Early Works

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2099-12-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

...I mean, only if you want to, of course. I'm not trying to force you to click on anything if you don't feel right about it.

Fun With French Curves

2010-02-07T23:47:00.001-05:00

Clearly, this one's ready for the Whitney Biennial of a a half-century or so ago! I'm not 100% sure of the tool employed; the line is too thick to be Bic Banana, but it's not a chisel-point, which rules out Magic Markers or El Markos. I can at least tell you that it's drawn on typing paper. I suspect this is actually a pen test, rather than a regression to a three- or four-year-old skill level; the rest of this pad of paper can be pretty conclusively slotted into the 1974-76 range (lots of Star Trek, no Star Wars), and there are other more coherent pieces involving this same French curve/protractor thingy.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, ONE AND ALL!

2009-12-25T13:53:00.000-05:00

This is about as late in the game as anything you'll ever see on this site, since, as a rule, teen-agers' art is as painful to look at as childrens' art is great. It's next to impossible to avoid a bad five years or so before you get your mojo back... and of course, for lots of folks, it never does come back. For boys, it's usually an ill-fitting obsession with the rendering of chrome, or abdominal muscles, or the particular curve of the spoiler on a 280-Z. For girls, it all turns into stiff horses with flowing manes and giant-headed doe-eyed girly men. Nowadays, the ubiquitous manga influence* lets clueless teens combine both these benighted aesthetics into a unified horror embraced by both sexes.
My work here is a late-to-the-party example of the duck craze seen in comics fanzine art in the late '70s, inspired of course by the popularity of Howard the Duck. I had certainly read and admired Howard by this point (not following it as it came out--I was a bit young for that-- but buying them from quarter boxes, from which they were then readily available). I'm not sure if I'd seen any of the fanzine stuff yet, since at this point I was only reading current issues of The Comics Journal and its less intellectually challenging little sibling, Amazing Heroes. I believe that this may have had its origins as a possible candidate for the latter magazine's regular "silly cover" feature, though I'm certain that I never actually submitted a black-and-white version for consideration. I do recall another attempt to create a submission featuring "Nick Furry, Agent of S.H.E.E.P.", based on this cover, but, again, I never submitted it and it's presumed lost.
The "Rudolph, the Radioactive Reindeer" character may have been conceived of prior to this piece; I definitely did a good number of drawings of him, as well as his springtime counterpart, the "Easter Beast". At some point after this, I renamed him"Randolph", since I'd decided that he was in fact a separate character. and not literally Robert L. May's beloved creation. I don't think I ever really tried to compose any stories featuring him, content to only draw "cool" action shots. Which brings us right back to paragraph one. Mea culpa!

*Before someone chimes in here, let me note that this is not a critique of manga, per se, so much as an observation that certain surface elements of popular manga styles intersect horribly well with seemingly-inborn teen badness. It's just a very effective template upon which a kid may construct doo-doo. Not that we don't have plenty of equally effective building blocks right here in the good old U.S. of A.

TV Christmas Special (In SMELLOVISION!)

2009-12-24T21:17:00.001-05:00

My grandfather at one point had a big stack of grey catalog envelopes that he used for organizing his business receipts, like the one pictured above. For whatever reason, I found them very pleasing as drawing paper, though this was obviously not the optimal application (I did at least use them to make a scrapbook for our vacation to Walt Disney world, binding them in a large checkbook binder so that each page was an illustration, with related postcards and other paper goods held inside the appropriate page... but generally, I was just wasting envelopes). This particular one is devoted to some sort of television program involving a dancing candy cane on stage (the cactusy-looking things are footlights). You may be asking "Why is the TV set is equipped with a special (labeled) 'Smellovision' attachment?" No amount of study of the drawing would lead you to any conclusions, and at this point, the physical object no longer bears any traces, but if you were in close proximity to the paper when it was new 31 years ago, you'd have smelled the peppermint-scented ball-point ink it was drawn with, from a pen similar to this:

...but with a green cap and no corporate logo. I'd provie a link to the site I stole the phptp from, but these are apparently discontinued, any way, so what's the use?
I really don't care for ball-points as a rule, but I really liked these pens... they smelled funny, the plastic had a very satisfying texture to chew on, and the cap was surprisingly sharp at its point. What more could one ask of novelty school supplies?

Impromptu Yoda Costume

2009-06-07T00:16:00.004-05:00

I believe that the impetus for this project was probably my acquisition of a stack of sheets of green foam rubber originally used as packing material at the Singer plant in Anderson where my grandmother worked. For whatever reason, one day it occurred to me that said foam rubber might be combined with a tank driver's cap from the army surplus store to create the fabulous headgear here depicted. The addition of a bathroom and my fabulous goat's hoof-tipped walking stick (hand-carved by my father several years earlier; it still exists, but is ludicrously short now that I've passed the three-foot line), and I was ready to offer up the ancient wisdom of the Jedi to all supplicants. I then posed for these photos and moved on to whatever mischief next called to me... likely one that involved swimming, fireworks, watermelon, or all of the above, since my memory is that this all occurred in late May or early June, not long after the movie came out.

