***So far, this one looks like another possible reject from our next book, “Body-Oddies.” It’s a good little sketch, though. John did it for his big sister who does all his eye tea work, in fact, she makes the BEST, most scrumptious, most professional eye tea there is! Thanks Mary Anne.
***This was the original rough pencil sketch for “Twisted Sister.” It looks cool, and you’d think it was easy to do, but for every image that came out great in one try, there were a hundred more that ended up in the dustbin. Again, there’s no short, flash-fiction story for this…no need, really. It’s just a silly (effective) idiom, filtered through the whimsical context of John (the illustrator’s) fetid brain, for a page in our new, fifth book, “Body-Oddies” which will be out soon. You can find our first 4 books and the other stuff we sell at our Etsy shop: Just go to etsy.com and search EEWbooks, or follow the links on our site. -Marsha
***Chipper, here, is a cropped portion of an illustration from our new book, “Body-Oddies.” The publisher won’t let us reveal more than this yet, even though the book is nearly done, which is really silly since nobody will remember the image by the time the pandemic eases up and sales resume. Anyway, John named him chipper because (he says) skeletons always look like they’re grinning at something funny…which is stupid, of course! They’re obviously happy they’re dead because they no longer have to suffer the pain and disappointment of living…or whatever… -Marsha
***Just a little Eye Candy this time. This is the original sketchbook sketch. We’re REALLY busy finishing up the work on our 5th book, “Body-Oddies,” and we’re not sure this little nugget will make it past the final cut. We have 160 illustrations, but only 100 pages to work with. Not everything that gets cut is crap, so it’s a shame not to share it. -Marsha
***Our apologies to all our clown friends for this PSA. We should never associate clowns with any kind of politics in America, or equate them with stupid, greedy, selfish, childish and dull people of any kind. It’s not just that we offend one of the most moral, decent and whimsical species on the planet, it’s that if you do it too often, they will find you, kill you, then fuck you and eat you…bones and all! (We’re hoping this disclaimer cleans the slate for us.) -Marsha
Democrat? Republican? Who can fuckin’ tell? Red state, Blue state? Die and go to Hell! Argue ’bout it all you want, knock each other out. ‘Right-Left’ bullshit ain’t what its about.
***This is such an easy re-post! This image is an excellent metaphor for a criminally inactive American government in the fatal, final decline of late-stage capitalism (yes, both parties and all three branches). A police state, during a global pandemic and environmental disaster, a corporate oligarchy with unchecked greed, graft and stupidity rotting away the core of the richest empire on Earth, with the most gigantic army…history shows us the fate of nations that become so weak.
This image was first published in 2015, in our first book, “Marsha Mellow’s Blue-ish Freaks.” You can find our first four books (and BUY them) by following the links to our Etsy shop, or go to etsy.com and search EEWbooks. -Marsha
***At this point, about 6 months into the Covid 19 pandemic, America leads the world in petty, childish, stupidity. With 4% of the world’s population, we have 25% of known cases and deaths (MAGA!!!). The governors of 40 out of 50 states are seeing record high spikes in cases – more than 50,000 a day and rising. They are failing to heed the instructions of medical and science experts as well as follow the success of northeastern states and numerous countries already suppressing the plague. Instead, governors play politics and take their direction from the corporate ruling class.
Meanwhile, the entire federal government has been criminally useless. With no clear leadership from region to region, whole swathes of our population don’t “believe” there is a pandemic, despite almost 3 million cases and over 130,000 dead (Praise Jesus!!!), or that by wearing a simple mask and social distancing we could bring it under control. Having funneled upwards of 4 trillion dollars of aid to the richest corporations, the feds have left the rest of us to fend for ourselves. America is the greatest corporate oligarchy in the universe! …but just wait ’till global warming kicks into full stride. We live in interesting times. -Marsha
Henry Higgenbottom had an amazing talent. Welllll, maybe not so amazing as, lets say, ‘quirky’. You see, Henry could “headstand”. Yeah, not so amazing…but since nobody else could ever do it quite like him, it kinda became his ‘thing’. And despite all practical advice. he ‘did’ the crap out of his ‘thing’. He became a minor local celebrity (oddity), got his fifteen minutes of fame on the T.V. news and bartered that into a stint on the state carnival circuit which propelled him into a pretty good gig with a circus sideshow troupe as a ‘Tumbling Contortionist’. All things considered, however, his convulsive hiccupping act usually stole the spotlight (and all the laughs) and made his ‘headstand’ gimmick look pretty dull. But Henry never gave up on it. It was his own unique gift to the world, a sacred piece of his very soul and he made sure it was part of every show he did…..until one day he accidentally mixed his hiccups with his ‘headstand’ and so disrupted his specially balanced stance that he snapped his own ridiculous neck.
***Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE who has seen the image above seems to think it has some political meaning – perhaps implying the state of the nation or of the American voting public… Bollocks and drivel! It is no such thing. Read the post! Its nothing more than a tragic fragment of an ambitious loser. We don’t do politics in this blog!
John and I will have a table in Artist Alley at the Newark Comic Con on Saturday, August 20 (1100 McCarter Hwy., Newark, NJ) where we will be presenting advance copies of my new book, “Marsha Mellow’s Creepy Clown Coloring Book”, as well as original art prints and copies of three books by our good friend Joe Del Priore. -Marsha
Jonny Bot 5 got horny and hot for a high fashion mannequin girl (who did NOT!). Classy and fine, Jonny loved her a lot, she turned up her nose…a high minded snot. He brought wild flow’rs by the bunch, by the pot, tried candy, tried gems, read poems – what ROT! But kindness in turn Jonny 5 never got, not an ounce, not a peck, not even a jot. Tried…..and tried ’till his brains were quite shot until finally…Jonny went cold……and forgot.
***Thought we’d start 2016 on a cheery high note with this post. When we met Jonny Bot 5 he was retired from the department store and past his bad marriage with the mannequin…but was engaged in a sordid online sex thing with Siri the phone chick…it was…well, lets just say ‘I wish I could un-see some things.’ I think John got some good sketches but our publisher (EEW Books) censored them. -Marsha
I do nothing all day but sit in my cell, chained to the wall in a puddle of rancid liquid. The place is filthy, the toilet hasn’t worked in weeks and they put that awful television box in with me as my only form of entertainment. It screams at me and blathers their inane, selfish ‘culture’ all day and its all I can do to block it out, lest I lose my sanity. The only decent people I have to talk with are the cockroaches, who seem to come and go as they please…
They take me out twice a week to show me off to their military luminaries while their (so-called) scientists run ‘tests’. They mostly probe my anus and shock my genitals and laugh like lunatics as they torture me. I don’t understand their obsession with my junk – and I don’t get the reference to it as “payback”. My people have never visited this place before.
They are an ugly people. I don’t mean their pasty, bloated flesh, two meager eyes and stubby fingers that make them look like deformed infants. I’m referring to their brutish indifference to justice, authoritarian rule and the cognitive dissonance of the masses. The racist, nasty things they call me…well, I can’t even begin to repeat in polite company. This is certainly no way to treat an ambassador.
I would never have come to this primitive cesspool if it wasn’t for engine trouble – and a spread of ballistic missiles that took all the dignity out of my crash landing. These people ignored my distress calls and now refuse to honor my diplomatic immunity…..boy oh boy, when the mother ship gets here to rescue me, they are gonna FRY this place!
***John’s illustration was first published as the June 2007 cover to Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine for a story by Neal Asher. I wrote this tiny ‘Diplomat’ piece for fun. There was NO intention to sympathize with the treatment of political prisoners currently held, without charge or trial, by the United States….none what-so-ever. -Marsha
