men-oo-she-a

Sad News

2007-09-28T21:18:00.000-07:00

For all of Joe Riley's friends and fans,

It is with overwhelming sadness that I have to relay the following information. Joe Riley, a great pal and talented artist passed away on thursday, September 27, 2007. Please check back here for a longer post on this subject.

At this time we are trying to relay the information regarding his funeral to everyone who might be interested.

Joe's funeral is Monday Oct. 1st at 2:00 pm at Laurel Land in Dallas, Texas. The viewing is Sunday September 30 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. You may contact Joe's fiance April at 940-594-4792 if you have any questions.

If you were a friend please be there and pay your respects to a great and rare guy.

-David

Tremendous Force

2007-09-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

We missed going to the Nationals on Sunday...don't ask why..don't get me started. Never the less, we missed insane top feul drag racing and John Force's amazing crash and WIN! Yes..he wiped out but won anyway!
Here's the whole shootin' match...

Tiki Fireplace

2007-09-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

I wished I had a fireplace, so's I can build this awesome Tiki facade on the front of it!
(Thanks to Make magazine)

Gumby Moon Trilogy

2007-09-12T08:34:00.000-07:00

My favorite Gumby episodes have always been the Moon Trilogy. So surreal and basic. The sounds..the voice delivery, etc.
Presented here is the trilogy in order. The first, "Moon Trip" is in black and white, probably because it came from an old 16 mm TV print.

Several things haunt me about these particular episodes. Gumby's complete desolation and loneliness on the moon is rather creepy for a child's show..especially from the 60's. It shows the effect that stop motion can achieve, when you're building scenes one frame at a time.
I love the Fleischer like cartoon concept that dad can reach to the moon via his fireman's ladder. He's suited up for the cold, but the lack of air doesn't effect him.
My favorite bit is when Gumby is snatched from the jaws of death via an Iron Lung (?!) and calmly, flatley states, "I was on the Moon mother".

Yea..we all were.

It's My Process

2007-09-09T13:49:00.001-07:00

I love the use of the blog as a recording device for procedures. I've done some pretty extensive step by step blog posts (like this one) which are fun to share, but mostly, I enjoy reading other peoples tutorials on the different projects they find themselves doing.
I like popping over to Coop's blog and seeing him give up his secrets...or seeing my buddy Ken work on stuff...there's just all sorts of vital insights on people's blogs!
So, in this post, I'm going to show how I do my funny cartoon monster paintings, step by step.
One of myspace buddies, Dirk, invited me to be a part of a showing at his Atlanta gallery after seeing my paintings. The theme is Robots (kewl) and I came up with two ideas.
The first one came to me while thinking of tattoos, (Dirk's a tattoo artist) and robots. The likely conclusion is giving a robot a tattoo. What would it be...what kind of robot..how would it be visualized..?
I did a thumbnail or two trying to capture a retro robot and the Tattoo world at hand in one image...
The thumbnails are rough, crude...just enough info to remind me of the concept later. Sometimes just putting it on paper in a rough form, shows me other possibilities. Other themes come to light. For me, it also helps to talk about the idea out loud. Sometimes other angles pop into my head.
So,I finally ended up with our friend from the Rock'em Sock'em Robots game..the Blue Bomber..

...and the title came easily. Sometimes, very much like the old days of American International Pictures, one comes up with a grabber of a title, THEN makes the picture. I've done that a few times.
I scan the sketch into Photoshop at about 300 dpi, and tweak it on the Wacon tablet...

..I add lines, define areas..even erase areas. And yes, my Wacom tablet is pinstriped and kustomed. (It's a Graphire 3 with the clear surface plate removed for more sensitivity. The pinstripes are baby blue One Shot. Cost off'a Ebay...$60.)
After I get the basic image the way I want it, I enlarge the "canvas" in Photoshop to 12" x 12"...my actual canvas size. I then bring in guide lines and measure off a 8 & 1/2" x 11" inch section and make a lasso in that area. Copy, then paste as another layer. I do that until all of the image is broken up and all areas are represented by 8 & 1/2" x 11" sections in different layers. (see pic)

I then go to each layer and tell the printer to print that section out. I now have the sketch, measured to 12" x 12", in sections of 8.5 x 11. I tape those together, overlapping them on a light table for perfect registration, then compare it to my canvas...

This is my make shift easel until I get a new one...just some 1 x 2's on the garage wall. The background is already painted a yellow to contrast the aqua of the robot, and to mimic the box art from the original toys of the 60's.

I then lay down some graphite on the back of the sections with an Ebony pencil and effectively make a carbon on the back. They make carbon graphite paper for this, but I just wanted to knock it out.

Sometimes you can run the graphite over the areas where you need it, then smear it with a tissue soaked in lighter fluid to enrich the transfer quality.
I lay my sectioned design where I want it on the canvas, tape it down, then run over the sketch lines with a ball point pen, pressing hard to ensure a transfer from the graphite to the canvas.

Since it's taped into place, I check as I go..sometimes.

Eventually, the entire design is lightly transfered to the canvas...

Now, I take it in the garage and start laying in the colors. I always start with a darker shade of the mid tones first..

...then work my way up to the highlights. I go back and forth darkening areas, then pushing highlights..always trying to keep the colors bright and not muddy. Since acrylic dries fast, I can do this back and forth process very quickly and get my shapes and effects worked out fast.
Eventually, the top highlights are a pure white, and the darkest areas, are black or something damn near black.
I decided the tattoo should be pinstriped, and with actual pinstripe materials. I think a robot sporting pinstripes as a tattoo is so obvious...surely I'm not the first to come up with this idea.
I whip out the One Shot...

..and take out my striper brush from it's special protective tin case..

..this is a Big Daddy Roth edition dagger from Mack, given to me by a great friend...

I love this brush. Someday I'm going to figure out how to use it.
I laid in the lines like I would any other stripe work, (forming the name "Mom" in there which was April's amazing idea) and called it done.

With acrylic, I give it a coat of Mod Podge to deepen the contrast and to pop the high lites. Giving acrylic a clear coat of anything, enriches the colors and pushes the contrast as some of the paints are matte and flat.
Done.

Louis Prima

2007-09-05T08:11:00.000-07:00

You Tube is finally showing some class. Yeaah.

Paper Obsession

2007-08-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

I'm glad I'm not the only one scouting for cool paper craft stuff and linking to it. (that would be creepy) Check out Matt Hawkins kewl stuff here...and here.

Earth VS the Paper Robots 3

2007-08-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

More robots..more paper crafts...more time wasting...let's get it on!
Robot on a Bike
MOGERA!
Daleks! (and their instructions)
Martian War Machine!
Deathborg Omega!
This is a repost of an older post, of sorts...whatever, it's MAZINGAAHH!
Mmmmm..not sure, but they look cool!Get'em!
HRP 2 01
Awesome stuff from HEDKASE!
Destroy-a-Tron and Robot from Lou Lou Illustrations!
Ready Mech again.
MECACHICO!
SF Paper Craft Gallery! Amazing!
Pino and Ifbot..and others.
ROBOTS....the movie!
Mad Cat Mech
Desmond...the Nerfect Robot!

That outta' be enough to keep you busy for a while.

Earth VS the Paper Robots part 2

2007-08-22T21:03:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo! I found this link HERE on someone's site. I had found this link almost 2 years ago, but lost it moving from computer to computer.! Many cool paper robots!

Earth VS the Paper Robots

2007-08-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

As in these past posts...here...here..etc..I've linked you to some of the coolest paper craft on the web. Go here..HERE..and download amazing robot pdfs!

New GR robot..GIANT ROBO GR8!

Drive In Movie Food

2007-08-18T15:08:00.000-07:00

I eat pretty good these days. I'm fed well. Like, healthy food, not junk..or over eating.
One thing I miss is that crappy Drive In movie food. Man, I miss that junk...back when our bodies could process that garbage.
And boy, they were proud of it. They made tons of commercials and everything.

Blow Me Down!.."The Dragon Lives Again!"

2007-08-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a myth. I heard about this film back in my early days of Kung Fu fanaticism in mags like Martial Arts Movie Associates.
Apparently someone with no sense actually released "the Dragon Lives Again" (1976) on DVD and what I thought was tall talk, is true. Bruce goes to hell and it seems that the he is facing a possible coup by a variety of ‘60s and ‘70s pop culture icons who want to take over The Underworld. This gang includes James Bond (a bushy haired white guy in a cheap tuxedo), Clint Eastwood (a Chinese guy with a beard, wearing the poncho costume from the Leone westerns), the Exorcist (another Chinese guy, wearing a black Nehru jacket), Zaitoichi the Blind Swordsman (who simulates his ocular disability by fluttering his eyelids) and Emmanuelle (the happy hedonist of French soft-core porn). There is also a Chinese Dracula, who seems to have overcome his Transylvanian counterpart's aversion to sunlight.
Bruce Lee, however, recruits his own gang of good-guys to fight this evil band. Part of the heroic team is the fabled One-Armed Boxer (whom Bruce casually refers to as "One-Armed") and Popeye the Sailor. Yes, Popeye the Sailor is here...at least in the form of a Chinese guy with a shaved head, a large corncob pipe and the Popeye costume.
See the truth and gawk in amazment...

What's with the hat?

Link Link

2007-08-14T07:55:00.000-07:00

More sharities...I found this some place online, but I can't remember where. Link Wray stuff is kind'a hard to find on vinyl and I have little or none these days. I swiped this as soon as I saw it.
Someone ripped this from good 'ol Sundazed records and so I must pass it on.

Link Wray and his Ray Men-White Lightening,The Lost Cadence Sessions (1958)
"This is the fantastic and fiery album that was supposed to have been released as a follow-up to one of the all-time great, instrumental classics, “Rumble.” But faster than you can say “Drag Race,” everyone was talking about the new threat to the morals of American youth — Cadence label-owner Archie Bleyer included. That’s why Link and his boys were off the imprint, and this album of his prime-era, distorto-guitar-crunch cool remained unreleased for nearly 50 years! At long last, here it is, and it’s every bit as dirty and dangerous as you would expect!"

Kool, dad!

Up and At'em!!

2007-07-21T18:40:00.000-07:00

The incredibly groovy blog, Children's Records and More was up and kicking butt-ox in the kiddie file sharing arena. For some reason, most of it's files are unavailable, except the one I was hoping would be up...
Hanna Barbera's Atom Ant LP!
Supposedly Dave will have more so keep watch on this 'mazing blog!

Hawaii Five-Oh Yeah!

2007-07-21T18:13:00.000-07:00

I came across this MP3 post on someone's blog the other day, so I nabbed 'em! Finally!! The actual Soundtrack to Hawaii 5-0!
Book'em, Baby!

My God I NEVER missed this as a kid! Hip, island, tiki crime drama!

7-7-7 Savage Intimacies

2007-07-08T16:56:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the Roswell Incident and my second gallery opening. As posted back in Sept of 06, my first real gallery showing went off well, selling 3 of the 4 pieces shown. This showing at the Mighty Fine Arts Gallery is for a full month, so I didn't expect to see anything flying out the doors that night. It was with other artists like Robert Moore, Polly Perez, Val Curry, Donna Huanca, Brooke Slane, Pedro Velez and Michael Wynne.

(Steve Cruz, owner of Mighty Fine Arts Gallery)

The curator was Randall Garrett who kicked off the festivities by performing a "make it or break it" performance piece with old vinyl records.

While playing a track or two from a particular LP, Randall would show the cover to everyone, ask them to listen, then after the tracks were over, ask them to make it or break it by a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Quite a few LPs bit the fat one, but you'll be happy to know that the Space 1999 soundtrack survived by a unanimous thumbs up vote.

Inside, art glowed from the walls.

(Work by Robert Moore}

(the latest work from Polly Perez)

(a couple of my pieces, better viewed on Myspace ...)

(pieces by Brooke Slane)

(April basks in the glow of audio cassettes...)

(...yes, audio cassettes!)

(..and Kim and Mike were there as well! Yeah!)