Plagiarism

2008-09-22T10:12:00.001-05:00

... of Joan Walsh Anglund, of all people! Although I can't seem to find a baseball player image of hers to compare it with, so it's possible that I'm actually attempting to do original work in her style, which is even nuttier. I've been racking my brain trying to figure out the lower image, and I've only just untangled it. I initially saw it as some sort of robot (or perhaps a space heater) on skis or rockers, but I now realize that I was looking at it from the wrong angle:

As goofy as it may seem, I was apparently drawing Darth Vader's TIE fighter with a baseball cap on it! I've flipped the wing and added the front window in blue to the above detail view, to more clearly illustrate my thesis.

Mr. Mind Strikes Again!

2008-09-18T23:59:00.005-05:00

Those of you who haven't given me up for dead may recall this posting on my birthday back in April, where I drew Captain Marvel's famous arch-enemy, Mr. Mind, following instructions in an old SHAZAM! issue. In looking through a different notebook, I found another, simpler version, presented above. Comparing the two now suggests to me that the other one may have been done a year or so later than I previously believed, though it's possible that I may have just put more effort into the other one.
Actually, further investigation confuses the issue even further. I've just determined (between the two paragraphs) that this drawing is unquestionably from late summer/early fall 1977. So it's definitely the same age or newer, just more hastily drawn. So that's that.

Irish Snowman

2008-06-26T08:13:00.004-05:00

As one might surmise from the various clues to be seen, this photograph was taken on St. Patrick's Day, 1971. I am a little over a month shy of my third birthday; my mother is 22. This is probably the first snowman that I had any direct participation in, and certainly the one I have the most vivid memories of (though that can probably be attributed to the existence of the photograph as much as any other factor).The eyes and buttons are radishes (a vegetable I otherwise have no tolerance for), the mouth is obviously carrot-based, and the hat is, I think, from Hallmark.

Other Fun Facts:

This is the front yard of 139-A Cochran Road, where we lived from 1970-74.
I still have a scar under my arm where I got pinched badly by shifting parts of the swing set in the background.
The scarf and hat were particular favorites of my mother in those days; I still have said scarf, currently stored with my own seldom-used winter accoutrements.

The Ballad of Davy Crockett

2008-05-19T09:35:00.000-05:00

Click here to hear me and my new Realistic-brand Cassette Recorder. I don't yet know how close to hold the mike at this point, so it's even poorer quality than the equipment and tape would have dictated, but it is what it is.

Collage Piece

2008-05-02T09:53:00.001-05:00

Devlin Thompson

Waka! Waka! Waka! Waka!

Adhesive paper, enameled metal door

1979, 1981

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

In this piece, I have attempted to make a statement about world hunger through repurposing commercially available "bubble-gum card stickers" portraying popular actors and video game characters to create an imagined scenario in which "Pac-Man", having no access to the "power pellets" that constitute his/its normal diet, is forced instead to consume "Commander Adama." To subtly reinforce the food theme, I chose as my substrate an actual refrigerator door still in use at the time, so that the viewer would be forced to contemplate the image before every meal or snack. Not shown: several subsequent image groupings on the same door, involving "Spider-Man", an orange cow, "Blinky the Ghost" (famed nemesis of Pac-Man), and magnets displaying pictures of food and the telephone number of a local pizzeria .

Mr. Tawny

2008-05-01T05:03:00.000-05:00

In our previous installment, we took a look at my attempt to follow the instructions for drawing Mr. Mind provided in the above comic. Returning to that same feature, we also find this tutorial on rendering Captain Marvel's feline friend, Mr. Tawny:

...and here is my resulting masterpiece:

The unfinished piece below it is apparently Dr. Sivana, the third subject of the lesson. If I actually did a finished version, it is lost to history.

Mr. Mind

2008-04-24T09:43:00.001-05:00

Today we present to you Limited Collector's Edition # C-35, Apr.-May, 1975, in a scan stolen from www.treasurycomics.com. If you were in possession of said comic, and you were to turn to page 44, you'd find yourself reading a feature by the late great Kurt Schaffenburger entitled "SHAZAM! Presents...How To Draw Cap's Friends and Foes". An excerpt follows:

And here is my attempt to apply this lesson:

Tune in tomorrow for more of the same.

For those who might find it of interest, I'll note that , as I click on the "publish post" button, it will have been forty years and eight minutes since Dr. James Ruff delivered your host into the world.

Mr. Crucifix

2008-03-03T10:02:00.004-05:00

I guess this is how the denizens of Lidsville depict Jesus in their religious art. Note that this was penciled, then inked (with a Flair pen, I believe). For whatever reason, I did this for several pages worth of drawings in this particular notebook, though none of them show any evidence that I was attempting to refine them in the inking process. I suspect that I just came in after the fact and traced what I'd previously done (after a run of 8 or 10 pages, the inking stops abruptly in the middle of a drawing of a giant cannibal policeman). I wish I'd kept notes to explain my thought process, but that's probably asking too much of a seven-year old.

Kentucky and Indiana

2008-02-28T10:49:00.005-05:00

I think it's safe to assume that this had something to do with Abraham Lincoln.

