D-d-d-racula

Yes, more Lugosi. It just seems right this time of year. A number of actors have played and will play Dracula, but Lugosi will always BE Dracula.

Above, this picture should be next to the word malevolence in the dictionary. Below, it's nice to see that SOMEthing makes him happy.

Above and below, Helen Chandler's date is turning out so well.

Magical Mystery Tour

Magicians were huge in the 1930s and 40s, with cult followings (usually other magicians), and are regarded even now as legendary showmen, having cultivated an aura of ancient dark wisdom.

As we are reminded in the last post's comments by Britt Reid (I was getting to it, Britt ; ) ) , Dr. Neff was a real-life magician with a real-life magical mystery tour. Bill Neff (1905-1967) was famous for his Madhouse of Mystery show—a 2 ton stage extravaganza, requiring 13 assistants!

Besides his comic book adventures (in his own title and also featured in the 1940s Red Dragon series) there is an interesting book about him, as Mr. Reid points out, called Pleasant Nightmares—Dr. Neff and His Madhouse of Mystery by William Rauscher.

You can see that Dr. Neff had legendary help in his stage shows.

Bela Lugosi with Bill Neff, 1947

Interested in pop culture? While you're online, check out some of Mr. Reid's blogs here, here and here.

Dr. Neff — Ghost Breaker

Before there were Ghost Busters, there were the 1948 Ghost Breakers, featuring Dr. Neff. This is a sliced off cover that's been rattling around in my morgue, and every time I see it, I think of the actor John Noble, who portrays our beloved Walter on Fringe.

Bob Powell — Ghost Breakers #1 — 1948

Personally I think the resemblance is spooky. What's even spookier: John Noble was BORN in 1948! Coincidence? You decide . . .

John Noble

Spooky

I love this time of year.

Donn P. Crane — Spooky House — 1930s

Hobble Them Goblins Dept.

With only a week 'til Halloween, you better brush up on tactics:

"There are three methods of taking care of trick-or-treat pranksters on Halloween. The first method is to give them what they want, which is cowardly. The second method is to go to a movie and leave the house dark, which is even more cowardly. The third method is to refuse to answer the doorbell, which is downright stupid because they'll wreck the place.

Here, MAD proposes a fourth method, a new way of dealing with Halloween pranksters. Instead of falling for the old trick-or-treat bit, you surprise them with . . ."

Mort Drucker — Mad Magazine —mid 1960s

An 1899 Vampire

This is a design for a clasp, titled The Vampire, from 1899—a time when we imagine vampires to be ravaging Victoria's London.

You probably have time before the Halloween party to run this design up to the tatt shop.

P. Wolfers — The Vampire — 1899

Purity's Don Juan

Halloweenish hijinx from Norman Lindsay.

Norman Lindsay — Purity's Don Juan — prelim sketch

Norman Lindsay — Purity's Don Juan

Sesquipedalia Verba

This is a slightly disturbing image from Weird Tales by Virgil Finlay in an early phase of his style, a loose page in my image morgue.

The prose is interesting to glance at, what with words like 'stertorously' and 'horripilation'. I bet the rest of the story is filled with sesquipedalianism as well, not to mention phrases like, "stripping off her flaring-skirted frock of white organza and the clinging slip of primavera printed satin as one might turn a glove."

Whew, is it just me or is it hot in here?

Virgil Finlay — Living Buddhess — November 1937

Demon of Gothos Mansion

In 1970 I was ready to give up on comics, and I might have but for the comic book stylings of Neal Adams. I always bought multiples of Neal Adams covers and stories—not for speculation— but because, well, because, well I dunno, just because. Neal Adams revitalized the Batman character, and in my mind his version remains the best.

The Halloweenish cover below is so iconic, and was a tribute to the iconic Bob Kane cover from Batman's first year. Both are my favorite Batman covers, and might be some of yours as well.

Neal Adams — Batman #227 — 1970

Bob Kane — Detective Comics #31 — 1939

Hanging Out

A Halloween mood cover, hanging out with the bats. Another favorite Batman cover by George Pratt.

George Pratt — Batman #431 — 1989

Leaf Drift

This painting displayed pretty amazing sensuality for the transition of the Victorian era to the Edwardian period. Quite ignoring Art Nouveau, this is the romantic aesthetic that still saturated the times.

Arthur Hacker — Leaf Drift — 1903

Bela, Bela, Bela

Happy birthday, Bela Lugosi, you are 129 years old today!

Above, the beautiful portrait painting that hung for years in Bela's study. Below, Bela in his later years, looking ready for Martin Landau to play him.

Visit the official Bela Lugosi website by clicking here.

Mural

I've painted quite a few murals on-site in my time, of all sorts of subjects, but I've never been commissioned to paint one quite like this. If you have a commission like this, well, gee, talk to me.

Ramon Chatov (or I've also seen it spelled Chatoff)

Plymouth Hotel (I don't know which one)

Just Say NO

I hate to mar the pictorial nature of this blog to post this, but I'm making a plea to all of you blogspot bloggers to turn off your lightbox feature. It's a pain in the @$$ and prevents all of us from totally enjoying your hard work and cool blogs. It's especially painful for Macs.

Go to 'settings' and then 'formatting', and half way down, just say "NO".

Thank you, and I'll look forward to seeing your blogs soon. This message will self-destruct after a while, cuz it just ain't pretty.

Seasonal Attempt

This engraving by Prud'hon was to illustrate the narrative poem Phrosine et Mélidore, by Gentil-Bernard, later adapted into an opera. Without going into the rest of it, this scene is where the lovers are united after she nearly drowned at sea trying to swim to his rendezvous beacon. Yada yada.

