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Art, books, movies, sarcasm, fellow Libras, memory, wishes, the synthesis of obsession into art, the conversation of women, living until I die, the end of humidty, making films again, missing all my many dead friends, making new friends that the dead ones would approve of, imagination, retro culture, hot rods and customs, the 1964-66 Ford 'FlairBird' Thunderbird. I am visually/artistically inspired by pin-ups, burlesque, leather and latex, anything sheer, vinyl, vinyl records, vintage paperbacks, beautiful women of the modern era (1945-65), high and low art, "that essence rare - it's what I live for", modern architecture (specifically Brasilia), the 1964-65 World's Fair, the retro idea of the future, where we should all be living today, but aren't for some stupid reason, the pin-up cartoons of Bill Ward, Dan DeCarlo and Bill Wenzel, George Barris' custom TV and original design cars, the comic art of Wally Wood, Taschen Books, Roget's Thesaurus, No. 2 pencils, WeeGee, time travel, utopian and dystopian futures, orange food, i.e; fritos, orange soda, orange=ade, , candy corn, American and cheeder chesse, anything mod, modern, moderne or minmalist, Architects: Gordon Bunshaft, Frank Lloyd Wright, Santiago Calatrava, Eero Sarrinen, Zaha Hadid, Designers: Vernon Panton, Arne Jacobson, Charles and Ray Eames, Gus Stickly, Florence Knoll, Herman Miller, Ettore Sotssass, Artists: Pablo Picasso, Isamu Noguchi, Alberto Giacometi, Joan Miro, Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Giorgio DiChirico, Edouard Manet, Henri de Toulouise-Latrec, Jackson Pollack, Richard Diebenkorn, Wayne Thiebaud, Franz Kline, Georgia O'Keefe, Charles DeMuth, Piet Mondrian, Christian Schad, Egon Schiele, Gustave Klimt, Franz von Stuck, Edvard Munch, Hieronymous Bosch, etc., ......................
Mod, modern, moderne, modernist
Brasilia - city of the future, city of the past
Hotrods and customs - art on wheels
The existential gestalt of Yves Tanguy
That twilight zone of bad and worse taste between Margaret Keane and Charles Addams
Scan of one of my first pulp paperback acquisitions - one of about 400
Girly mags from the 50's-60's - God's gift to man
The best of Mexican low-budget horror movies
Pablo at his most sublime
The perfect combination - Halloween and a pinup
The Flairbird
I went both years - very solid, vivid memories despite my young age
The real Lady Diana (Rigg)- Mrs. Peel - in leather!
The catherdral in Brasilia - almost makes me believe
This SHAG print hangs in my studio
Got this Coop print as a present
Spacecar from 'Wild, Wild Planet' (1965)
Dan DeCarlo (1919-2001) Pinup Illustrator, creator of Archie Comics
The Beatnik Bandit, designed and built byRatFink creator, Ed "Big Daddy"Roth
X.P.A.C. 400, designed and built by custom car designer, George Barris
OP POP
Wally Wood (1927-1981) Illustrator, cartoonist with Mad in it's 1950's heyday
Bill Ward (1919-1998) Pinup illustrator
These are some of what I've got...
...and these are some of what I'd like to have some day.
Rudy Gernreich (1922-1985) Fashion minimalist and rebel
Richard Avedon (1923-2004) Premier photographer of the last 50 years
This is my brother Jack's '32 Ford 5-window coupe - home-built, chopped and channeled. Those interested in contacting him can can write to [email protected]. I've yet to see it in person since he lives in CA - maybe next year.
Modesty Blaise - classic 60's British comic strip Eric Stanton (1926-1999) Illustrator, master of bondage art
Will Elder (b.1921) Mad and Little Annie Fanny comic artist
Ron Embleton (1930-1988) British comic artist of Oh, Wicked Wanda
Robert Bonfils - Paperback Illustrator
Robert McGinnis - Movie Poster and Paperback Illustrator
Richard Powers - Paperback Illustrator
THE QUEENS OF BURLESQUE
Gilda and Sherry Britton
Candy Barr
Lili St. Cyr
Ann "Bang Bang" Arbor
Zorita
WOMEN FOR WHOM THERE ARE NO WORDS
Alicia Ultrasuede (aka Rose Csanitz) Nina Hagen Carolyn Jones
Anouk Aimee
Julie Christie
The haunting Barbara Steele
Nastassja Kinski
Lauren Bacall
Capucine
Jean Shrimpton
Gene Tierney
Audrey Hepurn
Elsoe Martinelli
Penelope Tree
Nico
Creative individuals all over the world who are interested in art, music, movies, books, comics and retro culture...... Below are examples of paintings done between 1991 to 2003.....
