Interview

I'm doing a Happy Undertaker interview for  Rue Morgue Magazine which is pretty cool. I often pass by their offices to go to my printer and a  record shop I like.  A great magazine tho when and where it will appear  I don't know but here's the cover of the next issue.

Letter

One of the nice things about having a penpal is after writing and drawing some embarrassing moments I get to be teased about them in drawings back to me. Its a lot of fun tho (shakes fist). This was my first one with cotton candy coloring so it was pretty cool. I'm trying to get a nice surprise for her but I have to see if its possible and waiting to hear back from a friend if they can help me.

Leaf

Poe, Dracula and leaf from Gorey's favorite tree.

Salem

Booked a weekend in Salem for  mid October,with my sister and niece, tho I imagine I'll be doing the graveyard alone.. Should be a beautiful fall drive, the last time I was there was on roadtrip on my motorcycle.What to do that weekend tho?

Graves

The grave I rubbed and a couple of others...The Old Dutch Church is where the Headless Horseman begins his ride, there is a rebuilt bridge, and Irving and various people from the story are buried. The carving from the Horseman is not in the burial ground.

Sleepy Hollow

When I arrived in Sleepy Hollow/Tarrytown I drove around quickly to get a rough idea of the layout then headed to my hotel where I hoped there would be a map of the local sites. Nope! nothing at all just a restaurant list, the Headless Horseman might as well not have existed to these people , thanks Hampton Inn. They said I could google it which immediately made me not want to do that so I had the driver drop me off in the general area where I thought it would be and after a short walk I found the Old Dutch Church and burial ground. I had missed "magic hour" for photos tho and it was getting dark. It was closed tho you could walk into the grounds easily by the front of the church so I snapped pictures and when it got to dark I decided to do a grave rubbing something I had not done in awhile.  I had a feeling it was probably prohibited but I ended up doing 3 on the same tombstone. In the morning when I went back there was a sign in the parking entrance saying grave rubbings are not permitted which I totally understand, they are beautiful and fragile but I'm still glad I have these:-) I wasn't dragged into the bowels of the earth so I think Duncher is ok with it too. I also only had one pencil and no sharpener.

Road Trip

Some of my road trip haul. The large book is the catalogue for a Hawaii show of Gorey's work. A few images I hadn't seen, lots of text which I'm hoping is good tho I tend to not  like explanations. I picked up bunch of Gorey covers as well for these classics, I held back on a few and I of course regret now. The  expanded edition of a book about his Cape Cod theatricals, and the recent reprint of Saki (great writer) story collection with his illustrations. Also a couple of t-shirts including a gift for my penpal going through tough times.

Road Trip

Just walked in the door from a amazing road trip to Sleepy Hollow and Edward Gorey House on Cape Cod. I'll post more pics after I've downloaded and scanned stuff.

Letter

doodles...

Trininans

Package drawing for the purchaser of my St. Trinians Ronald Searle tribute piece... off to its new home in NY.

Haunted

House, garage sale purchase this weekend and MC 5. All the MC 5 records are perfect to me, the favorite one just rotates.

VInegar

The Edward Gorey House has a amazing exhibit of almost every illustration from his slipcased set of 3 books The Vinegar Works. That means the artwork for The Insect God, The West Wing and The Gashlycrumb Tinies. I have the original box set and have always loved it so seeing the originals all in one place would be amazing and the Edward Gorey House is a fantastic place to visit having been there once before. And its very true that his originals are even more stunning then the printed versions with detail and clarity as well as tone of lines being more subtle then in the printed books. I'm planning to randomly do a road trip down there in the next two weeks when  a few days look freer then others so hopefully it will happen. I won't know for sure till I'm on the road. Maybe with a stop in Sleepy Hollow on the way home.

Big Cartel Store

For the time being I have set up a Big Cartel shop for purchasing prints. I plan on having t-shirts and other stuff in the new year. I'll be adding more prints over time but for now these are currently available.

Dreadful Dracula

I saw this guy and couldn't walk away

The Shadow

and Frank Robbins. Frank Robbins was one of those artists that as a kid I wasn't crazy about his work but over time I've grown to love it and he's one of my favorites of the Caniff school of cartoonists. My friend Steve Banes reminded me of these and I really love them. I love the deep shadows and exaggerated poses  in places, his women and he does great cloak folds:-) There's just some images inside of the Shadow that I think are amazing.  I prefer these to the Mike Kaluta issues these days and its a Joe Kubert that did the cover for the last one, the other 3 are by Robbins.
The good news is you can read a whole story yourself at The Horrors of it All.

Vampire Follies 1929

Swimsuit tryouts..

Haunted Horror

The sixth issue of Haunted Horror came out today and along with usual ghastly pre-code comic treats this issue includes the first appearance of Madam Clizia, the third horror host for the book and the one I was asked to create (based on Yoe's wife Clizia).

Morning

Finally got the amazing compete collection of Gahan Wilson's Playboy cartoons. Beautiful 3 volume production and filled with brilliant artwork and cartoons. There's a documentary on Gahan thats been completed that I can't wait to see at some point when its out on dvd.  Also Fantagraphics has collected Gahan's shortlived newspaper strip. Something I knew nothing about and haven't read and its of course got  great stuff in it. Its been a bit of a Gahan Wilson party around here:-) Also morning tunes, Poison Ivy is always a good way to start a day. I was happy the Urinals vinyl output was re-issued in a nice gatefold two record set, one studio one live. Urinals deserve a deluxe treatment:-)

Vampire Follies 1929