Cinema, Flicks, The Movies.....I called it the movies, and oh what an escape it was!
In 1931, cars were built square and had spoked wheels. Trolley cars ran up and down Broadway all the way to Times Square for a nickel. And comic books sold for 10 cents at every news stand.
On a steep hill in the Bronx, my father took me into a small theatre for the fright of my life. I saw "Frankenstein"...and the next day I had layed out my own plans for building a monster.
In as much as we are speaking of monsters and things that go bump in the night, let me now speak of the horror of all horrors......Halloween. Nothing frightened me more, starting at the impressionable age of four, than those ghoulish masks that seemed to seek me out if I dared show up in the street. In my bag of memories, tucked far away in the vortex of my mind, every Halloween , those events very vividly trot themselves out for my review.
I'm seventy-two now, and my fears have been watered down considerably, but not so much so that I haven't accepted them on some level. In my career, my story portrayals are usually dark in nature......shadowy images that sometimes need some scrutiny on the readers part to decipher. That's good though. The reader should upon occasion work a little. It's all part of the entertainment! On the screen, when you see two figures locked in mortal combat, flying over tables in the dark; it isn't vital to see the details. You may ask, 'Which one is the hero?' Is he beneath that mayhem or on top of it? No, No, he's in the corner...over there! Not so! It's the villain!!! Who cares? There's enough heart pounding for it not to matter. When the lights come on, you'll finally know. Maybe the moon will cast enough light on the subject to tell you at last that the "heavy" got his just dues.
To me, every story I ever drew was like being the director of a film. What a ride it has been! The fans have told me of their appreciation from their growing up years to the present time...And this in itself has been a great joy. Maybe, I have dazzled a few...................
