The Horror of Party Beach is probably not a good movie. I’ve only seen it once and I don’t remember it being a good movie. The monster costumes are pretty ridiculous. Yet I keep returning to the story as an illustration subject. For me, the idea of human corpse reanimated and transformed into fishmen by atomic waste is just too much fun not to play with.
I’m not a Dracula fan, either of the original novel or most of the movie versions. It’s not that I dislike the character or vampires. I’m just not a fan. I really enjoyed Tomb of Dracula, the comic book series by Marv Wolfman/Gene Colan/Tom Palmer, but that bore little resemble to the original novel.
Anyway. The literary Dracula had a mustache. The most famous version of Dracula was played by Bela Lugosi. Without a mustache. I fixed that.
I love the idea of big rambling (and decaying) castles (mansions, fortresses, edifices). I need more practice drawing them.
One thing I love about the Frankenstein Monster – there’s a lot of him. The version described by Shelley in the novel has yet to be represented on film.That’s understandable. There aren’t a lot of eight foot tall actors around.
When sketching I have to draw a version of the Frankenstein Monster. It’s the law. I’ve yet to do a version of the Karloff monster that I think looks right. So I’ll keep practicing.
While I’ve haven’t been posting here for the last couple of years I haven’t been completely inactive or uncreative. Just very reduced. Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting some of my recent old work. Mostly with minimal comment.
It’s not that I should never look back. I would never learn anything if I didn’t stop to assess things once in a while. And I have some great and fun memories. But I can’t change the past. I can only review it. I live now.
I can talk about being out of practice, both in writing and in illustration. Or I can get to work.
