Gods&Monsters
First of all, let me be perfectly clear:
I am a huge nerd.
I love comic cons and doing Marvel stuff with my friends. Pretending I was Sailor Mercury when I was 8 (and 18) was my happy place. But ever since I was a little kid I always enjoyed Batman. I used to come home from school just in time to plop my stuff down, get a bowl of cereal as a snack, and pop on the tv to catch two back-to-back episodes of Batman the Animated Series. While I don't particularly like Batman (a debate for another time), I have always been in love with his villains. The Joker and Harley Quinn became my absolute favorites, and the way everyone else in Arkham sort of flowed around them and were intertwined in them, even on minor levels, was a delight to pick apart. So naturally, when I stumbled into the now defunct Artegon Marketplace in Orlando, FL and found Gods&Monsters, I was in heaven. It was comic book shop, filled with collectables, local artwork, toys, a group game area, and a small bar. The place was huge and had amazing merch, but the best part with the theme: Arkham Asylum. You spoke through the bars to ring up your items, Harley's mallet and a random bomb lay in the background on top of a confiscation locker. Poison Ivies crept from under the door of cell in the back. It was a Batman dream come true. When I expressed my complete adoration of their venue, they were more than happy to allow me to make an entire Batman themed shoot inside, during business hours.
And shoot I did.
I could never thank Gods&Monsters enough for their generosity, nor can I appropriately thank all of the wonderful models that made it out to play dress up for a few hours.
It was amazing to actually bring Arkham Asylum and a tiny part of my childhood to life.
