"Yeah, I'll bet you have..." Proceeds to Shoot First

Our 2nd installment for Harrison Ford week (which probably should've been 1st, in terms of influence) is the galaxy's favorite scoundrel, Han Solo. If anything, Solo, as both smuggler and fan favorite character, once again proves people's love affair with the outlaw/rebel, the selfish guy who ultimately does the right thing.  Lord knows he was instantly my favorite...I mean, I wanted to be Luke, a young man starting on a mystical martial arts journey, but I loved Han.  Hell, if there had been some magical way to combine the two (you can't...it's not the same...they have to each be what they are), that's the guy I would've wanted to be.

"The Return of the Great Adventure!"

At long last, it's the week of drawings that you didn't know you've been waiting for!  It's finally Harrison Ford week (aka. A Small Degree of Internet Pandering Week!)  For whatever reason, as I'm trying out some new drawing techniques (working with different quills and trying some different stuff with my line), I decided to depict Harrison Ford in some of my favorite roles when I was growing up.  Also, as I was trying to get a look somewhere between classically trained drawing and classic comic strip drawing, I figured something with a bit of high adventure would be suitable subject matter (especially after last week's Roman ruins)!  Though technically I should've started with Wednesday's drawing, we'll kick the week off with a little derring-do from everyone's favorite archaeology professor, Indiana Jones!

The Crossroads of Palmyra...

With all the political strife in Syria, I chose the restored tetrapylon from Palmyra as our final set of Roman ruins.  Palmyra became part of the Roman Empire during the reign of Tiberius, but over time went back and forth between the Romans, the Sassanids, and as it's own independent nation.  Much later, the city was fell into sharp decline as part of the Ottoman Empire, and after being rediscovered by Western travelers in the 17th century, the city has been under off an on excavation by archaeologists since the 19th century.  Tetrapylons (like the one featured above...well, three out of four ain't bad...not half bad...cuz it's one more than two) were four part cubic monuments with four gates that were usually built at crossroads.

The Entrance to Ancient Gerasa...

My Second set of ruins comes from an image of the Arch of Hadrian that was the entrance to the Greco-Roman city Gerasa (not to be confused with the Arch of Hadrian in Athens...which if you ever seen it, is not easily confused with this arch) now Jerash in modern Jordan. The Romans conquered the city in 63 BC after which the city flourished for many years until the Persians took over the territory in 614 AD and a major earthquake destroyed much of it in 749 AD.  Today, it is considered one of the best preserved Roman cities in the Near East and continues to be excavated and explored.  The arch was built to commemorate a visit from the Emperor Hadrian around 129-130 AD.

The Foot of the Capitoline Hill

So the other aspect of drawing that I'd been neglecting was architecture.  I admire good architecture, but I'll admit to not being all that geared up to draw it.  So, to tie it into things I have been interested in lately, I decided to draw Roman/Roman era ruins.  We kick off the week with the remains of the Temple of Saturn in Rome proper.  Traditionally believed to have been built around 497 BC in the early days of Rome, the temple was destroyed and rebuilt twice.  As Saturn was associated with wealth, for many years, the Temple held Rome's gold and silver reserves.  The front portico, as picture above, is all that remains standing today.

The Snout of the Aardvark

This week's final animal is the aardvark, whose name is derived from the Afrikaans for "earth pig" and though it also sometimes called an "anteater" (which it does do), it is related to neither pigs nor the South American anteaters.  These burrowing nocturnal creatures only sustenance besides ants and termites is the aardvark cucumber which relies on the aardvarks to dig them up and scatter the seeds.  As a side not that I feel I must mention, part of the inspiration to include the aardvark in this micro-bestiary comes as a result of recently rereading the entirety Dave Sim's comic series, Cerebus.

The Scars of the Elephant Seal

For my second animal, I chose the bizarrely schnozzed elephant seal, which was once nearly hunted to extinction.  The alpha males in the various colonies get into often bloody fights over the harems of females.  After the thick-skinned horn-nosed rhino, the thickly scarred blubber-nosed elephant seal certainly seemed the way to go...haha.  In any event, the third one will buck the system...sort of.