ANGELS OF WAR (1991)
EVE OF DESTRUCTION (1991)
CASSANDRA (2001)
DISTANT BECKONING (2001)
SUNBURST FINISH (2001)
FATAL GIFT (2002)
THE FOLLOWING DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS WERE DONE IN THE FALL OF 2005 (unless otherwise noted)
BARE-SKIN RUG (2005)
BIKINI PARTY (2005)
PLUSH PAD (2005)
OH! IT'S YOU (2005)
MOODS FOR MODERNS (2005)
SHOPPING MAUL (2005)
TAILGATE TEASE (2005)
COM'N BABY! (2005)
SULKY GIRL (2005)
THE MUSE (2005)
THE VIEW (2005)
MISS HELLFIRE REGRETS (2005)
MISS HELLFIRE REGRETS...NOTHING (2005)
RUBBER TRIO (2005)
47 CHEVY PINUP (2005)
LUPE CHENILLE (2005)
MARTIAN RHUMBA (2003)
MOON LUST (2003)
THROUGH (2005)
SHIMMY SHAKE (2005)
BEING UNPOPULAR COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE (2005)
MISS GALAXY HITCHES A RIDE (2005)
MOD MURDER (2005)
BETWEEN SHOTS (2005)
MISS DAYNA DELUX (2005)
SPYGIRL: ASSIGNMENT MOD starring Miss Modular (2005)
ATHENA AND THE ROBOT (2005) "Oh, dear boy, the pain, the pain! I always lose the girl to that clangorous junk heap!"
GOING DOWN IN A CONVERTIBLE (2005) BACKSTAGE BURLESQUE starring Miss Dayna Delux (2005)
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MISS TRIXIE LANE (2005)
ELSPETH (2004)
LISA (2004)
CHICK BROOKS (2004)
LUNA LOUNGE (2005)
SURFER GIRL (2005)
SURFER GIRL SUNSET (2005)
MISS BOMBSHELL starring Frankie Sin (2005
PINK NIGHTIES 1 (2005)
LUNA (2005)
TOUCH (2005) SAARINEN'S DREAM (2005)
NOVA COULD GIVE TWO SHITS (You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you. God damn you all to hell!) (2005)
Caliente (2006)
I MARRIED AN ATOMIC BRAIN Starring Amity (2005)
COLLAGE ART FROM 2003
ARRIVEDERCI LIMBO
NIGHT SWEATS
IGNITION CASCADE
ONE FOR THE ROAD
CATCH US IF YOU CAN
MOONBATHING ON MONSTER BEACH (2001)
The Face Of Tomorrow(2007)
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These are in strictly random order: Pixies, Sterolab, The Ramones, Alien Sex Fiend, Throbbing Gristle, Franciose Hardy, Lisa Germano, Royskopp. The Clash, Prince, The The, The Damned, The Stranglers, Iggy Pop, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dionne Warwick, Morrissey, Gorillaz, Chet Baker, Les Baxter, Martin Denny, 50's lounge, Air, Darude, Aztec Camera, Elvis Costello, Burt Bacharach, E.C. & B.B. together, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Specials, My Bloody Valentine, Tahiti 80, David Bowie, Sparks, Be Bop Deluxe, Tipsy, Combustible Edison, Joy Division, New Order, XTC, Dukes of Straosphere, Ian Van Dahl, Brian Eno, Cocteau Twins, Sinead O'Conner, X-Ray Spex, April March, Sergio Mendes and Brazil '66, Sparks, Stan Getz, Marianne Faithful, X, Patti Smith, Dead Can Dance, New York Dolls, Dead Kennedys, N.E.R.D., The Smiths, Lucy Reed, Al Green, Kirsty MacColl, Patsy Cline, Julie London, Cass Elliot, The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Super Furry Animals, Astrid Gilberto, Nicola Conte, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Esquivel, Jesus and Mary Chain, The Alley Cats, early Pink Floyd, Pizzicato Five, Ladytron, The Pogues, Robert Fripp, New Pornographers, Neko