"Blogathan" 2009--Boris Karloff

by Mike Worley

I guess this weekend has a "blogathan" going on, and the subject is the late, and great, Boris Karloff. One of the things mentioned(I think on Facebook) was to talk about a favorite movie in which Mr. Karloff starred. That would be a toughy as he is my favorite actor, Vincent Price and Johnny Depp coming in right up there, too.

What I liked about Karloff was that he didn't shy away from his "monster movie" image. He never acted like being a "boogeyman" was a bad thing. After all, it DID make him famous.

So what would I pick as my "favorite" movie with Boris Karloff? Certainly the ones with the role that made him a star as the Frankenstein monster. Or as "Im-ho-tep" in "The Mummy." I also liked a lot of his AIP stuff, too. "Die, Monster, Die" scared me greatly when I saw it at the Fox Theatre in Atchison, KS back in the early '60's. But to pick one movie, one role, I'd have to give that one to the movie, which was also his "swan song"--"Targets."


What can you say about a movie, even though dated, still chills with things that have/are happening still around us? Karloff played essentially himself, and even denigrated himself playing an "aged, broken-down 'has-been'" horror movie actor. But the real horror was in the "other" story in the movie...the "monsters" which live around us and have our faces. The young man who goes on a killing spree, randomingly sniping unsuspecting motorists along the highway as they drive by. Dispassionate horror. Indiscriminate killing. Mayhem. Later on, this "monster" shoots people from the back of a drive-in movie screen while one of Karloff's movies is playing. In the "confrontation" between the "monsters," "reel" and "real," Karloff is increduled by the fact that the "real" monster is nothing more than a kid, who, if I remember correctly, got a whack with Karloff's cane.

It's a great commentary on real monsters. The Jeffrey Dahmers, Bob Burdellas, the Phil Gerrados, even the Ken McElroys. We allow them their "power." But in the end, Dahmer was a geek, Burdella a fat twerp hiding behind his lawyer, and McElroy a bloated bully who would've eventually complained about being diabetic. For that matter, Hitler was socially retarded, barely able to carry on a conversation.

Years ago, there was a woman shot at Royals Stadium here in KC. An indiscriminate shooting/sniping from across the highway. She was injured and terrorized to be sure, but still living. Her "monster" slinked back into the dark. And while he/she/it may glory in new found "power," in the end they are just that which they hate being--common.

So for the blogathan, I recommend you check out "Targets," starring Boris Karloff.

To the ten, or so...

by Mike Worley

To the five, maybe ten people on the planet that may actually read these ramblings,...I must apologize that this week is going to be a wash. I will have some drawings to show later. But for this week I must get my super-secret freelance projects done. And before asking, I can't tell you anything about them. One of those "confidentiality" things. But the fact that I HAVE freelance work again brightens my soul, as I feel like I'm "getting back on the horse."

Thanks for checking in, though.

Goodbye, Marilyn Briggs(to be sung to the tune of "Goodbye, Norma Jean")...

by Mike Worley

It started out as a joke, the kind of snickering one does when the inate pre-teen 12 year old takes over...


Let me explain--when my old boss was here, we had the office door painted red. He and I used to joke about it, he said he wanted it to be a reminder of "hell." And we even talked about maybe airbrushing some flames on it, and painting the quote, "Abandon all hope, All ye who enter here!...", or however it goes. But he left, getting promoted this year to a bigger venue(and with bigger headaches). One lesson I re-learned was that if you're put in charge, it is bad policy to operate the place like you're "babysitting" it for someone who isn't going to be returning. For good or bad, right or wrong, I was/am now "the manager."

Some of the kids asked at the end of the full-time season about repainting the place. Couldn't do it, as the budgets were gone by that time for that sort of thing. But I did joke about repainting the office door green, since it was red. Ironically, I was at a Home Depot in late September and found out they had "Ooops!" paint. And they had an almost-full can of bright, Kelly green mixed by mistake, hence the "Ooops!" I bought it for a buck. And eventually painted the door green.

One of the artists jokingly asked, "Why green?" to wit I said, "Because you'll never know what goes on Behind the Green Door." I figured most of them would be too young to get the joke. But one girl did her own search, and with a sly look on her face came into work and told me she knew what the implication was for the green door, and we had a laugh.

Since that time, I've considered doing my own adaptations of classic short stories, O. Henry being one of my favorite authors. And low and behold, one of his short stories is titled, "The Green Door." The story is a great commentary on how life can be viewed. In it, the "hero" gets a card slipped to him with an invitation to the "Green Door." Eventually he meets the love of his life, and comes to view the card coming into his possession as a contrived event by unknown persons. What he discovers is the large black man giving out the advertising cards was doing it for promotion at a theatre for a new play. Yes, titled, "The Green Door."