The Hide of a Rhinoceros

It's been far too long since I've drawn any fauna (megafauna, in this particular case, to be exact), so I decided that this week would be a good week for some wilder samples of the Kingdom Animalia.  I kicked off with a good old Rhinoceros, those fascinating four-legged bulwarks of beastliness.  There's always been something fascinating, both contemplative and dangerous, about these huge and horned creatures.  I chose an image of the black rhino which is no for being far more aggressive than it's close cousin the white rhino...and far more apt to charge.

On a side note, every time I hear about finding another ring of poachers slaughtering them or some game warden finding them on their deathbeds minus horns because some associative magic nitwit thinks it'll keep his wang-dang-doodle hard, I verge on the apoplectic.  Honestly, if you're dumb enough to think that carving off a rhino horn is gonna help you get it up...you really don't deserve to be having sex.

Another Odd Weekend Post

I went out one evening with friends while I was drawing my WWI soldiers and penned this creepy character.  Though modeled in a sense from the war imagery I'd been scanning through, he came out more like a huntsman.  Anyhow, he was a strange tidbit, and I thought I would share.

Cheers.

Soldiers of the Great War: A Brit in The Trenches

For my final WWI soldier, I chose this British soldier just because I liked his face.  The helmet, the trenchcoat...they're pretty standard, but I simply liked his face, so I sketched him down.  On a barely related sidenote (and I recommend reading up some on trench warfare in WWI), I would recommend taking in the final Black Adder series that satirizes this struggle.

Soldiers of the Great War: A German in Winter

For some reason, the simple wool-lined rustic looking coat with the mustache and hat made me think that this fella would've looked right at home storming over the steppes with Attila and descending on the Roman empire if the were a bow over his shoulder instead of a rifle.

Soldiers of the Great War: The Sikh Regiments

For this week, I decided to do something different, and using various image searches found what I thought were some interesting and different views of soldiers from the first world war.  I started with this interesting image I found of a lone soldier from one of the Sikh Regiments.

"I am a lie who always speaks the truth."

Our final European film director is the reverie-inducing Jean Cocteau.

Cocteau worked as a poet, novelist, dramaturge, designer, artist and even helped create some ballet along with writing a libretto or two.  Oh, and he made films.  All in all, something of a layabout....

I jest, of course.  Recounting Cocteau's achievements in even a few of his chosen art forms would take far longer than I have to discuss him, especially as I've only chipped away at the top of the iceberg myself.  He is perhaps best known today for his beautifully filmed rendition of Beauty and the Beast (1946), and for the Orpheus trilogy (The Blood of a Poet (1930), Orpheus (1950) and The Testament of Orpheus (1960) ).

My first exposure to his work was while in college.  A friend in an avant-garde jazz band invited me to a screening that his group would score of a Man Ray short and Cocteau's Blood of a Poet.  It was an immensely enjoyable evening, but what struck me most was the reaction of the crowd to Poet.  Though Cocteau's camera tricks were easy for me to decipher, it was wonderful how these fairly simple in-camera effects still drew gasps of surprise from the crowd.  If anything, it proved that it's not the complexity of the trick, but rather the simple elegance of how you pull it off.

"There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the passion of life."

The Second of my European film directors is a sketch of the great Federico Fellini.  Winner of 5 Academy Awards and nominated for 12, Fellini had a career that spanned 40 years of filmmaking.

Fellini began professional life as a humor-writer and cartoonist for humor magazine Marc'Aurelio, which led to his writing gags for Italian comedies. It is difficult to believe that the fantastical Fellini, much like spaghetti-western auteur Sergio Leone, would re-enter filmmaking in the Italian neo-realism movement that followed the second World War.  After strking out on his own to create such films as La Strada (1954) and La Dolce Vita (1960), Fellini found himself with his own creative block as he sought to relate a film about a director with creative block, which led to what many consider his masterpiece, 8 1/2 (1963).

My introduction to Fellini was via his later Roman fever dream, Satyricon (1969), and though I've deeply enjoyed many of his films since, I still have a special spot for this film.  I've probably seen it a dozen times since, and even read the collected fragments from Petronius' great satire...and I still couldn't entirely tell you what was going on in the film.  Thing is, I don't want to have to understand it.  What to me sets Fellini apart from many other filmmakers is an infectious passion and joi de vivre that can excite any viewer, whether they have the faintest clue what Fellini is getting at or not.

