ADVENTURES IN NURSERY RHYMES: AFTER THE FALL

Hindsight is 20/20, even for humanoid eggs.

Little-known info on the subject: "The theory that Humpty Dumpty was a "tortoise" siege engine, used unsuccessfully to approach the walls of the city of Gloucester in 1643 during the Siege of Gloucester in the English Civil War, was put forward in 1956 by Professor David Daube in The Oxford Magazine, 1956.

Another theory posits that Humpty Dumpty is King Richard III of England, depicted in Tudor histories, and particularly in Shakespeare's play, as humpbacked and who was defeated, despite his armies at Bosworth Field in 1485."

SIGNED IN BLOOD

Originally this was a storyboard panel in a series of boardsI did to pitch MONSTER RALLY.  Later when after I embarked on the always-enjoyable yet never-ending TWELVE O'CLOCK SOMEWHERE project I comandeered this and various other storyboard panels, colored 'em and used them for that. 

Originally this was done in B&W in India ink with a pen and brush.  Colored with Corel Painter 11.

COWBOY & ALIENS? HOW ABOUT LAWYERS & CROCS?

Okay, with a headline like that you can fill in your own joke. 

This mash-up of ideas came about back when David E. Kelley's uber popular ALLY MCBEAL was on TV and a feature Kelley wrote, LAKE PLACCID, had just hit movie theaters -- a feature that featured, yes, a giant gator.  Kelley's work was so amazingly hot at the time I figured I should be the one to combine the airwave and box office power of both! 

This was the result.

NOTE TO INTERESTED PARTIES: This was colored, like almost everything else on his blog, with Corel Painter 11.  I've never worked with Photoshop but have been told the programs are similar.  I don't work with photos or illustrations other than my own so as an artist PAINTER works great for me.  It's intuitive, it has lots to offer (I discover new cool things all the time) and, if recent research still stands, it's FREE if you buy a a Wacom drawing tablet (also very cool) -- even a little bitty tablet.  Okay.  That's it.  End of unsolicited plug. 

DISNEY THEME PARK RIDES - THE ARCADE GAMES!

Vestiges from my advertising days.  One of the more prestigious (which is to say the only prestigious) clients we had at my first agency job was a software company with a contract to do video arcade games based on Disney theme park rides.  Rudimentary stuff, very Pac Man-esque, back in the day of APPLE IIs, when Donkey Kong was king of the arcades.  As seen above my design for the Matterhorn game was pretty close to the final product sold in stores.  The JUNGLE CRUISE game however, that one never saw the light of a cathode ray tube.  Old timers may recall the basis for my illustration -- from the original version of the ride... where the jungle boatmaster actually shot the hippo in its gaping maw, much to the horror of the kiddies aboard.

You can check out actual MATTERHORN SCREAMER game play at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAEyiDCN6jY

HARRY POTTER... MEET HENRY PORTER

Before the KIDSPACE MUSEUM moved to their new and current location in Pasadena, it was located in the gymnasium of a former grade school.  Every October volunteers converted the place into a big, snazzy haunted house and busloads (literally) of kids from all around LA would come to see it. 

Each year had a different theme and one October -- after the HARRY POTTER book series had started but before the first film had been released -- the theme was Harry Potter... sorta. No one wanted to risk copyright infringement so Harry became Henry, Dumbledore became Stumblemore, etc.  They asked me to do the haunted house poster but I had no clue what the books were about (my own kids were pre-HP).  I figured it's about kids in a magic private school, right?  I worked off a cool fortress/castle in a HELLBOY comic and drew the accompanying students with the requisite magicical hats.  I never clarified but while it might be assumed Henry is the boy with the glasses, I always thought he was the pudgy Asian kid.  

HOLY PICKLE SPEAR, BATMAN!!

Coming up with an original superhero is never easy.  Muscles are free, but inevitably a suit, a cowl or a logo are copyright protected somewhere.  So when we had to devise  a comic book hero for an episode of the WEIRD SCIENCE tv show -- CAPTAIN  INVINCIBLE -- I devised a few options.  This isn't what the showrunners finally chose  but I thought it was kind of funny -- especially a big muscled guy waxing philosphical with a big ol' ice cream cone in his hand.  What the headphones were for -- or what the insignia stood for, I have no recollection.

X FILES MEETS BANKSY

Okay, maybe not Banksy exactly, but when I was four I drew Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on my bedroom wall.  Not his whole body -- just his head peering around the dresser.  Still, I caught hell for it.

I didn't pull that stunt again until I was at THE X-FILES.  I was on the third season staff (known to some as the beloved, golden, Darin Morgan season) and the writers' offices were in a little building on the FOX lot.  I would sit at my desk and stare at the wall across from me as I pondered what I would write next.  The ceilings were pretty high and there was a lot of empty wall to stare at -- so one day I grabbed a marker and drew an alien head peering over the door in the wall (the series overarching story dealt with extra-terrestrials).  A week later I drew another head, one that pertained to the second episode of our unfolding season.  Then I drew a third -- and soon I was on a season-long mission, drawing an alien to reflect each new episode as it was written.  Late in the year the creator of the show Chris Carter came by the offices and saw the graffitied wall and after a long moment remarked, "Cool."   Way better than, "Drawing on the walls?  Your fired."

If you're familiar with the season it's fun to see which drawing represents which episode.  Sadly this photo was taken before the last couple episodes were written, hence their absence.  (FYI: The camera flash sorta obscures the one alien reading an X-Files comic as he's being struck by lightning.)

DOGGY DO-DON'T...

Years ago I wrote a feature script about a kid at summer camp who sees an alien spacecraft land nearby and (of course) no one believes him.  The alien pilot is on the lam and (conveniently) looks like a kid, sans hair.  He has, among other world-dominating skills, the ability to re-jigger a household toaster into a dangerous shape-altering, ally-recruitment device (see picture).  Not to worry, there was a good alien kid that also infiltrated the summer camp, intent on re-capturing the bad one.  Hilarity ensued, our human protagonist was exonerated and lessons were learned.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST STORYBOARDS!

As part of my craze over the film RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK I bought The Illustrated Screenplay of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.  The illustrated parts were mostly storyboard panels of the action sequences in the film.  Pretty interesting stuff -- but then Craig McNamara (of our STAR WARS parodies fame - starwarsstripz.blogspot.com)and I went on to storyboard our own panels for scenes that never quite made it to the finished film.  Very much in the SCENES WE'D LIKE TO SEE series found in old MAD magazines.  Here are a few examples: