Hello to all of you. Unconventional convention is welcome to Rocky Talkie. It's a podcast about anything and everything. Rocky Horror. I'm Aaron and I'm John and joining us on air this week, we've got Harley Bean who is basically a part of every single cast in the northeast and whose gorgeous, gorgeous art has featured at some time or another as pretty much every single Rocky person's social media profile picture. Hello, Harley, you are a total icon in the Rocky community but for our listeners who might not be in the know, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your time with the Rocky community? Of course, I can. My name is Harley Bean or frequently. I am just called Beans. Uh I am part of the R K O Army, the full body cast and the test rack. Players of Boston. I have been actively performing for the last almost 12 years now. I am casting director of the full body cast, an active merch creator for Zephyr and Fred of R K O and the Wild and untamed. Things of F BC. You've seen my pins and patches and designs coming out what feels like every month lately. Uh due to Fred's Kickstarter, uh as well as a lot of my own Rocky Horror and alternative shadow cast production fan art online nerd. Uh Harley. Thank you so much for joining us today. We are super excited to have you of all people on air. I can't believe you agreed to this sucker. Now, before we get started with the show, we'd like to take a moment and just ask each other. How was your week? Did you get up to? Anything fun? Anything that doesn't involve Rocky Horror? Um uh No, excellent answer John. Uh this week was pretty cool. It was decently relaxing for me. I actually did not stream that much this week. I only streamed Monday and Tuesday. I was off Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So that was a nice little relaxing break that I had. Um I'll be back on tonight, but that's kind of been my week. Aside from that, it's just been work like nothing, nothing amazing. Nothing wild, nothing special. I did go to this really, really cute dive bar with Aaron and Meg, but that's like kind of rocky related because we talked about rocky things there. But it was super cute and the food was really cheap and they gave me a second pizza for free. So I will be back there. That place was really cute. I liked it a lot. Harley. What did you get up to this week? I last night went to a grilled cheese party nerd and, and while they were there, Roy Rossi did not have any carbohydrates. Oh my God, it's true. Um Yeah, it was a birthday party for our deer cast member, Ben. Um, we consistently boo him because I'm not sure why, but we all boo him. So it was his boo party. Um And he wanted everyone to make their own grilled cheese and when I tell you I ate so much cheese last night, yellow blocked up. I'm not gonna shit for a week. What about you, Aaron? What did you do? Oh, nothing too crazy. It was a lot of Rocky this week for me. But uh me and I did get a chance to go out last night. Uh We went to this cute karaoke bar that's down the street from us. And uh this is one that we were turned on to by one of our cast members. Uh that told us this is like his favorite karaoke bar in the entire city and we're like, there's no way it's right down the block from us. There's nothing that, that it could be about this place. This place is fucking crazy. All the people are like regulars and they do like little skits and themed dances and like choreography and like it is the most Rocky I karaoke thing you will ever see. Uh But it is technically not Rocky. So we had a ton of fun doing that. Uh, that was our evening we did, that came home and, uh, crapped out the show that you're about to hear. So, yeah. Very exciting. That's so cute. I love that. Yeah, I love when people poop on my show, you know, can't let you do it all the time. Yeah. Right. Guys. Now that, that's out of the way, I guess, uh, let's dive into our first segment. Better, better bum global news. First up, we have a topic that we visited a few times before the Riff statue. That's right. One of the seven wonders of the Rocky verse, the Riff statue is back. You might remember a few months ago the bronze statue of Riff in his space suit that was located in the town of Hamilton, New Zealand was temporarily moved into hiding. Riff used to be located in Embassy Park but had to be moved for his own safety during the development of the auto Regional Theater, which is still ongoing and has closed down much of the park. Now, the statue has been taken out of storage and put back in the public light. So all you restless, Rocky travelers worry no more. Our Mecca is back in place. I always thought Rocky. Mecca was like R K O K. I've always thought of it as Oakley Court. Oh, yeah, I always thought of it as my butt hole after it's freshly washed. Wow. I mean, how many visitors do you, you know what actually, I don't want to know. Bottom line. The statue is in Mecca. Well, Jacob wrote this one. He's Jewish so he doesn't really get Mecca. I can't blame him. The rift statue now sits just a few blocks down from its last location in Embassy Park. Now in the forecourt of the Waikato Museum, the statue was given a special second unveiling ceremony on Monday as Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate ran sesh polling duties right after she gave the public a little demonstration of her own rocky horror chops by performing the time warp. That sounds really nice. But I'm sure if any American politicians did the time work in an effort to connect. I would never vote again. Hello, fellow kids. Uh The new museum location is only temporary for the statue. Once the Waikato Museum is completed, it will be moved to a spot outside the theater, likely sometime in 2024. That would be just in time for his 20th birthday. In a small speech given to a tiny crowd at the unannounced unveiling Riffraff Public Arts Trust founder Mar Serbian revealed Richard had requested that the statue be moved to a place of sufficient importance that reflected the great reverence bestowed upon his likeness. A spot in keeping with his statue as the city's most popular