Older work that isn't too bad

More Before I Was A Cartoonist stuff

Aurora-style Bigfoot model kit sketch

   Once again I dig into the piles of old sketches and doodles to see what I was up to around the time of high school, well before I became a professional cartoonist. I was self-taught, drew what interested me, and hadn't yet learned how to draw girls.

   One area that intrigued me was the plastic model kit, in particular figure kits like those produced by Aurora back in the 60's. I tried my hand at designing a few, like the Bigfoot sketch above. The one I was proudest of was my concept for a kit based on Davy Crockett. The pose is based on the final scene of the Fess Parker classic...

Aurora-style model kit box art sketch

And a sketch of the kit itself

   I also tried my hand at designing toys. 

   Below are some small drawings for a series of Marx-like standing figures (early in my life I became fascinated by the Marx figures when Pop bought a re-pop of the Creature From The Black Lagoon). The main set I concocted that seemed very Marx-like was the True Heroes series. It was composed of a Navy Frogman, a Smoke Jumper, a Soldier, a Marine, a Cowboy, a Fireman, an Astronaut, a Policeman, and a USAF Fighter Pilot. These drawings are crude, but you get the idea....

   Then there were the schemes to make tie-ins for other properties I wanted to develop at some point in the future. "Lance Thunder, Test Pilot" was an idea I had for a black and white teleseries set around 1960, which would detail the adventures of the titular test pilot and his group of friends at a remote airstrip in the American desert. This tiny sketch outlined a potential action figure of the character....

Small sketch for a 12 inch action figure

   The really ambitious item, however, was the Classic Terror Collection. The idea here was to make a series of 12 inch action figures akin to the old Monster-Scenes Aurora kits from the 70's. Basically, it was a series of generic, 60's styled figures of a science fiction bent. I envisioned an insane amount of accessories (right down to a scaled pack of cigarettes to be slipped into the Hero's shirt pocket!) as well as some basic playsets like the Mad Scientist's Laboratory. I can't be sure of all the characters I wanted to include, but I know the line consisted of the following: The Hero, The Girl, The Mad Scientist (sculpted to look like John Carradine, no less), The Mad Scientist's Assistant, The Mad Scientist's Lovely Assistant, The Monster (a generic Frankenstein creature, with lab table!), The Vampire (with coffin), The Vampire's Daughter (also with a coffin), The Werewolf (with cage and shackle), The Mummy (with sarcophagus), The Sea Monster, The Martian, The Robot (with exchangeable hands), The Gorilla (with chains, and an optional space helmet!), The Jungle Girl, and who knows what else! Below are a couple of sketches of the toys I pictured....

Classic Terror Collection robot figure sketch

Side view head sketch of same

Classic Terror Collection figure sketch

Before I became a cartoonist....

   I tried all sorts of things. I'd grown up drawing, though, so I figured that might be a part of whatever I ended up doing. First shown here are a couple of attempts at actual 'art' type art. Landscapes inspired by my youthful surroundings... I have no idea how old I was when I drew these. 12 or 13, maybe? Possibly younger?

   My first love has always been the screen, and a lot of drawings were geared toward it. Here's a design for a futuristic submarine my younger self dreamnt up for a possible teleseries....

   Eventually, I figured that if I couldn't work on the screen, I could use my many ideas for print. I drew up scores of crude drawings to see what would inspire a story I could write....

   My career as a short story author never quite panned out, despite much effort in that arena. It seemed comic books might be a better fit, so I began auditioning for comic book publishers (without knowing the first thing about doing so). One thing I tried out for was a horror comic in tribute to the old EC magazines. Although I was enthusiastic, it's obvious I hadn't yet learned how to draw human faces. Ironically, it was the female face I drew most poorly....

   Finally, I learned a few things, although not as much as I thought I did... Before I became a professional, I designed this cartoonist's post. I was obviously under the impression that I would be doing everything myself! Happily, I discovered there were professional inkers out there, so I could focus on the part I like doing best, pencils! 

   So many years later (although not that many in the big scheme of things) and I thankfully don't even recognise these hideous scribbles!

Old doodles and monster designs

I wanted so to grow up to make old monster movies, so my early artwork leaned in that direction. Designs for posters, monsters, and ad blocks were the order of the day. I couldn't draw women at all, and that's rather obvious now. In fact, it was to do this kind of thing better I learned how to draw the female form. The female form eventually stole my attention away from this sort of thing! 

Most of these were drawn with ink pens on whatever scraps of paper I could dig up.

The above pic was born of a conversation my friend and I were having, in which we dreamed up a spoof monster title: NIGHT OF THE PLATYPUS WOMAN. After considering it for a second, I figured the idea itself might fuel a legit monster movie. I called mine EYES OF THE SHE-MONSTER. 

Directly below is a monster design for an idea I wanted to call PLANIMAL! (Half plant, half animal, all nightmare!) Although the body looks okay, the face looks rather more 80's than I would have hoped, seeing as I was going for more of a 50's Paul Blaisdell kinda thing. I was young, what can I say?

And here's a rocket design and a robot costume for a project I'd considered.

And a mummy, because I wanted to see one with an exposed brain. (Yes, I know the ancient Egyptians removed the brains of their mummies, but this guy was supposed to've been mummified alive, as all good walking mummies tend to be.)

And here's a design for Bigfoot, done with a Sharpie.

Not sure why I drew this one. It's obviously inspired by Toho's Manda, from ATRAGON.

This one was for a short story I wrote with hopes of making it into a movie later. The story in question was called THE AMAZING INDESTRUCTIBLE CORPSE!

It's pretty obvious what inspired this one....

THE TIKI-GOD MONSTER was written for a book of short stories. My idea was to have fake movie posters for some of the stories. Here's a lobby card I designed. I used red ink to give it a more photographic look when reproduced in black and white.

Oh yes, HAND FROM OUTER SPACE! I never really had a story for this one worked out, I was just pleased with myself for dreaming up the rather iconic image of a hand reaching out of space and clutching the earth.  The first image is a newspaper-style ad block, and the second a more fleshed out movie poster idea. I may revisit this idea one day.

Last is a poster design for something called "PSYCHOUSE!" Hard to believe that title was never actually used for a movie! This one might have some life left in it too....

Betty the Bombshell

  Here's a Rock Baker rarity, my first attempt at a cheesecake cartoon (many years ago). This comes from a single issue experiment I did called Victory Comics "1942" and Betty the Bombshell was one of my back-up strips. The book was done by drawing the panels individually, scanning them, then doing a layout with a publishing program that let me add the letters. This was printed off into a proof and that was then scanned to create the final page! I had no idea what I was doing, really (my grasp of the human form has certainly improved since then!), and I worked with what art tools I had at the time (which means I did 'tones' by using a marker that was almost out of ink). Betty's story ran two pages.

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!

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!