In Memoriam: Roger Corman

In Memoriam:
Roger Corman

Well, I'm a little late the to the Memoriam of B-Movie Schlockmeister, Roger Corman, a director and producer that had an inordinate affect on the life of a young John Douglas.  I watched an embarrassing amount of Corman movies when I was growing up on a local show on WLUK Channel 11 out of Green Bay, WI, called "T.J. and the A.N.T. (All Night Theater)".  Apparently, they got a library of various old TV shows and B-Movies and anything which had monsters, aliens, or space ships was in my wheelhouse.

When I was a dumb kid (as opposed to now when I am a dumb adult), the movies were scary and terrifying... as opposed to now when I watch them and find them terrifying for a different reason: They point out how dumb and gullible of a child I was (again, as opposed to now when I am a dumb and gullible adult).

When I watched "It Conquered the World" (1957) as a 6 year-old, the alien, nicknamed Beulah, was absolutely terrifying.  Now, only marginally less so, but it remained a part of my monster vocabulary even now (see several postings on this very Blog!).  I didn't see "Jaws", but I did see "Piranha" (1978) at a drive-in movie theater.  And so many others: "Death Race 2000", "Battle Beyond the Stars", "The Raven", "The Masque of Red Death" (and so many other Edgar Allan Poe stories... well, in name only), "Little Shop of Horrors", "The Wasp Woman", "Teenage Caveman"...  I've watched so many movies growing up which were on "Mystery Science Theater 3000" without Tom, Server, and Joel/Mike in the corner, which isn't nearly the flex I like to think it is.

Corman managed to launch the careers and work with so many big names, it shocks the conscience.  Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, William Shatner, James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, and so many more.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the quick digital pencils done on a 2,000px x 3,000px @300 dpi canvas in Rebelle.

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STEP TWO:  And for some dumb reason I keep forgetting to do a halfway step when using Rebelle.  Done mostly with the Acrylic Filbert brush and the Digital Round.

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Done digitally in Rebelle.

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