icon. Yo, they must really suck his dick over in Hamilton because he sounds a lot farther up his own ass here than when he's spoken anywhere else. God damn it. I just lost it over that line the other night. Well, yeah, they literally have a public arts trust fund named after a statue of the dude. If he's gonna be up his own ass about anything, it's gonna be the statue of himself in character from one of the most internationally popular movies he made and starred in. I think it's well deserved. Unfortunately, Richard couldn't be at the re unveiling quote due to the fact that he is old and it is the middle of a pandemic. I'm pretty sure that's not a real quote. Jacob stopped making up quotes in his new spot. Riffraff is open from all sides in Embassy Park. He was backed up against a wall. But now people can really walk around and observe riffraff from the rear if they so wish. So what you're saying is that I can stare at Riffraff's ass now, only if you're a per John. Well, you're right. Imagine if that happened. Imagine if I was a perv that, imagine that, imagine dragons, imagine dragging these nuts across your face. Well, on that note, we're gonna move on now to some good news for little now fans, we have another public appearance of her as well as some found footage of now King to go with it. So, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and ABC Arts have been teaming up for hashtag know my name, a partnership that celebrates and raises awareness of female artists and creators. Yeah, they've been making videos highlighting Australian women and female run organizations since 2021. This past March 7th. Little Nell got her own video. It was an adorable 10 minute piece featuring an interview with Little Nell as well as some old footage including a reel of her busting in her fiery red Columbia hair alongside a sad clown on a street corner. Same as we've mentioned at least a few times here on the show. Little now was originally cast through her king when Jim Sharman noticed her performing on the street, which is false. We just did a segment about how that's false, but Jacob doesn't listen to the show. So this is what you get, go listen to one of the other episodes if you want to know the real story. So this hashtag know my name short has some like actual video of this in action something we have never been able to see before. The video features young little now in some light makeup dancing and singing what sounds like scat. She's sort of dancing along a wall and playing open to the street and towards the end, she pushes her clown friend up against the wall and that's right for this session. Little Nell was busting alongside a sad clown dressed in a white onesie and traditional white face makeup and bright red blush. Guess we know where Columbia got her look from also that's a mime. You guys ready? What is a mime? If not a sad clown? Yeah. Now we've got a bone to pick with ABC because in this video, the footage of now King goes from uh 1 15 in the video to 1 22. That is seven seconds. But the audio of now singing clearly continues all the way to 1 32 in the video, meaning there is a total of 10 extra seconds of never before seeing now busing footage that they're not showing us Australian Broadcasting Corporation. What are you hiding? Aaron? I think you might be a little too invested in the found footage. Appearances of Little Nell from 40 plus years ago, I am invested a perfectly normal amount. I just feel like the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has to answer for the things they're trying to keep from me, us, the community. Me. Well, the rest of the interview features Little Nell regaling us with her storied career with a few good one liners sprinkled in in reflecting on and answering questions. Fans often ask her little Nell talks about often getting asked whether the nature of the Rocky Horror show shocked her when she first became involved with. There. It is. Yeah. At no point. Did Little Nell give even two shits. She tells us about how her upbringing in a very open family saw to that one where her mother often took charge and in fact, manipulated the realities of war to have herself sent to London as World War Two was winding down where she met Nell's father. Nell talks about getting signed by A and M records recording some wacky songs and even talks about it being quote classic that she was known for showing off her tits with her many nip slips like her TV, show performance of do the swim over a blur heavy video of one of Little Nell's recorded nip slips. She says it is quite apparent to me that I got photographed a lot in very few clothes. If any, it wasn't so much that I felt nudity. It was more. I was goddamn lucky to have my mother's jeans and had a rocking figure. So you heard it here first, Nell's Nip Slips 100% intentional. One of us, one of us. No, no, no. Look at my, look at them. Lick them a little bit. It's podcast. John oh them or lick them. Lick L IC K. All right. Well, if there's anybody who's listening to this who would like to lick my nipples, I'm performing his riff raff on March 19th at the Chels, not the Chelsea Snap at the Village East. Anyway, Nell goes on to talk about the delight of opening up her own nightclub with a few friends and the freedom of being able to cast yourself to perform. No audition needed. You're hired. I said to myself in the mirror me before every show. Finally, Nell opens up about being cast in the revival of the Broadway musical nine. In 2003, she talks about how much the show absorbed her life with eight shows a week, regular rehearsals, singing rehearsals and one extra rehearsal for her as an understudy. And says the only downside of that fantastic one year of my life experience was my daughter. Tilly was four yikes. So often when we cover Nell's appearances in interviews, she brings up her daughter and how much pleasure she gets out of being a mom. It's so cool to see how invested she is in her daughter. Go little mom, Nell mom. No, I numb all of what talking about moms now. Feels like a great time to mention Happy International Women's Day to all of our listeners