I continue hacking away at the cheap sketchbook made for the shelves of Philadelphia-based discounter Five Below. I am forging ahead trying to put this crappy little pad out of my misery. If I were sensible, I would just put it aside and move ahead with another sketchbook, but I can’t have dessert until I’ve finished my dinner. Besides, I am superstitious. If I defy the sketchbook gods, I may be cursed with a dry spell or whatever the doodler’s version of writer’s block is called. Nope. I’m about halfway through this book, and I have to tough out the other half. The only way out is through, and it will be a relief when I am through with this book.
I continue to draw monsters because I could never get enough of them as a kid. During my formative years, I couldn’t wait for Saturdays and the UHF broadcast of Mad Theater and Horror Theater — 3 hours of horror movies hosted by Dr. Shock. I always hoped he would run the Universal classics such as Dracula (1931) or Frankenstein (1931) which occasionally he did, but, more often than not, the station would run turkeys such as The Flying Serpent (1946) or The Astounding She-Monster (1957). They were probably a lot cheaper to rent than the classics and were about an hour long leaving plenty of space for Dr. Shock’s bits and the many commercials for local advertisers such as Big Marty’s, Jimmie’s Used Auto Parts and City of Mirrors. It didn’t matter to me because I was glad that it was a weekend free from school and I was in the company of the good doctor who was going to provide the prescription for my horror movie jones. That is unless the show was preempted by a baseball game which happened all too often. Swing and a miss. Swing and a miss. Hot dogs. Sauerkraut. Shots of fans squinting into the sun waiting for something to happen. Ads for the local Chrysler dealership. Swing and a miss. Hours of this stultifying nonsense. Besides from being boring, preempting Dr. Shock was an unpardonable sin which probably explains my antipathy for the sport.
So a few decades have passed, and I still love monsters. They continue to haunt me as a good ghost or goblin should and figure largely in my doodles. They always have.
Some things never seem to change.
LOL, nothing wrong with that! And yes, baseball IS boring these days.
Sadly, I have since sat through so many horror movies that have made sitting in hot bleachers staring at Astroturf preferable. Back then I wasn’t aware at what seem to be a limited number of horror plots.