Goofin' On the Ghost Hunters Part 3!

So, as promised, here's our next meeting with the Ghost Hunters/TAPS crew, once again at a Fort Mifflin event, at the end of last month - more of a brief visit for me, as I had a middle of the night Project Grad gig for a High school in North Jersey(Tango's high school, coincidentally!), so couldn't stick around for the investigation (Jill did go though, along with my star-struck cousin Alison). But I got the color versions done, and printed out a new group caric, to give to them. Yeah, and I didn't get individual photos/scans of the final pieces, duh. Found a pic Kris took though of hers, on her Twitter account - so all I have to do now is pester those guys for photos of theirs...maybe I'll do some new versions of them for the next fundraiser in November. Again, all props due to Bruce Tango - YOU ARE THE MAN!!!
(L-R) Steve Gonsalves, John, Dave Tango, Kris Williams, Bruce Tango




Jill and Grant modeling with some bags of her chocolate chip cookies. Grant delighted in calling Jill 'Cookie Monster'. I don't think so Grant - I'M the cookie Monster!!!

Goofin' on the Ghost Hunters Part 2

Here's the finished black & white caricatures of the TAPS guys, and the color of 4 of them (couldn't figure out how to figure Kris in for some reason - sorry Kris! ) spouting off trademark expressions and some funny exchanges from the 'Ghost Hunters" show , as well as photos of the team with their pics, and of the event they were raffled off at - a fundraiser for Tourette's in Westfield, NJ, arranged by Bruce Tango, Big Poppa to TAPS member Dave Tango. Bruce is an awesomely sweet and generous guy (and fellow New Jersey native! Okay, I'm in Philly now, but still spend lots of time there...) and went above and beyond to make Jill and I comfortable and welcome at his event, allowing us to hang with the guys and share my doodles with them (which they signed for the raffle), and for Jill to treat them to her famous chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to print additional copies for the team, but promised them I'd have finished, color versions for them at the next event! (or send them copies, whichever came first...)

This is the original, painted (background) version, which I scanned in piece by piece into Photoshop, and then messed around with for the final version above - I still really like how it came out, there were just too many things I wanted to fix, and, well, Photoshop presents that opportunity all too easily, now doesn't it?























Dave Tango's uncle won the caricature of his nephew with the help of his 'lucky coin'!

Throwin' the horns with fellow metal maniac Steve Gonsalves...

...Me with Mr. Bruce Tango himself - who made this all possible. I am forever indebted this man's warm-hearted kindness and generosity - THANKS AGAIN BRUCE!!!
See the next post for the stunning climax of the TAPS/Caricatoonz saga...or is it just the beginning...

Goofin' on the Ghost Hunters (TAPS)

Last summer, my wife Jill and I had the opportunity to meet the cast of the Sci-Fi Channel's hit show "Ghost Hunters", ('TAPS')and to take part in an onsite nocturnal investigation of Fort Mifflin in South Philadelphia - supposedly one of the most haunted places in America (featured in the first episode of Season 4) and 'the fort that saved America' in the Revolutionary War. We'd met them the year before when we took part in an investigation of the famous Eastern State Penitentiary, and were delighted at how cool, down-to-earth, and nice these guys were. Since we'd been fans of the show for years, and now that they were doing these fun paranormal convention/investigations, I figured it'd be a nice thing to give something back to them by doodling up some caricatures of them, and perhaps have them raffled off to raise money for the Fort, which has been in danger of closing (www.savefortmifflin.org) for a while. (As it turns out, the fort is now on solid financial footing due to the fundraising efforts of groups such as TAPS and other paranormal investigation groups who have been conducting conferences and investigations there for the public , as well as re-enactors, and private financial contributors.) I only had time to work on some initial sketches before the show, and there was no raffle anyway (as was done at E.S.P.), but I brought my work to show the guys, and they were thrilled...here's some pics from that day...





Needless to say, it was a thrill once again investigating with Grant, Jay, Steve, Tango, and Kris, and John Zaffis (demonologist extraordinaire) and even picked up some weird voice phenomena with my digital recorder, of a Hessian soldier bemoaning how 'ssssloww' the war was going...
I got to talk to Dave Tango's dad, Bruce, who was at the event helping out, about donating my caricatures when they were finished to the fundraiser that he was arranging for the Tourette's Foundation in Westfield, NJ, with TAPS as special guests. So....fast forward to November, and the next post...

Back from Neverland!

Hello again out there (echo, echo, echo)!!! Please welcome me back to the land of the living as I resuscitate this blog with a "Very Special" post from last night's Project Graduation gig - 10th year for East Brunswick highschool, drawing with crazy cohorts Pat Harrington, Angie Jordan, Emily Anthony,( and some other guys whose company name rhymes with 'nardpaark'), a bucket of sweat, and bad lighting (hence the bad photos - okay, i have a crappy camera and can't take a picture to save my life, and I didn't have an extension cord for my lamp, blah blah blah, sorry for the blurriness...).
P.S.: All caricatures were performed tonight to commemorate the spirit of the King of Weird...uh, er, POP,(who just moonwalked off the mortal coil several hours earlier) by drawing extra, well....Weird! Neverland is now open...
R.I.P. JACKO!
Now let's see if I can get another post up before 2012...













The charismatic 'Farah', soon to be star of her own televised gabfest 'Farah and her Funky Friends' - and budding caricature artist in her own right...check out her masterpiece of yours truly:

Shiny Happy Victims

A 40th anniversary (?) dinner party in Lavallette, NJ. All 'jokes' in these drawings were whispered to me by the very gracious and informative host as each guest sat down...my drawings were probably much kinder than the stuff she was feeding me. Hope no one cried later.

Ch-ch-ch-hahahaha!

I had a lot of fun at this wedding in Oct., in Voorhees. Boy did that groom look scared.

Fangs for the Memories

They really didn't need the costumes, don't ya think? Fun Halloween party in Jersey.