This 2004 picture playfully portrays the Jimi Hendrix song “If Six Was Nine.”
This one is pen & ink with zip-a-tone. Zip-a-tone is hard to find nowadays. Fortunately, I acquired and kept a considerable stash of it before it disappeared from the market.
“Fire” was a Jimi Hendrix song I sang (and occasionally played bass on) with most of the bands I was in. It’s a good, fast, hard rocker. And since my lead guitarist was often the great Jimmy Demeter, I got to shout, “Move over, Rover and let Jimmy (Jimi) take over” just like Jimi does before the instrumental solo break, and still have that phrase make sense.
I did this one in 2004. It’s pen & ink with a bit of zip-a-tone.
This next Jimi Hendrix piece is a 1973 pen & ink plus collage cover I drew for Trademark of Quality Records (or TMQ as they were called), a bootleg record company for whom I did a lot of work in the mid-1970s. In the UK, I am known much more for my bootleg record album covers than I am for my dinosaur art. This bootleg was the second half of a concert Jimi gave at the Berkeley Community Theatre. I didn’t do the cover for the first half (released as a separate LP).
I included a review (I believe it ran in Esquire) on this cover by music critic Robert Christgau (“Not Everyone Liked Jimi —“) in which he called Hendrix an Uncle Tom for his performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. He also proclaimed Hendrix’s performance as “terrible” and that “he can’t sing.”
What an asshole.
In case the type is too small to read:
I am going to take a little break from “Untold Tales of Hollywood.” I will be returning with Film #34: Leviathan. The next several postings will be on pieces I have done to celebrate the music of Jimi Hendrix.
Jimi Hendrix is my all-time favorite musician. I saw him perform at the Anaheim Convention Center in 1968. I took my beautiful girlfriend Barbara to the concert. As I recall, I took her to Tito’s Tacos after the show.
The opening act was Eire Apparent (an Irish group whose very good first LP was produced by Hendrix), followed by The Soft Machine (whose drummer, Robert Wyatt, wore only a jockstrap). Hendrix was after that. The headliner was Eric Burdon & The Animals, who were fantastic. They delivered a truly killer version of Tina Turner‘s “River Deep, Mountain High.” Eric had Zoot Money (real name: George Bruno) on keyboards and Andy Summers (future guitarist for The Police) on lead guitar. Zoot and Andy had been in a great psychedelic band together, Dantalian’s Chariot.
Our seats were fairly close to the stage. A woman yelled out, “Jimi! Are you experienced?” I could see that annoyed Hendrix. Because of that perceived disrespect, he unfortunately cut his set short.
I found out about Jimi Hendrix before most of the American public. One of the students at the Chouinard Art Institute had Jimi’s first LP and brought it to our drawing class the day after Jimi’s legendary appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival. It wasn’t the American LP — that came out months later. This was the hard-to-find English import album. Our instructor, Watson Cross, let us play music in his class, so I got to hear Jimi before he was being played on the radio here in L. A.
I find his music to be such a huge inspiration. In all the bands I have been in, we have usually included at least two Hendrix songs (usually “Fire” and “Hey Joe”).
Jean “Moebius” Giraud drew a gorgeous wraparound cover for the French issue of a double LP set of Jimi Hendrix’s first two albums:
This cover (and an incredible Hendrix portfolio Jean drew later) really knocked me out. They have inspired me over the years to do my own visual interpretations of Jimi’s songs. Recently, I had a flurry of inspiration that resulted in my creating nine new Hendrix pics — all just for fun, no real purpose in mind. I am going to share those nine with you, plus five earlier Hendrix works, one per day.
This first one is a piece I did during my very first year in art school (1967):
Let’s wrap it up here on Masters of the Universe.
Here are some very early storyboards of mine for the film. They read left to right.
The six panels above should be to the right of the first nine-panel page of boards. That is, there should be three rows of panels, with each row containing five panels.
In this early pass at the throne (above), the Sorceress is trapped above the throne.
Early passes at Skeletor‘s throne (above).
The quick little pen sketch above of the sword holder is by Gary Goddard, the film’s director. I took his idea and ran with it.
Working with Gary on this film was great. It was as if we could read each other’s minds. We both wanted to bring a lot of Jack Kirby to the movie. I was lucky enough to have inked an issue of Jack’s The Demon; Gary was a huge collector of Jack’s original art.
I am beginning to wrap up here on Masters of the Universe. For the next couple of posts, it looks like it will be mostly design odds and ends.
Here are two alphabets I designed; one for the Good Guys and one for the Bad Guys:
The Battlefields of Eternia (early work).
