The Last of the Dreamers

Starduster – William Swann Clausen

Dream is the key word on All About Lemon Music Passion this month, so,as promised, I have prepared a tale that began 40 years ago. It was on October 25th, 1974 that I recorded the stereo simulcast of the ABC T.V. rebroadcast of Ziggy’s farewell concert (since my father refused to let me watch it). I was sooo blown away that I asked all my family members to buy me a David Bowie album that Christmas, and so I received them all (Best Christmas EVER!). One track on The Man Who Sold The World, “The Savior Machine“, Inspired the Starduster Saga, which my brother, William Clausen and I began in earnest in 1975. It was nominated for Best in Show by Jack “King” Kirby at the 1978 Science Fiction and Fantasy Art Show in Orange County California. As this blog features concept art, I have gathered all the pieces currently in my possession (including not to be published sketches) in their rough, unretouched form and included them in the video below, set to David Bowie’s “The Dreamers”.

We are currently in the process of locating and cleaning up the artwork done for this “dream” over the space of 40 years, hoping to get the next issue of Short Stories and Tall Tales out in time for The San Diego Comic Convention. In doing the video, I found 2 preexisting fan made versions on YouTube that each contained elements I admired. The “Space Trolletes in the saga are represented in this video by fantasy paintings found in the version uploaded by LayBuyLee, while much of the Bowie images were taken from a version posted by Beeb1992 (Both of whom were credited as VFX artists, natch!).
I also scanned and added photos from my own collection, along with the Starduster images created by the following:

William Swann Clausen
Leiulf Bueno (pronounced Bowie/Eno) Clausen
Frank Brunner (of Marvel’s Doctor Strange fame)

In addition, the segments were lettered by ComiCon founder Shel Dorf (Steve Canyon)