The next dozen plus illustrations are from my 1989 calendar. This was the second year that I’d done a calendar. I gave (and sold) them to friends and acquaintences. The first year, 1988, I’d done illustrations of “traditional” monsters for each month – a vampire, a witch, Frankenstein’s monster; that sort of thing. I did that one on a whim. I think I printed (xeroxed) about a dozen copies. For 1989’s edition I did more planning and produced more copies.

Why lizards? I’ve no idea. I’m not actually sure they’re lizards. They could be salamanders. (A friend termed them as “davamanders”). In later years the lizards would acquire individual personalities, character designs, the ability to create doors in time and space and a chain smoking, toxin swilling Aunt Hortense. For this calendar, though, they’re just happy dancing lizards. The two on the right would end up tatooed on a friend’s shoulder.

Why a monk? I’m sure he seemed like a good counterpoint to the activity in front of him. This was the first drawing I did so I hadn’t yet had to think very hard about what to draw.