Boba Fett

2008-02-27T10:46:00.003-05:00

Firstly. let me pause to welcome a valuable new member of the Early Works team, the Canon CanoScan LiDE 20 scanner, who will be filling the position formerly occupied by Mr. AcerScan 620U. It is hoped that a scanner not bearing a sticker exhorting the user to "Get Ready For Win98" may be better equipped to serve this blog's needs.
Now, to the matter at hand: everyone's favorite bounty hunter, Mr. Fett. This drawing was drawn months in advance of his live-action debut (but over a year after his animated debut), and is referenced partly from a plastic cup available at theaters during that year's Star Wars re-release (mine is inaccessible, and I can't find it online, but here's another in the same set), but mostly from the ad on the back of the action figures for the mail-in offer that convinced a generation of the existence of the "missile-firing backpack" Fett figure. For those who haven't got the memo yet---that kid you knew who swore that he had one/ his cousin had one/ some kid at camp had one was lying. He didn't.
The detailed color work on this piece was done with the felt-tip markers discussed here, and the forest background was rendered either with Design Markers (R.I.P) or those Magic Marker-brand pens whose body is actually a stubby glass bottle with the label shrinkwrapped around it. Man, I loved those things! I suppose that it's been long enough that I can confess that the few of them that I ever had were in fact stolen from school. But if I'd ever known where to get them, I'd have gladly purchased them legitimately! Incidentally, I couldn't find any images of the particular model I'm discussing, but here's Sidney Rosenthal's original patent, and here's a really amazingly cool variation on the theme that I covet mightily.

Flying House

2008-02-22T07:14:00.003-05:00

I'm a bit confused by the fact that the rockets attached to the house are firing, yet not producing enough lift to prevent the parachute from opening. And since the chute is fully open despite the counteracting thrust, one would assume that the house would be descending fairly rapidly... but the smoke from the chimney is drifting diagonally, rather than vertically as one might expect under the circumstances. But even if it's impossible to gauge the rate of descent, here's obviously a problem, since the occupant has bailed out using the attic-mounted ejector seat.

Unfinished Hawkman

2008-02-18T10:48:00.000-05:00

I assume that the sudden realization that I'd left no room for his right arm was the reason I abandoned this one.

Centrifuge Incident

2008-02-15T09:35:00.000-05:00

The device pictured is a hand-cranked centrifuge from a Gilbert chemistry set that I had mounted on racks on the wall over my desk. One raises and lowers the handle at the top to cause the test-tube holders to spin, in the manner of a mechanical top. It is the star of today's anecdote.
From the time I was 8 or 9 years old until we moved into town where we could get cable (circa 1987), the only television in the house was the one in my room, a big old color model that was primarily used as a monitor for the Atari and Commodore 64, as our reception was lousy. If something of interst to others came on, they'd come into my room to watch.
One night, when my cousin Susie was visiting us, there was something coming on that she and my parents wanted to watch but I didn't (possibly Saturday Night Live), so I bade them good night, crawled into bed and headed off to Slumberland as they watched their show nearby.
The next morning, when I got up and headed out into the living room to get breakfast, I found everyone staring quizzically at me as I entered, and Susie was having trouble maintaining a straight face. After a moment, they explained.
I had been asleep for something less than an hour when, without warning, my eyes snapped open and I sat up straight, announcing "I have just the thing! I have just the thing!" I then hopped out of bed, ran across the room to my desk, and snatched up the centrifuge. I pumped the handle several times, watching it spin, and, to the startled onlookers, announced "I'm not a weirdo...everyone's doing it!" Then, I quietly went back to bed and went to sleep. I can't recall if I took the centrifuge with me.
While I've done plenty of talking in my sleep this is the only incident of somnambulism on my resume that I'm aware of.

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T20:28:00.004-05:00

I'm back now.

Forced Nostalgia

2007-12-05T10:36:00.000-05:00

A strangely forced, obligatory portrayal of an American Grafitti-style Drive-in scene. Sometimes I would do drawings in which I felt in some way compelled to follow my impression of how things were supposed to be depicted, rather than really expressing myself, and this seems to be such a case. I also have several examples of the cliched squiggle-haired stick figure labeled "TEACHER" (occasionally misspelled intentionally) that are invariably seen on the blackboard in any cartoon set in a classroom.
A notable aspect of this drawing is that I did draw the sign of the now-defunct Pete's Drive-In No. 5, located near my grandparent's house on E.River St. in Anderson, SC, although I don't think there was a canopy out front. Also, I should point out that the convertible has to be at least 30 feet long.

Chagrined Lion

2007-12-04T09:31:00.000-05:00

Half-Freckled Cyclops

2007-12-03T10:25:00.000-05:00

I think this fellows unusual markings may be attributed to laziness rather than intent, but who knows? Kids are nutty. I've always suffered from poor follow-through, though.

Star Trek

2007-11-30T10:26:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to figure out what the thing at the bottom (apparently not part of the Star Trek bit, since it's separated by the line above it) is supposed to be. It reminds me of the crude, stylized race cars in Indy 500 (or Rally-X, but that's still several years in the future). It's possible that I drew a car, and then was idly doodling, connecting outer edges, then corners. Alternately, the car image I see might just be coincidental, and it's an attempt at a version of some Star Trek vehicle or prop that I just can't remember, as I really haven't seen a whole lot of episodes in the last 20 years or so.

Two Unfinished Gaikings

2007-11-29T10:44:00.000-05:00

For the uninitiated, Gaiking was a Japanese robot featured in the Shogun Warriors toy line, but not in the comic book.Probably referenced from some imported "Presto-Magix"-style rub-down transfers I got at a toy store in Wilmington, NC that I always visited when in town to see my grandfather. I used most of them on some cheap styrene plastic shoe-boxes I bought to store small toy parts (missiles, guns, etc.). Regrettably, they broke almost immediately, but I kept the cracked, useless lids for several years thereafter, purely because of the chipped, flaking images of Dangard Ace and friends still clinging to them.

