Bid on A Study in Sherlock w/ORIGINAL ARTWORK

To celebrate the release of my current book A STUDY IN SHERLOCK: 13 YEARS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES ARTWORK 2000-2013 I am having a special auction!!

Right now you can bid on a copy of the book containing nearly every single Sherlock Holmes related piece I've done over the past 13 years. The book includes original illustrations (including the very first one I ever did), small works, unpublished comic art and set and costume designs from the two plays I was involved with. Which also feature photographs taken at said productions.

The winning bidder will not only receive a copy of the book PERSONALLY SIGNED to them but they will also receive an ORIGINAL PEN AND INK ILLUSTRATION!! Also PERSONALLY SIGNED to them.

Click on the link below and Happy Bidding:

A Study in Sherlock w/Original artwork (SIGNED)

A Study in Sherlock cover

I just finished tweaking the file for my next book. A collection of practically all the Sherlock Holmes artwork I have done over the past 12 years. Which will include illustrations, small pen and ink sketches, comic art and set design.

 

I hoping to have a few copies available by the time stART at the Station rolls around. But if things go pear-shaped, it'll be available on Amazon.com and for download on Kindle.

 

Perfect for a last minute stocking stuffer.

 

However Memento Mori, the book I worked on with my wife Syd, WILL be available for purchase at stART. It's already available for purchase and available for download!! You can find a link to it on the right hand side of your computer screen.

My study in Sherlock. Things to look forward to in my next book...

As I finish up on the book I'm working on with my wife Syd, I have also finished compiling illustrations (like the one above) for a book featuring a great number of Sherlock Holmes artwork I have done since 2000. This will include illustrations, comic art and small works.

While not all the work featured will be a gem. Matter of fact some of it is pretty bad. But it does represent a stage in my development as a professional artists and my development in my understand of the character of Sherlock Holmes.

And eventually aided me in my approach of the character when I decided to adapt William Gillette's play into a graphic novel.

I'm hoping to have both this book and the one I'm completing with Syd out just in time for Holiday shopping.

Jeremy Brett: The Definitive Holmes

There have been many great actors who have graced the threshold of 221B Baker Street in the role of Sherlock Holmes. And some awful ones as well. Everyone has their favorite. Their definitive. From Basil Rathbone's sharp, upbeat, and energetic portrayal to most recently Benedict Cumberbatch's more moody and melancholy take on the character.

For me it was Jeremy Brett.

The series he did for Granada Television (shown in the States on the PBS Series Mystery!) was really the first time both Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson were portrayed the way Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had written them. Watson especially who had, with the exception of a handful of films, had always been depicted as a blithering old idiot.

This all changed when David Burke took the role of Watson. Most every production that followed, have depicted Watson very much the way the Granada series did.

In many of those early episodes, I feel as though Jeremy Brett and David Burke resembled Sidney Paget's artwork so much, you would almost think they walked right out of a copy of the Strand Magazine.

Much of the brilliance in Jeremy Brett's portrayal comes from the actor's own personality. In real life, Brett suffered from manic depression. Much of this you can see in his take on Holmes. Having read Conan Doyle's original stories, this is the way I could see the character. Moody, manic, swinging from happiness to anger at the drop of a hat and taking drugs to stave off accute cases of boredom.

Although, in real life, Jeremy Brett actually wrote Lady Jean Doyle (the daughter of the late Sir Arthur) and asked her permission to have Sherlock Holmes kick his addiction to cocaine when he found out children in England looked up to the character and considered him to be a superhero of sorts.

The character is seen emptying a phial of cocaine and burying his needle on the beach in the episode The Devil's Foot.

This was also the first time I feel we also saw in my opinion the definitive portrayal of Holmes's arch-nemesis Professor James Moriarty in the form of Eric Porter.

Although the character remains in check, you do get the feeling that he could become unhinged at any moment with this face twitch Eric Porter would use as the character.

I've gone on the record (and got my fair share of grief) for saying I am not a fan of Andrew Scott's "Jim" Mortiarty from the Benedict Cumberbatch series. Which isn't a shot at the actor himself. I haven't seen enough of him to draw a conclusion of his skills as an actor. But I just don't like the whole "goofball" element they added to him.

To be honest, I liked Jared Harris's take on Moriarty in the Robert Downey Jr. film better. However, I like the Benedict Cumberbatch take on Holmes better.