"Thank God I'm an atheist."

This week's series, for whatever reason the wind did will, is European film directors.  And first up is the great Spaniard Surrealist filmmaker, Luis Buñuel.  (I figure that's appropriate since Midnight in Paris won an Oscar, and one of my favorite scenes was Owen Wilson's character Gil trying to talk Luis (played by Adrian de Van) into making The Exterminating Angel (1962)).

It was at college that Buñuel met Salvador Dali, which would eventually culminate in the making of Un Chien Andalou (1929), the infamous surrealist short with the toe-curling eyeball-slicing scene (When researching images of Buñuel, I was kinda disturbed by how many copies there are of that image on-line.)  Buñuel ultimately made films in Spain, France, Mexico and did some minor film work in the U.S.  Probably his best known work are his later films that he directed in France, including Belle de Jour (1967) and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

My first introduction to his feature work was in college in Charles Ramirez-Berg's brilliant film history class at UT with Los Olvidados (1950).  While I enjoy the man's work, I must admit to having taken a long time between taking one in and the next.  Buñuel is an artist to be savored and mulled over, definitely not gulped down.

"White Man's Town...Black Man's Law!"

My final sketch for Black Action Hero week is the great Fred Williamson in his role as...uh...the only more offensively named character "The Hammer" played after Capt. Oliver "Spearchucker" Jones in Robert Altman's M*A*S*H (1970).

Fred Williamson started his career in the spotlight playing professional football for both the NFL & AFL until 1967. One of Fred's first roles was as an alien in an episode of Star Trek (which in an interview, I recall him saying that he only agreed to it because he got to "kick Capt. Kirk's @$$").  Fred became a staple of the blaxploitation genre starring in huge hits like Black Caesar (1973) and Bucktown (1975) before becoming a staple in european exploitation films like the original Inglorious Bastards (1977) and 1990: Bronx Warriors (1982).  During the 70's, Fred also formed his own production company and began producing and directing his own films.  Fred continues to make appearances in major movies like From Dusk Til Dawn (1996) and the remake of Starsky and Hutch (2004).

"And I got MY black belt in barstools!..."

The second in my series of black action heroes...Pam Grier as Miss Foxy Brown.  Grier who dominated the exploitation scene in the 60's and 70's starring in numerous "women in prison" as well as blaxploitation films is credited by many as being the first female action star.  Grier has continued to be a popular actress over the years and received a large critical and awards nod for her role in Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997).  On a more personal note, it's a tough call between this one and Coffy (1973) for my favorite early Grier action flick, though Foxy plays a lot more fun the "open with blowing a dude's head off" nature of Coffy...and as for Miss Grier, I'm sure that myself and a whole lot of other fellas in my age range will agree that she was one of the downright sexiest women to ever grace the silver screen...

This IS the Black Private Dick Who's a Sex Machine to All the Chicks

Coincidentally, it being Black History Month and all, this week's series of sketches' theme is Black Action Heroes of the 70's.

Naturally, we kick things off with John Shaft.  How could it be otherwise?  Shaft was created by screenwriter Ernest Tidyman who took the Academy Award for adapting The French Connection for the screen.  The novel Shaft (1970) was then adapted into a film by well respected photographer and director Gordon Parks Sr., and starred Richard Roundtree.  Isaac Hayes wrote the score and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the "Theme from Shaft".  Roundtree went on to play Shaft in two sequels and a TV series while Tidyman went on to pen six more Shaft novels (I own them all, including the rare Last Shaft (1975).)

And in this corner...

The final Drawing while Socializing sketch is a bit of a cheat.  I was sketching the picture of a boxer off the wall of the spot I was at...and naturally, the image I chose, which was clear when I started, was then constantly blocked by a revolving social circle of people.  I never quite got it right, and I never quite finished it.  So I found something close, and redid it...

"Hear that loooooong lonesome train whistle cryin' in the wind..."

Entry No. 2 from the "Drawing while Socializing" Series.

For some reason, when all else fails, I start drawing old trains.  I have no idea why, but that's where my mind goes.  I certainly don't mean to imply that I'd rather be somewhere else than being with whoever I'm with...but trains are what come to mind.

(The lyric quoted in the title is from "Lonesome Train Whistle"...a favorite track by the Reverend Horton Heat from their album Full-Custom Gospel Sounds of...)