Darth Vader's Head

2007-11-28T10:56:00.001-05:00

I suspect that the stylized diamond-shaped "cheekbones" here are clumsily-referenced from Carmine Infantino's art in the Star Wars comic, but that's only conjecture.

"OPO"

2007-11-27T10:03:00.000-05:00

Okay, so it's an octopus, obviously. but its bifurcated cranium seems to suggest that it's intended as a monster of some sort, and I believe that the squiggly lines in the middle are evidence that it's intended to be transparent, with the tangle of lines representing its internal organs. And, apparently, its name is "Opo" (possibly inspired by "Ocho", the pet octopus from the Hanna-Barbera Addams Family cartoon), unless those are supposed to be lumps or spots on its skin that were too sloppily drawn. I'm pretty sure that's his name, though.

Invasion of the Saucer Men

2007-11-23T10:11:00.000-05:00

The inspiration for a lot of these pieces is lost to me, but this one is easy. It's referenced from 2 or 3 different publicity stills from Invasion of the Saucer Men, but mainly this one:

... which was one of the illustrations for the Famous Monsters of Filmland article on the film, as reprinted in 1979 in this Alien cash-in special, which has one article on Alien, but is otherwise all early-'60s reprints (which was just fine by me):
I remember being very pleased with this drawing, particularly with the color modeling of his bulging head-veins.

Hand-Turkeys

2007-11-22T12:28:00.001-05:00

Now, what else did you think I'd post today? It's a grand old American tradition. I wonder what children in turkeyless countries turn their hand-tracings into?

This is the drawing that's bleeding through from the reverse (or possibly obverse...I'm not sure which side was originally the front) side of the above piece. I don't know why the vulture perched on the sign has two different-colored wings.

Eyes or Ears?

2007-11-21T09:39:00.001-05:00

You tell me. Whatever they are, they're pretty ostentatious.

The UHF Spectrum

2007-11-20T00:58:00.001-05:00

Today's episode is dedicated to Mr. Dave Merrill, America's Ambassador to Canadia.

In today's media-soaked world, it's easy to forget how limited and ephemeral one's entertainment options really were (I mean, if you weren't willing to settle for playing outdoors and interacting with other living humans and stuff, of course). Upstate South Carolina had many good points, but the availability of a wide selection of interesting syndicated reruns and cartoons on the local channels was not among them. Until 1980, if I wanted to see cable television, I had to ride on a different bus after school with my friend Richard Dubose to his grandparents' house in town, at which point we could then watch about 90 minutes of WTCG (Later WTBS, TBS, and now WPCH) out of Atlanta before we hitched a ride home with one of my parents at 6:00. Spectreman and Space Giants were rare, hard-won treats indeed. If I was staying downtown in the evening, I could go over to the bar adjacent to the bookstore my father managed and they'd let me watch KTVU out of Oakland, which was at that time a "superstation" on nationwide cable, like WOR, WGN, and the aforementioned WTBS. Not only did it have a thrilling (if crappy) array of shows I'd only read about previously, like The Marvel Superheroes, and Clutch Cargo, but due to the time difference, they just got going as the local channels went to the news hour. Plus, they featured TV Pow!, the world's most retarded game show!
Around this period, my friends and I generally rushed up the hill from the bus stop to the nearest friendly house to watch Star Blazers (and, most days, the second half of New Zoo Revue, which preceded it, even though we were a bit old for it) on the local Christian channel, WGGS. They mixed a bit of secular programming amongst the sacred, but outside of the aforementioned pair, there wasn't much to see. On the other hand, it was always exciting to tune in to channel 40, if they were on the air.
WAIM was a tiny, low-power station that showed both ABC and CBS programming in the evenings, but the afternoons were filled with a crazy party mix of kid-oriented programming. A typical afternoon would feature Felix the Cat, Mighty Mouse, Speed Racer, The Little Rascals, and other assorted cartoons...but in no fixed sequence.! In fact, on at least one occasion that I recall, they played a Speed Racer, followed it with 15 minutes of Mighty Mouse, and then repeated the same Speed episode. Also, at least once every couple of weeks, the transmitter would break down and they'd have to send over to Greenville for a repairman, so they'd be off the air for the night. Watching channel 40 was an adventure. It was probably on such an afternoon that I drew this page of mostly Speed-related doodles. I don't recall if the flying saucer car is from the show, or whether it was my own design. Again, like yesterday, we see the notes on homework interpolated with the drawings.

10 Homonyms

2007-11-19T16:51:00.000-05:00

Regrettably, this was just a drawing and a hastily-scrawled homework assignment sharing a page, rather than an illustration of a fanged gentleman shouting his love for homonymy. Incidentally, spellcheck thinks that "homonymy" is not a real word, but it's a big stupid idiot in that regard.

With luck, my recent computer difficulties are behind me (though I'm still using a scanner bearing a sticker exhorting me to "Get Ready for Win98", so there are still opportunities aplenty for disaster), and, barring further mischance, (week)daily postings should now resume. Did you miss me?

