Following the previous post on the 20th anniversary of Club Comicana / Vamporama…
Well, I did finish Club Vamporama as a concept in 2021, by sending our heroes back to 1982. That is some 21 years before the eponymous “club” (owned by Bette Noir) even existed! But…
NOTE: After you’ve read all the posting below (and I hope you do!), please go look at the 2021 posting “The Last Club Vamporama”—I had sadly accidentally deleted the original version of this posting, rather than making it private, forcing me to recreate it—and it’d be really cool if you could leave some new feedback & comments there! Thanks.
While on the theme of 20th anniversaries… I did my first Club Comicana strip around October 2006. To celebrate, let’s have a bit of history and rare art!
That first strip was going to be dropped into my regular “Networks” column for Comics International #201—however, Dez abruptly sold the magazine, and I didn’t get along with the bumbling fool who was tasked with killing it off taking it over… so I didn’t continue working for the mag.
But in actual fact, the very first (unfinished) strip was started in the summer of 2006. And I recently realised, I had never posted it on here. So here it is…
Read More »Club Comicana-Vamporama at 20
I can’t believe I’m writing down that it’s TWENTY YEARS since my mother died. In all kinds of ways it seems surreal, improbable and deeply perplexing to try to process this apparent fact of chronology.
And yet, there it is. I have lately been rebuilding/restoring the old archives on this blog, dating back to December 7th 2000 (how naïve it all seemed back then), more than half of which are now back online, with much more to come… and there’s no doubting that these events happened a full two decades ago. The same day Alex Toth died; the birthday of both Vincent Price and Christopher Lee—what is it about May 27th?!
This is mom in August 1956, aged 13. She was a cool teen.
If you haven’t already, I hope you go and read the blog I wrote back on May 27th 2006 (and indeed my contribution in the comments thread). These posts say it all, with much more clarity and raw immediacy than I can hope to summon today. I was curiously impressed, looking back, at how articulate I was. I’m not sure I’d handle it as well today. I know I wasn’t, in fact, handling it well at all at that time (who does?)—but I was expressing myself extremely well.
I would like to use the second half of this post to… go deeper. But first, the positive stuff. I have a photo album page, fully restored and updated, dedicated to mom—which I will update over time, as I continue to scan more of the best old photos I have. You can view the page as it stands here:
I used to make a habit of it back in the day—restless tinkering, never quite being satisfied. In the last decade, although this site has been through a number of changes, I’ve been less inclined and not even sure what purpose the site served. For a long time the Portfolio section attempted to be an all-encompassing summary of everything I supposedly do, for example, and it never quite worked. So this time out I have focused it just on my artwork.
LOL, look—some people think my artwork is crap! But I have as much right as anyone to improve. I believe my portrait work has improved significantly in the last six years. Overall my stuff has enjoyed a more modest improvement. No doubt I have weak areas. But it makes sense to me to focus the Website on something in particular. It gets messy otherwise.
Read More »Fiddling With The Site
So, as almost all horror fans know, today is the birthday of both Vincent Price and Christopher Lee… and just yesterday was Peter Cushing’s date of birth, by odd coincidence.
Christopher Lee, Vincent Price and Peter Cushing—publicity shot from 1982, during the shoot for HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS.
Also, for me, a significant day for losses. On this day back in 2006, we not only lost the legendary cartoonist Alex Toth—my mother also passed away. Has it really been 18 years? Not to me. Time makes no sense these days.
A few pics of mom…
Read More »Births & Deaths
Yesterday (Feb 28) was the sixth anniversary of Fred Jr’s passing. Six years?! That clock is whizzing round these days. I can’t think of an upside to this, sadly. This year would also be a big birthday for him, and I’ll post about that in a couple of weeks.
The pic is of Fred from September 3, 2006.
Yes, the honest-to-goodness end of the road for Club Vamporama, after 15 years, on-and-off!
NOTE: I am recreating this post in May 2026, however, as I accidentally deleted the original post rather than making it private, during one of my anti-archiving spells. Nothing lost in terms of post content, but, alas, the original comments people left are gone… hopefully we can get a few new ones.
OK, the finale deserved two pages, anyhow. Maybe the cynicism about 2021 is somewhat influenced by the current political climate and the lovely COVID era. Away we go…
Hard to believe, but today is not only Vincent Price’s 105th birthday and Christopher Lee’s 94th birthday—it’s ten years since Alex Toth passed away. (Peter Cushing’s 103rd was yesterday.)
Most importantly, to me, today is ten years since my mother died. (Yes, she and Alex died on the same day.)
Mom on her 21st birthday, August 13th 1964.
Read More »Ten Years
As I type this specific sentence we’re at roughly 1:10am on the 27th. Of May. Not the friendliest of dates for me. Today, four years ago, my mother passed away. I’d be lying if I said it had been the greatest four years ever. It’s had its good points. Just not enough of them. And since moving back here in Dec ’07, I’d say the good points have receded quite dramatically.
Read More »Renewal
Yeah, 12 months tomorrow since mom died. Can’t believe it really, and I have no positive feelings to report on the matter.
Still in a bit of mess in terms of living situation too. Wish I could just get settled somewhere. Very depressed. May get drunk in a bit. Dunno. Not much else to say, really.
Here’s an early 1980s pic of mom…
Read More »What’s Another Year
