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.