Cutaway View of a Cyborg

2007-11-14T10:21:00.000-05:00

I've always had a real fondness for exposed internal organs.... the Visible Man, Pulsar, Gre-Gory, Mutagen Man, whatever. One of the things in life I still need to do is to see one of those cows with windows installed in their side so you can watch their innards.

Stylized Toddler

2007-11-02T09:30:00.001-05:00

I believe this is my attempt at doing Munro Leaf.

Happy Ice Cream Cone Man

2007-11-01T09:31:00.001-05:00

Wearing an Indian headdress, perhaps? Or maybe he's a grossly-deformed porpoise, and that's his blowhole spouting.

Frankenstein is a monster with Green skin,

2007-10-31T10:55:00.001-05:00

There is really nothing more that needs to be said about this; it speaks for itself quite eloquently.

Determined X-Wing Pilot

2007-10-30T10:15:00.000-05:00

This guy means business. Woe betide any TIE fighter pilots that get in his way.

STOP IT!

2007-10-29T09:08:00.000-05:00

This, to me, is perhaps the oddest thing I've posted here. The collaged mascot characters are from the cover of a sketchbook, but I can't remember which manufacturer's mascot he is...Speedball and Grumbacher are the two most likely suspects, but I can't find evidence of the source off hand. I have no idea what they're arguing about, either.

Smug Jerk

2007-10-26T09:51:00.000-05:00

Don't you just want to smack him?

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

2007-10-25T09:26:00.000-05:00

Oy! I get past "E" and "S" (the traditional problem letters for little kids-- at least according to Our Gang and any number of cartoonists throughout history), I power on through, narrowly averting the omission of "R", ignoring the fact that my Magic Marker is dying in my hand, showing unparallelled grit and determination, and...I stumble and fall flat on my face at the finish line! Humiliating.

Mixed Media

2007-10-24T09:19:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure whether this was my original intent, or whether I drew something and then opted to glue some stuff to it afterward. I don't believe I was in day care yet, so this would seem to have been my idea rather than an assigned task.

Cardboard Bunny

2007-10-23T10:57:00.001-05:00

This is pretty self-explanatory, I suppose. In retrospect, I'm not sure why I didn't find a white or colored piece of cardboard, but its drabness has an certain low-key appeal. It would be another two or three years before I'd start using an X-acto knife with any regularity (and even then, I usually favored big scary box-cutters instead), so this was cut with poked-through scissors, hence the ragged edges.

Violent Napkin with Sharks

2007-10-22T12:34:00.000-05:00

Here we see me taking the theme of "guy being punched in the jaw" and exploring all the ways I'd ever seen it portrayed in cartoons. Then, as a palate cleanser, I throw in a turkey with the head of a man, cat's eyes, and the massive protruding fangs of a saber-toothed tiger. My father drew the shark and shrimp boat and it's possible that the mermaid/manatee thing is a collaboration. The shrimp boat is the Osibisa, a leaky old hulk that my father worked on through most of 1975 (it sank within a year or so after his departure). It sailed out of Bowen's Island, SC, where my mother and I joined him through the summer months. I went out with them several times and had exciting maritime adventures, one of which will be recounted in this spot at a later date.
The flip side is all my father's work, continuing the shark theme, plus a bonus werewolf for good measure.

The Skyway Inn

2007-10-02T10:29:00.000-05:00

I thought this might have been the name of an actual motel we stayed at when I was small (Gatlinburg, 1972 was the likely setting in my mind), but I can find no evidence to support this. It's possible that this is floating in the sky, Jetsons-style, but I may have just neglected to draw other hills and mountains to ground it in its setting. The apparent face formed by the balconies and window at the right may or may not be intentional. Frankly, I can't make head or tail of this, but here it is anyway.

High Heels and Spear

2007-09-29T09:01:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-26T09:21:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-25T10:14:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-24T09:12:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-22T09:26:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-09-20T09:58:00.001-05:00

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

2007-09-19T09:33:00.000-05:00

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"

2007-09-18T10:42:00.000-05:00

Questionable Perspective

2007-09-15T09:15:00.000-05:00

...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

2007-09-14T09:43:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-09-13T08:08:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-09-11T10:24:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-09-10T14:19:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-08T09:30:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-07T09:38:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-09-06T09:35:00.001-05:00

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

2007-09-05T09:21:00.000-05:00

Look, Ma-- no hands!

Three Comic Strips

2007-09-04T10:54:00.001-05:00

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.

Exoskeleton for a Disembodied Brain

2007-08-31T08:13:00.000-05:00

Almost certainly torn from the same notebook as this piece, we see before us my concept for a suit to help disembodied living brains live a more normal , active life... kinda like a Rascal, but more so.

Hang In There: a Story Treatment

2007-08-30T08:44:00.001-05:00

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I never actually submitted this to 20th Century Fox. I mean, there's no romantic interest, little opportunity for product placement, and the third act just fizzles out. But maybe if I were to rework it with an eye toward the Sundance market...

2007-08-29T09:55:00.001-05:00

The tiny, awkward X-wing seems very much an afterthought, added to lend some sort of drama to the static frontal view of Lord Vader's souped-up TIE fighter. I don't think it succeeds.

Three Sailors, a Civilian, a Robot, and a Caveman

2007-08-28T09:54:00.000-05:00

Regrettably, I have no actual joke to go with this set-up. But it would have to be a heck of a joke, I'm certain! The robot is one of several that I drew in that period mounted with threatening syringes... I don't know where that was coming from. Perhaps there was something like that in a trailer for Demon Seed?

