THANKSGIVING...for THE LIST OF 7

This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for, among many things,  great books I've read...

In the 90's fellow Minnesotan Mark Frost (of TWIN PEAKS and other TV/movie fame,) wrote THE LIST OF 7.  It follows a young Arthur Conan Doyle M.D. who is teamed up with a brilliant, super-deductive crime-solver (a character who clearly inspires the Doctor-turned-author to create Sherlock Holmes.)  Super-fast paced, enormously rich in period detail and a great story, this book's out of print, but available used.  Look for it anywhere and everywhere but Amazon.

As for the picture above... I doodled it at work and later realized it was inspired by Frost's novel.  (The book's better, trust me...)

CLASSIC JACK DAVIS

Before MAD Magazine went black and white in the latter 50's, the mag was in comic book color.  This panel is from the 1954 classic "BOOK!  MOVIE!", wherein the Mad guys compared a story as told in its best-selling novel form versus the glossy movie adaptation version.  In the book the troubled protagonist meets up with his mousey mistress and they get it on -- in the movie version, the protagonist simply wants to dance (in a safe-for-viewing-audiences way.)

I particularly love Jack Davis's trademark loose and incredibly vivacious style in this panel.

DRAGON AND M&Ms

Ah, to doodle with a ballpoint pen...

STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER

Princess Leah shows what's she made of when Luke Skywalker tries to rescue her from her Death Star cell in in A NEW HOPE.  [From the collection of STAR WARS strips Craig McNamara and I drew long ago]

MUMMY FOR HALLOWEEN

A few storyboards I did for a movie idea a long time ago: KID CAIRO MEETS THE MUMMY. A 1930's story about a Detroit boxer who travels to Egypt and runs afoul of a mummy.

 



ZOMBIE FOR HALLOWEEN

A close-up from my previous "zombie road-trip" entry... just in time for October 31

WEREWOLVES FOR HALLOWEEN!

Just a couple of lycanthropes for the season.  The rough one was a production sketch for REAPER.  The other was just fun with colored markers and Corel...

THE 'REAPER' SPIN-OFF THAT NEVER WAS



The CW series REAPER was, and remains, beloved and admired during its two season run.  At that time I figured, in the event that somehow GOSSIP GIRL and the reboot of 90210 stumbled, we should be ready for the next logical step: a little kid friendly spin-off of the show.  Ben, Sock and Sam would lean on a brick wall and ruminate about their lot in life, ala Charlie Brown and co., but would have to maintain their respective beards to look enough like their real-life counter parts. 

Oh, and every cartoon needs a dog -- hence 'Rufus.'

A FUNNY JOKE THREE OR SO YEARS AGO COMES BACK TO LIFE!

A few years ago, my good Minnesota Daily fiends and I were yukking it up over the titles of the (then) recent sequel books to THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by the late Steig Larsson -- THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE and THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST.  We laughed that with such titles, the series was never-ending.  Off the cuff, the group tossed out potential future titles: THE GIRL WHO WORE WHITE AFTER LABOR DAY or THE GIRL WHO RAN WITH SCISSORS or this one, which I then I dummied up...

 

Putting this post together, I contacted the guys trying to recall any other funny titles and an e-mail chain began... and is still going, with everyone coming up with new ones.  Among the hot-off-the-press favs: THE GIRL WHOSE FACE STAYED THAT WAY... THE GIRL WHO ATE POTATO SALAD LEFT OUTSIDE ON A VERY HOT DAY, THE GIRL WHO TEXTED WHILE CROSSING AN INTERSECTION and one for American history buffs: THE GIRL WHO STOOD TOO CLOSE TO WM. MCKINLEY ON A MID SEPTEMBER DAY IN 1901.

 

SUMMER BOX OFFICE BLUES

The number-crunching is drawing to a close and it seems the summer's movie box office take failed to impress.  It's easy to see why -- do the math: if a film costs 100 to 200 million dollars to make and costs more than twice that to advertise and promote, it's hard for any film to see a profit.

 

Studios must follow the example presented in this New Yorker cartoon I cut out twenty years ago.

RISE AND SHINE...

Trevor's first day of school is next Tuesday and gone will be the mornings of sleeping late.  This picture seemed appropriate --  a rendering I did of Craig McNamara's proposed production company logo Monday Morning Productions.

WHO DOESN"T LOVE A DANCING ROBOT?

BATTERED MITT, POST WEREWOLF FIGHT

The latest from Twelve O'clock Somewhere.

RIP JAMES GARNER

 

Mourn as you see fit: watching your favorite episode of Rockford, or Maverick or pop in THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY or THE GREAT ESCAPE or THE NOTEBOOK or any of a dozen other of his films and be reminded of just how great he was.    

This drawing was done by Bruce Hannum, during our MN DAILY days.   

BEAT SUMMERTIME RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC!

