{"id":6119,"date":"2012-01-10T07:08:32","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T12:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=6119"},"modified":"2019-11-25T21:35:11","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T02:35:11","slug":"mikey-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/01\/10\/mikey-wild\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikey Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On Saturday, I was shopping on 9th Street<\/strong> in Philadelphia’s Italian Market<\/strong>. I spotted an older woman at one of the stands who looked vaguely familiar. It wasn’t until I got a little closer and saw a table full of canvases, that I realized she was Mikey Wild’s<\/strong> mother, Gloria DeLuca.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Michael DeLuca<\/strong> a.k.a. Mikey Wild<\/strong> was a punk rock musician who has been described as “The Mayor of South Street” and “Punk Rock Royalty”. Despite being mentally challenged, he was a painter, played with The Magic Lanterns, was the subject of YouTube videos, and a documentary,\u00a0 Mikey Wild: I Was Punk Rock Before You Were<\/strong>. <\/em>He loved Vincent Price, The Beatles, and horror movies. Sadly, he lost his battle with cancer on May 25th of last year. He was 56 years old.<\/p>\n

Mikey was a fixture in Philadelphia’s Italian Market. I would see him on my shopping trips – coffee in hand, sitting outside of Anthony’s, usually chatting with friends, or drawing portraits with markers. He also painted with acrylics on canvas board. I felt fortunate to be able to buy one of his portraits of John Lennon (pictured above) for my brother-in-law, and this Dracula painting on Saturday.<\/p>\n

9th Street is subdued in Mikey’s absence. Here’s hoping he’s having coffee with Vincent Price.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, I was shopping on 9th Street in Philadelphia’s Italian Market. I spotted an older woman at one of the stands who looked vaguely familiar. It wasn’t until I got a little closer and saw a table full of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,104],"tags":[719,3675,1218,1217,215,868],"class_list":["post-6119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-philadelphia","tag-dracula","tag-italian-market","tag-john-lennon","tag-mikey-wild","tag-punk-rock","tag-vincent-price"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-1AH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23193,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2018\/01\/26\/hog-wild-with-eagles-fever\/","url_meta":{"origin":6119,"position":0},"title":"Hog Wild with Eagles Fever!","author":"Tina Garceau","date":"January 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Italian Market"","block_context":{"text":"Italian Market","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/italian-market\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/HogWild.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/HogWild.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/HogWild.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":45725,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/08\/27\/punk-rock-girl\/","url_meta":{"origin":6119,"position":1},"title":"Punk Rock Girl","author":"Joe","date":"August 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Although it's been a while since I have posted drawings on this site, I have still been plugging away in my sketchbooks continuing to make my dirty little marks within them as one of my teachers in art school used to say. Teenage Beast is still the story I am\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Illustration"","block_context":{"text":"Illustration","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/illustration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/last-minute-customer.jpg?fit=600%2C914&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/last-minute-customer.jpg?fit=600%2C914&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/last-minute-customer.jpg?fit=600%2C914&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":45224,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/06\/10\/booga-booga-booga\/","url_meta":{"origin":6119,"position":2},"title":"Booga Booga Booga","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"June 10, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm back with It Came From the Sketchbook and once again my subjects are The Teenage Beast and the hapless punk rock gal. I'm piecing together a story via sketchbooks which is fun and much more effective than jotting down notes in notebooks. In the notebooks which I have been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Doodle Tuesday"","block_context":{"text":"Doodle Tuesday","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/doodle-tuesday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Booga-Booga-Booga-detail.jpg?fit=900%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Booga-Booga-Booga-detail.jpg?fit=900%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Booga-Booga-Booga-detail.jpg?fit=900%2C350&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Booga-Booga-Booga-detail.jpg?fit=900%2C350&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":45906,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/09\/16\/burn-baby-burn-punk-rock-inferno\/","url_meta":{"origin":6119,"position":3},"title":"Burn, Baby, BURN! Punk Rock Inferno","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"September 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve been pouring my heart into Teenage Beast, a punk rock horror story set in the 1980s that\u2019s slowly clawing its way out of my brain and onto the page. Right now, it\u2019s a chaotic mix of notes, half-formed scenes, and sketches that fuel each other. I often start with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Doodle Tuesday"","block_context":{"text":"Doodle Tuesday","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/doodle-tuesday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Burning-beast-9-5-25.jpg?fit=640%2C431&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Burning-beast-9-5-25.jpg?fit=640%2C431&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Burning-beast-9-5-25.jpg?fit=640%2C431&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":36522,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2021\/09\/14\/still-waiting\/","url_meta":{"origin":6119,"position":4},"title":"Still Waiting","author":"Joe","date":"September 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"This is another digital picture that I shot more than a decade ago, and another situation where I was waiting for a train. I used to rely on SEPTA's regional railway to get to work. This was before the price and the delays became more than I could bear. Wet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Commuting"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Commuting","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/adventures-in-commuting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Regional Railway Punk Rocker","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49601473143_edea819599_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49601473143_edea819599_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49601473143_edea819599_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44717,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/03\/05\/rock-rock-rock-rock-rock-and-roll-hell-hole\/","url_meta":{"origin":6119,"position":5},"title":"Rock! Rock! Rock! Rock! – Rock and Roll Hell Hole!","author":"Joe","date":"March 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"As I said last week I was a little under the weather which slowed my sketching momentum, but I've been trying to catch up by drawing some drawings and cooking up some situations that happen in my Teenage Beast story. Rather than jot down notes, I am doodling out the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "It Came From the Sketchbook"","block_context":{"text":"It Came From the Sketchbook","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Teenage-Beast-among-lost-souls.jpg?fit=800%2C627&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Teenage-Beast-among-lost-souls.jpg?fit=800%2C627&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Teenage-Beast-among-lost-souls.jpg?fit=800%2C627&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Teenage-Beast-among-lost-souls.jpg?fit=800%2C627&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}