WELCOME TO GERHARD'S PHOTO ALBUM
This is a collection of US and UK tour photos from the '80s. Click on the different linked text blocks to see the accompanying photo in the right hand window. Take it away, Ger...
Hello,
I've been scanning in all of my old slides (about 3,800 so far and about 1/2 of the way through) and thought that I would share some with you folks...
...Here's me back in 1984 at the drawing board by the foot of my bed in my tiny room at 'Camp Woolner,' Kitchener... trying to get my thoughts on paper, I guess... (I still have that same drawing board)...
This is in the living-room, the empty bottle collection goes all the way around the room... party, party... I'm holding the flash unit just under the edge of the table...
1984, Oakland CA (I think) for PetuniaCon (I think)
Dave catching some rays...
The Canadians are the only ones by the pool...
Dan Vado and I hit it off...
I don't have any slides of the con itself. I must have switched to print film. Don't ask where the prints are..
1984, MapleCon, Ottawa ON...
Dave, Arn Saba and I on a panel the night before the Con...
The attendees at the panel (photo was way under-exposed which is why it looks so bad)...
Rose hanging out at the bar...
Karen McKiel hanging out at the bar...
Chris Claremont (I think) batting around an inflated condom...
Dan Day and Dave and beer...
Larry Niven getting down...
1984, Atlanta GA
Going to visit Bob Burden in Atlanta...
Bob's house...
Dave and Bob gotchyer' nose...
Bob and I have each other's noses...
Dave and I wonder when we are going to go to the bar...
Bob drives us to the bar...
I have no slides of any Cerebus-related activities from 1985... so...
1985, Camp Woolner, Kitchener ON
(At least I'm wearing a Cerebus T-shirt)... Scott and I prepare for a voyage across Georgian Bay...
Motoring up Baie Fine (you can recreate the sailing experience at home; whenever the wind dies, run the lawn-mower in the living-room)...
Near Durham, ON... one of my favourite shots... didn't quite make it as a Going Home cover...
1986, Gainesville FL...
The hotel where we stayed for a month, working on the book in our rooms...
Self portrait, by the pool... where else would you find a Canadian in January?
Dave's balcony...
Drawing area in Dave's room...
Someday all comics will be done this way...
Enough drawing, time to hit the bar...
My balcony...
Our neighbours...
Much better than January in Kitchener...
The view from my window...
Sunset, the day of the Challenger explosion... I wanted to go watch the launch, but didn't want to drive across Florida and have the launch scrubbed yet again. Glad I didn't go.
Querky Dave fact: He blamed the shuttle disaster on the extreme hangover he was having due to all of the "Kamakazees" he drank the night before.
I used to just stare blankly at him when he said stuff like that.
1986, San Diego CA
I don't have many slides from this trip.
I either switched to print film or I was too plowed most of the time to operate a camera.
This would have been the infamous Ardvarks Over San Diego Party. The colour is weird because I open the back of the camera by mistake, like I said; plowed... I still like this photo for some reason...
Here's another bad photo that actually captures the fuzzy, muddled memory I have of the event...
Now what sort of fashion statement do think Dave is making here?...
It was a great suite of rooms,
overlooking downtown...
It's just not everyday that you see three aircraft carriers parked end to end...
I called this one 'Crisis on Infinite Gerhards' (guess I could have gotten dressed before I took the photo)...
1986, Kitchener ON to the UK and back...
Downtown Kitchener...
Downtown Kitchener...
Off to the airport...
Off to the airport...
Approaching Heathrow... or is it Gatwick?...
Changin' planes...
Arrive in Glagow...
And land in my hotel room...
This turns out to be a recurring theme... self portrait, staring out the window... Wondering what the hell I'm doing here, no doubt.
1986, Glasgow Scotland
Hittin' a pub... We just blend right in, don't we?... 'Please mind step'... good advice for all concerned...
A.K.A. Books, Glasgow...
When in Scotland, do as the Scotch...
When in Scotland, do as the Scotch...
Does this look like someone that hates women?...
S. F. Bookshop, Edinburgh...
I'm holding Cerebus' hand...! that's just so... so... wrong...
I took this shot (with the flash aimed straight up) at one of those big, round, fish-eye-type, security mirrors in the corner...
So much for hand-holding... Cerebus is dumped onto a rack of comics as I pack up for the day...
(This part is a little bit like that scene in Life of Brian where he falls into the spaceship, goes zooming around, and is then returned to where he started...)
Suddenly, I'm careening through the streets of London in the back of this van... the driver is on the right, that's Dave in the passenger seat...
Then, we're at a con... this is Barry Windsor Smith (who apparently doesn't want to be photographed) and Dave...
Then, we're at a hotel... there are giant hash spliffs... (you can see the sense of wonder and amazement on my face)...
And then, just as suddenly... we're back in Edinburgh...
I love this sign...
I take a little stroll around town...
I take a little stroll around town...
No wonder the English got this far and then said, "ah screw it... you can keep it"...
Look vaugely familiar?...
1986, Edinburgh Scotland
This city is full of potential Cerebus backgrounds...
This city is full of potential Cerebus backgrounds...
This city is full of potential Cerebus backgrounds...
This city is full of potential Cerebus backgrounds...
This city is full of potential Cerebus backgrounds...
