I accidently left ‘Back Country’, above, in the hotel in San Antonio. The Marriott hotel was great to mail it back. So after I finished Laurence Will’s non-fiction ‘A Cracker History of Okeechobee’ I wrapped up ‘Back Country’. I then jumped into a second Will book, ‘Okeechobee Hurricane’. Just finishing that non-fiction book I felt like more fiction. It seems I’m back to fiction to non-fiction again.

By the way, I believe you can click on the ‘Back Country’ cover for a bigger version. That’s a Hell of a good cover. The book is by William Fuller who wrote a series of with his hero, Brad Dolan, that take place in south Florida. It’s unusual to find a series like this written back in the early ’50s.

Sandra and I made our way to Rainbow Springs and hiked a two mile trail. Along the way we passed old phosphate mines. Above is a sketch I made of limestone rock. Later we got to experience an unusual site. Usually little blue herons do not hang around with other herons. But in a pond off the Rainbow River we found a little blue heron with a Louisiana heron out for lunch. I made a few pages of sketches of the two.

Another great gag by Ken Culotta!

Fellow National Cartoonists Society member, Geoge Pieper, had me over to speak to his cartooning class in The Villages. Above is George, a caricature of a certain politician and me.

Sandra and I joined a walking group to hike along the Cross Florida Greenway for two and a half miles. A few of the sketches above.

I hadn’t done an Illustration Friday piece in a while. Here’s an entry for the subject word - Time.

Visited my father and made a doctor stop and a stop at Steak ‘n Shake in Altamonte Springs. We also spun by a book shop and I nabbed a few more books with great covers. Here are two:

A cover by Robert McGinnis. A very McQueen look of the fellow.

I love this! The mixture of the rendering of the champagne bottle and the title of the book is outstanding!

Later I met with Ken Culotta to write some editorial cartoon gags and was back at Steak ‘n Shake, this time in Winter Park. Below is Ken and our waitress.

Here’s a part of artwork I’ve been working on!

I headed to Altamonte Springs to get some books signed by author, Tim Dorsey, at the Borders bookstore there. Above is the cover of his new book, Nuclear Jellyfish.

Afterward I picked up my father and we got Steakburgers at the Steak ‘N Shake in Winter Park on 17-92. Acove is a sketch of a fellow, I guess the manager, working on paperwork.

I made my annual pilgramage to Mount Dora for the annual booksale there. To the left is one of the sketches I drew of the community senter that always holds the book sale. I’ve been going to it for 23 years. I’ve missed only one entirely and that was last year due to a caricature gig.

While milling amongst the books I spotted someone amongst the fellow book lookers. It was Russ Wheeler. I had watched Russ Wheeler for years when he hosted Channel 9’s ‘Dialing for Dollars’. Channel 9 would play a flick and between Wheeler would spin the wheel and give away cash. This was back in the ’70s. I loved the old films Channel 9 would play. The Marx Brothers, Danny Kaye, MArtin and Lewis were just a few that I would stay up and watch late at night. Sometimes I would suddenly fall ill and have to stay home from school if Russ Wheeler had a Marx film on that morning.

It was my elementary school teacher, Nancy Ingle, a zillion trips to the Orlando Public Library and the old films that shaped me as a professional cartoonist.

Wheeler’s run eventually ended on ‘Dialing for Dollars’.  I had noticed over the years since, he got into acting in the ’80s and ’90s. He played a doctor in both ‘Cocoon’ and ‘Harry and Son’. He also did a series of films with Hulk Hogan and Chris Lemmon. Anyway, I walked up to him and made sure he was Russ Wheeler and then thanked him for his hosting. He responded that “it was nice playing a philanthropist with other people’s money”. It was really great meeting him.

I picked up lots of books at the sale. I found a few with some great artwork. Below is from a how-to-sew book and the other is from a french children’s book. A volunteer at the book sale noticed I was pisking up the book and let me know it had been her son’s. She had picked it up in France as a gift for him quite a few decades ago.