So why the image of Ms Briggs on the office door? Most because it's my last gesture of defiance for the season. A way of keeping my sanity and putting some distance to my life. And it's a way of doing something "arty." Yes, it is a joke.

I also think it serves as a warning to the "unique" notion that decisions we make in life have consequences. Some short termed, some long termed. Some for good, and some for not-so-good. Our society seems to have forgotten it. Ms Briggs, even though she gave the "party line" to the advantages of working adult films also said that it will break your heart. For all of her fame and infamy, she ended up dying alone. The money she made for being famous and kickstarting the sexual promiscuity of the '70's was gone probably from further poor life choices, alcohol and drug troubles.

I'm emptying out the office of my stuff. Like Woody Hayes, I think it wise to keep things short-leased and with distance. Not get too comfortable there. Hayes said during his coaching time at Ohio State that his contract was on a year to year basis. He wanted it that way. I wonder if the door to his office was green?

Wednesday...

by Mike Worley

Facebook continues to be the bane of my existance because it won't seem to interface with my ancient copy of Safari. Keeps kicking me out. Sucks!

Not much to tell about today. I did some creating, but didn't get a whole lot done. I went to Starbucks to meet up with a couple of artist buddies. We had coffee and basically BS'd. Later on, Becky and I discussed Christmas/Hanukkah/Holiday plans. We both concluded it would be nice to just do some traveling.

I bought a couple of hoodies at the end of the season to airbrush on. Something for my wife's nieces. One niece is getting a hoodie with the "Twilight" designs on it. No reason to show it, as I've already posted what those designs look like in earlier postings. I did this for the other niece. She started a new high school this year, so I hope I got this right...


Every now and again, I get some commissions/requests to draw folks as "Simpsons" characters. This is a bit of a "blast from the past," and was done for some folks in honor of their nuptials in 2005. If you wish to see the whole thing, you will need to click on it...


As I try to clean up around the studio, I find the leavings of ideas that I may dust off if I find the time. One idea I still like involves doing a Jay Ward type take off on Edgar Allen Poe stories. I'm a big fan of the Corman "Poe" adaptations from the early '60's, and some of the movies that tried to do "knockoffs" of those efforts. Vincent Price is one of my favorite actors, and I had the chance to meet him in 1973 when he was touring and did a lecture at Northwest Missouri State University. This image is based on the "Comedy of Terrors," and to view it in its entirety, you will need to click on it...


I don't know what I would do with the "Tell-Tale Heart," but this is the butler I came up with...


And I'd thought of a drunken raven for some kind of feature. Haven't decided whether, or not, to name him "Quoth," or "Nevermore"...


Have a surprise for later this week. It was good for a laugh tonight over coffee, but will probably get me in trouble.

"I once went to Philadelphia, but it was closed..."

by Mike Worley

One of my favorite W. C. Fields quotes. In this case, Becky and I went to Iowa, but it was closed. Or the misadventure that was our trip across the border.

One thing bad about "seasonal" work is that eventually the season is over. And now that I have some time to do some things, I now find that off-season really does suck. I-CON was held at the Adventureland Inn in Altoona, IA, and it is right next door to...(drum roll, please)...(wait for it)...Adventureland, Iowa's premier theme/amusement park! My own mental health is at question, because the first thing I wanted to do was to see I could get a tour of Adventureland. You'd think I'd had enough of amusement parks, having lived at Worlds of Fun, but nooooooooooooooooo. Needless to say, I got blank stares from the hotel staff and a lot of "...but it's closed..." remarks. Anyway, here is a pic of the outside of the Adventureland Inn. The "plum" colored PT Cruiser is my wife's car, nicknamed, "The Purple Nurple"...


In past trips "up north" we've been able to go through the Living History Farm, which my wife always enjoys, but as our fate would have it...it was closed for the year. This is as close as we got...


Further proof that Sunday was going to suck. Here's the museum/gift shop in all its abandoned and desolate glory...


Here's my blushing bride stomping out of the "Purple Nurple" with a "what the...?" kind of vibe going on...


We ended up going to the Machine Shed restaurant, which DID happen to be open, and had to endure countless regaling as to the death of the University of Iowa's football season now that their star QB is hurt. This is our last shot at the Living History Farm as we were wondering if we'd get into trouble if we just hopped the fence and did our own tour...


