We headed to the Belleview Biltmore south of Clearwater for the monthly Suncoast Inkslingers meeting. This is a drawing of member Dan Smith. I gave him too much beard.

Good news came Friday that the efforts to save the building, of which we were a part, were successful and the building has been bought to be saved and preserved!

When the ‘Ghost Rider’ comic book was out in the 1970s comic book artist Don Perlin was the main artist for the title. When it was known the movie was coming out another cartoonist, Jeff Parker, thought it would be neat to have a bunch of artists accompany Don when he saw the film. So he contacted Don’s son-in-law and the secret plan to surprise Don started brewing. Jeff then contacted members of the Florida Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society (FLNCS).

On Saturday a whole bunch of cartoonists gathered inside the Jacksonville movie theatre and waited for Don, his wife and her brother. As Don entered the artists began approaching Don a set of groupees would. Don was flabbergasted. It was a wonderful experience to see Don so celebrated for the hundreds of pages of art that he produced back when and for being an all around good egg.

We all enjoyed the movie in rows reserved by the theatre and afterward went to a restaurant next door for dinner. We moved from there to the hotel many of us stayed at and loitered in the lobby until the late night hours and decided to reconvene the next morning for breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant. It was a great time of fellowship and will be hard to forget.

Jeff parker had brought along a recent discovery of a new brush pen and we artistic types gave it a spin. From the top are drawings using the pen by Don Perlin, Dana Summers and Ed Gamble. Above are some great doodles by Mike Wright.

This is a tiny version of the card I created for, my dear friend, Lucile Fair’s 99th birthday party which was held at the Beardall Senior Center in Orlando.

 Below is Lucile enjoying the piano playing of Russ, who played piano with Sinatra for 24 years.

Also celebrating a birthday on this day is character actor, Charles Lane. He considers Lucile a child. Mr. Lane today turns 102.

Don’t remember Mr. Lane? Maybe this will help you: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0485272/

Stopped at Jim’s Barber Shop in Downtown Orlando for a haircut Friday morning. Here he clips away at a fellow’s hair.

Another dinner at Linda’s La Cantina on E. Colonial Drive in Orlando! Yipee! These are my favorite steaks, hands down. Besides it’s over 50 year reputation of great food, the place further dedicated itself in Orlando history by recently redecorating itself with old Orlando photos and some terrific paintings of the old Orlando Air Force Base, where I was born.

Sandra had been at a writers conference near Orlando’s Lake Lucerne. I met her and one of her best friends, co-writer and Sunrise resident, Kathy Wolf, at the restaurant. This was Kathy’s first visit and you should have seen her face after her first bite of steak!

The drawing is of a small lamp and table at the restaurant.

Joined old school buddies, James and John Goddard and James Saunders for a bit of bowling. I, myself, hadn’t bowled in quite a few months and did very well.

Winter Park Bowl America is one of those wonderful old fashioned bowling alleys that are small and intimate. There are still quite a few of these around. There’s one on South Orange Blossom Trail, Sky Lake Bowl, and I recently visited one just north of Fort Lauderdale on U.S. 1.

This is a drawing of a video game at the bowling alley.

Had dinner with Rob Labby and Manfred Wegscheider after loading items in a moving truck for their move to Broward County. We went to Julie’s Waterfront in Pine Castle, just south or Orlando. Julie’s is well known for their fish dinners. and the fish, indeed, was very good. So were the hushpuppies and conch fritters.

This is a sketch of a fellow at another table.

Visited ‘Le Bon Apettit’ french restaurant in Ocoee (West of Orlando) and indulged in French cuisine. This was part of our visits to non-American restaurants with Sandra, school buddy James Saunders, writer G.K. Sharman and myself.

The restaurant had changed hands and it was evident in the cooking. Though I’m no expert of French cooking, the others are and were generally disappointed. We left after the restaurant closed and as we conversed in the parking lot noticed that the cook was Indian. That might have been part of the problem.Since Mr. Saunders is an expert cook, especially French, maybe they should have James create the dinners.

The chicken lamp was decoration on our table.

Friend Rob Labby had his birthday party Sunday. Here’s a photo of Rob at the party. Also a drawing I did that combines various stories Rob told. The drawing is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy to hard to explain!

Met with Rob Labby and Manfred Wegscheider Friday afternoon at Bakely’s in Winter Park. Had a great time! Rob’s a blast! A lot of talkin’ and joking!

 They gave me a great book of cartoon illustrations by Austrian artist Manfred Deix. WOW! What a collection!

 I first met Rob when he was a Keystone Kop at the former attraction, Stars Hall of Fame. That was 25 years ago! Yikes!