'Mermaid' -- aka 'Defenders of the Deep in Monarch Bay'

ARTIST: William Louis ("Bill") McDonald Senior.

COMPANY: Argonaut-GreyWolf.

CLIENT: Me. My purpose was high school bragging rights along with having real underwater adventures with which to expand my science fiction and horror portfolio.

YEAR: 1977 (January while I was earning my Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus [SCUBA] certification through the National Association of Underwater Instructors [NAUI]-certified owner of Black Bart's Aquatics, Carl Henger).

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PROJECT: Making the two people look like people while making the Jonah Crab look like the real deal in a fish tank.

MODELS: Surfer Kelly Rooney from Monarch Bay and Michael O'Connell who was employed at Black Bart's Dive Shop in Dana Point, California as well as at the dive shop in North Laguna and whom resided in downtown Huntington Beach.

MEDIA: Black Higgins India ink, Pentel black felt tip pen, Bic ball points, Rapidograph pens and Pilot fine tip pens.

NOTES: The Jonah crab (Cancer brealis) is a marine brachyuran crab that inhabits waters along the east coast of North America from Newfoundland to Florida. Jonah crabs possess a rounded, rough-edged carapace with small light spots, and robust claws with dark brown-black tips. Though not native to Southern California (Wrong coast), this species was the inspiration for Ray Harryhausen's movie of the "Mysterious Island" which was released in 1961.

During the Civil War a group of Union soldiers and two Confederates escape the stockade using a hot air balloon and end up on a strange Pacific island populated by giant, mutant animals.

Loosely based upon the 1874 novel "The Mysterious Island (L'Île mystérieuse)" by Jules Verne (which was the sequel to two other novels by Verne, 1867's "In Search of the Castaways" and 1870's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea)," the film was produced by Charles H. Schneer and directed by Cy Endfield.

LOCATION: This Monarch Bay adventure was rendered at my parents' dining room table in Monarch Bay Terrace, Monarch Beach, California.