The Doctor and River Song

When River first appeared in the Library, I didn't care for her: I thought she was over-shadowing Donna (whom I adored). But when she reappeared, I fell in love with her. I guess I didn't mind her over-shadowing Amy. Now, I love the Library episodes more.

When Matt Smith was name as the 11th Doctor for the Brit sci-fi show Doctor Who, I sketched him and Amy...with the intention of making a nice drawing. I'm glad it never came to be, as I think the Doctor's chemistry with River is incredible.

River is awesome because she's more than the Doctor's equal...she's the most kick-assing-est of his sidekicks.

Long-time Whovians know the Doctor has at least one child and one grand-daughter, Susan Foreman, who was his first companion in the 1963 series. I don't know if it was ever revealed who his wife/mother of his children was, but I would love love love it if it turned out to be River.

I'm sure it could happen.

As for the drawing, I am not happy with the background, maybe I'll redo it someday.

Surf's up—RIP Annette

Sad news about Annette last month. 

The most popular original Mouseketeer, she was re-invented as a pop music star when her fans demanded it. Then re-invented as an unlikely beach babe for the Beach Party films when Disney Studios didn't know what to do with her. Then retired from acting when she was pregnant with her first child...all by age 24. 

I am a fan of the way she carried herself in Hollywood (not all former Mouseketeers have such class, eh Brit?), but particularly as someone who lived with MS for many years. For those of you who know my family, you know why.

I took my time drawing this and adding color. You know I haven't been drawing much lately due to my newfound hobby of DIY. Yesterday I spent the day designing and building a cabinet, but had to bail for now until I figure out how to make the door. Anyway, I converted the line color of Annette in P-shop, then colored the sand and towel using the chalk function in Painter, and then sky and water using the watercolor function (never tried that before!), then back to P-shop to add the color to Annette and the beach ball.  Considering how rusty I am, not too shabby.

Rest in peace, Annette.

Ooops—sorry, I forgot to post last week! I'll make up for it soon, I promise, you, dear 73 followers.

But, I know not when—may I whine, bitch, and gripe a moment?

Thanks; Amidst my annual business travels (I basically travel for business thrice per year for my day job, each trip in March) I had to terminate an employee. It was difficult and stressful, and not the course of action anyone wanted. But, it had to be done, and it was for the best. End result, last weekend, March's last, I mostly slept. Do you lame me? No, I thought not.

But, I am feeling better now, especially that the bandwagon high season is over...though, very little "March Madness" talk entered my ears.

Back to the sketches: kicking off my travels, I spent a weekend in DC to ketchup with my former-weatherman friend Ryan. We went to the National Portrait Gallery. We think we've been before, together, but we neither could recall any details. He did remember that I called my grandmother from The Mall though. You'll recall from my post about her a few years back, she lived in DC during and just after World War II. That was sweet.

I love portraits of hot men in period clothing. Case in point, Yale's first chemistry professor. I believe he was age appropriate for me when this portrait was painted. He didn't hold up too well, but, I guess no one does. I like Maggie Smith's recent quote about how old people are scarey. 

What a decent guy!

Once every few years I end up on the couch with a bad cold...and sucked into the world of "television." Law & Order marathons, spoiled people with bad taste on HGTV, terrible effects on ScyFy. 

This time around, while surfing I was instantly hooked on a reality competition show. I've never been able to watch more than 5 minutes of reality TV, but this had me from the moment I landed on Spike.

The Joe Schmo Show is a giant hoax: all the contestants are actors, except one—Chase Rogan of Pittsburgh—who thinks it's all real. So, the show is a bit sitcom (with lots of crazy scenarios and specific lines to get across), a bit improv (since it happens real time, and the actors must riff off the things Chase says and does), and a bit reality show (Chase is in it to win).

My favorite character is Karlee, the deaf contestant (who is played by a hearing actress) and her dummy Mr. Wentworth. His theme song with Karlee (Can you hear me?/No I Can't/I am Mr. Wentworth/I will make you smile/All day long) had me in stitches.