who Women's Day was this past Tuesday, March 8th. We hope everyone had a good one. Remember to give your mother a call, your girlfriend a kiss and your daughter a hug. Plus, you know, if any of your lady pals are into some platonic make out sessions. A couple of those couldn't hurt either. I love women, girls, you know, and speaking of adorable things, little Nell had some absolutely darling quotes during this interview. Should we do a montage of those? Oh, yes, I'll start. You're looking at someone who conceived naturally aged 44. Hello. That's damn difficult. Thanks now. And I was ecstatic when my daughter Tilly was born very much so because she was born a girl. I felt a girl was the right fit. Well, either a girl or a gay boy. Me always a gem. Nell showed the Rocky community some love saying quote, meeting the fans. It's contributed so much to my life and on the film's impact and benefit to the LGBT Q plus community, that is just the most rewarding aspect of the film. Lastly, Nell leaves us with this quote on regret, regrets. There's absolutely no point having regrets whatsoever. And the link to the hashtag know my name video will of course be in the show notes. And if you just want to get a look at the unedited Nell busing footage, it starts at one minute and 14 enjoy and last up in global news, we have some more released footage. Well, kind of some old behind the scenes footage from the shooting of Rocky Ho has been remastered direct from the BBC, right? So back in 2013, a low resolution version was shared on youtube. It wasn't great quality, but it showed some behind the scenes footage from the shooting of the film. If you haven't checked it out before this new high resolution version with far more content is the version to watch. Here's a rundown of some of the highlights from behind the scenes stuff. The good, good the video features snippets of conversational interviews with director Jim Sharman, Tim Curry and Richard o'brien, as well as some video of rehearsals and shooting specifically the tidbits from around Sweet Tea Richard in full makeup and costume, talks to a microphone, brandishing reporter from the midsection of the Archaeo Radio Tower that we see in the film, Tim is backstage among set pieces and a hanging piece of rope. Jim Sharman is there on set too right in front of Peter Henwood who's ready to go in full floor show makeup which like hold on. This has always bothered me. Why is Richard in Riff's time warp? Get up on the floor show set. When the fuck would that have ever been a thing? Where is that in the shooting schedule? Explain yourself o'brien. Richard talks about how he's an old fashioned girl. I like a beginning, middle and end and that he found similarities in that way between Rocky Horror and Saturday morning in cartoons. We also get a very rare look at a very giggly Richard as he talks about the shocking elements of the movie and what particularly might entertain an audience. Specifically, he tries to get out Frankenstein in a dress through a sputtering of giggles. What a guy Richard goes on to talk about his creative skills saying quote, I'm not a good musician, but I think that might be a strength because it stops you being clever. He explains how his lack in musical chops helped him to create music without a strict method, which unlike other more talented musicians he knew freed him up to write whatever he wanted because quote, they are all concerned with technique. Lastly. Richard declares that he doesn't really mind what happens to the show. As long as people remember it while discussing the stage show. If he has one note to actors embarking on the production of Rocky, it's that when you're acting, it's b movie acting and when you're singing it's your rock and roll dreams come true. Next up, we've got Tim, he talks a bunch about how his film performance has to be very restrained compared to the stage show, Franken Furter on stage. He could stretch out all his physicality, but he had to be much more muted on film. At first, he felt Rocky was a parody that leaned against other movies for support. But more and more as he worked on it, it feels it stands on its own, which is very nice on his character. He says Franken Furter is obsessed with image and the way that things look. But I play him as kind of grizzly and a real freak. He's also asked if he's grown sick of playing the role. After three whole years, the stage show didn't turn him off to the content at all. He says, quote, if you do the play, it's just two hours a day and the rest of the day you're yourself. But he found the movie a little more grating and even said that the long hours made him beginning to feel a little schizophrenic. He said, quote, if you spend the whole day in a pound and a half, half of max factor at the end of the day when you wipe it off, there's always a little left in the cracks. Last up, we get to hear from Jim Sharman who is positively glowing with all the praise that he has for the Rocky Horror Show. All throughout his interview, he talks how the film wasn't as is typical taken over from a small original group of creators. Instead. He says, quote, we've kept this sort of basic core of original people though, this footage has been floating around the community for almost two decades. At this point, this is the first time that we've seen it with a complete remaster, everyone's face and voice is just so much clear that it is definitely worth a look. We'll have the youtube link for you in our show notes and with all that out of the way, let's drag Harley right into their first community news. I put on my robe and wizard hat. I hate you so much. So, first up in community news, we're gonna carry on last week's literary trend. Sorry, John reading is hard. The US F A's public education system has failed me y'all. And I have a masters, legendary film art director Terry Auckland Snow, who has worked on some little indie projects. You might have heard of 2001 A Space Odyssey Labyrinth and you guest at the Rocky Horror Picture Show announced this week that he's going to be publishing a book about his time working in the film industry, his book, The Art of film Colin working on James Bond Aliens Batman and Moore is slated for a release later this month on March 24th, 2022. It will feature all kinds of great behind the scene. Stories of Terry's iconic work on these films, plus lots of brand new never before seen photos from set, plus some of Terry's own production sketches. Damn. What if we got some brand new set photos that prove the community wrong on like a well known screen accuracy thing. Like what if Frank's Throne is actually gold or some shit? And it was like it was just lit weird and we only now found out or, or what if there actually are Easter eggs everywhere and Nell was fucking with you, Aaron. