Grrrrrrrrrrreat Horny Toady!

So tell me- HOW COOL IS THIS GUY??? We caught him in our yard a couple summers ago (in Sunland, CA) and I snapped some pix and then we turned him loose to hopefully go forth and multiply! These guys are very rare any more, at least around here- he's the only one I've seen in 30 years in LA... but what a fantastic little fellow he was. Loogit those spines and scales and patterns of color. I have always wanted one of these guys, at least to admire up close... we didn't want to try to keep him for fear he'd just die and then what? Anyway I hope he and his kin can thrive. We put him in a terrarium for a couple hours just to look at him and he would SHAKE rapidly from side to side and toss the gravel and sand up over himself, settling down to vanish into the earth, only his horn-lidded eyes peeking out. No wonder they are hard to find!  Awesome. no?

The Hell with Mad Anyway

So my boss, the great and legendary Steve Tatham, and I collaborated on a piece about political theme parks to submit to MAD magazine and I sketched it up- the writing is 99% Steve's. I just suggested political theme parks and he ran with the idea. MAD however ran from the idea... fuck 'em. Can I say that? I guess I did. Serves them right for failing- they have slipped from monthly publication to something less often... They did consider the idea and dragged it out for months before just saying no. But enough bitterness- here is what nobody got to see so that somebody gets to see it. (Obviously this is just a sketch for the submission- had it been accepted I would have done the art from scratch and made it finishder and betterer.

Doug Henderson

http://stores.ebay.com/Earth-History-Illustrations

That's where you can get prints by the greatest modern "paleoartist", the great Doug Henderson! And here is a piece he did a while back which I doubt anyone outside of the insiders on a certain film ever got to see. I just came across a copy of it in my files, and as a rare departure from my shameless self-promotion (hey, it's my blog okay?) I thought it would be an honor and a privilege to bring it to you. Doug is the guy who puts his dinosaurs, fish, mammals and so forth into their worlds for you. He shows you the prehistoric earth, not just the prehistoric animals. His compositions are unequalled and his work in truly in a class of its own. Do yourself a big favor and take a good look at his work, buy a print, buy a book. His art appears in many books including Dawn of the Dinosaurs by Nicholas Fraser, the Czerkas' Dinosaurs, a Global View and his own Dinosaur Tree and Asteroid Impact. He is the greatest modern master of all. Nuff Said!