We came home with a new puppy! There was a place that had them to adopt and we got a good deal on a rare Asian breed. Our other dogs, Daisy and Sally, are still quite a hand full, but this pup had a gentle and sweet demeanor...


Instead of renaming her, we kept the oriental name she had. It's a bit hard to pronounce, but it's "T'Ohwhai." Here she is being playful...


We took her to the Turner's for the BBQ they had. She wasn't very good as she not only wet on their hardwood floors, but also humped Aaron's leg. Bad T'Ohwhai! Here she is wanting her tummy scratched...


I was hoping to take her to the Artists' Jam in Omaha this coming weekend, but I have too many other activities fouling that up. Here's T'Ohwhai being playful...

The other dogs don't seem to like her. Both Daisy and Sally bit at her. We may have to get rid of them.

Jim Woodyard and I did talk some business, as evidenced in a previous post and pic. Here's what kind of came out of that. Monsters and Archie are two of my favorite things, so here's a first draft of a cheerleading squad...


Got to go now. Have some more "super secret" stuff to work on, and some drawing. Also, T'Ohwhai is needing to go to bed.

'Bye now!

We are of peace...always...

by Mike Worley

As I continue the "weaning" process off of Worlds of Fun, I find myself feeling like Al Pacino in "Godfather III," ...as soon as I start to get away, I get pulled back in. Mostly it's just end of year reports, but like the big baby I am I have to throw a tantrum and pout for a while before realizing I DO have to finish them up. Oy Vey!

I really like the new "V" tv series. If I have one complaint it would be that I think they are moving too quickly. Here's a cartoony version of the hot, yet still sinister, alien leader, "Anna"...


One thing I rediscovered at I-CON is that some ideas may still work. I have loved a lot of the "New England Gothic" writers, such as Hawthorne, Poe, and Irving, and have toyed with doing my own adaptations of their classic stories. This is my first take on Young Goodman Brown and his wife, Faith...


That's all I have time for. I had a strange revelation of late. It's learning to recognize "second chances." Some payin' work came my way that I had worked on a long time ago, and I've been given a chance to do more freelance for them. The catch then as now is that I can't show any of it. One of those confidentiality things, which is rather strange since the stuff is kind of an "open secret." Sorry for being cryptic. Guess I haven't had my morning coffee/Diet Coke/tea fix.

Lates!

...you must un-learn what you have learned...

by Mike Worley

A quote from "The Empire Strikes Back," as Yoda is giving Luke a lesson on the force. It also has become a mantra of sorts as I look post-season at Worlds of Fun...and beyond.

I asked my assistant manager today as we did some piddling around the park, some catch-up stuff before calling it a "season," if he went through any "withdrawal" this past weekend. He admitted to have a case of the fidgets, and I felt strangely all weekend. But I was at I-Con, a comic book show in Des Moines, IA, and it seemed a good excuse to take the wife and get out of town. I had gotten to the point of NOT liking to sit behind a table at comics shows, but this time it felt "right." Maybe it's maturity, or maybe it's I just don't have and preconceived notions? Not sure. Any way, here I am behind a table doing some drawing...


It was good to see a lot of old friends, and do some "reconnecting." Here I am with Jim Woodyard talking some shop. He was giving me an idea he's had for a comic book/webcomic, and we're batting some ideas around...

I liked what he proposed. Now the trick is to not let it set and die. Sometime I'll have to some old sketches of other ideas I've had that have gone fallow and may just need some rethinking. We'll see. Oh, and the other 2 guys in the photo are Aaron Gillespie and Jason Caskey.

I was bored during the latter part of the show. It was only a one-day thing, and that was fine by me. Becky and I had hoped to do some sight seeing around Des Moines Sunday, but that's another post. The sketch I was working on was one of Marge Simpson "nekkid" in a giant martini glass(Don't worry. Nothing was showing and it was tastefully done) harkening back to early girlie mag covers and a wink at Marge's new found fame as the first cartoon woman featured on the cover of Playboy. A woman later bought the drawing, and I do apologize for not having any pics of other stuff I drew that day(forgot my camera). It seemed like she was wanting a bit more spirited dialogue when she was watching me sketch it. But my own take is that with publishing, in general, at death's door Playboy probably needed her more than she needed them. Here I am...


And at the end of the day, I was pretty well gone. Getting too old, I guess...


We went over to Brook and Linda Turner's for a late evening BBQ. As the night progressed, they had a Beatles game-thingy their kids like going, and we all got roped in a bit singing along with it. Here's the Turners...

