AMAWIO! Bonus: Creepshow

Long before comic book adaptations clogged the movie multiplexes and grossed billions of dollars, there was Creepshow.

Creepshow (1982) is the work of Stephen King, director George A. Romero, and special-effects wizard Tom Savini. The movie isn't based on a particular book but rather on a comic book genre: 1950s horror comics. The film consists of five different tales that come to life through the animated pages of a discarded comic book. In the live-action stories, Romero uses comic book imagery for dramatic and humorous effect – in these sequences, Creepshow is truly a comic book brought to life.

The movie was catnip for a comic book and monster obsessed boy.  But when I discovered the comic book adaptation of the movie, I was in horror heaven – I loved that book even long after the pages broke away from the glued binding.

In the episode The Crate, an unwitting academic awakens this long-dormant fanged monster, who promptly goes on a killing spree. The prof resolves to rid the world of the beast – but not until he uses it to solve a small problem that's been nagging at him. If you like horror movies with extra pulp, you will love Creepshow!

AMAWIO! Week Two

What do this gnarly toothed beast and Little House on the Prairie have in common?

Both starred Michael Landon! Before he was the patriarch of the long-suffering Ingalls family, Mr Landon was the "I" in I Was a Teenage Werewolf.

I have no memory of seeing the movie. I might have seen it when I was really young, on channel 56's Creature Double Feature – or maybe I merely saw movie stills in Famous Monsters magazine.

But I do remember donning my brother's too-big-for-me Patriots letter jacket and pretending I Was a Pre-Teen Werewolf. I lumbered through the neighborhood, hunched over and snarling, waiting for my chance to pounce on an unsuspecting cat, dog or gymnast.

My first sketch. I call this I Was a Geriatric Werewolf.

My final "pencil" drawing before adding color.

Garrrrrrr! I shot a quick iPod movie of myself going through some werewolf poses and used this still as reference for the final illustration.

AMAWIO! Bonus: War of the Worlds

AMAWIO! Bonus illustration from the vault. This alien from the George Pal production of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds (1953) terrified me as a kid. Perhaps because the alien had no discernible humanoid features – unlike so many other other movie monsters of the era that were obviously a man in a rubber suit.

AMAWIO! Week One

I'm embarking on a self-imposed drawing challenge for October. AMAWIO! is not only a clumsy acronym (it stands for A Monster a Week in October), it's also an excuse to draw the monsters that thrilled and haunted me as a kid.

This tentacled alien is from the movie The Green Slime – a movie I've never actually seen. The only reason I know about The Green Slime is because of the magazine Famous Monsters. Before the internet, before VHS tapes, the only place to see or read about movie monsters was FM.

The magazine exposed me to the vast universe of cinematic monsters. The first time I saw Nosferatu and the robot Maria from Metropolis was in the black-and-white-newsprint pages of Famous Monsters. Lon Chaney, Jr., and Vincent Price were household names because of Famous Monsters.  I am monster-obsessed today because of Famous Monsters.

The Green Slime appeared on the cover of issue #57 of Famous Monsters. The illustrated artwork shows an army of giant, one-eye tentacled monsters over running a spaceship. It's impressive. It's awe-inspiring.  It's woefully misleading. Photos inside the magazine make it clear that the actual The Green Slime movie was less grandiose than the promotional artwork would lead you to believe. Still, the movie loomed large in my mind for years.

I recently watched the trailer for The Green Slime and the movie looks even less impressive. What I thought might be an unappreciated sci-fi epic is actual a low-budget B-movie made in Japan with English actors. But I'm not utterly disenchanted.  There is something truly impressive about The Green Slime – its awe-inspiring theme song!

Play Ball!

Some of my sketches from the most recent Newburyport Drink 'N' Draw.

At a typical Drink 'N' Draw, the artists take turns posing. Last week, members of the Essex Base Ball Organization posed for the group. The players were there to raise money for – and awareness of – Jan’s Pitch for Breast Cancer and the Art.

It was a blast drawing these gents in their vintage baseball uniforms. The reason they are all looking to their left is because that's where the tv showing the Red Sox game was mounted to the wall.

Each pose lasted 10 minutes. I started each sketch with a mechanical pencil (0.5) then jumped to both a fine tip and regular Sharpie. The blue "wash" was added in Photoshop.

Who Was Louis Braille?

Check out some of the 80 (yes, 80!) illustrations I did for Who Was Louis Braille, written by Margaret Frith, published by Grosset & Dunlap,  and available in bookstores everywhere.