THE GOODS

GHOST RIDER, P'GELL, JOHNNY ALPHA & Andrea

2012-02-18T00:41:00.002-05:00

JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS, DMZ, OINK!, THE PSYCHO and THE CROW

2012-02-11T21:15:00.002-05:00

THE CREATURE AND THE ORCHID

2012-01-31T22:12:00.003-05:00

The Gill-Man hisownself climbing up from the Black Lagoon. Pencil on cardboard.

The Gaiman/McKean version of the Black Orchid. Ballpoint on cardboard.

MEPHISTO IN GRAPHITE

2012-01-27T02:03:00.003-05:00

Marvel's very own Old Scratch... Mephisto.
(click to enlarge)

Probably one of my favorite sketches of my own, even though I'm trying my damnedest to evoke Buscema. If you don't think to yourself: How would Buscema draw Mephisto when you're trying to draw Mephisto, you are beyond help. He literally wrote the book on drawing Mephisto. And nobody, but nobody drew a villain sitting better or more interestingly.

SOLOMON KANE, FIN FANG FOOM & LIBERTY MEADOWS?

2012-01-27T01:56:00.002-05:00

The Puritan purifier of evil...

Marvel's dragon of dragons...

The cheesecake in that slice of comedy pie...

ELEMENTALS & SWAMP THINGS

2012-01-18T00:44:00.002-05:00

Above, it's Bill Willingham's classic supergroup The Elementals, a damn fine comic that fought the good fight.

Above we have Jason Voorhees used because it was Friday the 13th against the mysterious Man-Thing.

Click the images if you'd like a closer look.

MASKED PRINCESS MONONOKE

2012-01-13T18:23:00.002-05:00

A color study of a Masked Mononoke (click to enlarge).

LOKI LOSES HIS HEAD

2012-01-12T20:14:00.003-05:00

Easily one of my favorite scenes featuring Loki is when Balder, having been tortured by Loki, finally loses it and decapitates the mischief god. And, after a beat, the body of Loki casually walks over to his head and sets it right back on his shoulders. All while he chides Balder for the attempted murder.

B.P.R.D. Agent Tobias Morrell and the Red Rage

2012-01-09T00:20:00.002-05:00

B.P.R.D. Agent Tobias "Toby" Morrell is a typical field agent of the bureau who specializes in hoodoo a.k.a. voodoo. Tobias grew up surrounded by practicing witchdoctors and learned their ways early in life. While not a practicing witchdoctor himself, he can summon up the spirits and manipulate them if need be. Tobias knows there can be a great cost for asking favors of the gods, so he usually makes sure he exhausts all earthly means before resorting to such things.

This is Red Rage, the result of the alien symbiote Carnage taking over Frank Castle, the Punisher. Done for the Daily Sketch Challenge Group over at DeviantArt.

Click to embiggen artwork.

THIS WEEK IN SKETCHES

2012-01-05T20:34:00.003-05:00

End of Year Sketches

2012-01-01T20:32:00.003-05:00

Some digital sketches from the end of the year that I had neglected to post and so now we clean out the trash (don't' forget to click to embiggen:

THE YEAR IN FILM: 2011

2012-01-01T00:00:00.005-05:00

Now it can be told. The full and complete listing of the movies I caught at the local theaters or on DVD/Netflix that were new to the year of 2011 are as follows:

Ahem, well, let's start with my own personal TOP 7, shall we? Why only seven? 'Cause "the Man" wouldn't give a brother ten! (Hey a Nat X reference!)

In no particular order (or are they?):

The Tree of Life -- Now here is a film that takes it’s story and visuals both seriously, a movie that runs long, but doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. Terrence Malick’s essay on life and it’s meaning if any can be extracted from it is very impressionistic. He flows back and forth between character points of view seemlessly in a dreamlike look back at events that shape all involved. The main focus of this film is a small town family fathered by Brad Pitt’s character, mothered by Jessica Chastain and is rounded out by their three boys. But the movie also goes into a little bit of life of all kinds and how the world is around us. It’s a hard to explain film as it skips around, backward and forward--telling the story one bit at a time. It may not have all the answers about life and how to live it, but it certainly gives it a long hard look. A fine piece of filmmaking: A+

Crazy Stupid Love -- An excellent movie featuring Steve Carrell in one of his best roles, that of a husband who is shocked when his wife suddenly dumps him on the way home from dinner one night and the insane journey he goes on to win her back. It also features, Ryan Gossling in a great turn as a man-about-town who teaches the befuddled Carrell how to make moves in the dating world of today. Emma Stone is great as a young woman who winds up falling for Gossling’s character. And there are other twists and turns in this tale of many loves all bound together. You can’t go wrong with this movie: A

Super 8 -- The most nostalgic film of the year. It informs the viewer of what it was like to be a young boy in the late ‘70s coming of age. Add to that a huge railroad accident that nearly kills the young cast and throws the whole town into chaos and happens to deliver a horrible mystery directly into the middle of town. As the military swarms and the kids work to uncover the mystery, we learn just how big the secret onboard that train is and we learn just how far they will go to cover it up. With elements of E.T., THE GOONIES and THE BREAKFAST CLUB, this film manages to stay serious and dangerous the whole way through--all the while keeping the characters true to life. A fine piece of film making and one that should appeal to all: A

Drive -- Ryan Gossling is tightly bound up in his role as a driver for hire for all kinds of criminal activity. His singular focus on getting his job done to exacting standards is ideal for a wheel man and he clearly knows his thing. Doesn't help him when the shit hits the fan as it does and he gets caught up on the wrong side of the real bad guys. The film itself is a by the numbers, just the facts kind of film that feels like a B-movie. But this B-movie has such a slick style that one can tell it's going places. A fine example of less being more, this film certainly leaves you wanting more: A

Bridesmaids -- Kristin Wiig is one hell of a comedian and has proved her worth countless times on SNL and in several cameo roles in films. Here Wiig carries a feature length comedy about a friend of a soon-to-be-married woman trying to cope with her single life of being out of work and without someone to share her future with. A future which is looking bleaker by the moment. Enter the hijinks stage left and you have one of the best comedies in years. All of the chracters live and breathe, they are fully realized in that they have reasons for doing what they do. A fine effort: A-

Insidious -- Easily the best horror movie of the year, one of the best movies of this year as well. And it does it all with very little in the way of visual FX. Lots of well placed props and actors, lots of good editing and cutting to give a sense of the fear of the characters. Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson make this story very believable--their characters having gone through an emotional rollercoaster over the course of the film. And this haunting tale has a few twists that put it out in front of its competitors all the while, it doesn’t go over the top into madness. One just wishes that were the case: A-

50/50 -- Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a young writer who discovers one day that he has a very rare form of cancer that has a 50/50 % chance of being fatal. His best friend, played manically by Seth Rogen, takes it upon himself to help out. What follows is some of Gordon-Levitt’s best, most subtle work in a film that is both reflective of everyday life and the struggle life becomes when it is all about survival. One of this years best pictures: A-

The following are the other films I saw this year, in pretty-much the order I saw them in. I saw many more than I remembered when thinking back--I guess the year was longer than I thought...

The Fighter -- Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale play Boston area boxing brothers in this gritty true story based drama. Christian Bale certainly earned his oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Heavy handed at times, the story did seem to come together nicely for a very good viewing on my part--even if it’s a tried and true story: B+

The Green Hornet -- Seth Rogan and pals decided to take a serious character and premise and make a comedy with action elements. Kato rules, the Hornet drools and the potential for a great franchise dries up. The action elements, especially when Kato does his thing are worth watching. The comedy is well placed and funny--it’s just that the mix doesn’t quite get there: B-

Solomon Kane -- Had to catch this one on DVD as it has yet to be released here in the states. Based on the stories of Robert E. Howard, Solomon Kane is the story of a sinner turned born again fanatic and his battle with the devil in all his many forms. While not a great film, it certainly does it’s job in delivering some good characterization and nifty action sequences: B

The Dilemma -- Normally Vince Vaughn is money. Money in the bank with me anyway--his high energy and quick wit usually find me laughing harder than at the written material. But this movie, featuring Vaughn stuck with the problem of knowing that his best friend’s girl is untrue and being blackmailed by her into not telling him seemed too low energy for Vaughn and his best buddy played by the usually hilarious Kevin James. Watch WEDDING CRASHERS and THE KING OF QUEENS instead: D+

Cyrus -- Jonah Hill is Marisa Tomei’s overly clingy college-aged-son and John C. Reilly is her new potential boyfriend. The guys vow to destroy one another and thus begins a neat idea for a comedy--only it doesn’t get funny. It gets a bit serious, in fact, and if the ads for it indicated this one might be prepared for it and like it. But noooo…: C-

The Eagle -- A kind of fable about a large empire occupying a country that doesn’t want to be occupied and how they resist the occupiers and how the empire’s forces are changed, diminished and affected because of their job. Set in Roman occupied Britain and featuring the son of a great warrior of the empire trying to restore his father’s name. A pretty decent classic story buried in some preachiness: C+

Hall Pass -- Two married guys get a free pass from their wives to live life as if they were single again for a week. What follows is humorous, but not as humorous as it should/could be. It turns out these guys are more real in that they actually love their wives and are both prettymuch full of hot air. Interesting, but not terribly funny: C

Never Let Me Go -- is one of those science fiction stories that is a bit ashamed to be a SF story. It is a pretty good melodrama about a group of kids who grow up in an institution that grooms them for a certain purpose in society. I won’t say more beyond that it is well acted, a bit boring at times and kind of tragic--just like life: B

Adjustment Bureau -- Matt Damon plays an ambitious politician in love with a dancer whom he met briefly one night. He goes on to pursue her, but is contacted by a group of “adjusters” who tell him that their relationship was not meant to be. Based in part on a Phillip K. Dick story, the Adjustment Bureau is there to make sure fate’s hand moves in certain directions so that certain outcomes take place. Well acted and directed, we find out if true love can overcome the hand of fate: B+

Take Me Home Tonight -- Topher Grace and his talented fellow cast members take this run of the mill comedy tribute to ‘80s John Hughes films above the material they had to work with. By no means a great film, but a great one to look back at that time period through. Fun stuff: B

Battle L.A. -- A bare-bones introduction tells the story of an old Marine on the way out having his unit drawn into defending Los Angeles from an alien invasion. Crisp, taut action sequences, a sizable sense of being overwhelmed and good acting lift this SF/action flick to a higher level. It’s called “Battle: Los Angeles”, people, you get what they advertise: B

Paul -- Two British geeks are driving through the desert southwest on their way to Area 51 when they meet up with an actual alien by the name of Paul. Paul is on the run from a group of government people. They live, they laugh, etc. Funny enough, but it’s no SHAUN OF THE DEAD or even HOT FUZZ: B-

Buried -- Ryan Reynolds stars in this suspensful one-man show about a U.S. contractor working in Iraq driving trucks who wakes up in a box buried under the sand. There’s a cell phone and a demand for ransom he’s running out of air and patience. A well made, if somewhat limited thrill ride. It gets a bit repetitive at times, but it’s some of Reynold’s best work: B

Sucker Punch -- Eye candy with a plot that goes basically in a circle, much like a serpent eating it’s own tail. Beautiful to watch, hurtful of lovers of plot and meaning. Like a video game in plot depth and visual depth, frustrating: D-

Despicable Me -- Super villain as the good guy on a learning curve. Neat visuals make this otherwise tame animated feature viewable: C+

Defendor -- Woody Harrelson as probably the most realistic take on the regular guy trying to be a superhero schtick. He’s a resourceful mentally challenged guy who really wants to clean up the streets. Ah, but he’s got that problem of not being there in the head. An okay story with a few good twists: B-

Your Highness -- This one is reaching for one part PRINCESS BRIDE and one part UP IN SMOKE, but it doesn’t quite get there despite great casting that includes Zoe Deshanel, Danny McBride, Natalie Portman and James Franco. It would have been much funnier had McBride’s character stayed the same petulant, wimpy, ass the whole time, so instead of the one valiant brother outshining the other in many ways they get serious about being good to one another (not as funny!): B-