 

Ever stuck in summer rush hour traffic and sit, wondering, "What would be the perfect vehicle to get out of this mess...?"  Above is my proposed design. 

WHALE

GRUFF

Designed this guy as the anti-hero contender in MONSTER RALLY -- an overgrown faun with a penchant for speed and full of bad attitude.  Since he's part goat, I thought the name was fitting...

HANNIBAL SEASON THREE BEGINS...

 

The writers room for HANNIBAL season three began on Monday last, hence the posting of my only drawing of a homicidal maniac.

ALL HAIL CHUCK JONES

Before I moved to Los Angeles, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis hosted a Q&A with the late, great Chuck Jones.  I bought a t-shirt to commemorate the evening, featuring his sketch "Nude Duck Descending a Staircase".  While the memories lasted, the t-shirt did not -- but before I pitched it, I cut out the artwork and copied it (hence the thread patterns visible.)

MAKE A TIGER FUZZY

Good ol' Corel Painter program.  Always finding new stuff on there.

Drew the tiger on the left and then "dabbed" it with Painter's sponge and got this phantasmagorical version of the original.

UNUSED MINNESOTA SCRIPTWORKS LOGO

DRAWING COMICS. LESSON #1

Drew this when I was, like seven, and it's clear I didn't know the first rule of drawing comic strips -- write out your character's dialogue BEFORE you draw the word balloons...

HANNIBAL SEASON TWO EPISODE 9 "SHIIZAKANA"

This was the initial sketch I came up with when we writers were putting our heads together, trying to come up with inventive bad guys for HANNIBAL.  I had this idea of a guy in a suit using a dire wolf skull strapped to his head to eviscerate his adversaries -- in stark contrast to the title character's own neat, urbane method of killing. 

For the picture, I started with an old phrenology chart for the human head and added the wolf jaws (cave bear jaws in the episode -- bigger, chompier...) to it.  Colored and "dirtied" it up to make it seem more old-world. 

And yes, dire wolves were real creatures that roamed the earth once upon a time...

CRAIG'S CORONER

These are some photo-phunnies my friend Craig McNamara sent me.  As he explained, these were shot back in his agency days, as illustration references for a layout... and Craig later pasted them together and made a story out it. Old gag, but so is the telephone... and the rich Polaroid highlights and skin-tones.  And that's Craig himself getting the bad news.

CRAZY MONKEYS!

Hand drawn T shirts rule!!  This was one of many identical shirts I drew for a birthday party game for one of Laird's parties.  'Crazy Monkeys' was the team's name, and the red splotches are paint -- no blood sport at a Vlaming kid  party.

BACK TO THE FUTURE I - THE ORIGINAL PLOT!!

 

 

Originally in BACK TO THE FUTURE, Marty McFly and Doc Brown never get their time-travel experiment off the ground.  Their endeavor is halted by Hill Valley Councilman Dick Winston (Craig McNamara), all part of the film's initial backstory involving the city's eminent domain junction against Brown's property.  "Originally we saw this as a taut drama," explains co-writer Bob Gale, "The story of  'an everyman-against-the-powers-that-be'.  The whole time-travel thing, that was just there to steer the story into the courtroom nitty-gritty."  In the original cut of the film, Marty and Doc return home to fashion a legal defense and leave Dick Winston to be gunned down by the Libyan terrorists...

 

If you don't believe it, enlarge the picture and look at the photo caption!

"BUENAS NOCHES, I'M ALFREDO HITCHCOCK..."

Okay, at the HANNIBAL offices, an amazing series of framed 50's and 60's Hitchcock movie posters -- some a giant 4'x6' - adorned the walls.  From the writers room I could see two of them and at slow  moments, I sketched the Master of Suspense.  For whatever reason, I blackened his hair and added sideburns and a moustache, the end result looking less like Alfred Hitchcock and more like character actor Miguel Sandoval. 

60's AD ART?

 

Not really -- this is a doodle I did at work and realized it's in that great sixties style you saw inTV  advertisements that used cartoons.  With my truty, dusty Corel program I fattened up the lines, dropped in the colors and added the very-60's san serif type. 

RAIDERS OF THE LAST LOST CRYSTAL TEMPLE OF THE CRUSADE

 

 

Actually these are all production stills from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ICEBOX, a super-8 spoof we shot during college and all filmed in Edina, Minnesota.  Kirk Mathison was great as a German baddie and my brother Jonathan played the lead character, Louisiana Jones -- professor, archaeologist... and gourmet.

 

 

Watch the film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpBeq2OlLHM

 

LOST SCENE FROM 'RETURN OF THE JEDI'!

 

Word has it John Williams composed a stellar rendition of Pomp & Circumstance for this scene which, sadly, was cut from the final film. 

 

Written and rendered by my pal and STAR WARS STRIPZ co-author, Craig McNamara.