Category Archives: E. R. Torre Art

E. R. Torre Art

Sketchin’ 87

Yeah, just posted one picture but, what the heck, why not go ahead and post another?

In this case, I’ve moved away from movies and actors that fascinate me and into something far more personal.

As I’m getting closer to finishing my Corrosive Knights series of novels, I’ve been considering re-doing some of the covers of previous novels.  One of the ones I’ve considered re-doing is Nox (Book #4 in the series) and this is a quick and dirty piece which… well, I’m not sure I’ll use it, but it was a fun exercise to do nonetheless.

Here then is the Mechanic known as… Nox!

E. R. Torre Art

Sketchin’ 86

First off, its great to be back.

The reason I haven’t posted all that much of late is because for the past two weeks I’ve been on vacation in lovely California.  It’s the first time in a VERY long time I’ve had that much free time in a row and I feel rested and refreshed and ready to get back to work.

Before I took off on vacation, I posted my very positive impression of the recently released Annotated Big Sleep, a book which features Raymond Chandler’s classic 1939 novel along with plenty of annotations (natch) offering information on the novel, Los Angeles back in the 1930’s (this information proved fascinating considering the first few days of my vacation were spent in LA), along with other great bits of information regarding the novel (you can read the whole thing here).

Even though I was on vacation, I couldn’t help myself and, inspired by that book, had to take on the famous Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall movie version of that novel.  As much as I like the movie, it doesn’t hold a candle to the Raymond Chandler novel (either the original cut of it, which featured less of Bacall, or the eventual theatrical release… both are available on the DVD).

Having said that, you truly should not only read the novel, but see the film.  They’re both worth taking in!

E. R. Torre Art

Sketchin’ 85

Released in 1954, the movie Them! (with or without the exclamation point) was a very effective giant-monsters-on-the-loose feature of the type that was all the rage in the 1950’s.

This one, of course, involved giant ants and was played remarkably straight and, despite some by today’s standards not all that great effects, it built up a decent amount of suspense and thrills. A few years later Alfred Hitchcock would turn the creatures on the loose formula around and inside out with The Birds.

E. R. Torre Art

Sketchin’ 83

Seems like forever since I last posted a new piece.  Blame it on my latest Corrosive Knights novel, Book #7.  As it nears completion, its been taking up most of my free time (and sanity).

But I needed to get away and my subject is the wonderful Talos scene from the also very wonderful 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts. The legendary Ray Harryhausen provided the special effects for this movie and while most people (perhaps rightfully!) point out the great sequence involving Jason fighting off the skeletons, I’m partial to Talos. He’s a giant metallic creature that comes to life and makes life quite miserable for Jason and his gang and I just love that sequence to bits. Sure, the effects are crude compared to what can be done today, but I loved it then and still love it today!

E. R. Torre Art

Sketchin’ 82

I consider three films my all time favorites and one of those three, quite possible THE #1 in the group, is the subject of this piece, the 1927 sci-fi classic Metropolis.

Directed by Fritz Lang and written by Thea Von Harbou, the movie was a flop when originally released and the German studio that financed it, desperate to turn a profit on what was a very expensive undertaking, clipped the film down. For many years, the original cut of the film was thought lost but, by a miracle, an almost complete print, damaged but watchable, was found in South America and today we can see the film almost as it originally was intended (there remains a sequence which was too damaged to salvage, but otherwise you have most of the film available).

HIGHLY recommended.

E. R. Torre Art

Sketchin’ 81

Humphrey Bogart made many, many films. Several of them are stone cold classics while others… not so much.

Arguably the most bizarre film he made is likely the subject of this piece, 1939’s The Return of Doctor X.  Bogart said of this film:

“This is one of the pictures that made me march in to [Warner Bros. studio chief Jack L. Warner] and ask for more money again. You can’t believe what this one was like. I had a part that somebody like Bela Lugosi or Boris Karloff should have played. I was this doctor, brought back to life, and the only thing that nourished this poor bastard was blood. If it had been Jack Warner’s blood or [Harry Warner’s] or [Sam Warner’s] maybe I wouldn’t have minded as much. The trouble was, they were drinking mine and I was making this stinking movie.”

Clearly, Mr. Bogart had little love for the movie but, you know what? He really wasn’t bad in it in a role that, let’s be honest, probably would have worked better with Karloff or Lugosi.

E. R. Torre Art

Sketchin’ 80

Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, though best known for playing Frankenstein’s monster and Dracula respectively, appeared together in several films from 1934 to 1945, the first of which is the subject of my latest piece, 1934’s The Black Cat. Ostensibly based on the Edgar Allan Poe story, the movie involved satanic worship and… a chess game. Great stuff!

Other Karloff/Lugosi team ups include The Raven (1935), The Invisible Ray (1936), Son of Frankenstein (1940), Black Friday (1940), You’ll Find Out (1940), and The Body Snatcher (1945).

I can’t help but smile when I see the two together, though, thinking about Martin Landau, playing an elderly drug addled Bela Lugosi, going on a tear about the acting “talent” of Boris Karloff in the film Ed Wood. May have to catch that one again.

E. R. Torre Art

Sketchin’ 79

Here’s something very different from the stuff I’ve been presenting: A piece penciled by comic book legend John Byrne (the original piece was posted by Mr. Byrne here:  www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/fo…) and inked by yours truly.

I think my piece looks fine… though I also feel my inks have somehow buried the typical “look” of Mr. Byrne’s art.  When inking someone else’s pencils, there are inkers whose inks may complement well the pencils while in other cases they might “overpower” the penciller’s work.

I think this kinda/sorta happened here, even if the ultimate piece isn’t bad on its own.  My only excuse for this is that the “pencils” I used for my digital inks were drawn from a photograph of the pencils (its there to behold!) and there were parts that were hard to distinguish.

But enough excuses!

E. R. Torre Art

Sketchin’ 78

Released in 1958, The Colossus of New York isn’t one of the better known horror/monster films of yesteryear, yet its one that, despite my having seen it one time when I was a kid, has stuck with me.

Basically the film was a 60/40 mix of Frankenstein and King Kong, with a man’s brain placed in the “colossus”, a robotic body, with tragic results.  The man who would become the Colossus was played by Ross Martin, who would go on to greater success as Artemis Gordon in The Wild Wild West TV show.