Monday, July 29, 2013

G-Fantis makes the scene

J.D. Lees enjoys the monster suit my Pop and Brother made for him, and even pals around with the King of Monsters himself!




Thursday, July 25, 2013

Ever wish you were a fish?



Thanks to Mr. Ken Begg for finding these photos (which, in fact, have previously been posted at www.jabootu.net )

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The fire of youth...

Legitimate ad for a real magazine!


   When I first got to use an editing program, I thought I was on the threshold of big things. Finally, I could put things together in a way that closer resembled what was in my mind! Not everything worked, of course, here're some of my projects....

Colorized and blocked, club membership card

My very first try at an actual comic story. Wow, is this crude!

Friday, July 19, 2013

Monsters are lurking about....

   My family has always been monster-happy. My brother and I enjoyed the last true "Monster Kid" period thanks to Pop's persistence in exposing us to the very films he so desperately wanted to see as a kid. 50's monster movies were a large part of my diet growing up, and reading material included stacks of old back-issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland. 8mm digests were included among the movies we watched, often projected against the wall of the living room. As I got older, I focused on girls more than monsters as my artistic subjects, and have since become a cartoonist specializing in cheesecake. My younger brother held to his dream of being a monster with more tenacity and this is the legacy of that....


   Pop and my brother, Kyle, makers of monsters.  First they built a costume of Marvel comics' Man-Thing....






   Then a "licker" from a Resident Evil video game. Not caring much for comics and video games myself, I was still impressed with the craftsmanship that went into creating these beasts. All that exposed muscle tissue was made from gluing on strings of yarn -one at a time!






   Then there was the big kid, Godzilla!










   And a few odds and ends since.... 









Friday, July 12, 2013

THE DARK EQUATION

   THE DARK EQUATION was one of the projects of my youth, a Twilight Zone/The Outer Limits-inspired television series I tried to get off the ground. It was a no-go, and upon reflection I'm a little relieved as my writing skills have greatly improved since then!

   I recently ran across some of the remains of the project, including a write-up in an old issue of AMOH. Quite embarrassing, that review, which strained to make the project seem more legitimate than it actually was (although it was right in line with how I viewed the project at the time). My scheme was to write each episode and even act as host via Rod Serling under the name Howell Pathfinder. Pathfinder would play 'himself' and at least once each episode would interact with the other characters. At this time, I had not yet seen One Step Beyond or The Veil, I should note.

   I did actually plan out an entire run of episodes, with titles for each and several monster designs as well. I even built a few props in my enthusiasm for the project, and had plans of asking Charleton Heston (!), and later Rex Reason (!), to provide the opening and closing narration!!! I was ambitious, there's no question!

   Here are the original episode titles, in their planned order:

The Photo
Creature
Ghost of Blood
The Brain
The Deadliness of Non-living Things
Inside a Killer's Mind
Like a Hunting Shark
The Living Arm
Beware! Werewolf!
Our Own Apocalypse
How To Make a Killer
A.G.E.
A Case of Missing Time
Inhuman
The Flower
Voice of the Darkness
A Look Apart
Curse of the Vampire
Destroy Antaculus!
Missing Images
Blood to Stone
True Identity
Unnatural Selection
The Dead Say Little
Attractions
This Cold Stone

   Here're some of the monster designs I did.







   Nothing ever came of the project, unless you count a pair of stories that appeared in The AMAZING MONSTERS OF HOLLYWOODLAND under the Dark Equation title. I changed the plot of "Ghost of Blood" and wrote it out as a fiction feature. To punch it up, and maybe fool myself into thinking I was an actor, I included some photos in a 'process' I lamely called STILLOVISION! Below you can see me playing Dr. Glenn Lindstrom stalking into an island jungle to confront the titular ghost. Said ghost was an effect I created with the family computer's editing program. 






   I may not have been very honest with myself, but I was sure having fun!


Friday, July 5, 2013

The AMAZING MONSTERS OF HOLLYWOODLAND

   Long ago, I used to produce and publish a monster magazine. While I tried to offer a slick product, and had some loyal readers, the enterprise reached a point where I just couldn't cover costs. Only two copies of issue no. 4 were ever produced, and issue 5 never got beyond the planning stages (look at the price tag and you'll see why). I present these covers, however, as examples of my editing work. What wild and ambitious times these covers represent!