IF: wide

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The challenge on illustrationfriday.com this week is “wide”.
Shut up bitch. Go fix me a turkey pot pie.
Well, we’re gettin’ a doublewide. I almos’ got enough Marlboro Miles saved up, soon as Billy Ray starts smokin’ more. C’mon y’ lazy shit!
We’re tryin’ t’ get little Britney t’ help, but she’s always cryin’ so much that th’ cigarette won’t stay in her yap!
Jerry Lee! Get the fuck out from under th’ house! Jesus H. Christ! If’n I gotta tell you agin, I’m gonna beat yer goddamn ass raw!
Kids! Oh yeah, we’re havin’ ‘nother one soon. Gonna name ‘er “Hannah Montana”.

Click HERE to hear the Southern Culture on the Skids’ ode to trailer park “Doublewide”, from their album “Mojo Box.

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SFG: monsters

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The sugarfrostedgoodness.com challenge word this week is “monsters”.
The sound of your footsteps/Telling me that you're near/Your soft gentle motion, baby/Brings out the need in me that no-one can hear
In 1927 Tod Browning directed Lon Chaney Sr. in the film “London After Midnight”. This silent film classic has become the most famous “lost” motion picture.
The movie told the story of wealthy Sir Roger Balfour. Balfour is found shot to death in his home. Inspector Burke, as played by Chaney, is called in to investigate. A suicide note is found and the case is supposedly closed. Five years later, Balfour’s old residence is taken up by a man in a beaver-skin hat, with large fangs and gruesome, sunken eyes. His assistant is a ghostly woman, with flowing robes and raven black hair. It is suspected by neighbors that Balfour has returned from the dead.
In addition to his portrayal of the inspector from Scotland Yard, Lon Chaney Sr. also played the mysterious stranger that moves into the vacant Balfour Home. Chaney, known as “The Man of a Thousand Faces”, designed his own make-up for his film appearances. His visual effects for London After Midnight were particularly horrifying. The teeth Chaney wore were made of gutta-percha, a hard rubber-like material. The bulging, hypnotic eye effect was achieved with special wire fittings which he wore like monocles. He allegedly put egg albumen in his eyes to give them a “clouded” appearance.
The film was well-received at the box-office, grossing almost $500,000. It was even remade by Browning in 1937 as “Mark of the Vampire” starring Bela Lugosi. However, in 1965, an electrical fire broke out in MGM Film Storage Vault #7. Countless films from the silent era, including the last known print of “London After Midnight”, were destroyed.
In 2002, Turner Classic Movies commissioned film restoration producer Rick Schmidlin to produce a 45 minute reconstruction of the film, using still publicity photographs shot while the film was in production in 1927.
There are rumors that one copy of the original remains in a private film collection in Canada.

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Monday Artday: giant japanese monsters

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In an effort to steer away from a proliferation of cuteness, Monday Artday offers “Giant Japanese Monsters” as this week’s challenge.
there's a prehistoric monster/that came from outer space/created by the martians/to destroy the human race/the FBI is helpless/he's twenty stories tall/what can we do?/who can we call?
In 1954, Japanese actor Haruo Nakajima portrayed Godzilla (known as “Gojira” in Japan). He eventually played Godzilla twelve times (more than any other actor) until 1972, when he retired the character, although he continued to act in other movies.
The original Godzilla suit, which weighed about 220 pounds was very stiff and heavy. Mr. Nakajima could only walk about 30 feet before needing to get out of the costume because of the heat. The lights in the studio also added to the heat inside the costume, sometimes reaching nearly 120 degrees. Mr. Nakajima never complained. He had fainted a few times inside the suit, falling over and ruining a few expensive miniature sets which had to be rebuilt.
Mr. Nakajima said that the most difficult aspect of portraying was shooting the ending for “Godzilla Raids Again” in 1955. He had to stand in the middle of the set while a large amount of crushed ice was poured down on him. It was very cold and there was an additional floor underneath the floor of the set. A set assistant was standing on the lower floor while the ice was tumbling down on Mr. Nakajima. The floor of the set collapsed from the weight of the ice, so both Mr. Nakajima and the assistant were buried under crushed ice.
Now, at 79, Mr. Nakajima attends Godzilla and Sci-Fi conventions on a semi-regular basis.

