This is HALLOWEEN!

Hope everyone is having a Happy Halloween!

Enjoy!



The Detective Scribbles, No. 7, Thomas Carnacki

I thought it was appropriate for Halloween to have a detective who deals with these particular matters, the Ghost-Finder, Thomas Carnacki. This supernatural detective was introduced to the public in 1910 in Ideler magazine and was created by scribbler of the supernatural, William Hope Hodgson. Carnacki was published in the magazine in genuine Holmesian fashion between 1910 to 1912. Hodgson also published the Carnacki stories in compendiums, but Carnacki's literary career as a Supernatural detective was cut short when the Great War broke out throughout Europe and Hodgson fought, but, quite unfortunately, died in Belgium in 1918.

Since then, though Carnacki has inspired authors in the realm of the fantastical and you, kind reader, can explore the dark world of Carnacki through the online stories that I shall post here for your literary and macabre pleasure. Note: due to the busy time, I shall cut this short. Happy Halloween!

Click here to read some of the Carnacki tales.

Keep a sharp eye out for my next post.

Mister Nero Wolfe

Here are two slight variations on the signature of the private detective, Nero Wolfe. I tried to modle his signature after Mycroft Holmes' signature that I attempted some time ago. Although Nero Wolfe, as a character, is much like Sherlock's elder brother, Mycroft, I thought that Wolfe's signature should be official and uniform, in a way, since punctuality is his strongest suit. The signature was achieved with same method as the previous signatures. This is but a small series, not to worry, more doodles will litter this series of scribbles very soon.

Until next time, keep a sharp eye out for my next post.

M. Hercule Poirot

Here is another scribble in the small series of Literary signatures. This time I have merely attempted to create the signature of the self-proclaimed greatest detective that ever lived, Hercule Poirot. In this signature I thought that Poirot was not only uniform, but very vain and extravagent, so I thought his signature would reflect the same. The signature was achieved with waterproof blue ink with the help of a dip pen.
Keep a sharp eye out for my next post.

The Holmes Brothers

I have to say that both Sherlock Holmes and his brother, Mycroft, have always interested me ever since I first read "The Greek Interpreter" by Doyle. When I first read the story I was nearly as shocked as Watson was when he found that Sherlock had a brother, who, Sherlock admits, is far superior in an intellectual sense than Sherlock, which seems almost impossible to visualize. I must say that I enjoy the interaction between the Holmes brothers in the story when Watson witnesses both Sherlock and Mycroft having a sort of battle of wits as they are looking out the window and analyzing and using pure inductive powers. I was just enthralled by the scene in the Diogenes Club and I liked how it also reflected how alike both of the Holmes brothers are. Both Mycroft and Sherlock share almost the same immense intellect and how they guess a man's profession and other details of a person from pure observation. So, with this in mind, I wondered what their signatures would look like.

 It is clearly stated in the story of "The Greek Interpreter" the natures of both of the Holmes brothers. Mycroft is basically very sloth-like and, my favorite line is, when Watson shakes hands with Mycroft he describes it as "shacking the flipper of a seal", or something around those lines. Mycroft sits in his chair most of the day at the Diogenes Club and observes the world from his room. Sherlock, on the other hand, is a great ball of energy that must be on the move every minute of every day. Mycroft himself observes that Sherlock is the energetic one in the family. I just thought that their signatures should reflect such an attitude with both of the brothers.

Mycroft's signature, the first one at the beginning of this post, is far more official, since Mycroft is a government bureaucrat, and is the signature that he would typically use when signing such forms. The second one, just below the ramble you are now reading, is the one that he uses on a typical, letter-writing basis, which reflects his pure laziness and sloth-like attitude with matters. Sherlock's signature, on the other hand, is more of a swooping signature, full of energy. The first one on this post is much like Mycroft's official signature, this signature is the one that Sherlock would possibly use for his "official" letter-writing, if he were writing to diplomats saying that he retrieved the Lost Diamond of the Maharaja

 or something of that sort. The second signature of Sherlock's is possibly one that he could use to write Lestrade or someone that he had found out the culprit of the crime or that he had found something.