Hanna -- A fun and thrilling techno-thriller focusing on a young woman on the run against overwhelming odds. Twists, turns and quirky characters throughout. Hanna is like a samurai sword cutting through it all: B+

Skyline -- Think BATTLE: LOS ANGELES minus the well directed action, plot or likable characters. Meh: F

Dylan Dog -- Take the actor who played Superman last and cast him in a pretty nice comic book based film about a detective living in a hidden world of the supernatural and you have a movie that tries very hard to be Hellboy. Only without the charm, directing, effects or acting of Hellboy: D

Thor -- Here’s where we’re going to see a mix of feelings. You see, I’m a crazy big Thor fan and I cannot stress how cautiously pessimistic I was when I went to see this opening weekend. I was so intent on holding back my reactions to everything that I ended up numbing myself. When I went to see it the following week I was able to watch it with a more open perspective and enjoyed it even more than the first time. It is as if some of this movie were cut from Stan and Jack’s panels (when Thor wonders at the strangeness of the simplist Earth things, I always flashback to Thor sitting in a malt shop sipping on a milkshake with amazement from the comic). But then there are those changes that are made seemingly only to suit the non-comic fan, the fan that might be offended when these larger than life characters are referred to as gods. Jack and Stan’s Thor was very certainly a GOD and not only was he a god, he was the son of the Allfather, the god of gods in his pantheon. But that takes us from the movie as whole and I should concentrate my efforts there. It was an action packed spectacular with wonderous settings and powerful characters and it was fun and dramatic and all, but it felt too short. It seemed as if it could’ve used a more expansive introduction. That could just be the Thor fan in me thinking: B+

Hobo with a Shotgun -- Rutger Hauer as a shotgun wielding homeless man with a need for gunship diplomacy? Sign me up! It is one of the movies that brings you back to the days of the grindhouse, where it was all about getting the next cheapo film out there and get it out there fast. This movie answered a question I’ve long had about hobos: what do hobos yearn for and apparently it’s their very own lawnmower--at least that was Rutger’s idea of independence. When the leader of a criminal empire destroys his dream, Rutger gets a shotgun instead and then the world begins to change: B

Hangover II -- Just rent The Hangover again and imagine a monkey instead of a lion--and the laughs are more sparse this time out: C

The American -- A nifty bit of espionage set in Europe involving George Clooney who finds himself very much on the short end of the stick as it appears his own agency is out to get him. A really taut piece of filmmaking, sparsely acted and well told. Definitely worth seeking out: B+

Black Death -- Sean Bean plays the leader of a band of Crusaders leading a young monk to discover the truth about a place that in the midst of the Bubonic Plague seems to be returning it’s dead from the ground. A solid watch that doesn’t swing too far out there for cheap thrills or shocks. An interesting film that features a bit more religious philosphy than one would expect: B

The Lost -- Based on a novel by Jack Ketchum, the lost is the story of a young pschopath named Ray who, having killed two young women one day at a campground, is now being pressed by the two local cops who know he is responsible, but didn’t have the evidence to prove it. Not a bad B-grade thriller that takes a long and winding road to get to the point: B-

I Spit on Your Grave -- A remake of probably one of the most controversial B-movies ever made. A severe tale of revenge, this story is all about what happens to hicks who attack the wrong woman and let her live. All manner of horrible fates await these psychos as the girl gets creative. I saw the original film when I was but a wee boy, so I can’t say that it was a classic or anything or even if it was well acted. I do know that it was disturbing. This one, not quite as much. But that could just be me: C

American: The Bill Hicks Story -- For those who don’t know, Bill Hicks was probably the best comedian of his time. As thoughtful as Stephen Wright, as angry as Sam Kinison, as profane as they come. But he was struck down with cancer in the prime of his career and so there’s the rub. This is the documentary (there’ve been a few) about what made him the comedian he had become by the time of his passing. Informative, very funny and a bit sad. But not very sad, the guy wouldn’t have that: B+

Kind of a Funny Story -- A depressed teen checks himself into a psychatric ward and meets the very interesting residents there. In so doing, he learns how to better deal with his own problems. Good script, well acted--truly kind of a funny story: B+

Green Lantern -- Ryan Reynolds plays test pilot Hal Jordan who is granted an alien power ring with amazing powers with which he is to keep peace in his sector of the universe. Through many trials and tribulations, the pilot overcomes his faults and saves the day. A pretty straight forward tale of hero versus villain that could’ve used some sprucing up with more character development and less alien politics: A bit too ambitious: B-

Kung Fu Panda 2 -- See Kung Fu Panda the first and enjoy. So, so: B

Triangle -- Out on a short (3 hour?) cruise with friends when their boat crosses bows with a seemingly abandoned oceanliner from another era. The Twilight Zone theme cues. That’s when things get really weird and people start turning on one another and turning up dead. Can they solve the mystery before they all wind up dead (again)? Dark and haunting, but not quite all there: B

Bad Teacher -- A waste of a few really good comedic talents, but not a complete waste. They really make it easy to cheer against Cameron Diaz who plays a horrible person, let alone teacher. Sure, she eventually turns for the better, but not enough to matter much. Jason Segel is the most likable of these teachers and if the movie were told from his character’s POV then it could’ve been quite a hoot. But noooo: D

Perfect Host -- A criminal on the run from a botched robbery cons his way into the house of the wrong psycho. David Hyde Pierce plays that psycho perfectly. What follows is not all-together real. Much of it is from the delusional point of view of Pierce’s character--so funny strange. Several twists and turns make one wonder which way is up or down, but in the end you arrive at your desitnation. A neat idea that gets caught up in it’s own illusions: C+

Horrible Bosses -- Great premise, fine actors in roles that suit them and yet this one doesn’t quite fire on all cynlinders. It gets close enough, mind you, but not full on bust a gut funny. These three guys who are best friends try to hire a professional to aid them in getting rid of their bosses and mistakenly pick Jamie Fox, who is neither a professional, nor a killer. A fun rental: B-

Company Men -- A really solid tale of the times we live in as the job market crumbles and companies are too afraid to invest in the American worker and banks are too afraid to bank on the American business. Ben Affleck is very good as a man who is laid off and has to deal with these new harsh realities. Others do too. Well made: B+

Wake Wood -- Now that Hammer is back making horror pictures, it’ll be nice to see if the quality that was found in their first (LET ME IN) will hold true for the future. With WAKE WOOD, I believe it has. A couple, having lost their only child, move to rural Wake Wood to start over. Before they know it they find themselves with the opportunity to have three more days with their dead daughter, Alice. They cannot pass up this opportunity to have their little girl back, even if only for a little while. Something goes horribly wrong. A fine little supernatural thriller: B+

Captain America -- You know how some movies linger and seem to love the look of themselves in the mirror, well it’s a shame this one didn’t linger. It left me wanting more, so much more of Cap and Buck kicking Nazi butt in the war. But that gets onto one of my only real two qualms with the film and that is leaving out the Nazis and their propaganda. It really was all over the front, so we should’ve seen more evidence of their evil. I know you’re trying to sell toys and market in Europe, but don’t whitewash the reason Cap sprang into action in the first place. (The other qualm was about Cap getting involved in selling war bonds) Anyway, what is on the screen is fun and well done and fantastic at times, but it leaves us unsatisfied and that’s because it was so good. This one I watched multiple times-- very powerful in the mighty Marvel manner: A-

Cowboys vs Aliens -- If there was a pairing in the movies that we hadn’t seen enough of over the last 30 years it was these two and who better to bring them together than Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford? Craig plays a man without any memories and a strange alien device strapped to his wrist. Ford plays a seemingly ruthless rancher who is investigating the disappearance of a whole mess of cows. A pretty by the numbers flick that does it’s job pretty well: B

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 -- As a finale to a series that began with “the boy who lived”, this one ends up with a young man who very much died and returned to live a very muggled adulthood. This is one of the few series that I dutifully watched with my nephew and it did get better with each part until the end. Still, not a series of films I’d have began on my own, but one that won me over over the years bit by bit: B+

Rise of the Planet of the Apes -- Went to see this one with a big chip (not chimp) on my shoulder about what I had seen in the trailer, but wanted to give it a peek as I had heard good things about Mr. Serkis’ performance as Caesar, an ape that has been enhanced via a drug that James Franco’s character has developed for the purposes of fighting Alzheimer’s disease. The life journey this ape goes on is compelling--how he is rejected by his fellow ape and knows enough that he is treated like a pet. His frustration grows until there’s an incident where he is forced to go live among other apes in an abusive “pen”. And thus is the beginning of the “rise”. A surprisingly smart and effectively told tale (and Serkis deserves a nomination): A-

30 Minutes or Less -- A buddy comedy about a teacher, Aziz Ansari in one of his less annoying roles, and a pizza delivery guy, Jesse Eisenberg, who get caught up in a murder for hire/blackmail scheme with Danny McBride and Nick Swardson in the role of criminal masterminds. Fairly funny stuff, but not as funny as it should have been. Again, it has it’s moments, but doesn’t get to live past the gong: C-

Fright Night -- Let me be the first to say that this is another in a very long list of films that did NOT need to be remade. The original is brilliant on all levels and probably the best horror/comedy made in the last 40 years. Neverthelese, the cast and crew on this remake did their work and made a very good and frightening horror film with a little comedy in it. Not sure that it functions fully as a comedy like the original did, though. Colin Farrell is the new neighbor who Anton Yelchin begins to suspect of evil deeds, even if he doesn’t believe his best friend when he flat out tells him that the guy is a vampire. Former Doctor Who, David Tennant is excellent as an overly dramatic, Chris Angel-like magician whom Charley (Anton Yelchin) comes to for help against his very vampy neighbor. It works, it still works even though it wasn’t necessary: B+

Lincoln Lawyer -- Matthew McCanaughey plays Mick Haller, a lawyer who does business out of the back of a car, a Lincoln, as a matter of fact. He represents a very wealthy and influential client who may not be guilty of the crime he’s accused of, but is definitely guilty of many others. This is the delima for a lawyer down on his luck, what to do ethically, legally and what will allow him to survive the ordeal. A nicely wound thriller with good work by McCanaughey, Tomei and Ryan Phillippe as the evil client: B

Limitless -- What if you could become potentially limitless as a human being--meaning that your brain would work at maximum capacity and all you had to do was take a pill? Would you do it? This is the story of Eddie Morra played by Bradley Cooper, who decides to take the pill and see what happens. And what happens when others find out about this “magic” pill…? It’s worth a look: B+

My Idiot Brother -- As great as the whole cast in this film about a family of sisters and their brother who can’t seem to stop innocently getting into trouble is (Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Rashida Jones and Emily Mortimer head up the cast), they can’t seem to get this comedy off the ground very far. C+

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark -- In the hopes that Guillemro dfel Toro’s hand was more heavy in this picture, I caught this one. Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce play a couple moving in to an ancient mansion, all the while preparing for a big dinner party in the days to come. Unexpectedly, Guy’s daughter arrives, played well by Bailee Madison, and is going through stress involving her parents’ break up. That’s when these creatures begin to make their deadly move: B

Creature --In the back country of Louisiana, a group of friends get caught up with a local legend that involves family drama and a swamp monster. What follows is part Texas Chainsaw and part Creature from the Black Lagoon. Better than expected, as “B” a movie as you’ll find, but with an ending that will leave you wondering why they made it happen like that: C+

Contagion -- A world-wide thriller about the threat posed by pandemic outbreak and how the world could react to it or should react to it. I call it a procedural drama as it doesn’t really spend enough time emotionally with the families affected, but is more concerned with the bigger picture of the pandemic as a whole. Fascinating, but a wee bit cold, Mr. Soderbergh: B+

Unknown -- Liam Neesen is a man who awakens from a coma to learn that the life he remembered to be his own, is considered a lie by the rest of the world--even his own wife. A by the numbers piece of action/thriller: B-

