RIP Marie Julia Roberts 1938-2018

With my grandmother in 1998

holding a portrait of her dogs that she commissioned.

It's been a rather emotional time, my grandmother Marie Julia Roberts was laid to rest this week after a long battle with Alzheimer's aged 79. Although I try to keep these posts 'relativity' light and on topic it's actually seems only right that I devote this post to nain* because when I was aged three I believe she steered my life in this direction. It is very likely that I would not have been an artist and so this very website might not have ever existed had it not been for my grandmother and something that happened when I was three years of age. As I amused myself with a box of felt-tip pens and some sheets of paper I drew some clowns, why clowns I can't remember, but I drew a happy one (the one featured on this post), a sad one, a fat one and a thin one and when I was done I showed them to my grandmother who not only praised them but also showed them to everyone and told me that I had talent, I was told that I could actually draw and from that day on I was the kid that drew cartoons that aspired to someday becoming an artist.
Although we didn't always see eye-to-eye at times she was always the one Id go to during a 'crisis' and she was always supportive of my craft and when there was an artist or cartoonist on the TV my grandmother would inform me of it and if there was an article in the paper she would save it for me. As I grew older and my style developed I would still be summoned to gran's house to show off my portfolio to a distant relative or friend of the family that had stopped by that day and the first art sale I made was a cartoon I sold to her when I was trying to get some money to buy a comic and I guess you could say that my first solo art exhibition was the time she pinned my drawings up in her porch. She encouraged me to go to art collage, attended end of year shows and was there for my graduation. Since her illness worsened six years ago not a day has gone by that I haven't missed being able to go over to see her, tell her for the millionth time that I didn't like tomato sandwiches before tucking into a plate of cheese on toast with Branston pickle and tell her about my latest projects and ideas. I have no idea what direction my life would have taken had it not been for her support and the thought of pursuing this course without her makes me incredibly sad but onwards I go. I intend to see it through as I firmly believe its what she would have wanted.
I miss you nain x

* Welsh word for grandmother

© Arfon Jones 2018. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.

Prehistoric Pinning: Drayton Manor Dino Land

As addressed in my previous Prehistoric Pinning devoted to (former) Dinosaur World Colwyn Bay I do love me a fibreglass dinosaur! Another park which catered to this love of model dinos was Drayton Manor which I visited back in 1995. A relaxing walk leading up to the Zoo it also had some handy placards providing information about dinosaurs and yes being an excitable, hormonal teenager I hammed it up for the camera... Drayton Manor Theme Park near Tamworth first opened to the public in 1950 after the Bryan family converted 80 acres of derelict land into this tourist attraction which now sees more than one million visitors each year. Always wanting to give the public something new and exciting they introduced Dinosaur Land to the park in 1975 before opening a phase 2 the following year that adjoined the park’s zoo and this was filled with life-size models of dinosaurs (as Wikipia put it, “to intrigue and enthrall the kids”) sadly I have been unable to find a list of all the dinosaurs that featured however when ‘Dino Land’ closed in 2009 the attraction had featured the following exhibits,

Dienosuchus
Tricertops
Spinosaurus
Iguanadon
Brontosaurus (Brachiosaurus)
Mammoth
Smiledon
Cavemen
Cave Bear
Baby T-Rex
Titanis
Pterodactyl
Pleisiosaurus
Egg Nests

I say “closed” it was actually re-located and re-named ‘Dino Trail’ in 2010 and I am pleased to report that some of the original dinosaurs feature in it, namely the T-Rex, Baby T-Rex, Euoplocephalus, Iguanadon, Dimetrodon, Titanis, Pachycephalosaurus, Ornithomimus, Styracosaurus, Protoceratops, Placodus, Tanystropheus, Tylosaurus, Elasmosaurus and the Nothosaurus.
Back in 2016 it was revealed that the old section, despite being closed for several years was still standing and offered some amazingly beautiful sights of derelict dinosaurs and cobwebbed cavemen! Seeing as the previous post featured some postcards from the attraction I thought I would also include the ones I have from Drayton Manor (referred to as 'Lost World') If I manage to track down others I will update accordingly.
My sincere thanks to Drayton Manor’s Education Officer Lee Green for his time and kindness.

Drayton manor 'Lost World' Postcards Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex

Iguanadon, Phororachos, Cave Bears and Sabre Tooth Tigers

© Arfon Jones 2018. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.

"Well Hello Mr. Fancy Pants!"

Remember the 2008 writers strike? When 12,000 screenwriters and TV writers armed with placards demanding compensation from the large studios for all the DVD's and online download sales they were excluded from? As the US television industry ground to a halt most actors found themselves cooling their heels waiting for it to pass and one of them was one of my favourite actors, the King of the 'B-movies', Bruce Campbell star of The Evil Dead, Maniac Cop and Bubba Ho-Tep who used the strike as an opportunity to come over the UK to meet fans and promote his latest movie My Name is Bruce and I.. had appendicitis...