I'm hoping to get a one man show, but I'll have to paint my butt off to do that. It's going to happen. More later on news of other shows I'm involved with.

Nothin' Up My Sleeve...

2007-07-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

Tony over at Way Out Junk is sharing this hard to find LP with the world via four convenient locations!

Funny Face Commercials

2007-06-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

My buddy Dave gave me an idea about seraching for Funny Face spots on YouTube. Here's what they got loaded up so far..in order of appearance...

Big Deal

2007-06-11T20:50:00.001-07:00

A while back I got an email from Dave Deal asking me if he could use an image of my "Van" model for his letterhead n such. I called him and we had a good chat and he thanked me for the use of the image by sending me these...

...signed on the acetate..

..and one signed on the box...

..one to build

...hmmm.."orangey"..

..and build it I will.

If I'm not mistaken, Dave told me that the art work for the zzzzz-28 was the first gauche painting he ever did. Pretty "flippin' sweet". As a kid, it had us guys staring longingly at the box.

Thanks Dave!

Resinating Roar

2007-06-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

Check out the kick buttocks resin at Speed City Resin

Hell yeah!

War Thread

2007-06-06T08:20:00.000-07:00

OMG! Check out this thread on War Comics at Collectors Society.com.
Joe Kubert in the HOW-OSE! Booya!

True History of Superman

2007-06-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

Here's an excelent post (as usual) over at Dial B for Blog about the true origins of Superman.

Mystery of the Green Hornet

2007-06-02T08:34:00.001-07:00

I have many friends that are huge fans of the 1960's TV show, the Green Hornet.
My buddy Paul has spent many an hour and dollar trying to find all the episodes of this hip spin off of the Batman series. (In truth, Green Hornet is actually a spin off of the Lone Ranger)
April asked me about the release on DVD, so I did some hunting on the subject of why this classic show has not yet been released.
I knew that Fox had the rights to it (as they do the Batman series), but I couldn't figure out why...after practically everything in syndication is on DVD...why, Fox couldn't release this series. I mean, the 40th anniversary has come and gone, and all we have "officially" is this pastiche (which is the 74' theatrical).
After reading around I found out that the owner* of the Green Hornet franchise, George W. Trendle's estate, wouldn't allow Fox to release anything on DVD because of the rights which went south many years ago. It seems that Trendle never liked the "campy" connection with Batman, and was annoyed with Fox's treatment of "his" classic back in the 60's.
Trendle is gone, but his estate and heirs still won't budge on the releases. It comes down to money as usual, and isn't about the quality of the show. Fox has the product, but the Trendle estate owns the rights. People love the show, but some old fart can't loosen his grip...same old story.

(*Trendle only bought the scripts and produced radio shows from his station in Detroit back in the 30's. Fran Striker invented the characters for the Green Hornet, the Lone Ranger, and Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. I think if any estate should recieve money from these creatons, it should be the artist himself.)

Rat Fink Roundup

2007-05-26T18:39:00.000-07:00

This Rat Fink Roundup is not to be confused with the up coming Rat Fink Reunion in Manti, Utah. This "happening" is at Outlaw Accessories in Keller, TX..just on "that side of the tracks". The whole shooting match is run by Frank.

Two paint slingers hosted this pinstriping party, and laid lines & Finks of all kinds on bikes and cars this weekend.
The two no accounts responsible for this outburst of One Shot are Ken "Mitch" Mitchroney...

..and Greg "Coop" Cooper.

..both are certified paint draggers and carry the Ed "Big Daddy" Roth seal of approval.
These guys laid lines, Finks, and all sorts of stripes down on all kinds of bikes and cars. While Coop worked on one end of a Harley...

...Ken worked on the other end...

..and sometimes they crossed lines....

An Emperial got some lines on it's trunk...

..and this Buell got it's fender tender...

Coop brought his bike for Frank to look at...

(..the bright green one..)

..Coop's kustom Fink bike up close...

..which he trailered with his van...

Coop also brought some of his latest creations...the Friki Tiki striper brushes.. (which I can only assume were produced by Mack)

Ken designed the Outlaw club t-shirt, which was ready just in time for this event. Ken's original ink job...

..which I took to my job, did the seperations in a day, and then in turn was screened and inked by my buddy Ed...

...all in one day!

Despite the rain, and the slow drying One Shot...

..everybody had a good time...

...even "Outlaw".

Your Lack of Imagination Disturbs Me

2007-05-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

Check out the toy site/blog Vinyl Pulse. Keep up on the latest on art and toy haps.

Rat Fink Reunion 2007

2007-05-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

Coming up this month...May 31-June 1, & 2 to be exact, will be the 5th annual Rat Fink Reunion on the Roth estate in Manti, Utah. It will be a three day event with custom hot rods, bikes, a parade, auctions, pinstriping, t-shirt painting, music, freshRat Fink merchandise and food. You MUST go and bring ANYTHING to be pinstriped by one of the many old pros that attend. Great people and atmosphere make it worth the trip, but you'll see Ed Roth's personal Rat Fink artifacts and craftsmanship up close.
I was fortunate enough to be asked to do this year's t-shirt design and poster art. I designed it to look like an old Revell model box, complete with Ed's traditional appearance.

(Click to large'em up!)
This is the t-shirt design. Basic colors with some half tones to mix secondary colors.

Below is the poster art, done with full colors, etc. You can download the actual file here, and print it out on 11 x 17 paper..or download it and reduce it and THEN print it out.

As a side bar, go to Jeff Gaither's site for more amazing Rat Fink art!!

Wild Arch Hall, Jr.

2007-05-13T20:55:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the blog, Detective Mitchell's Junk Drawer, I can sleep at night knowing that someone compiled all of Arch Hall, Jr.'s music onto one disc.
I need to know that somewhere "Dune Buggy" has been saved in digital audio...and it's important that the title track from "Eegah!" be heard by everyone. (It's so punk before punk, it's scary.)
It's imperative that "Twist Fever" be heard so clear, that it seems it was recorded yesterday!! It contains clips and trailers from The Choppers, Eegah!, Wild Guitar...
and the Sadist!
Includes live tracks as well of Hall with the Archers.
Hit the link and download the zip file before someone rips it out 'a there!

Listen to an interview with Arch Hall, Jr. on WFMU, which aired on my birthday!!

The Choppers

"Twist Fever" from Wild Guitar

Sub Suites

2007-05-13T09:17:00.000-07:00

The latest news in the world of the Subgenius is that, Stang finally released some of the old Sub G films/videos on DVD, including the MTV One Minute Movie. This also contains the 40 minute "making of" which has shots of me here and there doing the physical effects.
Stang blathers about it on his Blog.

"GREAT DOBBS ALMIGHTY DVD

Includes the 1984 NIGHT OF SLACK Devival, The Making of SUBGENIUS/MTV, "Bob's" Lunch Hour, 1990 SubGenius Art Gallery Show, and more

NIGHT OF SLACK -- The legendary 1984 San Francisco revival at which "Bob" first 'died.' Pope David N. Meyer, The Band That Dare Not Speak Its Name, Dr. Hal, Rev. Ivan Stang, Pope Sternodox, Doktors 4 "Bob".

MAKING OF MTV/SUBGENIUS (1991)
You'll "LAK TO DIE" when you see Dobbs in a flying saucer, blowing up the MTV building (a pyramid with an eye on it); the stop-motion death in flames of Barbie and Ken; live recreations of two SubGenius book covers; and Dobbs being worshiped by slinky devil-girls in Hell. During the sometimes surreal shooting, we also shot this 40-minute look behind the scenes.

The SUBGENIUS ART SHOW AT PSYCHEDELIC SOLUTION GALLERY, NYC (1990) -- now fully subtitled so you can tell who the "famous" celebrities are!

"Bob's" LUNCH HOUR starring Dr. Philo Drummond as "Bob" (Started in1977 - finished in 2007)

Dr. Hal interviewed re: "Bob's" Shooting, 1984

UNSEEN INTERVIEWS: LIES (Paul Mavrides), Pope Sternodox and Puzzling Evidence - uncut footage from 1981 World SubCon videos, shot for Showtime "What's Up America"; LIES & Puzzling Evidence - 2-minute "interview" from 1985; Dr. G. Gordon Gordon Goes Fishing with Snavely and Philo - 1991"

This DVD came mysteriously to an old address of mine in a plain manila envelope. No note...nothing.

Also..The sin-sational tome, Revelation X, is being re-released unto the world once again. I mention this 'cause I got some illustrations in there.

Supposedly I've a drawing or two in the new SubG rag, the BOBLIGRAPHON.
I'm not sure, I got a check for something I drew in a book. Somebody find out..buy a copy and let me know.

My Favorite Walston

2007-05-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

Put your headphones on and listen to this and other rarities from Kiddies Record Weekly (week 10).
God bless 'em.

A Life in Frosting

2007-05-12T14:27:00.000-07:00

Go over to Kirk's blog at the Secret Fun Spot and witness a life in birthday cakes..from 1 year old to 22 years old.
Kirk's got a cool mom.

World's Greatest Sinner

2007-05-11T14:40:00.001-07:00

The God..the Legend...the original "beat" actor...
Timothy Carey....

..my idol...

Ghost of Paper Craft's Bride

2007-05-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

In the past, I've posted many a cool entry on paper craft items on the net. Some are insane!! ..and yet again, I've found some talent in the paper and scissors world over at Igloo Lounge. Net.
Dig the KING.

Download, print...yada yada..you know the drill.
Check out other "pretties" on the site.

Happy Blogday To Me!

2007-04-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

It's 2 years to the day, almost...that I started this blog. I never thought it would last this long. I thought my attention span would have gotten the better of me and left all this behind.
I met some nice people and found some amazing things on line. Thanks to all who have read my junk and I hope to keep shoveling it out.

I got a nice e-mail for the blog birthday. The person didn't know it was the blog's birthday, they just wanted to ask if they could use an image or two. I was flattered and said yes.
The person that asked was DAVE DEAL!!

OMG! Dave wanted to use the images from the Deal's Wheels post, for his letter head. I was blown away! Yea...sure USE IT!!
Too cool. Happy birthday to me.

Weird-Ohbay

2007-04-21T15:17:00.000-07:00

What's going on!? It's a Weird-Oh mass exodus on Ebay! Check out these auctions!!

..and that's from all the same auction!!

...some from other auctions..

Where was this crap when I had money!!?

R.I.P. Johnny Hart

2007-04-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

The Booberry Alarmclock

2007-04-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

Check out the new blog! (looks it up and down) Not bad kid.
The Booberry Alarmclock

Weird Finks

2007-04-04T13:35:00.000-07:00

Just in case you haven't noticed, the complete Weird-Ohs model kit line is at Walmart. Thanks to the brotha' with the otha' Honda, Ken, I got clued in on finding Wade A. Minut.
I'm up to my chin in work and working at finding work, but I had to get Wade, since he's not ever been reissued since his first appearance. Since I don't have time to build the kits, I just go to Ebay and salivate over the built kits for sale there...there's been a few to pop up.
Here's just some images of past auctions.

...a bunch'a fink stuff...

(..Stanley Mouse's Super Fuzz...)

(..Angel Fink bagged. I had a Brother Rat Fink bagged, and I think these came from Mexico...)

(...GiGi...Brother Rat Fink from Japan. Check out the hip green plastic!!)

..and finally a Digger Nutty Mad. Kewl.

Invest In Art...Today!

2007-03-14T13:38:00.000-07:00

I've got two paintings up for auction at Ebay, so you must check them out..buy them...covet them!
The first one is a Robot Monster homage..the second is called "Racing for Pinks"...the only one that didn't sell at my last showing.

"Buy original art. It's your best investment"
-the Smartest Man in the Universe

(click for a closer look)

What A Deal!

2007-03-07T13:54:00.000-08:00

OMG! I 've GOT to scrape up some $$ and get in on the great Deal's Wheels extravaganza on Ebay right now. I'm hoping all this dumping of the 70's Deal's Wheels kits is because of rumors of them being reissued. Cross your fingers.
'57 cHEVY
Super Spurt
Lucky Pierre and The Red Barron!
Baja Humbug
McLapper

Yea..I need MORE Deal's Wheels!

