CLIFF: Hey Tom.

TOM: Hi.

CLIFF: How about some information on yourself?

TOM: I am a tireless and hardworking professional, I have been a professional Illustrator since 1980. I’ve done lots of H.P. Lovecraft-inspired cover artwork for Chaosium Inc. in Oakland California. They produce role-playing games. I worked on the “Call of Cthulhu” and many other games until recently. My favorite book to illustrate was Petersen’s Field guide to Cthulhu Monsters. It presents Art and descriptions of Twenty-Six of the most commonly encountered entities of H. P. Lovecraft’s mythos. It has full-color oil paintings and pen and ink drawings by me. I also was a sculpturer, and mold maker on The Fly Part 2, the sequel to the Jeff Goldblum version. That was for Chris Walas productions in Marin County, Calif. I am now starting a company with my partner Pat Reese called Dark Age Productions. We are going to create and sell replicas of some film props I have created for films, Art prints of my artwork. As well as lots of other stuff. Check out our web site Dark Age Productions.

CLIFF: Do you know any personal information on the cast of the Evil Dead?

TOM: Bruce is the greatest physical comedian from America working in films and an incredible trooper. He is genuinely a good person and the real deal, multi-talented as well, and did I mention how funny he is? I have not talked to him in years though. Scotty, played by Hal Delrich, not his real name, was and still might be a Professional Diver. He travels around the world entertaining folks with his incredible high dive show. I have not seen him for too many years. I hope to see everybody at the twenty-year reunion if there is one. I am afraid I don’t know too much, as we have all gone our separate ways. The last I heard Sarah York (Theresa) who played Shelly was a very successful D.J. in L.A., and Ellen Sandweiss (Cheryl) was married and a mom back east. I believe Betsy Baker (Linda) is happily married as well. She had performed in a T.V. movie called “Word of Honor.” This was out before Evil Dead was released and starred Karl Malden and I seem to recall a very young John Malkovitch. I’m sorry but this information is about 15 years old.

CLIFF: What was it like working with Sam and Bruce?

TOM: Both are tireless and hard-working professionals. They have wanted to do what they are doing since they were little guys. Sam is fine to work with. He’s very even-tempered and it’s a fun set despite the long hours and volume of work before us. Because of circumstances beyond any control, the exception would be the lack of preproduction on the Evil Dead. Three months would have been nice, but I recall Sam was very secretive about the script. I got the script about three weeks before the shooting began.

I had time to buy supplies and do some face casts that weren’t usable for what I needed them for. So the latex face castings I made from them went on the very first version of the Book of the Dead. It’s Ten Commandment size, which Sam told me later was too big for Ash to grab with that necklace. Ironically the Army of Darkness book is just a little smaller than the first one I did. And still have. Preproduction would have eliminated a lot of time wasted. Sam does preproduction now.

CLIFF: What was your favorite part of making the Evil Dead films?

TOM: The opportunity to do what I have always wanted to do. Fortunately, The films have turned out to be far more successful than any of us had expected. At the time of the “Book of the Dead” production, we thought we’d be lucky if it played in Southern drive-ins. It’s been kind of like winning the lottery without getting the money.

CLIFF: What is your personal favorite of the trilogy?

TOM: The first, not because I worked on it, it has an amazing intensity, I’ve never seen audiences react so expressively to a movie like it before or since. On a personal level it was the most satisfying as an artist. I had the chance to use every skill I had taught myself. I survived it and succeeded at it.

CLIFF: How did you shoot the blood geyser scene from ED 2?

TOM: That was accomplished by the practical special effects man Vern Hyde, a wise, fine man and one of the tops in his field. Sam’s worked with him since. As I recall, he had a local fire truck pump out colored water that had been mixed in makeshift swimming pools. After the flood had taken place, the entire crew was enlisted in mopping up the spill. Remember, in ED 2 the interior cabin was actually the second story of a set built inside the gymnasium of an unused school, and there are no drains in the gym. Humans don’t sweat that much.

CLIFF: Where did you get the idea of what the evil force should look like?

