Yeah, Star Wars came out on this date 34 years ago, but something more important to me personally came out the same year.
How to Draw Monsters by Larry Evans came out in 1977. It is a how-to-do-it book, but it doesn’t have strict, step-by-step tutorials. Instead it’s filled with the author’s mainly black and white monster drawings and some instructional and inspirational text. It’s sort of like a sketchbook with some typesetting here and there. One of his best lines was something like “you have to first be able to draw the human figure before you take the guy’s head off and tuck it under his arm.” The drawings were fun and kind of cartoony and not so masterfully drafted as to be intimidating. It also introduced me to technical pens, and my Dad and I went on a mad chase finding the darn things.
I can’t remember if I bought it myself at a mall bookstore, but chances are, I received it as a gift, and what a gift! It opened up worlds to me all for $2.95!
Down the road, I will scan some of Mr Evans’ work to show you how he haunts me still! Thanks, Larry, wherever you are!
Thanks so much for commenting!
I was wondering the same thing about Mr Evans. I thought I had found that he had passed away, but I just did a quick internet search for a link and couldn’t find anything.
I bought this book from a school book sale when I was in the 3rd grade & have kept it ever since- it’s been a hugely influential book in inspiring me to become a more focused artist. It’s good to see it’s presence on the web. I’ll never forget the extraordinary charcoal underwater drawings in it. & where the heck is Larry Evans today?!
Thanks! I’ll take a look around the internet for them!
You should look for Larry Evans’ other 2 “How to Draw” books: How to Draw Prehistoric Monsters, and How to Draw Robots & Spaceships. I have owned all three since they were first published. It’s a shame he didn’t do more “How to Draw” books of this type.