The Beast with Nine Fingers

2007-08-25T07:02:00.000-05:00

Either that or he's brandishing a large spider.

Derivative Robot with Pistol

2007-08-24T09:13:00.000-05:00

This fellow's head seems to be a variation on the "Death Star Droid" (with some kind of gadget emitting an electrical arc added on his forehead), while his legs come from Force Commander. The background is fairly perfunctory...note that the small rocky hill is in fact too small for the door built into it. It looks like I tried to fix it by adding a tiny doorway at the bottom to turn it into a tall building off in the distance that's awkwardly placed in front of a mountain, but the horizon line betrays me.

Men in Profile (Some Fanged)

2007-08-23T09:21:00.000-05:00

It's the old "let's draw random shapes and try to turn them into stuff" bit! Always a winner.

Note with Incidental Colonial Viper

2007-08-22T10:04:00.001-05:00

If I thought anyone would believe it, I would claim that the Viper was drawn specifically to illustrate the note. A (possibly) interesting side note: later that year, I would dream that I'd received a life-size prop Viper for Christmas (on my grandmother's front lawn with a huge bow tied around it), and the rest of the dream was concerned with the monstrous impracticality of owning such a thing, and my ambivalent feelings about this albatross of a gift. I believe this may have been prompted by an article in Starlog tracking the fates of a couple of similar life-size rockets offered as contest prizes in the '50s, but it may have actually been before I read that. It was perhaps my least fun toy-related dream ever.

Snoopy, Baby Linus, and Not-Baby Linus

2007-08-21T09:22:00.001-05:00

The early, more dog-like Snoopy stars here, both solo and with baby Linus in a drawing referenced from the Jan.10, 1954 Peanuts, that I first read in Good Grief, Charlie Brown, and which may be more readily seen these days in The Complete Peanuts 1953-54. The other baby kinda looks like Swee'pea, but I think I was just trying to extrapolate my own character from Linus' wardrobe. A side note: it was a late-in-the-game decision to try to figure which book the strip appeared in, but upon making a long-shot attempt to see if it was in one of the small number of Peanuts paperbacks we have in stock at work, I found it in the first one I opened! It's kismet, I tell you!

Manic (Possible) Robot with Hat

2007-08-20T17:16:00.000-05:00

I bring up the possibility of this fellow being a robot because he seems to have rows of rivets across his torso, and, though it doesn't reproduce here, he is drawn entirely in silver and gold crayon. I can't say how what appears to be a frog (or possibly bird) leg fits with my theory. This is the next page in the typing paper pad after The Happy Fisherman.

Man with Floppy Head

2007-08-18T09:46:00.000-05:00

I don't think his head is supposed to be a banana, or that those are Frankenstein neck-bolts sticking out, but I'm not going to rule either possibility out. I'm curious whether the appendage at left was intended as leg or tail, but I can't provide a definitive answer to that question, either.

It's Special Mystery Guest Artist Day!

2007-08-17T09:00:00.000-05:00

This was in a batch of comics I bought today at the store that were found in the attic of an old house being cleaned out here in town, mostly dated between 1958 and 1961. The kid didn't write his or her name or any explanatory text anywhere on it, so I can't speak to the original intent- a skull wearing bunny ears? Richie Rich's girlfriend Gloria with her face ripped off? It almost reminds me of Dr. Syn, though that's unlikely. Whatever the now late-middle aged artist intended, the result is pretty spectacular.

The Happy Fisherman

2007-08-16T09:54:00.000-05:00

Actually, the fisherman's mood seems pretty neutral. That fish is pretty happy, though.

Portrait of an Oaf

2007-08-15T09:34:00.000-05:00

Possibly Bert, but more likely just an oaf.

Swamp Jogger

2007-08-14T16:22:00.000-05:00

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. That is in fact the Swamp Thing participating in the jogging craze of the turn of the decade, wearing au courant (for 1982) jogging couture, and stepping in a dog turd as a an apparent homage to the ouevre of noted auteur de chien-merde Al Jaffee. What can I say? It was the '80s, man.
I was crazy for Swampy and Berni Wrightson in general in this period, although both were disappointing me with their then-current projects...Wrightson with his tepid and stiff Creepshow adaptation, and Swampy with his wretched movie and tepid tie-in comic (which would soon after the time I drew this piece take a radical turn for the better). I vividly remember riding the 20 or so miles to the (long-since demolished) Belvedere Theater in Anderson, SC to see the movie, rereading my back issues in anticipation. I also remember riding home in sullen silence, feeling like a chump.
I've got a good number of other drawings of ol' Swampy (drawn in the Bissette/Totleben mode), but they fall outside the time period this site covers. Indeed, this is straining against the boundary fence as it is.

BONUS SWAMP THING MOVIE-RELATED AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ANECDOTES: A family friend at the time worked on a lot of movies shot in the Charleston area, and worked on Swamp Thing. He was on the scene when a good number of the cast and crew were apparently busted for coke possession (I don't recall the specifics). We were visiting at the time of the filming, and went with him to a sneak preview of Raiders of the Lost Ark, wher he pointed out to me that we were sitting maybe three rows behind Adrienne Barbeau herself. Around this time, he also gave me some script pages to study (I was interested in working in the industry at the time) from Larry Kasdan's new script. It was some time later when I was sitting in a theater trying to figure out why portions of the movie seemed so familiar, and realized it was the script I'd read...now in its completed form as The Big Chill.

