Last night I had this dream: I dreamed I was flying to England and when I got to the airport they told there was no room for my luggage on the plane. So I decided that the best thing for me to do was to wear everything in my suitcase. I put on all six pairs of socks, six boxers, five shirts (long-sleeved), seven t-shirts, three pairs of jeans, some nice chinos, a hoodie, a wool cap, an overcoat, a longish scarf and a pair of low profile fleece gloves. Oh, and some workout shorts. Luckily, I was able to fit my running shoes, toiletries, and electric razor easily into my messenger bag along with my phone charger, passport and the latest issue of "Garden & Gun" Magazine. And then things got weird.

Here's the story: 

When I was about 11 years old, Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine came out with a special issue called "Do-It-Yourself Monster Make-Up Handbook." I really wanted that magazine. I wanted to make myself look like a monster. My parents and I were on different sides of the whole monster movie fad that was raging during the 60s. They thought it would leave scars, if not creases, in my young impressionable mind (in hindsight, they were probably right but this is something I never would have told them). 

Anyway, I thought to myself, "Fuck them. I don't need a stinking Handbook to show me how to look monstrous." So I snuck my dad's razor into my bedroom and carefully shaved my red stuffed teddy bear - a birthday gift which no longer fit in with my current interest in vampires, werewolves, mummies and large–brained space aliens. I covered my face with a thick layer of Elmer's Glue-All and pressed the red fuzzy teddy bear shavings into the wet goo.

When my parents called me to dinner that evening, in walked The Scarlet Werewolf.

"I must get this crack mended."

"This is Carole Ledoux: young, beautiful, desirable. Men found her irresistable. But something is happening to her -- something that she doesn't quite understand. And soon she will be swept up in a frantic fury of...REPULSION."

Watched this movie back in art school days and it really stuck with me. When I saw this film was coming up as part of Enzian's Cult Classic Movies Series, I couldn't wait to do the poster. I re-watched the film several times to try to find the right way to portray this movie on the poster. I wanted to visually capture the claustrophobic sense of paranoia permeating the film. And nothing says "claustrophobic paranoia" like big ass eyeballs.

Domo arigato, Mister Roboto!

Here's a swell little project I did for the Cancer Navigators of Rome, Georgia, a community resource for cancer patients and survivors.

MOSURA!!

Okay. So, Pacific Rim's special effects are amazing. And sure, the acting and dialog are snappy. But where's the magic? Where's the thing that will keep a kid awake at night thinking and re-thinking about the movie. Where's that special moment a kid wants to relive so badly he'll sneak out of bed - risking parental admonishment - to draw, with as much detail as he can pull out of his brain, a recreation of that moment? Where can a tender mind find such magnificence? I'll tell you where: MOTHRA.

Enzian Cult Classic Films poster, screen printed 18" x 24"

Bah.

Open publication - Free publishing - More delightful

WE BURN THEM TO ASHES. THEN WE BURN THE ASHES.

This coming Tuesday, September 25th, Enzian Theater presents for its Cult Classic Movies series, Francois Truffaut's 1966 adaptation of Ray Bradbury's socio-political sci-fi gem, Fahrenheit 451. One of the great things about doing posters for this series is that it gives me an excusable reason to sit down and really look hard at some fantastic movies. Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 is no exception. His cerebral approach to the text, while leaving many critics and film-goers of that time perplexed, offers a film experience that even today seems modern.

Come out next Tuesday. Watch a movie, drink a beer, have some popcorn and buy my poster.

And then there's this:

Have these people no sense of irony?

...And a Japanese Transistor radio!

I have two unbending Christmas traditions: I never miss watching the movie "A Christmas Story," and I listen to Allan Sherman's "The Twelve Gifts of Christmas" at least a dozen times. You may ask, "Doesn't that get old?" To which I respond, "Does Christmas get old? What that old holiday, again?"

To celebrate my enjoyment of the Allan Sherman song, I have created a series of  iPhone cases to memorialize the legendarily mythological "Nakashuma" Japanese transistor radio. It's the Mark IV model. That's the one that's discontinued.

Listen to the classic Christmas song here.

Anyway, here are the cases I designed. If you like 'em, run on over to Society6 and buy a few.

The Luckiest Boy in Puppetland.

AGAIN, I have had the great fortune to be able to collaborate with Jeff Matz and Lure Design to help create the upcoming campaign for the 2012 Florida Film Festival. I'm the luckiest boy in Puppetland.

Cheap crap and Christmas.

When I was a kid, I loved dime store toys. I could go into a dime store on Allowance Day and spend every penny on crap -- cheap seductive beautiful crap that, if lucky, would make it all the way home before I had a chance to destroy it. Devil's Fingernails, Sheriff's Badges, Rubber Spiders, Atomic Water Pistols, and Smoking Monkeys were my treasures.