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SFG: c is for…

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…Capgras delusion.
I'd hate to wake up some morning and find out that you weren't you.
Capgras delusion (or Capgras syndrome) is a rare disorder in which a person holds a delusional belief that an acquaintance, usually a spouse or other close family member, has been replaced by an identical looking impostor. The Capgras delusion is classed as a delusional misidentification syndrome, a class of delusional beliefs that involves the misidentification of people, places or objects. It can occur in acute, transient, or chronic forms.
The delusion is most common in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, although it can occur in a number of conditions including after brain injury and dementia.

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DCS: richard manuel

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any day now/any day now/ I shall be released
In the summer of 1961, eighteen-year-old Richard Manuel joined Ronnie Hawkins’ backing group, The Hawks, along with Levon Helm on drums, Robbie Robertson on guitar and Rick Danko on bass. Garth Hudson joined the band around Christmas time. After two years, Richard along with Helm, Robertson, Danko, Hudson and saxophonist Jerry Penfound left Hawkins and became Levon Helm Sextet, then later changed to the Canadian Squires, and eventually to Levon and the Hawks. They came to the attention of Bob Dylan. The group of musicians became Dylan’s backing band and Albert Grossman, Dylan’s manager, became their manager.

In 1968, they signed a 10 album deal with Capitol Records. Their first album was released under the name “The Band”, the name they would go by for the rest of their career.

The shy and insecure Richard was the first of the group to succumb to the temptations of the 1960s lifestyle. Already considered by most friends and associates to be an alcoholic, it was not long before Richard added Tuinal, Valium, heroin, and cocaine to his addictions. Through the 60s and 70s, Richard’s drug abuse grew worse. He routinely drank and drugged himself into a blank stupor. At the peak of his alcoholism, Richard was polishing off eight bottles of Grand Marnier a day. By 1976, he had been divorced and had become a shadow of his former self, usually too drunk to play. In The Last Waltz, Martin Scorsese’s documentary of The Band’s last concert, Richard looks older than his age of 33, and even sits out of some of the songs. It was clear that he was shy, insecure, and inebriated.

In 1978, Richard moved to Garth Hudson’s ranch outside Malibu, drying out and eventually remarrying. In 1983, The Band reformed without Robertson. They were relegated to B-List venues and became a “play-your-hits” band, usually opening for bands with far less performing experience. Richard sank into a deep depression immediately following the 1986 death of manager and friend Albert Grossman.

On March 4, 1986, after a gig at the Cheek to Cheek Lounge outside Orlando, in Winter Park, Florida, Richard seemed to be in relatively good spirits. Ominously, after the show, he thanked Hudson for “twenty-five years of incredible music.” The Band returned to the Quality Inn, down the block from the Cheek to Cheek Lounge, and Richard talked with Levon Helm in Helm’s room. Around 2:30 in the morning Richard returned to his room where his wife was already asleep. Sometime during the night, Richard finished a bottle of Grand Marnier and a vial of cocaine, looped his belt around his neck and secured the other end to the shower-curtain rod, and hanged himself.

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IF: seed

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The illustrationfriday.com challenge word this week is “seed”.
apples in stereo
John Chapman was an American pioneer nurseryman. He picked apple seeds from the discarded remains from cider mills in Pennsylvania and travelled across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, planting apple trees. He became an American legend because of his kind and generous ways, his great leadership in conservation, and the symbolic importance of apples. He came to be known as “Johnny Appleseed”.

He was also a missionary for the Church of the New Jerusalem, (also known as the Swedenborgian Church), teaching the theological doctrines contained in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. The Swedenborgian Church counted Walt Whitman, Helen Keller, Andrew Carnegie and Stephen King among its members.

The popular image of Johnny Appleseed had him spreading apple seeds randomly. However, he planted nurseries rather than orchards, built fences around them to protect them from livestock, left the nurseries in the care of a neighbor who sold trees on shares. Appleseed’s “caretakers” were asked to sell trees on credit, if at all possible, but he would accept corn meal, cash or used clothing in barter. Johnny Appleseed dressed in the worst of the used clothing he received, giving away the better clothing he received in barter. He wore no shoes, even in the snowy winter. There was always someone in need he could help out, for he did not have a house to maintain. He spent a good portion of his time traveling from home to home on the frontier. He would tell stories to children, spread the Swedenborgian gospel (“news right fresh from heaven”) to the adults, receiving a floor to sleep on for the night, sometimes supper in return. He would often tear a few pages from one of Swedenborg’s books and leave them with his hosts. He made several trips back east, both to visit his sister and to replenish his supply of Swedenborgian literature. He typically would visit his orchards every year or two and collect his earnings.