Fixed Race

2007-02-15T13:13:00.000-08:00

Yea...this race was rigged, man

Diabolikal Super-Kriminals

2007-01-20T13:20:00.000-08:00

I was under the impression that Mario Bava's "Danger: Diabolik" was not on DVD and still languishing on VHS. Thanks to one of Myspace buddies, Sadistik, I found out that the Diabolik DVD is out, and apperantly has been for a while.
Check out Sadistik's site, and go BUY Danger: Diabolik!

Fink Blog

2007-01-18T01:06:00.000-08:00

My buddy Ken has finally joined the blogosphere and is throwing his fedora into the ring. His first posts are pretty spiffy (a word he uses, I'm sure) and it all looks promising. Go there and support the newb.
(heh heh..I called him a newb.)

Phoney Fresh

2007-01-18T00:11:00.000-08:00

The new blog, Phoney Fresh, has a great clean minty look, and a great start. Go check it out here.

Nudies for All!

2006-12-13T21:32:00.000-08:00

I was cleaning up, and came across my "photography" magazines from the late 50's/early 60's.
These were for serious shutter bugs, and just happend to have nude women in there as well.
The human body is art, after all.
Here are some selected images.

First, the typical nudes and cheesecake...

...and the faces....

"...they had faces then..."

Save, print out, and stick up in your locker, or confessional...

myspace.com/joerileyartist

2006-12-13T00:30:00.000-08:00

Yea..I've been convinced to join myspace, now that half the planet has joined. Ralph and April both talked it up to me.

I'm still buliding and tweaking it to fit me.

Be my friend.

I Like Crap!

2006-11-27T16:49:00.000-08:00

...Johnny Crap, that is. I'm digging his paintings and just about all of his work in general. He and I have the same subjects in our paintings. Check out his site and take a gander at some awesome crap.

Check out his myspace.com

Blinded By Science

2006-11-25T15:20:00.000-08:00

15 years ago I missed Thomas Dolby's last tour. I thought, "what the hell..he'll be back around soon".

Well 15 years later, he has returned and I'm about to lose my mind 'cause I so got me a ticket! He's coming to the Granada on Greenville and will be with BT on Dec. 7th. It's general admission, so it's going to be a standing, rave, 80's techno-fest.
Dolby has been one of my music idols since I fist heard his album, Golden Age of Wireless.

I've gotten everything he's put out, and I'm flipping out that he's coming to the Granada to make closure on a 15 year wish.

A group of us are going, if you want to join us, email me!!

(for more Dolby-notes, check these links)
Dolby 1979
Dolby 1981
Dolby 1982
Dolby 1984
Dolby 1985

Red Heads are Trouble

2006-11-13T15:42:00.000-08:00

I worked with Sandra very briefly on a project recently, and just found out that she had a blog and some other stuff.
She's a red head, rides bikes, a drawer, and is in the Derby..what more could you ask for?
She's so "money", she doesn't even know it..and probably doesn't even remember me..
Check it out: Knuckle Dragging 101

..and is it me, or is this a great picture?

Pinstriping 101

2006-11-03T20:13:00.000-08:00

No, this isn't a tutorial on how to pinstripe, there's plenty of better artists out there that are willing to show you how to do that. This is a history...hopefully a thorough history...of the modern day hot rod pinstripe. We are aware of the pinstripe in our society. We see it all the time...everyday....we see it on hot rods, motorcycles, even kids toys...models, etc. The recent PT Cruiser even had factory pinstriping and flame jobs.
What is this art and where did it come from? Why paint a thin line on a car or motorcycle, bicycle, truck, wagon, etc. and call it "kustom"? Why paint little designs and swirls on a perfectly good car and call it a hot rod?

You'll be surprised to find that this need to accent vehicles, actually started long before most of us were born. The tradition for decoration of objects goes waaaayy back, folks. Let's start with modern day.

Most hot rods and pinstriping is associated with the likes of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. Where Ed had his share of pinstriping, he was a facet of the art history (as far as pinstripes go). Early on in his career, (1955 or so) Ed had worked at Sears in the display department. After hours he'd pinstripe on the side for extra cash. The striping scene was happening and about to blow up. About that time, Ed was so successful he joined forces with old man "Baron" Crozier and Tom Kelly in a joint outfit called "Roth: the Crazy Painter".
These guys were laying stripes on a endless lineup of cars that were fueled by the custom craze that was hitting it's peak at that time (1958). Endless articles and books have been written about Ed...even a long over due movie has been made...Tales of the Rat Fink...so I won't get too deep into Ed's contribution to the custom scene. Suffice it to say, if Ed's personality hadn't been so "large" the custom scene might not have exploded.
That story's for another time.
So, if pinstripping was smoking by '55 when Roth was dressing mannequins in Sears, who was laying down those lines before him? The auto industry had been laying lines in their factories, but by 1938 they stopped. Everyone saw the accent line...or flourish..as antiquated and wasn't buying old looking vehicles. They wanted bold colors and body design. So why was the pinstripe seen as antiquated in the late 30's? Where'd the connection to the custom fad of the 50's happen? Just a minute...let's talk about the guy who re invented the modern day art form.

About this time (mid 1940's) a 15 year old kid by the name of Kenneth Howard started working at a motorcycle repair shop owned by George Beerup (Birop). Kenneth wanted nothing more than to fix on motorcycles and cars. He was a natural born mechanic and engineer.
(An engine design drawn by Dutch)

His father was well known then as a designer and sign painter in the suburb of Maywood, Cal. Wally Howard had the distinction of lettering and gold leafing the doors of Los Angles' City Hall. He taught his son, Kenny, to paint and letter in the traditional styles, even though later in life, Kenny admitted he never could gold leaf like his dad.
Somewhere in this part of history a nickname was given to Kenny. A nickname that reflected the feelings of his family and in turn, would change the face of art history. They called Kenny "Dutch" because of his ability to be as stubborn as a Dutchman. He wouldn't let anything go. He had a focus only a few of us could possibly understand. Being the Bohemian type, he parlayed his flying eyeball logo (which he took from ancient Macedonian and Egyptian cultures of 5000 years ago) and his new mantle "Von Dutch" and carved a niche for himself.
Like his dad, Dutch was a painter and he did several oils depicting the images in his head. Surreal images akin to Dali and the Renoirs.

But at the cycle shop, Kenny was a general clean up boy and go fer. He had some mechanical chores, but he swept up and tidied things up. At this time a cycle had come in that needed to be painted, but the others there didn't think young Kenny could handle this job. Dutch took his dad's paint box, and over night, laid old school stripes and accents on the bike. The next day, the entire shop was impressed and Dutch moved from mechanical to paint, a move he was not really happy with. Destiny handed him a brush and asked him to create an art form.
Dutch striped motorcycles for the next 10 years, moving from shop to shop. By the time he was at Al Titus' motorcycle shop in Linwood, the subject of striping a car came up...only as a joke. He laid down some lines and it looked pretty good. The laughing stopped. An artistic gap from the late 30's to the 50's was about to close.
The moment that Dutch made the art form happen, was when a fellow came in and asked to have some grinder scars painted out of his door. When the body shops grind out the metal, and the body putty wasn't done right, the grind marks...little crescent shapes..showed in the shiny finish. Dutch took a chance and painted crescent shaped lines on one side of the scar, covering the crescent shaped imperfection...then had to form another just like it to balance it out. In his head, these were musical type movements, and fortunately for us, Dutch hung out at a lot with the Kerouac set and jazz clubs. These paint strokes danced and bounced in all sorts of impressionistic pop art steps.

"All of a sudden, I had a free form design right in the middle of a large flat space. I liked it..from then on I developed it"
-Dutch

It was that simple. Von Dutch's career exploded and he was in demand. You didn't have a custom until you'd been "Dutched". Dutch even licensed water transfer decals for those who couldn't visit him in person.
By 1958, when Roth and the Baron were winding up, Dutch had had enough and was going nuts laying down stripes. He wanted to get back to the engineering side and wanted to leave pinstriping behind. There were plenty to carry on the tradition by this point...

So there you go...the modern pin stripe. This is where articles on pinstriping end..usually. Sit back.
Dutch had taken his father's style in his mind when he laid down those first straight lines in that motorcycle shop. Wally Howard had been lettering at the turn of the century and was using the popular styles from that time, even into the 40's. These were the heavy serif letters and accents seen on everyday items during the early 1900's....bank safes....furniture....wagons...
fire engines

...windows..doors to offices...saloons..etc. This style of bold or flourished lettering was a way for the common man to embellish his poor surroundings. There are many pieces of simple furniture from this time, that have simple flourishes and pinstriping on them. Hand carved flourishes and details was costly and therefore only for the rich.
This need to embellish the daily articles of the 1900's back tracks to the Ornament Revival of the 1800's with the Renaissance of the German Rococo styles and the style known as Colonial..
During the 1700's, the style Colonial, the motifs that became a Americana style, were derived from many of Europe's design sense. The Colonial style had part of it's own original look, which we see still evident in Washington, Philadelphia, our different capitals,etc... but a great deal was derived from the European styles like Queen Anne.
The flourishes that dominated some of these designs, were taken from French Rococo and used until 1760. One of the chief exponents of this look, and now famous for the name, was Chippendale's furniture and cabinetry.

(examples of Chippendale's floren style)

Pinstriping, not only get's part of it's design reasoning from Rococo, it also gets it line influence from these art movements of the 1700's. The actual need for designing our vehicles goes back as far as the Roman, and Egyptian periods, where chariots, clothing, etc, had borders and line work running the edges. This look, is in fact the great grand daddy of pinstriping, but the actual look of todays scrolling, darting, feathery flourishes, comes from the old man of design....Europe.

Groovie!

2006-10-29T11:18:00.000-08:00

Finally, they've released the Filmation's Saturday Morning "cringe master" of a TV show, Groovie Goolies on DVD. All the other self respecting blogs have written about it, I will at least make a note for Halloween's sake.
As a kid, the look of the show had me sketching and copying every line, trying to simulate their amazing design sense. I had the coloring book, and would often trace the images and hang them up in my room.
A while back I did some faux animation cels, for friends and to just hang up....here are the rough pencils for those cels:

Apparently, these were also the color guides...the tighter original pencils must have been sold long ago right along with the cels.
I drew these by using freeze frames from a bootleg VHS, by the way.

For more in-depth info about this great series, check out this entry..

Punkin' Hade

2006-10-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

My buddy Leisa sent me this link and had me busy all morning goofing off...
Go carve a punkin' and have a Happy Halloween.

Planet of the Horses

2006-10-22T23:25:00.000-07:00

Feeling the chill of Halloween approaching, I was flipping through my old monster magazines and came across this issue of CRACKED from the 70's (or 80's). My favorite issues were the all monster theme issues.

In this issue, they reran a bit called Planet of the Creatures, where they spoofed Planet of the Apes using different common animals..i.e. dogs, cats, skunks(!), etc. (wonderfully drawn and inked by John Severin!)
One full page was dedicated to the Planet of the Horses spoof...see below.

I find this interesting and it struck me how art imitates life...imitating art again. What am a I talking about?
Let's back track a step.

The original idea for Planet of the Apes was derived from Pierre Boulle's...La Planete des Singes (Monkey Planet) written in 1963. Monkey Planet was written as a satirical look at society supposedly inspired by Boulle's visit to a zoo. Impressed by the human expressions of the apes, this spurred Boulle on and within six months, he had the basic outline for Monkey Planet. In Boulle's version, man was captive and savage, where the ape's society was civil and very much like a 1963 earth with cars, skyscrapers, etc.

(Planet of the Apes producer, Arthur Jacobs and Pierre Boulle)

Many at the time thought Boulle's satire was brilliant and inventive, but on a closer literary examination, we see that there is truly "nothing new under the sun". Some of Boulle's inspiration probably came from an Irish satirist and poet by the name of Jonathan Swift who wrote a four book epic called Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Lemuel Gulliver (1726)...aka Gulliver's Travels. Most know the story of Gulliver and the island of Lilliput, but who remembers the fourth novel called A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms? (yes, it's spelled correctly!)

