DCHS staff exclusives: Mr. Gaspar’s beaded character collection

If you’ve ever walked into Mr. Gaspar’s room, you will immediately know that besides being a history buff, he is a comic book nerd. Beaded comic book characters line the walls, from Spiderman to Link and Cyborg to Hawkeye, Mr. Gaspar has gathered quite a collection. He makes them on his own. “I first saw them at the Chicago Comic Book Convention. I was going to buy some, but then I said, ‘Why can’t I just make them?’ ”

For Mr. Gaspar, it takes an average of 40 to 60 minutes to complete a single character. Using something called Perler Beads, he uses online templates, and sometimes has to merge multiple templates. “I think one of my favorite ones is Hawkman, because I had to merge three different designs for him. But I do like how Dr. Strange turned out.”

Mr. Gaspar has quite a lot of ideas for what is next for his collection. “I want to finish the main Avengers and Justice League. I also want to try to get Guardians of the Galaxy and X-Men. From there, I’ll probably go to Ninja Turtles, Star Wars, or Lord of the Rings.” Mr. Gaspar also hopes to have a raffle around the end of the semester—the people with the winning tickets will then get to choose a character for him to make for them.