Chase is goofy, easy on the eyes (I don't claim my drawing of him looks like him...), and of high moral fiber. The show just concluded, and I urge you to watch it. It's crazy and funny and well done. I felt bad for Chase (who really did want to win the fake prize of a job contract as a bounty hunter). But the cast was really good for the most part, and Chase did win the real prize of $100K. 

Anyway, check the show out on Netflix or Spike's website. 

Well, hello!

Welcome to my blog post about Deven Green! Isn't it comforble? Notice the slit? Meow, meow, I just burped up lunch. I could go on and on and on.

I drew this pencil drawing when Deven first and graciously responded to my email. She is sooo nice, in addition to being hilariously funny.

I love all her videos that you can see on the web, and all the ones that you can no longer see on the web. I wish there was a DVD compilation of them all.

It took me a while to warm up to the Betty Bowers persona, but now I love that too. So close to Jesus!

In short, the woman can't do wrong in my book. Funny, beautiful, super gay friendly. If you have no idea who I am talking about, shame on you. You need to spend some quality time on her website.

What’s Another Year?

Johnny Logan circa 1980

I drew this “likeness” of Mr. Eurovision, Johnny Logan, in a blue moment at the end of last year.

His first Eurovision win in 1980, the tear-jerking song “What’s Another Year?” really struck a chord with me at that time. The gist of the song is about getting used to being alone, in love with someone who doesn’t want you...and the meaningless of time and life. Ok, ok, like most Eurovision songs, and early 80s songs, it's a bit awful.

At the time, I carried the sad sentiment of "what's another year?" with me. Now it's more like "meh, what's another year?" Since, while I certainly have blue moments, they are few and far between.

I truly was born under a lucky star.

Watch the video on YouTube!

Common ground

PREMISE #1) I am generally not a fan of country music.

PREMISE #2) I am generally not a fan of Dolly Parton songs.

PREMISE #3) I generally don't make a lot of effort to find common ground for dis-common interests.

Well, I've been having a lot of fun listening through the Dolly Parton catalog and watching video clips in search of songs I like. I certainly don't like them all, and I don't think she'll be my go-to when I need a musical hug, but I have found a number of songs that I enjoy. So, a double-whammy (enjoying the process AND the outcome)!

I watched Coal Miner's Daughter, too. I was delighted to learn that the song during the end credits of the Strangers With Candy episode where Jeri learns she's an Indian turns out to be Loretta Lynn singing the "Squaw is on the Warpath" song. Fun!

Fear not, Fish-philes—country is not taking the place of lounge in my heart, and France Gall still makes me smile big.

Anyway, here's a drawing I did of "pretty miss Dolly" as she appeared signing the "Jolene" song in 1974.

Last Call 2010: Extraordinary Part I

Last week, I went to my first rock concert in years. I can't even remember the last time I had to buy tickets from Ticketmaster. But I'd not been to an indie rock bar in some time. Even jazz bars can be a challenge, as excessively warm + loud = nausea + headache. And often, the to do list is such that I can't "afford" to kill the next day all groggy and stuff.

But 2010 has been a year of great transition for me, and I've been living a more balanced life between art, fixing up my loft, family & friends, and other experiences. Often, deliberately placing myself into situations which had been for some time automatic "no"s.

Enter Liz Phair, back on tour to, hrm, salvage her reputation, I think. I love her and her music. I love that she sold out so she could raise her kid, and I love that people criticize her for it. I love how she's evolved over the years, her music reflecting perfectly the stage of life she's in. I sheepishly admit I feel a little affinity as a writer/artist myself.

I thought her show would be heavily leaning on my new album (which is a mix between "great" and "what the—?!?"), but she started with "Supernova" and ended with "Fuck and Run" with everything good in between.

She was fun and funny, joking with the audience and her band. She took requests from people shouting out, and even hauled two scared girls on stage to sing backup on "Flower" which was amazing. In photos, she looks kinda harsh and bitchy, but in person, she was super cute and nice nice nice. Loved the lace stockings and spike heel suede fuck-me boots.

The Paradise was fairly not-warm, but it also helped that Sean and I stuck to the less-crowded balcony. And—sadly for Liz—it wasn't exactly a packed house. So I didn't feel physically sick, though the next day my ears were still ringing a bit and I was sluggish.

So, not something I'll be repeating weekly, but now and again, I am sure I will enjoy myself at a show for someone special.