In this world, Gulliver finds himself captured by a speaking and ruling class of intelligent Horses, and mistaken to be a native savage human (called a Yahoo), destined to die. The Horse society rules by reason alone and can't understand emotions....similar to Star Treks' Mr. Spock and the Vulcan society. Eventually his life is spared by showing the Horse populace that he is civilized and not like the other native Yahoos. Yet another literary example of using animals as a metaphor for the inhumanity we cultivate.

So, I wonder if the writers at CRACKED read any Jonathan Swift? Probably not. So this is a prime example of ideas mirroring each other. This sort of "rehashing" happens all the time, and some...George Lucas...have built an empire on the technique.

TOR!

2006-10-10T22:13:00.000-07:00

The Halloween season is apon us, but this year I'm taking a break from doing any mask work. Just one year, I'd like to go out and enjoy the atmosphere and not stumble around trying to peer out of a rubber mask. Last year was a goal I met, but this year..I need to just enjoy the season. I might dress up as something at the last minute, but no major suit up.
This season I am happy to say, I've turned out a mask from an old mold for a friend and idol, Ed French. Ed has done make up effects on everything from "Nightmare", "Sleepaway Camp", "Exterminator 2", "Breeders", in the 80's..to many of Swazenegger's films, the Batman films, Buffy TV series, Mad TV series, X-Files, Voyager, ..and many, many commercials. I was thrilled to work with him side by side back in '98 on a project for AMC channel. At that time, I had made a Tor Johnson mask for my Halloween costume and brought it to work to show Ed. Apparenlty he was so taken with it, that a few months ago, he asked me to make a copy for him this Halloween.

I'm happy with this version (I've made 10 or so from that mold) and was careful to make the skin tones as real and layered as possible. Ed knows skin color and if I screwed it up, he'd spot it.
To see Ed's work and his charming on screen presence, and to see his amazing technical expertise, I suggest you buy his high quality Bald Cap video that he sells on his site. If you've ever tried to do a bald cap on someone, you know it's really hard to make it look real. Ed's techniques are amazing. After watching the video, I did a bald cap using his techinques , and my cap looked flawless...thanks to his tutorial.
You can even buy his work....he sells his foam latex appliances on his site too!!

UHF

2006-10-01T12:53:00.000-07:00

UHF...a forgotten term in today's tangled mass of cables, digital signals, and optic fiber instant imaging.
UHF, which stands for Ultra High Frequency.
These days you can go the the mall, drop 20-30 bucks and get most of the TV series we watched when we were young. The ones that reran on local small market stations on the VHF and UHF "dials". With boxed sets, there's no commercials, no static when mom runs the vacuum, and no grainy 16 mm prints washing out the lush colors predominate in the 60s TV palette.
We don't have to record them with an audio cassette player now...they're perfectly recorded, in stereo, and neatly digitized on a disc for easy storage. No need to snap pictures with the Polaroid camera off the TV screen for a still...DVDs have perfect freeze frame capabilities and our computers can grab an image, and file it away for future reference.
So why bring up UHF you ask? Because in this day and age of DVD markets flooded with ever single series or obscure movie we ever saw, I noticed that the actual TV content is HORRIBLE. When a title is licensed for one avenue or the other, the other avenues suffer until their time comes.
i.e.-If you have a movie out in the theatres...say "Cars", you won't be putting it out on DVD at the same time because people will just buy the discs, stay at home and by pass the releasing studio denying them their wonderful profits. It's not because it's "not ready"...too many orders folks...no, it's called profit. Shake the rubes at the box office, shake 'em again in Walmart and Best Buy, shake'm again on cable....shake'm one more time when they decide to release a double disc set with crap they had from the beginning of production. Oh...and shake them one last time, saying "this is the last time this will be available on DVD" (Thank you Lucas and Disney).
So...if everything is on DVD...what's on TV? Mostly crap...reality shows, people in their swim suits eating bugs 'n sh*t...hack judges making or breaking people's singing dreams...and cops being followed around with a camera while trying to do their job.
BUT...there has been a glimmer of hope that has peeked out recently. Since the last resort for TV series is just reruns and DVD box sets, it seems the DVDs have run their course on many titles. There's is a slow reselling back to TV.
Monty Python's Flying Circus (which started here in Dallas.. FYI!) has been notorious for abandoning it's PBS roots as far back as the early 80s. It's first leap was cable, soon it ran to VHS and stayed there with an outrageous price tag for years. All the while PBS is giving us "Are You Being Served?" out the ying yang, and we're having to pay for a series that we adopted and saved from oblivion.
Well...how the mighty have "silly walked". Local PBS ch 13, the original home of Monty Python (circa 1974), has been showing Python again late on Saturday nights. From what I can see...which are boxed sets of the entire series sitting in Half Priced Books stores for a fraction of their asking price of $200...the sales have dropped off a bit. There are the odd PBS commercials, but other than that, it's over son. Now Python can get back on PBS and stay there. They've milked just about everything they can, in that department.
UHF....the subject of the post.
We have a local UHF station ch 52, that, since it's inception, has continued to impress me. If anybody knows the program director, tell him I owe him a beer. Early on 52 was showing "Addams Family" and "Mr. Ed"...recently they've gotten major marks for showing "the A-Team", "Kojack", "Magnum PI" and the capper..."The Twilight Zone". If I'm not mistaken, all of these are on DVD now...so why are they on UHF stations? These are the "small market" stations that don't really pose a threat to a tired DVD release. Basically, the license holders are double dipping and are hoping you don't notice. You buy the box set of Twilight Zone at Best Buy and get home to see it's on at 10:30 after "Married with Children"!
On the I channel, I've seen "Kung Fu", Green Acres", and "The Monkees". All on DVD...all double dipping. I'm hoping this is a trend.
Maybe now, TV will come back home and we can enjoy the effect of turning on a TV and seeing our favorite shows blaring into the room..like they use to. Maybe it can wash the image of Simon's smirking pie hole from the air waves and replace it with Telly Savalas' catch phrase, "who loves ya baby"?
I'm wondering if I should go back to Half Price Books and buy a box set of Monty Python?

Naw, I think I'll save the $60 and tape it....on my cassette recorder.

Big As Night

2006-09-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

I had my first real gallery show Saturday in Dallas' Historic Oak Cliff arts district. This is something I've been wanting to do for about 10 years, but didn't think my stuff would be worth the trouble. I'm a commercial artist at heart and the "fine" art scene doesn't appeal to me.

("Rockin'" photos by Penny. She told me to say "rockin'")

Well, out of the 4 pieces I put up at Steve Cruz's "Big As Night" art event, 3 sold. I'm pretty flabergasted, actually. The 3 that sold were, "Goodwill Ghoul" (which got a momentary buying fever started), "Man Discovers Fire", and the new one I did for the show, "Polaroid of X-Ray Spider". They were priced to move, and they sold. Having a one night show puts the heat on undecided buyers, apperantly.
Everybody told me the same thing about the work...it made them happy...or, out right laugh. I try to tell a story in the image, but it is usually humorous and fun. I paint things I want to see and how I want to see them and I guess people like that.
Penny and I met some nice people who also had work at the show..."The Brians" were a couple in the next room(s) to me.
Here's Brian....(check out the shirt)

..and here's the other Brian...

...they had a huge body of work...

Steve had an opening that night as well at his Mighty Fine Arts Gallery up the walk way from this showing, but still came and worked the rooms with us.

There was art everywhere...upstairs..

...downstairs..

...in the windows...

Penny and Eric came by and brought me a sandwich. I'd been drinking Pabst the entire time I was setting up and was getting goofy. Check the colors in the room. This was why I picked this particular room.

All kinds of buddies showed up...

Greg and Heather Gorham and Dave Clowers....Artists in their own right. I went to high school commercial art classes with Greg, Dave, and Eric. (I've just noticed that Greg and I look like we're related...so that's distrubing.)

My buddies Mike and Kim came by as well. Kim introduced me to Steve Cruz a while back and I appreciate it greatly. They brought Yvonne as well, who suprised me by actually being the first to buy something. I seem confused by the idea...y'see.

At some point, Kim, Yvonne, and Penny noticed they were wearing the exact same style of shoe.

My buddy Ralph came by with his gilrfriend Carol (who's also an artist). Ralph helped me with the disposal of the Pabst.

I had a great time...was proven that I was wrong about my art, people DO want it...and made some new friends..."the Brians" Dan, Patrick, Anna, and Ken Craft.

I'll let you know when I have my first one man show.

Waffle Whiffer Zone

2006-09-14T20:16:00.000-07:00

Is this blog cool..or is it just me?

I thought so...
Way to go Brandon.

I remember this particular issue of Baron Von Redberry clearly for the poster offer. I remember actually getting these and coloring them.

Where the hell are they?

Turbine Project part III

2006-09-05T23:25:00.000-07:00

You thought I forgot about this side project, didn't you? I've been real busy, but I did sneak in some time to get back on it.
If you remember from the first post..and the second post...we were about to start the interior detail.
As I said before, Jo-han's kits are incredibly detailed and the interior is no exception. Each front bucket seat is made up of 5 different pieces, to accommodate the folding mechanism and the chrome detail.

Since the chrome is added into the parts, I decided to prime all the individual pieces, paint the bronze leather, then assemble them.
Since I was priming things, I thought I'd piece together the floor, spare tire compartment, and the extra battery box.

I noticed that there was evidence of dog hunger, as I tried to get the back seats ready for primer.

The chewed section had to be replaced, as the section on the main engine had been. I took a sheet of styrene (of a proper thickness) and traced out the missing shape...

...traced along the broken edge...

...cut that piece out, filed and fitted as close as possible...

...then glued it to the edge and reinforced it with more sheet styrene...

...after that dried, I then filled the cracks (and helped reinforce the join) with Magic Sculp epoxy putty.

I primed it and painted it with the same "bronze leather" mixture I made up for the seats. I took an acrylic bronze craft paint, and mixed a dab of orange acrylic to warm up the tone and matte out the metallic effect. I didn't want the seats to look like they were made of metal.

The "carpet" in the floorboard was painted in a rust/bronzey color with just straight acrylics (and a spray of Testor's Dull Coat) and the seats were fitted in for a test look.

Nice.
Next time...more interior.

*added note*
It's been long stretches between posts, partially due to my work, but mostly because of Blogger's tinkering with their system. It's been hard to post pics, and I thought it was totally my doing...but after reading this post...I see that I'm not the only one having trouble. I read the different posts and have adopted Mozilla's Forefox as a browser and have been loading images twice as fast as before. So...more posts in the future with large pics and images.
Thanks PCL LinkDump!

British Bike Burnup-Labor Day Weekend

2006-09-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

Ralph had his British Bike Burnup on this Labor Day weekend to close out the summer. I think there were more there this time than the last time. I took a few photos...Penny, who rode her '98 Triumph Thunderbird to the event, took some pics as well.

Ralph entrusted me with the video duites, and he edited the shots together for this happin' montage. Check it out.
(Music by Ralph's band, Sleazy Mancini)

Francis E. Dec, Esquire

2006-08-19T02:25:00.000-07:00

You've probably not heard of Francis E. Dec.
Long before "viral videos" passed from one e-mail box to another, there was the glorious days of cassette trading and dubbing. You could get all kinds of crazy stuff on cassette if you knew the right person. I heard my first "Tube Bar" prank call recordings from a bootleg cassette back in 1990. At that same time, I was given a copy of the recordings of Francis E. Dec's manifestos read by radio DJ Boyd "Doc on the ROQ" Britton. Britton recorded these back in 1985 after receiving a fist full of Dec's mimiograghed rants at his Milwaukee radio station. Britton recorded 6 different rants, in varying styles and back ground music, and at some point, these were set free to the underground tape traders.
Rev. Ivang Stang, head honcho and Grand Pubah of the Church of the Subgenius, handed me the tape back in 1990 on the set of an MTV film shoot we were on. He really didn't say much about the contents except that the guy reading the tirade didn't write it...he was a voice guy.

