Here, There Be Dragons! And now… The Shadow Dragons!
Has it already been a year? Flime ties! It was last November Bill and I headed to this pretty little bookstore in Santa Monica to see the talented author and illustrator James Owen. We’d met James before (at Vroman’s) but it was at this event last year when we learned some incredible things about his life… that as a child, James had been so ill it was a miracle (with a little help from Superman) he survived. And while illustrating Starchild, he was in an awful car accident and smashed his hand into the radio (yes, the one he draws with)… so take a quick flash to the past for more on those stories. Cuz I have NEW ones for this year!!
Again, the store was covered with his gorgeous prints (lotto… lotto… must play lotto), and some of my favorites are from the originally proposed Last Unicorn (graphic novel). There is something precious and intense about James’ interpretation of Molly Grue… And James draws some seriously bad ass pirates. Arrr! This year there were not as many children, so us grown ups dominated his attention and had our books and book plates signed. Are these pretty or what? We are SO spoiled James drew a dragon in each of our books.
Since James does not live in California, we’d planned in advance that on his next trip out Bill would take him to the Magic Castle! Well, we finally did it! Normally, you will NEVER catch me in major heels, but we arrived all dressed up and headed for the private club in Hollywood when the event was over. Here we are in the Magic Castle lobby.
We watched some magic, ate some dinner, and toured the castle. James met Irma and she played Moon River for him. Bill took us down into the secret bowels of the Castle to the members only library, where he showed James a book signed by Houdini in 1921. Oh baby, was that was a hit with Mr. Owen!
It was a school night, so Bill and I left the enchanted artist in the short line for the next close up show and headed home. What a dear man he is and Bill and I feel so fortunate to have befriended him. To me, James and Bill are kindred spirits… comic book fans but with deep, quiet dispositions, a strong love for Ray Bradbury (Uncle Ray to James) but mostly both strike me as being gentlemen from another, more elegant time, sort of “trapped” in this one. Quite an evening!
Until our next magical adventure….
P~