In a Haunted House

2007-08-10T19:15:00.000-05:00

Ghosts at the window! Ghosts coming through the giant keyhole! Ghosts walking through walls! Invisible Ghosts! Ghosts passing through what's probably a vault door!! GHOSTS! GHOSTS! GHOSTS! GHOSTS!

EEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sketches Toward a Never-Realized Monster Suit

2007-08-09T09:16:00.000-05:00

I was very interested in constructing some sort of monster suit for myself until I did further research into the price of "Fun Fur", which pretty much put the kibosh on the whole affair. I expect that the latex feet and chestpiece would have been beyond my 12-year old skills, anyway.

"G"

2007-08-08T07:19:00.000-05:00

"G"....that really says it all, doesn't it? It had better, because that's all I'm going to say.

"Robbyesque"

2007-08-07T09:14:00.000-05:00

As much as I admired (and still admire) Robby the Robot, I don't think I ever attempted to actually draw him as a child, seeing that as too daunting of a task. I was right--it is. I attempted to draw Robby without accurate reference last week for a young friend of mine, and...well...let's just say that it's a good thing that preschoolers aren't the most discerning audience. Still, I would frequently adapt aspects of Robby's design to my own ends, and this is clearly an example of that practice

The Mummy Walks Among Us

2007-08-06T11:15:00.000-05:00

I'm not clear as to whether the mummy is reaching out to strangle the viewers or just waving "hi" to us, but he seems to be in a good mood, regardless. This is a companion piece to this post and this one, for those who are keeping track.

More Fun with Drafting Implements

2007-08-04T09:50:00.001-05:00

What better use of a fancy protractor thing than to make a drawing of said protractor thing?

Dial "H" For Hero (conclusion)

2007-08-03T09:37:00.001-05:00

(Continued from here and here.)

While I recall at least a couple more designs (one was a flying woman with big hair like Starfire, and I recall a sort of girl version of Polar Boy... there may well have been more), this is the last one of these designs that I can lay hands on. He's basically the Atom crossed with Ferro Lad, plus a cape. His atomic thingies are probably intended to be a Captain Atom riff, but the result, regrettably is more reminiscent of Firestorm.
These might or might not have made the grade if I'd had any follow-through, but we'll never know. As it is, the only marks I left on the world of comics in my teens were a letter in Neil the Horse and a mention in Cerebus. C'est la vie.

Dial "H" For Hero (part two)

2007-08-02T09:25:00.000-05:00

Here we have the second of my never-submitted character designs, as explained in part one. I don't recall if Chris and Vicky ever changed their ethnic makeup in their transformations, but I apparently thought that Chris might work well as a black pirate guy with some sort of magic sword. I don't know if his peculiarly cross-eyed nipples are part of his super-powers or not. Man...that tiny head is traveling into Liefeld territory, isn't it?

Tomorrow: even more!

Dial "H" For Hero (part one)

2007-08-01T09:09:00.000-05:00

Dial "H" For Hero was a fairly obscure DC Comics series created in 1965 about a teen-ager who found a magical gadget shaped like a rotary telephone that, when the letters H-E-R-O were dialed on it, would transform the user into a variety of superheroes. If this seems kinda similar to Ben 10 to you, you're not alone. Anyway, after a long dormancy, the strip was revived in 1981 with a new gimmick... now, the goofy contrived heroes (and villains) would be created by the readers. The winning contributors got t-shirts. I don't know off-hand how many if any of the winners ever worked in the comics industry, but there was a winning entry from famous comics dilletante Harlan Ellison. I wonder if he still has his shirt? I sat down at my grandmother's house one evening with pens, paper, and a copy of How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way and turned out a stack of submissions, none of which I ever bothered to send in. I know there were more than I now have, but I've got a few left with which to embarrass myself. Though, frankly, these characters aren't any lamer than, say, Shadowhawk. But here, you be the judge! I give you.... FIRESTARTER!

Okay, so the name's kind of lame....but in my defense, this was the dawn of the "grab the nearest noun and trademark it" era of superhero nomenclature, and I basically lived in bookstore, so Steven King titles were staring me in the face constantly (though I've never read the book or seen the movie). The costume's kind of a Gil Kane riff and I suspect that the stylized flames were intended as kind of Steve Ditko-ish.
Tomorrow: more of the same!

Cross Section

2007-07-31T09:27:00.000-05:00

Always a classic compositional gambit, here we have my first usage of the old "What's on his mind?" bit. I'm not certain if this is intended to be a self-portrait or not. The presence of a comic book would seem to confirm it, but the other objects seem less apropos, as it were. The bottom object, I believe, is a wrapped piece of hard candy, and the striped thing is probably a peppermint stick. I do like candy, though those aren't my favorites. The horse (?) is further afield, the barbell I don't get, and I have no idea what the object in front of the horse is... a ping-pong paddle? A mushroom?

Collaborative Piece

2007-07-30T10:01:00.000-05:00

I assume that this started with a request for my father to draw Snoopy for me, to which I then added my slightly less "on-model" rendering of Charlie Brown.

