"We're getting on pretty well," Entwistle says by phone from St. Louis. "We still try and stay out of each other's way while we're on tour — except onstage and in the dressing room. I think we've learned over the years that you don't actually mix with the other guys during the day."

Entwistle keeps his days packed by working Who's Art?, an exhibition of his drawings. The approximately 26 pieces, which are for sale, will be shown from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Radisson Plaza Hotel, 8787 Keystone Crossing.

The bassist will be on hand Sunday to sign the drawings. (He won't sign items not purchased at the show, however.)

Who fans will notice that the art directly reflects Entwistle's personality, which is witty and whimsical. Aside from being a genius bassist — arguably rock's greatest ever — he also provides the Who with comic relief in songs such as Boris the Spider.

In his cartoons, Entwistle presents his bandmates and other rock stars (Elton John, Rod Stewart, the Rolling Stones) with amusement and fondness. He also draws imaginary ancestors for some, like the pirate "Long John" Moon and detective "Sherlock" Townshend.

"They're supposed to be funny," he says. "I try to get the faces in kind of a timeless way. I didn't want to draw the Rolling Stones with lots of wrinkles all over them. I wanted to get them how I remember them."

First art, then music

His interest in art goes back to age 3. Members of his family worked in a paper factory, "so the easiest toy to give me was a pencil and paper."

Entwistle became "the art teacher's pet" in school, but quit drawing when music took over. In 1975, he had the chance to design an album cover for the Who. The result was The Who By Numbers.

"I drew the cover for that and it kind of got me back into the art," he says. "Then I started drawing for relaxation and came up with these rock star character cartoons."

How good an artist is Entwistle? "I like 'em," he says. "I've got them hanging on my walls, so. . . I'm a good cartoonist. Whenever I painted at school, I always drew a black line around it. I guess I was into Disney cartoons more than anything else."

Most of the work is black and white, but he's also started to watercolor some drawings. "I like the black-and-whites, but there's something about the colored ones," he says. "Well, they're more expensive anyway."

Fox TV project

While art has kept him busy, Entwistle also spent the last two months working with his solo band on music for an animated Fox series called Vampires that's expected to debut this fall.

They recorded the theme music, plus 14 songs that will be heard when the show's characters turn on the radio.

Most of the songs are newly written, but a couple came from Entwistle's old demo tapes.

"We liked them and we did some upgrading work on them," he says. "Keith Moon's playing on one of them actually (Bogieman), so we decided to keep his drumming. He owes me a couple of sessions, anyway."