I merely thought that it was an interesting experiment to play around with the Holmes Brothers signatures, basically to see what they would look like and how their signatures reflect their nature. Both signatures were written in blue waterproof ink with the use of a dip pen, sorry about the smudges, at least on Sherlock's, it was intentional with Mycroft's common signature.

Also, if you would like to see the scene with Mycroft and Sherlock, I have posted below a video of the Jeremy Brett version of "The Greek Interpreter" if you would like to take a gander. Sorry about the shoddy quality.

Until next time, keep a sharp eye out for my next post.

The Detective Scribbles, No. 6, Father Brown

In 1910 an English literary critic and scribbler G. K. Chesterton introduced the world to the diminutive Catholic priest, Father Brown. I thought that it was very interesting to find such a character in the realms of detective fiction. There have been other religious detectives such as Brother Cadfael created by Edith Pargeter and Father John Blackwood created by Father Andrew Greeley, but one of my favorites is Father Brown.
The story that introduced Father Brown to the world of detective fiction was a short story entitled "The Blue Cross," and it was published, in the Holmesian tradition, in a magazine titled The Story-teller in September of 1910. In the story it introduced not only the diminutive Father Brown to the wide range of characters that would encapsulate the stories of Father Brown such as the elusive thief, M. Hercule Flambeau. What is interesting about the Father Brown stories, for the time, was that it was an era which was still, blatently, Sherlock Holmes' world. The mind of Sherlock Holmes is analytical and inductive research proved everything, while Father Brown based all of his evidence upon pure, inate intuition. Although Father Brown is the lesser known detective on the spectrum compared to Sherlock Holmes, this scribbler thinks that he the gentler, kinder person on the spectrum, compared to the calculating Holmes. It's best to think of it this way: in Christie terms, Sherlock Holmes is Hercule Poirot while Father Brown is Miss Marple, two completely different detectives that bloomed and flourished at almost the exact same time. That is probably why I enjoy the Father Brown stories as well as the Miss Marple stories, both Father Brown and Miss Marple are characters who are very friendly and kind as well as diminutive but are as sharp as a tack and solve mysteries that virtually baffle the authorities and those around them.
Now, to get back on track, you, being the diligent reader, will notice that I use the word "diminutive" quite frequently, almost to the point of redundancy, in this post, but that is the only fitting word that in my arsenal that I think truly fits this particular detective. In the stories by Chesterton, Father Brown is described as being short, stubby with a large umbrella at his side, hence why I had drawn him looking like he was almost three feet tall with an amiable grin on his aged face. Father Brown was quite a joy to doodle based upon Chesterton's description. Chesterton had written over fifty Father Brown stories and were published in various volumes and they go in order as such:
The Innocence of Father Brown
The Wisdom of Father Brown
The Incredulity of Father Brown
The Secret of Father Brown
The Scandal of Father Brown
The Father Brown stories are also posted online and I have provided links so that you, diligent reader, shall enjoy Chesterton's Father Brown stories as much as I have. As a final note, this drawing was done in the similar fashion as Miss Marple; with a dip pen with waterproof ink and a pencil to emphasize the wrinkles and the umbrella.
Right-o, until next time, keep a sharp eye out for my next post.

Melancholy & Renaissance

Currently, in one of my classes, we (the students in the class) were meant to draw a small doodle to commemorate the tenth year since The Twin Towers were reduced to rubble. Now this was a project that I thought quite long and hard about, considering the fact that this scribbler basically does cartoons and other such things. When trying to find an idea, I was looking through some old political cartoons, primarily drawn by Thomas Nast, James Montgomery Flagg, and other artists. When I found Flagg's painting of Uncle Sam in the iconic recruitment poster with the words "WE WANT YOU FOR THE US ARMY". Then I had sort of an idea of two different drawings. The first one was the three personifications of the United States: Uncle Sam, Colombia, and Brother Jonathan. The three personifications were drawn to look very haggard and weathered with the silhouette of the twin towers underneath them. Now, like all personifications of various countries, all three of these characters possess three definite colors: red, white and blue. So, basically and obviously, I only worked with those colors, with the rest of it (including the silhouette) was in black and white. I achieved this through the use of red, blue, and black waterproof ink that I had purchased, completely by coincidence, some months prior to the assignment. Basically, that was the first drawing.
The one that is presented before you, dear reader, was my second idea. It entirely in black and white with a weathered Uncle Sam rolling up his sleeves and brandishing a hammer (a badly drawn hammer). This was basically more of a cartoon and very much in my element than the previous drawing. The reason why it is in black and white, however, was because the teacher had told us later, after I had completed the first colored picture, that the entire thing was going to be in black and white rather than in color; so, I attempted to complete that bit of the assignment, a vain attempt to even the scales in my favor. The picture basically symbolizes how the United States has sort of carried on from the attack, even though we emerged thoroughly battered and bruised, we carried on and rebuilt ourselves, basically. This drawing was done with black waterproof ink and a pencil to shade in some particular parts in the drawing.