Case, Hector Zazou, The Stooges, Magazine, The Buzzcocks, Classic R&B, Strawberry Switchblade, Robyn Hitchcock, Jane's Addiction, A Certain Ratio, The Model Citizens, Holly Golightly, Johnny Cash, Elliot Smith, Bobbie Gentry, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood, Mediaeval Baebes, The Cure (early), Roxy Music, Velvet Underground, Nico, John Cale, The Feelies, Mission of Burma, Frightwig, Mono, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, The Stone Roses, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, The Rezillos, Sandy Denny, Mink Deville, Bongwater, The Tubes, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery, Lionel Hampton, Mental As Anything, Devo, The Specials, Gang Of Four, Bjork, Sugarcubes, Suicide, Dinah Washington, Lene Lovich, Aaron Copeland , Jacques Offenbach, Erik Satie, Nina Hagen, PJ Harvey, Peter Gabriel, Genesis (with Peter Gabriel), Les Paul and Mary Ford, Miss Shirley Bassey, Squeeze, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Beatles, Nat King Cole, Roland Alphonso, Toots and the Maytals, Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley, Sister Nancy, The Sex Pistols, Jeff Buckley, The Slits, Wire, Brian Jones-era Rolling Stones, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Rockabilly, Doo-wop, Love, Erik Satie, Jacques Offenbach, Aaron Copeland, Maurice Ravel, Radiohead, Taste of Honey, SOS Band, Billy Bragg, Marvin Gaye, The American Music Club, Bettie Serveert, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Bauhaus, Guided By Voices, Crime Jazz, Desmond Dekker, Camille Saint-Saens, Jazzanova, Fairport Convention, Walter/Wendy Carlos, Dick Dale, High Llamas, Heaven 17, Miranda Sex Garden, Nino Rota, Nick Drake, Koop, Daniel Lanois, The Shadows, The Tornados, Beth Orton, Terry Callier, Quincey Jones, Ennio Morricone, Herbie Mann, Skitch Henderson, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gilberto Gil, Joao Gilberto, Beck, Ivy, Leonard Cohen, Suzanne Vega, Emmylou Harris, Neil Young, Marty Robbins, Tortoise, Medeski Martin and Wood, Mick Ronson, Moby, Ken Nordine, Shooby Taylor, Ween, The English Beat, Nouevalle Vague, Gotan Project, Bill Evans Trio, John Zorn, Saint Etienne, The Undertones, The Mo-dettes, Henry Mancini, The Style Council, The Jam, Ry Cooder, Martin Newell, The Residents, Rip Rig and Panic, Yma Sumac, Frank Sinatra, Frank Black, The Breeders, The Raincoats, Hole, Nirvana, The Foo Fighters, The Zombies, Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, The B-52's, The Space Agency, The Moon-Rays, Frou Frou, B-Monster, more to come...
Two of my musical heroes have died recently. Herbie Mann in 2003 and Skitch Henderson, who passed away this month. Both were consummate jazz originals who ran the gamut from urbane jazz-pop to classical music and figured prominently in the popular music of the mid-20th century. Beyond that, they were tonsorial role models for myself and even at a young age, I foresaw their hipster style as a blueprint for middle-aged grace. 'Pepe' plays Jobim' will drop in stores on Feb. 31st.