TOM: I think you are referring to “old rotten apple head,” the huge monster head that bursts through the door and tries to swallow Ash in ED 2. That was designed and built by a Los Angeles FX company. Sam had me draw a bunch of variations of themes for the project but they were not used. I still have my drawings though. Sam’s ideas were for some kind of personalized demon for Ash as it had the faces of his comrades absorbed into the beast. Sam had me do drawings of a giant Evil Ash head bursting through the cabin door as well.

CLIFF: How did you make the evil hand? (From possession to dismemberment)

TOM: In Evil Dead 2 Ash becomes possessed after Linda’s head bites him. I animated the infected hand shot in Detroit with Bruce. Sam had wanted some movement in Ash’s hand, as it becomes gross, so I built a stand that Bruce could set his hand on and the platform could rotate incrementally while I painted and animated the blackened veins. Bruce slightly moved his fingers giving them that supernatural energy. The makeup hand was done by Mark Shostrum’s crew using prosthetics. The severed hand had been a combination of Rick Catizone’s Stop Motion hand and a production assistant Named John Walter, a really decent and hard-working guy who was thrilled to be working on an Evil Dead movie. He is the guy who gives the finger wearing the prosthetic stump.

CLIFF: What went into the making and filming of the work-shed scene with the possessed Linda in Evil Dead 2?

TOM: That sequence was done by Mark Shostrum’s crew. The volume of work in that one sequence is massive. It has character make-up, an elaborate full size puppet being puppeteered by a crew, a stunt chainsaw and lots of uncomfortable acting being done by the actress playing Linda in a vise. As for who did what and how, specifically, I can’t help you there.

CLIFF: How was making the Evil Dead different from making the Evil Dead 2?

TOM: The money, the food, and the size of the crew. In ED 1 about 17 of us from Michigan made it to the Tennessee location. And on ED 2 there were more than a hundred from all over the country. Making movies usually mean extremely long days and grueling conditions. Both of these films qualified at that.

CLIFF: As an aspiring makeup artist, what materials did you use in the making of the Evil Dead films?

TOM: I only did makeup effects for the first film. I wanted to do stop motion and being a make-up person does not allow for much sleep. You have to get up very early to put actors in their masks. While as an animator on ED 2, I got to sleep into 5:00 A.M.
As far as materials, I used modeling clay, latex rubber, cotton, rubber mask grease paint, alginate, hydrocal for the molds and simple foam rubber for the castings, crepe hair and powder for the grease paint, and the contact lenses were made by a professional. If you can work well with these materials you’ll have a good basic background of the skills needed.

CLIFF: What advice can you give me on how to become a pro SPFX artist?

TOM: Start telling everyone that you are an SPFX artist. This way everybody will expect results. Get a good library of make-up books, which is essential. I’d try libraries, Cinefex magazine, American Cinematographer book lists, surf the net, Bookstores and write to your favorite makeup professional.

Richard Corson’s book Stage Makeup is a great place to start. Practice on friends and then photograph or videotape your efforts so you can get used to seeing how it transfers to the screen. Then get out there and network and find others making films, chances are they are looking for you. Then you get a good portfolio and start writing letters and knocking on doors. Good Luck!

CLIFF: As a makeup artist, who influenced you to get into the business?

TOM: Sam Raimi. I always wanted to direct, but unlike the collaborative group of Sam, Rob, and the Detroit guys, I was all alone, so I taught myself Art, Writing, Photography, Film making and the wide world of Special Effects. Sam had the confidence in me and that I could do it and gave me the chance. I’m grateful.

I wanted to know it all and did just in time for the digital revolution. I’m a good designer and film and art will always need good ideas and designers.

In the area of makeup, my influences would be the legendary Dick Smith, Rick Baker, William Tuttle, and Rob Bottin. In stop motion Willis O’Brien, Ray Harryhausen, Pete Peterson, Jim Danforth and Karel Zeman.

CLIFF: Was the clay stop motion animation idea all yours and Bart Pierce’s or did Sam Raimi have any input on it?