Straw Dogs -- If you’ll recall my rant about Fright Night, there are some movies that just don’t need to be remade. Dustin Hoffman starred in a perfectly good original of this film many years ago. It was powerful. While this film touches on quite a lot of the themes from the original film, it doesn’t have the element that I thought made the original outstanding and that is the foriegn element which worked so well originally. Not a bad remake, but unnecessary: B-

The Thing -- Did I mention something about remakes? Sure I did. Well anyway, as much as this one looks like a remake, quacks like a remake and flaps it’s wings like a remake, it’s actually supposed to be a prequel. In that case, I tried my damnedest to think of it as a stand-alone monster movie and I pretty-much didn’t get far because the similarities are too--similar. So, because of that, it’s not a bad picture, just derivitive: B-

Stake Land -- Take Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD, mature the child and throw in a world full of vampires and zombie types and you have what Stake Land tries to be or, more precisely take ZOMBIELAND and make it pure horror/drama and you have STAKE LAND. Well told horror genre stuff on a surprisingly low budget. Worth seeking out for the thrill alone: B+

Paranormal Activity 3 -- When one puts children in danger in a work of fiction it is usually considered a cheap way to scare the audience, gain their sympathy and manipulate them. With this movie, I disagree with that premise as we who have seen the quite good first two films in this saga know that the children in this film will survive whatever happens here to move on and suffer terrible fates as adults. What really works here is how we finally get to see the depth of the madness behind the horror of the following two. It is remarkable that it has worked this well for this long. Not as good as the previous visits to attempted Blair Witch-dom, but well worth a stay: B

A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas --With this visit to the White Castle that is the Harold & Kumar genre, I daresay we’ve made one too many trips through the drive-thru. But I can’t say for certain because I slept through this picture. Which says it all, I guess: C-

Everything Must Go -- Will Ferrell is good as a mid-life-crisis suffering alcoholic husband of a woman who is done with him and a worker at a business that has fired him. He comes home to find himself locked out of his house without a key and all of his posessions are on the lawn. He tries desperately to cling to his things and home and even his wife and job. None of the above are having him. Lessons slowly begin to be learned in this slow moving mind: B-

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows -- Take the story and plot away from the original film in this “series” and you have what you have in this movie: a great pair of actors without much to do beyond running in slow motion. At least Moriarty plays a big part in this one: B-

Young Adult -- Charlize Theron is out for her high school sweetheart in a bad way--really bad. She’s willing to throw his wife and newborn sun under the proverbial bus to get him. Her one-track mind comes screaming back into her tiny hometown to do that very thing, when she runs into another former classmate at a local dive bar. Patton Oswalt is the high school reject who happened to have the locker next to hers and though she doesn’t really remember him, they strike up a kind of friendship. What follows is a series of revelations that explain her behavior. In a very real way, Theron’s character has remained trapped in that bubble of high school glory--afraid to move on for fear of failure. Nice work on account of all and entertaining to watch: B+

Melancholia -- A beautifully shot and not so easy to watch melodrama about a bride (Kirsten Dunst) who suffers from what can only be described as severe bouts of depression and melancholy is what the first half of this film is about. It is well acted, it is, however, a mess of a story that goes ‘round in circles of the same tedium of the family and friends having to deal with Dunst’s character who is a deeply troubled woman. The second half seems to be concentrating on how these people react to a celestial event involving a runaway planet that will pass very closely by the Earth. What the two have in common is, I guess, how alike the bride and planet are. They all have to suffer through them both, regardless of their own wishes. A very long movie that is a well-acted mess: D+

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo -- While a damn fine film with powerful characters in dynamic situations, of David Fincher’s films, it doesn’t compare to his best. But that says a lot as I hold Fincher’s talent in the very high regard. A disgraced Journalist gets help in his search for a young woman who has been missing for several decades by Lisbeth Salander, a young hacker/investigator. In full disclosure, have yet to read the novel or see the original film, but because of this film I will seek them out. Fine story, neat characters and that’s all one needs of it’s filmmakers: A-

AMBASSADOR OF PEACE & SISTERHOOD/FIGHTER FOR TRUTH & JUSTICE

2011-12-25T18:04:00.002-05:00

(Click to blow up to actual size)
Above a blue line sketch of the Golden Age Wonder Woman--I don't know why, but I love her in a skirt.

Below is a ballpoint pen sketch of Tonto, the Lone Ranger's partner. I aged him a bit for this one--in my mind he's still out there in the old west righting wrongs and helping out his Kemosabe!

(Click to embiggen)

CHEWBACCA versus DARTH VADER

2011-12-24T02:56:00.002-05:00

Think about how short this series could've been had only Chewy gotten his mitts on Darth Vader...

This time of year also brings me back to that Chewbacca Christmas Special... and then my brain begs me to quit.

Dr. Watson Investigates/Samwise on Watch/Porky in Space

2011-12-23T18:29:00.002-05:00

COAST TO COAST NO MORE

2011-12-23T03:18:00.003-05:00

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Guess I'd almost forgotten to post this one. Love the old school animated characters and when I was asked to sketch Space Ghost, I couldn't help but smile. And then I started drawing him and realized how great and simple his design was. Props to the main man Alex Toth for designing him right.

CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE BOY COMMANDOS

2011-12-22T10:21:00.003-05:00

Joe Simon passed away last week at the age of 98. Joe was one of the true legends in the comic book industry--co-creator of one of the biggest fictional characters ever created for comics, Captain America. Like Will Eisner, he was one of only a few on the talent side of the business who knew about how the business side worked and so he was innovative in that regard. Mr. Simon also created many other characters of note and they are the original Vision, The Boy Commandos, Blue Bolt, Brother Power the Geek, Fighting American, The Fly, Prez, Newsboy Legion, Guardian and, of course, The Red Skull.

In honor of Joe's passing, I sketched up a few tributes to the old soldier... rest in peace, Joe.

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THESE NEW GODS OF JACK'S

2011-12-17T02:48:00.003-05:00

The above is a week's worth of Daily Sketch Challenges from OUTCAST STUDIOS--great fun practicing on some of Jack Kirby's most interesting DC creations.

THE DAYS ARE JUST PACKED

2011-12-12T03:01:00.004-05:00

Always loved that title for a CALVIN & HOBBES collection--it implies so much about how big a single day could be when you are a kid. And CALVIN & HOBBES is all about being a kid. Bill Watterson is a genius humorist and cartoonist. And that was what took his strip far above and beyond the other strips of its day--it was great all around. Whereas you'll have one strip look good artistically, it didn't have it when it came to the writing and vice versa when it came to art--in Watterson's strip you find the perfect combination of a cartoonist at the peak of his powers artistically and as a writer.

And so I dreaded it when the challenge came forth to draw these characters. I couldn't settle on the sketch I wanted to do... so I wound up doing a study of one of his strips and panel from a scene in which Hobbes stalks Calvin like the red-blooded jungle cat that he is...

(Click to Enlarge)

RED, RED, RED

2011-12-11T01:22:00.003-05:00

Came up with the idea for this sketch the other night and it just flowed out fairly easily. Tells the picture story as they say...

WHAT IF SOLOMON GRUNDY...?

2011-12-10T02:32:00.003-05:00

(Click for a closer look)

Another DSC--this one my own weekend challenge for members who thought DC really missed out by not including a particular title in their new DCU 52 titles. "GRUNDY" was my idea. I don't really think he could cary a regular title for long, but in this "what if" world, I thought what the heck!

THAT ROBIN GIRL, CARRIE KELLY

2011-12-10T02:20:00.004-05:00

(Click for a closer look!)

A digital sketch, this one done for the Daily Sketch Challenge from my Outcast Studios pals over at DeviantArt. Easily my second favorite Robin... and she's a... brace yourself... GIRL!

For someone who some think of as a sexist in the way he portrays women, I've always thought that Frank Miller just happened to portray his women like the men in his comics--equally. Besides, he's created some of the best female characters in comics history in Elektra and Martha Washington. But that's a discussion for another day.

Floating Vision

2011-12-09T02:36:00.002-05:00

The Vision is one of those characters who different people react to very differently. I happen to love the character and his classic look, so when it came time to sketch him I went with that.

That Rasputin Boy

2011-12-09T02:15:00.002-05:00

Just thought I'd drop a line and update you folks as to what's been occupying my illustrative mind of late...

Collaborated with Mr. Chris Williams AKA Furious Nick on this here Colossus drawing. He did the pencils and I did the inks (my usual best to copy what the three best Colossus artists did to portray him and they were Cockrum, Byrne and Smith). Turned out okay...

BLACK CATS AND WIDOWS

2011-11-30T22:51:00.003-05:00

...AND ANOTHER THING...!

2011-11-26T01:08:00.004-05:00

A commission for my pal Andrew, he loves the Thing and I love to draw the Thing almost as much. I was very tentative with this one (as I usually am when doing work for hire) and wanted to get Ben's look just right. The rocky texture of his is always fun to draw, but there is a method to the freehand one uses when drawing it. Started out with blue line pencils, worked up through pencils, ink and brush, markers and even some white ink for emphasis on the smoke.

007 JAMES BOND in WHEN ALL IS LOST

2011-11-13T00:35:00.004-05:00

Had a "Design a James Bond movie poster" challenge the other day and this is what I came up with as my own personal "What If?" for James Bond... click it for a better look at the credits...

A HAINT IN THE HALL/POWER GIRL STANDING TALL

2011-11-10T01:14:00.003-05:00

This first one may be too hard for you to see depending on the brightness of your computer, embiggen to get a better look.

Power Girl drawn for the Daily Sketch Challenge...

DIGITAL DOODLING & TRADITIONAL TRACING

2011-11-06T01:38:00.002-04:00

Henry "Hank" McCoy, AKA The Bouncing Beast!

The character Thorgal from the comic book of the same name out of Europe. The comic is beautiful, but I've only read a few issues.

Bigby Wolf (The Big Bad Wolf) of FABLES by Bill Willingham. He's just beginning his transformation there.

I'd nearly forgotten this nightmare--the Corinthian from THE SANDMAN comics by Neil Gaiman. He's all smiles.

This is my inks and shading over the blue line pencils by "FuriousNick" over at DA/Outcast. We altered it somewhat for the challenge we were given, but I'm pretty happy with the inks here.

A HOST OF HALLOWEEN HORRORS - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 31)

2011-10-31T02:29:00.009-04:00

Well we finally made it to the big day and I have to say that this year's countdown has been a bit of a let-down (as in I didn't quite hold up to the standard I wanted to keep going from last year). I wanted to do some more art of a seasonal nature, wanted to do a few more reviews, wanted to talk about one of my own boogie men and childhood stories, but that's no big deal as there's always next year and in the meantime we have these great classics to view all day over at Turner Classic...

October 31st HALLOWEEN on TCM

7:15 am – THE REPTILE in which a young lady is cursed to become a snake!

8:45 am – The Gorgon in which a lady has snakes in her hair and turns men to stone!

10:15 am – Dracula, Prince Of Darkness, in which Dracula drinks much blood and stalks the night creepily!

12:00 pm – Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, in which Dracula drinks much blood after rising from the grave!

1:45 pm – The Revenge Of Frankenstein, in which the doctor seeks vengeance against the world!

3:15 pm – Frankenstein Created Woman, in which Frankenstein brings a disfigured woman's body back with a different brain!

5:00 pm – The Mummy, in which a mummy's tomb is messed with and a curse brings him back to mess with them!

6:30 pm – Curse Of The Mummy’s Tomb, in which an entrepreneur tries to exploit the tomb of a mummy to no avail!

8:00 pm – Village Of The Damned, in which little albino children use mind powers and scare the crap out of their parents!

9:30 pm – Night Of The Living Dead, in which ghouls rise from the grave and get rowdier than the living would like!

12:15 am – The Innocents, in which Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw" is adapted brilliantly!

