Category: Misc.

I just posted Volume One of William Stout’s Comics & Stories in this website’s shop. You can now purchase it directly from me (https://www.williamstout.com/news/journal/product/william-stouts-comics-stories-volume-one/), my publisher, Flesk Publications, who also has the trade paperback edition (https://www.fleskpublications.com/books/p/william-stouts-comics-volume-1-signed-hardcover), or Bud’s Art Books (https://www.budsartbooks.com/product/william-stouts-comics-and-stories-volume-1-hardcover-signed/).

The Flesk deluxe hardcover has an extra full-color signed plate. Bud’s Art Books has a different full-color signed plate. I sign all of the books sold on my site.

Stout’s latest book, William Stout’s Comics & Stories – Volume One is now available from Flesk Publishing! It’s the first of a three-volume set collecting ALL of Stout’s comics-related art (except for his underground comix; those will be collected in a separate book coming from Last Gasp; don’t want to shock the moms out there).

The book comes in a beautiful trade paperback edition ($44.95) as well as a deluxe signed and limited (to just 1000 copies) hardcover edition ($69.95) that includes an extra Edgar Rice Burroughs-inspired bound-in full-color plate. Believe me, like Fantastic Worlds, these gorgeous hardcovers will sell out fast!

The book’s 304 pages contain Bill’s early exposure to and his attempts to create and draw superhero comics; his years at America’s greatest art school (the Chouinard Art Institute); his apprenticeship under Russ Manning and Stout’s devotion to the novels written by Tarzan‘s and John Carter‘s creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs; and the complete collection of Stout’s work for Petersen Publications (including CYCLE-toons and CAR-toons), as well as all of Bill’s surprising amount of sports-related comics.

This volume’s chapters are mostly chronological. The text is pretty autobiographical (Bill has had an amazing life and has worked with some of the greatest comics creators in the world). The content of the two future volumes will be mostly based upon subject matter, i.e., mainstream comics, commercial comics work, advertising comics work, comics-style illustration, etc. The text for these last two volumes will also include Stout’s memories of what it was like to work with many of the comics world’s legendary giants and what they were like away from the drawing board as people.

Save ten bucks if you order the hardcover directly from the Flesk Publishing. Here’s a link to their website:
https://www.fleskpublications.com/books/p/william-stouts-comics-volume-1-signed-hardcover

Here’s another batch of Jurassic Park advertising ideas and graphics:

The following image is a preview of the Universal Studios change of direction in promoting Jurassic Park.

Here are six more of my Jurassic Park ad ideas…

Even more to come; I was a busy bee…

Here are a couple of my ideas that ended up in Jurassic Park:

When I was honeymooning in East Africa, one of the places I visited was The Ark in Kenya. The Ark sits at the edge of a salt lick that animals have been coming to for centuries. You can watch different animals and different groups of animals visit the salt lick in succession 24 hours a day (yes, all night long as well).

You can watch the animals visit the lick from above, from floor level, or from ground level. There is one-way glass so that the animals can’t see you. The elephants came right up next to The Ark.

The lungs of the elephant were so huge, it was like being right next to a pair of gigantic sub-woofers. We watched as our heroes in the film listened to the colossal lungs of an ailing Triceratops.

I have noticed that at first glance, both frigate birds and pelicans look just like pterosaurs — until you realize they aren’t. This pelican/pterosaur fake-out of mine was used at the end of the film.

So, although officially, I did not work on the film Jurassic Park, I was hired by the Universal Studios publicity department to work on the advertising for the film. Before any negotiations took place, Universal set the prices for each design at much more than I would have charged. Because of that, this became one of the most lucrative jobs of my career, as I cranked out loads of ad ideas, both my own and the art director’s.

I was left up to my own at first. Here are some of the ad ideas I came up with:

The skull above has begun the restorative life process with the T. rex’s eye…

Much more to come…

Film #47: Jurassic Park
Director: Steven Spielberg
Production Designer: Rick Carter
Concept Designer: William Stout

One day, I received a mysterious package in the mail. I had (and still have) no idea who sent it to me. It was a type-written draft of a yet-to-be-published novel. There was a Post-It note stuck to the front page. It read:

“Read this manuscript. Don’t read the very last page until you have read the entire novel.”

What the heck…?

So, I am reading this manuscript for a novel. I am relating to it. It’s got dinosaurs. I’m the Dinosaur Guy. The people described in the book are all friends of mine. I can tell you what clothes they would be wearing. A lot of the story takes place in a theme park. I just spent two-and-a-half years designing theme parks for both Disney and Universal.

If it were to become a movie, this seems like a perfect movie for me to production design. Now I am becoming worried and anxious. This all seems like too perfect a fit. There’s an old unwritten Hollywood axiom: The more perfect you are for a film, the less likely it is that you will get it.

Then, I get to the last page of what I now realize is the as-yet-to-be-published novel of Michael Crichton‘s Jurassic Park. On that last page, Crichton acknowledges me and my work as an inspiration for the book.

I now know I am totally screwed…This is not going to happen. I am too perfect for the job.

I discovered that Steven Spielberg will be directing the film of this Crichton novel. I decided to try to get the job of production designer anyway.

Another HUGE strike against me. A lot of the people who run Hollywood are like big babies. They typically want what they think they can’t have. If you actually go after a job, the chances become even greater that you will not get that gig. Nevertheless, Jurassic Park is such a perfect fit that I feel I at least have to try to get the job, despite the odds against me.

