"Everlasting Health and Strength" by Charles Atlas

Despite divesting myself of pretty much a room full of stuff before making the move from the Twin Cities to our new digs in the Kansas City area, the general consensus here is that I still have too much stuff! My studio shelves are as packed full as they can be -- and the back room in the basement has shelf after shelf of my unbuilt (or half-built!) model kits -- and too many boxes of stuff that is just stored away.

So -- I'm going through all this material and pulling things to sell (most will likely go on eBay), and as I do, I'm finding some things that I think would be fun to share on my blog. One of those items is this 1954 Charles Atlas booklet. If you are of a certain age and grew up reading comic books, you no doubt recall the comic strip "Insult that made a man out of Mac" ad for Atlas' body building course that seemed to run in just about every comic book published. It's seen here as the back cover of this little booklet -- but with an alternate title.

No matter how many times I saw that ad, I never sent away for more info -- but if you did contact Atlas back in '54, I guess this is what you'd have received in return. I suppose plenty of kids reading the adventures of their favorite super-heroes dreamed about being built like those heroes. I just wanted to learn how to draw them.

Anyhow -- enjoy reading this remarkable little booklet (click on the pics for larger versions) -- and if, when you're done, you want to try out Atlas' methods for yourself, the company is still in business! You can order the classic Charles Atlas "Dynamic Tension" bodybuilding course at www.charlesatlas.com. Hey -- it only takes 15 minutes a day!

Assorted original artwork

I'm sorting through my art files, looking for pieces to include in a "sketchbook" I'm putting together -- and also to sell on eBay. Here's a batch I've just put up for grabs (seller ID: beattylee) -- and I thought I'd share them here on my blog as well.

The first three pieces were done at a Twin Cities Dr. Sketchy's session. The first two drawn rather quickly, as these were short poses -- but I think they turned out nicely -- and the whole roller derby fight thing is amusing. The third in this set is a more finished piece in pencil and ink -- and is one of two drawings from this session done in that method (the other not shown here). The loose ink line here was the inspiration for the "sketchy" drawing style I later used in drawing the Return to Perdition graphic novel (now set for publication in November of this year).

As always, you can click on the pics for a larger view.

Also from Dr. Sketchy's is this series of quick poses of a belly dancer model. I enjoy capturing the gesture/pose quickly in these sessions -- and often am quite pleased with how the multiple images work together on one piece of paper.
Here's a page of preliminary pencil sketches for the Monsterwax Shock Stories trading cards. I drew these prelims at print size and enlarged them for inking. Of these nine cards, three saw considerable changes before print. The others are very close to the final images.

This is the pencil prelim for the miniature sideshow banner print that was included with my boxed sets of resin "Freaks and Oddities" figures. Again, this was done print size, and then enlarged for the final painted version. I'd wanted to do a second (and maybe third) set of these, but have not had enough of a response to justify the hefty investment of time, work and money -- darn it. I do still have a few boxed sets and some individual figures, should anyone want them.

Vampirella was supposed to be a commission -- but the buyer had to back out before finalizing the purchase. I usually take the money up front before beginning the work -- but for some reason, I'd pencilled this before getting payment. I recently inked and colored the piece, as I just couldn't leave it unfinished.

In the early 1980's, I drew several dozen covers for Alan Light's weekly fanzine, The Buyers Guide for Comic Fandom. Most of those originals were sold long ago -- but I'd held on to these three as they were particular favorites. But the time has come to let them go -- and in fact, the Halloween cover is already sold.

The 3D cover was done the old-fashioned way -- just as 3D comics were done in the 1950's. There are four layers of inked art on acetate, with the back of the images whited out with paint. The deepest level, the background, is on standard bristol board. Each of these layers were shifted a bit to the right -- or left -- to create the red and green plates needed for print. The print version turned out quite well -- though it wouldn't have, had I not supervised the printing myself -- as the printers had not trusted my notes, and were set to use a deep blue ink, instead of the blue/green that works much better for 3D.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed this little look through my art files. I'll be posting more eventually, so please do come back soon!

Open for commissions!

Hey folks! I've just had some scheduled work get delayed (and with it, the expected advance) -- so I find myself looking for something to immediately take its place. For one, I'm open for commissions. See examples below -- but also check this previous post -- and the commission samples on my website. Contact me via the email link at the bottom of the website commission page for my rates. Thanks!

Current commissions are all india ink and colored ink on 11x14 bristol. I'm also open to more elaborate pieces (at higher rates, of course), paintings and sculpture. And, of course, I wouldn't object to hearing from anyone with some commercial/print work available....

My most recently completed commissions -- a retro-style Hula Girl pin-up and Wild Dog back to back with his civilian self, Jack Wheeler.

Scary Monsters #80! The Monster Mag that wouldn't DIE!

