Happy Birthday To Me!

Celebrating 38 years of being a big ole Monster Kid!

The Ghoul

Horror Host The Ghoul as portrayed by Ron Sweed.

The other highlight of this past weekends Motor City Comic Con, (other then meeting Guy Davis and having him do a free sketch of the B.P.R.D.'s Roger) was finally meeting The Ghoul. Not only meeting him but having him end up being a genuinely nice guy. Unlike some of the other guests who were there trying to make a quick buck charging little kids to take a picture or to sign an autograph, and really coming off as not giving a shit about the fans who got them where they are... The Ghoul was right there talking to kids both young and old and handing out free autographs on pictures he brought to give away.

If only we could get him back on t.v. in Detroit, then I'd be a truly happy monster kid!

Be sure to check The Ghouls official site!

The Clay Guy

I went to the Motor City Comic Con this past weekend, and one of the coolest things by far that I had the pleasure of seeing was these figures by Barry Crawford aka the "Clay Guy."

They are truly awesome in person.

I just wish I could afford to buy them!

Check out his site at clayguy.com

Rustling Husk

A Rustling Husk from the comic book series "Xombi" written by my good friend John Rozum and illustrated by J.J. Birch.

What can I say, I'm not sure that I have accurately captured the menace these creatures exude during their appearance in "Xombi" but maybe he was in more of a pensive mood for portrait day.

If you haven't read "Xombi" you need to do yourself a favor and track it down. Unfortunately DC comics has sat on their collective asses and haven't collected it into a trade-paperback (Same can be said for John's "Midnight Mass.) but you can still find complete runs easily and cheaply enough on eBay.

Speaking of John Rozum, with any luck he will be making a rare public appearance this Saturday, May 20th at the Motor City Comic Con in Novi, Michigan. John will be appearing and signing at the Wonderworld Comics table from around 1 - 4 p.m.. Be sure to look him up, and who knows... you might even see yours truly lurking about.

Vincent Price

Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911–October 25, 1993)

(If you are visiting from Illustration Friday, please take a moment to visit the main site here.)

So here it is, my official rendering of Vincent Price. I had to redeem myself after posting the first sketch I did of him.

If forced to pick just one favorite horror actor, I think I would have to choose Vincent Price. The man had such charisma and charm, and for me he hasn't lost an ounce of his appeal.

This one is dead-icated to my beautiful wife in honor of her birthday. I know you wanted me to do a picture of "The Blob" but truth be told, no matter what I tried I couldn't draw anything that even remotely resembled a blob... It's like Rozum says, the simplest things to draw are usually the hardest. Sorry, I'm a failure...

Happy Birthday!

R

Imhotep

Imhotep as portrayed by Boris Karloff in Karl Freund's 1932 classic "The Mummy."

(If you are visiting from Illustration Friday, please take a moment to visit the main site here.)

So far I have steered clear of doing the masters. I tell myself that it's because I want to save them for the month of October, but in reality its because I'm afraid I won't do them justice.

But I bit the bullet today, and I have to say I'm pretty happy with the results.

Once again Jack Pierce and Boris Karloff did and amazing job creating the makeup effects for "The Mummy." It was in fact one of the most intense makeups of Karloff's career.

From The Mummy: a History of Horror:
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Jack P. Pierce--the film's (uncredited) makeup man--needed eight hours to transform Karloff into the mummified Imhotep. At 11:00 a.m., the actor appeared in Pierce's quarters, where the makeup genius (working from a photo of King Seti II) pinned back his ears, dampened his face and covered every facial area (including eyelids) with thing cotton strips. Collodion covered the cotton; an electric drying machine preserved the desired wrinkles. The makeup made speech impossible for Karloff, who had to pantomime any point he wanted to get across. Two hours later, Pierce smeared Karloff's hair back with beauty clay and, as the clay hardened, he carved cracks in it. At two in the afternoon, Pierce began covering the actor's face with makeup paint. At five in the afternoon (six hours into the procedure), Pierce wrapped 150 yards of decayed-looking linen around Karloff, then added a dusting of Fuller's earth. By seven o'clock, the "reverse make-over" complete, Pierce walked his crumbly creation to the sound stage, where Karloff took his place in the sarcophagus. The shooting of the scene lasted until 2:00 a.m.
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All for a scene that lasts roughly three minutes, and never even has a full body shot in it... Amazing.

Hellboy

Hellboy as portrayed by Hellboy in the Mike Mignola comic book series "Hellboy."

If you are a monster fan and you aren't reading Mignola's epic "Hellboy," then you aren't really a monster fan now are you?
Come on, be honest. Why else would you deny yourself one of the best monster related stories in any medium?

If you have only allowed yourself the pleasure of Guillermo Del Toro's movie "Hellboy," sadly you are still missing out. For my money there is only on true Hellboy, and he only appears in comic form.