With that said, I'm not going to ridicule you just because I didn't care for the Moriarty from Cumberbatch series. Or leave nasty notes about it on Steven Moffat's Twitter account telling him how much I dislike the way he has interpreted the character.

That would be stupid.

If you're new to Sherlock Holmes and have become interested in the character because of the Benedict Cumberbatch series, I would highly recommend you check out the series starring Jeremy Brett. Although, it may not be as high-octane as some of the current interpretations of the character, it is highly enjoyable.

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)

I'm being completely honest when I say this was a film I really didn't want to like when I watched it for the first time nearly nine or ten years ago. One of the biggest things that bugged me was the fact they cast Christopher Lee as Mycroft.

Not a jab at the great Christopher Lee. As a matter of fact he was really good as Sherlock Holmes in the three productions he appeared in.

But it's one of my pet peeves with many Sherlock Holmes productions is when they cast an actor who is physically similar to Sherlock as Mycroft because the character is supposed to be the polar opposite to Sherlock physically.

My other pet peeve is when they use "Forget everything you know about Sherlock Holmes" because you know it's going to be a stinker.

I think my other worry when I prepared myself to view it is they were going to try and give Holmes some sort of sexual relationship or have him fall in love.

As a purist I feel Holmes is just disinterested in the opposite sex. Any sort of relationship, male or female, would interfere with him being the best at what he does.

In short, he has no time for love.

I was really ready to hate The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes when I originally bought my VHS copy and popped it into the machine. And just the opposite happened. I absolutely fell in love with the film and it is now possibly my favorite Holmes film.

Although Robert Stephens didn't look the part of the traditional Sherlock Holmes, he won me over in his performance.

A bit of a confession bu some of his mannerisms I borrowed when I was adapting William Gillette's play into a graphic novel. Most notably the peculiar way he held his hands not so much on his hips but on his ribcage.

Colin Blakely's performance as Dr. Watson may not be completely the capable man Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in the novels and short stories. But he isn't the bumbling old duffer the poor old Doc has been maligned with over the years.

In this film, Watson is more of a ladies man and he also makes his objection towards Holmes's addictions to a seven-per-cent solution of cocaine very clear.

Although this is not the first time "the needle" is mentioned in a Holmes film. That distinction goes to the final scene in Basil Rathbone's film The Hound of the Baskervilles. However, I think this may be both the first time both Holmes's recreational use of the drug as well as the name of the drug itself, is made perfectly clear.

I might be wrong. But apart from this film I think Rathbone's Hound is the only other film before this.

I was even won over by Christopher Lee's performance. Despite not having the physical presence of actors like Robert Morley, Charles Grey or most recently Stephen Fry did as Mycroft, I thoroughly enjoyed his interpretation of the character. He and Robert Stephen's spar off each other really well in their scenes together.

It should be mentioned that The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes was not the happiest of memories for the late Robert Stephens. Apparently between the rigorous production and Billy Wilder's insistence that Stephens needs to lose weight to look "thin as a razor" that Stephens himself actually tried to persuade his good friend Jeremy Brett out of accepting the part when he was set to play Holmes himself in the long-running Granada series stating that: "It will ruin your life".

I've enjoyed the film even more since I purchased it on DVD several years back. Having seen it in letterbox format there is so much I have missed in scenes that were cut out because many VHS copies format movies to fit your screen.

And you really do miss out on so much the director originally intended on.

Another shame is the fact that there are a few deleted scenes that were intended for the film. One that still exists on film (although the audio seems to be missing) is the Affair of the Naked Passengers" which Holmes leaves it up to Watson to deduce how a honeymooning couple was murdered on a ocean liner they are returning from Constantinople on.

With disastrous results.

It's too bad these scenes were cut because it would have added to the Four Movement Symphony of adventures Watson felt were too outrageous to publish Billy Wilder intended.

The movie we end up with is two stories from Watson's unpublished archives. The first being Holmes is approached by a famous Russian ballerina, Madame Petrova who wishes to have a child with her. Holmes manages to extricate himself by claiming that Watson is his lover, much to the doctor's embarrassment.

The second and main story Gabrielle Valadon (Geneviève Page) is fished out of the River Thames and brought to Baker Street. She begs Holmes to find her missing engineer husband.