TOM: Good Question…

The script was very sketchy. It says on page 66 (the bottom of the last page) of my “Book of the Dead”(original title of “The Evil Dead”) shooting script (Copyright Renaissance Pictures LTD. 1979) And I quote:

“The fireplace poker slips from Cheryl’s hand and sticks into the wood scarcely an inch from Ashly’s head. The bodies of SCOTT AND CHERYL then begin to cave inward upon themselves collapsing to the floor in smoldering heaps. Finally, nothing is left but the burnt clothing and a blackish grey ooze on the floor where their bodies once were.”

Damn, if that Sam isn’t a poet! I had always wanted to shoot the meltdown sequence in Stop Motion. I think Sam’s idea was a deflating clothing and smoke effect, sort of fast. As it was, that short paragraph took two FX guys three months to create and film.

In Sam’s super 8-movie experience, he was always focused on telling stories and I was obsessed with animating stuff trying to be Harryhausen Jr. or O’Brien 2. It was more my area of interest and experience so I had to sell Sam on the idea of Stop Motion. As an example of what I had in mind for the meltdown I discussed with Sam, the animated Morlock that decomposes rapidly as Rod Taylor escapes in time in George Pal’s “The Time Machine.” Sam had seen my super 8 stop motion films at some of our film festivals at his and Rob’s M.S.U. apartment

I finally convinced Sam I could do it in clay animation and got the go-ahead. I did eight drawings to represent the meltdown action, which Sam saw and liked. I was going to need a cameraman and fortunately, Sam and Rob knew the perfect guy in Bart Pierce. Not only an experienced cinematographer but an animator as well. Not to mention he worked at Producers Color Service in Detroit so we could get our film back quickly. Sam got us together. We met when Bart picked me up in his van as I had a pickup shots shoot to do with Sam and crew north of Lansing, Michigan and this would give us a chance to get acquainted. This was in the early summer of 1980. Bart and I hit it off really well, as we both loved the original “King Kong” and all things Harryhausen and Danforth. That was until it came to how to approach the meltdown sequence. I wanted to do animation, but as much as Bart loved to stop motion he felt that with all the new advances in make-up effects like the work of Dick Smith, Rick Baker, and Rob Bottin audiences might might not go for it.

Also there was concern that it does not look like “bad” animation. As I recall Bart and I was having a loud disagreement as to whether it was Stop Motion. No. Live action, Stop Motion, etc. when it dawned on me to use split screens and combine Stop Motion and live action. Lots of Goo and hair dropping off as a supernatural rotting of “Evil Dead” flesh via stop motion. Just like the Reese’s Piece commercial and everybody was happy. All this was in front of Sam and the cast and crew on the pick up shoot. We had everybody’s attention. Just like the Reese’s Piece commercial and everybody was happy. All this was in front of Sam and the cast and crew on the pickup shoot. We had everybody’s attention. But as soon as it clicked, we were all buddies again. We both cared about what we were doing and wanted this to be powerful, serving the audience as well as kick-starting our SPFX careers. Bart and I both enjoyed the technical challenge of the sequence and quickly became good friends.

In the first week in Aug. 1980, I had to leave my wife Penny again, living away an average of six days a week, enjoying a cot in the basement at Bart Pierce’s home. Bart and I were in sync and having a blast developing the meltdown. Sam and Rob were away in New York in the post, so Bart and I started our planning in Detroit. We expanded the sequence from the eight original drawings to about thirty storyboards that I drew. We had control over the action and camera movement, lighting, and the solutions to the SPFX. That’s why it works, we’re left alone and allowed to go nuts. Later Sam added some inspired close-ups of Bruce and viola! Genius.

I had previously commuted to Bart’s Basement studio and we shot a test of the Animation/Split screen effect, which was incredibly gross and a smashing success. At the same time, we shot a bit of film to project onto Bruce before the projector explodes in the basement in “Evil Dead.” I poured the fake blood onto a whiteboard and Bart shot it. So with lots of confidence, we plunged ahead. Soon we were able to keep working on the meltdown animation with bile tubes, falling hair, live-action arms, critters and such until we had a sequence. There are at least two shots that Bart and I did that were excised as too gross.

