The Bright Sunny Day

He lies there shivering on the soft grass covering the hard ground on this bright sunny day. If he could concentrate on the world around him, he might find some humor in that incongruity, but the outside world does not exist for him. All that exists is his pain…and his need.

On this pleasant day of early afternoon sun, of mild temperature and soft breeze, his is a world of gnawing ache and uncontrolled trembling. He holds himself tightly trying to comfort himself like an old friend, as the sweat pours down his face, drips from his oily hair, pools in the hollow of his neck. His clothes are so drenched with his bodily secretions that they stick to him in odd ways, like insects trapped and dying on brown curls of flypaper.

His head throbs, pounding like a jack hammer, so much so that his only relief, his only solace is the pauses between throbs, when the pounding doesn’t feel like it will crush his brain and splatter it against the inside of his skull. The rest of his body is a mass of contradictions: it seems all he is aches in unison, a glorious orgy of pain and suffering, but he can feel the goose pimples dotting his arms and feels the cold numbness grabbing at his fingers, toes and cock.

The thought comes to him: if he lives through this day, will he ever have sex again, or is something fundamental to his manliness being broken? For the first time in hours he laughs, for the answer is a startling, “Who cares?” Sexual gratification is not his addiction, not today anyway.

That’s not what he wants. Damn him, that’s not what he needs, not why he aches in this self-made hell.

When he had started, they all told him this day would come. Somehow, he thought it would be easier. He lies there shivering on the soft grass covering the hard ground on this bright sunny day.


Copyright 2014 Barry Keller. All rights reserved.

Panel Love

For a few years I did a blog called DC Comics 40 Years Ago, which displayed what comics you could buy from DC 40 years ago. As much as I would love to get back to doing that blog on a regular basis, it is just not in the cards right now. I am spending most of my free time in pursuits artistic. Almost every Sunday you can find me at William Stout's studio, where I join a collection of some of the nicest people you could ever want to meet, in the joys of drawing the naked female form. Back at my own studio I have been painting regularly for a bit now, in either pastels, acrylics or watercolors. I've also been toying with the idea of doing an online comic, though nothing has jelled in that department as of yet. You can find some of my artwork on my website, @ Source.

But I like to write. I have recently started updating this blog once again, am working on a novel and a couple other ideas. But I love comic books and I did so enjoy doing the DC 40 Years Ago blog; it was just the ever-present deadlines that took the fun away. So, I have started a new blog, one with no deadlines. In it I will revisit some of my favorite comic books, not just from DC, but from any publisher. Most of it will be new, but some of it will consist of repurposed and reedited entries from DC 40 Years Ago . It is called Panel Love and is just in its infancy. If you  have even a passing interest in comics, I think you will like Panel Love. It is just me, my opinions and some of the greatest comic books of all time.

It's Over!

I feel really old and out of it when I see a photo of a couple on the Internet with the headline "It's Over!" and I have no idea who either person is

Then There's Maude

Sometimes the gods look down upon you with something less than loathing and give you a gift. Sunday they gave me Maude and an amazing 25-minute pose of her remarkable backside. Backsides like Maude's are the reason we heap tributes to the gods. Girault pastels on a La Carte Pastel Card. Painted January 5, 2014.

Bowie

 

My son informed me last night that our family dog, Bowie, had to be put to sleep earlier this week and so my heart is filled with sadness for the loss of just a sweet little soul.

Bowie was a rescue dog and when we got him he was funny looking, having been completely shaved at the pound. I called him a "coiled python" because his big neck was solid muscle. At the pound they had called him Elvis, because he sang (howled) all the time. We knew he was a crooner, but my wife didn't want to keep the Elvis name, so we looked for others. I wanted to call him Torme, but my wife would not have it. Finally we settled on Bowie.

He was one of those happy dogs that loved people and his tail would wag so hard when you walked into a room that the whole back half of his body would move with it. Though he loved people, he was not so free with other dogs. It took a while for him to get used to Sophie when she joined our family. When we would take them both to the dog park, Sophie would run around and play with the other dogs and Bowie would scoot up next to us and cower.

He was just a sweet little dog and I loved him and I miss him. Rest in peace Bowie; you gave us so much love during your time with us that you deserve it my little friend.

This is a Man's World

So very jazzed that we will be seeing Trampled Under Foot in October on the Blues Cruise. This will be our first time taking the Blues Cruise and we can't wait.

FCINO!

For some odd reason here it is the day before Christmas and I am obsessing on my latest pet peeve: FCINO, or Famous Characters In Name Only. FCINO is the latest fad sweeping through Hollywood, mostly in TV but also in the movies. In fact, one FCINO is in both. Let's start there.

Robert Downey Jr. is a wonderful actor of incredible talent and more charm than any two men deserve to possess, but he is part of a FCINO franchise that just drives me up the wall. This would be his series of supposedly Sherlock Holmes movies. Sherlock Holmes never was and never will be an action star and yet, there he is as one in Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. I am not saying these aren't fun films to watch, just that these are not Sherlock Holmes films.