Scary Monsters magazine celebrates 20 years of publication with its 80th issue. I've been with the magazine a little shy of that 20 -- but it's still quite a long run! Here's the latest cover. Thanks to Richard Sala for helping with the reference!

The end of the tour!

Yes, it's the last entry in my studio tour series, and as the sun sets in the west, we bid farewell... Oh, wait! We have to look at the stuff first!

Here's an overview of the corner of the studio we'll be looking at today -- detail pics and descriptions follow.

That's a framed Dick Tracy daily from the Model story -- signed to me by Chet Gould. A souvenir of my visit to his Woodstock, IL home. Caniff fans -- don't get too excited over the Dragon Lady -- that's just a print out of an image I found on the web -- the other Caniff art you'll see later are prints, too. My pin-up collection is represented here by a set of George Petty waterslide decal tumblers, reissue Marx Campus Cuties and an original set of Marx Beauties. Assorted pin-up matchbook covers and figures fill out the shelf. Yes, that's an Ideal Wonder Woman in the middle of it all.

A shelf full of comic strip character toys and assorted "smalls." Skippy is a bisque toothbrush holder. The Pogo figures and cups are premiums from the '60s -- joined by the Yoe Studios/Dark Horse Albert and Pogo. The Barney Google game is a recent find from SpringCon in St. Paul -- wonderful Billy DeBeck art all over the box and board. The photo of Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head in their cars was taken on my front porch in the early '60s -- something I begged my dad to photograph -- hey, I was a weird kid....

Here's a better look at all the small items. You can click on this (or any of the pics in my blog) to get a larger, better view. Too many items to list -- though I will note the "see no evil" monkeys were an item rescued from the ashes of my father's boyhood farm home which burned down -- hence the scorch mark!

More vintage comic character items. The Terry board game art is not by Caniff, but rather Henry Vallely, artist of the Huck Finn art shown in an earlier entry of this tour.

A better view of the items lying flat on the shelf. The Tarzan book has a sticker on it from a shoestore in my hometown of Muscatine, IA. The coin-like item is a Johnny Weismuller Tarzan premium -- and quite a good likeness of him. The little "Dad" plaque was a gift from my daughter when she was a youngster -- the #1 item here as far as I'm concerned.

Vintage comic strip books, puzzles and more -- plus a stack of movie star arcade cards. John Garfield, upon whom Pete Morisi based Johnny Dynamite tops the stack for that very reason.

What won't fit on a shelf, hides away in a drawer -- and this drawer is full of pin-up cards, matchbook covers, notepads, etc.

A drawer full of Edgar Rice Burroughs paperbacks. I'd like to find the time to read (or re-read) these someday -- perhaps they'll be bedtime reading for my son when he's a little older...?

I've already shown you this Shelly Moldoff Batman art -- but you haven't seen the True magazine George Petty print that hangs next to it.

A Silent Invasion cover by my friend and fellow Renegade Press cartoonist Mike Cherkas can be seen next to some Caniff prints and a signed print from old pal Mitch O'Connell.

Lone Ranger arcade cards.

Original art for a British western pulp. I'd love to find the print version of this! Has anyone out there ever read any "Zed Montana" books...? I hear "Trailbusters" is a corker....

Just a hint at how much stuff I've packed into the storage closet. You don't want to know how many long boxes filled with back issues of my own books are stuffed into this little space!

And, since I haven't shown the work spaces yet -- here they are. Yes, Mr. Taxman, this really is my work room!
I've had this drawing board since I was a teenager. Several thousand comic book pages have been drawn on it in the decades since I first brought it home.

This '30s vintage pin-up tie rack hangs on the door that leads to the back room that contains... well... something I just might share with you in another post sometime....

And that's it, folks! That's my reference library, my toy collection and various sources of inspiration -- and the scanner and drawing board where a lot of my work gets done. You might get a kick out of seeing what I started with -- here's the room just after we moved in -- bookshelves in place -- but otherwise empty....

And here's all the stuff waiting to go on those shelves, filling our family room to the brim. Unpacking all this was a chore -- but a fun one. Flattening and running all the boxes to the recycling center (multiple trips) was a pain, though!

I hope you enjoyed the tour. I didn't post this to show off my collections -- but rather to share them. I've enjoyed the hunt for all these items -- and there is a story behind almost every one. I love giving the tour in person to friends who are interested -- but only a limited number of folks are ever going to actually get to do that. Here on the web, I can share it with everybody -- and that's a fun thing. I'll never understand those who build collections only to hide them away -- what's the point of hunting for, tracking down and, in some cases, rescuing, all this cool stuff, if you can't share it?

So, I didn't show you everything -- as some stuff is packed away, etc. -- so there may be future posts in which I dig out more cool stuff to share -- so if you did enjoy this, please come back -- and, as always, please leave a comment or two, as that helps make this worthwhile for me. Thanks!