Too bad because they were the most complicated. There are photos that I shot during the meltdown production
that Ren. Pics. should have, that shows the behind-the-scenes stuff I shot. Speaking of photos there was a great loss of the photographs I took during the making of “The Evil Dead,” nine rolls of 36 exposures, everything going on during my seven weeks. The production, the effects, the sets, the actors, Rob and Sam at work, the crew, at rest, at dinner, in makeup, fricking everything I could shoot, I shot. The only problem was that I couldn’t afford that much film on my salary so Ren. Pics. paid for the film. The deal was I’d shoot them using my camera and could buy a copy when they were developed.

However as show business goes, my photo documentary of the production was left for the summer in the trunk of some executive’s car, undeveloped. So that, upon processing, they had a large but fruitless processing bill. Sigh…all that work, all those publicity photos, lost. I’m gonna be sick!

CLIFF: Where did you get the idea of putting roaches and snakes in the decomposing bodies?

TOM: That was mine. The inspiration for the snake and cockroach idea was that the “evil dead” rotted the possessed bodies and corrupted them in the most disgusting way possible. We got the cockroaches from Michigan State and they go great on salads.

CLIFF: How about Linda’s mistake in ED 2 when Ash sticks the chainsaw in her neck, black blood comes out, but when he cuts her in the head red blood comes out?

TOM: Of course, continuity is impossible and unnecessary in an Evil Dead film. The poor French woman who was in charge of continuity on ED2 was frantic. On Evil Dead, we were aware of all the mistakes but thought the fans would love it. On ED2 it was a struggle, but, with the same ultimate Evil Dead maxim “Impossible and Unnecessary.”

I believe that it might have been an intentional choice because a constant changing of bile colors goes back to my stuff on ED1. So in that respect, it isn’t a mistake. Whatever is inside the possessed is constantly changing. So Sam could get away with murder. He called it “torturing” the audience.

CLIFF: Why did you use different colors of blood throughout the films?

TOM: I was concerned about the level of violence in Evil Dead (then Book of the Dead) as I didn’t want to assault the audience, kind of a hopeless position in this film. I suggested to Sam that the Deadites could spew and bleed a variety of colors. Another thought was that since the characters were being possessed by some supernatural force and that it was corrupting their bodies in unspeakable ways, it made sense to keep things changing. Although I don’t remember specifically, it’s possible the Exorcist’s split pea soup had some influence as well. In her stabbing scene the white stuff that Linda (Betsy Baker) hurls is milk.

CLIFF: I was leafing through Josh Becker’s journal and he paints you as a weird, kind of easily character, especially when he says you left them during the filming with a whole bunch of effects still left to do.

TOM: Gee, I thought Josh’s Journal made me look like a vastly multi-talented artistic genius, that brought a unique look and incredible production value for practically no money to this ambitious first film. I was flattered. I just said hello to Josh at his site. And it never occurred to me to bring the Evil Dead Journal up. It might have come off like that in the excerpt that was used, but Josh and I got along very well, as did everybody on the shoot, despite the awful strain of shooting.

It’s been a while since we’d talked and I’d forgotten about the amazing, in-depth, (for me at least) conversation’s that Josh and I would have on into the wee dawn as we worked on our projects at the dining table. He might be the most talented of the Detroit group, certainly the most brilliant. And he certainly has his opinions. Check out his site Becker Films.

Also, I don’t think anybody who knows me would describe me as easily and I’m sure Josh feels that way. I’m very charming, funny, full of energy, and a hard worker. I just reread “The Evil Dead Journal” Wow! What a flashback. “Actual demons,” “Actual sea serpents,” Man, I must have been fried.
I was always curious why whoever designed the pamphlet would include an entry about a contract that I had with Ren. Pics. in an “Evil Dead” video promotional booklet. Of course, it’s Josh’s duty as a Journalist to include his thoughts. But there must have been another interesting episode in his diary that the Journal designers might have selected. For example, how I did a particular special effect. Or maybe about the transient we all killed and ate in a fit of madness. Why publish something personal about me taken out of context? I don’t get it.

