1937 Chevy truck pen/ink 1970 by Wick Humble

[W Humble]

This was from an Instamatic photo of a '37 Chevy truck I owned; former town fire pumper with 7K actual miles, but lots of hours on the engine!  It never had this van body, but just a home-made flatbed when I bought it in 1968; another guy in Alturas CA who had won an almost new Homelite chain saw on a bet and I decided to haul firewood with it.  I'd been a forest fire fighter all that summer, and was waiting for the draft to get me after using up my 2-S student deferrment getting my BA in art/English.  He was waiting for second semester to start school, so in the fall we gave it a try; mostly ate donuts and drank coffee because the snow came early that Fall!

The thing ran like a top, but the guy who bought it surplus from the city (another wood hauler) had built the bed and painted the cab stove-black enamel.  We named it "Not so Sweet Martha-Lorraine" after the Country Joe & the Fish song; as sometimes it was even more reluctant than we to start the day!  I drew this while at the Medical Field-Service School at Brooke Army Med Ctr, Ft. Sam Houston, in SanAntone.  (I was influenced by a professional named Jeff Godshall).  It's on a 24x24" piece of illustration board, and actually doesn't have any lettering on it; not finding a teaching job after getting my MA. I went back to what I learned from my step-dad, who had a Mayflower Van Lines agency/warehouse; (aaugh!) moving and packing household goods for $3.25/hr!  But I was friends with the agent in my new town, Chico CA, and when he bought a second agency in nearby Redding, I made three photo-mechanical transfer (PMT) copies, lettered each with his two and the old man's names, and gave framed copies to them.  Armor's was the family business, now long gone.  I posted the real classic truck from H.P.'s little fleet on the trucking forum: a 1952 White 3000 tilt cab with factury sleeper; had it once but had to sell!  H.P. had begun driving in 1933, and was near retirement.  So, in 1971, I found a 1935 Packard 120 Business Coupe that an old Alturas farmer wouldn't sell, but he fell for "N.S.S.M-L" and swapped me.  By then it was stripped and in primer; he painted it Rusto green, and gave it to his dad!

Yep, I wish I still had that facility, but it was over half a century ago; that bird has flown, as did the Packard when both the kids needed tonsils out the same winter!!  Wick

[misterNNL]

Outstanding art! I love commercial vehicles from that era. Those mirrors would have been pretty much useless but are in fact cool looking. The reflections in the paint are perfect and very much like pinstripes. Thanks for sharing your talent with us.

Edited April 7, 2023 by misterNNL

[W Humble]

Oddly, those mirrors were on my ex-firetruck, and were okay.  I drove Petes, K-Whompers, Freightliners, plus Fords and Chevys; like the big West Coaster mirrors best, of course.  I still have (what's left of ) an old time lighted sempaphore turn signal arm/pivot.  Remember those very well on trucks in the early fifties.  Ah, the racket of a Cummins GMC Cannonball on the highway late at night!  "Six days on the road, and I'm gonna make it home tonight!" Thans for the kudo!  Me, too!  Wick

[Ace-Garageguy]

Exceptionally nice illustration. That's an unforgiving medium. Very fine indeed. 

[W Humble]

Bill, coming from you I consider that quite an accolade! Thank you very much!  I have some other pen and ink drawing from the height of my art career, 1966-1974, that I can probably contribute.  Funny, most were made to be done with ink wash, but were never finished; I'm going to get them mounted so the paper can stand up to some water/ink mixes, and hopefully complete them.  Most everything was modeled on photos from magazines, and ones I took.  I still draw a little, but mostly write fiction, and make mediocre models!

Note the later-model turn signals on this drawing; later I wished I had faked-in the period-correct parking lights instead.  I had to weld up and fill quite a few holes inthe cowl and roof drilled there by the fire department guys.  When it was primered, we hauled cordwood, and because N.S.S.M.L. had two original and two modern )10.00x20") rear tires, it left some pretty funny tracks in the soft dirt!  Also, it carried the entire Modoc Union High School band for a Xmas parade in '68!

I swapped the '37 to an old farmer for the 1935 Packard '120' coupe that was behind his barn (not a runner, tho I had the '41 straight eight rebuilt!) straight across, and hauled it to Chico CA, where we still live.  The coupe was about half-restored when both kids needed tonsillectomies the same winter, and... it had to go.  Later our Gypsy Red '55 Nomad, and later yet my one-owner Datsun 240Z left to provide finances for family needs.  At least NISSAN USA bought the Z-Car back for a display car down in Carson CA!  They gave my resto book a factory parts number, too!   Wick