The Doctor and Sarah Jane

Knowing my "thing" for David Tennant, many people have asked me what I think about the new 11th Doctor in the Brit sci-fi series Doctor Who. I will, however, reserve my judgment until I see an episode with Matt Smith.

For now, enjoy this sketch of the 3rd Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee, and one of my favorites! It was definitely a campy incarnation, nearly Batman series-esque, with the Doctor often in futuristic cars whizzing about London.

And, the outfit!—high heel boots, bell bottoms, velvet jackets, frilly shirts, and a cape when it was chilly. It's true I actually dress more like the 10th Doctor, but I want to dress like the 3rd.

And for fun, I've drawn him with Sarah Jane as they appeared together...with her cute page-boy haircut.

PC cleaning #5: lost love letter

Some time ago I started sketching out a love letter to Liz Phair. It's the type of project I'll probably never get to do with all my other projects going on. So for now, I publically declare my adoration with this sketch.

PC cleaning #1: Jeff

Today we got about 2 feet of snow in Boston. It was great!—very pretty, got a good workout shovelling, and trapped at my apartment, widdled down my 'to do' list!

On the list was to back up my hard drive to my external hard drive. Along the way I ended up scanning through my scanned sketches folder to see what drawings I had intended to post, but for whatever reason, I never did.

Among them is today's post: 'Jeff' from the UK show 'Coupling' (yes, the US version tanked after 3 episodes or something, but the UK one is great!). I was very happy with this drawing, and had intended to color it and add some crazy pattern to the shirt. Never did, so here you go.

I like this because I rarely draw actual people, and when I do, the drawing rarely looks like the people I intend it to. But here, I really think it looks like Jeff. Though, Jeff should be a bit more bewildered than sly looking.

France ist vollendet

Let me geek out on you: I've made you well aware of my adoration of France Gall. And while I like her late 60s/early 70s recordings very much, I particularly like the songs she recorded in German during that era.

Many have Beatles-like experimentation in them, with out-there back up vocals (such as "Love, L'amour und Liebe") or odd instrument choices (such as the xylophone in "Ich Singe Meinen Song").

The songs run the gamut from covers of 60's bossa nova Brazilian lounge ("So Einen Jungen Mann") to catchy rock-pop ("Wassermann Und Fisch") to ballades ("Miguel") to Bavarian oompa-oompa ("Ich Habe Einen Freund in München").

Other favorites include "Computer Nr. 3," "I Like Mozart," "Ich War Ein Kind," and "Unga Katunga."

About half her German DECCA catalog is easy to get from the "best of" CD collection; the other half not so much. But after much hunting, my collection is now complete!

Thankfully, my 'want of obscure things without ability to find them' is matched by Matt's 'ability and want to find obscure things without any obscure interests.' He is duly credited with finding the extremely hard to find track (complete with crazy fiddle "Ein Bißchen Mogeln in der Liebe").

The sketch is France in her jeans, purple boots, yellow sweatshirt with "STOP" screen-printed on and Bavarian pigtails get-up she wore when she performed live on the ZDF Hitparade ("Ali Baba und die 40 Räuber" which I also have a HQ track of).

Divine Dawn

When I was in DC for SPX some weeks back, I stayed with my friends Ryan and Mark. Ryan is a huge John Waters fan (I like John Waters, but Ryan is maybe 5x the fan I am), and took the opportunity to haul out DVDs and clips that I am guessing Mark doesn't appreciate.

Most of the quotes flying and scenes viewed were from Female Trouble, starring Divine as Dawn Davenport: "Nice girls don't wear cha-cha heels!" "Not on Christmas... not on Christmas..." There are so many great lines—what's your favorite?

But here are two drawings of Divine as Dawn. The blue lines on the left are a bit light and I should ink it. I like the effect of the inked drawing over the blue lines to the right... makes her look like she has eyeshadow on.

Comic Con 40

After I moved to San Diego in 1995, I began attending Comic Con. I’d drive my orange Jeep downtown and park just east of the Gaslamp and walk into the con on free passes handed to me by a friend of a friend who worked at the convention center. At that time, I was used to shows about as big from Boston and New York—about 40,000 attendees. I remember looking at the displays, looking at the indie comics, attending a panel or two. But mostly I was buying old back issues. It was definitely the place to complete my 60s/70s Legion and Teen Titans collection.