And I was a little confused because at no time did I ever quit the production. By your question, the entry may have seemed to imply I had. I always planned to finish the effects. I just couldn’t in Tennessee. It was clear to everybody concerned that I was going to complete the work back in Michigan. With so much shooting left, it was clear, fairly early on that everything would not be finished in Tennessee. I made a contract, as reported in Josh’s diary, to stay another week for a total of seven weeks. I got a bonus for that in 1986 when everyone’s bonuses from Evil Dead came in.

CLIFF: Tell us your history with the Evil Dead productions.

TOM: Unfortunately, the excerpt from Josh’s diary does not begin to explain the situation. But I’ll try. Ever since I met the Detroit filmmakers of Michigan State–Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, Bruce Campbell, Scott Spiegel, Josh Becker, Mike Ditz, and John Cameron–I knew they were going Somewhere, if for no other reason than the sheer volume of films they had made. They are all equally talented in filmmaking, with their own interests, specialties, and personalities, and they are the greatest group of friends I’ve seen.

TOM: I had been making my own films, doing my masks, and special effects experiments by myself in Marshall, Michigan and I was willing to do anything to help them get there so that I could get there too. I started by doing water-dripping noises, a sound effect I can do with my mouth. It’s one of those useful things you learn to do as you go through life. Real talent. Belloooop! This was for a feature-length Super 8 comedy directed by Sam and produced by Rob and stars everybody called “It’s Murder!” The shooting had been almost completed when I met them. We hit it off by showing each other our movies. I think I showed them everything I had, including my stop motion dinosaur epic super 8 short called “Time Eater” a high school project I’d done at Wheaton North in Wheaton, Ill.

Anyway, Sam invited me to do the sounds. I also did a poster to promote the premiere of “I.M.!” and title graphics for a short “Psycho/Stalker Super 8 of Sam’s called “Clockwork.” Then I did the fairly elaborate special effects and make-up for “Within the Woods,” a half-hour horror film that’s basically a sketch of Evil Dead. With “W.T.W.” The guys raised 80 grand over the next year to film for six weeks shooting “The Book of the Dead” (Evil Dead). I took a six-week leave from my job to work on the film.

CLIFF: Why did you leave?

TOM: My wife, Penny, and I was living in East Lansing, Mich. She was studying at M.S.U. and we had no money. While I agreed to and worked another week at the Tennessee location, at the time of Josh’s diary entry, I had to get back if I was going to keep my job, on which Penny’s education depended. Ren. Pics. was out of money so I agreed to wait for a later bonus. About six years later, as I recall, this is shown business and the show must go on.

CLIFF: Josh said that you left SPFX work unfinished?

TOM: Filming began in Tennessee in the first week of Nov. 1979 and continued for seven weeks for me and I had to leave. Everybody but Rob, Sam, Josh, Bruce, and a few others left soon after me. If you double-check the journal you’ll see lots of people left when I did. That’s what happens when you contract for a term and the term ends. I was desperately broke and had to work. I missed the “guerrilla filmmaking” and would have loved to finish the other three or four weeks bonding with the guys. I am an Eagle Scout and I was used to camping about 50 nights a year. I love roughing it. And there was no way, that I was going to ditch a golden ticket to stardom.

Also, I had given my word that I would see the project through. This is commitment was made very clear to all of us because that was the only way, Ren. Pics. could be assured we’d pull through a grueling shoot so the film could get finished. Had it not been for college, Penny would have been my assistant for free in Tennessee. I could have used an assistant, and the production could have used Penny. The problem was that Penny was having a very hard time living alone on M.S.U. campus. She was terrified walking around campus at night. And she had been in a car accident. I was worried about her from the phone calls I was getting. And I couldn’t afford to lose my job back in Lansing. However, I did lose a week’s paid vacation because I left to work on “Evil Dead” a few weeks before I would have received it. As for what was left undone at the Tennessee location. The only thing I recall was the wriggling body parts shots of Scotty’s girlfriend that were done by the cold and uncomfortable technique of pulling out the floorboards and having “Shemps” lie in the December cold, icky, fine Tennessee dirt. The soil had been acting like a coffee filter for cow urine. And it’s a shame they don’t give Oscars for lying in dung. Or best Producer either.

