Cruisin' With E.R.P.

I had a call from my old chum Simon, whose work will shortly be revealed unto cinema goers when Green Lantern hits our screens this June. Simon is one of those extraordinary artists whose sheer drive and determination open doors that remain closed to many other illustrators. In addition to being one of the best and hardest working artists in the film world he is also a truly brilliant photographer who has been taking photographs of some of the world's most beautiful women and his charm and died in the wool sheer Englishness gives him the rare knack of gaining the confidence of his subjects to the extent that they just ooze sultry sensuality as soon as he points his camera in their direction.

Someday he'll have an exhibition of these photographs ... someday ...

But I digress, Simon has an uncanny knack of divining my Achilles heel when it comes to my blog. He knows that I have been in cruise mode these last few weeks. Not taxing my readership, turning my blog into a Ron Embleton/ Denis McLoughlin/ Commando Fan page. "I know, I know Simon" I said; "I hold up my hand. But look old chap, I've got this terrible deadline etc, etc."

Then came the truly crushing comment, "Well Peter, you don't need to put up a post every day, just save it for when you've got something interesting to say".

As in ... ulp.

True, I thought all too true.

"But dash it all Simon, look", I countered, "If you don't post something on a regular basis your audience gets confused, they just drift away like the ebb tide." This I thought was a good defense but even this crumbled as Simon then reminded me of the arch nemesis of all lazy comic bloggers, a man who is so cool and has such exquisite taste that he doesn't even have to waste words on his visitors, he just shows them a selection of the treasures from his inexhaustible vault.


Yup old Simon got me dead to rights as he mentioned the dread words Mr Door Tree, he of the wide brimmed fedora and the artwork which is so choice and so esoteric that mere mortals such as myself don't even know it exists until they see it on Mr Door Tree's blog.

"Mr Door Tree doesn't waste words - he lets the artwork speak for itself and he's not afraid to deviate from his audience's comfort zone", Simon reminded me, as if I needed reminding.

Some day I'll buy myself a wide brimmed fedora and build my very own Tree House and fill it with treasure. In the meantime here is some more Eric Parker with portraits of Sexton Blake creatives and characters, including a self portrait of the artist, courtesy of Phil Rushton.

See, I don't even bother to do my own scans these days.