R.I.P., 1987

Satan Is My Ally, 1957

Cover of Fantastic, Vol 6:4, May 1957. The image accompanies a Harlan Ellison short story titled “Satan is My Ally.”

Color Word Monsters, 1982

“Fluvial Geomorphology,” 1998

Another collaborative piece from Billy and I’s “Art Movement” in 1998.

“Choad Boy in a Red Dress is Chased by a Goateed Hipster With a Baseball Bat and by Comedian Andrew “Dice” Clay Who Has An Axe, While a Very Short Abe Lincoln Impersonator Monitors the Proceedings,” 1998

“Mean Ass Nazi on a Magic Carpet Throws Grenade at Hippie (with a lemon for a hand), Ghandhi (midget version), a Doggie, a Piece of Corn, and a Log, Under a Blue Moon”, 1998

Back in college, my friend Billy and I decided to start an art movement. It was an art movement of 2, kind of born out of our experiences in a modern art class we were both taking. We had an empty room in the big house were were rooming in, so it became a workspace and art gallery display area. I saved some of our “artwork” for posterity, and this is one of my pieces.

Poop Doodles III

Yet another remnant of the bathroom from a college apartment that I shared with my BFFs Billy, Kari, and Jamie in 1998-1999 in Urbana, IL. See the two earlier posts here or here.

Sci-fi Pulp Covers by Ron Turner

Today Monster Brains highlights a really cool Flickr photoset of some exquisite painted covers for old sci-fi pulps done by Ron Turner. Check ‘em oooout…

Poop Doodles I

I had the extreme honor of getting to live with three of the best friends I could ever hope to have – Billy, Jamie, and Kari – in 1998-1999. We shared a ramshackle basement apartment on Green Street in Urbana, Illinois, in a place we called “The Daisy House.” This was because someone had painted the house foundation neon green, with white daisies  on top, probably in the 1960s or something. Anyway, it was a craptacular apartment, but we loved it anyways.

I can’t remember whose idea it was to tape up pieces of blank white paper next to the toilet in the bathroom, but it became a pretty regular thing. Everyone gets bored on the toilet, right? Don’t you find yourself coming up with great ideas? We called these the “Poop Doodles,” and I saved a number of them. They’re full of pure nonsense.

“The Bloody Massacre” [Boston Massacre drawing]

When I was 9 or 10, I was charged with the task of writing an essay and making a drawing for our history unit on the American Revolutionary War. I remember the teacher let us choose the topic, so I went with the Boston Massacre, because I thought it was cool. Why? I’m not sure. I’ve misplaced the report, (I’m sure it was absolutely RIVETING) but I recently found the drawing. I based it off an illustration in my textbook engraved by Paul Revere. I’ll include them both for comparison’s sake:
Original…

Mine:

I’ve always been a terrible, terrible artist, but this definitely brings a smile to my face. It was one of those early projects that got me really interested in American history, so I’m glad I kept it all these years.

Did You Know? by Jamie Vermillion

Heritage High School Principal Lyle Rigdon Once Had a Short Lived Stint as Banjo Player for 70s Rock Icons KISS (published in the Oct. 27, 1994 issue of THE PREDATOR, the Heritage High School newspaper, Broadlands, IL)

Gary’s Pizza, by Billy Vermillion