Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

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.

The Letter "P"

Batman in "The Treeman Strikes"

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.

Huh?

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.

Walking Letters

These are (I believe) inspired by my Sesame Street Walking Letters set, of which this is the only image I could find that wasn't an eBay listing (though this will probably find something to show you). The actual toys didn't have faces, but I claim artistic license. Don't know what I was attempting to spell with that "GABO" business.

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.

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.

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.

Clipboard

I was reading before my third birthday, so I had a real head start on the whole spelling thing (though penmanship was an issue up through junior high school, basically until I abandoned cursive script), and you don't find many misspellings in my work. This, however, is evidence that I had my occasional lapse. I don't recall the details of "Devlin's Desining Studio and carpentry shop", but I commandeered this ancient enameled metal clipboard (backed with felt, even) as an integral part of the studio's equipment. I can't figure out what sort of pen I labeled it with that would stick to painted metal, but it's survived admirably for over three decades. I juiced up the color a bit in Photoshop, but this is a pretty accurate representation of wat 's sitting next to my desk on the scanner It's actually going to get pressed into service in my current carpentry shop...I've got a pegboard hook set up for it already. My "Desining Studio" is upstairs in the living room, though.

Contract

One can only assume that negotiations broke down at an early stage.

Multiple Drafts

Oops! Well, let's try that again, shall we?


Blast it!


#@%$#! *%´£†¥ƒ∆√≈Ω!! #ç∫µ≤∆¥ø≤¡£∞§¶∂©#@!!!!!!!

Okay, that works. Wait...what do you mean, "Inuit"? No, I'm not starting over!

The War of the Worlds

Two different drawings of Martian war machines from the George Pal production of War of the Worlds. While it was always a favorite (helped along by plenty of coverage in Famous Monsters and Starlog), these were probably prompted by a 1979 showing of a double feature of WOTW and Close Encounters of the Third Kind that I attended at the Sky-Way Drive-In in Anderson, SC (about a year before it shut for good). I recall being amused at the juxtaposition of the radically different views of alien contact, giving a kind of 'point/counterpoint" approach to the theme. My other most vivid memory of the drive-in experience is from a year previous, when I dragged my parents to The Incredible Melting Man. I was thoroughly disappointed with it, and irritated with the gratuitous '70s nudity, when I was there to see melting flesh and action, and there wasn't enough of either! Phooey! I do hope to at some point get the Halloween costume, though.


To conclude our presentation, let me note that today's posting is sponsored by the letter "F".