2:00 am – The Haunting, in which Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" is adapted brilliantly!

4:00 am – Repulsion, in which a young woman is left to her own devices for a little while and they drive her mad!

SUNDAY SCHOOL OF SHOCKING-SUSPENSE - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 30)

2011-10-30T01:52:00.007-04:00

Continuing our monitoring of the great films to be seen as we get closer to All Hallow's Eve...

OCTOBER 30th on TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES:

6:15 am – THE LEOPARD MAN (1943)

Hunted by a Killer who has Half-Cat Half-Man!

7:30 am – WHITE ZOMBIE (1932)

She was not alive… Nor dead… Just a White Zombie!

8:45 am – DEVIL DOLL (1936)

An escaped criminal creates miniaturized people to get revenge on those who framed him.

10:15 am – THE UNINVITED(1944)

The heart-clutching dread of a nameless horror!

12:00 pm – BERSERK (1967)

The Shocker Calculated to Drive you ‘Berzerk’!

2:00 pm – DIAL M FOR MURDER (1954)

The Thriller that will twist your Emotions into Tight Knots!

4:00 pm – THEM! (1954)

A Horror Horde of Crawl-and-Crush giants clawing out of the Earth from mile-deep catacombs!

6:00 pm – FORBIDDEN PLANET

Discover the sole survivors of a doomed colonization and their deadly secret!

SHADOWY SATURDAY SELECTION - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 29)

2011-10-29T01:52:00.010-04:00

OCTOBER 29th on TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES

9:30 am – Doctor X
In which cannibalistic murders are popping up all over the city as investigators try to discover the culprit before the next victim falls...

1:45 pm – Godzilla, King Of The Monsters
Toxicity breeds mother nature's revenge as the king of monsters comes up from the depths to wreak havoc in Japan!

8:00 pm – Cat People
A woman fears her sexual lust will lead to her transformation into a vengeful cat... and so do we!

9:30 pm – Martin Scorsese Presents: Val Lewton: The Man In The Shadows
Perfect title for a master of putting the negative spaces to as much or more use than most have for the positive ones.

11:00 pm – The Body Snatcher
A desperate Doctor uses a thug to obtain bodies to further his medical knowledge with little care as to where or why the bodies remain in such a steady and convenient supply.

12:30 am – Isle Of The Dead
Quarantined to an island during a deadly plague and war, rumors of a vampiric demon begin to spread among the fearful. The tension builds as a General attempts to visit the mausoleum in which his wife lies and finds it empty.

2:00 am – Bedlam
A young protege to Lord Mortimer is interested in the conditions at a notorious asylum nicknamed 'Bedlam', but when she tries to bring forth changes, she finds herself committed there by Master Sims (Boris Karloff). Will she escape or suffer there for an eternity?

3:30 am – The Seventh Victim
A young woman investigates why her sister has gone missing and stumbles into the rituals and actions of a satanic cult in Greenwich Village.

5:00 am – Ghost Ship
When a third mate calls his new Captain on his cruelty, as murders and disappearances run rampant during a voyage, he realizes he may be the next victim.

TERRIBLE TWINS & SICK SIBLINGS ON TCM - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 28)

2011-10-28T01:06:00.010-04:00

Tonight on TCM there are featured several stories of sinister siblings

OCTOBER 28th on TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES
8:00 pm – Dead Ringer (1964)
10:00 pm – The Black Room (1935)
11:15 pm – The Other (1972)
1:00 am – Dead Men Walk (1943)
2:15 am – Motel Hell (1980)
4:00 am – 10 Rillington Place (1971)
6:00 am – The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)

At 8pm Bette Davis stars in the duel roles of twin sisters in DEAD RINGER, a dark tale of twisted sisters... and the even more twisted tale that is spun...

Boris Karloff plays twin brothers in THE BLACK ROOM, one who kills his beloved brother to take over the family kingdom. But then there's that strange prophecy should this evil occur...

THE OTHER is Thomas Tryon's tale of twin farm boys who get up to no good playing a game their grandmother Ada taught them. That's when people start showing up dead. The trailer:

DEAD MEN WALK focuses on George Zucco in the twin roles of the good Dr. Lloyd Clayton and Elwyn, his dark arts practicing twin brother. Having died of a fall, Elwyn returns from the grave as a vampire to accuse his brother of his own murder. He then vows revenge on his good brother.

Here's the whole dang film:

MOTEL HELL is the simple story of siblings Vincent and Ida who injure and capture folks so that they may be harvested and slaughtered later for use in Vincent's roadside diner. What complicates matters is when Vincent falls for one of their would-be victims and Ida isn't very pleased. Le Trailer:

10 RILLINGTON PLACE features the brilliant acting of both John Hurt as Tim Evans an unassuming hard worker whose wife has just become pregnant with their third child with they cannot afford and Richard Attenborough as John Christie, owner/operator of a set of apartment buildings and serial murderer.

THE TWO MRS. CARROLLS features Humphrey Bogart as a murderous husband. Not sure this one qualifies as horror, but it is a suspense thriller so it's close enough for me... here's the trailer.

And there we have it. Enjoy the duality of the day...

BORIS KARLOFF ON THE YOUTUBE - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 27)

2011-10-27T12:49:00.003-04:00

First up, we have an episode of ROUTE 66 featuring Boris with Lon Chaney Jr. & Peter Lorre. This marks the final time Karloff and Chaney Jr. will wear their classic monster make-up for the Monster and Wolf Man respectfully. Enjoy:

Here we have a trailer for one of Boris' final films, THE SORCERERS, in which Karloff is back to playing another Mad Scientist of sorts:

Also known as A FOOL'S WORLD, MONDO BALORDO is a documentary in the style of RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT involving everything from bondage to midget love to lesbianism. What was sensational and exploitative back then just doesn't really shock today, however.

This promo for Karloff's show, THRILLER, was made to sell it to television.

MUCK WITH THE MANPHIBIAN - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 25)

2011-10-25T02:41:00.003-04:00

Finally got around to doing another sketch for the season. A part of the Daily Sketch Challenge over at DeviantArt where I am known as Ragnaroker...click to make bigger and scarier.

He first appeared in LEGION OF MONSTERS #1:

An ages old alien, he resembles the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED! - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (DAY 24.1)

2011-10-23T20:05:00.004-04:00

Corman and gang flashback to the golden years of exploitation and guerrilla film making with glee. Looks like my next documentary will be out November 1st on DVD! Here's an article about the movie:
LibertasFilmMag

MacheteMaidensOfficial

MONSTER MASH MONDAYS on TCM - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 24)

2011-10-23T00:17:00.015-04:00

OCTOBER 24th on TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES
8:00 pm – Carnival Of Souls (1962)
9:30 pm – A Night At The Movies: The Horrors Of Stephen King
10:30 pm – Dementia 13 (1963)
12:00 am – Straight-Jacket (1964)
1:45 am – The Pit And The Pendulum (1961)
3:15 am – The Masque Of The Red Death (1964)
5:00 am – The Devil’s Bride (1968)

As is the case every Monday night in October, TCM is presenting a powerful line-up of horror films for the ages.

Starting out with the surreal and dreamlike CARNIVAL OF SOULS, the story of a young woman who seems haunted from every corner, stalked by forces both real and unseen. Despite it's production values, this movie achieves an unsettling quality that many a blockbuster cannot approach.

Fun Fact: Director Herk Harvey one reel of footage for the film was overexposed during the developing processing and was lost from the film. The Saltair that appears in the film burned down in the early '70s. In the '80s another version of Saltair was rebuilt. Shortly after it was built, the Great Salt Lake rose and flooded it out. In 1993, the building was remodeled and reopened, now it's mainly used as a small venue for musical acts.

DEMENTIA 13, while not quite the mind-bender that is CARNIVAL OF SOULS, is a strange mix of family secrets, jealousies and psychosis. While working for Roger Corman on another film, Francis Ford Coppola was given the opportunity to also write and shoot his own first mainstream picture and it became DEMENTIA 13. Corman and Coppola argued about the final product and Corman padded the film with a prelude involving a psychiatrist giving a D-13 test to the audience to see if they were fit to sit through it.

Fun Facts: The British title for the film is THE HAUNTED AND THE HUNTED. In the U.S. it was released as the bottom part of a double feature with Corman's X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES.

Written by Robert Bloch, STRAIGHT-JACKET is one of several psycho-biddy pictures made in the '60s after the success of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?. This one stars Joan Crawford as a woman who killed her husband and his lover with an axe, for which she was institutionalized. Upon her release many years later, she stays with her adult daughter, a successful artist and sculptress. Soon strange behavior and more axe murders begin to occur and the question is put forth: Just who is the killer this time?

Fun Facts: Lee Majors' first movie appearance (uncredited) as Crawfords husband. Little cardboard axes were given to movie patrons as they entered the theatre.

Richard Matheson's screenplay for THE PIT AND THE PENDULULM is, obliviously, based on the original story by Edgar Allen Poe. It is very different from Poe's original, however, in that the first two thirds were made up out of whole cloth. It involves a man journeying to find out the cause of his sister's death at her husband's Spanish castle set not long after the inquisition. Vincent Price chews up the scenery and spits it out as usual as the brother-in-law.

Fun Facts: Corman shot the movie in about 15 days for a budget between $300,000 and $1,000,000. The actual pendulum was 18 feet long and weighted about a ton.

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH features Vincent Price at his most villainous. The more we grow to hate the petulant royal asshole, the bigger the payoff when the climax of the film takes place. Price plays Prospero, a vile and powerful royal who bullies his way through the picture. He holds a ball as the plague spreads all over the countryside thinking himself immune to the things that touch the common man. That is, until the Red Death comes for him... Another great story by Poe, adapted and converted by Roger Corman, who adapted eight Poe tales to film.

Fun Fact: Corman's first movie filmed in Britain. Filmed in Britain to take advantage of British tax law and to acquire a subsidy for using an all British crew to shoot the film.

A finely crafted supernatural horror story adapted by Richard Matheson from a novel by Dennis Wheatley, THE DEVIL'S BRIDE (aka THE DEVIL RIDES OUT) is the story of master of the occult, Duc de Richleau (played by Christopher Lee), investigating the dealings of the son of a friend in regards to the worship of Satan. The tale quickly puts his small group at odds with a cult of devil-worshippers and even Old Scratch himself!

Fun Fact: THE DEVIL RIDES OUT was originally scheduled to shoot in 1963, but was postponed due to fears of censorship because of the elements of satanism in the story. Christopher Lee has said that this is his favorite role--one that he would like to take up again some day (fitting, as the character from the novel is much older than Lee was at the time of this filming).

THE GROOVY GHOUL'S SATURDAY MORNING TCM SHINDIG - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 22)

2011-10-22T02:05:00.009-04:00

OCTOBER 22 ON TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES
9:30 am – The Ghoul (1933)
1:45 pm – 20 Million Miles To Earth (1957)
3:15 pm – Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956)
1:00 am – Cry Of The Werewolf (1944)

If you are a late night interneter or an early morning webcrawler, hopefully this message will find you before THE GHOUL climbs out of his crypt to stalk the early hours of the day.

With a vaguely similar theme to Karloff’s earlier THE MUMMY, THE GHOUL involves an Egyptologist who believes that if he makes a proper offering to Anibus, he will be granted immortality. It is a film that was lost for over thirty years and has only recently been released in it’s proper format with restored footage. In a very strange way it has been resurrected...

Can't look at Karloff here without thinking Solomon Grundy!

Should you be lounging tomorrow after lunch at around 1:45pm and happen to stroll by TCM on the dial you will come across one of the most recognizable creations of one Ray Harryhausen... the beast brought back from the planet Venus on a doomed spacecraft in 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH!

Yep, you'll recognize the creature before you will the title of the film!

Following the above feature, we have another film Harryhausen shaped, EARTH Vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS! The story of a misunderstanding leading to a war of the worlds, EARTH Vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS takes a lot of it's story from WAR OF THE WORLDS, but the look of this film is ahead of it's time...

