Lauren

Here's an 11x14 charcoal of Lauren Bacall...

...Until next time...

Robert L. Crosswhite

Heeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!! Space Laaaaaaaaady!!!!!!!

                 .......To paraphrase Jerry Lewis.....

This is an 11x14 oil painting of a participant at one of the sci-fi conventions over the years...

Thank you whoever you are....

I'm making signed digital 11x17 posters available for this and several of my other paintings on heavy photographic paper @ 15 dollars each post paid.  If interested send check or money order to:

Robert L. Crosswhite

218 Frontenac Road

Marquette Heights, Illinois 61554

So far, The Space Lady and The Invasion Of The Saucer Men are available as seen below:

...Until next time....

Robert L. Crosswhite

When we wuz Cable Cops....

     I ran across this B&W piece from all the way back in 1986 when I was not necessary for the big yellow machine in Peoria, Illinois and fed the family as a cable cop in Phoenix, Arizona.  I had been in Az. for a very short time and took a job with Demented Cable.  With no knowledge of the layout of the town, I was given a large book of maps and a 40 a day disconnect route.  Surprisingly enough, there was no real rhyme or reason to the layout of the cable system as there had been several mergers of cable companies and when you disconnected someone there was a fair chance that their line was on the next street over.  Go figure.  If you were there to do an install everyone loved you, except the rich folks on the hill that just knew you were pond scum and expected all sorts of extra work done on the free, but if you had a disconnect route you were public enemy number one.

     I remember one unhappy gentleman threatening to shoot my partner and me if we disconnected his cable.  Tom and I pulled into the alley and put the ladder on the large toolbox on the back of the bed of the Ranger pickup truck we were using.  I climbed the ladder and fumbled at disconnecting the fitting on the telephone pole.  Tom was holding the ladder steady and we were both looking and listening for the inevitable gunshot that was coming our way.  About that time, as luck would have it, I dropped a seven sixteenths wrench from the top of the ladder and it hit the metal toolbox right next to poor old Tom sounding like a shot and I'm sure he needed a change of shorts.  To his credit the customer did say that maybe his disconnect notice had been lost in the mail as he had also missed that month's issue of Soldier Of Fortune.  Rut Roh!

     So... this 1986 B&W piece was done for the amusement of the poor souls that got chased by dogs, got cursed at, threatened, and made sure to check out every apartment complex's swimming pool.  I figured that after all these years it deserved to finally be properly colored, so here for the first time is also the modern colored version.

Robert L. Crosswhite

Christopher Lee R.I.P.

Here was my take on the best of the Draculas from last year.....

An excellent actor and a true gentleman in all of the interviews I've ever seen and could scare the beejeebbers out of me on the screen just with a look.

Robert L. Crosswhite

Remembering Jontar......

     Back in the early 90's I did some comics for a small company called Miller Publishing Company for publisher Billie G. Miller in Watseka, Illinois.  I got to do this through a chance meeting with The legendary underground comix creator Grass Green at a small comics convention near Chicago.  He was one of the most outgoing people you would ever meet.  He was there promoting his latest work on the book Wildman Comics and stories.  I had my portfolio of current comics samples and he was gracious enough to look at them.  He then asked me to add a sketch to a comics page jam that would appear in issue number 10 of Wildman.  That jam page became my first published comic book piece and I shared the page with many talented and creative people with George Perez being the guest of honor on the page and at the convention.

The print runs were very low, but it was a chance to see yourself published as a comics artist.  I was involved with two of the ongoing books.  One was titled Trial Run and the other was Jontar Returns.  The Character of Jontar was created and written by Bill W. Miller.  It had had a four issue run earlier as Jontar and the sequel was retitled Jontar Returns and ran for five more issues.  The last issue was published in 1992.  I did the interior art for issues 3, 4, and 5 and the covers for issues 4 and 5.

     The first full bookI did was a babtism under fire as I penciled, inked, and lettered the entire inside content of the book over the course of one weekend.

     I recently came across an unused illustration for the book and decided to play with it to create what could have been the next issues cover; the book having ended with issue number 5.

     This, with modern coloring and lettering, might have been Jontar Returns number 6 circa 1992.

                                        Robert L Crosswhite

Stooge #6 Curly Joe DeRita

This is the final Stooge member Curly-Joe DeRita who was in the feature films after the Stooge contract for the short subject two reeler films expired.  This is another 11x14 charcoal drawing.

Robert L. Crosswhite

Number 5 On The Stooge Parade!

Today's 11x14 charcoal drawing is of Shemp's replacement after his sudden passing. Here is my rendition of Joe (He'll always be Stinky) Besser.

Modern audiences of rerun television most remember him from the Abbott and Costello tv show.

Robert L. Crosswhite