Looks a lot like a vampire, no? Yes? My lowbrow attempt at another seasonal graphic. And oh, my adoration of Prud'hon's talent.

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon — Phrosine et Mélidore

Leonardo Would Be Envious

The figure studies of Pierre-Paul Prud'hon are amazingly controlled and precise and yet, to my aesthetic, don't seem fussy. Prud'hon's studies are as rich as other's full-blown paintings. Leonardo himself would be envious.

Below, in detail, you can see the model's hair in lovely disarray, each stroke of chalk on the body lovingly and authoritatively placed, each eyelash delicately delineated.

The Enchanted City

Hannes Bok was known, in a good way, for channelling Maxfield Parrish:

Hannes Bok —The Enchanted City — 1946

Hannes Bok — The Enchanted City

De Blawd

What a great time of year to cozy up and watch the classics.

The Lament

These women look really sad, so somebody came up with a good title to explain why 3 nudes are draped all around the landscape.

James Williams — The Lament — watercolor — early 20th century

Neo-Surrealism

Another one of those stunning neo-surrealistic portraits by Rallé from back in the 1980s, one of the highlights of that decade.

Rallé

Floating Around

This old editorial cartoon, too, has been floating around in the pictorial morgue. No idea what it's trying to say, editorially, but, by golly, I'll defend the artist's right to say it.

Leon V. Solon — Fickle Fortune Changes Clime — 1900ish

Hanging Around

This picture has been hanging around in my reference morgue for the longest time, under 'B' for, uh, bondage. But I wonder why I kept it. I don't see that I'll ever need to draw anything evenly remotely like this. Still . . . I guess ya just never know.

Disney Studio — Jessica & Roger Rabbit

Yes, What If?

A Line that Shakespeare Would Have Envied

Here is an interesting theatrical character study of 'Cardinal Richelieu', from the 1839 play Richelieu: Or the Conspiracy by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

John Hassall — The Conspiracy — ca 1900

Famous lines that the Cardinal intones in Act II, scene II:

True, This!—

Beneath the rule of men entirely great,

The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold

The arch-enchanters wand! — itself a nothing! —

But taking sorcery from the master-hand

To paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike

The loud earth breathless! — Take away the sword —

States can be saved without it!

In 1870, literary critic Edward Sherman Gould wrote that Bulwer "had the good fortune to do, what few men can hope to do: he wrote a line that is likely to live for ages."

Rare and Rarified

If you're a fan of comic art, kindly step over to Whirled of Kelly and check out another beautiful Adventures of Peter Wheat story by the one and only Walt Kelly. Rare and rarified, it's worth your time.

The Mightiest Heroes of Our Time

When I was just a wee lad, starting to cruise the DC universe, this house ad popped up in one of the lesser titles, and I just went all popcorn. I had to have it! Well, none of my wee friends read comics and there were no back issue catalogues or stores. Even the drugstore didn't carry the JLA title until #9 , the first JLA I bought off the spinners (the cool origin issue which I read a gajillion times). I only finally got to read this issue once I bought the hardcover JLA Archives many years later.

This ad was for JLA #1, yet the actual cover had no number on it. A 1st issue DC comic, with no #1 emblazoned on it? JUST IMAGINE!

Columbus' Ship

Regardless of what you may think of the integrity of Columbus Day, the voyage of 519 years ago must have been quite an adventure.

Below is a poster celebrating the anchoring of replicas of Columbus' ships in Chicago's Jackson Park Lagoon during the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, which was a year late in celebrating the 400th anniversary of the 'discovery' of the Americas.

Willard Frederic Elmes — Columbus' Ship — poster

Below, you can see a postcard from the time that shows the authenticity of the ship's lines used for the poster.

Silver

Another poem illustrated by Eric Kincaid that seems a bit appropriate for this time of year.

Eric Kincaid — Silver

A Wonderful Artform

Posters are a wonderful artform, especially as practiced in the golden age of illustration. Here are some random posters with indeterminate age, except to be known as early 2oth century.

RT Cooper

Adolphe Treidler

Eric Hardey

FC Herrick

The Witches' Call

Witches don't just pop up on Halloween. The call goes out for gathering well before then.

Eric Kincaid — The Witches' Call

Autumnal Winds

The Autumnal winds were really kicking up around here today. I saw a large flock of blackbirds tossed all across the sky. Mmm, really, my favorite time of year.

Eric Kincaid — Scarecrow Weather

Manchurian Bride

From early in the history of photography comes this supremely lovely study of a Manchurian bride, by John Thomson. From 1868 to 1872, Thomson traveled as a professional photographer through China, documenting a world that fascinated him, and now us. If you get a chance to see an exhibition or catalogue of his work, by all means do so.

John Thomson — Manchurian Bride — ca 1870

negative housed in the Wellcome Library of Liverpool

A Fine Illustrator

George Stavrinos was such a fine illustrator, he could take a hint of a mannequin and a drapery study and make a lovely fashion ad.

George Stavrinos — Bergdorf-Goodman

The Wind

It's that time of year when EVERYthing seems a bit spooky. I love it!

Illustrator's Sensibilities

Barry Windsor-Smith brought illustrator's sensibilities to comics.

Barry Windsor-Smith — Kull the Conqueror #9 — 1985

Cosmic Matador

Bull fighting has been in the news a bit, but I'm really stretching to make that relevant here. Doesn't matter. The painting stands on its own, one of the late Kelly Freas' personal all time favorites.

Frank Kelly Freas — from Confederation Matador by JF Bone —1978

Happy October, Gang!

My favorite month of the year, without a doubt.

from Cricket Magazine — October 1984