Get some, Will Smith! INDEPENDENCE DAY has nothing on this film!

Finally, if you happen to be up past midnight and the moon appears in the sky outside your window, you might think to tune in for the first female werewolf in CRY OF THE WEREWOLF at 1:00AM. It is the story of a female werewolf who only kills to protect the secret that she IS a werewolf! If only her culture were more forward thinking, she wouldn't have to eat so many innocent people... Oddly, unlike her male counterparts, this she-wolf can transform at will and seems to have full control over her wolf form. Creepily similar to the tale of the Hulk and She-Hulk, isn't it?

Well, there you go, another day wasted in front of the tube! But what were you planning anyway... those leaves will be there to rake next weekend too!

FEATURE FILMS FEATURING FEMALES FRIDAY - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 21.1)

2011-10-21T18:55:00.004-04:00

Whoops! Nearly forgot about tonight's line-up on TCM tonight. Well it's not exactly horror or Halloween related material, but it is mostly HAMMER tonight on ol' Turner:

OCTOBER 21
8:00 pm – She (1965)
10:00 pm – Prehistoric Women
12:00 am – The Viking Queen
2:00 am – The Gamma People
3:30 am – The Wild, Wild Planet

FITTING FICTION FOR THE FRIGHTFUL - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 21)

2011-10-21T03:08:00.005-04:00

Since so much of what influences us during those darkening days of dying things are imagined, I figured I’d give focus tonight to five books which are bound to fuel your imagination should you be bold enough to crack one of these bound volumes open for a peek.

OCTOBER DREAMS edited by Chizmar & Morrish (Cemetery Dance HC) is both a memoir of Halloweens’ past and a feature for some of the finest scary stories set in and around the holiday we are so drawn to. It is a virtual love letter from some of the finest writers of fantastic fiction. Everyone from Dean Koontz to Poppy Z. Brite to Hugh B. Cave to Chistopher Golden to Ray Bradbury to Gahan Wilson to F. Paul Wilson to Tim Lebbon to Richard Laymon to Caitlin R. Kiernan to Ramsey Campbell to Peter Straub contribute to this wonderful volume.

From Publishers Weekly
The most enjoyable horror anthology of the year, this jumbo goody-sack disguised as a book is stuffed with Halloween-themed fiction and nonfiction edited by the founder/editor of Cemetery Dance (Chizmar) and the editor of the respected but defunct nonfiction horror mag The Scream Factory (Morrish). The book contains 55 entries (not counting original artwork), including nearly two dozen stories (half original), a novella reprint, about 30 original essays on "My Favorite Halloween Memory," a new poem by Ray Bradbury and three original essays on, respectively, the history, literature and cinema of Halloween. The list of contributors gathers just about every important writer in the field (other than King and Barker): Dean Koontz, Hugh B. Cave, Douglas Clegg, Richard Laymon, Poppy Z. Brite, Dennis Etchison, F. Paul Wilson, Ed Gorman, Peter Crowther, John Shirley, Douglas E. Winter, Thomas Ligotti, Ramsey Campbell and Peter Straub (with the novella, "Pork Pie Hat") are just a few. The insightful essays are by Paula Guran of e-newsletter Dark Echo fame ("A Short History of Halloween"), author Gary A. Braunbeck ("'First of All, It Was October...' An Overview of Halloween Films") and critic/anthologist Stefan Dziemianowicz ("Trick-or-Read"). The fiction is uniformly good, sometimes superb. The most seductive aspect of this book, however, is the Halloween memories, often potent snippets of childhood epiphanies (Elizabeth Engstrom remembers being abandoned, and growing up, one Halloween night in a junkyard filled with rats; Douglas Clegg recalls seeing, at age four, a witch fly across the face of the moon) that will bring back to every reader the autumnal magic of All Hallow's Eve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Dreams

IMAJICA by Clive Barker is a book about an epic struggle between god and man and nature and love. If I wanted to send any writer to another planet and have him write me back about the experience, I would send Clive Barker. Because of his surreal worlds drawn so clearly and matter-of-factly, you believe. And not only believe, see the sights, breathe the air, hear the music and taste the food of those realities. I read this book in small doses over a year and it lived with me. I could come back to it any time and the characters and places would be there as fresh and alive as always. This is not so much a horror novel as it is an epic fantasy worthy of the greats.

From Kirkus Reviews
Dazzling metaphysical epic-adventure as Barker surpasses his previous ground-breaking work (The Great and Secret Show, 1989, etc.) to reconfigure the Fall and to imagine a modern-day attempt to reverse it. A complex cosmology underpins the vigorous, at times horrific, action here: ``Imajica'' is the known universe of five ``Dominions,'' or parallel worlds, four ``reconciled'' but the fifth, Earth, ``unreconciled''--unaware of the other four, of the tyrannical ``Autarch'' who rules them, and of the ``God Hapeximendios,'' who oversees all five (and who wrested ``His'' power from the ``Goddesses'' of old). Periodically, Hapeximendios has sent His ``sons''--including Christ--to attempt to unite, by magical rites, the Fifth Dominion to the others. The last attempted ``Reconciliation'' ended in catastrophe--an invasion of Earth by hellish powers--and today magic has been nearly eradicated from Earth by a ``Society'' that alone knows of the Imajica and of the catastrophe. An astonishing feat of the imagination, immensely engrossing despite its demanding--at times indulgent--length, running riot with ideas, fantastical inventions, graphic sex and violence, soul- terrors, and emotional and intellectual resonances. Barker's best yet. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury is the ultimate coming of age story. Of how some of us want desperately to shed our childhood ways and move on to the adult world and how others want to hold onto their innocence and cherrish it for as long as they can. Only this tale involves a kind of magic that can only be dreamed of by a boy who grew up in the dust bowl of the depression and with the imagination of a god.

A masterpiece of modern Gothic literature, Something Wicked This Way Comes is the memorable story of two boys, James Nightshade and William Halloway, and the evil that grips their small Midwestern town with the arrival of a "dark carnival" one Autumn midnight. How these two innocents, both age 13, save the souls of the town (as well as their own), makes for compelling reading on timeless themes. What would you do if your secret wishes could be granted by the mysterious ringmaster Mr. Dark? Bradbury excels in revealing the dark side that exists in us all, teaching us ultimately to celebrate the shadows rather than fear them. In many ways, this is a companion piece to his joyful, nostalgia-drenched Dandelion Wine, in which Bradbury presented us with one perfect summer as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old. In Something Wicked This Way Comes, he deftly explores the fearsome delights of one perfectly terrifying, unforgettable autumn. --Stanley Wiater

THE LONGEST SINGLE NOTE by Peter Crowther surprised me. I started out reading a random story from this collection of short stories and before I knew it, I’d gone ahead and read them all. Finished it off like a box of chocolates and feeling guilty as a murderer. I usually read collections and anthologies sparingly. Picking at them occasionally between longer works of fiction, but not this group. Compelling, touching, scary, imaginative and brilliant. Easily one of the best collections I’ve ever encountered.

From Publishers Weekly
Though perhaps best known as an editor of anthologies of horror and dark fantasy (Destination Unknown, etc.), Crowther proves in this generous debut story collection to be a master of those genres. From the hypnotic stream-of-consciousness of "Incident on Bleecker Street" to the casual violence of "The Visitor," his writing in the 26 entries here--including poetry and an excerpt from a novel-in-progress--exhibits a stunning range. The power of music supplies the resonant theme of both "Head Acres" and the title story; in the former, music leads to death, while in the latter, music transcends it. "Home Comforts" turns the familiar slayer-vs.-vampire plot on its head, while the evocative and touching "Too Short a Death" shows that vampires can be as human as anyone else. "Gallagher's Arm" is a light Lovecraftian pastiche and an effective query into Machiavelli's claim that "the end justifies the means." There's sly humor as well as horror in "Eater" and "Shatsi," and the volume closes with a series of informative Story Notes. Reports of the demise of the darker genres abound, but vigorous, genuinely fearsome work such as Crowther's demonstrates that the genre is decidedly undead. (July)
Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

CARRION COMFORT by Dan Simmons is epic horror told from a human point of view. It follows the struggle of a small band of a few humans who are aware that there is a secret group of ‘psychic vampires’ posessing and using people like so much cannon fodder for reasons as varied as simple ego, political and financial gain. Haunting one well after having put it down, the novel stays with you… in the back of your head. Lurking there. Waiting...

From Publishers Weekly
The second novel by World Fantasy Award-winner Simmons ( The Song of Kali ) is a 636-page epic that draws on a variety of genres--horror, science fiction, political thriller, Hollywood roman a clef. It centers around a small number of "mind vampires" who can subjugate other people to their wills, read their minds, experience through their senses. The immensely powerful vampires use others, often bloodily, and often in frivolous "games" (hunting human prey, chess games with human pieces, and so on). Opposing them are Saul Laski, a psychologist and concentration-camp survivor, who is devoted to tracking down the Nazi vampire von Borchert; Natalie Preston, whose father inadvertently and fatally crossed the path of a pawn of the ancient, dotty vampire Melanie Fuller; Sheriff Bobby Joe Gentry, dragged in while investigating the multiple murders that marked the departure of Melanie Fuller from Charleston.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

“CARRION COMFORT is one of the three greatest horror novels of the 20th century. Simple as that.” --Stephen King
"Epic in scale and scope but intimately disturbing, CARRION COMFORT spans the ages to rewrite history and tug at the very fabric of reality. A nightmarish chronicle of predator and prey that will shatter your world view forever. A true classic." --Guillermo del Toro
"CARRION COMFORT is one of the scariest books ever written. Whenever I get the question asked Who's your favorite author? my answer is always Dan Simmons." --James Rollins
"One of the few major reinventions of the vampire concept, on a par with Jack Finney’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, and Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. --David Morrell

THOR HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 20)

2011-10-20T01:29:00.002-04:00

Last weekend the challenge was put forth to draw ones' favorite character as a zombie. And so I sketched the above.

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS... EVERYBODY - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 19)

2011-10-19T02:22:00.011-04:00

In lieu of a detailed bit of work by myself, tonight I thought it might be nice to look back at the many travels of the Monster of Frankenstein...

ON POEMS AND PUMPKINS - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 18)

2011-10-18T01:33:00.005-04:00

MY SORROW, WHEN SHE'S HERE WITH ME, THINKS THESE DARK DAYS OF AUTUMN RAIN ARE BEAUTIFUL AS DAYS CAN BE; SHE LOVES THE BARE, THE WITHERED TREE; SHE WALKS THE SODDEN PASTURE LANE.
-- Robert Frost

As much as Edgar Allan Poe is linked with the morbid, macabre and gothic spirit of the Halloween season, I find that a few other poets capture the strange beauty and darkness of the season without going overboard into the pit of despair. Robert Frost is, probably, the best of the American poets and has written of this season and the feelings and thoughts it evokes superbly...

In Hardwood Groves
by Robert Frost

The same leaves over and over again!
They fall from giving shade above
To make one texture of faded brown
And fit the earth like a leather glove.

Before the leaves can mount again
To fill the trees with another shade,
They must go down past things coming up.
They must go down into the dark decayed.

They must be pierced by flowers and put
Beneath the feet of dancing flowers.
However it is in some other world
I know that this is way in ours.

NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY
by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold,
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

And then there's this poem that is properly titled...

October
by Robert Frost.

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes' sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost--
For the grapes' sake along the wall.

He even wrote some on the subject of fear...

Storm Fear
by Robert Frost

When the wind works against us in the dark,
And pelts with snow
The lowest chamber window on the east,
And whispers with a sort of stifled bark,
The beast,
'Come out! Come out!'--
It costs no inward struggle not to go,
Ah, no!
I count our strength,
Two and a child,
Those of us not asleep subdued to mark
How the cold creeps as the fire dies at length,--
How drifts are piled,
Dooryard and road ungraded,
Till even the comforting barn grows far away
And my heart owns a doubt
Whether 'tis in us to arise with day
And save ourselves unaided.