Over the years, I started getting into the portfolio review lines, trying to meet “famous” creators and publishers, to a frustrating end. Frustrating, but led to good things: turning Arche-Lady into portfolio-level work, and ultimately embarking on a serious self-publishing career. Once I began publishing, Comic Con became “serious business” for me to recup exhibiting fees and networking for new deals.

Years later, the publishing seems to take care of itself, and I seem to get more attention by simply doing my thing rather than active networking. So this time around, I went to Comic Con to see old friends and have fun. And it was indeed very fun! These days Comic Con pulls in 125,000+ attendees—it's crazy!

Thursday, I flew in from Boston. En route, I met an Image artist Christian Ward coming in from London and killed time chatting in Logan airport. When I arrived in San Diego that night, I met up with my hotel-mates at the Gaslamp Westin. After a shower (solo), we went to the infamous Hyatt for industry chit-chat and a few drinks. Friday morning, Aman and I hit the hotel gym and made our way to the convention. After registering, we walked around a bit and went to the DC green room. Spent time in the big exhibits of DC, Marvel, Image, etc, and then through artist alley. Met Seth Estrada, who is making a documentary about his dad Ric (who I knew best for drawing war comics). I then had a signing @ the Prism Comics booth (where my books were on sale) with a steady stream of guests. After a little relaxing, we grabbed some food and then back to the Hyatt for more industry chit-chat.

Saturday, once again, Aman and I hit the hotel gym, though I had to hot-foot it to the con to be on time for my Saturday signing. This one wasn’t advertised, so it wasn’t nearly as busy. Chatted with Andy Suriano a bit and bought his book. Walked through the smaller publishers and gushed over Chynna Clugston a little. We left the con for a drink and then I went back to appear on a panel about romance comics. The panel turned out to be really good. The moderator tailored questions for the panelists, who in turn gave some quality answers. No one dominated the panel either. I think it turned out to be the best panel I’ve ever been on! That night was the BGD gathering and ultimately was back at the Hyatt again.

Sunday morning, friends held a spot in line for me to get into the Doctor Who panel. David Tennant (who looked like he sexily just rolled out of bed) graciously gave us an extended look at his happy trail. That was one weird panel. While I like Doctor Who, and David Tennant is definitely hot, I was surprised by all the girl-squealing going on. I mean, the crowd was crazy-silly. I started watching the show because I am a fan of Catherine Tate (see my post “Doctor, Donna, and kitty”); I was tempted to get in line to ask if David would deliver my drawing of them to her. :P I bolted back to the hotel to check out and headed out of town.

A bit of a whirlwind, and I spent a bit too much money between comics, t-shirts, food, and many drinks…but a very fun time!

France et Serge

Final entry for France Gall week!

I made this for the "Draw Serge" blog which I enjoy. It's a tribute to one of the most influencial song writers ever, Serge Gainsbourg. I like a lot of the art featured there.

Considering his collaborations with wife Jane Birkin and sexpot Brigit Bardot, I'm not wholly surprised there weren't any drawings featuring France Gall, though the two were linked together by a number of pop hits and the "Les Succettes" scandal.

Here I draw them circa 1965, a la their Eurovision Songcontest win. You can see 16 year old France's awful Eurovision perfomance at Youtube. But the song was still good enough to win—the first time a pop song won the contest.

I took the opportunity to draw them for the blog and practice using Painter as well. Aside from the suit stripes, I am pretty happy with my progress using the "chalk" feature in Painter.

France en Allemande

France Gall's career was waning ahome when she signed with Decca and scored some hits abroad in Germany. Some of the songs are laughably stereotypical you can imagine people bobbing along in lederhosen. But then other tracks are among my most favorite of all her work. Some of the songs are covers of foreign hits, but lucky France got to record lots of original music, unlike many of her Euro-contemporaries, and I like most of those too.