Sam The Sham and the Phararohs - my first concert 1965
By director - Stanley Kubrick: 2001, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Lolita, Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, The Killing, Eyes Wide Shut, Full Metal Jacket, Scorsese: Good Fellas, Taxi Driver, Age of Innocence, Gangs of New York, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Raging Bull, Mean Streets, Coppola (Francis and Sophia) The Godfather 1 & 2, The Conversation, The Outsiders, Apocolypse Now, Lost in Translation, Michael Powell: Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, Peeping Tom, Trufautt: The 400 Blows, The Bride Wore Black, Day For Night, Faranheit 451, Godard: Contempt (Le Mepris), Alphaville, Luc Besson: The Big Blue, La Femme Nikita, Leon( The Professional), The Fifth Element, Kieslowski: Blue, White, Red, The Double Life of Veronique, Terrance Malick: Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, Frank Tashlin: Artists and Models, The Girl Can't Help It, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, Tim Burton: Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, Nightmare Before Christmas, Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow, Tarkovsky: Solaris, Stalker, Andre Rublev, Fellini: 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita, Amarcord, Juliet of the Spirits, Casanova, Il Vitelloni, Satyricon, Luis Bunuel: Un Chien Andelou, Mexican Bus Ride, Belle de Jour, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, That Obscure Object of Desire, John Boorman: Zardoz, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, Deliverance, John Waters: Pink Flamingos, Serial Mom, A Dirty Shame (uncut version), Female Trouble, Pecker, Bernardo Bertolucci: 1900, The Dreamers, The Conformist, Last Tango In Paris, Robert Altman: 3 Women, MASH, Marlowe, Nashville, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, Short Cuts, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Steven Spielberg: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Empire of the Sun, A.I., Fritz Lang: M, Metropolis, The Big Heat, Beyond A Reasonable Doubt, Orsen Welles: Touch of Evil, The Magnificent Ambersons, Citizen Kane, Alfred Hitchcock: Shadow Of A Doubt, Rear Window, Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rope, The Birds, Psycho, Lina Wertmuller: Swept Away, Seven Beauties, The Night Porter, Nicolas Roeg: Bad Timing, Don't Look Now, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Walkabout, Performance, Preston Sturges: Miracle At Morgan Creek, Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story, The Lady Eve, Mario Bava: Black Sunday (1960), Planet of the Vampires, Danger:Dialbolik, Billy Wilder: The Apartment, Irma La Douce, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard (1950), Double Indemnity, Some Like It Hot, Stalag 17, Ace In The Hole, David Lean: Great Expectations(1946), Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, Blithe Spirit, Peter Greenaway: A Zed and Two Noughts, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Prospero's Books, The Coen Brothers: Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Jim Jarmusch: Stranger Than Paradise, Mystery Train, Down By Law, Night On Earth, John Huston: Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Maltese Falcon, Moulin Rouge, The African Queen, The List of Adrian Messenger, John Cassavettes: Shadows, Husbands, A Woman Under the Influence, Minnie and Moskowitz, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Faces, Werner Herzog: Aguire, The Wrath of God, Nosferatu, Wim Wenders: Until The End Of The World, Wings Of Desire, Far Away So Close, Hammett, Paris Texas, Hal Hartly: Trust, Amateur,The Unbelievable Truth John Schlesinger: Billy Liar, Darling, Midnight Cowboy, Day of the Locust, Hal Ashby: Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, Stanlet Donen: Funny Face, Two For the Road, Bedazzled (1967), Terry Zwigoff: Ghost World, Crumb, American Splendor, Bad Santa, Robert Downey, St.: Putney Swope, Greaser's Palace, Todd Solondz: Welcome To The Dollhouse, Happines, Storytelling, Guillermo Del Toro: Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy, Cronos, Woddy Allen: Radio Days, Zelig, Manhattan, Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid To Ask), Crimes and Misdemeanors, What's