And you can't go into poems about Autum without the romantic work of one John Keats (prettyboy writer)...

Ode to Autumn
by John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
    Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
    With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
    And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
        To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
    With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
        For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
    Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
    Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
    Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
        Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
    Steady thy laden head across a brook;
    Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
        Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
    Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,--
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
    And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
    Among the river sallows, borne aloft
        Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
    Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
    The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
        And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

LATE MONSTER MONDAY REMINDER - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 17)

2011-10-17T22:21:00.005-04:00

Waaay too late for this post, but I figure the majority of the movies on tonight haven't played yet, so it's worth a shot. TCM is continuing it's Monday Monster Marathon tonight with the following feature films. I, for one, plan to check out CURSE OF THE DEMON and TINGLER...

OCTOBER 17
8:00 pm – The Horror Of Dracula
9:30 pm – The House On Haunted Hill
11:00 pm – Tingler
12:30 am – House Of Wax
2:15 am – Curse Of The Demon
4:00 am – A Night At The Movies: The Horrors Of Stephen King
5:00 am – Bucket Of Blood (1959)

THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL...

TINGLER....

HOUSE OF WAX

CURSE OF THE DEMON...

BUCKET OF BLOOD...

WALKING with the DEAD on AMC - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 16)

2011-10-16T01:54:00.009-04:00

I like a good horror story. I like a good zombie story. Stress the word ‘good’. These days zombies have saturated and oversaturated pop culture. We’re practically up to our armpits in ‘em. As a ‘genre’ zombies are like any fare, if they’re popular they will be done to death. Pun intended.

It’s not like zombies were as common as clay back when the first issue of THE WALKING DEAD came out. Sure, there was a popular film called 28 DAYS LATER, a popular novel by Brian Keene called THE RISING and a few other things digging up from the ground like a corpse reanimated. But it was nothing like it is now… zombies had yet to form into mobs. You would see one occasionally and evaluate it on it’s own qualities. Now there are so many you can’t throw a detatched limb without hitting a few.

I was one of the few thousand or so folks who was there from the very beginning with THE WALKING DEAD, the Robert Kirkman comic book published through Image. It was initially the very compelling art by Tony Moore that inspired me to pick it up off the shelf (and order it more heavily for the comic shop I work at than the usual Image first issue). I didn’t know Kirkman’s writing from Adam.

The art was strong and stark and let the story flow like an open vein. But what made me stick around is that by the time that first story arc ended, I had grown to love the characters and how they, in vein, tried to find a way to live in that nightmare world. Many refer to it as ‘Survival Horror’ rather than ‘zombie plague’ and I kind of agree.

Like it’s comic book counterpart, the television series looked compellingly drawn. Same strong characters, vivid visuals and horrific situation. I nearly expected a replay of the comics on video. Only, there were some differences. Enough so, that by the end of the first season, I had as little knowledge as to what would happen as the preverbial newcomer. And that was fine with me as that meant a freshness that would be lacking for me otherwise.

And, it seems, like the comic, which grew and grew it’s audience with each issue (It don’t happen like that, folks, sales are supposed to drop as time goes on.); the tv series is growing it’s audience. Makes one wonder what would’ve happened had AMC had faith enough in the series to keep it going for twelve episodes in it’s first season instead of the anemic six we were allowed.

We may soon find out how far this zombie plague will go, in fact it begins again tonight… so quiet people. Hold your breath… it may be your last on this Earth.

SWAMP THING ON THE LINE - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 15)

2011-10-15T00:58:00.003-04:00

Finally got around to doing the PS manipulation of this photo from a few years back. I used to drive by this telephone pole covered with kudzu every day and it kept begging me to photograph it and so, finally, I did. Swampy doing his best Jesus Christ pose...

"WEREWOLF!" CRIED THE YOUNG MAN - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 14)

2011-10-13T14:16:00.005-04:00

Last year, Nickelodeon aired a television film for the halloween season by the name of THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF, which featured some young pop star who goes through some big body change issues as she is becoming a werewolf and Brooke Shields as a monobrowed Eastern European caretaker for an old castle. It was a marginally well done kiddie film that tip toed around pretending to be a scary movie for kids. But it doesn't hold a candle to the scary-goofiness of the original film of the same name from 1973.

I caught this movie a few months ago on the "THIS" network, I believe, at a time when we should all be in bed dreaming of cereal and what socks we'll be wearing the next day. I had never heard of it and so I had to stick around a few minutes to see what it was all about.

Two hours later, I understood all too well. Richie Bridgestone's parents are getting a divorce (prime social issue emerging at the time) and he is having trouble dealing with it. Acting out in ways and just being sad about the whole thing. So, one day, after his dad has been bitten by a werewolf, Richie happens to notice that his dad transforms into a werewolf. Richie promptly tells his mom about this and she finds it hard to believe.

Long story short, wash and repeat. Richie ends up in a psychiatrists' office (another emerging trend of the day) answering questions and reading rorschach tests. His dad kills some folks, all the while trying to kill his own son once the transformations take place. And he makes a pretty good preppy werewolf in his turtle neck sweater and well groomed coat. He really reminds me of one Wile E. Coyote...

But what really made me fall in love with this movie was what I call the Hippies for Jesus! Although I thought it was a tad too soon for John Goodman to be able to play this role, I couldn't help but fool myself into believing that it was him in the role of the head honcho hippie. The guy is big, loud and kind of lovable, so I thought: John Goodman! Here's a scene where the king of the Jesus Hippies tries to work his mojo on the Werewolf the boy cries so much about:

Snazzy stuff, ain't it folks! Too bad it's not available on DVD, but here's an interesting note about the original release of this PG horror flick for nearly all ages--it was the last of the Universal Double Features and it was released on the bottom half of a billing with "SSSSSSSS". See below:

For more on this film see:

KINDERTRAUMA

AND

en.wikipedia.org

PULSE-POUNDING PULP HORROR - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 13)

2011-10-13T01:20:00.011-04:00

Still playing catch-up with THE GOODS tonight, if you didn't notice last night there was no charming words to go with the photos of children in costumes of all shapes and sizes. So what we've got is a brief glimpse into the world of cheap fiction for all ages that ruled the newsstand before comics began to dominate the market.

Pulps had taken over the market of dime novels and penny dreadfuls, the prior provider for a fun affordable read for the public. With lurid covers and loads of sensational subjects to cover, they went all out competing for shelf space in a market overcrowded with titles.

Many of the 20th century's greatest writers worked in this market--names like Asimov, Bester, Bloch, Bradbury, Burroughs, Chandler, Christie, Derleth, Dick, Doyle, Fitzgerald, Grey, Herbert, Howard, Kipling, L'Amore, Leiber, London, Lovecraft, Silverberg, Sinclair, Twain, Vance and Wells graced the pages of these frowned upon pages of fiction.

Certain popular characters from the Pulps are heralded for having been a heavy influence on the birth of the comic book hero. Some of the most popular characters in the history of fiction that were created for the pulps are alive and well to this day. Icons from the era of flappers and the dawn of talkies that inspire a following into this new century are The Avenger, Buck Rogers, Conan the Barbarian, Doc Savage, Domino Lady, Flash Gordon, Fu Manchu, Green Lama, Hopalong Cassidy, John Carter of Mars, Ka-Zar, Kull, Secret Agent X, The Shadow, The Spider, Solomon Kane, Tarzan and Zorro.

A few of the greatest artist to come out of the Pulp market are Virgil Finlay and Norman Saunders. But there were tons of good ones and they are worth a look at: http://www.pulpartists.com/index.html

HALLOWEEN COSTUMES PARADE - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 12)

2011-10-12T00:43:00.005-04:00

MONSTER MASH MONDAYS on TCM - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 10)

2011-10-10T01:43:00.006-04:00

It's Monday in October and that means over a half-dozen macabre motion pictures over on Turner Classic Movies tonight:

OCTOBER 10
8:00 pm – The Wolf Man
9:15 pm – The Uninvited
11:00 pm – Dead Of Night
1:00 am – I Walked With A Zombie
2:15 am – Cat People
3:45 am – Curse Of The Cat People
5:00 am – The Devil Bat
6:15 am – Dead Men Walk

THE WOLF MAN is easily the most well known of these eight pictures as the Universal Monster ruled the box office for most of the first fifty years of film. Lon Chaney Jr. was probably the most sympathetic of the monsters being that his condition was no fault of his own. He simply became half-man/half-wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the moon is full and bright.

Did You Know: "The Wolf Man" is Universal Pictures second werewolf movie, it followed the less successful "Werewolf of London" six years earlier?

THE UNINVITED is a beautifully shot gothic tale of a haunting. A bit complicated compared to other haunted house stories, it begins simply with a brother and sister wanting to buy a seaside English home while on vacation. And, as they say, is only the beginning...

Did You Know: "The Uninvited" is based on the novel UNEASY FREEHOLD by Dorothy Macardle?

DEAD OF NIGHT is an early anthology film that begins when a man arrives at a party with a disturbingly accurate account of this very party from a nightmare. The stories told by the guests at the party are a result of his revelation. There is the story of a ventriloquist who believes his malevolent dummy is alive and a story set at a children's Christmas party (that was cut from the American release of the film because distributers thought the movie was too long), one about a haunting mirror and another about two golfers among others.

Did You Know: Cosmolgists Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold and Hermann Bondi, developed the Steady State theory of the universe, an alternative to the Big Bang, after seeing "Dead of Night". They said that the nature of the plot inspired the theory.

I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE is a traditional zombie story in the sense that it is set in the West Indies and deals with "voodoo" and it's effects on the wife of a plantation owner. It is also a tale of love gone sour, twisted.

Did You Know: The disclaimer at the end of the film reads: "The characters and events depicted in this photoplay are fictional. Any similarity to actual persons, living, dead, or possessed, is purely coincidental."?

Like so many films that came before special effects could portray transformational moments, CAT PEOPLE had to rely on subtle creative shots using shadow and acting to convey these not so subtle moments. One of my favorites from this era of film...

Did You Know: The film was such a hit at the box office, the releases of the next two Lewton films (I Walked with a Zombie and The Leopard Man) were delayed and that critics who had originally bashed the film were able to see it again and many rewrote their reviews with a more positive spin?

Nearly only a sequel in name to CAT PEOPLE, CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE, is mostly a story dealing with a child creating an imaginary companion. The studio retitled this film to cash in on the great success of CAT PEOPLE.

Did You Know: This is a very well made film, but not a horror/suspense/thriller.

THE DEVIL BAT is, simply put, a reason to not wear after shave lotion. Bela Lugosi stars as a scientist who creates mutated bats who will hone in on the smell of that after shave and kill whomever is wearing it!

Did You Know: The Devil Bat is one of the most successful poverty row films?

DEAD MEN WALK is the story of a twin of a small-town physician returns from the grave for vengeance against his brother, who secretly killed him because the twin summoned his power from the devil.

Did You Know: Although the title implies zombies, it is actually a vampire to fear in this flick.

WAXING ON VINCENT PRICE - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (DAY 8)

2011-10-08T01:12:00.005-04:00

Being that HOUSE OF WAX will be showing early this morning on TCM (don't worry if you can't get up in time to catch it--it will be showing again later in the month at at more midnight hour) at around 9:30am ET, I figured a brief look at some wax museum displays might put you in the mood for some hot wax... place your cursor right on the picts and click them for a closer look at the creepiness!

HOUSE OF WAX was the first of the color 3-D films from a major studio.

SHE-FREAK GOES BERSERK on the TCM UNDERGROUND - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 7.1)

2011-10-07T19:58:00.005-04:00

Nearly neglected to mention the showing tonight on the Turner Classic Movies UNDERGROUND of a cult not-so-classic carnival freak show set SHE-FREAK, at 2am. It may not be worth staying up for, but it might just deserve a viewing during the light of day.

