Hannes Bok illustration for Lovecraft's Pickman's Model, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, December 1951. The superbly talented Bok (Wayne Francis Woodard) was a class A eccentric, and became obsessed by astrology and magic.  Toward the end he barely made a living with his stunning art, and starved to death in 1964.  He got his start when the unknown 19 year old Ray Bradbury showed the editor of Weird Tales Bok's artwork.   From what I recall of Pickman's Model there is nothing like this picture occurring in the story, and it was also drawn in 1950.  I suspect Mr. Bok just sent them something he had lying around.  Perfect, however, for today's Halloween post.  He also shared the first Hugo Award for cover art with Ed Emshwiller.  The same year saw Hugos go to Philip Jose Farmer and Alfred Bester, not shabby at all. https://www.pulpartists.com/Bok.html   Boo.

Yesterday on my DeviantArt account I posted about Louis Wain, the tragic artist who specialized in cats.  Thinking of him depressed me, and what with Halloween coming up and my room full of kittens I felt that I was being crushed under the weight of the world.  I was walking into our supermarket and said, God, please give me a sign.  Tell me things will get better!  I looked down and this earring was laying on the ground.  Well, this is a sign if I ever saw one.  I don't know what it could possibly mean, but it's a sign. Encouraging. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210816-the-ancient-symbol-that-was-hijacked-by-evil

 Hmmmm....

Welsh rarebit or Welsh rabbit is a dish consisting of a hot cheese-based sauce served over slices of toasted bread. The original 18th-century name of the dish was the jocular "Welsh rabbit", which was later reinterpreted as "rarebit", as it contains no rabbit.   None.

From Nightmare World, a Leisure Town story. https://www.leisuretown.com/   Leisure Town is the brainchild of Tristan Alexander Farnon, and it's a fucking riot.  Welcome aboard.

Too fuckin' bad. Some background on this.  This is a picture of my former friend Kate, who on the day depicted went off on me, and I do mean went off, because I read a short story of hers and told her I was surprised as I did not know she was creative.  I felt bad and drew this.      Kate has been arrested several times since then and has no friends left.  She is a schizophrenic, and it did not show when I met her at the Starbucks that used to be the center of what social life I had.  The coffee shop has a court order against her, and she lives in an apartment right next door, or did until she got evicted.  She is rail thin and cuts her hair herself with results that can be imagined.  She is a beggar and extremely annoying to be around.        I have met her father, a Navy officer and a hell of a guy.  He has tried and I am sure will always be there, but Kate is real bad off now.  I saw her a couple three weeks ago and was shocked at her deterioration, physi

  My picture of Yermak drowning.  Blogger lost the post I put up of this in 2013, and they will not answer or return messages about this problem.  They suck.

Monday night I buried a kitten. I was 'working' on my blog when our neighbor knocked on the door.  Ms. Virginia and her husband had a ceramics company during his lifetime, and they made the most beautiful painted animals I have ever seen in mass production.  Her house is a menagerie of these elegant little statues, I have never known such skill in a home based endeavor before.  She had brought home 4 kittens from her friend's place, the friend was out of town and she was going to take care of these little furballs in her friend's absence.  I heard her talking to my brother.  I was already wearing my engineer boots, so I went back to her house with her to see what had happened.  In the back of her car there was a box of 3 crying kittens, and one that was stretched out and cold.  She told me she thought that one of the adult cats had smothered it, and while that was possible sometimes a kitten will just die.  I know, this wasn't my first rodeo.  We got t

Cartoon by Charles Slackman, from the Summer 1971 issue of Horizon magazine, which accompanied an outstanding article by Erich (Love Story) Segal, titled "the Night They Auctioned off the Roman Empire Comics".  The original had a paste up of Howard Hughes in the last panel. https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1185468   For all you kiddies out there, Hughes was possibly the richest man in the world and was incredibly reclusive.

Sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing.

 Dave and Phil Alvin onstage in Los Angeles, April 1, 1983.  Photo by Michael Edwards. https://youtu.be/FIF0_EaXRJg Phil Alvin (vocals and guitar) and Dave Alvin (guitar), with bass guitarist John Bazz and drummer Bill Bateman .

  https://elizabethfais.com/2017/05/16/mark-twain-and-the-kitten-that-played-pool/ WWII bullshit in high gear.  Something to post.    https://thesouthernvoice.com/ill-have-an-rc-and-a-moonpie/ Sweet dreams.  

 I am coming for you, Vladimir Vladimirovich - Behemoth Behemoth is the giant, evil, fun loving cat in the novel The Master And Margarita by Kyiv-born author Mikhael Bulgakov.  I don't know who painted this outstanding picture.  The name in Russian and Ukrainian, Бегемот, means both hippopotamus and Behemoth, the biblical monster.  https://youtu.be/wIuVCgNg5XA “Is that vodka?" Margarita asked weakly. The cat jumped up in his seat with indignation. "I beg pardon, my queen," he rasped, "Would I ever allow myself to offer vodka to a lady? This is pure alcohol!” ― Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master And Margarita.  An outstanding illustration from Ostrolist over on FurAffinity.   https://www.furaffinity.net/user/0strolist/  

Tom Strong is a combination of Doc Savage and Captain Marvel.  Written by Alan Moore, this DC series ran from 1999 to 2006 for 36 issues.  It can best be described as 'quirky'.  The series was retro, steampunk, and full bore sci/fi.  Tom was raised in a gravity chamber by his genius scientist father out in the jungle of an island the family was shipwrecked on.  Featuring a talking ape, a steam powered robot, numerous highly original villains and extremely bizarre situations, this is some of the finest that comics has to offer.  Ladies and gents, for your reading pleasure, Raconteur Rabbit Productions© presents Tom Strong in Funnyland! https://misterscribbles.blogspot.com/2021/09/funnyland.html Tom Strong property of DC Comics.  Picture by Art Adams.

The woman stepped to the kitchen window and looked out. There in the twilight yard a man stood surrounded by barbells and dumbbells and dark iron weights of all kinds and slung jump ropes and elastic and coiled - spring exercisers . He wore a sweat suit and tennis shoes and said nothing to no one as he simply stood in the darkening world and did not know she watched. This was her son, and everyone called him Heavy - Set. Heavy - Set squeezed the little bunched, coiled springs in his big f ists. They were lost in his fingers, like magic tricks; then they reappeared. He crushed them. They vanished. He let them go. They came back. He did this for ten minutes, otherwise motionless. Then he bent down and hoisted up the one - hundred - pound barbells , noiselessly, not breathing. He motioned it a number of times over his head, then abandoned it and went into the open garage among the various surfboards he had cut out and glued together and sanded and painted and waxed, and there he punched

Doc Rabbit ain't scared of anything. Piece of cake.  Walter Baumhofer, artist. I feel sorry for those Vikings.  James Bama, artist. https://misterscribbles.blogspot.com/2020/09/doc-rabbit.html

"There are, of course, gay werewolves."                                  Glen Duncan, The Last Werewolf.                               November 2, 2012