The first time I read Hellboy I was on vacation with my wife and son, and we were all out on my parents boat. I finished the two graphic novels I had brought with me, and then waited anxiously to get back to land so I could run to the nearest bookstore and get some more. What an amazing tale.

I also did a color version of this image, which you can check out here if you are so inclined.

Unfortunately I had very little time to dedicate to today's image, having been mostly sick and out of town this weekend, so my tribute to Mignola's H.B. isn't quite the way I envisioned it... but I wanted to be sure to at least give you a little something.

The Cyclops

The Cyclops from Nathan Juran's 1958 epic "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad."

Ray Harryhausen's creature designs and effects for "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" set my young mind on fire, and started me off on what I had hoped would be a life long career in animation, but sadly that wasn't meant to be.

The Cyclops is the first of many Harryhausen creatures I'm sure I will be doing.

I'd like to dedicate today's post to the memory of a dear family friend, Captain Jim Warmouth. I have no doubt that had he been born a thousand years ago his sea stories would be that of legend and we all would have grown up watching films of his adventures.

James E. Warmouth
      1949 — 2006

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

-Walt Whitman

Stephen King

I thought long and hard trying to figure out a good iconic image to do to honor Stephen King, but couldn't think of a thing. Then I thought, what could be more iconic then the man himself.

So here he is.

I realized the other day that in my life I believe I have spent more time listening to Johnny Cash then any other singer, and I have read more words written by Stephen King then any other writer.

He has been a HUGE influence on me. The first King book I read was "Christine." I can remember sitting in the back of class in 7th grade trying to conceal the fact that I was reading it when I was supposed to be reading Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations." (A brilliant novel by the way)

At one point I looked out of the classroom window, and I saw a guy pull up to the school in a red 50's car and I freaked, I have no idea what make or model it was, but at the time my fevered mind knew it just had to be a 1958 Plymouth Fury.

I can remember my Mom sending me out to the mail box to get the mail, my heart pounding in my chest, expecting at any moment to see a red Plymouth Fury come careening full speed over the top of the hill, Roland LeBay's crazed face grinning as he steered her towards me...

I've been hooked ever since.

Frankenstein's Monster

Frankenstein's Monster as portrayed by Christopher Lee in Terence Fisher's 1957 Hammer Horror classic "The Curse of Frankenstein."

I remember seeing this for the first time as a kid and being all disappointed because the monster didn't look like the Jack Pierce monster that we all know and love. But as I grew older I came to love this film, and I have to say that if pressed I would probably admit that Peter Cushing's Baron is actually my favorite portrayal.

The following is taken from one of the best websites about the Frankenstein Mythos, Frankenstein's Castle:

Victor, played by the then 40-year old Peter Cushing, is no longer a young student, but a dandy-like aristocrat. He is not the naive man from the novel, who wants to create a race of superior beings, but a cold and villainous madman who is totally obsessed by his work and even kills for it. But he does not only kill a Professor to implant his brain into the creature. To prevent his lover Justine from telling the police about his experiments he even sets up her death.

These crimes have no equivalent in Shelley's novel, where Frankenstein never kills anyone. (In the novel Justine is hanged because Victor cannot tell anyone the truth about his monster.) In The Curse of Frankenstein Victor is the true villain, who shows no remorse for his horrible crimes. "We are given a Frankenstein to hate, a Frankenstein [...] who is the real monster, a villain who ends the film facing the guillotine", as literature critic Paul O'Flinn points out. (1995: 41). In the BFI Companion to Horror Hammer's Frankenstein is called a "ruthless, predatory creature, not much inclined to self-justification or self-pity" (Newman 1996: 146).

However, actor Peter Cushing did not deem his role to be that negative. In an interview he stated, "I do not agree that he (Frankenstein) is an evil man; his motives are for the eventual good of mankind, but like many a real life genius, he is misunderstood and mistrusted and thus forced to use unorthodox and sometimes ruthless methods to carry on his work and research." (Del Vecchio 1991: 13). Yet it is doesn't come as a surprise that most critics do not share Cushing's point of view. It rather seems that in the interview he referred more to Shelley's Frankenstein than to his impersonation of the Baron.
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I also found the wonderful quote from Peter Cushing at the Wikipedia:

"In some ways I see Frankenstein as rather like Dr Robert Knox, the anatomist, not as villain, but as someone trying to make people understand that this envelope that we live in for three score years and ten is not important... [He] had to close his one good eye to the way Burke and Hare supplied him with cadavers so that he could show how the human body ticks for the good of all mankind... I have always based my playing of Frankenstein on Robert Knox, though with variations based on the demands of the script and differing degrees of ruthlessness because no one will ever leave him alone to work." — Peter Cushing.