Violent Violet Volkswagen

Violent Violet Volkswagen

Have you read The Shining by Stephen King? It's a great book if you haven't.

Recently I re-read it. The first time I read The Shining was years and years ago. I've seen the movie more times than I've read the book, but I love both equally. I've always found it strange that Stephen King didn't like Stanley Kubrick's version. I think Kubrick's version of The Shining is one of the top ten cinematic masterpieces of all time, in my opinion. But then again, I haven't had someone make a movie out of one of my books (yet) so I don't know how I'll feel about it when it does happen.

Anyway, one thing's for sure: the movie is not the book. I take them as separate entities.

One of the things you'll find in the book version of The Shining is the "Violent Violet Volkswagen."
The "Violent Violet Volkswagen" is a toy model kit that Wendy Torrance buys for her son Danny. Jack Torrance is supposed to put it together for Danny when Danny is able to read the entire first Dick and Jane book, as a reward. The "Violent Violet Volkswagen" does not appear in the movie version.

In the book, the model kit is described in the following paragraph:

"Jack took the box from his son. It was a model car, one of the Big Daddy Roth caricatures that Danny had expressed an admiration for in the past. This one was the Violent Violet Volkswagen and the picture on the box showed a huge purple VW with long '59 Cadillac Coupe de Ville taillights burning up a dirt track. The VW had a sunroof, and poking up through it, clawed hands on the wheel down below, was a gigantic warty monster with popping bloodshot eyes, a maniacal grin, and a gigantic English racing cap turned around backward."

-Stephen King, The Shining, p. 130

When I read The Shining all those years ago, I assumed the "Violent Violet Volkswagen" was a real thing. I knew who "Big Daddy" Ed Roth was, and had seen his art around. I always liked his art quite a bit. I seem to recall that model kits featuring such monstrosities as those of "Big Daddy" Ed Roth probably existed, so OF COURSE the one Stephen King mentioned in The Shining HAD to be real, didn't it? And was I going to check the internet to make sure? Nobody had the internet in those days. Yeah, of course the "Violent Violet Volkswagen" was real.

Apparently not.

When I re-read The Shining only a few months ago, I had to look up the "Violent Violet Volkswagen" on Google and see it for myself. Yes, model kits of such dragster-driving monsters by "Big Daddy" Ed Roth DO exist. But the "Violent Violet Volkswagen"? Not that I could find. But I really wanted to see it! I mean, how cool would that be? Very cool!!!

So, the only option I had was to illustrate the darn thing myself. The image above is inspired by the deliciously ridiculous creations of "Big Daddy" Ed Roth, as art directed by Stephen King. I made sure to give it that vintage "yellowed pulp-paper" look, to increase the nostalgia factor to maximum. Don't you love the poor registration of the cyan and magenta plates? So retro.

Now you too can enjoy the "Violent Violet Volkswagen."

Sorry, no model kits available (that I know of).

My thanks to the late "Big Daddy" Ed Roth for making such awesome art for so many years. And equal thanks to Stephen King for doing the same.

NIGHT WALK Cometh

That guy looks PISSED!

People often ask me where I get my ideas from. See that guy in the picture above? I get my ideas from him.

That is a photo of him from the last time I went to visit him. It's pretty hot where he lives. He usually isn't happy to see me. He was like "Aww man, you again?" What would you expect? He doesn't exactly like giving me his ideas. But he doesn't really have a choice. We struck a bargain, you see, a long, long time ago.  But that's is another story...

The latest batch of ideas my friend gave me worked their way into my debut novel NIGHT WALK. As you can imagine, NIGHT WALK is as scary as my pal who gave me the ideas that went into the book. So, if you want to lie awake at night, scared out of your mind, staring at the ceiling while you feel your heart thudding in your chest because of what you read in my novel, then check out NIGHT WALK. It will make you think twice about reading scary books ever again.

Oh, and if you want to meet my buddy in the photo above, let me know. I'll arrange a meeting. He'll be very glad to see you...very glad indeed...

Heavy Metal Mania

My art on a guitar!

Now it can be shown!

Ahhh yeah. Look at that bad boy! That's my art on a Fender Custom Shop Strat. SO heavy metal, if I do say so myself.

I thought it time to get some authentic heavy metal posts going on this here blog.

Several years ago, a good friend of mine wanted to have a custom Stratocaster made, and he wanted me to do the art for it. He requested something "Frazetta-ish." I was only too happy to oblige. Of course, I had to throw in some solid Skeletor sensibility, but I think it still falls within the general Frazetta vibe. Besides, we all know that Frazetta was probably a Skeletor fan because, who ISN'T a Skeletor fan?

You can see the original art created for the guitar here.

Holy Crap! I'm on Wikipedia!

Wow! Thank you to whoever put me on Wikipedia!