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. There, there is no way she wouldn't do that to me, wouldn't she? We literally all know she would. Yeah, there isn't a whole lot of info out there about the book yet. I guess they're waiting for the big reveal on launch day. But if you're interested in finding out all the cool behind the scenes deats from Rocky that you've been missing out on, you can already preorder a hardcover coffee table edition of the art of film for the low low price of 42 95 from our Lord and Savior Jeff Bezos. I guess we'll link that in our show notes because Amazon is the only place where the book is available for preorder. But just know that linking to Amazon isn't our fave. It kind of makes us feel a little icky and sticky. Anyway, next up, we've got a must see event for any of our West Coast listeners in or around the San Francisco area or John's mouth. We now know that. Nice. Damn it. I had to. Now we know that circus themes at a Rocky horror shadow cast aren't exactly unusual. There's just a certain about bold vertical stripes and showy bar gags like blackhead that draw Rocky people like a moth to a fire eater or a fire juggler or a human torch. You get it, put a finger down for every time you've seen a Rocky person do a circus trick so that someone would buy them a drink at a bar. I don't have hands right with all the overlap in the community. It's fairly standard practice to see circus themed nights. It shows what it isn't all that common for, for some reason are actual circus nights where a Rocky show is combined with real sideshow acts. However, this coming weekend, March 17th through 19th, the Great Star Theater in Chinatown, San Francisco is going to up the circus ante with the Rocky Horror circus show featuring a tight wire time warp and a high flying Columbia. This isn't your usual shadow cast fair. It's not a film screening. It's a circus at the Rocky horror circus show. You can experience Rocky like never before back for the first time since 2017. This circus event is hotter gayer and more experienced. The show invites you to come dressed for a wild night pants optional. Sign me up. They've got a teaser trailer up online and it is no fucking joke. We've got a rocky who juggles a Magenta who does rope aerials, a pole trick. Frank a Hula hooping Janet plus Eddie riding an actual motorcycle. There's even a trans and they're jumping rope on a unicycle. Holy fuck. That is impressive. Hell yeah, it is. Honestly, even if you aren't around San Francisco, it's definitely worth watching the trailer. That's how good it is. We've linked it for you in our show notes if you want to watch and if you're anywhere near San Francisco, definitely check this show out if you can. It looks like it's going to be a really incredible time with lots of ultra talented performers. Again, performances are going to be Thursday, Friday and Saturday, March 17th through 19th, doors are at 8 15. Show starts at nine tickets start at $25 for the nose bleeds and run up to $50 for premium seating in the first three rows. But if you're feeling extra extra, you can even splurge on a VIP table for you and your friends for $320. And of course, we've got all those dates linked for you in our show notes. OK. So question for the room if you had unlimited resources to go big or go home on a theme night like this, what theme night would you pick? And how would you do it? I, I, I just want to throw out this, this note that I had when I first saw this that was like, oh, so this is like a circus show who there's got to be that one guy who's on their like circus performing troupe who's like, I fucking hate doing theme shows first. You make me do Disney. Now I have to do this Rocky Horror theme night. This is so right. Like the exact flip scenario. It just gives me a little chuckle but best theme night ideas. I don't know. I hate theme nights. So sorry. Uh I also hate team nights but I feel like if we did like a Broadway the night on a broadway stage, how cool. OK, I'd be there for that, right? Like being able to rent out like the Gershwin and be Rocky on it with like stage hands that can help us do transitions and shit. Like how cool would that be? Frank comes in on the ball that Glinda comes in on at the beginning of Wicked? Oh That would be so cool. That is ridiculous, John. I love it. Well, I love theme nights. They're some of my favorite things to do. And I know that I talked previously in my little questionnaire, um, about a fantasy night, a medieval night. But another theme night that I would love, love, love to do would be a rockabilly horror picture show. Oh, sign me up for that where like all the music is like rockabilly and stuff. Yeah, I absolutely love that. Lots of leather jackets and greaser hair and I don't have hair. Harley go buy some. So speaking of greased back hair, that means that it is time for Harley asks a question. I think we all saw this one coming a mile away. You said coming. You said let's talk about Rocky Art. Can we not? Why John? Do you not get art the finest of the fine arts? The one that they are all named after the art art, the capital A art? Oh yeah, please. Why is a the most magical color? Explain the difference between blue, green and green, blue to me. Can you hook my friend a niche up with some black is black and please don't use hateful words like saturation, intensity or blending. I'm fucking color blind. This whole