Because of a recent dispute with Tommy Long about Legos, my appreciation of Legos has been renewed. So I got a few old sets out and ordered a few replacement pieces from Bricklink and built some of the very cool old school Classic Space Lego sets my brother and I had as a kid.

This is a custom design. I think my brother built it.

These two shots are from the Legoland 6927 All Terrain Vehicle set.

Here’s a shot of the Legoland 6970 Beta-1 Command Base. I was only missing one or two insignificant pieces. I still had the flag and the large printed brick you see here.

Yes, there are Hessians in Space.

When I was about 16 I was pondering centralized control of media, especially TV, and the fact that most people didn’t seem to mind the pablum they were fed. Possibly inspired by the Macintosh commercial of 1984, I drew this pen and ink drawing of a mohawk festooned punk rocker jabbing an oversized needle into the glassy eye of the idiot box.

I started a new painting late last year as a 20 year re-visitation of the theme. A lot has changed in the realm of media outlets, distribution and the offerings available to anyone anywhere. Between the Internet and Tivo, I’ve been able to jab my own sharp needle into the baleful eye of the thing I really hated about TV, the commercials.

So I thought it would be a good time to revisit the theme.

The painting is 24x30 on hard board, and was larger than anything I’ve attempted recently. So it took me forever to finish it. It has the recurring one eyed monsters and lizard men I’ve been painting and drawing reecently, but there are a few other noteworthy cameos.

Here is the punk from the original drawing, 20 years later. Now he’s married and is trying to figure out how to plug the TV in. The original tv is also there, on its side, obsolete and useless.

Here’s my mom and dad riding around in my dad’s a-model hot rod project car.

Here we can see David Rose, Tommy Long, and Doctor Who peeking out of the Tardis. He’s not sure he wants to get involved with this mess, because it’s a tangle that can’t be solved without guns, face punching and biting. Dave on the other hand, is in his element, gleefully chasing a monster with a broken beer bottle. Tommy is putting his hockey equipment to good use as well.

Matt Turner is wearing part of his Spartan costume while George uses his MTG cards to cast some sort of spell. Behind them is a LARPer, casting a level 1 Lightning Bolt.

Finally, there’s Lauren, reloading her Beretta, while my brother Jon lines up a shot. The Time Bandits are making a quick getaway. The item they were after has already been stolen . . .

Man, this is an old post from last year. I never got around to publishing it until now. It’s an interesting note about my varnishing process and the musty old frame I found.

8 coats of varnish. Here’s my varnish schedule!

1-21-08, 9am - 1st coat
1-21-08, 12:40pm - 2nd
1-21-08, 4pm - 3rd
1-21-08, 9pm - 4th
1-22-08, 9pm - 5th
1-23-08, 8am - 6th
1-24-08, 7am - 7th
1-26-08, 2:30pm - 8th

And that’s when I ran out of my varnish mix. I could have mixed some more, but I was satisfied with the wet glossiness by this time.

I found an authentically crusty old frame from the flea market. It had a reprint of a photo of Confederate Army Leadership in it when I bought it.

“Decomposition”

I dug this out the other day and decided to scan it for posterity so I could safely toss out the aging photocopy. I drew this in Logan, Utah while I was on my mission. The inspiration was probably from a goofy joke, but looking back now, I appreciate the sentiment of the musical cadaver. I think I share his drive to create and work in spite of fatigue or in his case, death. Unless I’m feeling tired and lazy.

Here’s my design for this year’s Christmas card. I had the nice people at Docusource of NC handle the printing and folding, and it turned out nicely.

Here’s the front :

Here we see Santa granting the deepest wishes of both the Lizard Man and the Monocular Horned Yeti. See how happy they are?

But what do mortal enemies do as soon as they open their presents? They fight! And it was all part of Santa’s plan!

I’d like to thank George Lamontagne for the idea of the prehensile mustache. Matt Turner also deserves some credit for suggesting a revision to the Monocular Horned Yeti’s mouth.

My friend Chad Morgenstern suggested that perhaps this wasn’t the real Santa, but rather a Jewish Rabbi who being out of work, signed up for a job playing Santa to earn some extra cash. Little did he know he would save the world when he shared a couple of gifts with The Aliens! Chad’s odd sense of humor may surpass even mine.

This painting is taking longer than I planned, so I’m posting a little update to hold over until I can finish the thing.

Robert Frost once began a poem with these timeless lines :

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.

Perhaps Mr. Frost was foreseeing the worldwide commotion portrayed in this epic illustration.

Behold the hordes of Lizard Men, bursting forth from their cthonic strongholds. Nixiebots and giant kin obey Saurian masters above and below to completely disrupt human society.

Here’s one of the Saurian masters. Mysterious electronic devices transmit lizard-mind impulses to robotic slaves.

What hope does the human race have? Surely they’re overwhelmed?

Not if Mr. T has anything to say about it.

And who are these mysterious diminutive anachronisms?

They seem to be studying a map of some sort. Are they here for the fight, or perhaps to loot a few treasures while everyone is occupied with more urgent matters?
Until these questions are answered, keep a wary eye open for anyone expressing sympathy for lizards and snakes. They might be fellow travelers with Saurian forces! You might also consider purchasing robot insurance.

Here’s another groundbreaking collaboration with Tommy Long. Behold, the friendly carnivorous giraffe ridden by a dead eyed koala with arms reminiscent of Plastic Man.

Tommy’s Original:

My Painted Version:

Below the black eyed gaze of the sharp toothed giraffe a multiple amputee hippopotamus is further victimized by the fierce attack of a mythical Rainbow Turkey.

16x20” Acrylic on Masonite.

Behold Tommy’s original. The pig on the right is using the wolf’s vain huffing and puffing to fly his kite. But the lupine wind cannot penetrate the brick house, so the pig on the left delights in building a house of cards, which he could never do in his other drafty houses.

Using a combination of Illustrator, Photoshop and ArtRage, I attempted to capture the fury of the wolf and the tranquil security of the pigs from Tommy’s original dramatic masterpiece.

Here are a few details of the characters.

Another Masterpiece, penned by Tommy and brought to vivid life by my humble self. Here’s Tommy’s Original Marker Drawing :

And here’s my interpretation:

It features a polar bear fishing, King Neptune pulling in a Leprechaun who is barfing gold, a cybernetic pig fish, and an anteater and a penguin.

Notice the polar bear - he is not saying “ror”, he is thinking “ror.”

Tommy’s only criticism is that I made his second penguin look like an anteater.

Special thanks to seneschal for his scan of a brown paper bag. It was a great texture overlay.