After hearing the first rant, I was mesmarized. What the hell was clickin' in this guys head? It was like watching a train wreck.

The below links are to some of Dec's manifestos (as read by Doc Britton) sprinkled throughout the wonderful World Wide Web. Keep in mind, these rants are written by a heavily paranoid schizophrenic, and his observance of politically correct procedures have been removed by the repeated beatings from "gangster communist police" while incarcerated. This, keep in mind, is a sick man.
I would type more in this blog about Dec and his important writings, but since the tapes have traveled the globe (pretty much) I'll let the other fans who have chronicled these rants explain the life and misery of this man.
Five of his rants have been transcribed here for your reading pleasure. It's suggested that you read along while listening to the rants...sort of like a Peter Pan Read A Long record.

Rant 1:"GANGSTER COMPUTER GOD WORLD-
WIDE SECRET CONTAINMENT POLICY!!"

Rant 2:"TO ALL JUDGES!"

Rant 3: "WORLDWIDE OPEN SECRET!"

Rant 4: "LONG ISLAND LUNACY"

Rant 5: "MASTER RACE FRANKENSTEIN
RADIO CONTROLS!!"

If you wish to download and collect all the rants and burn them onto a CD, I have made a jewel case jacket, front and back, for these collected works of insanity.

(back and end panels)

Many people have been obsessed with Dec and even have tried to speak with him (Britton tried in '89). One person, Forrest Jackson, met Dec at a V. A. hospital in '95. His account is here.
(One thing of note: Jackson's meeting with Dec was a direct action from my having the cassette in hand. He heard the Dec Rants at a party here in Dallas. One of the people attending the party was Jason Cohen. Jason had, at this time,(1993) borrowed my only cassette and dubbed it, then apparently played it at this "Party". It all goes full circle.)

The last thing known of Dec, is that he probably died in the V. A hospital in '95 or '96. The Mad Deadly Communist Gangster Computer God had finally found him.

Comic Ads 1979

2006-08-14T11:13:00.000-07:00

A while back I scanned the old comic bin at the Half Price Books store, and found a small cache of Micronauts comics from '79. I bought the handfull, not for the riveting adventures of the Micronauts (which I never got into...I was in high school by then), but for the great ads from that time. I'm sure a few readers would like to have a copy of these ads, as they might have been of the right age then. As usual, click, save, print out, and frame to hang in your cubicle.

The Saturday Morning Line-up!!
ABC

CBS

NBC

Goofy Marvel swag!

...and finally...

..the coolest Shogun Warriors ad ever!! These guys ruled when I saw them in '78 at the M. E. Moses 5 & Dime!

Cum Ba Ya

2006-08-14T00:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday night, Penny and I were relaxing, eating dinner, and watching two episodes of Davey and Goliath ....the Halloween Special "Who-Dun-It" and the episode called "Cum Ba Ya".
The Halloween episode had the kids dressing up and going out on "Mischief Night" and causing all kinds of havoc. They didn't even mention trick or treating...just running around and busting' things up. "Cum Ba Ya" was about Davey and some other kids singing "Cum Ba Ya" in their church. The trio breaks up right before the performance because one of them keeps questioning why Davey can hear Goliath speak English..and nobody else can.
Right as this is about to wrap up, I glance out the back french doors to my right. I'm only 3 feet away, and on the patio I see a skinny hunched over shadowy person inching toward our lawn mower. For about 3 seconds I stare dumbfounded at the audacity of this ass, and then I yelled to Penny sitting next to me, "There's someone on our back porch!" and then I banged the glass with my fist.
He jumps like a cat...I run to the back via the garage and open the doors there to see a dust cloud shaped like a skinny audacious thief. He's gone over the fence.
A few seconds go by, and then Penny comes barreling out the french doors with her Remington .22 long rifle. Standing in in the spot where the dust cloud was, Penny screams to me, "Watch out...!" she shoots a warning shot high over the alley, then screams "Yea...You better run, mutha f**ka!"

I'm reminded of Granny Clampett, momentarily...she's then gone in an instant, and has apparently run off, barefoot, and is in hot persuit for the thief in our truck.
Brandishing the .22, a high powered spot light, and gritting her Scotch Irish teeth, she combs the neighborhood for a guy who almost stole our lawn mower.

Tomorrow night I think we'll watch Gumby.

Chickenshoot

2006-08-13T22:11:00.000-07:00

Deanna Molinaro is a mean little girl and she makes me laugh. I wanna bite her. Go to her cool site and her journal/blog thingy. Go look at her sculpts(I want one)....and art ( I want that too). Go now.

Monster Cartoons Too

2006-08-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

I've finished the 5th painting for the Elbow Room showing. It's up and you can go see it whenever you like. There was supposed to be some kind'a opening night, but that disappeared in a puff of cigarette smoke, so go by when you can.

"Secret Suburban Sacrifices" 16x20 acrylic on canvas

Ultraman DVD Heaven

2006-08-04T23:54:00.000-07:00

Oh man...finally after all these years....The first season, box one, of Ultraman!! I've waited for good copies of these episodes for many years. I bought it off'a Deep Discount DVD for $21!!
I saw this show for the first time, not in 1968 when it aired in English across America's small market TV stations, but in 1981 when local channel 21 aired it after school.

It was sort of a secret indulgnace. I totally loved goofy monster suits, martial arts, spaceships, etc...and this show had all that. I watched the Godzilla movies to see the guys in the suits beat the crap out of each other and you had to wait about an hour for that, though. BUT...with Ultraman, you got some rubber suit throwdown pretty quick...15 minutes!
This box set has the options of the original Japanese language version with subtitles, or the English dubbed versions as we saw it. There's an interveiw (apparently at some convention) with some of the voice talent of the English versions...Corinne Orr, Peter Fernandez, and the late Earl Hammond. This is the same troup that voiced Speed Racer and other Japo-Imports. (Peggy Lobbin also voiced on Ultraman, but was not present during the interveiw.)
It's nice to see good, bright copies of the episodes after all this time. I've spent years squinting at 3rd generation VHS dubs made from 16 mm TV prints. Ironically, I got 20 episodes, in pristine quality, for the same price that I've paid for 4 episodes on VHS...and I didn't have to deal with an unbathed convention leech to get it.
I use to be quite the Ultraman collector, as matter of fact. Here is a pic to show the collection in it's prime. It's been sold off, piece by piece.

Monster Cartoons

2006-08-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

I've got some paintings up for sale, finally. This is the first time I've had a showing of my work. It's not a gallery, thought...it's a bar, which is more my speed. I've got 4 paintings up on the brick walls at the Elbow Room near downtown on Gaston.
(click for much larger images)

"Man Discovers Fire (Granite Foot Flintstone's Weekend Project) 12x12 acrylic on masonite

"Robotmonster" 16x20 acrylic on canvas

"Goodwill Ghoul" (You Can't Take It With You) 16x20 acrylic on canvas

"Racing for Pinks" (Was the Space Program the Ultimate Drag Race?) 16x24 acrylic on masonite

I've got a 5th one I'm working on now...I'll post that when I'm done.

I'm hoping to get other shows down the line, and if I don't sell any, at least I have a look people can watch for. Most of the paintings I do are these cartoon monster themes. I paint what I love to look at...all the crap I grew up and remember from when I was a kid...cereal box art, toys and toy box art..comics...cheap monster movies...y'know, stuff we all seceretly love.

Slurpee Summer

2006-07-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

I heard it was like, 108 degrees out yesterday here in Dallas. Damn. That's hot. When the summer hits it's peak, my mind always goes back to the fun days of summer when I was a kid. When me and my mom would visit my aunt Vernecia in Balch Springs (a southerly suburb of Dallas...we lived even farther south), I would get bored with their lady talk and walk the two blocks in the searing Texas sun to 7-11. The small frigid convenience store held a treasure trove of goodies. It truly was an oasis in the desert.
You walk in and the floor was ice cold...(yes...we use to walk bare foot everywhere in Texas!) greeting you was the towering comic rack stuffed with every adventure imaginable. These were 20¢ to 25¢. The Slurpees, which I want to say were only 25¢ , were behind the counter and the check out guy actually served you the drink. This is probably why I never got the Slurpee cup I wanted, all the time. It was up to his "luck of the draw".
I was really into the super hero cups, of course, and was always trying to get the favorites...Hulk...Spiderman...Thor...etc. I would get heroes like Aqualad...or Batgirl (and NO, she wasn't cool to me then.) I would then slurp on the frozen cherry goodness and ogle the comic rack, looking for my Marvel favorites. I remember very clearly once getting issue #2 of "the Golden Voyage of Sinbad" by Marvel. What's that?...1974?
It was sheer genius for 7-11 to make a "collector cup"series. We wanted them all. They started the collector series in '72 with football and baseball cups. The heroes started in '74 with DC's Legion of Super-Heroes cups. There were 60 in all!!

Some I wanted, (...like Batman..), some could go suck an egg.

Let's back up...Where did the Slurpee come from...?
7-11 didn't invent the Slurpee.
The actual invention of the Slurpee was done in '59 by an ingenious Dairy Queen owner, Omar Knedlik using an air conditioning unit from a car and a rolling tumbler and pressurized air. It's basically carbonated soda refined with tiny ice crystals.
Somewhere along the line, the Icee company bought the rights to the process calling it a Slush...then an Icee in '65. Southland bought the rights in '67, and during a brainstorming session, Bob Stanford, president of their ad agency, took a slurp and coined the name.
The reason we get brain freezes from Slurpees in that special temperature in which they are served....28 degrees! Below freezing. What happens is that, if you drink one too fast, the blood is chilled in your mouth and it goes to circulate in your brain. Chilled blood is slower...and apparently hurts like hell.
Since '65 when it was released, over 6 BILLION Slurpees have been sold and most of those suffered brain freezes...I'm sure.
I haven't actually had a Slurpee proper in many a year..I do have a Spiderman cup though, finally. Got it off Ebay.

Wish You Were Here

2006-07-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

Triple D!

2006-07-09T18:19:00.000-07:00

No...Barbara Eden wasn't a triple D cup..the pic is in 3D! This is an example of my recent 3D experiments with Photoshop.
Get you some 3D glasses and check her out.
I tired not to exaggerate anything too much...it's rather subtle. I think it works.

More coming up soon.

King Vinyl

2006-07-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

Mondo Daddykin is doin' it again! He keeps knockin' it out of the park. Now he's posting the long sought after King Kong (1966) TV Soundtrack!! I flipped out. I later stopped flipping long enough to make these CD labels.

Download, print, and check another LP off your list.

Penny's Run

2006-06-26T00:22:00.001-07:00

I was looking over the groovy faux gum cards over at BUBBLEGUM FINK today. The Logun's Run set looks just like a real set of cards and I was wondering why they never made these. I was thinking how strange it was that a lot of that was shot here in Dallas, neighboring Fort Worth and Irving.

The Carousel entrance was the Great Hall at the Apparel Mart (from which I live about 10 minutes away).

Logan's apartment building was the Bruton Park Building on 35 Stemmons Frwy (about 15 minutes from me).

The classic scene at the Wave Power Inlet is of course at Fort Worth's Water Gardens (usually about 30 minutes from me).