This move would've played well in a double feature with the true classic, FREAKS, due to setting and theme. Hell, throw in the film to follow this one tonight and you've got a triple feature of the kind of carny creepiness that could pull in just about anyone.

At 3:30am, Joan Crawford stars in the mystery/thriller BERSERK! as the owner/ringmaster of a circus which finds it's attendance soar as the numbers of mysterious murders increases.

Some believe Crawford's character to be the murderer, some think it is her new, young lover. Whatever the case, folks want to witness the true life terror in the big top!

FEATURE FUNK FRIDAY: MANOS THE HANDS OF FATE - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 7)

2011-10-07T00:56:00.008-04:00

Tonight I'm trying for something a little different--presenting an entire fright film for you fearless folks to fawn for! MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE is infamously thought of as one of the worst films ever made. So you know what you're getting into when you get into this miasma of movie madness. The acting in this movie is beyond wooden, it is PETRIFIED WOOD! It is so bad as to be beyond belief... until you see it for yourself. Brace yourself for the worst of the worst. Look out Ed Wood, this film is coming to get you!

Before we get to the feature film tonight, here's a few songs accompanied by images to help you prepare yourselves mentally...

HAUNTED HOUSE - Ray Noble & The New Mayfair Orchestra (1931)
WHITE GHOST SHIVERS - The New Orleans Owls (1926)
BLACK CAT MOAN - Tiny Parham & His Orchestra (1929)

And now for the feature! Beware the Earth breaking greatness arriving at the 8:14 mark...

LAUGHING IN THE FACE OF DEATH: COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 6)

2011-10-06T02:28:00.007-04:00

I always get a kick out of library book sales as one can find the neatest things there for quite a bargain. This year I found a book that seems to be trying very hard to follow the stylings of the great Edward Gorey. That macabre master of rhyme and ruin, humor and horror, fear and funny. All for a mere fifty cents...

COMIC EPITAPHS FROM THE VERY BEST OLD GRAVEYARDS Gathered and Published by the Peter Pauper Press and illustrated by Henry R. Martin copyright 1957 is, basically, what it says--a series of epitaphs that are at once morbid and humorous. Some are real and many are contrived--and so, perfect for the Halloween season.

TEARS CANNOT RESTORE HER: THEREFORE I WEEP --Keene

Legend on Hypochondriac’s Tombstone:
I TOLD YOU I WAS SICK

On a Hanged Sheep-stealer:
HERE LIES THE BODY OF THOMAS KEMP WHO LIVED BY WOOL AND DIED BY HEMP --Bletchley

IN MEMORY OF ELLEN SHANNON WHO WAS FATALLY BURNED BY THE EXPLOSION OF A LAMP FILLED WITH DANFORTH’S NON-EXPLOSIVE BURNING FLUID --Girard, PA

THIS EMPTY URN IS SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF JOHN REVERE WHO DIED ABROAD IN FINISTERE: IF HE HAD LIVED HE WOULD HAVE BEEN BURRIED HERE --Connemora

On Emma and Maria Littleboy:
TWO LITTLEBOYS LIE HERE. YET STRANGE TO SAY THE LITTLEBOYS ARE GIRLS --Hornsey

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF JARED BATES… HIS WIDOW, AGED 24 LIVES AT 7 ELM STREET HAS EVERY QUALIFICATION FOR A GOOD WIFE AND YEARNS TO BE COMFORTED --Aurora Falls

THE LITTLE HERO THAT LIES HERE WAS CONQUERED BY THE DIARRHOEA --Portland, VT

The back cover of the book above.

And upon looking up the cartoonist--

Henry R. Martin

GLEEFULLY HORRIBLE? - Countdown to Halloween (Day 5.1)

2011-10-05T11:16:00.002-04:00

Premiering tonight on FX, you may want to catch AMERICAN HORROR STORY by the people behind GLEE of all things. The ads sure look interesting... not so sure about how it's been received by the critics.

And that is all the programming you need for tonight...

ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 5)

2011-10-05T10:58:00.005-04:00

Besides having, perhaps, the coolest title sequence in the history of film, there is quite a lot to love about THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD...

In the movie, HALLOWEEN, there are a few scenes where THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD is playing on television. It was that film that was very influential on young John Carpenter, the creator of HALLOWEEN, and we don’t have to look hard to see that.

So when Carpenter became a sucessful filmmaker, one of his dream projects was to do a remake of that film. If it weren’t for John Carpenter’s THE THING, his reimagining of THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951), many of us may have never discovered one of the best of the science fiction/horror films ever made. Not that Carpenter’s version is a slouch in that department either.

But it is THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD by Howard Hawks we focus on tonight. It is a thinking man’s feature, taking the debate about first contact with an alien creature into a realm we didn’t normally get in other “creature” films of the day (or all these years later).

And, lest we forget, THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD ends with one of the most famous lines in all of science fiction film:
"Tell the world, tell everyone: Watch the skies everywhere, keep looking, keep watching the skies."

Carpenter is the guest programmer for TCM this month and he is probably the reason the line-up on TCM is what it is tonight..

OCTOBER 5
8:00 pm – The Thing From Another World
9:45 – It! The Terror From Beyond Space
11:00 pm – The Curse Of Frankenstein

THE FACE OF THE PHANTOM: COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (DAY 4)

2011-10-04T01:00:00.009-04:00

When we first see the Phantom of the Paris Opera House, we see his shadow in brief glimpses. He dashes just out of eyesight of the dancers and musicians and box office workers. Always there, always lurking, always enigmatic. Is he a true phantom--a ghost haunting the backstage and trapdoors of the playhouse?

Upon kidnapping Christine, he reveals himself in part to the object of his affection, lust and obsession. His mask is as creepy in it's own way as the face that lies beneath. With cartoon eyes and a veil for the mouth, it is a disturbing vision for at once it is a mockery of a normal human face and it also hints at the tragic true visage below.

This mask allows Lon Chaney to show the sincerity of the love his character, Erik, feels for Christine. It is still disturbing in it's blankness, it's static artificiality.

After Christine discovers his true face and is horrified, the Phantom is truly revealed to her. In a world where ugly equals evil, a world where it is easy to accept this simple equation, the formula holds true here. The Phantom's selfish fixation on Christine goes beyond mere admirer to his compulsion to POSESS her and hide her away for his own.

He reveals himself, dramatically to the company and audience of the Opera as The Red Death, appropriately, in a stunning restored scene in color. The contrast of that color after all those shadows really leaves an impression.

But back to our focus here: the face of the Phantom. As you probably know, Lon Chaney isn't known as "the man of a thousand faces" for nothing. He developed the skill to create unique and powerful looks for his characters on the vaudeville stage and put it to stunning use throughout his career in film.

The man's genius make-up often overshadows his performances, which are intense if one considers how hard it must be to push one's emotions through all that grease paint and spirit gum and beyond the ability to use one's voice to lend, well, voice to a character.

Sure, the Phantom had a face only a mother could love, but it was a face that we could all relate to and that is a great credit to Chaney Sr.

MONSTER MASH MONDAYS on TCM: Countdown to Halloween (Day 3)

2011-10-03T01:56:00.006-04:00

Monday, October 3rd begins TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES’ month long parade of horror films building up to that finale of finales, Halloween. As usual, TCM does not disappoint, starting off with a focus on the work of Stephen King, a quick jaunt into the realm of Frankensten, Freaks, Jekyll & Hyde. And then taking things past the witching hour with would-be vampires, Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu and even that romantic fellow, the Phantom.

Here’s the line-up:

OCTOBER 3
8:00 pm – A Night At The Movies: The Horrors Of Stephen King
9:00 pm – Frankenstein (1931)
10:15 pm – Freaks
11:30 pm – A Night At The Movies: The Horrors Of Stephen King
12:30 am – Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1932)
2:15 am – Mark Of The Vampire
3:30 am – The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari
4:45 am – Nosferatu
6:15 am – The Phantom Of The Opera (1925)

Of these films, it is FRANKENSTEIN that resonates best with your humble blogger. It is the story, a much deformed and mutated take on the source novel of Mary Shelly, but it is mostly the moving performance by Boris Karloff as the abandoned newborn monstrosity that makes the film stand out. He is innocent as the newborn babe he is and in his powerful body as dangerous as any wild animal. It is no wonder this version of the monster is the definitive one. It haunts us to this very day.

Fredric March shows great range as Jekyll/Hyde (and boy must Hyde have been a charming bastard to have even a lady of the night join him for cash).

Freaks is as compelling a revenge picture as you can find, with a more colorful cast than you'll usually see.

Mark of the Vampire is as close as we’ll come to a fully realized version of London After Midnight as that film was destroyed years ago

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is probably the most innovative film of the silent era.

Say what you will about Lugosi’s Dracula, but Nosferatu is probably the vampire I’d least like to run into in a dark alley.

Lon Chaney was so far ahead of his time when it came to creating a look for his characters, that, in and of itself, is scary! The Phantom’s reveal is probably one of the most memorable creepy of all time.

So you really can’t go wrong tonight on TCM, unless you stay up all night and have to miss work tomorrow...

PUMPKIN PATCH POLITICS - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 2)

2011-10-02T01:27:00.006-04:00

Nothing profound tonight, just a note on how eerily similar these politicians paw a pumpkin...

For some reason everyone seems more sincere with a pumpkin in their hands...

This brings the question: Is there an official Presidential Pumpkin? We have the White House Christmas Tree, the pardoned Turkey--why not an official Jack 'O Lantern? I think Linus would approve...

HAUNTED AIR - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 1)

2011-10-01T02:08:00.004-04:00

Old anonymous photos are interesting as all there is to tell the story behind the image is one’s own observational skills and imagination. The separation one has from the images is as much a hinderance as it is a liberator.

Ossian Brown’s HAUNTED AIR is a book of photos of children and even adults dressed in their Hallowe’en best. Lined up in rows, standing alone, being goofy and deadly serious, these are people who cared enough (or had relatives who did) to document their celebration of All Hallow’s Eve for posterity.

HAUNTED AIR is a haunting book. Not because the costumes are particularly scary (of which a few are, mind you), but because they represent a time long past. The vast majority of even the youngest souls depicted exuberantly showing off their exquisite Halloween garb have passed from this world. Hell, the WORLD they lived in doesn’t exist anymore.

Their time has come and gone. And yet, it is such a hauntingly familiar time from which these pictures were taken. A time that comes once a year as the air grows crisp with chill and the spiders weave their last webs. Reassuring, in a way, that their Halloween was not so very different than our own. Regardless of the vast changes in the world…

And yet, will our time seem so fleeting to those to follow?

It is a spartan tome, having neither commentary nor remarks referring to any of the photos directly. It is simply photo after photo in the middle of a white blank page, drawing the viewer in by the eye for a peek of the world gone bye.

David Lynch, who never is very wordy, gives a very short and rambling foreword. This really allows the photographs to speak for themselves. And they certainly do.

After all that “silence”, it is somewhat reassuring to be greeted by the words of Geoff Cox at the end of the quiet. His words put you there in tone and bring that time to you. Context, as it were. A reassuring thing after being trapped in the past with all those dead folks.

His words are poetic as Bradbury speaking of the season we all love so much:

“A vagrant ritual is reborn and re-enacted in chilly Midwestern regions. An ancient mourning of the sun’s demise, Summer’s End, once marked on hilltop and deep in woodland clearings with vast wild fire and the spilling of beast blood, now transplanted into the rich, black soil of America. Samhain’s unruly orphan, suckled on half-fabled Roman fertility rite and Celtic fenland magics, deformed by papal edict and centuries of becoming and let loose on the New World. The dark is rising over remote backwater hamlets, over railyard and schoolhouse and sharp-angled roof, over homestead and woodpile. Hallowe’enland. A world invaded, infested, dissolved, remade and revealed.”

I recommend muting this video as the music from John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN doesn’t fit the feel of the book or the era the photos are from:

Welcome back to another October of my participation in the COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN Blogring. You'll notice the button for this event in the top right corner of my blog. Just click on it to visit the headquarters of the event and there you'll be able to contact any of the other participants you wish to visit with. See you next time for another installment of the Countdown!