If I had been there, I’m quite sure as the “Creator of Special Makeup Effects” I wouldn’t have been under the floor making my glorious spot in movie history, but behind the scenes pouring Karo syrup blood on people twitching in holes in the floor. Another unfinished Effect was the Scotty eye-gouging shot. However, I had fully prepared that shot for “action and gouge,” before I left. They did a great job, which is nice because the retake would have been done back in Detroit. A hassle, but possible. Remember these guys are craftsmen first.

And they are going to get it as right as they can within the limits the real world will allow. I’ve always been impressed by their incredibly long work hours and that’s the same effort I and everyone involved in all Renaissance Pictures Productions since then make. From what I hear. That’s how infectiously likable and creatively challenging Rob, Sam, and Bruce are to work with.

After the Tennessee shoot, everybody came back exhausted, but I kept in touch with Sam and saw a screening a month or so later of a “Book of the Dead” trailer at their offices in Ferndale, Michigan. In May 1980 I prepared for and fully participated in the 2-week shoot south of Marshall, Michigan. Then from the first week of Aug. 1980 to the day before Thanksgiving 1980, I moved to live in Detroit with Bart, His wife Carol, and two very young sons’ Bret and Drew.

I had to live away from Penny for an average of six days a week. For a couple of weeks, I worked straight through, toward the end. All that time doing more pick-up shots, but primarily the animation meltdown sequence with my cameraman and partner in animation, Bart Pierce. I lived in his basement as well as Bruce Campbell’s family basement for a while. All very warm and generous hosts, by the way. The interesting irony to the perception perhaps left by the Evil Dead diary entry is that Ren. Pics. had run out of money, so I have never been paid for that three and a half months’ work. Nothing. Hardly the thing you do if you are quitting a show. The guys were broke and I was willing to do what I had to do, to help them get the film made. Although at the time LA stop motion artists could make $500.00 a day.

I guess the guys valued my work at $0.00 a day. And yet they used my work. I’ve won awards for it, My stop motion work is featured in Neil Pettigrew’s “The Stop Motion Filmography” and I was invited to promote the Evil Dead all around the world. Curious isn’t it, as well as very hurtful. Another shock with the payment thing was that I was told a month after I had finished the effects work that there was no money for me. This was three days before Christmas (violins fade in) and while Bart Pierce also was not paid he did get some rent for housing me. Penny and I couldn’t make house payments, or, have much of a Christmas. But we got through. There was talk of payment when they made money, but nothing on paper and nothing ever arrived.

CLIFF: On the Internet movie database it only credits you for make-up on The Evil Dead and animator on Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn. Is there anything that they left off?

TOM: As for the “lost” credits. It’s another perk I earned for a busting butt for Renaissance Pictures. I really admire these guys and the fact that they’ve created their own opportunities and succeeded so well. But On ED1 and ED2 I also created the Book props, The Dagger (With Mike Trcic and Brian Rae Sculpting the Blade on ED2, I did the hilt). But who’d know? I designed, built, and animated the Deadite at the ED2 finale, and the opening sequence of the ghosts and book writing sequence with experienced animator and cameraman Larry Larson and Assistant Brian Rae.

I also did the Henrietta head popping up animation shot with Larry Larson’s camera work. Larry and I worked on all the animation. I had a company with Bob Mees called Illusion Engineering and I did my stop motion with the Stop Motion Armatures we produced. Saving the productions thousands of dollars. I did a lot more stuff too. Although the Deadite sequence in ED2 is short, it works. But it is only a shadow of what I’d hoped it could have been. Basically, there was to be a Harryhausen-like battle between the Deadite and the Knights. Then Ash dispatches the critter.

