The Tarantino Story

This is going to be a long post because this story took place over the course of 18 months, had not a few twists and turns including my doing the final art TWICE, and ended up being something very different than what it started out to be. Plus I’ve been keeping this a secret for all this time, so I want to tell the story right. Bear with me…

In March of 2018 I received an email from Chris Call of Call Props, who was serving as “Property Master” for Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”. Chris had found me via some internet searches when he was instructed by Quentin to find someone to do a 60’s era TV Guide cover illustration as a prop for the film. Chris explained that Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Jake Cahill was an actor who was the star of a very popular TV show in the late 50’s/early 60’s called “Bounty Law”, but who by 1969 (the year the movie is set) had basically failed to make a planned transition to movie star and was now relegated to mostly cameo roles playing bad guys in other people’s shows. Quentin wanted to show how famous Cahill used to be by having some memorabilia on the wall of his office, including a TV Guide cover depicting him from “Bounty Law”. Quentin very specifically wanted a Jack Davis look to the art. So after some internet searches he came across my work, and was not surprised to find I, coincidentally, was a current artist for MAD Magazine.

Chris and I discussed the project, and when he showed some samples of my work to Quentin and told him I was an artist for MAD, the director thought also doing a 60’s era MAD cover that showed “Bounty Law” being spoofed in the magazine would be another great way to illustrate how big Cahill and his show was. Plus Quentin was a huge fan of MAD from way back, so he was very excited about adding the MAD cover prop. So I was hired to do both a fake TV Guide cover and a fake MAD cover.

Movie productions take a lot of time, have a lot of moving parts, and things like ideas come and go, so I was not exactly holding my breath that this would actually happen. I’ve been part of not a few stage, TV, and film projects where my participation either never came to pass or ended up on the cutting room floor. Chris assured me that Quentin was very enthusiastic about the idea, and that Chris would get in touch with me when things got closer to being needed.

It was mid July of 2018 when I got the official art direction from Quentin on exactly what he wanted. The first was:

“MAD Magazine cover dated Sept 1961, Illustration in a style like Jack Davis. Description: Jake Cahill leaning against exterior western building with “Wanted: Dead or Alive” poster on wall over shoulder. The image on the wanted poster is Alfred E. Neuman deeply picking his nose. Finger should be up to the second knuckle!”

The second was:

“TV Guide cover dated 1962, Illustration in a style like Jack Davis. Description: Smirking Jake Cahill siting on a horse, who is also smirking. There is a mule in tow with a Big Fat Dead guy face down over the saddle. The mule’s eyes are bulging and legs are buckling under the weight.”

They also sent me several examples of Davis covers from both MAD and TV Guide, as well as a lot of still photos of Leo as his “Jake Cahill” character from the fictional show.

I have to say I was thrilled to be doing this because I am a BIG Quentin Tarantino fan, and have been since “Reservoir Dogs”. However I was a little apprehensive about doing a complete Jack Davis rip-off for the art. I don’t mind duplicating the look of another artist’s style for parody purposes (I’ve done Bil/Jeff Keane, Ray Cruz, Rick Meyerowitz, Mo Willems, Alex Ross and Will Elder for various MAD projects), but copying Jack or Mort Drucker is something I try to avoid. However the golden rule in the freelance illustration biz is “give the client want they are looking for”, so I leaned heavily on a Davis aesthetic for the art, especially for the TV Guide cover.

Here are the initial pencils I sent in:

These were met with general approval but we did have a few changes. I took the liberty of having Jake leaning against a railing looking up at the poster for the MAD cover, just for more depth of field in the image. Quentin wanted him leaning against the wall directly next to the poster, looking over his shoulder at it, and he wanted a wide-eyed, shocked expression. MAD was also involved at this point, and I got some direction from then Executive Editor and VP Bill Morrison suggesting I move the gun over to the other hand so that gag is more visible. That was a good suggestion, although it meant the gun was in the wrong hand with respect to the holster. I didn’t want to move the holster, that looked better in front of the right hip rather than slightly behind him on the left hip. Here’s the revised sketch:

I’m assuming the TV Guide folks were involved in the process for that illustration, but I got no direction directly from them. I was just asked to move the mule and figure over a little by Quentin. Here’s that revised sketch:

Everything was approved with a due date of Aug 9th for art delivery. That would give them time to scan the art, work up the copy and other stuff to make it look like a genuine early 60’s TV Guide and MAD cover, get it printed, framed, and ready for the shooting of the scene it was going to be in.

I had planned all along to do real, physical paintings rather than digital, partly because I wanted to really capture the look and feel of the early 60’s era cover art, and partly because Quentin wanted the originals and I worked that into the cost of the project. I got working on the final art with that Aug 9th date date in mind. Then, as so often happens, a wrench got thrown into the works.

I had penciled everything out on boards and was just starting the initial paintings when I got a call from Chris. This was (I believe) Sunday morning the 5th of August. Chris tells me that the shooting of the scene these props were to appear in got moved up about a week, and they needed the art on Tuesday the 7th. Not the art, actually, the finished props because they were going to shoot the scene that day. As it was Sunday morning, it would have been impossible for me to finish both paintings and Fed Ex them to him any earlier than Tuesday morning, and the scene would already be shooting by then.

So, I dropped everything and did a digital version of both illustrations, which I was able to electronically deliver by Monday evening. I did a physical black and white brush/pen and ink line art drawing for each (and yes, I still have those original inks), scanned it in, then used some digital magic to partly color the lines and do a faux-watercolor paint job on them both. Here are the results:

Chris got the art in time to do all his production work, and get it to the set for the shoot. When you see the film (and it’s a great movie so go see it) the scene with this art takes place in Rick’s Hollywood home at about the :35 minute mark. The camera show some close ups of a few pieces of memorabilia that show how famous Rick used to be. You see the TV Guide cover close up for a second, but the MAD cover gets a several second lingering close up, panning down slightly as it fills the entire screen! I did not expect these pieces to get that kind of screen time. What you see on the screen are prints of the digital versions. I finished the physical painted versions later that week. Here are scans of those (the colors are a little brighter/more saturated in the originals… they match the digital versions pretty well in real life):

After I delivered the digital art, I told Chris that after I finish up the physical paintings I’d like to hand deliver them to Quentin if that would be ok. He said Quentin would love to meet, so that’s how in September of last year I was on the set of “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood” meeting Quentin Tarantino and handing him two pieces of my art.

Since this is REALLY getting long, I’ll finish the story tomorrow, including the set visit and how the “Bounty Law” parody and the whole retro concept of the next MAD came about.