Robbed of the opportunity to meet one of my all time favourite actors I spent the next ten years monitoring the UK convention circuit hoping that he would come over and see us again and sure enough this month he embarked on a UK and Ireland tour promoting his latest book 'Hail to the Chin'. Confident that my appendix would not spoil my plans again Mrs Jones and I set off for London to attend Walker Stalker Con a convention devoted to The Walking Dead (a show that Bruce Campbell hasn't been in and I haven't watched) to meet one of my idols. Since my good friend David Lynch introduced me to the Evil Dead trilogy twenty years ago in art collage Bruce Campbell has been a constant part of my life. I've based a lot of my own style and my attitude towards life, my keenness to discuss his work played a small part in the courting of Mrs Jones, I've read his books, played his computer games and even dressed as his most famous role for Halloween (see previous post) and so to finally have the opportunity to meet the man himself, shake his hand and thank him for the happiness his work has given me was a genuine delight, he even complimented my shirt!
Hail to the King Baby!

© Arfon Jones 2018. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.

International Women’s Day: Milicent Patrick “The Beauty Who Created the Beast”

Today is International Women’s Day and we celebrate women that have inspired us, so I thought I would celebrate one of my favourite female artist Milicent Patrick. Regrettably not many of us recognise the name but we certainly know her work and that's it really, very little information about her and her life exists! We think her real name was Mildred Elizabeth Fulvia di Rossi and that she was the daughter of Italian baroness Baronesa di Polombara and architect Camille Charles Rossi and that she worked both in front and behind the camera but received very little onscreen credit for her work and that's about it, nobody really knows what became of her after the 1980s and even the Screen Actors Guild simply lists her as ‘missing’. But if we accept what we (sort of) know it makes her an amazing woman worthy of celebration as she would have not only been the first female animator hired by Disney but also the designer of the Xenomorph in It Came from Outer Space and the Metaluna mutant from This Island Earth. We know she worked as a mask maker on Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Mole People and we know that she created one the most famous, iconic creature designs for Universal, the Gill Man from The Creature from the Black Lagoon because during Universal’s marketing campaign for Creature from the Black Lagoon they billed her, “The Beauty Who Created the Beast” along with photos of her sketching the Gill Man and posing with the mask. Unfortunately this was to be her undoing however when make-up artist Bud Westmore took umbrage with her not crediting the entire team involved in its creation (she had in fact credited the staff on numerous occasions ironically a trait Westmore himself did not share) and he vowed never to never hire her as an artist again thus killing off a promising artistic career. This sad factor aside she was clearly a tremendously accomplished artist and responsible for one of the most iconic screen monsters ever created and I salute you Milicent Patrick, wherever you are!

© Arfon Jones 2018. All images are copyrighted throughout the world. I do not own nor do I claim ownership of the photographs featured in this article.

"Shop smart- shop S mart!" My Ash Williams Chainsaw hand is up for sale!

If you go over to my eBay page you will find my trusty old chainsaw hand up for sale! Some of you might recall that back in in 2011 I was I found myself with only 24 hours to make a costume for a Halloween fancy dress party. Having opted to go as Ash Williams in Evil Dead 2 and armed with an empty economy size rice jar, red car paint, piece of wood, silver paint, bike chain, old screwdriver, some coke cans, unused brackets and screws, old wooden curtain pole, plastic lids, two plug hole covers some gaffer tape and glue I created this chainsaw hand measuring just over 2ft long.

It worked out well (the photo on the right was taken at the party) and seemed well received and after the party I had big plans to improve on it but unfortunately never got round to it and so its been underfoot in the studio ever since so I thought it was time I offered it up for sale if only to serve as the ‘bare bones’ for someone else’s Ash Williams cosplay? Interested? Follow the link and nab it!

© Arfon Jones 2018. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.

Halloween at Woolworths (1988)

Ordinarily the pages of this blog are devoted to items that I have in my collection and usually accompanied by detailed, relevant information about said item, well I thought I would try something different this time round! This post is devoted to things that I use to have, that I would like again... that I’ve tried to obtain for some time but to no avail so I thought I would leave it open to the world wide web! This is an advertisement from issue #20 of The Real Ghostbusters comic dated October 9th 1988. Woolworth in conjunction with Barratts in the build -up to Halloween inform us of this, “sweet way to spend Halloween” in the form of Barretts Halloween Party Packs! Their classic in store Pic ‘n Mix range offered everything from “Vampire Bats and Spooky Spiders to Toads and Silly Slugs” but they also offered two Alma Sweetie Sticks featuring a Witch and skeleton and three Alma Sweet Filled Hand Puppets of a Witch, Ghost and Slimer! I had the Slimer one back in the day, along with a Skull Sweetie Stick and although the glove puppet didn't last long (the ink would come off the plastic during play) I wish I had hung on to them! So I leave this open to you citizens of the internet, do you have anything relating to this offer? Don’t bother with eBay, I’ll save you a listing fee e-mail at arfon@arfon.net or simply comment below!

© Arfon Jones 2018. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.

The 300th blog entry Doctor Who special: A 6th Doctor Who-down!