Brush on Ice...

This week's sketches come from a handful of drawings I did while hanging out with Jason Shawn Alexander, Jim Mahfood, and Sherard Jackson at a Drink & Draw Event here in Los Angeles.

The first shows how obsessive I was becoming over the painting I'm very close to finishing up as of writing this.  I couldn't  work on it since JSA had coaxed me out of the cave, but that didn't mean it couldn't monopolize my creative energy.  So with a Powers Whiskey in my hand, I roughed out this fella with my brush pen, and then took some water to it, and ended up with this.

"...I say this from my heart...I've never liked you...Never..."

My final take on Comedians for this week is the fabulous Mr. Warmth, Don Rickles.  I've always enjoyed Don's work and marveled at the amazing speed and ferocity with which he could take apart an audience, patron by patron.  Even more amazing was ability and willingness to take down big shots, which is what made his tenure as Roast Master for Dean Martin simply amazing.  Don also has an impressive body of on-screen work in everything from Kelly's Heroes (1970) to Toy Story (1995). (I'm trying to remember which actor or comedian told some of the most hysterical stories of Don giving DeNiro a hard time on the set of Casino (1995)...I was on the floor laughing.)

And if you want to see Don's stage abilities both with and beyond insults (and see a lot of young celebs of the past)...Please, enjoy the following:

"I musta snorted up Peru..."

Entry two in my "Ode to Comedians" puts the amazing Richard Pryor down on paper.  It was at a Half-Price Books in Dallas, Texas that I plunked down a couple of bucks for a used cassette of Richard's album That N$#%er's Crazy, my first dirty comedy album (It wasn't the first one I'd heard, my sister had let me listen to Sam Kinison's Louder than Hell with her and her friends).  Amazingly, I still have it here somewhere, though, as a very nice parting gift from a show I worked on, they bought me Richard's box set which included the album.

Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was born in Peoria, Illinois in 1940.  After a childhood growing up in his grandmother's brothel and rough early adult life, Richard began his stand-up career in mafia clubs in Youngstown, Ohio before transitioning to New York.  Pryor's early comedy records, though frequently racially charged in content, began to garner him a mainstream audience.  He wrote for several 70's sitcoms, was an early guest on Saturday Night Live, and began regularly appearing in films in both comedic and dramatic roles.  Richard passed away in 2005 of a heart attack after surviving for 20 years with multiple sclerosis.

"You're not a human being...Until You're in my Phonebook."

This week's series: Comedians.  I don't know why...just comedians.  They're a seldom honored group in the art world, and they were the first thing to come to mind.

We'll start with the unfortunately posthumously beloved Bill Hicks.  Born in Georgia, Hicks got his start in the Houston comedy scened of the late 1970's.  Bill's caustically biting satire and social commentary frequently attacked the mediocrity and stupidity of media, pop culture, and modern man.  Bill's popularity in the UK was greater than it was at home during his lifetime.  He succumb to pancreatic cancer at 32.

On a side note, while living in Austin in the 90's, my friends working at Vulcan Video informed me that Bill's homemade comedy movie, Ninja Bachelor Party,  was one of the most frequently stolen films from their collection...along with 1992's Australian skinhead flick Romper Stomper...I'm not sure what to think about that.

"A woman who freely surrenders her lips gives the rest very readily..."

The final in my "Stealing from the Masters" series ends with a depiction of Sir Percival (or Parsifal) from Arthur Hacker's 1894 painting, The Temptation of Sir Percival. Percival was the knight originally most connected with the retrieval of the Holy Grail.

Arthur Hacker (1858-1919) was a British Painter who produced works in classicist, orientalist, and later a Pre-Raphealite/symbolist styles.

(The title quote is from Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval.)

"The Gift of All"

The second in my "stealing from the Masters" series is taken from Jules Joseph Lefebvre's 1882 painting Pandora II.  Pandora was the first women created by the gods as punishment for Prometheus stealing the fire of the gods (anyone looking for an Eve parallel?).  In the original stories, it was a jar not a box that Pandora opened.

Jules Joseph Lefebvre was a long time professor at the Beaux-Arts (teaching some 1500 pupils in his time) and a frequent exhibitor in the Paris Salon.

"Into this Wild Abyss..."

