VAST UNDERGROUND WORLDS

I want one, let's start digging.

When I couldn't get my hands on poster paper I would simply tape what I had together and make a mini poster. This opened up a realm of possibilities with room for extensive detail and multiple things happening at once. I'll let this one speak for itself so you can find your own favorite little detail.

TWIN TWIST

GoBots and Transformers toys & cartoons came out at about the same time. My first of either was a little red sports car GoBot - the range of quality became rapidly obvious and GoBots lost.
Twin Twist must have been a GoBot in a previous life though, all he really did was fold in half in order to "transform" - regardless, what was great about him was that he had a pull back motor so he could shoot across smooth kitchen tile into mom's feet all across america.

THE PUNKIES! They will rock you dead!

Mohawk, skull headed rockers called "The Punkies". Horrible 80's fashion, but a pretty elaborate stage. I think it was from the public access drawing show teaching perspective. Looks like I gave up on the disco ball details - characters were def my priority here. Of course electric guitars would have electric bolts shooting out of them! lol My first logo too, a painter's palette. Character bio pages after the jump.

THE PHOENIX

Cocks Stone?

The TV movie was 90mins long and was canceled after just 4 regular episodes. At age 8, it was awesome. Apparently I was quite taken with the show with all these drawings. I even named my childhood cat after it. The character had super hero type special powers. It was like an alien version of Kung Fu as he traveled alone and met people along the way. The character was on a journey to find his partner (who I thought, as a kid, was his sister) to understand how he could help the planet earth. Yadda yadda yadda. More artwork after the jump.

Check out the art & links: The TV intro  The wiki entry

LfGSfD GQZf CQQX (SECRET CODE BOOK)

WOW! Book binding and a separate, heavier cover stock! I made multiple copies of this book for my closest of friends. This was mine of course, I'm sure the second hand copies were just paper, folded and taped without the cardboard cover and staple binding. I had woods behind my house growing up so it was easy to run into other kids playing in tree forts, etc. We HAD to have a system in relaying messages securely!

BAD GUYS VS MECH MAN

GENERAL DOOM & MAJOR SPY
Gun-hands were big i the 80's; Hordak was prob my favorite. Why did She-Ra get the cooler bad guy? Even the little guy is important, "Major Spy", who else would make a better snoop than a little, evil bat?

THE "BEWARE" SERIES

I do believe these hung outside my bedroom door. A series of creatures that would scare away intruders. I think "The Demon" would have gotten the job done with his smoking, volcano pores and killer abs. This had to be inspired from The Crystar series' villan.

MARVEL KNOCKOFFS

All you had to do was change their appearance and name slightly right?

PRACTICE MAKES NINJAS

Many attempts and variations of Storm Shadow from GI Joe. A few black ninjas. I didn't have Snake Eyes yet and he always looked more like a soldier than a ninja anyways. Besides, I could relate to Storm Shadow, well, I could wear white long underwear with a dark bathrobe belt, a white shirt over my face and throw cardboard ninja stars at the wall that is. More lovely computer paper. I think the circled one on the bottom was a trace attempt from the actual toy.

TRON WARRIOR

My Dad taught me the lightbox trick without a lightbox. He showed me how to trace artwork by placing it on our glass sliding door during the day. I had one Tron toy, the Warrior. He was an amazing toy for a kid. See-through plastic, glow in the dark highlights and a staff bigger than a lightsaber that glowed as well! I made two of these so I could mail one to Captain 20's show to be displayed during their art segment of the program. And speaking of Tron, have you SEEN the sequel's trailer?

SPACESHIP COCKPIT

I found two designs, one was actually taped over the other. I guess I saw room for improvement and simply taped over the previous drawing. Notice how there are two rear view mirrors? Remember, this is a spaceship, not a car. I also like the switch labeled "food." I think the blinking cursor "Ready" screen is taken from Atari's Basic computer software. Amazing, a spaceship fighter powered by Basic - I'd be unstoppable.

KIDS ALWAYS LOVE PIRATES

Skull & crossbones. A raging storm at sea. Cannonballs all launching at once. this is pretty exciting! My dad worked on an Old Time Radio publication called NARA News in his spare time for many years and I learned about copyrighting work. I watched him use the typewriter, cut out clip art from his archive, and hand draw artwork for each issue. This was before digital desktop publishing and scanning was affordable at home. I started to "copyright" my pieces at around 8 or 9 years old. I used any paper I could my hands on: letter paper, computer paper (the kind with holes on both sides) and whatever my dad brought home. There was an endless drawer of paper.

BLOOD TOOTH

BLOOD TOOTH
a larger, single, upper tooth says it all

Among all of my drawings of Tron, Star Wars, Dragons and other fantasy and sci-fi I always tried to create my own characters. From straight up rip offs, nods, and originals. Blood Tooth started off as a school book project. I wish there was a year on the paper.

I do recall falling in love with this character. I took my pages home, found some scrap mat board and did full color illustrations for the front and back. I never found my puppet box, but I remember making a Blood Tooth puppet out of a folded paper plate for the mouth and gluing eyes and teeth on the plate. I went further with scraps of cloth from my parents rag bag for arms, a torso, legs and a cape. These were basically just rectangular cut scraps stapled to the plate. I made a Blood Tooth puppet! Wish I found that.

I'm surprised that I never made a full wearable costume - most likely it was near Halloween when the story was written and the fun faded as Christmas drew closer and I moved on to creating my xmas wishlist.