Johnny Appleseed’s beliefs made him care deeply about animals. His concern extended even to insects. One cool autumn night, while lying by his campfire in the woods, he observed that the mosquitoes flew into the fire and were burnt. Johnny, who wore a tin pot on his head, which served as both as a hat and a cooking vessel, filled it with water and quenched the fire. He remarked, “God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort, that should be the means of destroying any of His creatures.”

It has been speculated that Johnny may have had Marfan Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. One of the primary characteristics of Marfan Syndrome is extra-long and slim limbs. All sources seem to agree that Johnny Appleseed was slim, but while other accounts suggest that he was tall, Harper’s Magazine described him as “small and wiry.”

Those who propose the Marfan theory suggest that his compromised health may have made him feel the cold less intensely. His long life, however, suggests he did not have Marfan’s, and while Marfan’s is closely associated with death from cardiovascular complications, Johnny Appleseed died in his sleep, most likely from pneumonia.

Despite his charity, Johnny Appleseed left an estate of over 1,200 acres of valuable nurseries to his sister, worth millions even then, and far more now. He could have left more if he had been diligent in his bookkeeping.

In addition to my illustration, I have included my original inked pencil sketch, before I added color.

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Monday Artday: tropical jungle

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The challenge at Monday Artday this week is “tropical jungle”.
Knock, Knock...Who's there?...Toucan....Toucan Who?...Toucan not fit through the turnstiles at the same time.
Ladies and gentlemen. May I have your attention please? Due to circumstances beyond our control…the Jungle Cruise WILL be operating for the rest of the evening…Thank you.

Watch your step as you enter the boat. If you’re entering from the back, come up to the front. If you’re in the front, just follow the simple instructions of your simple minded boat loader. Come on in, folks…Slide on down! That’s right slide on down, because the more you slide now, the less I have to clean later. Everybody turn around and wave at the people on the dock…wave at them… ’cause you’re never going to see them again!…then again, you’ve probably never seen them before either.

On the other side is my favorite jungle resident, Old Smiley, one of the laziest crocodiles in these parts. I do suggest that you keep your hands inside the boat because Smiley is always looking for a hand out. Here in the rainforest it sometimes rains 365 days per year…some years it even rains every day.

These are the ruins of an ancient shrine, almost totally destroyed centuries ago by an earthquake. Many explorers have tried to steal that priceless ruby, but no one’s ever gotten past that poisonous spider. How many of you think that’s a big spider? How many of you think he’s bigger than the one crawling up that woman’s leg?

Look at that! It’s a large Bengal Tiger. Now, Bengal Tigers are known to leap over five thousand feet in order to catch their prey. That is…when you throw them out of an airplane. You know, the crocodiless are always looking for a hand out. But be careful, I once had an English teacher on board and she didn’t listen to me and now she’s teaching shorthand. And here we have three cobras sticking their tongues out at us with no regards for our feelings. And look at all the elephants out here today! This comes as a complete surprise to me cause I had no idea these guys were going to be here. If you want to take pictures go ahead — all the elephants have their trunks on. As we leave the elephant pool, we head into…uh-oh — a big one is coming up on the right and it looks like he’s aiming for us! Oh no! He’s coming up again — you folks on the right get down! Well…I guess he didn’t have enough trunk space.

