An "Illostribute" to Al Dorne

One of my favourite illustrators, Albert Dorne, is the subject of a tribute on one of my favourite blogs, Toby Neighbors' Illostribute.Toby describes the Illostribute concept as "a new, collaborative illustration blog. The idea is to pay tribute to “master” illustrators (and occasionally fine artists) by seriously investigating their work, through interpretation."Toby has posted many great examples of Dorne's work (I'm happy I was able to help out...

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John McDermott: "In the early '50s he did some paperback covers..."

The entry on John McDermott in Piet Schreuders' "The Book of Paperbacks" is brief. After a paragraph of biographical info, it reads simply:"In the early '50s he did some paperback covers for Pocket Books, specializing in action scenes."Not mentioned is that McDermott can lay claim to having illustrated the cover of one of the 20th century's most memorable pop culture tomes...... or McDermott's dynamic graphic experimentation, which he began incorporating...

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John McDermott: Tough Guy Illustrator

After the young John McDermott graduated from Hollywood High School (and without any formal art training) he landed a job as an animator at Walt Disney Studios. As last week's guest author Ken Steacy noted, McDermott was there during the legendary 1930s Disney animators strike, which explains the title and tone of one of his other books, The Rat Factory.When WWII came, McDermott joined the Marines. He served as a combat artist with the 3rd Amphibious...

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'Loving' ... John McDermott!

Last week's series by guest author Ken Steacy on Brooks Wilson Ltd. and the 1970 feature film Loving certainly garnered a lot of interest from readers... and really piqued my curiosity. Just who was responsible for all that prop artwork Ken showed us in his screen caps from the film?I managed to ID this one piece, below, as being by John McDermott...... and reader David Apatoff surmised that since McDermott was the author of the book, it makes sense...

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"Loving" the Attention to Detail!

By guest author Ken Steacy(This is the conclusion of Ken's look at the 1970 George Segal feature film, 'Loving', which was based on the book, 'Brooks Wilson Ltd.')What makes the film really fascinating is the remarkably accurate depiction of Brooks’ working method. There are no credits at the end of the film for the artist who created this amazing prop, so if any of the members recognize the work please let us know.We see him shooting reference for...

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Brooks Wilson Strikes Back!

By guest author, Ken SteacyAmazingly, a feature film based upon Brooks Wilson Ltd. was made in 1970. Titled ‘Loving’ (for no apparent reason!), it starred George Segal in the title role with support from Eva Marie Saint as his long-suffering wife, Keenan Wynn as his bullying agent, Sterling Hayden as the impossible client Mr. Lepridon, and Roy Scheider as the harried agency flack. The director was Irving Kershner, who George Lucas tapped a decade...

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