Sam insisted on shooting the background plates himself and ignored most of the very complete and expert set of do’s and don’ts for making superb background plates. Larry Larson had carefully prepared a list for Sam out of his considerable knowledge and expertise. We tried but we were not allowed at the set. As a result, almost all the footage was unusable. I don’t get it, but we sure tried. Rob Tapert had a meeting with Larry, Brian, and me, and informed me because of space limitations, I couldn’t have a credit for longer than one word. And when the film came out, some other effect guys had lists of their specific work in the credits. I don’t know what happened. I feel slighted for my 10 months of hard work and the variety of crucial props and Effects I’d created for both films, but never credited for, like the book and dagger. I also was the unpaid, uncredited Art Director on “The Evil Dead.” Ren. Pics said its reasoning was that having one person’s name repeated a couple of times in the credits would make it appear like it’s a low-budget picture.

There is a common thing to happen in film careers, not that the film causes it, but I chose to stay in North Carolina and Detroit for almost 11 months on ED2 rather than work on my marriage in California, unlike my choice on ED1. I had heard some rumors ever since “Evil Dead” that there were bad feelings regarding my leaving. Obviously developed by persons who weren’t aware or didn’t care that I had involuntarily sacrificed so much effort for Sam and Rob. I asked Rob about the rumors and he said he knew nothing about it. With all this intrigue and with the luxury of second-guessing I’d have chosen differently now.

Penny came to North Carolina to let me know she wanted a separation. It was amicable and she worked as my assistant for the week she was in Wadesboro, NC. The plus side was that Sam graciously put her in the movie. She is seen disembarking the airplane at the early airport scene in ED2. She is the shorthaired blonde wearing a rust-colored blouse and is shouldering her carry-on. She was really proud of that. Thanks, Sam. Actually, if you look closely you can see Rob (Rip) Tapert, Dave (Goody) Goodman, and me, portraying the blue shirt baggage handlers. After I finished ED2 and was living back in San Francisco doing Artwork for Chaosium Inc, Penny took a holiday (delayed for a year because of my ED 2 work) with a girlfriend and drowned with another longtime friend of ours when a sailboat capsized during a sudden storm on Traverse Bay in Michigan. Her girlfriend was the only survivor.

CLIFF: Have you done any other films than just the ED films?

TOM: The death of Penny pretty much knocked the crap out of me, but I pulled it together enough, several months later, to work at Chris Walas Productions on “The Fly Part 2”. But, after a year and a half in San Francisco without my wife, I was too depressed to deal with the big city alone. I moved back to Marshall Mich. and had been doing Artwork for Chaosium Inc’s Role-playing game books till I suffered a serious closed head injury in 1992 which I am now just recovering from and finally at ramming speed again.

Is there an “Evil Dead” curse at work here? Fortunately, none of this ever affected the quality or development of my artwork, but the quantity declined. Interesting isn’t it, the journeys one has in pursuit of dreams. I was reading in a magazine about how some people can actually make a living off their artwork. I’m starting a publishing company that will be creating Replicas, and collectible Art Prints called DARK AGE PRODUCTIONS. My partner in DARK AGE PRODUCTIONS is arcane genius, Patrick Reese. We’ll be producing artwork and prop replicas, among other things.

Watch our site for information regarding upcoming events. Our fancy website with all the cool stuff will be ready as soon as we can get it together.

I am planning an Auction of Memorabilia from my collection for early February on eBay. Fans will not want to miss this. I’ll be available for questions, comments, autographs, and more, at the Cinema Wasteland Movie Memorabilia Expo 2000 (Strongsville, Ohio, September 15, 16, & 17,2000) find out more at Videowasteland. If you are a fan I want to meet you. I’m bringing lots of show and tell. I’ll be having an exhibition of some of my movie memorabilia, reminiscing about my adventures in film, and I’m going to talk to anyone that will listen.

I don’t get out much, so, if you’re going to be in Ohio, come on in and visit. I’m trying to talk The Cinema Wasteland Management into holding a raffle to see which fan’s face will be on the next Book of the Dead. Sorry anesthesia is not in the budget. Try your luck!

---