The chief marketing tool for this cheap crap was the header -- a colorfully printed folded piece of cardboard stapled to the polyethylene bag that held the object of my desire. I think in some cases the headers were more expensive to produce than the toy it was selling. The headers hung from pegs specifically adjusted to be at my eye level. I'll never forget the power of those simple folded pieces of cardboard.

My Christmas card this year was an homage to all that stuff that made me happy when I was a kid.

By the way, if you want to be added onto next year's XMAS card list, email me your address and I'll add you. I might come up with something worth keeping.

Too much time on things that don't matter.

So, I've been introduced to Tumblr. It's about time, eh? Although, I'm not sure if it has any value beyond being just an enormous time vacuum. The exposure one might get as a creator is defeated by the anonymousness of the venue. It's like having an art gallery where nothing can be purchased and there are no placards indicating who did the art. Good for the viewer, I suppose, but not so much for the people who make the stuff. We'll see...

Any way, here's a picture I did while I was playing around with my little ghostie. I combined my three favorite things: little ghosty, clouds and car crashes. Maybe not car crashes.

Not willfully obscure.

The next poster in the Enzian Cult Classic Series is for "Tommy," Ken Russell's 1975 paean to rock and roll and pop culture. Completely over-the-top, this film stands as a monument to excess and the unbridled creative synergy of director Russell and The Who's Pete Townshend.

You will never view baked beans the same.

And yes, I used the word paean.

Occupy this.

A friend of mine once said, "if you can't make it good, make it big. And if you can't make it big, make it red." There you go. My design philosophy in a nutshell.

This a poster I originally did to advertise an Orlando art show given to support workers' rights. Go, workers.

It can be had at the web site of my pals and collaborators, Lure Design.

Going back to Kali.

This is a 3" Vinylmation figure I did for Disney's Park Series 7. It is a representation of Animal Kingdom's Kali River Rapids. Thanks to Thomas Scott.

Well, butter my biscuits.

I just found out, like, two minutes ago, that one of my Enzian Cult Classic Movie posters just got accepted into the Society of Illustrators "Illustrators 54" show. In the Society of Illustrators' words: "the exhibit will be held at the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators (NYC) February 25 to March 17, 2012. It features works by leading contemporary illustrators worldwide, selected by a prestigious jury of professionals."

Oh, yeah.

If you're interested in getting your own copy of the "To Catch A Thief" poster, go visit my pals at Lure Design. They'll set you up.

Jemimah.

I used to have a crazy dog, Jemimah. She looked like a Doberman, German Short-haired Pointer mix - skinny long legs, all milk chocolate brown with a pointy snout. Sometimes when she'd get out of the yard, she'd run full throttle in a straight line like a nitro-fueled dragster. Where was she going? No one ever knew, but she sure needed to get there FAST.

This is a sketch I did for painting that never happened. I feel like someday I should do that painting.

This is crazy.

I could look at this for hours.

A few more Enzian posters.

Finally. Here are a few posters from the Enzian Cult Classic Movie series. These can be purchased at Lure Design's joint.

Go, and never darken my towels again!

BEHOLD the cheerful insanity of the Marx Brothers! You'll LAUGH OUT LOUD at the wacky antics of this celebrated comedy foursome. SEE the delightful mayhem! HEAR the witty dialogue! MARVEL at the costumes and sets!

This poster is the first in a series for Enzian's new Saturday Matinee Classics film festival.

Abandoned Projects, the First

One day I was going through the garage to pull out some things for a yard sale and I ran across a box of dolls from my wife's childhood. Among the dolls was an Eskimo Pie advertising doll. It was just two pieces of printed fabric that were sewn together and stuffed with cotton, or something. A very simply process that left lots of room for design potential. I decided then I'd like to make something like that.

I sat down to ponder and draw and came up with some stuff that I didn't hate — "Devil Dolls" — limited edition hand-screen printed, stuffed dolls. The dolls would be sold on a subscription basis only. For, let's say, $150 you'd get a total of six dolls guaranteed to be in a limited production of no more than, let's say, 50 or 75 each. The dolls, packaged like cheap dime store toys in clear plastic bags with printed cardboard headers, would arrive once a month for six months. The header would have depictions of all the dolls in the series except for the last one which was shown only as a Devil Doll silhouette with a big question mark reversed out of it. The last doll of the series would be a "Mystery Doll." The Mystery Doll would arrive packaged like the other dolls except that instead of a clear plastic bag, the bag would be opaque black and the header would be all black except for a big question mark on the front (secretly I hoped that people would never open the last doll's packaging to see what it looked like).

I worked for a while on some doll and header designs. I even made a few prototypes. It was exciting and fun to think about.

Work from paying clients heated up and I wasn't able to spend the amount of time on this project that it needed. I still like this idea and I hope to revisit it some day. Maybe someday soon I'll have the time pick this up again and actually make it happen.

I've had a few more thoughts on it...