A big ol’ gun…
Above is my first pencil drawing of the Communications Room, before my budget for that room was cut.
Architectural ornaments in the form of skulls.
Here are a few weapons of war…
More tomorrow (I think it will be the last MOTU posting).
In looking for art to accompany my Untold Tales of Hollywood postings on Masters of the Universe, I have discovered lots of art in my flat files that never made it into the big German fan book on Masters. I am happy to begin sharing that art with you, dear readers, MOTU fans, and Stout fans.
I am also going to share a bit of MOTU correspondence with you. It will show you that I can be tough and direct when I need to be. Fed up with a lot of the screwing around and disorganization on MOTU, I sent the following inter-office letter out to all of the appropriate MOTU bigwigs and department heads in an attempt to organize them and have them get their shit together before the production proceeded with making more time and budget-consuming errors. This was sent out before we were due to shoot the Communication Room scenes.
I loved costume designer Julie Weiss‘ reaction to my memorandum. This is the note that was handed to me:
BILL
Julie called back to tell you she read the memo — and that:
a) It’s the “butchest memo” she’s ever read
b) You really got it together on this one.
c) She’s proud of you.
d) You’ll go far.
e) She’ll work with you again.
For me, that note’s a keeper. Julie has one of the sharpest wits I have ever encountered. I talked about her with my equally witty art director, Robert Howland. He said that if there was ever to be a battle of wits between him and Julie, that he would eventually win — but it would be bloody.
Not long after MOTU had wrapped, I received the terrible news that Robert had AIDS. That took a lot of the wind out of my cinematic sails. It was hard to imagine making movies without Robert by my side. I attended a memorial service for Robert after his passing. I might have been the only straight guy there. I did not hesitate to make a beeline for Robert’s partner and give him a big, emotional hug. This was when people were afraid to even be in the presence of guys with AIDS, much less touch them. The act of my unhesitant embrace caused Robert’s partner and most of the guys there to burst into tears.
The subject of this posting nearly got me fired from Masters of the Universe.
As a joke, I took a book titled The Worst Movie Posters of All Time, xeroxed a few of the posters from the book, and turned them into crude faux Masters of the Universe posters. It took me about twenty minutes to execute these little jokes.
Well, the ad department at Cannon Films wasn’t laughing. Believe it or not, they took these designs for real! Seriously! They thought that someone working on the film was trying to steal their job! “Bring me his head!” and “We demand you fire him!” they shouted to anyone who would listen, including the top Cannon Films officials.
My producers knew that I was the guy who had done them. They protected me and blocked my firing, which was actually being threatened. They refused to reveal the identity of the poster artist (me).
One producer, Evzen Kolar, had emigrated here from an Iron Curtain country. He was totally outraged. He refused to give me up to the Cannon higher-ups.
“We do not turn in our friends! We are not fucking Communists! We are in AMERICA!!!
God bless you, Evzen!
Here’s a joke photo of Evzen begging Cannon Films’ Roni Ya’ackov for more money as DP Hanania Baer and I stand by.
Here is the cover letter I sent with my “posters.”
Here are my crudely doctored ads that Cannon’s publicity department actually thought were real:
Can you believe that the Cannon publicity department thought these were actual, real proposals?! And a threat to their jobs? Seriously?
I think you’re going to enjoy this posting. It’s all about some of the bizarre and funny experiences I had working on Masters of the Universe.
I got a phone call in the middle of the night from one of the film’s key producers. He asked me one question:
“Who should I fire — the director or the director of photography?”
What a question!
Weeks later, I got a call from the head office at Cannon Films.
“We need you for a very important meeting this Sunday at noon. Be there.”
Wait —-! A meeting on a Sunday?! Unheard of! A feeling of dread crept over me. In the Film Biz, there are never meetings on Sunday.
I showed up, wondering what in the hell was going on, and was ushered into a small office. Sitting at a desk was Roni Ya’ackov, the Number Three man at Cannon Films. Facing him were three chairs. I was instructed to sit in the middle chair. Our line producer, Elliot Schick, was instructed to sit to the left of me. The film’s director, Gary Goddard, was seated to my right.
The meeting began with Elliot being brutally reamed in a fashion I had never seen. This reaming lasted for about five minutes. Then, Roni turned, looked at me, and smiled. Then, he turned and focused on Gary and took him part in no uncertain terms. Then, Roni faced me and gave me a big smile. Then, back to Elliot. This pattern went on for about forty-five minutes. Then, he dismissed us.
I don’t think I have ever been so uncomfortable in my life.
