Blah Blah Gallery

Halloween in March! You bet but it’s even better than that...if you grew up on Famous Monsters (the movies and the magazine) get ready for frightening thrill ride down nightmare lane! Seriously talented both with the paint brush and with the mighty mouse, Jim McDermott has created a super-fueled creep show of classic grace। Turn off the lights, burn a candle or two and feast your peepers on this haunting portfolio of macabre mastery...
INTERVIEW by Richard Mullins
Let's start with the usual;-when and where were you born and where is your studio located these days?
I've gone from Massachusetts to the West Coast to Texas and back to the East Coast, where now work through the night in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, watching the shape-shifting monsters on my computer screen. Then I drive off into the night and watch the dawn at oceanside with a newspaper and a cup of Starbucks.
Give us some insight into your working method. Are your paintings (recent ones you posted on Flickr) digital from scratch or do you start with a pencil drawing?
I've tried both. Recently, I turned off the computer and have been
going back to legit pen-and-ink drawings.
It seems you have a deep connection to Hollywood films of the
1930sand 40s. I see you painting with Frankenstein Meets the
Wolf Man(1943) playing in the background. What is it about that
time periodthat inspires such artistic devotion?
Also Lon Chaney from the 1920s silent era. From 1920 to 1950, these
are haunting images that I often see in dreams and sometimes flash on
when I see coyotes and bats from my window.
Besides painting you have also inked traditional comic books. Tell us about थे Pumkinhead Comic you worked on for Dark Horse.
These were done in conjunction with the comic book artist Shawn McManus. I also collaborated with him on a story for HEAVY METAL. Take a look at his website: www.shawnmcmanus.net/
Your excellent portrait of Marilyn Manson is a vision of a more current monster (not that suburban moms still fear his lame Alice Cooper-based performance art)-what about him made you want to render his mug?
Manson is a Universal horror in the flesh!
You illustrated some video game magazine covers at one time. Did you play the game to get inspired to create the illustration? What are some of your favorite video games?
Those Tron light cycles were the coolest!
Your love for Famous Monsters of yesteryear is clear, how do you think today's creeps stack up in comparison to the classics? I'm talking about Jason, Freddie, Predator etc...
If Basil Gogos paints them, I could get real interested: www.linesandcolors.com/2008/01/19/basil-gogos/
Any new projects in the works your fans will want to know about?
Keep watching the skies! And my blog: jimdraw.blogspot.com/
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