Neither is Elementary a TV show about Sherlock Holmes. Now I am not saying this is not an entertaining show or that Jonny Lee Miler is not excellent as the protagonist, I'm just saying that that protagonist, despite his name, is not Sherlock Holmes. And it has nothing to do with the show being set in modern times, Sherlock on PBS is a wonderful show set in modern times and Benedict Cumberbatch plays a character not only named Sherlock Holmes but who, in fact, is Sherlock Holmes. And do not get me started on Lucy Liu not being Watson.

But the phenomenon of FCINO is not limited to bright-minded detectives. There is a TV show called Sleepy Hollow which features a character named Ichabod Crane, who is not, in any way, Ichabod Crane. Now the producers of this show were not the first to bastardize the Legend of Sleepy Hollow; Tim Burton beat them to it by over a decade, but at least the story in that Sleepy Hollow retained some semblance of Washington Irving's plot-points and characters. TV's Sleepy Hollow is about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Entertaining? Perhaps, but Ichabod Crane in name only. 

This past summer one of the biggest box office bombs was a FCINO entitled The Lone Ranger. It probably did not help that the main character in the movie was Tonto, not the buy pretending to be The Lone Ranger.

The latest FCINO occurrence is on NBC and it is entitled Dracula. Not saying this is a bad show, but Jonathan Rhys Meyers is playing a famous character in name only. I loved Meyers in The Tudors, but that is not enough to keep me watching a title character that is not, well, the title character we all know.

Get Naked!

One of those ads they make knowing they will never get them on TV. "Come again!"

Better Things

I participated in a KickStarter campaign for the film Better Things: The Life and Choices of Jeffrey Catherine Jones and received the DVD, a book of artwork and some postcards in the mail yesterday. Last night we watched the film and I loved it. My only gripe is that they have a tendency to pan over Jeff's paintings rather than linger, so you get a taste of them, but with many, not the impact of them. If you loved Jeff's work or are a fan of fantasy or comic artwork, you will appreciate this film.

Besides dealing with Jeff's artistic history, it also delves deeply into his years as a cross-dresser and his eventual trans-gendering from Jeffrey to Catherine. Jeffrey Catherine Jones is no longer with us, but the amazing artwork that was produced in his lifetime will be with us forever.

The film really inspired me to paint again with a web medium, so much so that I gessoed a canvas this morning and am working out ideas for my first acrylic in 10 years or so. We will see how that turns out in later posts.

New Newton Painting

As you may know, I am the owner of the The Art of Don Newton website dedicated to the memory of the great comic book artist Don Newton. Don died in 1984 and in his early career painted quite a bit. As he took on the full-time job of comic book penciler, his production of paintings dropped off the almost zero. This painting was done in 1983 and may be one of the last he ever did. It was originally supposed to be the cover for the Overstreet Price Guide for 1983, but it was never used for that purpose. This year though Bob Overstreet published The Overstreet Guide To Collecting Comics #1 DC Heroes Edition, and used this as the cover. He subsequently put the painting up for auction and it is now one of the gems of my personal Newton art collection.

Adrian!

A 25-minute sketch of Adrian done today at Bill Stout's studio. This is black and white charcoal pencil on grey Strathmore paper.

Dive! Dive!

Us on the "deck" of the "submarine" on Catalina Island. I used the quotes as this thing never actually submerges. It was a beautiful day though.

Arrrr!

State Street Winery in Redlands held their first Halloween bash Saturday night and Paula reserved us a table. We had everything we needed except costumes. We decided to go as pirates, but when we got home from the costume shop, my pirate shirt did not fit me, so Paula went to the store, bought material and made my shirt, pants and our matching vests all on Saturday before the party. I think they turned out great and we won Best Couple's Costumes at State Street where we had a blast dancing the night away to Minor 6th.

 

Jungle Girl

A piece I did at Bill Stout's studio today, Jennifer in black and white charcoal pencil on gray Strathmore paper. A 25-minute sketch. She brought her own spear and outfit; Stout had the skull. Now normally the models at Stout's are nude, but Jennifer thought Bill would appreciate the outfit and she wore it all day long. It worked, we all enjoyed the change of pace.

My Alex Nino

Today at the San Diego Comic Fest I purchased this beautiful piece from the great Alex Nino. It was a thrill to meet the man and even more so to see the rich catalog of artwork he had for sale. This one is done in Prismacolor pencils on black paper and I am very happy to add it to my collection of wonderful fantasy artwork.

Batman

This is a page I did for the Kubert School Correspondence Courses group on Facebook. A number of people were each given one page of a Batman script to illustrate. The idea was that we would all show our pages and put them together into a PDF file, but only three people even finished their page so that never happened. Oh well, nice to practice.

Look! Up in the sky!

Yep, we are in Albuquerque. What did you expect to see?

Nobody's Inn

We checked in today at the Nobody's Inn in Durango, CO., so named because, well, nobody was in. We received a code in an email which got us in the door then upstairs we found the key to our room in the door. It was exhaustive carrying our luggage up the steep stairs to our room after spending the day at Mesa Verde. Had we known the door in the back of the hotel was on the upper floor that would have helped a lot. Anyway, very cute place and right downtown.

It Is Real!

We arrived at Monument Valley today and all that stuff you see in the movies, it's real! Not ashamed to admit it made me cry.

Another Sleepy, Dusty, Delta Day

It is the Third of June; Happy Ode to Billie Joe Day!