It all started with growing up in the fifties and why I'm the way I am, an art monster... So, when I was 5 years old in 1953, my parents took me to see BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS and ABBOTT AND COSTELLO GO TO MARS. In 1956 my dad took me to see the movie that changed my life, FORBIDDEN PLANET, I was 8. To top it all off there was Robbie The Robot. The ID monster was burned into my little brain, the electronic noise was intoxicating.
Then in 1958 my dad really messed me up, we went to see THE BLOB!! I ended up seeing a whopping 67 monster movies from 1953-59. In 1959 I met my life long sounding board and collaborator, Darrell Draeger, in sixth grade. What really made me go bonkers with art in high school was FAMOUS MONSTERS Magazine (and changing to an art major)! One could actually study the monsters in detail and I always thought they were so much more interesting than normal stuff, you could use your imagination, and they were a Hell of a lot of fun to create! I salute the time I grew up in...
Art major since 1963, played guitar since 1968, did comics from 1979-94, made movies from 1999-2004, doing art now.
Email me here: tabonga52@gmail.com
I'm an artist doing mainly weird sci-fi illustration and then, monster tiki sculptures. I did comics from 1979 to 1993 with nearly 400 pages of various artwork published. I was first published in Charlton Bullseye issue 3 in 1980, did the cover and lead story for Vortex Comics issue 12 and won the 'ugly art' contest in Robert Crumb's WEIRDO Magazine issue 15 in 1986, also, I was a guest artist at the San Diego Comic Con 1986-8 with friends Dennis Worden, Mary Fleener, Brian James Riedel, Peter Bagge, Bob X and others.
I was the cover colorist for a series of comics in 1990 and did production work on most of the Wolverton reprints by Eclipse and Dark Horse publishers in the early '90s. I was an artist for a special effects studio 1991-1992.
I've played the guitar since 1968, Hendrix is my guy, I saw him twice! I was in the coolest cult garage band ever, HERMANOS GUZANOS, with my pals Darrell Draeger (singer) and Brian James Riedel (bass) from 1986-93. We produced an amazing amount of cassette albums and did world networking. Our music was played internationally, mostly in Berlin by radio DJ/musician Lord Litter and was featured regularly on Kaz's NIGHTMARE LOUNGE radio show from NJ. Kaz worked on SPONGE BOB and is currently animation director for CAMP LAZLO on Cartoon Network. Also, two of our collaborations with artists John Bartles and Michael Gonzales ended up on the DR. DEMENTO radio show and were popular favorites, 'Plastic Town' and 'Beer In My Underwear.' I was in the live LA band THOSE BEASLEYS with buds Tom Ferranti and Mike Meadows from 1994-7 and produced 4 CDs. / We had a public access show in LA from 1992-4 and produced 10 episodes of OFFBEAT. It was about four beatnik space jockeys who showed obscure garage band videos in between their adventures, using lots of weird futuristic chroma key backgrounds/miniatures.
Besides me, Darrell and Brian, it also featured our buddy Wes Hanson, who was a miniatures foreman on the sci-fi movie, THE ABYSS! Christie Michelle appeared in 5 episodes as 'The Offbeat Girl' - she later starred in the hilarious cult classic ...AND GOD SPOKE, with Soupy Sales. In 1994 clips from our show were chosen to be shown on cable TV's ACCESS AMERICA, hosted by Fred Willard, but the show was cancelled!! / From 1994-7 I read hundreds of retro cult movie magazines, then started writing scripts with titles like ATOMIC FRANKENSTEIN, THINGS FROM MARS and HEAD OF HORROR.
In 1998 I wrote a 2-part article on 1950's horror comic legend Basil Wolverton for the retro magazine OUTRE' issues 14-5, interviewing Basil's son Monte and friend Glenn Bray. I also interviewed Corman cult director, Bernie Kowalski, NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST and THE GIANT LEECHES. / I started a movie company in 2000 and we've produced three films so far - THE CREEP, SILVER ANGEL vs THE DEATH ZOMBIES and VIRUS-MAN, dark-horror comedies. /
Our first movie THE CREEP is available there, its a sealed, professionally produced DVD starring Rodney Lee and Joey Garza, and is hosted by horror icon and our hero, FORREST J. ACKERMAN!! Hundreds of rare art images of mine can be seen there too. Awesome original artwork of mine is sold exclusively and available only at that site, real fine art collectibles/investment! Commissions welcomed. Humorous hand crafted, one of a kind monster chess sets, monster tikis, oil paintings and more!