I was still relatively new to the Film Biz. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. Basically (I think), Cannon was really pissed that due to the actions of our producer and director, our big-budget (for Cannon) film was going over time and over budget.
Except for the Art Department, which I ran. We were on time and under budget on everything. Quite frankly, the production was so screwed up that it would have been difficult for me to have been late on anything.
I hope you liked that little tale. Here are my cartoon instructions to the crew as to how to do the last shot in the film:
I often do hand-drawn cards for birthdays when I’m on a film (if I have the time). Here’s the one I did for our line producer, Elliot Schick:
In case you can’t read all of the word balloons, here is what they say (with my annotations in italics), starting in the upper left and then rotating clockwise:
“You’re not going to get any more — so sign it!” This refers to my negotiations to get myself and the concept artists toy royalties.
Rose-colored glasses to maintain a positive attitude
Earplugs to avoid hearing problems.
“OKAY, Company — Listen to me! We’re on a tight budget and there’s no room for screw-ups! Now line up for lunch — The caterer is Chez McDonalds — There’s a Big Mac for everyone (one each)! Remember — Don’t spend a cent until you check with me, Schickman! I’m here to make sure that everyone has a good time — and if you don’t like it, I’ll let you have it with my Double-Barreled Budget Blaster!
Schickman claims to have no heart — not true! He keeps one in a jar in his office!
Tubes for intravenous feeding — Schickman never needs to eat while working!
“Why is this taking so long?” The most common question heard from Elliot.
Blood from Cannon’s turnip
For overages — Schickman‘s pennies are ever ready
“You want more money? Here it is!
Swedish actor repellent
“Now, when we did this on Tora! Tora! Tora!…”
“Would someone please tell me why this is taking so long?”
Comfortable boots for location scouts… and location scout… and location scouts… We went on a lot of location scouts — yet we still ended up at Vasquez Rocks!
Welcome to Eternia
Welcome to Vasquez Rocks
The maps at Schickman’s feet are of the locations we pretended we were going to shoot at: Valley of Fire, Craters of the Moon, Pinnacles National Park, and Iceland.
Remains of last meeting with Rony Yacov!
Extra padding for those particularly nasty Cannon fights
“Robert! Don’t make trouble!” This refers to my Art Director, Robert Howland.
For on-the-spot cutting
“Bill Stout! Have you and the rest of the Art Department signed those Mattel deals?!” Once again, referring to our negotiation for toy royalties.
Double-Barrel Budget Blaster
Note: AB Smoke tank: For use when Schickman accidentally inhales too much clean air while on location
Anti-Art Director Rockets
“Why is this taking so long?”
“GAR-RRYY! (pronounced “Geh-Weeeee”!)
For major script changes
This posting includes some miscellaneous designs I did for Masters of the Universe.
I was delighted to design Robby’s Ribs ‘n’ Chicken. Why? Because it wasn’t a fantasy or sci-fi set. It showed I could design contemporary America in a thoughtful, interesting way, thereby expanding my design job opportunities.
Julie’s fast food workplace was named after my art director, Robert Howland.
We couldn’t afford to build a fast food restaurant from scratch, so I took an existing real fast food eatery and designed plugs to cover the existing signage and made it our own.
A macabre bit of MOTU trivia:
The front of the place we used for Robby’s is where Rodney King was severely beaten.
This is how the place looked before I changed it:
We referred to the random piece of contemporary America that got transported to the throne room as “Chunk ‘o’ Town.”
It included part of the car our characters were in. It pained me to cut that perfectly preserved vintage car in half. It was restored and in beautiful condition before we got our hands on it.
Here’s the design for Skeletor‘s ship, which he rode down the main street of Whittier, California:
There was a comics shop on that main drag. When we were shooting there, the shop, by sheer coincidence, had four of my movie posters on display.
I was contacted by a German Masters of the Universe fanzine a couple of years ago. They did a long interview with me. After the interview, I asked them if they would like images to go with the interview.
“Yes!” was their enthusiastic response.
“How many images would you like?” I enquired.
“How many have you got?”
“130…”
“We’ll use them all!”
And they did. Suddenly, this little magazine became a thick and very thorough full-color book. I believe I got about 100 copies, which I sold on my website shop. I added a translation to each book, as the text was in German. They sold out in an unbelievably short amount of time. If you should ever run across a copy, my advice would be to purchase it. Here’s the cover:
I have to add now that the other day, in preparing for more MOTU Untold Tales of Hollywood postings, I found even more unpublished MOTU designs. So, my German friends, even though you own this hard-to-find book, here you will find even more MOTU art. I am interspersing them with previous MOTU postings, as well as adding them to upcoming postings.