And if you haven't checked out Phil's and Brook's work on the comic book, "Golly," SHAME ON YOU!!!

Aaron, another "Shocktraumanaut," did his thang warbling a Beatles tune...


I got roped into doing one, and as the resident old fart, was belting out "I Want To Hold Your Hand." Everyone there kept calling for me to dance it out. To clarify...I am not drunk in this picture. But if I was going to make a fool out of myself, I was going to give it my best effort...


Since this is supposed to be a "sketch blog," I did do some doodling in my sketchbook. Here's a pilgrim woman head shot. It's for a New England gothic thing I've had rolling around for a while.


Next up...the "puppy" we got in Des Moines, our Sunday misadventure, and relearning where my drawing table is.

Good night!

PS--all the photos used for this post are courtesy of either Mike Sullivan or Bruce McCorkindale...because I forgot bring my camera in from the car.

...no. It's Iowa...

by Mike Worley

Will have some pics and a post tomorrow. Just got back from taking a "road trip" to Iowa to attend I-CON. Took the wife with me. We had a good time. But I had to have her home tonight to watch the "Mad Men" season finale.

'Bye now!

All over, but the cryin'...and the counting, sorting, and puttin' stuff away...

by Mike Worley

I understand it is supposed to be a really good weekend, weather-wise, this upcoming weekend. And my wife and I will be traveling to Iowa. Kind of a "mini-vacation." I will spend Saturday doin' the "guest/professional" thang at I-Con, a comic book show put on by the Iowa Comic Book Club. It should be fun.

And it is ironic that the first weekend in November is to be mild as all the weekends in October sucked to a degree. Some more than others as it was downright cold, and killed business at the park for a greater part of that month. The last weekend came and went, and this post is to chronicle some of the shenanigans.

I'll guess I'll start at the Wood 'n' Leather shop. Jessica Duncan, the shop lead and my assistant manager's wife, did a really good job there this season. And she always comes up with some good stuff. Here's a Halloween decoration she designed...


We did one last caricature contest. There were a lot of good ones started, and I even started one too, but only three were finished. As it turned out, Marietta's "Marilyn" won...

...and Ryan's came in second...


I finished my hairbrained idea of putting "moons" in a "Twilight" type rice jewelry necklace. They really do glow in the dark, but I still chuckle at them being nothing more than mini-Sculpy boogers. This is the "werewolf essence" necklace with Jacob's name, and the moon, in a clear vial modeled by Maren...

...and I took some snapshots of the kids. I was out all day there figuring if they had to tough out the cold then so would I. They were a great bunch this season and I had a good time. I caught Maren when she saw I had my camera, and did the "don't take my picture" dodge to no avail...

...and that picture had her rather wild-eyed, so it just seemed natural to do some photoshopping for Halloween...

...just goes to show what an idiot with Photoshop can do.

I tried to think I was going down swinging instead of coasting. I cut another "celeb" stencil for the Airbrush shop. Thought it turned out well...

...and I'll see if anyone out there can name all the celeb designs in this one...

And I finally cracked, giving in to the hype and the movie. Sold some of these too. I cut the stencil, but one of my artists, Stacie, did the painting. It turned out really well, getting a compliment from "da boss lady," Barb. She's quite an airbrush jockey, so it was a great kudo. Anyhoo, here it is...

I figured if I was going to do one of those, I'd rather do one in commemoration of when Jackson was at his height of cool.

Sunday, we were going to come up with some sort of "end of the season" prank. I heard the security guards were going to toss the leftover pumpkins off the top of the Mamba. Don't think they did, but it would've been awesome to watch. At 7:30pm on that Sunday, though, we all tired and everyone just wanted to go home. I can't blame them. It was a grueling season. Here's some of the "last ones left standing"...


They weren't, by any means, the only ones. There were others who would've stayed, such as Taryn and Kim, if it had been busier. But it wasn't, and I needed to cut some payroll. A familiar drill everywhere nowadays. I shared an "end of season" cigar with one of my leads, Jessica Bloom, and my assistant manager, Jacob Duncan. I took one last picture. And while there will be those offended by the "vulgar gesture," it was given more out of a defiant sense of fun reflecting my own sense of warm, warped humor...

I wish I could say that I influenced some young lives, hopefully making them better and happier people. In truth, I got more from each of the employees I worked with than they ever got from me. Knowing them has made my life better. Richer.

And while I'm relieved and happy this most trying of seasons is finally over, there is also a sense of sadness that a wonderful time for me has come to an end. It can't be reclaimed or relived, only remembered. Maybe this quote sums it all up better...

"Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot"...