This week's series of sketches are based on artwork pulled at random out of my many reference folders of work.  Plenty of artists and illustrators will tell you that trying to figure out how the best did their work can often improve your own work.

The above is from Alexandere Cabanel's 1868 painting, Fallen Angel. Cabanel (1823-1889) was an academic painter and professor at the École des Beaux-Arts and was frequently elected to the jury of the Paris Salon.  These positions show him as having a hand in steering the direction of fine are during La Belle Époque.

The Odd Weekend Post

I was out the other night, and something possessed me to draw this strange fella.  It seemed as though there was some sort of story behind this scene.  In fact, it came out something like a storyboard.  The funny thin is (and I've been thinking about this quite a bit) is that my two creative sides rarely meet.  I like to write, and I like to draw/paint...but I've never wanted to do comics and I've never really thought of illustrating my work.  In fact, other than the covers I did for my two novels, I've rarely ever tried to put down in ink and a line what any of my characters looked like.  The jury is still out on whether that's a good or bad thing.

"My Name is Beam...Jim Beam..."

The last in my series dedicated to vintage advertising is Sean Connery enjoying a glass of Jim Beam Bourbon...

"Luckies...They Taste Better..."

I don't imagine I have to spell out what today's vintage advert drawing was trying to hawk.

"Women of the Future..."

"...will make the Moon a cleaner place to live."  Thanks Madison Ave.!  This week's theme is vintage advertising.  This one came from a bizarre ad of a bubble-helmeted big lashed beauty holding a bottle of cleaner.  Ah, the future of the past...sexy AND sexist!

I'm a Producer...Of Beautiful Children...

Today sees the final installment of my "pick a random friend and draw them" run for the week.  Today's subject and I have successfully horrified partygoers at a number of social events with our bawdy stories and ribald jokes.

The Light You Make a Left

The second in my "pick a random person out of your friends list" sketch.  Today's subject has been quite supportive or my work, and the arts in general.

The Party at the End of the World

This week's slung ink was themed around choosing random people from my list of friends on the social network that shall not be named.  My first subject has continually nearly been the subject of a painting that I've not quite gotten around to.

In the 31st Century Man finally created a machine...with feelings!

The final quickie for this week of sci-fi cuties comes to a close with the futuristic android from Galaxina (1980).  Whereas I can talk with fond memories of the various times I watched Starcrash or Logan's Run from the previous posts, I've only seen Galaxina once and that was some time ago.  I primarily remember it for the same reason most people do: the unfortunate death of its star Dorothy Stratten who played the titular character.  While the film's largely forgotten outside of cinephile circuits, Stratten had two films based on her life and tragic death.

"There...is...no...Sanctuary."

Today's quickie was modeled after the lovely Jenny Agutter as Jessica 6 from 1976's Logan's Run.  Based on the 1967 novel, Logan's Run depicts a dystopian future where citizens willingly turn themselves in to die at 30 (21 in the book), and if they do not, they are hunted by the fearsome Sandmen.  Agutter began her career as a child actress, and is perhaps best known for her roles in Logan's Run, Walkabout (1971), and Equus (1977).

"Computer! Stop the flow of time!"

This week, by strange coincidence, turned out to be dedicated to some lovely ladies from sci-fi.  We kick things off with a quickie from a goofy favorite of mine, Luigi Cozzi's nonsensical Star Wars knock-off, Starcrash (1978), which featured the lovely Caroline Munro.  Munro, a successful model, never quite got beyond the arm candy parts she was offered in her film career despite being both a Bond girl and a regular at Hammer studios.  She was the lead in Cozzi's bizarro space opera alongside a very young Hasselhoff and a seemingly embarrassed Christopher Plummer...oh, and former child preacher, Marjoe Gortner.  And as I can't help but mention: how can you not love a movie with a villain named Zarth Arn?

"Those Who Live, Live Off the Dead."

To get back in the swing of things after then holiday, I was looking for something interesting for a quick sketch and came across this classic photo by Man Ray of Theatre of Cruelty founder, Antonin Artaud.  I'll admit that apart from dabbling in some of his writing, I don't know much about this legendary creator in avant garde theater.  Still, the portrait was a striking one, and I couldn't help but try to set something down in ink.  The nose, however, threw me off and I'm afraid the lower part of his face juts out farther than I intended...but I was pleased enough with the results that I present it, despite its faults.

