"You are about to enter HELL!"

Today's quickie is of Vincent Price as the mad Don Medina from the 1961 Roger Corman adaptation of the 1842 Edgar Allan Poe story, The Pit and the Pendulum.  The film bares little resemblance to the dark tale of the Inquisition, but nevertheless is a fun atmospheric piece that lets Price pour on the crazy.

"You killed my snake..."

Alright...so today's quickie of the great James Earl Jones as Thulsa Doom from the original Conan the Barbarian isn't as intimidating as I wanted.  Thulsa Doom was the wizard nemesis of Kull the Conqueror in Robert E. Howard's original stories, and seemed to be called in to replace Thoth-Amon, Conan's more common wizard foe. Still, Jones' portrayal of the snake-worshipping Doom is a great movie villain and the transformation scene is still quite a bit of fun (even if the efx are a tad aged now...).

The Fashionable Wool Ruff

Today's quickie was a test drawing for a small commission I received that concerned a sheep.  Coming off the Franz Hals inspired frog, I decided to continue with the Jacobean ruff.  As the sheep was naturally...ahem...poofy around the neck, it made for an easy subsitute.

I present...Mutant Drill...

We've already covered the amazing and bizarre Super Infra-Man (1975).  Today's quickie is of the aforementioned villainous Mutant Drill.  I feel my rendering gave him more physical distinction than he has in the movie where he's a tad more amorphously blobby.  Sadly a sole sketch can't convey the strange movement the actor saddles with this giant rubber outfit had to suffer through...Still and all, one of cheese-dom's greater villains.

"Je t'aime...moi non plus..."

Today's quickie in ink was something of an unexpected surprise.  I was taking in Antonio Margheriti's gothic mystery tale, Seven Dead in the Cat's Eye (1973), wherein a series of strange murders takes place in old Scottish castle, when who should appear as the Scottish inspector...celebrater chanteur Serge Gainsbourg (1928-1991).  Granted, many Italian productions often featured curious international casting...that wasn't what was surprising...I just didn't expect to see Serge.  So this was my quick ode in ink to said surprise.

"No. It's Pronounced 'Eye-Gore'...."

Marty Feldman (1934-1982) was a British writer and comedian, perhaps best known in the U.S. for his role as Igor in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein.  It was perhaps between that and his appearance on the Muppet Show that created my lifelong fondness for this funnyman (well...those...and yes...Yellowbeard.)  Feldman also wrote for and starred in the pre-Python series At Last the 1948 Show with John Cleese and Graham Chapman, and Terry Gilliam did animation for his solo series, Marty.  The above sketch was taken from the Italian Comedy, 40 gradi all'ombra del lenzuolo (aka. Sex with a Smile, 1976) in which Feldman gives a hilarious turn as an invasive and unstoppable bodyguard.

Pulp, Glue and Words....

The time has finally come to unleash my literary...ahem...fury on an unsuspecting world.  (Unsuspecting because there were a whole lot of folks who didn't even know I'd written the damned things.)  So, I'm proud to announce that I'm releasing my first two novels via Createspace (Amazon's publishing arm.)

Book 1 - Memories of the Children of Death:

Description: God’s conscience tells him to leave. His lapses in memory make him a danger to himself and everyone else.  Kato’s faded out.  Pixie and her robot, Bill, have been attacked by roving gangs of vampires and clowns.  And Io loves him, but just wants out. The more God thinks, the fuzzier things get, and the fuzzier they get, the more it makes him sick.  On the rollercoaster of endless nightlife in this city of the future, a fuzzed out brain was the order of the day…but as the frivolity passes, the truth sneaks out of the shadows to spoil the party.

Memories of the Children of Death follows a group of friends who, as their worlds drift apart, pursue the truth behind the shadowy figures and strange occurrences that tug the  strands on the web of roads and train tracks that flow between the superstructures that truly touch the sky.

(Available Here! and on Amazon)

Book 2 - Rubber Finger #11

Description: Magnus Freelyson has problems.  Only, he didn’t used to.

Magnus had been a quiet cog in the massive machine, the Giant Rubber Monster Inc., that owned half of the world.  When the company’s head, Fred Freely, appears to have died mysteriously, Magnus suddenly finds himself in the captain’s chair. But it’s not just running things that he’s going to have to get used to.  For one, he now knows that Fred’s his father, and that’s just the start of his new family problems. Betaville, owner of the other half of the world, has already begun to clamor at the gates in search of a conquest that will end the decades old stalemate of consumption. But smack in the middle of it all is the path of red herrings, bizarre plotting and a host of clones and doubles that Magnus must unravel to find the true Fred Freely… who might not be quite as dead as everyone thinks…

(Available Here! and on Amazon)

"If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others?" - Candide

This little fella, modeled in a way after the looser illustrations of Doré, is an idea I've been toying with for a series of short tales.  His costume is cobbled together from period clothing featured in the group portraiture of Dutch master, Frans Hals. Hals, though not as well known outside the art world as his contemporaries, had a style and technique that was very influential on both Impressionists and Realists alike, such as Monet, Whistler and Courbet.

In Tribute to King Kirby...

This sketch, a bday gift drawing of a friend, was a quick tribute to comics great Jack Kirby (1917-1994).  Kirby, who helped create Captain America, The Fantastic Four and the X-men among others, is one of my favorites for sheer crazy, gigantic, wild imaginative inventiveness when it came to colossal sci-fi technology.  Kirby covered whole pages with clunky and chunky colorful machines that radiated fire and lightning between huge arrays.  Anyhow, this was a stab at capturing and collaging together some of Kirby's visuals.  (And yes...I realize I should've colored it...)

Lightnin' & The Blues...and Reds and Yellows...

This quickie of Lightnin' Hopkins, my second, also started as a paint test warm-up.  But since I warmed up with it over several days, it sort of got finished.  Using Lightnin' as a subject again was largely inspired by a collaboration by Jim Mahfood and Jason Shawn Alexander of Miles Davis and Son House which I believe will be on display for Art Basel in Miami this December. I suggest you check it out...assuming I'm right.

Paint Test Gone Too Far...

Today's quickie wasn't as quick as it was meant to be.  I was doing a paint test/warm-up for an illustration I was preparing to act as the cover for the release of my upcoming book.  I scanned through my photos for a snapshot of anyone that had some contrast and some color to it to try and mimic, and fell on this one of my friend Kate.  Instead of just blocking in some color and getting ready to move on, I worked it and worked it and it sort of came out finished.  Naturally, I had by then run out of time to work on the book cover.

Glass Bubble Helmets...

David Lynch once made a great point in an interview that all the science (aerodynamics and whatnot) placed on design would forever eliminate things that were just cool from common objects, like fins on old cars.  The more I thought about it, the more I agreed.  Let's face it, most objects rendered under pure, streamlined, utilitarian design are also kinda boring.  I mention all this because I figure it'll also kill all those crazy ideas of the future that the men of the past were so crazy about creating.

The Baggage of the Overlook...

Somehow the last sketch led to this old-fashioned bellhop.  So, he's the follow up.