A Knife In The Eye

Issue 01: Short-shorts, Doomsters and the world’s only jazz detective.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Creosote Newsletter. 
Think of it as an exploded view of my sketchbook journal: Art, Writing, Comics, Music, Books, Movies, TV Shows and Nostalgic ephemera… You know, the good shit in life.

1. Driving to the grocery store, with no previous prompt, the CPU in my brain told me to ask Siri to play Rock The Bells by LL Cool J. So I asked, and she played... and it got me thinking.

2. This commercial for Nair hair remover in an ice cream parlor from 1985 made me Joker-smile with coming-of-age teen nostalgia. It’s such a classic that it landed the key sponsorship spot in one of my recent drawing videos.

3. My buddy, Kevin, hipped me to the extra cool TV show, Johnny Stacatto. It stars John Cassavetes as a jazz club pianist and part-time private investigator, workin’ his way through a smokey black and white haze of bad guys and hot tomatoes.

It’s a real drag that it only ran for one season, (1959-1960) but cheer up, sad clown, because all 27 episodes are on Youtube. Or if you don’t have time for another show in your queue but still crave that seedy mid century crime vibe, here’s every cut of the show’s opening and closing credits.

4. One of my tasks for work this week was to create a new Brand Style Guide. After a few hours of digging around for inspiration and rip-off material, here are a couple stand-out examples found on the web: Royal Mail by MashCreative and Varig Airlines by Leo Porto.

5. The record with the most repeat plays in the office this week was the Swedish Radio Jazz Orchestra’s classic, Vertical Form VI from 1977. (Composition by George Russell) It's the perfect soundtrack for a cop TV show, cool action-drama, or heist movie. Pssst… Event II is my favorite track.

6. Currently reading: The Doomsters by Ross MacDonald, Knopf 1958. I’m at the halfway mark and Lew Archer is in big trouble. The first edition cover is classic cool and I love the hand-drawn type on the Bantam 59’ cover, but Mitchell Hooks is one of my favorite illustrators of all time, so this cover is extra nice. I’ve only read one other book in the series, The Underground Man, which is great– read it twice.

7. Wandering the endless catacombs and caverns of Youtube, I encountered a cool documentary titled, A Knife In The Eye. It’s about artist Michaël Borremans and his work. English subtitles, but worth the read.

That's it for issue one– thanks for reading. If you like this newsletter, you can help keep it alive by forwarding it to someone who’d like it, watch my art vids on Youtube, join me on Patreon or follow along on your favorite social media.

Stay Rad,
Harper