It’s October already. You know what that means. Cooler temperatures. Going to work in the dark. Pumpkin spice cornflakes and coffee for breakfast. And Inktober! That right, for the tenth consecutive year, I have been participating — on my own terms — in the autumn internet drawing challenge started by an artist named Jake Parker. Every October, he posts a list of 31 “prompts” or suggestions (one per each day of the month) and challenges artist across the globe to produce a daily drawing. While I have participated for a decade, I have never followed those rules. (Come to think of it, I rarely follow any rules.) Instead. I do weekly drawings based on a seasonal topic of my own selection. This year, I was feeling particularly ambitious. I selected two topics and I will posts drawings for each concurrently. The first series is “Regional TV Horror Movie Hosts.” These drawings will be posted on Tuesdays. The second series is “Horror Actors of the 1940s.” These drawings will be posted on Mondays.
Week 1 of JPiC’s “Inktober” starts with Chicago’s Svengoolie.
Every Saturday night — heeding the announcement to “Clear the airwaves! Clear all Airwaves — retro cable network MeTV unleashes Svengoolie to the delight of legions of fans. Emerging from a decorated coffin and armed with a battery of corny jokes and trademark rubber chickens, Sven presides over two-plus hours of campy horror films, humorous commentary, bits of trivia, in-studio guests and a series of groan-inducing comedy sketches. The character, originally created by Chicago DJ Jerry G. Bishop, Svengoolie is now played by jovial Rich Koz. Koz and his cohorts have been bringing their raucous antics to viewers for years, first just locally in Chicago, then nationally via MeTV. His comedy is simple and unsophisticated and harkens back to a time when local TV stations across the country showcased a similar host for horror films in the 50s, 60s and 70s.
Recently, Svengoolie has introduced more regular characters, thus passing the mantle to a new generation of an apparently timeless tradition.