When I started this blog back in September of 2009 I never imagined I would write 300 posts but here we are! Well then, I used the 100th post as a way to go back in time and document an event that had happened before I had a blog recounting my trip to New York in November 2009 to visit Ghostbusters filming locations and then for the 200^th I went back to October 2005 and shared my experiences of attending the Doctor Who Galactic Dinner event in Cardiff where I meet David Tennant and Billie Piper. Well this time we are sticking with the Doctor Who theme but going back just a little further, August 16th 2003. Location: The BBC Doctor Who Experience, Llangollen, North-East Wales the day I met the 6^th Doctor, Colin Baker! Welsh model railway manufacturer Dapol (play on its founder’s David and Pauline Boyle's names) was first established in 1983 and they soon became a leading force in the production of model railway products and in 1988 they were granted a license by the BBC to produce a range of Doctor Who figures at their premises in Llangollen and this would later lead to the opening the 'BBC Doctor Who Experience' exhibition on their premises on the 17^th of June 1995 an amazing collection of original props and costumes from the show’s twenty six year run (the largest permanent sci-fi exhibition of its kind at that time).   
It was open throughout the year and received an excess of 50,000 visitors a year but sadly by 2003 visitor numbers had dropped to around 15,000 and when the BBC decided to not renew their license with Dapol the decision was made to permanently close the exhibition. So on Saturday August 16th 2003 Colin Baker was invited to the site for what was to be the exhibition’s last big event to meet fans on what was Doctor Who’s 40^th anniversary year.
I had been to the exhibition in the past but never met any of the Doctors and as I’ve mentioned countless times before the Colin Baker/ Sylvester McCoy years was when I first became a fan of the show seeing Colin fighting Cybermen made a life long fan of me so he is effectively my first Doctor and I was eager to meet him. Now equipped with my own transport I was able to embark on a 70mile drive to Llangollen my 1 year old daughter Catrin in tow to meet the 6^th Doctor! Having followed the convenient Dalek signs posted around the village, crossing over the River Dee and taking a right at the foot of the bridge I parked outside the attraction just as some members of the Hyde Fundraisers, a group of Who enthusiasts that create replica props and costumes to help raise funds for all manner of good causes, began assembling their Daleks and this allowed me the opportunity to snap a photo of my daughter with her first Dalek!
We were at the very front of the queue and as we made our way past the Cyberman costume we stepped through the large Tardis door, only to see another Tardis in the corner and beside it was a novel part of the attraction a replica 1960’s living room with a family sitting on a sofa (Yes, you guessed it! With a child hiding behind the sofa!) with the first ever episode ‘An Unearthly Child' playing on the television. Inevitably a Dalek could then be seen behind the next corner and I remember how the strobe lighting, mirrored walls made it quite exciting.
  
Clips from various episodes would play on various monitors spotlighting each incarnation of the Doctor before eruptions of the theme, Daleks shouting “exterminate” or the Tardis dematerialisation sound effect would echo through the air and then we would see the familiar Tardis console room roundels on the walls and a replica console and there next to it sitting behind a table was Colin Baker the Sixth incarnation of the Doctor! He was very warm and friendly and seemed genuinely pleased to meet fans and I was able to tell him how he was my first Doctor before introducing him to Catrin who he really got on with, so much so that we had our photo taken together. Being so busy at this point we thanked him again and moved on to allow the incredible line up their chance to meet him and so we carried on with the rest of the tour costumes worn by the Doctor!

4th Doctor coat, waistcoat along with costumes of both fifth, sixth and seventh!

In the first window was an original cane used by William Hartnell the first Doctor, a pair of trousers worn by second Doctor Patrick Troughton on the ‘Two Doctors’ and coat worn by Jon Pertwee the third Doctor! The next window coat, waistcoat and famous scarf worn by Tom Baker the forth Doctor! The next window along had both Peter Davison and Colin Baker’s costumes as fifth and sixth Doctor along with a waistcoat worn by Colin in the 'Two Doctors' and at the very end of course was Sylvester McCoy’s getup as the seventh! These were still the early days of digital photography and I was still using film at this time so I would often find camera glare or hand prints on display glass would scupper my photographic skills! After seeing some of the clothes that once belonged to some of the companions were also on display, we got to my favourites the Cybermen! I was always impressed with this case as it displayed the development of the Doctor's second most popular villain via a collection of heads something that has remained with me ever since (something for a future post). Then it was onward to see the rest of his villains in the hall of monsters! Yeti, Ice Warriors, Silurians and Sea Devils were there (Not Morbius though, I don’t know where he was... I had to go to Blackpool to see him!) and sadly at this point some of the lights and animatronics didn't work but they were still impressive!
Vervoids, Fenric and Cheetah People and the giant brain from 'Time and the Rani' later we were outside standing next to Bessie, the third Doctor's faithful car, before going around the front to have numerous photographs taken with some more Hyde Fundraisers dressed as Sontarans and Cybermen and then that was it that was the last time I visited the BBC Doctor Who Experience the centre was permanently closed on the 30th December 2003 before being cleared out the following month relocating seven miles away over the English border, near Oswestry, the props and costumes were moved on to Blackpool before eventually being sold at auction to private owners. I would see Colin Baker countless times after that but this one will always be precious to me. So did you visit? Share your memories! And thanks to you all for reading the last 300 posts!  

© Arfon Jones 2018. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.