Gamera

(click on image to enlarge)

When I was younger I remember I ate, breathed, drank and did everything movie monsters. If it was scary or creepy, I was really into it. It is really amazing how much of my thoughts and everyday life were consumed by them at that time. I remember walking over to the local drugstore "Davis Drug" every weekend to either buy a "Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine or to buy a pack of the 1973 "You'll Die Laughing (AKA: Creature Feature)" trading cards produced by Topps. These magazines and trading cards provided me hours of entertainment and drawing inspiration, and probably helped set the course for my career path in comic illustration and sculpting.

I can remember when I was younger that I would always check the TV guide to see what monster movies would be on television that week. I would mark the ones with a pen that I would be interested in seeing and take the TV guide to my parents and ask permission to watch them ahead of time. My folks would usually let me watch them as long as I had done a good job with my homework, chores and that I didn't talk back too much. I always hoped that movies would be on either Friday or Saturday, so it would be easier to get permission to stay up late to watch them.

Some of the old movies that I remember seeing and have really strong memories of are "Angry Red Planet", "Godzilla", "War of the Gargantuas", "Earth vs. Flying Saucers", and "Gamera". These movies appeared regularly on "Creature Feature" a television show that was devoted to showing only scary movies. It was broadcast here in Denver back in the early 1970's. I guess I have been nostalgic lately, the only inspiration I seem to get is from looking at the monsters from my youth.

The illustration above is of the kaiju toy "Gamera: Defender of the Earth" made by Bandai in 1996. This particular Gamera toy was given to me by my old boss Brian Pulido (bankrupt Chaos! comics Publisher) as a Christmas gift. I created this illustration with a little photography, traditional drawing and Photoshop.

Enjoy,

Jack