While waxing nostalgic over that period, my wife Penny came from behind me, looked over my shoulder at the computer, and started telling her classic Logun's Run story in my ear.
"Oooh..Logun's Run!" she excitedly started. " Did I tell you the time when me, Pam (her sister) and Francine (their friend, who appears briefly in the Sex Pistol's film, "The Filth and the Fury" as the girl rubbing gravel in her hair), went to a cattle call for crowd scenes for Logun's Run?"
"Yes. You told me." I answer with no enthusiasm.
"We went to the old city hall in Dallas and lined up with a bunch of other people.." she continued, not hearing me apparently. "I remember it was warm and it was at night." She sits down at the desk to give the details.
"We were already accepted and were standing around,dressed in our tunics 'n all, waiting to be called for our group....they had them in groups. Normal looking people were for the extreme background....the beautiful people were up closer to the camera. We were waiting for the beautiful people to be called. We were cute 'n all."
I roll my eyes.
She continued, "We saw and talked to our friend Judy Jett (one of many girlfriends to Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music). She made it in the movie..she did a walk by...in the Sanctuary scenes."
She continues, "Anyway...we stood around for hours...probably 4 hours, and we were thinking, 'This is gonna be a bad movie...this is boring."
I wince and shake my head slowly.
"We finally got tired and started walking away. Then the coordinator called after us...like...'hey..wait', right? I look at Pam and Francine and scream, 'RUN!!' and we all take off running."
I look at her for a second. "So....you ran away?"
"Yea. We ran from city hall as fast as we could."
"After standing there for 4 hours?"
"Yea."
"...and you were wearing THEIR costumes?"
"Yea."
I look at her for a few more seconds. "Why?" I ask.
"'Cause I got the part...".
I give another blank stare.
"Who else can say they ran from Logun's Run?" she stated proudly. She walks off saying something about being a true "Logun's Runner"...or something. I watch her toddle off.
Penny herself is not sure why she and the others really ran. The only way I can logically comprehend these actions, is to relate them to Logun's theme in the film. The only problem is...he found an answer by running.

For more details about these locations check out
this fan site.

Do-It-Yourself Monsterblog!

2006-06-22T22:11:00.000-07:00

I think these two have flipped their wigs...or bald caps! Max and Courtney have taken Dick Smith's classic tome...the ray of light for all monster maker kids of the 60's...the Warren Publication, "Dick Smith's Do-It-Yourself Monster Make-Up Hand Book"..and are in the process of doing each make up effect in the book.

Here's their version of the Martian...Great color!!

Dick Smith was responsible for several of cinema's most indelible make up effects over the past 50+ years. High on the list is Linda Blair's horrific (and still very realistic looking) possessed make up for "the Exorcist".
Back in 1965 he hooked up with Warren Publication (Famous Monsters of Filmland) to write a make up manual for kids. He couldn't have possibly known how he was going to change so many lives.
I bought my first copy back in 1981 through Fangoria magazine. The ONLY reason I didn't buy a copy in '65 was because I was only 1 year old and had NO money on me at the time!
The mail order company had original magazine copies from '65 in mint condition. I bought mine for $12...which I thought was pretty steep at the time...but no cost was too much for Dick's info. I noticed that later, the cost of the back issues went up to $30!!
Fortunately, it's been reprinted a few times in book form with color images.
After 21 years in the film business, I still refer to the book's basic info if I'm stumped on a project.

Check out the make ups Max & Courtney have already done:
The Mummy!!
The Werewolf!!
..of course the Martian!!
...and my all time favorite, The Weird-Oh!!

(thanks to Mr. Bali Hai for the tip!)

HUGO!

2006-06-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

I came across a 1976 copy of the Archie comic "PEP" today, and bought it solely for the inside cover ad...

Hugo..Man of a Thousand Faces!
I wanted one of these so bad, back in '75. Dad didn't get the whole puppet fascination, but mom did...she did puppets at church and such. I never did get one, but they did get me "Ernie" when Sesame Street started merchandising their Henson puppets.
Until I find a HUGO, I'll have to play the virtual HUGO over at the SECRET FUN SPOT. Download and have "disguise fun"!

The Bugaloos...The Bugaloos..

2006-06-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

I downloaded The Bugaloos soundtrack from over at MONDO DADDYKIN the other night. I had to come up with a label suitable for this recording. I've been searching for these tracks for many years and I wanted something that looked nice. In the zip file provided, there are a couple of good images that I converted into a decent Photoshop label...thingy.

I use TDK CD/DVD labels so this might work for you if you use the same. Download and print out.

Tails from the Cryptozoologist

2006-06-07T09:59:00.000-07:00

I ran into my old buddy Jeff Johnson yesterday. He was at the local mold supply shop, that's run by my other buddy, Mitch.
Jeff has a site up that shows his resin model kits and his other works. Take a look at his THYLACOLEO CARNIFEX. (Say that with a mouth full of cookies.)

E.T. Phone Merchandising Rep.

2006-06-03T10:15:00.000-07:00

I was digging through some old pictures (that's what we use to call pics, by the way..) and found this photo I took in a grocery store circa summer 1982.

If you look at the price tags, the store was a Skaggs Alpha Beta...which became Albertson's years later. A single bag of Reeses Pieces was 30 cents!!...a 1/2 pd bag was $1.29!!
I remember taking this pic because E. T. was so huge then...and I was already collecting many movie related items. (I was the first person I knew to display Star Wars figures on a shelf...just to look at.)
When I was walking out of the store, a manager came after me and asked why I was taking pictures and I told him..."cause it's E. T., man..." I think that confused him.
I think he thought I was an undercover health inspector or something.
I eventually got one of those T-shirts and had it in pristine condition until the mid 90's. I eventually gave it to a niece, because at that time, the 80's and it's images were a huge fad among the teenagers.

2006 British Bike Burnup

2006-05-28T17:49:00.000-07:00

My buddy Ralph had his annual British Bike Burnup this weekend. From miles around, British bike owners came to this rally to show their wheels and talk RPMs. They show up and park on the sidewalk outside Ralph's hip store, "the Hollywood 5 & Dime". The makes eligible for the show were Triumph, BSA, BMW, Norton, etc....vintage and new.
Penny was supposed to ride her Triumph up there, but she was too tied up with work. I went by myself and took some pics. (click 'em for larger images)

Lined up on the sidewalk out side Ralph's. The beer truck being there is what is called "synchronicity". Look it up.

Ralph's '69 Triumph

See ya next time....

Everything's Archie!

2006-05-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

...at least that's what I was told. Here's a nice big scan for the bubblegum fans. I saw this scan for The Groovie Goolies' debut LP over at BUBBLEGUM FINK, and decided to post this...without a water mark.

If anybody wants a premo PDF scan of this, let me know.

Do Not Adjust Your Blog

2006-05-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

HyperDave over at DATAJUNKIE has lost his mind and has scanned every single original OUTER LIMITS gum card produced! The colors are juiced and vibrant!
ALL 50!!

It's a Boy's Life Pt5

2006-05-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

Oh...one more installment...from another Boy's Life...more Weird-Ohs!

It's a Boy's Life Pt4

2006-05-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

In the issues of Boy's Life I found, I came across some hip ads for models n such.

Awesome! Roth Paints!! Check out the font on those cans! Save it...print it out...frame it!!

The classic Munsters AMT ad from 1966! Biggest scan on the internet!!

A Weird-Ohs ad from '66 or '64....Sling Rave Curvette holding the banner!

It's a Boy's Life Pt3

2006-05-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

In an issue of Jack and Jill, I saw another great article...for DAKTARI-eeeee! I have only dim memeories of DAKTARI-eeee! It played on Sunday afternoons here in Dallas, and I've not seen it since it's first run syndication days.
I scanned just the pics from the article, but if anybody wants the whole article as a PDF, let me know.

Marshall Thompson rocked at everything he did!

IT! The Terror from Beyond Space...First Man Into Space...Flipper...Fiend Without a Face...Gunsmoke...etc!!

Writer, director, producer, and actor!!

It's a Boys Life Pt2

2006-05-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

From the same stack of Jack and Jills came this great two page ad for Mattel's THINGMAKER!

(click, save, print, and frame for your office or local pool hall.)

It's a Boy's Life Pt1

2006-05-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

I went to Half Price Books the other day looking for yet another manual on Photoshop or Illustrator. I found what I wanted, and as usual, once I've done that...I go look at fun stuff. They have a section there called Vintage or Retro...something. It's where they keep the old magazines, stills (sometimes), TV Guides, etc. Anything over 20 years old is in there. I came across a pile of Boy's Life and Jack and Jill Magazines from the mid 60's. They had some great articles and ads in them. Premo stuff, really. I plan to share these pages with you guys in the next few installments and I plan to make them as large as possible (for Blogger) so you can print them out.
First up is an article from Jack and Jill (1968) for the "new" show from Hanna Barbera, The New Adventures of Huck Finn!

Jack and Jill article in PDF

(Click link..Click "wait in line & download"...Click OK in window...Click "download ready"...save)

Happy Blogday!

2006-05-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

As of April 26, this blog was a year old! Doesn't seem that long ago really.
To celebrate, I'm posting a mix tape that I did around 1990. At that time, my nostalgia bug was running at maximum speed and I was having a hankerin' for the good 'ol days. This 90 minute (!) file has a piece of just about everything audibly that reminds me of growing up in Dallas in the 60's and 70's done in montage and music mix style. This was cut together on a simple cassette deck using video resources or actual LPs or 45s. (There were no free internet downloads at the time.) The sounds are a compressed audio injection of my childhood.
Enjoy.

Joe's 60's n 70's Psychodelic Brain

Super Blog

2006-05-03T11:03:00.000-07:00

I've got some other crap up for sale on Ebay, and one item is an issue of Super Mag from 1982. Super Mag was kin'a like Bananas or Dynamite!
I'm not sure where I got it, but it's a pretty cool issue...if you're into the 80's video craze.
Here's a couple of pics not seen in the auction...(click for bigger images)
"No Nukes"?...yea, good luck with that.

Barbera Eden on a TRON game? Who would'a thunk?

Six Million Dollar Wallpaper

2006-04-26T09:56:00.000-07:00

Back when I wrote this POST, I was buying all the Six Million Dollar Man kits off of Ebay. When I was a kid, I'd pass up these kits and buy the Tom Daniels rods, or Aurora glow models.
I scanned a close up section of the instructions and made a wallpaper out of it. It's some kind of "70's meets the computer age" kitcsh statement. You must have a Lee Majors model paint guide on your desktop.
Click and save.

Invasion of the Paper Craft's Bride

2006-04-25T00:03:00.000-07:00

I was diggin' through some stuff...tryin' to clean out more crap for my Spring Cleanin' Sales...y'know...and I came across this photocopy from the back of a Cap'n Crunch cereal box.

This is Wilma's Traveling Tub...Where would she be going? She's a white wale!
Wilma represented the Cap'n Crunch's Vanilly Crunch flavor cereal. I'm not sure when this character was promoted, but the "slutty" look was replaced with simpler female facial features later.

I don't know...I kinda' like the slutty look.

Anyway...click, save and print out on card stock to build.

Sounds Like Godzilla

2006-04-07T07:14:00.000-07:00

I'm experimenting with the process of burning my LPs and cassettes to MP3s now. I picked Ben T's brain a while back in hopes of shedding some light on the grey areas of this process, and I have to say, he helped a lot. I had Nero 5 all the time and that could handle what I wanted to do. I also read a simple tutorial on line that explained in detail the process of editing your waves.
For my first try, I copied a couple of cassettes I've had since 1990. Both were Toho Sound Effects LPs (Sound Effect of Godzilla) that someone had copied for me to tape. The first one is mostly Godzilla, Minya, other Monsters and other related sound effects...the second one is all the really cool monsters...Ghidorah, the Gargantuas, Gabora, etc. It too has related sounds like, spaceships, ray beams, etc.
The timing was right, because someone at Content Type.com sent me a suggestion/advert about uploading files for free. I thought this would be a good way to share these unique LPs, that I haven't seen, as of yet, posted anywhere.
For Volume One, go HERE. Volume Two, the first part of the second album, is HERE...and Volume Three, the second part of the second LP is HERE. Content Type is sort of like Rapidshare where you have a limited download per hour...so it'll take a couple of visits. Sorry. In the future, I'll try to condense the tracks into one file...if possible. When you click the links, click where it says "wait in line..", then a prompt will come up saying it's ready and "please visit our sponsers", etc. Click OK...Click "Download ready", and save it to your computer.
For a full listing of the tracks, go here.
Take these and use them as you will...in sound mixes, home movies, etc., and let me know how it works. As I said before, this is an experiment.