statement is against people who can't read. I think John needs to take a minute or more. But yes, please. Let's art it up. I was so excited when you mentioned Rocky Art as a topic for your hack set. There's, there's just so much to cover and it's definitely something that like. I personally like to dabble in a lot. I mean, not so much on the artistic side. I dabble more on the graphic design side, doing artwork for obviously this show the New York City cast, all of my stupid tangential Rocky projects. But I am so super excited to get to pick your brain about all of this from like an actual artists point of view. You're a hack session. Harley asks a question. Yes, I know our stupid shtick Aaron is still a hack. All right. So where do you want to start like an art retrospective? A modern design guide or just like all the tips and tricks for fluffing up your cast's newest flyers? Yes, please. I want that and I want that and more. If you really want to look at the finest pieces of Rocky art, you have to go all the way back to the original source unquestionably. And that means Sue Blaine's costume designs, Brian Thompson's art design and the first piece of print art Richard o'brien's hand drawn cover for the original Rocky Horror show playbill. The original stage show is set to open officially in June of 1973. Richard took matters into his own hands for the playbill cover. There's a photo of the playbill up on Ozy Rocky horror dot com and we will of course link that for you in the show notes. The cover is done in like a comic book style with the muscular rocky standing in front of a winding road, at least for Boating Castle. And there's a sign by the road that promises something for everyone. The bottom third of the cover is split off into kind of a separate frame with a laser wielding riff in the bottom left. He's firing a bolt of lightning with the phrase thrills pills and spills in the middle is Eddie rising up out of the Coke machine. And to the right hand side is a blonde Bimbo wearing a cone shaped fifties bra straight out of a Fredericks of Hollywood catalog captioning the bottom third is the phrase Brad and Janet found it was a night they were to remember for a very long time. Wait. So is that supposed to be Janet? Is that how Richard envisioned Rocky and Riff? Give us the official Harley art review as a piece of Rocky horror art. Do you think that he's really got the characters right? Because I've got to say I'm here for riffs like harness and Thon look, but it's not that screen accurate. So I personally think that character down there isn't Janet. I think that's either a Trixie or a Columbia because she looks more like, I don't know, Saucy or maybe it's a later Janet who knows? All right, I can see that I could see that. Yeah. So this might have been the first real piece of Rocky stage show artwork, but it's probably not the most iconic. I think that the award has to go to the Columbia Head designed by Michael English. When the stage show transferred from the theater upstairs to the classic cinema, Michael White, the show's producer wanted a more eye catching poster and he turned to Michael English. English has fascinating career in the sixties. He has been credited with creating an English form of psychedelic poster art very evocative of earlier pop art English came on, Michael White's radar as a 31 year old photo realist who had designed an exceptionally overt poster for White's production of oh Calcutta in 1970 his poster had been too risque to ever be used for official promotions. Wait, like how risque? OK. Well, it is uh it is a photo of a female bodied person uh who is bending over and the bend is in your face. So it's very P O V. Uh If it was any more realistic, you could probably see the butt hole because it is a drawing. You cannot see the butt hole. Um I demand the butt hole version of this picture. There. It is uh her, you know, she's got like a, is that supposed to be hair? Is that supposed to be a like a sash of sorts? It's a good question, isn't it? I can't tell if it's a sash or if it's a continuation of her hair because they're like the same color shade that wraps around her legs and on each side of her butt, she's got a little, little plant tattooed on each side of her cheeks. I'm a butt guy. So Harley, what is the official art review on this one? Like it's a pretty nice ass and apparently if you want to own the original, it can be yours for a cool £2245 available on rock po me dot com. But you have to pay more if you want it. Chipped. My, my take on this piece is that it's fantastic because I am an ass man. Yes, that's what I'm talking about. Harley off top, you know, and clap. I don't know. Uh So anyway, the guy who drew that OK, cut up poster was Michael English and Rocky's producer Michael White came to him to do a new poster for the transfer to the Classic Cinema White had English come take a look at the rehearsals and afterwards English airbrushed the Columbia logo that we all know onto a piece of 10 inch card and we've all seen this one before. The big eyes, the Columbia eyebrows, the half shoulder. Sure. It's got that shocked, wide eyed expression, but it's also got slicked back, black hair and giant hoop earrings. Is it really Colombia? It's more of kind of like an Androgynous visa visage. Michelle visage. It's more of like an Androgynous Visage. It doesn't really look like little. Now, it was even more confusing when it was used for the 1975 Australian production there. Max Phillips look for Franken Furter had more than just a passing resemblance. He had a really slender facial structure and slicked short black hair. So this end result was confusion among some theatergoers as to whether the image was in fact intended to represent Frank rather than Columbia. Supposedly English had meant for the design to be used in grainy black and white to match that cheap comic book style he had in mind. But Michael White liked the color version. So that's what was used. And the Columbia face became the official logo of the stage show for most of the seventies and eighties from Larry Weis's Michael White collection. He