Another drawing I did when I was probably around 11 or 12. This was given to me by my sister, why she had it, how she got it, and kept it? I have no idea, but I’m glad I now have it to look back on.

The medium here is the same Bristol 2 ply sketch pad I used with most of these old works. The color was provided by Venus colored pencils, the ones that came with the “color-by-number” kits. I always preferred the pencils to the markers. I never had a good set of markers. You would start to color the sky and you always run out, and you’d be trying and pressing hard as it squeaked while diminishing the color quickly. So I mostly used the colored pencils, still have some.

This is titled King Kong’s Revenge because he seems to be the central character, as he enters from the left. There is no background per se, this is more a collection of strange doodles and drawn objects, there is a thread though. Maybe.

King Kong is angry, we can tell from his furrowed brow and expression, plus he’s holding half the Empire State Building as though it’s been broken off. Let’s look at the obvious scale issues, unless KK got a steroid shot, he is way too big to be climbing the building in his hand. I think in this version, he didn’t get shot down, that’s why he still has one of the planes in his hand, but he did fall, but he grabbed the last section and swung himself into the lobby where there is a replica of the building, and that’s what he is holding. He though the point would make a good weapon.

Above KK, there is a flying dragon, but his nostril exhaust is shooting down not forward, maybe it’s a guidance system. Why is he here? We don’t know and we’re not going to question it. I think I liked drawing dragons.

The tank on the bottom, looks like a U.S. Army tank, as far as I know, but it seems to be on KK’s side, as it’s leading the ground assault, with a man sticking out of the turret with a rifle. The number 312 has no meaning as far as I know. It also appears that Superman is here, just flying around, only one arm extended, not sure why that is, maybe he was tired. I’m not sure that he is on KK’s side, he is headed in the same direction, but doesn’t seem overly concerned.

On top we have a briefcase falling via parachute, and also Grouch Marx’s head descending as well, but with an umbrella, not sure about the comparative rate of descent, I’ll have to look into that. How much does Groucho’s head weigh? We also have a floating head by parachute, with three sticks of dynamite protruding from his mouth, with the fuses lit, as he heads down to somewhere. Not sure why the parachutes were red and white striped, perhaps I got them in bulk.

The pink balloon-head with the big English-looking mustache? Your guess is as good as mine. There’s lots of floating heads here, no reason to get caught up with one random head. Next there’s a pretty modern looking aircraft dropping a series of bombs, and I like how I scaled the ones closer to the ground larger, meaning I was starting to really understand scale and distance. Didn’t say I could draw it, but I understood it. Next to that we see a pretty intense mushroom cloud, the result of a device that was probably dropped by the nose-diving bomber above it.

Last but not least, we have a casual hayseed taking a nap under a petrified tree, oblivious to the surreal carnage surrounding him. This part has a deep meaning about maintaining focus and calm in the midst of great turmoil. Nahh, I was just a dopey kid doodling his unlocked mind.