Lefty Limbo

(Circa 1976–’78, 6–8 yrs. old) Above is probably the best example of how I exploited the dot-matrix printer sheets that my mom would bring home from the UCLA library where she worked in the ’70s. Once again, courtesy of That ’70s Box which has been a seemingly bottomless pit of drawings from my childhood.

The virtually endless canvas allowed me to create detailed battle scenes such as this one, filled with all the horror and glory of warfare, seen through the eyes of a lad whose dad exposed him to epic WWII films at an early, early age. I can still recall making the various weapon and vehicle noises while I drew, from the chatter of machine gun fire to the droning prop engines of the bombers flying overhead, peppered with the “BOOOZZHHHH!!” of tank turret rounds. It was great fun.

It’s too bad Flickr wouldn’t let me maintain a large size which would allow one to scroll through the scenery. So instead, I had to rescan highlights of the vista for your viewing pleasure. Do enjoy, nevertheless.

Yup, it’s typically no contest between a jeep and a tank. What strikes me most about this scene though is the meticulous detail I put into the soldier’s skeleton. It’s one thing to show the vehicle’s destruction, but the skeletal remains of its driver, stripped completely of its flesh? I was more macabre than I thought.

Wow, I even drew his teeth? I really did want to expose the grim reality of war after all. Funny, to this day I find the topic of our death and mortality the most fascinating of all.

One distinct detail I found myself drawn to in the WWII movies was the swastika, whose emblem became synonymous with “the bad guys”…and in this battle, they clearly weren’t winning…note below though, on the plane’s left wing, it looks as though I’d originally planned to make it an American aircraft (see the beginning of a USAF symbol).

Still wonder how I could spend so much time drawing that skeleton, then only put in half the effort on these “living” soldiers. Hmm. Shouldn’t have turned your back on that approaching bomber there, mister.

Man, this guy really bit it, bigtime. Getting hit by both a bomber and a tank at the same time? That had to hurt, even if for a fraction of a second. I laugh when I imagine that huge bomber going in at an extremely low level just to get that dood. “Take that!” The ghosted image of Darth Vader (drawn on the other side of the sheet) appears to look on with approval.

Last but not least, don’t forget to pull the pin before throwing the grenade.

One of the most impressionable photographs for me in the ’70s (aside from the infamous Farrah Fawcett poster) was this huge fold-out centerfold spread of the USS Enterprise in an old 1964 issue of National Geographic. My dad had a ton of those old yellow-jacketed magazines laying around, and it was only a matter of time before I discovered that particular one.

And boy, was it a discovery indeed. I would spend hours just daydreaming over that picture; imagining myself on the flight deck, walking amidst and touching those fighter jets, or wondering how jacked it would be to fall off that deck into the sea. Needless to say, it definitely had an influence on the subject of my drawings for quite some time—especially Einstein’s formula for kinetic energy, the very first, if not the only, mathematical equation my little mind took interest in.

The date courtesy of my dad, whom I’m 1000% sure was by my side (I was about to turn 6 yrs. old) dictating to me the month, day and year. He was totally insistent on me dating and signing every single piece of art I created. I remember rolling my eyes constantly and begrudgingly doing so when I was a kid, but now I’m happy to find treasures like this that mark a very specific instance in my wonder years.

One of the most unusual, yet extremely precious finds in the clutter of my childhood is this unopened Revell model kit of a Javelin SST.

Not that I even know what a Javelin is, but what makes it valuable is the memory of my dad collecting model kits by the dozens when I was a tiny li’l shrimp (3–5 yrs. old). I vividly remember sitting in the shopping cart while my dad wiped store shelves clean of model kits and HO scale trains that were on clearance, piling all these curious cardboard boxes on top of me while I looked on.

Back in the early to mid-’70s, the department stores we frequented most on the Westside were Fedco, Zodys, and Two Guys. I think Two Guys was my dad’s favorite though; he recalls a time when they were blowing out AHM and Tyco HO train cars at $.50 a pop. Speaking of which, this model here was only $.79 at Radio Shack of all places.

I wonder how long it took for the artist to paint these illustrations. I would imagine much longer than it takes someone to crank something out these days.

You may be wondering if I’m ever going to put this up on Ebay. Heck no. I have been tempted to open it and even build it, but then I knew for sure I’d regret it if I did. Meanwhile, someone did sell one online for 69 Euros ($93 USD).

Wow, I just noticed the ©1971 notation on the panel above. Did he get this one when I was only 1 year old? I wonder if being exposed to models at such an early age got me into all that stuff and made me the geek I am today. Thanks, Dad.

Of all the cool things I’ve caught on YouTube lately, this short but sweet home video of good ol’ Fedco really brought back some great memories. It was taken in 1984—a little later than my heyday (which was probably more like 1976–1981, when I practically lived in their toy section)—but it still gives a rare glimpse into the heart of one of the most beloved and frequented department stores of my childhood. Since replaced by a Target, Fedco has vanished into the mist, but thanks to this video, Fedco Lives!

With Halloween around the corner, I’ve thought about what I want to dress up as. But with all my energy and time funneled into my mini-me, dressing up this year is simply out of the question.

Meanwhile, I have had some time to reflect on how it used to be going Trick-or-Treating back in the ’70s and ’80s when I was a kid. Back then, unless a kid was totally imaginative and original, they’d end up with a store-bought 2-piece costume which consisted of a plastic face mask (held in place by an elastic string) and a rubbery “smock” which wrapped around the body like an apron, tied in the back with a drawstring.

Plaid Stallions has always regaled me with the best pop-culture snapshots of the ’70s and ’80s, and in the Halloween costume department, they’ve struck gold once again with the 1981 Collegeville Costumes Catalog.

Man! What I would’ve done to be a caped Kraken (at left, bottom right costume) from Clash of the Titans, one of my favorite movies that year! Geez.

Yes, costumes have come a far way in both quality (and price) since then. Kids these days are treated to some great costumes which are both comfortable and realistic. Back in the day, that “smock-n-mask” combo was pretty much the standard, and the best costumes were usually the ones depicting the most popular characters of the time.

So what about the not-so-popular characters? Retrocrush’s Worst Halloween Costumes Of All Time has perhaps the best sampling I’ve seen of vintage costumes that make me say WTF(!) Funny thing is, they’re so classically bad that if one was to wear them now, they’d be a hit. C’mon, who wouldn’t want to be Asteroid for Halloween, huh? =)

You can blame the movies and Kenner© toys for my childhood Star Wars obsession, but it was all my dad’s fault for getting me into WWII military aircraft, specifically the American B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, and the B-25 Mitchell. He’s a huge WWII buff, and as early as 5–6 years old he already had me watching such wartime classic films as The Longest Day, Bridge On The River Kwai, Tobruk and countless others, which he swore were the best films ever made.

Anyways, here’s some more true gems that I’ve scanned from That ’70s Box, whose page I may as well turn into a blog of its own, since I have so many papers left to scan. Click on either picture for larger images and more info. Unfortunately, neither of them have a date written on them, so I can only guess, judging by the detail, that they were probably done 1978–’79, which was around the time that my dad got me this big, beautifully illustrated coffee table book on American bombers of WWII. Ugh, I wish I could remember which book it was. Nevertheless, that book totally inspired me to take my own fantasy flights on paper.

Once again, thanks to my Mom working as a librarian at UCLA, I had more than enough paper to draw on in my childhood. The drawing below was done on one huge piece of paper which I had to scan in 4 sections and piece together. I labeled it as a 11×17 on Flickr but it’s actually bigger than that.

Enjoy!