shared a high resolution version that was sent by Michael White to Lou Adler in 1975 four for the US stage show in the attached letter Michael White tells Lou quote enclosed is a transparency of the Rocky Horror artwork which should be lithographed and not silk screened together with a poster from which he will be able to get the dripping blood writing, which I just thought this was so amusing down to the instructions on how to like replicate the thing. And to imagine that some poor guy with an exacto knife had to chop up an original Rocky Horror poster just to get the letter in. Oh what an art project, the Columbia artwork appeared on everything, the cast album, the UK show, the US show all the official books, reviews articles, the cast of the movie was even spotted sporting the logo on shirts during the shoot for the film. And if you're interested in the history of the Lips from the Rocky Horror picture Show film adaptation, check out episode four, TDY Trixie, we cover all the details about the Man Ray painting that inspired the film's logo, the history of the Usherette and a metric fuck ton of other stuff between the iconic Columbia logo on the stage and the lips on the silver screen. Rocky had found its artistic brand, but we can't forget the dripping bloody iconic Rocky horror font. It's an eternal aspect of Rocky's visual style. It also first appeared on the theater program alongside the Columbia artwork. During the transfer to the Classic Cinema in 1974 the stage show Redid the logo as part of the swath of changes that happened in the nineties, but everyone still recognizes the iconic lady. So that was the core foundation aesthetically right of the fandom and of Rocky, you had the official artwork from the stage show, you had the movie and let's not forget you also had the iconic Mick rock photos that were being used for publicity and that we all still recognize today. I mean, there's a reason he's one of the most influential photographers of all time as the fan community evolved around Rocky Horror. Some of the earliest published works by fans were coming out of the fan club in New York with the Transylvanian fan scene and their primary artist was the Frank to top all Franks, Dori Hartley. The earliest works by Dory are a mixture of cartoons, some character studies of tim hand drawn lips, some lightning bolts in the R K O tower done in what we would now describe as kind of a clip art style in South Hero's Creatures of the Night. There is a whole section dedicated to the early artwork, including pieces by Dory and Betsy Vacco who ran the shop talk fan scene. Among many other awesome artists as the Rocky fan community excluded, they were hungry for resources. A lot of the early fan materials were hand drawn recreations of iconic film shots or cutouts from newspaper and magazine articles. Many casts took advantage of the movie novel and post your magazines for assets throughout the eighties and nineties. The fan club used a lot of Phil Degen's artwork, the iconic cartoon stylings that you still see in use today. Some were replicating scenes from the film or just cartoon versions or our favorite characters doing original gags. Is that kind of still the same material that you use now? Hardly when making rocky content. Are you looking at the movie a lot? Do you use a lot of like reference photos? Yeah, I I use a lot of things. It can be stills from the movie or stills from like photos taken of cast performances. I've used a lot of um poses from my own cast members. You know, I get inspired by like moments during a show, moments of the show. You know, it's a combination of a lot of things and every, every piece is different. You know, speaking of as one of the people in the community today who is producing a ton of rocky art and content, what Dumb Little Rocky detail is one of your favorites to draw and which one drives you the most nuts. The early stuff is all that need bolts and lips. But we are way more sophisticated than that in the year of our f 2022. Yeah, I mean, I love drawing figures. So I'm always going to draw the characters one way or another. Like I love fashion. So all their outfits are insanely complicated and annoying to draw. So I love to do them. I also love drawing makeup. So getting everybody's makeup shape is always really fun. But I really do love trying to get the itty bitty overlooked details, you know, like Columbia's Little Ring, the little tears in Riff's tailcoat. I don't often get to include them when I'm doing promotional material. But when I get to do my own fan art, I try my best to include the little bits, but I hate drawing fish nets. So say we all right. Um So back in the day at the dawn of the fandom, there was this huge hot button topic, if you don't mind the pun I mind. Thank you. It was about about who could get official approval to use Rocky branding. The fan community obviously created a ton of low and high quality bootleg merchandise, but this was official in creatures of the night. Sal describes in the early days of the fan club, he flew out to L A to meet with Fox's licensing department to get permission for using the lips and the logo. And this was a big deal having the official branded stamp from Fox as Rocky evolved, Fox really opened up and embraced members of the community who wanted to produce officially licensed merch. Actually, some of the original official mass produced buttons were done by companies that were formed out of community members. And speaking of, I know pins are something that you've been doing to call it a lot is an understatement, a metric bicycle basket full of every few months. We are dropping an episode with a new amazing Kickstarter project featuring your artwork. How did that come about? And what are some of your tips for anyone out there doing wide appeal, Rocky Art. It really happened pretty so much. Fred just approached me about doing some work, promotional material for R K O and I started back with R K O K two. I did the logo for them. I did the logo for R K O K three and now for four. So in between, we just kept making, you know, little designs that, you