IT'S FATHERS DAY

Hey Its fathers day -- I awoke extra early today and for some reason felt most inspired to draw up a picture of Dead Nate from the Father's day segment of the the wonderfully comic book style movie CREEPSHOW.
However over my first coffee i suddenly remembered i already had a sketch of the EC styled zombie! So i found it out, and quickly and vibrantly dashed some color over it.

Of course I fully intend to continue my drawing of Nate with his cake and will also post it up here once completed, in the meantime make do with this...after all you can't have your cake and eat it too.

my take on dead Nate

From the bedroom wall of my youth the 

1987 US one sheet Theatrical release poster for Creepshow 2

...amazing artwork but the film stinks!  

RIP Christopher Lee

Learnt this morning that the imposing and legendary actor that was Christopher Lee passed away Sunday June 7th.
The news of his death at the age of 93 wasn't officially announced  by his family until today the 12 of June.

I was actually catching a rerun of  SCARS OF DRACULA just a couple of days earlier and so as tribute to one of the screens greatest DRACULAs I scribbled up this hasty homage to one of horrors major players. ( I opted to keep that ridiculously fake looking bat out of my shot.)

In reading up on his background, achievements and screen career one of my favourite anecdotes was the one of him working with Peter jackson on Lord of the Rings trilogy .
while filming the death scene of his character Saruman in the RETURN OF THE KING    ( seen only in the extended version) Jackson had requested Christopher to scream when grim Wormtongue stabs him in the upper back, it was then that Christopher interrupted Peter jackson saying "Peter have you ever heard the sound a man makes when stabbed in the back?"
"Um no" says Peter to which Christopher replies "Well, I have, I know what to do"

As the lung is punctured the stabbed man would only be able to let out a groan as his last breath is exhaled.

The hushed crew never pushed him for further information regards the when and the why knowing that he'd served in the British Royal Air Force intelligence service during World War 2.


Another weird fact about Sir Christopher Lee is that he witnessed the execution of Eugen Weidmann who was the last person to be publicly executed in France in 1939

"Every actor has to make terrible films every now and again, the trick is not to be terrible in them"

MONSTER MIX

Looks like it not just the creature's brain they mixed up!

While looking for something groovy to watch  I took this photo of  the TV schedule screen and it looks like they got their Shelleys mixed up with their Poppins

SupercaliFrankensteinexpialidocious!

ARMED and DANGEROUS

Can"t decide.

On the one hand I like how this drawing turned out, on the other hand I don't like the green... on the other hand I like the stupidity of the situation ...on the other hand I'm not sure about the surgery that would be used to attached the arms ...on the other hand i do ...and on the other hand i don't ... on the other .....  yet on the other... ...

Now able to handle up to eight pitchfork and torch baring villagers at a time.

HAMMER TIME!

Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell was a very recent discovery for me and I must add a jolly fine find it was too! Its been a while since I had this much unadulterated fun watching an horror film
 and this turned out to a superb final offering of Frankenstein medical mayhem from Hammer studios.
Peter Cushing looking particularly grim and gaunt plays Dr.Victor Frankenstein hiding out in a crumbling gothic lunatic asylum . The sets were wonderful 70's horror fare and the story I found to nose along at a comfortable pace takings us on rounds to the inmate, to secretive burials and best of all to the mad scientist laboratory hidden behind a secret door.

The monster is nothing like you expect oddly reminiscent of a Neanderthal ape man but with a hankering to inflict injuries using broken glass,  he's more of a brute than a man - the monsters role was acted by Dave Prowse, the second time he had done so,  apparently in Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell he could be masked, suited and all set ready in 30 minutes!  Aside from it being a basic costume and make-up combo the creature's usual  look might well be explained away by the continuation of Baron Victor Frankensteins story from Evil of Frankenstein where his hands were rendered unfeeling due to fire damage so unable to put the creature together himself here in this movie we find him initially assisted by Angel,  mute girl who handled the sewing up duties.

I remember an article in a back issue of Rue Morgue magazine where they mention that during one of the gory surgery scenes where they remove the top of a ''donors" cranium to expose the brain, the effects department placed a real sheep's brain into a prop body ready for filming. Unfortunately  it was left  on set longer than expected so when the cameras finally rolled and the top of the head was removed a unnecessarily nasty stink was also released - the natural reaction can be seen on his assistants face but Peter the consummate professional plays out the scenes without missing a beat!

Frankie says...go to hell!

KING WEREWOLVES!

Another werewolf posting of sorts.

Its actually a shadow of a werewolf but where there's a shadow there's usually a caster.
A cartoon I'd done for fun. Stephen King working on his Cycle of the Werewolf book.

STEPHEN KING busy writing when a relative dresses up to scare him (he was Joe King!)

AMERICAN WEIRD WOLF IN LONDON

American werewolf transforms.
 That transformation sequence was an extraordinary thing to behold however I found the look of the final beast a bit lacking, but there was something about the strange goofy look of this stage that I've  show below, it was when he was halfway though where he was neither man nor quite the beast. To me it was the most appealing guise with its odd and wacky design and the fact that it was presented so realistically that make it seem even more disturbing. Perhaps it was due to the fact that the lighting showed an unflinching clear glimpse , anyway I have chosen to draw it and its shown below.
 Also note included is that  Mickey Mouse toy,  a shot of it bizarrely cropped up during the metamorphosis. I honestly don't really know why Mickey Mouse played a part , and further in  director John Landis inserts a nice clip of the Muppets during the ruthless attack on the family home, --what was it with these cartoon characters?

Interestingly enough the movie poster also feature the werewolf mid-stage and not the final creature, I do have the poster in my collection posted that here too.

Don't take the Mickey!

Following on from mentioning  the cartoons featured in American Werewolf
I also have this unusual drawing  in my sketch book, drawn just because the look of David at one stage reminded me of Alice the Goon from the Popeye cartoon.
Oddly David does indeed don a woman coat and runs around with his legs on show in the movie.

This is one of the original posters that adorned my bedroom wall