And no, I didn't put me there myself. ;-)

My work for Wizards of the Coast did. I always knew that if I loved Dungeons & Dragons with enough force, it would love me back. With +5 force. Or should that read:

Merman Mayhem

EVIL Merman Mayhem. That's right, this guy is EVIL. Capital E-V-I-L EVIL!!!

Do I need a reason to post a picture of my rendition of Creature from the Blue Lagoon?

Other than it's Friday? Which, as far as I know, is in fact "Evil Merman Day" across the globe?

Remember that movie with Brooke Shields from 1980? Every time I hear the title of the movie The Blue Lagoon, I always say in my head "The Creature from the Blue Lagoon." Why? I think the answer is obvious. If you've seen Creature from the Black Lagoon, or even heard of it, how can you NOT make the connection when The Blue Lagoon is mentioned?

I don't know, maybe I was exposed to Creature from the Black Lagoon at a young age and it scarred me for life. And the fact that I've never seen The Blue Lagoon in its entirety. There's a monster in that movie, right? Doesn't it eat Brooke Shields at the end of the film? I hear the scene it totally gruesome!

And I'm pretty sure the monster in The Blue Lagoon looks just like I've depicted him above.

The Blue Lagoon WAS the sequel to Creature from the Black Lagoon, wasn't it?

Happy Friday, err, I mean Evil Merman Day!

And if anyone can tell me what happened at the end of The Blue Lagoon, about the monster attack and stuff, let me know. I really want to find out...but I'm too scared to watch the movie myself.

the HUDNUT IMP, May 23, 2012

Origins: Salem's Lot by Stephen King

THE book

That's it. Right there in that photo. That's the actual physical book that started it all. That's my totem.

Salem's Lot by Stephen King.

The book that made me want to be a writer more than any other book I had read prior to it.

That's a photo of the very first horror novel I ever bought as a teenager. I took the photo today. I have kept that book for all these years. How could i ever get rid of it?

Salem's Lot kicked my ass.

When I read it, I decided it was the best book ever written. It certainly was the best book I ever read. And I thought I had read some good books up to that point.

Wrong.

The writing of Stephen King did something that no other book had done to me before: it made me believe everything in the book was real. As in, it very possibly could have happened.

You see, I had been a big fan of fantasy novels, Dungeons & Dragons, and comic books up to that point. Anything that was magical or super-human did it for me. But I always knew there were no dragons or wizards or superheroes roaming around the streets of suburbia. Or anywhere else in the world. Not really. No matter how badly I wanted it to be true.

For some reason, everything in Salem's Lot seemed so darned plausible to my teen-aged mind. All the characters were down to earth. They had to drive cars to get from place to place instead of teleporting of leaping over tall buildings. They ate dinner together, they fell in love. They swindled, betrayed, over-promised, and struggled just like real,people. And at the beginning of the novel, there wasn't anything magical about Salem's Lot at all. It was just Regularville, U.S.A. No wizards, no superheroes.

With true genius, Stephen King ever so slowly hinted that strange forces were coming to Salem's Lot. Evil forces. And it took him half the book before any character or even the narrator actually uttered the word "vampire." Because everybody knows there's no such thing as vampires...until the evidence in front of you becomes incontrovertible.

In Salem's Lot, the characters, and me, became convinced that real, actual vampires had come to the Lot. Not Saturday matinee monster movie vampires in black and white. The real thing. And they were evil as hell.

I imagined that if such amazingly strange things could happen in Salem's Lot, they could possibly be happening in my own home town, right under my nose...at least I hoped they were.

Salem's Lot taught me that magical things seem more believable, more actual, in stories that are set in the familiar, everyday world that we all know. Fantasy novels set in strange, faraway places are so alien, they're obviously fake. I mean, the only place I've ever been on this planet that even remotely resembles Xanth is Disneyland. We all know Disneyland is pretty awesome. But it ain't Xanth.

Salem's Lot, on the other hand...hell, I grew up there. You probably did too.

The other thing Salem's Lot did, besides enchanting my fertile young mind with the possibility of the impossible, was make me dream of writing books just like it. Even if I didn't have the skill back then to pull off such a feat. As a teenager, I could barely write four pages, let alone four hundred.

Well, now I'm all grown up, and have managed to write my own fat book about the possibility of the impossible, right in the heart of Suburbia. You may have heard of my novel. It's called NIGHT Walk.

Several of my friends have finished reading NIGHT Walk and they have all raved about it.

Like Salem's Lot, NIGHT Walk deals with weird-ass shit happening to everyday-people in suburbia. Twilight Zone comes to suburbia. My favorite genre.

NIGHT Walk will be officially released this summer.

In the meantime, if you want to dive in and read NIGHT Walk NOW, drop me an email:

davidhudnut AT gmail DOT com.

I'll send you some sample chapters.

And by the way, what's your totem book? Or totem object? What got YOU going, that you still keep with you? Share a comment, if you like.