know, eventually were like, let's put these on pins, let's put these on shirts or patches. And Fred will just message me every so often with just a, hey, I've got an idea and I will doodle them up. They're a lot of fun. I really enjoy doing it. And when I am drawing like characters for pins or you know, whatever merch I think of if someone is going to glance at whatever it is, you know, wherever it's displayed, a jacket, a backpack, et cetera, I want it to be so recognizable. Like I want someone to go. I know what that is a clear image of the face, uh iconic costume piece, that kind of thing. And when promoting to the larger rocky community, like, you know, it's almost more difficult. I really have to stick to the very iconic subjects, you know, time warp, the drippy font, slut and asshole things that people remember. But when promoting to the smaller community of people who buy all of my art, who I love very much um I like to make things along the lines of if, if you know, you know, so like like the coffin clock crims, iconic pieces that could be from anywhere but they're specific. Oh Those, those are my jam. Those are, those are the ones that speak to me. I love them. I love them. I love them. I love them nerd. And I, I think that brings us to one of the big questions out there for anyone who's dabbling and doing rocky art. And this is for like everybody who's sitting in MS paint or gamp or Photoshop or illustrator or God knows what you use. Let's briefly talk about like some practical tips for your local cast who is making promotional artwork for their show and for their organization, I would say the biggest tip, the biggest thing to keep in mind is uh obviously branding because that's the point of it. But like, oh no, I forgot the word consistency. So I swear in English first language. So consistency in your artwork and your branding. So common theme colors, you know, like R K O always has this kind of uh green, like an R O army green. Um F BC has always had like a black, red and yellow, very kind of specific colors that we try to use in everything. Um And I think when you have kind of a color theme uh sticking with that is the best because then anyone who sees those colors, they're going to immediately think of you. And like, I think the best example of that is the ordinary kids from New Jersey. They've got this bright pink and blue ish, like magenta teal almost combination that they use in everything. And they went so far because Adrian is just an amazing woman. Uh She made her floor show boas for the whole cast of those colors. So that's amazing. I didn't know that they're absolutely beautiful. They're holy crap. And so when everybody's standing out there in floor show, they have the cast colors presented and it's just, you know, you just sit there and you go nice. Right. That is, that is some top tier branding right there. I I love that. I think, I think the biggest kind of resource that I've fallen back on for doing cast stuff is is just using public domain resources, stuff like un splash, all these places that have creative common licenses on photos that you can, you know, attribute in some, you know, in your post or in wherever you're using it. But um they make great foundations, you know, you take that do some, do some digital work on it and then you know, slap the lips, the logo, all that kind of stuff on it. I mean, all of that stuff, the official Fox stuff is available for the community to use. There is a official Fox kit that contains the lips, all of the posters, all of the logos, the like pictures of Tim and a couple of like photos that's been out there as a press kit that they've distributed for, you know, theaters to use in their motion of the film and they've never had a problem with any shadow cast out there wanting to use it. I think we all see this all the time. I mean, it's one of the biggest things for me is like when you're doing promo art for your show, you want to use, you know, the drippy font for something you want to get the lips on there. You want to make it iconic so that somebody who like hasn't seen Rocky in a decade looks at it and goes oh right. Rocky horror, John, do you have any um delicious tips here? I'm color blind. Well, speaking of colors want to talk about, you're going to talk about the the the hex color for Rocky, aren't you? Yeah, yeah. Go ahead. Drop it on a baby. That's hashtag C 80 A zero A. Oh yeah. So the reason that we know that and uh this has been one of the greatest resources that has been out there for a long time uh was the work by Sean Hall, Harley. I'm sure you're intimately familiar with Sean's work. I love him. He put out a whole design guide about a decade or so ago that covers like all of the assets that you need in order to do like correctly officially looking branded stuff. This is like how far is the drop shadow on the Rocky, you know, logo? What's the correct spacing between words and the letters and things? It also includes all the hex colors for stuff. Um which you think all this was really easy until you actually sit down and try and do it and you go, what the fuck, why, why is there a white shadow like that on the stupid logo? Um Sean also produced a ton of like stock assets for the transducer and other like paper props and things like that. They, his transducer art is what like every cast has printed. It's some fantastic work. Unfortunately, a lot of that stuff disappeared off the internet about a year or two ago. Um I'm gonna go ahead and republish some of it. Uh Try and get in touch with Sean and see uh you know, if he doesn't mind. And uh yeah, hopefully get all that information back out into the community because it's a fantastic resource and also includes one of my favorite things to talk about fonts. Wow. Wow. Yeah, I mean, everybody uses double feature, right? Like that's the font that uh everybody's got out there. Sean actually created two additional fonts. One of them is like this multiple drip style font that you can do all kinds of different, you know, uh character lettering. It uses, it abuses ligatures in order to like type an L three times