The Day the Clown Cried

2006-03-31T12:12:00.000-08:00

I'll come out and just say it. I try not to hide anything from anybody in this blog....so here it goes. I'm a Jerry Lewis fan.
There.
You either get him...or you don't. There's nothing intellectual in "getting"
him, as a lot of the crypto-film-nerds would have you to believe. Surreal comedy is an acquired taste and some people don't see it. Fine.
I don't see what so great about American Idol. And in that comparison, it seems people would rather watch people's dreams crushed by rude no talent hacks, than watch a guy spaz out to just get a laugh.
So...that being said...I've seen just about everything Lewis has ever done. Some, I like more than others, (Nutty Professor, The Errand Boy, Way Way Out, The Bell Boy, The Big Mouth, The Ladies Man, etc.) some I could care less about (The Delicate Delinquent , Hardly Working,...no surprise there...and The Geisha Boy). There is one film that he worked on that I haven't had the pleasure to view. As a matter of fact, only a hand full of people have seen this film.
The Day the Clown Cried. (1972)
I heard about this Lewis film in the early, early 80's, and being the Lewis fan then, I became obsessed with it. I heard it was the most ghastly concept and that Lewis' performance was legendary. Before VHS and before the internet could share data bases and files, I thought that TDCC was a myth...or had died early in the writing. All I was getting years ago was word of mouth. Surely, nothing this insane could have been filmed, edited and screened. If you haven't ever heard of this film, let me fill you in on the story:
It's World War Two (already a bad start) and Lewis plays a German clown named Helmut Doork (!?). He's fallen in the ranks at the great circus and rages on in hopes of being number one again. The problem is he's a mean drunk and a jerk. He goes on a drunken speil at a tavern accusing the great Adolph Hitler and his mad schemes for making his job harder (it's always someone else, eh?). While literally falling down drunk (Jerry Style), he lands at the feet of two Gestapo agents who arrest him for ridiculing their Furher. He's interrogated and gives up names of everyone he knows, anti-Hitler or not, just to save his skin. Not too funny so far.
No belly laughs here.
He's taken to a political prison adjacent to a concentration camp where he's tortured and ridiculed all the while signing his own praises as a great clown. When he tries to stand up to his wardens and then beaten down, he criticizes himself for showing any backbone. At one focal point, he's thrown down in the mud and notices the children laughing at him from the concentration camp side. He makes an effort to apply mud to his nose and this makes the children laugh harder. More children gather at the fence who laugh. He then exclaims, "Look....They're laughing at me. I am a great clown!" The children are some sort of catalyst and he works for only them. (This is where art imitates life with Lewis...children in need of a clown) He takes soot from the stove to work up some make up, some bird droppings for the white base, trades some food for a larger man's shoes and coat, and starts really giving the kids some performances.
Can you see it coming? It's kinda' like a hard knot in the back of your throat, huh?
The head Nazi sees how Jerry can handle the kids and is ordered to entertain them for their duration. Eventually they are herded onto a train boxcar and are headed for Auschwitz. To quiet the children and keep them distracted, the Nazis force Jerry to ride on the boxcar as well. He ends up going to Auschwitz with them and then is told to lead them to the gas chambers. The children thinks it's just showers, but
Jerry's character knows differently and yet does nothing. He entertains them to the very chamber door and enters in with them. The door closes
behind them and they're gassed. The End.
WOW!
What a f***king bummer!

The original screenplay was written by publist Joan O'Brien and TV critic Charles Denton as far back as the mid 60's. O'Brien got the genesis for this while working with Emmett Kelly, the lengendary clown...and apparently while reading books on the Holocaust. The idea of the children that were sent to the gas chamber was too horrible to imagine, so the influence of working with Kelly became a natural catalyst for the idea. According to O'Brien, Kelly told her that he wasn't nervous playing to large audiences because he wasn't playing to the grown ups...just the kids.
To make the picture, O'Brien and Denton optioned it to many producers who got the interest of stars like Milton Berle, Dick Van Dyke, and Bobby Darin. Eventually in 1971 a producer, Nathan Wachsberger (Starcrash..They Came to Rob Las Vegas) optioned
on it and took it to Jerry to star and direct. Jerry was a little taken back
at the idea at first..."Why don't you get Sir Laurence Olivier? My bag is comedy...and you're asking me if I'm prepared to deliver helpless kids into a gas chamber. Ho ho...that's some laugh. How do I pull it off?"
Wachsberger assured Jerry that he got funding from French and Swedish backers and they'd be using the Europa Studios in Stockholm (where Bergman shot several of his films). Jerry read over the script and made changes. He felt it was something he needed to do now..it was his time to make serious films. He said then..."What a horror...it must be told." , and later he wrote "I thought (the film) would be a way to show we don't have to tremble and give up in the darkness...Helmut would teach us this lesson."
I think the main reason Lewis did the film was what addicts call being on the "Pink Cloud". He had just kicked a Percodan addiction and was very proud of himself for doing so. Addicts get happy and excited once they kick something and feel rather invincible and start wanting to "pay back" the ones who might have suffered...or give
something to society. These emotions usually run toward grandiose dreams and sometimes are focused toward religious projects. You can thank booze for Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ". Quite a lucrative and well made "Pink Cloud"...but one none the less.
Jerry jumped into the role with gusto and while doing a final rewrite, he went on a grapefruit diet and lost 35-40 pounds to simulate a starved war criminal. Shooting started in Paris, Feb. 1972 and then onto Stockholm in April. According to Lewis, even before shooting started Wachsberger took off to the south of France and the financial backing disappeared with him. Lewis started spending his own money (because "it must be told") to keep the project going, but his funds were at a strain in '72. To make matters worse, Wachsberger never actually paid for the full use of the script, and the option had run out long before shooting started. O'Brien has stated that Lewis knew the option had run out and he was making a movie he had no legal right to make. This cumilation of using his own money (for a projected 1.5 million dollar production) and using a script that wasn't even cleared, put a tremendous strain on him as an actor and director. People on the set, and who saw the edited works later, said the strain shows in his performance. His anger for Wachsberger comes to the surface, as only Jerry could emote.
Jerry saw things differently: "The suffering, the hell I went through with Wachsberger had one advantage. I put all the pain on the screen. If it had been my first picture, the suffering would have destoyed me. But I have the experience to know how to use suffering....I was terrified of directing the last scene. I had been 113 days on the picture, with only three hours of sleep a night. I had been without my family...I was exhausted...beaten. When I thought of doing that scene, I was paralyzed; I couldn't move. I stood there in my clown's costume, with the cameras ready. Suddenly the children were all around me, unmasked, undirected and they clung to my arms and legs, they looked up at me so trustingly. I felt love pouring out of me. I thought, 'This is what my whole life has been leading up to.' I thought what the clown thought. I forgot about trying to direct. I had the cameras turn and I began to walk, with the children clinging to me, singing, into the gas ovens...and the doors closed behind us."
According to a SPY magazine article on TDCC, there was no on set documentation. Not true. Lewis wouldn't shoot a foot of his magnum opus without proof he was sweating blood. I've seen only seconds of this footage, but it does exist.
By June the picture's principal photography had wrapped and Lewis openly voiced his
business dealings with Wachsberger to the Swiss press. On some legal grounds, Wachsberger had his lawyers sue Lewis on breach of contract, siteing that he couldn't finish the film without Lewis' help now. Lewis put his back into it and used his editor Rusty Wiles through the winter and then the spring, to cut a version together. That version is the only one to be seen by the lucky (?) few. Europa Studios have refused to give up the negative claiming that they are stilled owed 600,000 clams. Trying to get it finished, Lewis showed the cut to O'Brien and Denton to get them to renew the option. This was a bad thing. According to Denton later, "It was horrible...In one scene, Jerry is lying in his bunk wearing a pair of brand new shoes after theoretically having been in a concentration camp for four or five years."
From all reports from the people that have seen it, Jerry plays is cold, flat and the humor is so terribly wrong as to be legendary.
Harry Shearer, who saw the rough cut in the 80's, has said," If you say'Jerry Lewis is a clown in a concentration camp' and you make that movie up in your head, it's so much better than that...and by better I mean worse. You're stunned. With most of these kinds of things, you find that the anticipation, or the concept, is better than the thing itself. But seeing this film was really awe-inspiring, in that you are rarely in the presence of a perfect object. This was a perfect object. This movie is drastically wrong, it's pathos and it's comedy are so wildly misplaced, that you could not, in your fantasy of what it might be like, improve on what it really is. The closest I can come to describing the effect is if you flew to Tijuana and suddenly saw a black velvet painting of Auschwitz...It's not funny, and it's not good, and somebody's trying too hard in the wrong direction to convey this strongly held feeling."
An example of "wrong headedness", is in a scene where Lewis is freezing in his bunk because a guard removed his blanket. He gets up, goes off screen to the latrine to urinate, and the sound of ice cubes hitting the toilet bowl is heard. Yea..I would say that's a "wrong direction" to go with this subject matter.
O'Brien and Denton felt the same way, refused to allow this version to surface, and
that's where we stand today, 34 years later. Jerry has a rough cut and a VHS copy in his vault and doesn't take interviews on the subject. He says it will be released, but when....no one knows.
And still I wait to see the legend. Like camping out to spot Bigfoot...someday I will see this classic Lewis film...this Holy Grail of Kitsch. In all it's unreal bad ideas, horrific topic, and typical Hollywood pinky ring suave martyrdom...it's still preferred viewing over any episode of American Idol.

American International Pictures

2006-03-31T06:59:00.000-08:00

One of my all time favorite movie studios was AIP formed in the 50's. During the days of big studios trying to catch up with the newly arrived TV craze, AIP was aiming their pictures at the teenage drive-in set. AIP aimed their focus perfectly at the restless, hormonal charged teens who were getting out of the house and looking for something TV couldn't offer. Most of their more famous titles have "teenage" in them (i.e. Teenage Frankenstein, Teenage Werewolf, Teenage Caveman, etc.) or have the teenagers trying to foil some creature from space or thrawrting some villain.

(..some kind of double date, apparently...)

(Teenage Frankenstein getting a lift to school from dad. How embarrassing for him.)

(Michael Landon far from the "Little House")

The picture's sole strength, sometimes, relied on the ad campaign and ad art. Most of time, the title and art were made before a script was even written.

This site has collected a complete listing (for sale) of AIP's diverse and culturally iconic pictures from it's inception as ARC in 1954 to the almost forgotten titles of 1980.

Spring Cleaning

2006-03-29T12:39:00.000-08:00

Check out my Ebay crap...Surely there's something there you gotta have!!

This Post has 7 Blogs

2006-03-25T09:46:00.000-08:00

My buddy Dave has got himself a blog,
so God knows what will happen now. The dood'll rip up the joint.

He's gonna kill me for postin' that pic. (paa haaa)

Planet X

2006-03-21T13:23:00.000-08:00

I'm diggin' Planet X...

Surfink (post #150)

2006-03-14T14:48:00.000-08:00

(...or, The Longest Post Ever to Grace this Blog or, This Was Supposed to Be a Quicky Project)
A lot of people have been e-mailing me and asking me where I've been, cause I haven't posted in a couple of weeks. I've been trying to finish this giant post. The production of this post, has been more demanding than the actual subject of the post. I kid you not.
ok....
Of all the models that I've built for myself (and sold) or have built for others on
commission, I've never been able to build Ed Roth's classic Surfink.
A few years ago I bought one finally, but had to sell it before putting it together. I got another one just recently off of Ebay and jumped on building it before I weakened and put it in storage. One of the things I didn't like about the kit is that the surf is just white plastic. I felt it should be clear, like water...so the first thing I set out to do on this kit was to make the wave clear. I'd worked with losts of different resins, but I knew the good water clear resins were professional grade and ran pretty high on cost ($60 per qrt). Castin' Craft's Clear Resin ($20) has been around for a while and I've noted on several disscussion boards that many people have had the same problem I've had in the past with this stuff. It sets up fine...but the surface remains tacky for days....months. If you touch it, you leave indented fingerprints. This dulls the glossy look and deminishes the clearity. I decided to just make a mold of the wave for now, and figure it out later.
I took the original wave and glued it together with styrene glue and puttied the seams with Magic Sculp.
I decided to add more wave like shapes to the design with more Magic Sculp.