Right-o, until next time, keep a sharp eye out for my next post.

Birdmen, Bow-ties, & the Slightly Macabre

 These are some scribbles that I quickly drew one day. The first doodle here is reminiscent of the Birdman that can be seen in the posts labeled under "The Brilliance of Boredom" series. Frankly, I merely enjoy drawing this particular character when I am completely bored.
This second character was also a doodle whose genesis was pure boredom, but the inspiration, though, was derived from various sources. One of the inspirations was from Celtic mythology. There is a sort of entity in Celtic myth that is called the Dullahan, which is sort of a headless coachman who drives a big, black coach (some even say that the horses that help propel the cart are headless as well). Well, when this scribbler says "headless", some say that the Dullahan can actually detach his own head and chuck it about at various objects. So, I was just pondering, for some odd and completely obscure reason, how that might actually work and the various complexities about it. Thus, I thought that the Dullahan could possibly have a great, round, metal head, just in case. Thereby, the head basically hovers over what was once the neck of the Dullahan, but this is just basically an over-explanation over a small little doodle. Another inspiration for this sort of makeshift Dullahan was an artist that I admire, Mike Mignola, the creator of the comic Hellboy. One of Mignola's common characters he's famed for, besides Hellboy, is a sort of dapper kind of specter whose head is merely a floating skull, as you, being the diligent reader, can gather, was a great inspiration for this little Dullahan.

Right-o, until the next post, with hopefully a new detective in "The Detective Scribbles" series, I shall now stop. Thanks for enduring through the rambling. Keep a sharp out for my next post.

The Detective Scribbles, No. 5, Chevalier Auguste Dupin

The new detective to adorne the series entitled "The Detective Scribbles" is one of Edgar Allan Poe's creations, C. Auguste Dupin. Although the Master of the Macabre only featured this character in three stories, he has inspired the writers of the past and present to create some of the world's greatest detectives, such as Sherlock Holmes. Poe wrote the first Dupin story in 1841 and it is the mystery entitled "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" in which Dupin had to find the culprit behind a vicious murder. Since "Rue Morgue," and after his other two stories ("The Mystery of Marie Roget" in 1842 and "The Purloined Letter" in 1844), the Parisian detective has enticed the world of Crime Fiction, just as his creator did with the genre that are akin to his dark and macbre tales.
In the design of Dupin, I personally thought about it for quite some time. Although many officials who have researched diligently on the subject of crime fiction and of Dupin, which some have speculated that he is a tall, dark, and handsome man, like many gentlemen detectives, I thought that he would look more like Poe, himself, as a Parisian, including the pointed, waxed moustache, much like Poirot, since the character of Dupin inspired the creation of Poirot, too. In the design, I thought I would add little snippets and characteristics of the classic detectives that came after the Dupin stories: for instance the sweeping coat that is similar to the inverness cloak that is commonly associated with Holmes, and the strict moustache of Poirot (although Poirot's is far more strict that this character's), along with the sort of profile that is similar to his creator, Poe himself. Since this is a Poe character, I thought that it would only be appropriate that he would be dressed in black with a sort of old coat to blend in with his environment when he is stalking the streets at night, much like Holmes wearing a disguise in some of his stories, which was actually inspired by Dupin as well. Poe, in general, is one of my favorite authors since I was a child, so I truly admire how he had inspired the realm of crime fiction.
The drawing was done with a dip pen with waterproof ink and a pencil to do the details in the coat and tie. Below here was a photograph of Poe that inspired the drawing you see before you, dear reader. Keep a sharp eye out for my next post.