in order to switch between the different versions of the L. Um He's also got a Dent and Dings font that has all of the like shock treatment logos and the Transylvanian Lightning Bolt and stuff. I think those are still available up for purchase. Uh, they're only like 15 or 20 bucks or something. If you do a ton of rocky artwork, you should definitely go check these out. They're all linked in our show notes and we'll, uh, get you that, uh, so that, uh, you can make your, your cast flyers look all pretty and sparkly Harley. You got any other tips that we can share with our listeners? I think you covered most of it. You know, I think a big part of it is if you have ideas and you don't know how to create them or you need advice, reach out to other artists in the community. There are so many of them. Um Like, I'm just an illustrator but there are, you know, graphic designers, costume creators, Wigmakers and honestly like knowing all of the art forms will improve your art no matter what it is. That's really deep, really deep. Yeah. Yeah. You, so we've got to ask Harley, we've talked a lot about the history of Rocky R and all of our listeners need to go follow you if they don't already obsessively scroll through your Instagram. Are there any community members that you want to shout out some artists that you absolutely adore and that everybody should go check out. I do have a few, one person who's shown up recently. I'm not sure if they're in the greater Rocky community or they just like doing fan art. But I know we've spoken about them before on the show. But Frank and Fodder uh across the pond, they do some really, really cool illustrations and they did a whole bunch of illustrations of uh Rocky community members. And I really love their posters. I need to get one because I'm on one of them. And so they do some really, really fun things. Polly DeLarge from the ordinary kids. His paintings, I think a lot of us know them. I love, love, love everything that comes out of his hands. I know a New York local Lola Montez with her calendar. That was really, really awesome. So just lots of varying styles between all the artist community and of course, I love my babe Rowan and all the collages and crazy art that they make. But yeah, I don't know. I love seeing Rocky Art. I love when people send me rocky art. You know, that's kind of my favorite. They're like, look how this Frank was drawn or look how you know, someone styled this Columbia. I love receiving those messages. I love them all. Go check them all out. And I think that's that for my hack sesh. That sounds aggressive. This was fun exhausting. Sure thing I did all of the above and that's our show. We want to thank Harley for joining us on air today and for being such a wonderful guest host, art critic and just amazing human being as an avid listener, I'd really like to thank Jacob for his work as a scriptwriter. Our hot producer, Meg and Aaron from Tennessee from his mad audio editing skills. We really appreciate all of your work. If any of our listeners has a question they'd like to have answered on air for our hack snack or our jack off session or whatever. Weird mnemonic fits in with your name or maybe some community news they'd like to promote or even a cool story to share with the community. Rocky Talky would love to include it and if you're enjoying Rocky Talkie, please help us out by rating, reviewing and subscribing to the show. It makes the podcast more accessible to new listeners which helps us grow the show. And if you want even more Rocky Talkie content, check us out on Facebook, youtube, Instagram and tiktok all at Rocky Talkie podcast. We'll talk to you next week. Bye bye, Richard in full makeup and costume. Talks to a microphone. Oh, I was like, right. I read the second part of it. I was like it talks to a microphone. I'm so mad that you said I put on my wizard hat. Oh my God. Rest in peace, blood ninja. Wherever you are. English came on, English came on Michael. That's all I'm reading. Good night. Everybody as the Rocky fan community exploded, they were hungry. They turned into an entire country. Are we doing this outtake? Bye bye. What is this outtake? I don't know but I want to read it because I see the word come in it. Oh God. All right. Hold on. Give me one second. Please enjoy this part of the script that did not make the cut a script. I'll take if you will in his new spot, Riff Raff is open from all sides in Embassy Park. He was backed up against a wall. Now, people can walk around everything and observe riffraff from the rear if they so wish. So what you're saying is that I can come on Riffraff's ass now, only if you want to go to jail for public indecency. Public indecency, goddamn Aaron call it what it is public coming besides it's New Zealand. I bet they don't even find you for public coming and even if they did find me for public coming, the fine would be what? Three kangaroo bucks? My God. That's the wrong hemisphere for kangaroos. And the exchange rate between us D and kangaroo bucks heavily favors the dollar. We'd almost be losing money if we didn't go to New Zealand just to come on the statue. Just saying, OK, we're gonna move on now. Good news for now. Fans, we have another public appearance of her ass as well as some found footage of her ass. There's come, can I come on it? If there's footage of the ass? I desire to ejaculate onto it, man. That'll teach me to put a poster of a lady's ass into the show. Now, print it out so I can do one of those really weird porn hub videos where they just jerk off onto the picture. Why, why you can buy the original for 2000 £245 you think? I mean, I have that kind of money but you think I have that kind of money. I have that money. I wouldn't have any money after that money, but I certainly do have it. It needs to be spent better ways. Like flying to New Zealand to come on a statue, like on me, flying, flying to New York City to, to what? Come on my face. Ok. There it is. There it is. I, I had to follow it up with something. Go get a cup of coffee. Yeah, I'm tired. Thank you, Harley. This was so much fun. Oh, my God. Thank you.