Up Tiger Lily?, Sweet and Lowdown, Sleeper, Pedro Almodovar: What Have I Done To Deserve This?, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, Kika, All About My Mother, Talk To Her, Matador, William Castle: House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler, 13 Ghosts, Mr. Sardonicus Quentin Tartantino: Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill's 1 &2. Particular Favorites of every genre - American Grafitti, Nightmare Alley, City of Lost Children, Toto Le Hero, Manon of the Spring, Jean de Florette, Dazed and Confused, Pauline On The Beach, Schizopolis, King Of THe Hill, Picnic, To Kill A Mockingbird, Out Of The Past, To Have and Have Not, The Crazy Family, Mon Oncle d'Amerique, Velvet Goldmine, Zabriskie Point, Blow Up, The Long Ships, Au Revoir les Enfants, Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, Bye-Bye Brazil, The Wild One, On The Watefront, A Face In The Crowd, Rebel Without A Cause, Chinatown, Amelie, Lili, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 & 1978), Breakfast At Tiffany's, The Pink Panther, Rushmore, Better Off Dead, First Men In The Moon, The Time Machine, Time After Time, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, House of Wax (1953), X:The Man With The X-Ray Eyes, 4-D Man, Giant, Heathers, Forbidden Planet, Eyes Without A Face (Les Yeux Sana Visage), The Loved One, Army of Darkness, Dante's Inferno (1935), The World The Flesh and the Devil, Flesh and Fantasy, A Hole In The Head, The Bachelor Party, Some Came Running, Quadrophenia, The Bloody Pit of Horror, Good Neighbor Sam, Drugstore Cowboy, Casino Royale, Prey For Rock N. Roll, Rock n' Roll High School, Garage Days, Psycho Beach Party, Once Upon A Time In The West, The Honeymoon Killers, Holiday, The Philadelphia Story, Betty Blue, The Incredibles, If, Forbidden Planet, Wild Wild Planet, The Wages Of Fear, Sorcerer, Elephant, Acid House, Carnival of Souls, Elling, Freaks, The Satan Bug, Jacob's Ladder, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Psych Out, The Trip, Repo Man, Night of the Living Dead, Return of the Living Dead, Satan's Sadists, Shaun of the Dead, Spun, Wild In The Streets, Alien, Aliens, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolfman, The Gorgon, The Pit and the Pendulum, House of Usher, Tomb of Ligea, Masque of the Red Death, Cat People (1942 & 1982), Village of the Damned, Poltergeist, The Vanishing (original), The Dead Zone, The Ring, Freaks, Cape Fear, The Fly (1958 and 1986), The Game, The Third Man, Sweet Smell of Success, Sin City, Kill Bill Vols. 1 and 2, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Run Lola Run, Bringing Up Baby, The Graduate, It's a Wonderful Life, Brazil, Secret Things, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Being John Malkovich, O Lucky Man!, L.A. Confidential, Sleuth, The Thin Man, The Pianist, The Hustler, Dodsworth, American History X, Koyaanisqatsi, The Iron Giant, King Kong (1933), Rosemary's Baby, The Uninvited, The Five-Thousand Fingers of Dr. T, The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Blade Runner, Branded To Kill, The Time Travelers, Voyage To The End Of The Universe, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavera, What A Way To Go, Funny Farm, Cannery Row. File under too many to list: All those awful 1960s beach movies - every one, Most of the Elvis Presley movies, as bad as they are, they eternally entertain, All the Hammer Horror films, Every Roger Corman film, Every Russ Meyer film, more to come........
Eyes Without A Face (1959)
Casino Royale (1967)
Blow Up (1966)
Contempt (1963)
Danger: Diabolik (1967)
Betty Blue (1986)
Bye-Bye Brazil (1979)
Dante's Inferno (1935)
The Bloody Pit of Horror (1965)
Wild, Wild Planet (1965)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Vertigo (1958)
Repulsive robots from The Time Travelers
The Time Travelers (1964)
Jo Shishido and Annu Mari in Branded To Kill Branded To Kill (1967)
Shirley MacLaine and Robert Mitchum in What A Way To Go. (A Lush Budget Production)
What A Way To Go (1964)
Zaius Does Vegas
Reel Wild Cinema, Wonderfalls, The Office (both versions, Earl, 30 Rock, The Simpsons, 24, Rescue Me, Battlestar Glactica (the new one), King of Queens, The L Word, The Prisoner, The Addams Family, The Twilight Zone, One Step Beyond, Night Gallery, Twin Peaks...