Flying Trinacromerum

2007-07-29T12:07:00.000-05:00

This may be an extrapolation of something in the Lee J. Ames book (as discussed in this post), but the fact of its being drawn on tracing paper may be an indication that it was traced from some other dinosaur book. I was having trouble finding any reference to "Romerum" in any English-language documents, but I eventually determined that the missing piece would have completed the word "Trinacromerum".It starts out as a pretty accurate rendering, and then goes its own way...I suppose the horn and wings are reasonable enough, butI'm not sure what I was shooting for with that strangely humanoid hind leg. And then there's the butterfly-winged snake and the bat-winged ladybug...as well as the fact that the smaller flying fish has little clawed pterodactyl wings.As usual, I was so far ahead of the other paleontologists that they still haven't caught up to me.

Yellow Submarine

2007-07-28T09:12:00.000-05:00

Referenced, but not traced (I just went downstairs and checked) from the cover of the soundtrack album. Said album was the first pop album that I purchased entirely independently of any adult, at a short-lived record shop upstairs from my parents' place of employment. I had plenty of records that had purchased for me, and I'd previously special-ordered the Close Encounters of the Third Kind soundtrack at the same shop, but this is where it all began for me as a record buyer. I don't think I've actually listened to it in this century yet, but it's the only post-Yesterday and Today Beatles album I'd be likely to pull out. Nonetheless, they all sit there patiently awaiting being called up to duty.
I'm thinking that this was probably done between Christmas and New Year's Eve, because I'm pretty sure that it was drawn with a particularly nice set of felt-tips that my Godmother gave me for Christmas that year. I got a lot of use out of those, and I believe that I still have one or two of the less-useful colors that could still more or less function, tucked away among my art supplies.

Batman in "The Treeman Strikes"

2007-07-27T10:19:00.001-05:00

Today we present a somewhat truncated short story for your entertainment. The story structure seems to be inspired more by the TV show than actual comics, and I believe the "Treeman" may be intended to be one of the generic villains (of whom I can find no image) included in the "Superadventure" Colorforms set I had. Note the unorthodox use of "arching" to mean "practicing archery". Also the lack of punctuation. I don't know if I just ran out of steambefore the fight scene or whether I was more interested in character and dialogue than gratuitous fight scenes. I suspect the former is more likely.

A Busy Day on the Moon

2007-07-26T08:25:00.000-05:00

There's a lot going on here-- there's Space Station K-7 (propelled by rockets for some reason), the proposed L-5 Point Space Station, a Mercury capsule, and what I think are a couple of Robert Goddard's early experimental rockets, along with a dome-shaped lunar base and a couple of robots of my own design. A pretty odd mix.

Vindictive Cloud

2007-07-25T09:26:00.000-05:00

I don't know what that tree did to anger the cloud so, nor do I know why I chose to depict it on a faux postcard to my grandfather ("Gaga"= John T. "Jake" Thompson, Sr. [1912-1983]). Nonetheless, I did. I'd have thought that I would have known where the stamp should be placed by that time, but maybe not.

Hurricane Fighter Plane

2007-07-24T09:10:00.000-05:00

While that was a snappy title to borrow, I don't think this was actually supposed to be a Hurricane. It sort of looks like a Thunderbolt, but the lack of an engine cowling on the nose rules that out. Regrettably, my knowledge of WWII-era Allied fighter craft has atrophied somewhat since 1979. I'm just hoping that this is an aerial view of a plane on the ground (the immobile prop would suggest that), otherwise the pilot has a bit of a problem.

Man with Large Ears

2007-07-23T08:56:00.000-05:00

It almost seems as if he was intended as a cyclops, but I thought better of it at the last moment and shoehorned one in on the side.

Armless Man with Hat

2007-07-22T08:17:00.000-05:00

I don't know if he's running very fast or doing a split.

Huh?

2007-07-21T09:25:00.000-05:00

There seems to have been a lot of thought put into this...chart(?), but what it all means is opaque to me. Some might scoff at the mathematical equation at the bottom... but did you stop to think that perhaps I was working with roman numerals? Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Beware of the Blob and his Snazzy Spacesuit

2007-07-20T09:56:00.000-05:00

Clothes make the man, they say...so what might they do for a hideous one-eyed blob? Here are a couple of designs for exo-skeletons for Mr. Blob. The boots on the left one and the chestplate on the right-hand one seem to be inspired by stormtrooper armor. As a bonus, you get a couple of arms and an unfinished quiz or homework assignment.

Mr. Frankenstein

2007-07-19T09:45:00.001-05:00

A companion piece to my "Monster Jokes" entry. There's also a full-length mummy drawing from the same day that'll surface here eventually. I find his pose to be reminiscent of Jon Stewart's Bush impression......heh heh heh!

Man with Moustache

2007-07-18T09:49:00.000-05:00

I'm impressed that he can keep on grinning with that broken arm. Not to mention the fact that his right hand looks more like a foot.

Happy Tick

2007-07-17T10:21:00.000-05:00

Okay, so it's got twelve legs...I still think it looks more like a tick than anything else. Living in the woods next to the lake, I had a good many ticks in my youth. Having dogs, I still see more of them than I'd prefer (this season's household total: 5). In 5th grade, I made it a point of finding ticks that needed a trip to the school nurse only during science class (saving them through the day until that point, if necessary). It was obnoxious and without provocation. If you're still out there somewhere, Mrs. Funchess, I apologize.