arkansas would rank 50th in everything.
I’ve seen Grundy drawn anywhere from average to monstrous in scale. And since he does big so well, I gave Grundy the Grodd treatment like Mr. McGuinness and went large enough to knock Neptune out of orbit. Some may argue that Grundy is too big here, but check out the Public Enemies arc again: Grundy actually has Batman’s head between his thumb and forefinger in one panel. That’s large. I mean, we’re talking Buff, Rock, AND Markie Dee.
Grundy started with a Marvel Select Ultimate Hulk, who is in a naturally crouching position. Since all McG’s have the vanilla pose of standing straight up, I knew this was going to take some work. Using the Dremel, I cut him up into 6 pieces: torso and head, waist and thighs, two lower legs, and two forearms. From there, I started re-assembling Grundy to stand up straight–you know, like Ringo Starr did for his clan in Caveman. I did this using Plumber’s epoxy and brass rods. Hulk was hollow, so when I cut the upper body from the lower, there was a hole so big, Ted Kennedy sunk an Oldsmobile in it.
Finding the feet was total serendipity–I was passing a Spencer’s and saw a Biggie Smalls that would work perfectly for a McG scale Grundy. It was a pain, paying $25 for shoes–I don’t think somebody’s overpaid this much for an overweight black guy since the Chicago Bears signed Ironhead Heyward. I drilled holes into the various body parts until I had the semblance of an upright humanoid figure. From there, I used a whole lot of Magic-Sculpt to form the various bits and pieces of his outfit. Thick placemat vinyl formed the suit jacket.
The head was a custom unto itself, as it’s heavily modified from its original MS Ultimate Hulk form. I Dremeled off the hair, ears, and nose (McG draws Grundy with a li’l pug nose) and sculpted those on with Magic-Sculpt and Kneadatite.
The hardest part was transforming his grimace into an evil grin (like on the back of the PE trade paperback). I also had to sculpt on the brow to give him a more sinister look.
My favorite part of this figure is actually the mud ‘n dirt effect. I sprayed on some Krylon Make It Stone! and then went over it with a brown wash to make it look less like stone and more like mud. I also dipped a brush into thinned shades of brown and Jackson Pollocked my way to grimyness. Then I used a distressing technique I learned from my mom, who used to make antique-looking woodcraft stuff–I just scuffed it up with sandpaper.
Grundy is the one figure I’m most pleased with, as he was a massive undertaking in size and effort–he makes for some kick-ass muscle for the Legion. And yes, I’m sure I’ll get around to groupshots someday.