FEAR FOR THE INNOCENTS ON TCM

2011-09-30T00:29:00.004-04:00

Easily the finest of the adaptations of Henry James' classic novella "The Turn of the Screw", Turner Classic Movies will be showing this beautifully haunting gothic tale tomorrow (Friday, September 30th) at 1:45pm, so call in sick, turn off all the lights and enjoy one of the best ghost stories ever told. Or, at the very least, set your recording devices and enjoy it later!

This is one of the things I'll be going into more deeply as a part of the Countdown to Halloween (I think TCM will be playing it again on Halloween night), so fair warning. Take notes now and study up!

ABE SAPIEN IN THE DRINK FROG HUNTING

2011-09-29T23:39:00.002-04:00

THE DEADLIEST ENEMY THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN

2011-09-29T02:26:00.002-04:00

Playing at 9 AM this morning, Sep. 29th. Tune in to find out if we can trust these alien visitors from a runaway planet!

GIRL from WAKANDA

2011-09-21T00:33:00.003-04:00

A commission for my good friend Gary Davis, for whom all things Wakanda are golden (not unlike myself and Asgard)...

a rarely seen character created by Peter B. Gillis:

HEROES FOR HOPE

2011-09-18T23:26:00.000-04:00

Last week meant the September 11 Anniversary--for which the Daily Sketch Challenge had as one of its' challenges to illustrate a NYC Fireman. The above is my effort, click to make bigger.

They are beacons in the darkness.

METROPOLIS and THINGS TO COME

2011-09-18T23:01:00.000-04:00

Just a quick reminder that in just about an hour at Midnight on Turner Classic Movies, Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS will be playing (not sure if it's the "Refound" version) and later, at 3:45am H.G. Wells' THINGS TO COME will be on.

SHOWING LATE, LATE FRIDAY NIGHT ON TCM...

2011-09-15T12:00:00.000-04:00

It's a double feature of dubious depravity--first, at 2am there comes Peter Cushing in...

CORRUPTION (1968)

and then, at 3:45am, there shall be seen (in ANAMORPHIC DUOVISION, no less!)....

WICKED, WICKED (1973)

SEVEN SINFUL SKETCHES

2011-09-12T01:13:00.003-04:00

More Daily Sketch Challenges--some more complete than others... for a more detailed look at the glaring flaws in these sketches, click them and they shall fill your screen more fully. Here we see Poison Ivy:

The Goblin/Red Queen:

Scarlett of G.I. Joe:

A more revealing look at Ms. Pryor, The Goblin Queen...

Oracle...

My own challenge, drawing a team of X-Men in the original school uniforms:

And, finally, Poison Ivy again--this one reminds me much of Stupefyin' Jones as played by Julie Newmar:

T'CHALLA STALKS HIS PREY

2011-09-06T01:19:00.000-04:00

'Nuff said.

SECRETIVE SIX SKETCHES

2011-08-26T19:44:00.003-04:00

Ryu of STREET FIGHTER fame...

A what if Hellboy was granted the Green Lantern Corps membership sketch...

Final Fantasy's character, Lightning...

The Vision after a scrap with some battle damage...

A redesign of the Black Cat as a Barbarian...

Dead or Alive's Kasumi--a real epic fail...

Shhh, keep it on the down-low.

HALLOWEEN SEASON: FIRST SIGN??!!

2011-08-25T23:16:00.003-04:00

Odd that the first sign I've noted that it's the season of HALLOWEEN is OREO cookies' orange creamed oreos. Great branding, guys, but this probably says more about me than the world around me...

TWO GUYS, A GIRL & A BALLPOINT

2011-08-16T23:29:00.003-04:00

Dave Stevens' Rocketeer--my first attempt at a sketch and so I wanted to make sure I got the jet pack right.

The assignment was to draw an old Ted Kord as the Blue Beetle and so we have the above.

"Her" or Kismet as she has become to be known. Pretty much the female version of Adam Warlock.

Haven't had much time to do the DSCs of late, so less posts from me.

POISON IVY AU NATURALE

2011-08-07T02:11:00.006-04:00

Above you have one of those ballpoint pen drawings that I occasionally doodle while sitting around bored or when I'm feeling expressive. Just a quick 10 minute whirl of the pen and I'm done, easy as pie. No need to be specific or highly detailed, the gist is there. But, as is always the case, the little things start to nag at an artist, any artist and the flaws start to assert themselves over even the parts of the doodle I really like.

One of my main problems is the female face, I often draw it as rough and tumble as the male faces--not a guy's face on a female body, but a rough and overly expressive face. Like in reality, subtlety works best with women. And so I try to tone down those exaggerated aspects that I often find myself drifting back into. BTW, now I've gone and put Ivy into Photoshop and have completed my normal quickish coloring job. But then I noticed that I hadn't quite turned down the power of the face to where I wanted.

Finally, we have the finished file. I scrapped the entire face and digitally reconstructed it with the much less harsh colors of Photoshop than the ballpoint. So, a little progress. I'll take it. And it certainly doesn't hurt that she's nekkies.

Click on either of the three lasses to enlarge for a closer look. Seriously, do it. Do it. No, do it...

MORE DOODLES TO AMUSE

2011-08-06T00:04:00.007-04:00

ATOMIC ROBO, my first time drawing this fine fellow and I wanted to work on shadow.

A redesign of the Great Machine from Ex Machina, more in the mode of the AKIRA anime.

Panthro of the THUNDERCATS, more shadow work and that background was also a focus.

BUCKY doing his best to smash the Nazi war machine one goose-stepper at a time.

(as always, click what you want to see for a closer look)

A SCALED UP SUPERMAN

2011-08-05T01:27:00.003-04:00

So a new SUPERMAN movie is in the works and they've gone and mucked with the outfit again. Looks like he's wearing Captain America-type scales, his chest emblem is a molded shield, he has no red britches and he's lost the "S" shape in his hair. Let's examine these things one by one...

The scaly texture is more apparent than it was on the last movie and thus, not a good thing. However, it is definitely not a deal-breaker.

The molded "S" shield, again, like the last film's take on the character just seems strange--kind of Power Ranger-ish even. I don't like it, didn't like it on the old outfit, don't like it here. Seems too plastic/rubbery.

Unless he's been knocked out of them in this picture, he seems to have no red tights on the outside of his outfit and so he is one less layer from showing us some superbits we don't want to see (well, maybe some of us do?). Not a good thing at all, as noted by many comic book artists--those red britches break up the blue color scheme and add balance to the overall look of the character. In other words, he looks like he's missing something vital!

I'll throw in here that it may be that there are some extra details such as armor lines hidden in these shadows that we don't see (I kind of do see something above his belt and on his right thigh). Proof that DC had Jim Lee base the new Supes look on the film? Perhaps.

The "S"uper spitcurl is missing, but I won't dwell on that as it is such a minor thing and who knows if it'll show up in some scenes or not.

I like the cape--somewhat long if one really looks, but it seems smooth and red and flowing over his shoulders as it should.

I like the boots--the general shape and look of them is classic, though it does appear the scaling continues even there.

I like the look of the actor--what you want to see in a Superman are natural good looks, dark hair and a good physique.

I like the look of this photo--well shot, dramatically lit, serious as a heart attack Superman.

Overall, nothing here that shakes the world, but a good indication of what we can expect when we look up in the sky for the Man of Steel in the coming year.

STRANGE (PARTY) MIX

2011-07-31T01:24:00.005-04:00

So I've been neglecting my baby blog and now to quickly catch her up to the present day, a soup of stuff that's showed up out of my mind of late:

STRESSFUL SKETCH COVERS

2011-07-23T02:02:00.007-04:00

The phenomenon of "sketch covers" primarily coming from Marvel Comics these days present quite a few problems for anyone doing the "sketching"...

First there's the size issue. Everyone may not know this but the average modern age comic book art page is 11 inches by 17 inches and many grow accustom to drawing at a much larger size than your typical comic book. So you have to plan ahead so that your figures aren't too big for the page. Luckily, I go for the wraparound effect as most sketch covers have a blank sketch area on the back page.

Secondly, there's the logo and barcode and pricing trade dress to deal with. It's tricky, but not a show-stopper and can even be used in the sketch.

Thirdly, there's the "I better not screw this guy/gal's comic up" fear. It's not as bad for me, as I work in a comic shop and can at least reorder a book if such a problem arises, but even that's not a full-proof thing.

Then there's the usual stress when dealing with drawing something for someone and that's all performance, which, it turns out, is the least troublesome. Usually, whatever crap we "drawers" turn out tends to be appreciated if for nothing else, the effort.

The above are examples of the trials and tribulations of doing a sketch cover... it ain't all smoke and mirrors. To enlarge a view on any of the above images, simply click on the image in question.

DIGITAL SKETCH DERBY

2011-07-13T00:37:00.005-04:00

Threw the above Kato sketch down in under 20 minutes, tried to portray the kinetic energy Bruce Lee brought to the fight scenes of THE GREEN HORNET.

Tried to do a bit of the grittiness and style of the artist of this series (McMahon) into my sketch of "The Last American" above.

For every success there are epic failures such as the very eh pose DD is in for the sketch up there.

Gabriel the Devil Hunter is a character I wasn't familiar with--he's trying to be both Nick Fury and Jason Blood all rolled into one--just a lot of shtick to deal with his striped hair and eye patch!

As Doom has declared, there shall be no digital sketch derby without DOOM!

And, finally, a combination Arthur from CAMELOT 3000 and the film, EXCALIBUR. My favorite take on the Arthurian legend.

LOONEY TUNES' MARC ANTONY AND PUSSYFOOT

2011-07-08T18:14:00.002-04:00

Sketch of, probably, the first work of fiction to make me tear up (I was all of 6 or so) as I felt so bad for poor Marc Antony for thinking his newfound friend Pussyfoot (or Cleo) had been baked into the cookies his owner had made. Easily one of my favorite all-time shorts. It can be found, well, here:

HEADS WILL ROLL

2011-07-08T02:08:00.002-04:00

Some digitally painted faces:

Bad likeness of Jessica Alba...

Hulk of HULK comics...

Agent ? of 100 Bullets

NIGHT OF THE NIGHT-RAVEN

2011-07-07T13:35:00.005-04:00

I'd forgotten about the Night-Raven, but it was an easy thing to do considering I'd only bought a prestige format book by David Lloyd and Jamie Delano a few years back (and had never gotten around to reading it).

This very Rorschach, very The Question looking fedora wearing crime-fighter wasn't completely new to me, then, when the guys over at Outcast wanted him as the subject of one of the sketch challenges.

He's fun to draw, this Marvel UK creation, but now I wonder if I can find that comic I bought and get around to see how fun he is to read about? We may see...

THE BEAUTY OF BALLPOINT

2011-07-04T19:37:00.004-04:00

Three sketches using blue ballpoint pen...

This is Skurge the Executioner, long-time partner/lover of the Enchantress

Here we have Alice of the movie series RESIDENT EVIL.

Finally, an unfinished take on a classic Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)...

DIRTY DOZEN DIGITAL DAILY SKETCHES

2011-07-01T02:09:00.006-04:00

So I'd fallen behind on blogging up my work with the Daily Sketch Challenges over at DeviantArt.com and I noticed that among the many entries, I hadn't posted a dozen of the sketches that were drawn digitally in my increasing attempts to improve my hand at this newfangled stuff. And so, July begins with a dozen that kind of catch me up to where I'm supposed to be.

(As always, click an image to make it easier to see.)

CONCRETE & the MONARCH

2011-06-26T01:46:00.004-04:00

I was pleasantly surprised when the folks at the Daily Sketch Challenge came up with Paul Chadwick's Concrete as the subject of the day a little while back. Took it as a cue to get subtle with my line and colors here on one of these newfangled computer programs.

(click on the big guy to get a better look)