An Amazing Gift...

For my birthday last month, I was treated to an extraordinary gift.  Two friends had gone to the estate sale of an architect and secured for me a parcel of vintage drawing goodies.  You wouldn't think that simple rolled tidbits of metal like nibs could have actually been better manufactured way back whenever, but they were.  Naturally, it took a bit after the wild time that was my birthday (evidence of which can be witnessed here... ) before I got to take them for a test drive, but the above was the first quick quickie I hashed out with my new toys.

"The trouble is we're neglecting football for education..."

Happy New Year, everyone!  It appears to be time to climb back in the saddle and get off and running with some artwork.  The above illustration was done as a Christmas gift for a relation's office/study/den room.  My mother had suggested something to do with sport, and I've always enjoyed the old uniforms of the early years of football.  I must also admit that I was also inspired in part by the sports work of my drinking and drawing buddy, Dave Crosland (Some of Dave's sports illustration can be seen...Here.) 

I should also mention that today's title is from the Marx Brothers hilarious collegiate comedy, Horse Feathers (1932), which features one of the best football game closers ever...certainly of the "leatherhead" era anyhow.

The Faerie Folk

As my last post before taking a holiday break, I figured I'd put up the latest of my paint splashes on paper.  Inspired in thought if not in execution by the images of wee ones and fairie folks by the likes of Henry Fuseli and Sir Joseph Paton, here's my take on tiny nature spirit.  Not very natural, eh?  Happy Holidays everyone.

The Fire Set Off By Franz...

This quickie was based on an interesting photo I saw of two Austrian soldiers sitting on a giant piece of artillery from the first World War.

[Insert Provocative Italian Thriller Title Here]

With titles like Twitch of the Death Nerve, Black Belly of the Tarantula, and The Bloodstained Butterfly, Italian thrillers of the late 60's and early 70's provide a bevy of beautiful women and shocking images.  Anyhow, this attempt at a stylish quickie again features crowd favorite Edwige Fenech...and again, I got Romero's run of Modesty Blaise at the back of my mind. Oh, and since I brought it up...I believe this was from a film titled Strip Nude for Your Killer (which wasn't nearly as stripped nude as the title implies...still not a good one to put on for Mom & Dad...)

Five in One...One in Five

Today's sketch is from a marred statue believed to be of the Roman emperor, Pertinax.  Pertinax was a high-ranking military and senatorial figure when he took the purple, but when he tried to reign in the excesses of the Praetorian guard following the crazed and destructive reign of Commodus...they, uh...had him killed.  This sparked off a power play that saw five emperors come and go in a single year until things finally settled down under Septimius Severus.  It was during some research that I came across the image on which this is based and loved the Jonah Hex-esque maiming of the marble figure's features.

Works on Paper...

I was having such a good time with a painted collaboration I did on this paper with Jason Shawn Alexander (he's gotta new book coming...read about it here!) that I decided to do another quick painting on it.  The choice of imagery corresponds to a new writing project I'm playing around with and who knows, this might come out as the cover some day in the future.  Anyhow, figured since I was 2 for 3 on paint, I'd just finish out the week the same way.

Concerned...

A second recently finished portrait that was a further experiment in the various chemicals and mediums one can mix into the paint.

The USS Whiskey-Vodka....

The subject of this portrait finally got to see himself painted, and so now, I felt it fair to present it to the public. While I wasn't trying to imitate some of the classics painters of portrait art (ie. Sargent, et al.), I'll admit that I gave them a fair combing over before I got started on this one.  I also employed some of the more traditional techniques...and well...there's a reason they're traditional, they work. My only regret is that some of the light iridescence I mixed in the paint doesn't show up in photos. I must also thank fantastic artist-illustrator Dave Crosland for some helpful hints on the chemicals I could add to get more of what I wanted out of the paint.

The Dapper Mr. Hyde...

I feel a bit bad about this quickie...this gentleman, who I believe might be royal family from way back when, became a hair more grotesque with my rendering.  Now, I could've just hidden that fact, and driven straight to Robert Louis Stevenson Tribute City...but, I believe in honesty.  Anyhow, he's not half bad I don't think.

"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...).