A big part of the problem was my expertise in the subject matter. The producers did not want some so-called dinosaur expert telling Steven Spielberg what he could or couldn’t do with his dinosaurs or how they should look. But I knew that. I’ve worked in The Biz. I knew that Jurassic Park was not a documentary — it was a popcorn movie. I wasn’t about to burst Steven’s bubble on anything. But, from the producer’s point of view, better not to hire me and avoid that potential issue…just in case…

Obviously, I didn’t become the production designer for Jurassic Park. My friend, the brilliant Rick Carter, King of the Visual Metaphors, got that gig.

I had lunch every other week with Rick and fed him ideas for inclusion in the film. Later, I was happy to see that all of those ideas of mine made it into the film’s final cut.

Then, I did the single stupidest thing I have ever done in regards to my film career. At our last lunch together, I began quoting Marlon Brando‘s views on “Movies as Great Art” from his interview in Playboy. According to Brando, no film ever made qualifies as Great Art. He argued that no movie has ever come up to the artistic level of the works of Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Beethoven, or Mozart — truly and inarguably Great Timeless Art.

When approached by Rick (in regards to my opinion on the subject), I sided with Brando, cruelly and stupidly dismissing films as a lesser art form (“It’s called The Movie Business –— not the Movie Arts“, I reminded him) and the work that Rick did as not being anywhere near as important as, say, the one-man show I currently had on display back then at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

What a smug little jerk I was. What a thoughtless, arrogant thing to say. I behaved like a total asshole, and it immediately (deservedly so) ended our friendship. I have regretted that lunch and my abhorrent behavior that day ever since. What in the hell was I thinking? More evidence, I guess, of me being “on the spectrum.”

Shame on me.

Film #46: This Present Darkness (1992)
Produced by Howard Kazanjian
Presentation Art by William Stout

This Present Darkness was a Christian thriller novel written by Frank Peretti that Star Wars producer Howard Kazanjian wanted to make as a film. Howard hired me to create the presentation art that would hopefully get the financing for the film. I painted one color piece…

…as well as two black & white illustrations of key scenes from the film.

Unfortunately, this movie never got its financing.

Film #45: Father Dowling’s Mysteries

There was an episode of the TV series Father Dowling’s Mysteries that took place in a natural history museum. The producers decided to shoot that episode at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

During the time period this episode was shot, my one-man show, Dinosaurs, Penguins and Whales – The Wildlife of Antarctica, was in the main foyer of the museum.

Because my paintings appear in several of the show’s shots, that meant the production had to get my permission to shoot there.

I gave them my permission — but made them jump through a few humorous hoops before doing so.

Film #44: Rambling Rose (1991)
Directed by Martha Coolidge
Prop Construction by William Stout

As much as I have urged you not to see Theodore Rex, I urge you to track down and watch Rambling Rose. It’s a great motion picture. It stars Laura Dern, Robert Duvall and Diane Ladd.

I became friends with director Martha Coolidge through Ron Cobb. Martha had previously leaned on me for some of my vast musical knowledge.

This gig was something different.

She called me one afternoon.

“Bill…I am working on this film called Rambling Rose. In the script, there is a reference to something called a ‘Tijuana Bible’. Do you know what that is?”

“I sure do! Tijuana Bibles were a precursor to underground comix. They were small, digest-sized comics that featured famous cartoon characters or cartoons of movie stars having sex. These small comics could be held in one hand. You could use your other hand to do whatever pleased you. They were called ‘Tijuana’ Bibles because Tijuana is where you bought them.”

“Where could I get one?”

“I honestly don’t know. These comics were made in the 50s. I haven’t seen any in decades. How ’bout if I made you one?”

“That would be great!”

In the film, the Laura Dern character (Rose) finds a Tijuana Bible in a hayloft. That’s my hand-drawn Tijuana Bible that she discovers.

Unfortunately, I didn’t make copies of it.

I was finally off of Theodore Rex.

Several months later, after my return from Antarctica, I got a panicked call from the production. They needed me to come in and see what had been done on the film and critique it. They wanted to know if I could find any ways they could improve (save) the movie. They offered to pay me a hundred bucks for a few hours of my time. I was curious, so I drove over to the West Side of L. A.

I don’t think they really wanted my true opinion, though, as after I looked at what they had done, I advised them to fire the head of their make-up department and promote the guy who I thought was easily their best sculptor to head the unit.

They really did not want to hear that.

Here are more Theodore Rex designs from my first go-round on the film:

To my amazement, Theodore Rex got made. Even more to my amazement, somehow, Whoopi Goldberg ended up being cast as the lead in the film. The producers threatened Whoopi with what became known as a Kim Basinger lawsuit, claiming that Whoopi had verbally agreed to star in the film (she was being sued by the producers for $20 million). I gave a five-hour deposition on Whoopi’s behalf, noting that the clowns who called themselves producers had but the barest of knowledge when it came to making movies.

After my deposition, I was shocked that Whoopi nevertheless agreed to make the movie.

Here’s what I was told happened:
They threatened the life of her daughter.

There are so many ways to get even in the Film Biz, however.

After a day of shooting, the director approached Whoopi.

“Whoopi — I’m not seeing any of the Whoopi comedy magic…”

“I see this as a straight role,” was Whoopi’s cool response. Then Whoopi got on the phone with New Line Cinema, the film’s production company.

“You bury this one and I’ll give you two more.”

I heard (I don’t know if this is true) that Theodore Rex ran for two days theatrically somewhere in Nebraska. IMDB says that the film had failed results in four test marketing cities.

That’s one way to get revenge in Hollywood. And that’s how Theodore Rex became the most expensive ($33.5 million) direct-to-video movie ever made. Whoopi has publicly stated that Theodore Rex is the only film in her career that she regrets making (me too, Whoopi!).

And so closes one of the more brutal chapters of my film career. Much more pleasant stuff (and a bit more unfortunate ugliness) to follow…