Recently someone likened her to a late 60s Britney Spears. To that I say "no!" Sure, her career was made possible by a pushy parent (songwriter father) and built on her looks, but as a singer has much more talent and skill than Brit. First, she could sing flawlessly in French, Italian and German (I'm not sure how flawless her Spanish singing was). Second, she could and did perform live—and in at least 3 of those languages. Thirdly, into her adult years, France dealt with much adversity admirably (ie, she wasn't Fd up).

The hair and dress in the drawing here is inspired by her German career. Also, she's singing "Haifischbaby" ("Baby Shark"). This panel appeared in my OGN "Love is the Reason" despite the fact that France circa 1968 appears in a modern-day story. Sure, doesn't make sense, but it's the only time I've ever featured an actual person in any of my comics.

France Gall week

In conjunction to my submission to the "Draw Serge!" blog, I am posting entries of his frequent song doll, France Gall. In the early '60s, France Gall was considered something like the Leslie Gore of France. Though her repertoire ranged from jazz to pop to children's songs. Here are a few pencil sketches I did a few years back, with her various hairdo's. Her later recordings with husband Michael Berger are considered better, but I confess I like a lot of the early work, particularly the jazz-y/lounge-y stuff.

Oh, Jürgen

My latest "thing" is men in their mid-30s circa 1977. Think Gary Sandy on WKRP in Cincinnati with tight jeans, and tight western shirt open nearly halfway down to his navel and nice hair. Or, if you prefer your Euro-men, Jürgen Drews from the horrific German pop group the Les Humphries Singers. Jürgen botched his solo during the 1976 Eurovison Song Contest during the silly song "Sing Sang Song" but nails it time and again for "Ein Bett im Kornfeld," his big solo hit. For a brief moment, I was involved in a drawing collective; there would be a new assignment every 2 weeks. For the assignment "something about music" I started this illustration of the Les Humphries Singers from their Eurosvision appearance. Love Jürgen in his tight bells, jacket, vest-with-no-shirt underneath, medallion, and silk scarf. If I had been a young man in the 70s, this is definitely how I'd dress.

Whose baby are you?

The lyrics from the Batgirl theme song, as I recall them:

Batgirrrrrl, Batgirl! / Yeaaaaah, Batgirl! / Are you a chick who fell in from outerspace? / Or are you real with a tender warm embrace? / Yeaaaaah, Batgirl! / Whose baby are you?—Batgirl!

As I mentioned, one of the originals I drew at the fesitival in France was a Yvonne Craig/Batman TV show style Batgirl. I couldn't scan it (sold the original), but I was able to take a photo. Image on the left (while a bit dark) shows a bit of the blue line pencil. Image on the left is imperfectly cleaned up and colored. I'm not the best colorist, and didn't feel like investing too much time on this since it was from a photo. So you don't get a sense of how satin-y her cape it. But, I did apply the "noise" filter to her body suit... as the one Yvonne wore on the show was kind of sparkly.

I was referencing to Xavier and Jeff what the costume was like, they were disturbed that it was purple and gold. I was shocked they'd neither seen it nor the TV show! I insisted Jeff to use his phone to find internet pics of Yvonne in costume. He did, and immediately he and Xavier were wild about the costume. It does look pretty cool in pictures...

Then @ NY Comic Con, this woman (with a decent build) was wearing an AMAZINGLY professional-looking TV style Batgirl costume. I mean, every detail. I can't remember if Tall Tim was able to get a photo or not.

The Doctor and Donna with kitty

I started watching Doctor Who for the first time since the late '70s. A while back, I saw an ad for the new series, and thought "that looks like Catherine Tate...haha." Then, I discovered it is Catherine Tate—now the Doctor's companion "Donna Noble" for series 4. Who could not love David Tennant's intense but goofy Doctor? The ultimate sexy dork. I sketched this in Adam's sketchbook, as part of the "____ with kitty" series. It started after we saw The Incredible Hulk. There were a few "Hulk with kitty" drawings (Hulk SMASH kitty!), a "Batman with kitty," "She-Hulk with kitty" (though in that one, kitty is a buff guy wearing a muscle tee that says "kitty" on it), etc., etc. I liked my sketch of the Doctor and Donna very much, so I inked it, colored it, posted it! In hindsight, I really should have added the TARDIS. It could have filled the white space to the right of Donna. Next time—!