And now we come upon a jungle encampment. It’s being overrun by a bunch of women wearing fur coats. Hey! Those are gorillas……….dressed up as women wearing fur coats. I’d like to point out some of the plant life here on the Jungle Cruise. There’s a hibiscus, a low-biscus, and that little one barking is a doggie biscus. Say, there’s the Anheiser Bush, it looks ready to bud. Over there is Schweitzer Falls, named after the famous Dr. Albert Falls. We’ve now turned down the Nile river — the longest river in all of Anaheim. That’s right a whole 200 feet. On the left we have an African Bull Elephant. And for those of you with short term memory problems, on the right we have an African Bull Elephant. Oh, it looks like the entire baboon family has come down to the water’s edge today, along with the other residents of the African veldt. See the striped animals over there? Those are zebras. And the big tall ones with the long necks? Those are giraffes. And the black ones over here with horns — well, I’ve never seen them before. They must be gnu! That rhino seems to be getting his point across, and I’m sure that guy on the bottom will get it in the end! We are now turning onto a pool of dangerous hippos, so please, sit still and don’t rock the boat. These huge creatures are quite curious and could easily upset our boat. So please, don’t do anything that might attract them. Last week, they overturned six of our boats…only FIVE of them were MINE, though! Uh oh, we’re now entering into headhunter territory. Not a good place to be headed. The natives seem to be celebrating the kill of that lion…maybe we can sneak by. Don’t attract their attention. If they hit you with a spear, just pull it out and throw it back at them — you’re not allowed to keep souvenirs. We certainly don’t want you to be stuck with it for the rest of the trip. Beautiful Schweitzer Falls is upon us again. The overhanging rock formation will afford us a different view this time. I have a special treat for you, folks. You may never have seen this before…there it is — the backside of water! Over on the right you can see a branch with two toucans. And, of course, three toucans make a six-pack. See that rock right there, it’s actually made of limestone, but many of my crews just take it for granite. Over here we have a rare species of vegetarian python. You can tell since he has a stranglehold on that tree. Look at the python, sitting in the tree, H-I-S-S-I-N-G. This is my good friend Sam, who runs the Cannibal Cafe. The last time I talked to Sam was at his cafe. I told him that I didn’t like his brother very much. He told me ‘Next time, have the salad.‘ Sam had me over for dinner the other night; unfortunately I arrived late and all he gave me was the cold shoulder.

I certainly enjoyed having you aboard the Jungle Cruise today, and I hope you all enjoyed being had. It’s very important that you wait to get off the boat until one of our dock crew is there to assist you. Just yesterday we had a lady fall in and none of them were around to laugh at her. Please exit the boat the same way you entered…pushing and shoving. Well folks, I hope you all enjoyed your trip around the jungle. I had such a good time — I’m going to go again……….and again, and again, and again…

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from my sketchbook: peg entwistle

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Hooray for Hollywood/That screwy, ballyhooey Hollywood
In March 1916, eight-year-old Peg Entwistle came to America with her father and her uncle, both stage actors. In 1922, her father was killed by a hit-and-run driver. Peg and her two half-brothers were taken in by their uncle. 1925 brought Peg her first acting role, a walk-on part in Hamlet. This led to the role of “Hedvig” in Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck, a role that a young Bette Davis cited as the reason she became an actress. Davis praised Peg Entwistle as her major influence for her entire career.

Peg performed in ten Broadway plays as a member of the Theatre Guild between 1926 and 1932. She worked with such Broadway notables as George M. Cohan and Dorothy Gish. Peg continued to appear in plays until May 1932, when she was brought to the West Coast by producers Edward Belasco and Homer Curran to co-star with Billie Burke in the play, The Mad Hopes. It was staged in preparation for a Broadway opening. The Mad Hopesopened to rave reviews. The theater had 1,600 seats, but the house was standing-room only. The play was a hit and, as scheduled, closed on June 4, 1932 to head to Broadway. Peg was set to return to New York, but RKO Pictures called her for a screen test. On June 13, 1932, Entwistle signed a contract for a one-picture deal with RKO and reported early in July to shoot her part as “Hazel Cousins” in Thirteen Women. The film received poor reviews from test screenings. The studio eliminated scenes deemed unnecessary, cutting back Entwistle’s screen time greatly. Her career was at a stand still after that. She did lots of auditions, and hung around her uncle’s house, waiting for work, and trying to save enough money to go back to New York, but couldn’t even manage train fare.

On September 18, 1932, Peg told her uncle that she was going to walk up Beachwood Drive to the drug store, and then to visit friends. Instead, she made her way up the southern slope of Mount Lee, near her uncle’s home, to the foot of the Hollywood sign. After placing her coat, shoes and purse containing the suicide note at the base of the sign, she made her way up a workman’s ladder to the top of the “H” and jumped. Her body was found in the 100-foot ravine below two days later.

The note in Peg’s purse read: I am afraid, I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E.”

The LA Times published the letter in hopes that she would be identified. She was dubbed “The Hollywood Sign Girl.” Her uncle recognized the initials and identified her body in the morgue. The cause of death was listed by the coroner as “multiple fractures of the pelvis and probably did not die quickly.”

Several days after her death, Peg’s uncle opened a letter addressed to her from the Beverly Hills Playhouse; it was mailed the day before she jumped. It was an offer for her to play the lead role in a stage production—in which her character would commit suicide in the final act.
Peg Entwistle was 24.

This illustration stirred up anger in at least one viewer. Read all about it HERE. Oh, the shit you have to put up with as an artist.

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