High Heels and Spear

The hot new look for fall, I predict. With what seems to be a tutu and opera gloves, no less. I don't know why I didn't pursue a career in fashion (other than my profound contempt for the whole industry and its hangers-on, of course).

Rain Dance

This may be a shaman doing a rain dance (the thing over his right hand looks like a storm cloud sending down a bolt of lightning), or it might be an African witch doctor (if the things on the left are in fact skulls on poles). Whatever he is, he sure is shaking those tambourines!

ROM, Spaceknight

Based more on the comic than the actual appearance of the toy itself. I was so pleased with this colored pencil rendering that it's one of a handful of drawings that I bound together in a screw-fastened binder (originally a military operational manual) that I...er...kind of looted from a storage closet aboard the U.S.S. Yorktown on a class field trip (Please don't tell the authorities-- I'm not sure what the statute of limitations is for that sort of thing.). I'll be posting more of the stuff from that binder in the near future during Shogun Warriors Week, coming soon to this website!

War of the Satellites: the Prequel

Well...it looks like I have to slightly revise my understanding of last Wednesday's entry, which it now appears was the second panel of a narrative sequence. It seems that the space pirate's satellite-thingy was engaged in a dogfight with some sort of composite of an X-wing fighter and a Colonial Viper (suggesting that this was drawn slightly later than I'd imagined), as seen here, before defeating it in the previously-shown piece. It is likely that the off-panel assailants of the pirate craft in the other piece would be found to resemble the ship shown here. Aren't you glad we cleared that up?

Seussian Band

My inspiration for this musical menage isn't hard to trace... to a point. It's obviously Dr. Seuss, but which book? A hastily-assembled brain-trust spanning the continental United States has failed to produce an answer to that question, and my books are inaccessible at the moment. The first comment with the correct answer will win a major award !

Splnt! Clang!

Alright, so it actually was intended to say "splat", but I think that I like "splnt" better, anyway. I have no idea what's happening here.

War of the Satellites

I find it interesting that the ship in the foreground that I actually put most of my effort into is in fact a mere observer of the action, with the actual assault on the space pirates' ship coming from off-panel.

The Letter "P"

Questionable Perspective

...unless we assume that this is in fact a special covered wagon shaped like a piece of elbow macaroni, so as to make it easier to circle the wagons at night. Of course, during the day, you'd just be riding in circles, so maybe this would be best suited for chickens who want the pioneer lifestyle without the risk of actually leaving town and heading out to the territories.

Werewolf With Mange

It's possible that this is actually just a shaved werewolf...or that he's actually some sort of (formerly) furry alien. That scraggly tail suggests mange to me, though. I assume that I abandoned the drawing of his associate out of dissatisfaction with his short arms. He clearly wouldn't pass a short arm inspection.

Criminal Escape!

I suppose this is a (possibly unfinished) drawing of a prison guard tower, but I'm open to other theories. If so, it might have been inspired by my reading of "The Super-Stalag of Space", a Legion of Super-Heroes story from Adventure Comics #344 & 345 (May/June 1966), that I read when it was reprinted in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #202 (June 1974).

Superman and Superboy-- Together Again!

This may have been inspired by a story published around that period wherein Old and Young Supie get stuck in the same period and resolve their dilemma by having one stand still and the other fly at him with all his might (accompanied by some narration concerning the whole "irresistible force/immovable object" conundrum), the result being that this causes him to be bashed through the time barrier to his own home time zone. It seemed like specious reasoning even then, but I accepted it. Alternately, this may be Superman with his son Superman, Jr., from the "Super-Sons" stories that ran periodically in World's Finest in those days. Either seems plausible to me.

Dog-Head Monster From Outer Space!

This one required a fair amount of retouching to be readable, since it was apparently drawn with a fairly hard pencil lead on cheap gray newsprint-- specifically, on page 12 of My Own Book for Listening and Reading (Student Record Book for Reading Laboratory® 1b, 1973 Edition). Still, I felt like it was absolutely worth it to share that crazy dog-monster with you, my loyal viewing public.

Still Life With Moo-Cow Creamer

A product of art class at school, this technically falls slightly outside the time frame of this project, but it's got the Moo-Cow, so I'll let it slide.

S.S. Minow

I don't know if this is a portrayal of Gilligan and the Skipper in happier times before their tragic accident, or instead an artist's rendering of Former FCC chairman Newton Minow's personal yacht.

Saruman!

Well, my father wrote that this was Saruman, so I suppose that it must be. It's been about 30 years since I read any of Tolkien's work, and close to that long since the ill-fated film, so I frankly can't remember who he is, though hasty research reveals that you folks out there in Computerland think he looks like Christopher Lee, and there is in fact no scriptural basis for my skull-faced rendering. Nevertheless, I stand by my unique artistic vision.

The Earl of Sandwich

Look, Ma-- no hands!

Three Comic Strips

What Grandfather could ask for a finer birthday gift than a trio of pantomime gag strips? In March of 1977, my own grandfather, John T. Thompson, Sr. was obliged to consider that very question on the occasion of his 65th birthday. If dissatisfied, he never mentioned it.
Said comics seem likely inspired by the Gold Key Club comics pages then used as filler in comics from that publisher. Sometimes they would just be wordless gags by staff artists, and other times there would be setups provided by the company and finished by readers. (Most if not all of these were 10-year old reprints-or just old used comics-at the time I was reading them, but it was all new to me). In this instance, though, I had to start from scratch. Taken in order:

• Icarus: In my retelling, Daedalus isn't involved. Icarus does it all himself. Of course, this may just be some other dude making himself a set of wings, but the mythological angle adds a touch of class. I thought the first panel was worthy of Saul Steinberg.

• Star Trek: A rather slight gag, but surprisingly post-modern and sophisticated for an 8-year old, if I might pat myself on the back.

• Superman: The least successful, mostly because the third panel is incomprehensible. I think it might involve Superman's construction of a jail cell, but I don't get it. The readers' interpretations are hereby solicited.

In retrospect, I wish I'd structured the third one to end with an explosion, so as to maintain the narrative symmetry, but I apparently wasn't all that concerned with it at the time.