ALL THE PAST AND FUTURE HOLDS



A Photo from the LA TIMES shows a city councilman holding a life size cut-out of William Mulholland, the man behind the LA aqueduct a hundred years ago... ah, or is it a hundred year photo of Mullholland holding a life size cut-out of a councilman of the future?

NCIS 'TOONS - ON THE AIR

 

When I was at NCIS I drew these china marker sketches of Abby and Tony and they actually used them in one of the first season episodes.  In the scene, Newbie agent Kate's sketchbook was grabbed and her whimsical drawings of her new co-workers were revealed.  I'm sure that scored some points.  

 

Frankly, I'd forgotten about 'em but someone  reminded me and I found these online.

YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU

THE FIRST QUESTION EVERY WRITER MUST ASK...

When I  took my first screenwriting class at Film In The Cities in Saint Paul, this question was ingrained in each and every one of us -- that you may have the coolest, high-concept idea but if you can't answer the above question, your story has no character drive.  The above illustration never made its way to t-shirts but we had cool mugs made!

THIS IS NOT THE JAW OF JONAH HEX

Years and years ago, just after coming off X-FILES  I was approached to write a feature adaptation of the little known comic book JONAH HEX.  The whole thing fell through, twelve years later a feature version did come out written by someone else and it was an unmitigated disaster.  I, however, still have the above sketch I did for the project.  And when I do my own movie about a vengeful, undead cowboy it'll be called, you guessed it, BONE SPUR... 

BABY/ROBOT/BABY

The same doodle, yes... but one that can be viewed two ways -- is it a picture of a baby with a robot tucked uder his arm?  Or a dancing robot with a baby stuck to his foot?  Always like the two of them and this is a great opportunity to include a link to a CARAVAN PALACE video that not only offers a great tune, but a dancing robot... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j95HbhTl60k

NCIS COMIX (SEASON ONE)

I drew this when I was on staff  at the uber-successful CBS series.  It was the first season, but already the characters were set -- and reflected in this quickly-drawn adventure.  Afficianados of the series will recognize Mark Harmon's stoic leader, David McCallum's overly-verbose ME (to such a point that the dead body is reduced to a skeleton -- ha, ha) and the goth lab gal Pauley Perrette with crazy theories.  My favorite is male sidekick, ladies man Tony who gets beaten down just for walking in the door.

Midnight Stroll

 Just another villager running for his life... down some Transylvanian cobble stone avenue... under a full moon.  Wonder what he's running from?..

A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE

 

A panel from 12 o'Clock Somewhere that incorporates your basic ol' "single vanishing point in 1-point perspective."   I just drew the picture -- but for this post, had to look up the official term on Ben Towles art/cartooning blogsite www.benzilla.com/?p=3683 .   Inspired by a Will Eisner SPIRIT panel I saw when I was ten years old, the structure on the left with the big clock face is also from my youth -- it's the Minneapolis courthouse building, one of the coolest buildings in the Twin Cities.

LAIRD VLAMING GOES TO COLLEGE!

That's right!  To Saint Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.  So what better way to commemorate that milestone than by posting a monster painting he did when he was seven years old!  The colors are great but I always loved the teeth. 

 

Congratulations, Laird!



OXY ACETYLINE BOVINE (AKA WELDING COW)

I doodled this in a notebook a decade ago but coincidentally came across it just when Laird started taking a welding workshop.  That inspired me to to color it with Corel painter, I guess.