One Stinking Badge I DO Gotta Show You

So, I storyboarded a bunch of monster movies (praise and thanks to the Elder Gods) and one of them was BRIDE OF
RE-ANIMATOR, the sequel to (duh) RE-ANIMATOR which I thought was one of the great horror films of the last umpteen years, maybe ever... and one of the VERY few that successfully mixed horror and humor. (Another was EVIL DEAD 2 of course.) Anyway, on "Bride" my wife Andrea designed the bride's costume and some sets and we hung around a lot during shooting. I worked on lots of Brian Yuzna movies and always had a great time on them. Jeffrey Combs had this badge that his character wore while working at the "Miskatonic" hospital and I asked if I could have it when the show wrapped. He said "sure" and everyone else who mattered said "sure" and so it is a treasured souvenir... and of course, here it is for your perusal.

I think it's an odd and interesting little piece of horror movie history.

"So Long Ago": A Real Golden Oldie

Here is the seldom seen dust jacket and a couple of choice pages from the book "So Long Ago" which was one of the last (if not THE last) childrens' books written and illustrated by the great and prolific Elmer Boyd Smith. I never saw this book as a child (I think it was first published in 1944 and enjoyed many reprints). One day, several years back, I was at Don Glut's house looking at his vast collection of dinosaur books when I spied a copy and, curious, pulled it out and had a look. I couldn't believe the gorgeous paintings that filled its pages and began looking for a copy of my own shortly thereafter. Finally found one and have seen it since for sale from many booksellers. Just wanted to use this venue to showcase the book and share some images... and maybe you will even want a copy of your own and visit a vintage bookseller and buy one, thus stimulating the economy- as well as your eyeballs! (Once, while looking for the book on the dusty shelves of a long defunct Hollywood bookstore I actually came across a book called "Not So Long Ago". And it wasn't.)

Kirby Your Enthusiasm

My pal, Don Glut, has this great Jack Kirby sketch (sent to him free back in the late 60's as the result of a request for a drawing to Marvel) on his wall, and I thought it would be nice to share it with the world, so Don let me scan it and I sent it to John Morrow, honcho of the indispensable Jack Kirby Collector magazine where it saw print. Yay.

Here's the sketch in case you missed it and a version I inked and colored just for kicks.

Two Guitar Players of note and a Cartoon

My brother's guitar hero was Bo Diddley. Mine was Jimi Hendrix. Here are photos of those cats, Bo from Freedomland, NY in around 1963 (taken by brother Fred) and a polaroid I took of Jimi in Troy, NY in 1968. Cool that we got to see them both! Here also is, inevitably, a cartoon!

This Melvin, This Monster

Spot the fake Melvin! John Stanley's great Melvin Monster comic only lasted ten issues and then Stanley left the comics field, somewhat bitterly as it was a field which gave scant rewards for his titanic contributions. But Melvin really only lasted nine issues: the tenth was only a reprint of the first. So I did a cover for a tenth issue just to round out the series! I also did a whole Melvin comic which you can read at http://www.vonshollywood.com/ if you are inclined. I tried to pitch it around (Melvin seems to be in the Public Domain) but was told "this is a kids' comic! Nobody publishes comics for kids anymore!" Imagine. The real Melvins are being reprinted by Drawn and Quarterly along with a lot of other great Stanley material so check them out here: http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/shopCatalogLong.php?item=a4947ea003ddd4