I noticed when I scanned this in that it says 'Queen Margaret' and it looks like she's reading a comic book...
This is a very odd photo, the weird composition, the wide angle lens... and yet, I still like it...
Woo hoo! a fully stocked mini bar!
I like this room...
Driving toward England...
For an over-populated country, there's a lot of wide open nothing...
This is considered a full-size rental car in the UK...
The border is a rock with 'England' painted on one side and 'Scotland' on the other...
This would be Newcastle...
Newcaslte upon Tyne...
The sketches are definitely getting more raunchy...
After each signing was a mad flurry of autographing posters for the shop...
Another walk around...
Another walk around...
This would be Leeds, I believe...
I love the torch ladies...
Struck me as very Monty Python/Terry Gilliam...
At least in this sketch, she kept her clothes on... (mostly)...
Odyssey Books and Games, Leeds... you'll notice that there were always pints at the signings... what a great culture...
I guess I couldn't make it to the window...
Same folks, same store name (with a 7 added), but this is Manchester...
Too... many... flowery... patterns... can't... make it... to window...
Shots like the one above kinda crack me up now... I would have had to set up the camera on a tripod, frame the shot, focus the lens, set the exposure, aim the flash, set the timer, then run over to the bed, hop on, grab the book and look casual before the shutter tripped...
I want it to look candid, but it's completely contrived...
Then there's this self-portrait...
Mmmmmmm... club sandwich....
They really shoe-horned us into these smaller shops...
They really shoe-horned us into these smaller shops...
House on the Borderland, Peterborough... this was the smallest space yet, that's me on my tippy-toes (bottom left) holding the camera as high as I can...
They moved us to another building out the back, much more room...
They moved us to another building out the back, much more room...
They moved us to another building out the back, much more room...
Nostalgia and Comics, Birmingham... not sure who took this photo, or from where...
Jeez... we musta got the 'Princess Suite' or somethin'...
Cerebus racks up the phone bill... (as long as he stays out of the mini-bar)...
You can just see a bit of Dave, far right, working the hands...
Rainbow's End, Oxford...
Rainbow's End, Oxford...
This was the coolest room of the trip and became the inspiration for Jaka and Rick's apartment in Jaka's Story...
There isn't a completely straight line or true right-angle anywhere in the room... I love it...
And now, a walk around Oxford...
And now, a walk around Oxford...
And now, a walk around Oxford...
And now, a walk around Oxford...
And now, a walk around Oxford...
And now, a walk around Oxford...
Dropping the rental car off in London (I ain't driving in London, no way)...
While the muppet was a big hit at the signings, it became a bit of an albatross, lugging it around all over the UK...
Dave still has it at the A-V office/studio
1986, New York NY
Our ride around town...
Dave actually enjoying himself...
Where's the game? there must be a game on here somewhere...
Extremely popular sketch we did at the signing...
I go for a walk in the big city...
Church & state...
You can barely see the twin towers from the top of The Empire State buliding... (cough, weeze)
Composite shot looking the other way...
Best view of the day, a girl I met on the observation deck...
Located on The Strand in the heart of the West End theatre district...
This landmark hotel opened in 1889...
And is still considered to be the place to stay in London...
Which is why Dave wanted to stay there...
We had dinner in the room...
Because thay wouldn't let us into the restaurant without proper dinner jackets...
With all of the silver and crystal and china...
It was like playing a musical instrument while eating...
Forbidden Planet...
The last signing...
The womens just go wild for da' aardvark...
The end of the tour party...
I'm taking pictures of people taking my picture...
And we already have someone on the floor...
Hanging around London (I'm gonna' spare you all of my standard tourists shots of Big Ben, etc)...
Hanging around London (I'm gonna' spare you all of my standard tourists shots of Big Ben, etc)...
Hanging around London (I'm gonna' spare you all of my standard tourists shots of Big Ben, etc)...
Fun with the telephoto lens...
Fun with the telephoto lens...
Fun with the telephoto lens...
Fun with the telephoto lens...
Fun with the telephoto lens...
Fun with the telephoto lens...
Back at the airport... we are not out of focus, this is the way we actually looked...
I thought I would walk around Kitchener...
The same way I did in the UK cities...
And finish off the roll of film...
The mess we left in the studio... it would look pretty much the same as this at the end of every issue...
Time to clean up and start filling those empty clips on the wall with pages of the next issue...
1986 somewhere in New England...
I'm really blanking on this one... some convention or other... that's Steve Bisette behind me there...
These are the Puma Blues People... Michael Zulli, foreground... Stephen Murphy, background... and... and... I can't remember her name... nuts... like I said, really blanking out on this one...
I think that's Rick Veitch there left of centre in the blue shirt...
Dave and Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird (the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles guys)...
This was Mid Ohio Con, that's why we're wearing those jackets...
This piece was created and framed entirely at the con and then auctioned off...
Dave at his penthouse apartment...
Me at the studio... I'm warming up a snifter of brandy for myself...
I was actually living at the studio for a couple of weeks here. I had left the room that I was renting (didn't get along very well with the landlord). My new apartment in a renovated church wasn't ready yet and we were about to leave for 3 months in Hawaii, so I just crashed at the studio in an attached smaller room with a couch in it. There was a bathroom down the hall.
It was a little weird... but I was never late for work.
-Gerhard