Beware of the Black Hand!

Everyone likes receiving greeting cards...unless they're from ... The Black Hand!

The jail-cell bars on the inside of the card are made of some sort of thick cardboard packing form, affixed with cloth first aid tape. I believe this was all inspired by some kid's book I read, and isn't actually Mafia-inspired (La Cosa Nostra generally don't use prison time as part of their arsenal of threats). Also, I think that the "Alex" referred to may be a character in said book, as I don't recall having a friend by that name at that point.

Some People Might Call This a "Space Cowboy"

Few, if any, would call it a "Gangster of Love", however.

Komic Kharacter Kwiz

Can you identify these popular characters just from seeing their left arms? I'm betting that the answer is probably "Yes".


ANSWERS: (A) Popeye, (B) Batman, (C)Wonder Woman
I'm surprised at my misplacement of Popeye's tattoo, and I have no idea what's up with Batman's pinky.

A Day That Shall Live in Infamy

A brief treatise on the "General Sherman" tree, the biggest living thing in all the world. Mostly notable because, according to my mother's note on the back, it was my first homework assignment. Also, I suspect, my last one to be turned in on time.

Droid With a Bad Motivator

Yes, it's poor old R5-D4, hanging out with another droid that I apparently decided wasn't worth finishing. Back in the period between EMPIRE and JEDI, when there was much speculation as to who the other potential Jedi that Yoda had referred to might be, the best theory I ever heard of picked R2-D2. The evidence for this being that, when Uncle Owen passed over R2 in favor of today's star attraction, R2 beeped angrily and shook a bit, and KERPOW!! Poor R5-D4's head blew up... just as if R2 had used "Jedi mind tricks" to sabotage him! It was obviously a stretch, but it still could have made for a better film than the cinematic cow patty that we wound up with.

Thunder Lizard

This tyrannosaur's legs are so small, it almost makes me wonder if he's really a Komodo Dragon standing on his hind legs for a biscuit. Who will give this good boy a treat?

Me Little Swee'Pea

It appears that this was drawn with a Sanford felt-tip calligraphy pen, for some reason.

Abridgement of Free Speech

My first thought in attempting to interpret this is to question whether it is the man or the hat that's talking (the position of the balloon's tail is ambiguous). Moving on past that, we see a word balloon under siege,(from a lobster and an archer-less bow and arrow) already having suffered injuries that have been bandaged, though leakage of air (?) is forming separate balloons expressing their distress (though the primary message remains a friendly greeting). Actually, on further inspection, I think it's possible that what I initially perceived as a plumed hat is instead a catapult, which would account for the lowest bandage and the flying rocks. A strangely metatextual work of allegory, indeed.
And as long as we're talking about comics and free speech, it might be a good time to point out that the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has a lot on their plate right now, and could use all the help they can get. As a currently-unindicted comics retailer in the state of Georgia, I'm kinda taking a particular interest in their current case.

Ten Toes and Three Mouths

The second drawing featuring someone with snakes for arms here at "Early Works", though I wouldn't consider it a running theme in my work or anything. I don't know if those are lightning bolts or merely jagged antennae on his roll of neck-fat (which might actually be a loose-fitting necklace). This piece was a little tricky to reproduce, being drawn with what I imagine to have been a fairly hard (6H?) red colored pencil on green school paper, so this is as clear as I could get it.

I got a perfect score on my quiz on the obverse face, though I was apparently too eager to get down to important monster business to take the time to sign it. Mrs. Ashworth seems to have been able to figure out who was responsible easily enough, though.

Dracula's Bride

Dressed in a less sexy manner than usual (it looks like one of those quilted "granny" nightgowns that were popular at the time, but I assume it's just my attempt at 19th century ladies' attire), and oddly reminiscent of an undead Little Lulu, here we have one of the Count's "close personal friends" striking a threatening pose.

Feets Don't Fail Me Now!

This is from one of the scenes with John Belushi as a Death Squad Commander that were cut from the final released version. Okay, so technically speaking, that's what is known as a "bare-faced lie", but there is an undeniable resemblance.This is the last to be posted, but the first-drawn of a series of images of Star Wars folk getting shot that I drew in the spring of 1979. This is unique among them in that the protagonist hasn't actually gotten shot yet, and there's an attempt at a background (with rudimentary perspective, even!).

Mouse with Bat-Balloon

And we return from the unannounced summer vacation with... well... whatever this is. I mean, it's obvious that it's a mouse and a balloon shaped like Batman's head. But why? Good question. Are they supposed to be part of the same image, or just two drawings sharing a sheet of paper? Dunno. It seems that the mouse is reacting to the balloon (he seems pleased to see it, if startled), so I guess it all relates...but, as with so much of this stuff, the rationale is lost in the past.

DOGGY!

Maybe it's Snoopy, maybe not. The first two dogs I had were both named Snoopy.

Battle of the Dinosaurs!

Here we have a rather oddly composed fight scene between a tyrannosaurus and a pterodactyl. If you were a child at any point in the last 30 years and had any interest in dinosaurs (and who doesn't?), the odds are pretty good that you drew these exact dinosaurs (Use "Search Inside" and you can find the actual pages referenced). Yep, it's all thanks to good old Lee J. Ames --the noble king to whose throne the vile Christopher Hart pretends (I'm really interested to see how Jay Stephens' new instructional books turn out). I actually only had the dinosaur book and the comic character one, but I made a lot of use of them both. As you can see, though, I had some trouble figuring out how to take two different pieces and make them work together.

Three Happy Fellows

I'm impressed that they can keep their spirits up with only one nostril apiece.

Christmas List (?)

Maybe a Christmas list, or possibly just writing down stuff that I liked (I think that I already would have gotten the farm by this point). From the window after I'd developed the ability to write (sort of), but still was shaky on the whole spelling thing. I was reading very early, but my motor skills were a little slow catching up.

USS Enterprise NCC-1701

I might have done better if I'd rotated the paper 90º before I started drawing. If only I'd thought of that 31 years sooner!

Possibly Rabid Robot with Eye-Tentacle

That interpretation only holds up if you interpret the underside of the top part as a frothing robot mouth and the round bit as a slitted eye, rather than some sort of glowing grating and a joint held by a screw, of course. But it sounds more exciting than "Two Camera-Headed Robots", wouldn't you agree?

The Doodle People

Kibbles and Bits

Random doodles, of which the three on the lower right were drawn by my father. Why did I draw a vampire whale? Who can say?

Something Concerning Bats

I'm pretty much at a loss to explain what's going on here, unless it's a cutaway view of a vending machine that dispenses live bats. Which actually seems like it would be a pretty cool idea, except for the potential liability issues. I put a "Batman" label on it, but I'm not convinced that he has anything to do with it.