Books: Favorite authors, in random order: John Updike - the Rabbit books, Couples, Villages, A.S. Byatt - Possession, the Frederica Potter series, William Kennedy - everything - The Ink Truck, Ironweed, Billy Phelan's Grestest Game, Very Old Bones, Quinn's Book, Roscoe, The Flaming Corsage, Philip K. Dick - Ubik, VALIS, Martian Time Slip, We Can Build You, F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Basil and Josephine Stories, The Great Gatsby, complete short stories, Thmoas Pynchon - V., The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow, Vineland, Carson MacCullers - The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, Donna Tarrt - The Secret History, The Little Friend, Don Delillo - Underworld, White Noise, Mary Karr - The Liars Club, Doris Lessing - Shikasta, John Cheever - complete short stories, David Sedaris - Holidays on Ice, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Jack Keroauc - On The Road, The Subterraneans, Desolation Angels, Vanity of Dulouz, William Burroughs - Naked Lunch, Junkie, Jefferey Eugenides - The Virgin Suicides, Middlesex, Michael Chabon - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay, Barbara Gowdy - We So Seldom Make Love, Mr. Sandman, Ernest Hemingway - A Moveable Feast, The Sun Also Rises, Kevin Baker - Dreamland, Paradise Alley, Dorothy Parker - complete stories, Thomas Wolfe - You Can't Go Home Again, Nathaniel West - Miss Lonelyhearts, Day of the Locust, Celine - Journey to the End of the Night, A.M. Homes - Music For Torching, T.C. Boyle - The Inner Circle, The Road to Wellville, Rivenrock, Budding Prospects, World's End, Elizabeth McCraken - The Giant's House, Umberto Eco -The Island of the Day Before, David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest, Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones, Ann Beattie - Distortions, Nicholson Baker - Vox, The Fermata, Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake, The Handmaid's Tale, The Blind Assassin, Steven Millhauser - Edwin Mullhouse, Portrait of a Romantic, In The Penny Arcade, The Barnum Museum, Martin Dressler, The Knife Thrower , Gabriel Garcia Marquez: One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love In The TIme Of Cholera, Dream Of A Death Foretold Joan Didion: Play It As It Lays, The Whiite Album, A Book Of Common Prayer, The Yaer Of Magical Thinking. Comic Books: Love and Rockets, Spin City, Stray Bullets, The Watchmen, Eightball, Acme Novelty Library, Black Hole, RAW, Popbot, Hellblazer, Shade the Changing Man, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Human Target, Rogon Gosh, X-Statix, The Stuff of Dreams, Raisen Pie, any R. Crumb, Palookaville, Ed the Happy Clown, Yummy Fur, Peeping Tom, Dirty Plotte, Nowhere, La Perdida, Birdland, Vampirella, Mad Magazine (I have every issue since 1952), this list shall be added to................
Lots of people eschew the idea of heroes, but I find that when I think about it I have many. All of them have feet of clay, none of them is perfectm but these individuals have influenced and/or inspired me along the way, despite their flaws. Jack Kerouac (great writer, bad drunk), Pablo Picasso (bad husband, great painter), John Lennon (funniest Beatle), Margaret Sanger (mother of modern birth control), my mother (raised in the Land of Enchantment, she saved me from a Garden State of mind), my brother Jack (like me, but better - we share a brain), Gil Elvgren (the best pin-up artist ever), Alberto Vargas (a close second), Bob MacGinnis (probably the premiere paperback cover artist of the 60's), Odilon Redon (visionary Symbolist artist), Irving Klaw (he brought us Betty Page), Bunny Yeager (she photographed Betty Page to her best advantage), Margaret Mead (objective and perceptive, she opened sceince up to explore human behavior), Alfred Kinsey (brought to light what was hidden in a repressed society, kinda wacky guy too - read T.C. Boyle's book "The Inner Circle" to get the lowdown on Prok), Nico (beautiful chanteuse, femme fatale), Hugh Hefner (the 27 year old who started an empire, not the old fool he's become), Robert Bonfils (paperback cover artist of the 50's-60's, mostly sleaze, all great), Richard Powers (another great paperback cover artist of the 50's-60's, mostly sci-fi, his work borders on abstraction, Yves Tanguy was a huge influence), more to come.....
FRIDA KAHLO - a fellow Hispanic/Anglo like myself - she was Mexican and German, and a wonderful artist who endured and transcended pain to create great art
STANLEY KUBRICK - if film is the most significant artform of the 20th century, Stanley was it's greatest practitioner
BETTIE PAGE - an inspiration to artists and models alike, and damn if she didn't always seem happy to be alive
BURT RUTAN - father of 21st century space flight, leaving NASA in the dust
JOE STRUMMER - diplomat's son who rose above and told it like it was and still is after his death - "Know Your Rights!"
SAMMY DAVIS JR. - singer, dancer, actor, RatPacker
OSCAR NIEMEYER - visionary architect of Brasilia's greatest buildings
KATE HEPBURN - the ideal woman - smart, beautiful and tough
DR. MORBIUS (Walter Pidgeon in "Forbidden Planet") - dignified actor, facial hair role-model, Krell musicologist
ADRIANA LIMA - beautiful Latina super-model, works with orphans
THE DUDE (Jeff Lebowski) - slacker, amateur gumshoe, role model
VAMPIRA - real name Maila Nurmi - cool, principled and wicked
Character actor who pushed the limits of sanity, created memorable performances with some of the greats including Kubrick, Kazan and Cassavetes