I closed off the top of the wave with a peice of sheet styrene cut and fitted to the opening.

I added more putty to help blend it in and close up any gaps, as this would let the silicone seep in when it's cast. I planned to make a "case mold" of the wave due to it's odd shape. A case mold is a two, three, or how many ever, part mold of a shape that's hard to cast with a conventionial two part, or "sandwich" mold.
I took my molding clay, Klean Klay...which has no sulfer content (a no no with silicones) and rolled out peices 1/4" thick.
I then layed this "blanket" over the shape and blended the clay where needed. The idea is to make a blanket thickness at least 1/4" all over your original. This is the shape and thickness your silicone will be later after a couple of steps. This step assures you that the silicone mold itself is thick enough uniformally.

After it's fairly uniform all over, I add keys on the section that I'll make the front and the section I'll make the back. These keys help the outer plaster jacket (that's about to go on) to stay in registration.

I then form a clay wall to help form the back half of the outer plaster mold. Once the back half of the plaster mold is brushed on, formed and then dry, I remove the clay wall leaving the front half.

I then coat the facing wall of the plaster with vaseline and lay on the other half of the plaster mold.
After that's dry, I carefully pry the back half away and pry away half the clay blanket as well, exposing the actual model. I "re tool" the exposed clay and form "registration keys" on the clay's surface.

These keys will be used to register the silicone mold edges to one another. How? Read on. I take the back plaster section and drill a large pour spout to allow the silicone to flow into it.

As you can see, the first spout was too low....the key is to get your silicone poured as high onto the actual model as possible for an even coating. I redrilled another spout and plugged the old one with clay. Next, I secured the bottom of the model with clay, as to not allow silicone to leak under it, then secured the back half of the plaster mold to the front with a large rubber band (the type use in ceramic molds). What we have is a space in just the back half for the silicone to fill. I mix up some silicone, (amount based on the clay removed from that half) and poured it into the spout. To make sure the silicone reached every area, I drilled 1/8" holes to allow air to escape. As the silicone filled up and leaked out of those areas, I plugged them with clay. Once the silicone had filled the cavity, I let it sit for a few hours.

Later, I opened the front half of the plaster mold, carefully removing the clay blanket from the front, and exposed the back half of the cured silicone mold inside the plaster jacket. I greased the facing wall of the silicone mold with Vaseline.

This keeps the two halves of the silicone molds from bonding and allows them to be opened easily. The silicone back half holds the model in registration...so, to pour the front half, I closed the front, secured it with my rubber band again, and turned the mold over.
This way, I can pour the front half of the silicone mold from the bottom without drilling a hole in the top...like filling up a cup. After a few hours, that's set and I remove the two halves leaving a complete two piece silicone mold, outer plaster case, and model.

Simple, huh?

I noticed that by pouring the second half from the bottom, I got some bubbles on the surface of the waves. There was no where for the air to go. No problem, once I cast the resin, I'll dremel the bubbles and make smaller waves from them. I did a test pour of the clear resin first, to see how it would take to the mold...how much color tint to use, etc. It looked promising. It cured and came out of the mold fairly quickly. This test piece is good for testing other effects, i.e.-dremmel reactions, clear coating of differnt chemical makes, etc. I then poured the real deal. I measured out what I thought would fill the mold, gave the resin a squirt of the activator/catalyst and stirred it thoroughly.
I researched the resin/catalyst ratio on line and in Castin' Craft's instructions. They spoke of drops per ounce. I've worked with resins a long time and I've always just eye balled the catalyst amount and literally measured it in squirts. The "drop" method has yeilded very slow results in the hardening of this brand of resin. Castin' Craft sells a "surface hardener" but I didn't feel like waiting to order it on line. I poured the resin into the mold, almost to the surface, then with the leftovers in the cup, I mixed in half a drop of blue green resin tint...then poured that into the mold as a final layer. I mixed the tinted with the clear to break it up, and knowing that the real ocean looks darker as it gets deeper, I kept the tops of the waves crystal clear and the base a richer blue green. I let the resin sit up and by that evening it was totally hard. As usual, the surface was still tacky, so I decided to cure out the peice with a heat gun and "force cure" the resin. I hit the base surface for about 10 minutes with the heat gun and let it cool off.

I took it out of the mold and waved the heat gun slowly over the rest for about 10-15 minutes until it was'nt tacky to the touch. I suppose you can amp up your catalyst even more for a quicker cure, but you risk the clearity going darker and even cracking of the resin. I let that sit while I tackeld Surfink himself.
He's pretty straight forward like most of the fink models, being made up a front half and a back half . While I was checking the fitting, a fly landed on Surfink's mouth.
I took this as a sign from Ed that it was all cool. I then started taking seams off of pieces and used a trick that works for organic shaped models. I scraped the seams off of the tongue
and hands
with an X-Acto knife and then brushed a liberal amount of the Testor's styrene glue over them to melt and smooth them out.
This usually works and needs no sanding. I did a test fit of all the parts to see how the hand and arm were going to work. I never liked the way the right arm reached in front of the character.
I've always felt it should be more out to the side to give the impression that he's balancing himself. After I got that in my head, I glued the right hand to the right arm. The hand position wasn't right either, so I snapped that off and glued the hand to the wrist in a more natural position,
then blended it all with putty.
To facilitate the proper angle for the arm, I cut a 45 degree section from the shoulder
and flattened the opening with putty.
While that cured, I put the body together with Testor's styrene glue, holding the halves together with rubber bands. I went after the slightly off set seams with white squadron putty,
which is perfect for the finer seams, and sanded them smooth. I glued the arm onto the shoulder with Krazy Glue Gel and began to putty the connetction and larger seams with Magic Sculp.
I resculpted the shoulder..
..filled out the ankles, etc. I let the putty set up over night and came back to sand and blend out everything.
Another thing I didn't like about the original model was that funky hair. I liked the front...don't get me wrong. It looks just like Roth's drawing...it's the back that get's me. There are two hair lines in the back...
..one on the scalp and the one of the actual hair peice. If you lay the hair where it's supposed to be, it's just...weird lookin'. So...I cut the back half at a strategic location, Krazy Glued it in place,
then puttied on a new, more compliant hair doo.
I blended it out to the actual sculpt and added flying strands (like the front). I primed this and the surfboard with a white primer.
After the board was dried, I did a wet sand on the top and bottom and then taped the stripes off. I sprayed on the primary coat of bright yellow with Design Master floral paints...
(the same brand used in this post..and this post).
After peeling the tape away, I re-taped for the center black stripe. Once the black stripe was dried, I sprayed the whole thing with a layer of Testor's dull coat, just in case I slip while painting the red flames. If I have a slip, the yellow, white and black will be sealed and it's as easy as wiping with a wet Q-Tip to remove any unwanted red paint. The sealer keeps the acrylics from bonding and it's easy to "erase". I hand layed the flames with two layers of acrylic, giving the front end a brighter orange/red and the back a darker brick red. After that, I gave the board 5-6 coats of Plaid's Clear Gloss,
...letting each layer dry first before adding the next. I wanted a deep gloss as if the board's been painted like a car AND wet.

I go back to the wave and dremel out the bubble with a rounded bur bit.

I shape it to a lesser wave shape. I then coat this and any other surface defect or sanded seam with Krylon's Triple Thick Crystal Clear Glaze.

An extra layer of clear makes any acrylic, lexan, or lucite scratch or scar go invisible again. (as a side note: If you have a windsheild or any clear styrene that's scratched or fogged by glue, ...you can brush on a coat of Future floor wax and it will go totally clear again. With the clear resin, this is the same principal.) The triple thick glaze also kicks the shine up if there are any fingerprints.

I added the white foam with a light dabbling of acrylic paint and sealed it with Krylon's Triple Thick Glaze.

I then glued the board to the wave with 5 minute epoxy and waited for it to dry, then glued the wave to the wooden base (after painting a green shadow texture with acrylic)
with 5 minute epoxy.
Back to the Grimmy himself...once the "baggies" were taped off,
I painted a base coat of light brick red on all the fleshy areas...I even went over the eyes. I then drybrushed a slightly lighter shade of flesh over the whole area.
I say slightly lighter, because if it's too much lighter, it creates a contrasty effect and we want to work our way to highlights gradually. If the next layer of drybrush is too stark, you can make up a batch of that same shade as a wash...like a water color... and brush it all over the area. This will bring the shadows up a little lighter, but not really effect the lightest shade. On my last layer, I went with a wash
and added a smidge more pigment to lighten his belly chest and some back, to simulate a slight "farmer tan"...as if he had on a t-shirt for most of the summer. I left the inside of the mouth dark, but ran a wash of red over the lips and tongue. I drybrushed that with a lighter rose shade. The teeth got a drybrush layer of ochre, then another layer of lighter ochre, then on the tips, a brushing of white.
The eyes got a drybrushing of ochre/off white, then a final layer of white. I capped them with spots of pure black for the pupils. The veins were red washes with a fine tip brush, following the sculpted veins. The hair was drybrushed with a golden brown then a lighter brushing of golden yellow.
Here, again, the contrast was evident and I did another wash of the golden yellow to blend the shadows more. Very carefully, on the grimmy's shoulder,
I lined in Roth's logo as an old school dark green tattoo using a fine brush. I peeled the tape off and painted the shorts according to the original box art...a patch work of lavender panels.
I sprayed the whole thing with Testor's Dull Cote and glossed the mouth, tongue, and eyes with Krylon Triple Thick Glaze. I also spattered the area nearest the board with the Plaid Gloss to simulate a splashed wet look, by holding the spray nozzle half way down and allowing it to sputter. I glued him to the board using my trusty 5 minute epoxy, then turned to the small crab.
I primed him with white, painted him with pinks, and washed it with a darker red in places. I attached him to Surfink's toe with 5 minute epoxy and propped him up until it set.
Finished.

After years of planning and wanting to make the most of my first and only attempt at Surfink, I came to this final effect. I'm pretty happy with it and I'm glad I went all the way with the wave effect. If you'd like a clear wave for your Surfink kit, email me and we'll work something out.

Here's some shots of Surfink enjoying himself off the coast of Miami...
and off of Zuma Beach.

High Brow Art Collector

2006-03-09T12:29:00.000-08:00

Bet you didn't know I was a high fah-looten' art collector, huh? I hit Ebay and scan for cool original paintings and sketches.

I came across Patrick Owsley's work for sale and bought one of his Quisp pieces. I plan to buy more 'cause I can't resist original art....and he does all the characters I grew up with..and they're affordable. He's got a web site too that's an eye full!

Return of the Bride of Paper Craft's Revenge

2006-03-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

Here's a whole ton of hip paper robots!! Poke around in this site, there are others not listed on this page.

Tile Job

2006-03-04T22:46:00.000-08:00

I snagged this image from Ebay and made an annoying desktop tile. I dare you to use it.

Bleeding Skull Good

2006-03-03T08:53:00.000-08:00

I stumbled and tripped over the BLEEDING SKULL this morning. Check it out.

Jimmy Left Living Island

2006-03-02T14:42:00.000-08:00

Jack Wild
R.I.P.

Rat Fink In Austin

2006-03-02T13:15:00.000-08:00

Next weekend at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin TX,"Tales of the Rat Fink" will be premiering at the Paramount. Made by Toronto filmmaker Ron Mann, the film focuses on Ed Roth himself, his life and drive as the premiere auto pop stylist and kulture trend setter.
Mann made a name with his documentary, "Comic Book Confidential" and plans to make a mark with this subject as well. A mostly animated film, it utilizes the voices of John Goodman (Ed Roth), Theo Rosnick (Rat Fink), Jay Leno, Ann Margret, Robert Williams, Billy F. Gibbons, and Matt Groening.
Roth's wife, Ilene is going to attend, as I am...are you?