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Whoa, awesome! My art ended up on olderoticart!! Even though it’s not old!

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I’ve been feeling a bit stuck in a rut with my art lately. I have plenty of inspiration, but the execution feels like a continuous regurgitation of my comfort zone. I am not trying to change my style, but at the moment I’m just feeling bored. I want to see some change - even if it’s not apparent to others, I’d be happy as long as I perceive it. 

So I decided to do some practicing by imitating the style of Otto Dix, since the ugly loveliness of his work is what’s getting under my skin the most these days. Not really sure about the overall result of this page… The ugly is there, I guess. We’ll see.

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Another thing I drew while trying to function on very little sleep. Silent storytelling fascinates me in pretty much all its forms, and I didn’t realize how much I wanted to try it in comics until I just started drawing this. The paper buckled too much and the lines don’t look as clean as I would have liked because of it, but for a headache and four hours of sleep after a gig the night before, I’m pleased. Wish there was a less invasive place for the watermark, too. Oh well.

When my husband asked me who it was, I said I didn’t know, but that Baritaria wasn’t a good place for intelligentsia in 1939 (Soviet rule, etc.). He replied, quite reasonably, that it wasn’t a good place for intelligentsia anywhere in 1939.

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I am sleep-deprived and drawing awful things. I decided that this is the boyfriend of Gerhardt, and Gerhardt has to use his family connection (since his sister Ada is married to an officer) to the SS to get him out of the ghetto/camp and out of Germany. Why… dear brain, stop it.

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I have been reading Remarque’s Arch of Triumph, so that’s Ravic and Morozov up at the top. The SS officer is the ever-tragic Heinrich Schwarzkopf from Shield and Sword. Don’t know who the girl is. She couldn’t be Joan (Arch of Triumph), because even with her stuck up face I imagine she has a much less obnoxious disposition.

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Despite being very ill in September, Diane was still putting together the fifth issue of Zelda magazine. With her passing, the future of the publication was uncertain, but I am happy to announce that Diane’s talented fiance Don Spiro is completing the issue as we speak and will be sending it to the printer’s soon. One of the article’s in Zelda will be about the gorgeous 1930 film Madam Satan which I had the pleasure of illustrating.

I’ll make another announcement once the 5th Zelda is available for purchase.

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Photos of Vicky Butterfly’s Anita Berber performance inspired me to draw the dancer, and Vicky’s incarnation of her. As well as some disembodied heads. What’s with me and Aryans in eyepatches.

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Ann Rutherford - a rejected illustration for the 4th issue of Zelda (Rutherford was going to be the cover girl, but could not be reached in time for an interview, so Ginger Rogers ended up on the cover. I had the pleasure of whipping up her portrait for the article as well.).

There was dancing, live jazz and a standing ovation in place of a moment of silence today at Di’s funeral. It was beautiful, if very hard.

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post-punk and lostsplendor - Gay’s Weimar Culture is every bit as brilliant as I anticipated and you said. So the above is at least partially your fault. You should both go up to your rooms now and think about what you’ve done.

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I spent the day drinking tea, watching The Shiek and All About Eve, and thinking about how insanely hot Rudolph Valentino, Bette Davis and Marlene Dietrich are, and how I would like to have sex with them forever and ever.

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Though theirs was a somewhat typical politically arranged marriage, Ada and Rudolf managed to come to an understanding that led to relatively peaceful and happy domestic life.

…I have no excuses and I regret nothing. Ahem.

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The two from this sketchbook page are popping up again, with a story. I have decided to name them Ada and Gerhardt. The SS officer is not in this picture, though he is Ada’s husband. This is not going to end well for anyone. Oh dear.

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Clearly, 1920s-1930s Germany is currently an obsession. I have been looking at a lot of fantastic erotica from the period in our collection. I wish Leydenegg’s Der Gestiefelte Eros was available in English (or, better yet, that I knew German), I’m very curious to read it. 

My friend L. maintains that the evil chap and the officer were either school mates or sleeping with each other. I said both.

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Doodles from a fairly recent evening of watching the stage version of Cabaret. Jane Horrocks surprised me as Sally. Really brilliant.

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Mona Faye.