Here's the latest inquiry from Scott:
I have been watching MCArt for a couple of years. After a whole lot of searching, I thought you might be somebody to ask about a Mann illustration.
Somewhere, I came across one of his works which featured an orange bike in profile - as if on a drawing board, in the planning phase. I don't remember what kind of bike it was, just that it was in profile and there was a sketch of the exhaust along with it.
Does that ring any bells with you, or do you know where I might find an example of it? I haven't been able to find it anywhere.
Well, that put a bug up my butt since I knew I have it and had looked at it recently. The trouble was, what issue was it in?
I thumbed through some old issues and was puzzled why I couldn't find it. I then remembered I had a folder of saved samples of David Mann art from issues I had tossed.
I thought I'd share this one since it's a bit different from the more common bike scenes that David did. It's sort a playful dance between 2-d and 3-d with the art and the art process being being part of the still life. Dave like to incorporate these types of illusions in his art and did so from time to time, but it's also sort of a behind the scenes look at a bike he'd probably like to have built. It's a tight little bike, reminiscent of his own pan/shovel shown below.
The current owner restored Dave's bike to a slightly earlier version than how it looked when sold. Photo ripped from the Bikers, Hippies and Tattooed Freaks blog.
I don't know what month/year issue it's from since I tossed the rest of the magazine. I thought it was a shovel, but it turns out that the art bike has an Evo engine. That and since it's a stapled center spread, means it's likely from the mid to late 80's.
3 comments:
I went back through my microfiche mind, and that drawing was the centerfold for Easyriders #184 Oct.'88.
I can't remember if Keith Ball had Mann do that concept for him, or not. But, in the next year or two, Keith started a build, and I can't remember what issue it was in, but Keith had the centerfold in the lead-off article, saying that the Mann centerfold was the inspiration for his next project.
Anyways, EZ covered the build in installments(Pat Kennedy handled most of the build), and it finished up with a cover shot, and a 5 page feature, with a 2 page gatefold in EZ #238 April '93.
By the time it was finished, it looked nothing like the centerfold at all - well...it was red, had an Evo, a Kennedy single downtube frame, Karata mag, an exhaust pipe on each side of the engine, and it had a long-ass narrow Paughco springer with recesses milled in the sides of the back legs to kinda sorta look like a VL springer.
Give Keith a call, and ask him if Mann did it for him as a concept, or if he decided to use it as inspiration after the fact.
Rich, I know exactly what bike you're talking about and still have the issue with it on the cover. I don't know if I still have or ever had the lead-off issue. The part about it being the inspiration sure sounds familiar.
Got to say, you have quite the memory.
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