I showed the movie to my wife Syd for the first time last night and she pretty much deduced the storyline with Gabrielle Valadon and the German spies disguised as Trappist Monks and the Loch Ness Monster not even half-way through the movie.

I don't think this should discourage you from watching the movie. There are enough good scenes and genuinely funny lines to make up for any shortcomings.

I highly recommend you check out this film just as long as you do not take it too seriously and just enjoy it. You might find, like myself, you may even like it.

The Nocturnal Dandy 11x17 color print

Another print I'm debuting for Sunday's show Craftshocker taking place at 34 Suffolk Street in Worcester MA. Right across the street from Vincents. A place I've never been to in the fair Wootropolis.

The scene depicts Sherlock Holmes indulging in a "Three Pipe Problem" in his study at 221B Baker Street. The title came from writer Paul Magrs who wrote a great introduction to my Sherlock Holmes graphic novel.

The print is also available for purchase at Etsy:
The Nocturnal Dandy

Tops on my holiday wish list: Sherlock Holmes starring Peter Cushing

This will probably be my gift to me this Christmas. Or at least my post-Christmas gift to me!!

I've been waiting for the BBC to release the Sherlock Holmes television series Peter Cushing starred in after taking over the title role from Douglas Wilmer in 1968.

From what I have seen online, it has become my second favorite Sherlock Holmes series next to the one Jeremy Brett starred in for Granada Television. And for a lot of the same reasons as the Granada series such as the costumes and the actor playing the title role. I like Cushings sharp, energetic and occasionally rude take on Sherlock Holmes. Which is very much the way the character was written in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story.

Although, he doesn't have that maniac spark that I really liked about Jeremy Brett's take on Holmes. At the same time that's the reason I liked Cushing's Holmes.

Much like Basil Rathbone, Douglas Wilmer, Robert Stephens and much later Jeremy Brett, I like seeing people's approach to the character. In the same way as Doctor Who or James Bond, each actor brings something different to the table. And much like both of those series's, it's inevitable you have your favorites. And Peter Cushing and Jeremy Brett are definitely mine.

What delights me even more is to find out that there WAS a proper adaptation to A STUDY IN SCARLET. Although, there are a few deviations from the original story, this one sticks pretty close to the original text. I thought the only adaptation was a 1930's starring a rather portly Reginald Owens as Sherlock Holmes, which had very little in common with the story except for sharing the same name.

Some of my favorite Sherlock's

Continuing on the subject of Sherlock Holmes, I thought I would compile a list of actors I really enjoyed in the role of Sherlock Holmes. It's probably been one of the most played parts. And you would probably need the fingers of several of your friends hands to count the number of actors who have played Holmes over the decades.

JEREMY BRETT: The DEFINITIVE Holmes in my opinion. To be honest, it took some time to get use to his voice with the character of Sherlock Holmes. I think that's because every actor since Basil Rathbone has been playing Holmes with this almost wooden dictation. Now I cannot read the novels and short stories without hearing Brett's voice in Sherlock Holmes's lines. Or either David Burke or Edward Hardwicke's voices in Watson's narration. Brett made Sherlock Holmes live. As Ratbone cast a shadow on the part for the longest time, I think Brett has now cast his own shadow upon the part. I have no problem with people continuing to make Sherlock Holmes films. And I love to see how other actors approach the character. I didn't mind either Richard Roxburgh or Rupert Everett's takes on the character. But Jeremy Brett is going to be a hard act to follow for a long time to come.


PETER CUSHING: Was actually considered to be the definitive Holmes by many Sherlockians for many years. Even though Hammer made The Hound of the Baskervilles somewhat unrecognizable. I still enjoyed the film for two things. Peter Cushing as Holmes and Christopher Lee as Sir Henry. What I liked about Peter Cushing is he was a man after my own heart as far as how both Holmes and Watson should be portrayed. And he got his chance to stay true to the original Conan Doyle stories playing Holmes for a second time in a BBC Sherlock Holmes series when Douglas Wilmer stepped down from the role. I got to see the Hound of the Baskervilles. And despite some weak acting from some of the supporting actors and the usual tatty sets from the BBC Productions at that time, it's a great production. I really wish that they would release the Peter Cushing series of Sherlock Holmes over here in the States.



















ROBERT STEPHENS: A somewhat forgotten Sherlock Holmes actor and a somewhat forgotten film with The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. But I enjoyed both the film and Robert Stephens's acting in the part. It should be mentioned that Robert Stephens was good friends with Jeremy Brett and actually tried to discourage Brett from taking the part because of how miserable of a time he had when filming Billy Wilder's film and the possibility of being typecasted. Although, Stephens would end up playing the part again on stage in a production of William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes.























JOHN NEVILLE: Another somewhat forgotten Sherlock Holmes actor in another favorite film of mine A Study In Terror. I was already a big fan of John Neville because of the film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. When I had read in a Sherlock Holmes book that he had played Holmes in a film, I had to see it. The plot has Sherlock Holmes face off against Jack the Ripper. The film itself doesn't particular stick very close to some of the facts of the case. It's a very Hollywood sort of explanation behind the identity of Jack the Ripper. But it is still highly enjoyable. The film also features Robert Morley as Sherlock Holmes's brother Mycroft. Morley is probably one of my favorite actors in the role of Mycroft to date. Charles Gray who played Mycroft in the Jeremy Brett series is a very close second favorite for me.























CHRISTOPHER LEE: Unfortuntely, the films he did play Holmes in weren't the greatest as far as great Holmes films are concerned. The biggest problem with his first film as Holmes is when they dubbed it from German to English, they got this awful American voice actor to dub his dialogue. Why they wouldn't get Christopher Lee, who has one of the best voices in the world (possibly next to Tom Baker's) is beyond me. I would imagine the company that did the dubbing were cheap bastards. However, I found Sherlock Holmes and the Incident at Victoria Falls to be one of the better of the three Holmes films Lee played the role of Holmes. But what made all the films worth watching was Christopher Lee's performance. He made a very good Holmes.





SIR IAN RICHARDSON: Another actor I really enjoyed in the role of Holmes. Unfortunately both films he was in, The Hound of the Baskervilles and the Sign of Four, were horribly Americanized and the production tried to make them more exciting for an American audience. BUT Richardson was marvelous and the films aren't without their charms. Actually, Sir Ian ended up having a great deal more success in the role of the man who inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to create Sherlock Holmes: Dr. Joseph Bell in the series Murder Rooms.














CLIVE MERRISON: Although, he has never played Holmes on screen, he has the distinction of doing every Sherlock Holmes story created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on radio. If you have not had the chance to hear one of the stories, I highly recommend you go out and purchase one either on tape or CD. They're very well done and create wonderful pictures in your mind.







BASIL RATHBONE: As much as I don't like how they placed Holmes in the 1940's and how much Nigel Bruce's idiotic Doctor Watson made me want to tear my hair out, I liked both The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Both of those films are set in Victorian England. Actually, they're the only two of Rathbone's Holmes films that are set in Victorian England One must give credit where credit is due. Rathbone helped make the character popular for many years to come. And now is pretty much part of a great debate in the same way who is better, Kirk or Picard? Who is better Rathbone or Brett? I will, of course go with Jeremy Brett. But probably without the Basil Rathbone films there might have not been any of the Holmes films we see today. Perhaps.


WILLIAM GILLETTE: Okay, so I have never seen him perform Holmes. But unless you're over the age of 100, neither have you!! But I did get the opportunity to listen to him perform as Holmes in a radio play someone posted on Youtube. Why I like William Gillette is because of what he did to popularize the character in the United States. Sure, some people grit their teeth because he was the man who basically pidgeonholed Holmes to wearing the deerstalker hat and smoking the curved pipe. And famously having him fall in love. But it's his play and his portrayal as Holmes is what helped the character to become more well known here. So, with that said I think Gillette owes a great deal of respect for what has become somewhat a tradition with actors.

Somewhat like what playing James Bond or the Doctor on Doctor Who is today.

Sherlock Holmes graphic novel

I just wrapped up penciling and inking page 27 today. It's coming along great!! I've had a bit of time of time off in the past couple of weeks, so I've been able to devote some time to getting some pages in the can.

Sherlock Holmes's attire in the first act I based on the costume that William Gillette wore in his stage play.

The second half of the book I plan on using the costume Peter Cushing and Jeremy Brett used for the Sherlock Holmes productions they were involved in. Which more closely resembled the look of the original Sidney Paget artwork.





If all goes well, I should hopefully have everything wrapped up by the end of this year.