Murry model sheet

Found this in the trash a few years ago along with a huge stack of other old model sheets. The only example of something Paul Murry made at the Disney studio that I've seen his name attached to. A fourth grade photocopy, but still better than nothing.


Today I'm having a slight hangover.
Drank rum and coke last evening with David Gerstein, Germund Von Wowern and Hedvig Häggman-Sund while watching old cartoons. We had a fun evening and today is just a lazy sunday. :)

Pop goes the eye!

Just when you thought the nightmare was over. Here he is again!
The one and only TRUE Popeye!
Would you tune in to a radio station featuring him?

This is beyond scary...

Me and my Shadow

Have been busy lately. Just enjoying summer.
There will be more updates soon, so check back.
Until then, here's an unpublished the Shadow cover by Rolf Gohs! Made with a BIC pen (!)and watercolors in the late 80's/early 90's. The artwork for this one is buried somewhere in my evergrowing stacks of original art. Should have it displayed I guess. Posted here for just one reason. It's so damn good!
As I use to say: Enjoy! ;)

Nonsense...

It's late.
Just beeing tired, playing with my
wacom tablet and Photoshop.
I really should be heading
home instead of hanging
in the studio.
Yaaawn!

Shane Glines books

Got Shane Glines thick hardcover book "S Curves" in the mail today.
And what a beauty it is!
If you have hesitated about ordering this book I can just say: Just go ahead and buy it!
It's filled from cover to cover with sketches, finished artwork, rough concepts and fun stuff. And it's all in color!
And then there's the smaller Lily and Flinch sketchbook. Softcover, but just as good. Filled with girls and cats. Can it get any better?
You can order them at both Lulu.com!

Here are some teaser pages from "S Curves":


And there's 400 more pages filled with stuff just as good as this! :)
Go get it!

Playmates in print

And you thought you would see Playboy bunnies here? No, no, no.
"Playmates in print" is the title of a childrens book by Edna Whiteman. And it's illustrated by no one else than Earl Oliver Hurst! While his illustration art from the 30's and 40's is pretty common, seeing this book from 1926 made my heart skip a beat. Naturally I bought it on the spot. It has six full page plates, an illustrated title page, wonderful endpapers and loads of small illustrations in black and white. All done in a style that makes me think of another favorite: Gustaf Tenggren. (Click on the label below to see a piece of early Tenggren work.) There are traces of master illustrator Arthur Rackham to be found in these pieces too.
Here are few scans from the book. If there's interest in seeing more I'll post the rest of the full page illustrations.




For more on Hurst please see the book "The art of Earl Oliver Hurst" now on sale from Bud Plant!
+ some more artwork here to wet your appetite on the book!

T. S. Sullivant

It's always a pleasure to find a piece of long forgotten artwork by T.S. Sullivant.
These appeared in Campus Comics #2, 1931. But they probably appeared in print many, many years before that. Anyone know where they were first published?




Noticed that the bear in the second drawing looks a lot like another bear by Sullivant that appeared in Life January 4, 1912.
For those of you without complete runs of Life it also appeared in Black & White ImageS #1. Compare the two. Pretty similar, eh?

Check out Jim Vadeboncoeurs homepage for back issues of ImageS. Lots of Sullivant in his black and white annuals!

Don't miss tomrrows post featuring exclusive material from the book "PLAYMATES IN PRINT"! I'm sure you don't want to miss that!

Meet Wag Patakey Pt.IV

This just in from Arnaud Wirschell, who is a true Crane/Turner fan!
I should have known he had it. :)
He also confirms that the 4-26 sunday is the end of the story.

Arnaud also writes:
"By the way, did you know that Wag Patakey returned in the dailies? For example in the first week of 1956, he meets that other famous artist Marmaduke Koontz. They used to be at art school together (just like Crane and Turner)."
I have to confess that I had no idea. I've read a lot of Turners dailies but very little from the 50's. I sure hope there will be more of Capt. Easy in Big Fun Magazine.

And speaking of Big Fun; I got #5 yesterday.
And what a beautiful brick that is!.
Thick and heavy.
And Warren Tufts "Lance" in glorious color!!!
Can't wait to read it!

Even more Raymond...

As promised here are some more Alex Raymond photos. There are more to be seen but I don't want to shove them all down your throats at once. Some of you probably prefer to see photos of babes dressed up in bunny suits instead of photos of a cartoonist that died more than 50 years ago. Right? But what do I care?
Here are Raymond in his prime. Enjoy!

First off is a photo of a younger Alex. This was shot in late 1940. (Date on back of photo is Dec. 24.)

Here he is in 1950 with Rube Goldberg and Milton Caniff! Anyone knows what happened with the artwork he was presented? Reproduced anywhere?


Here he is seen signing something in 1950. Anyone knows what and who the other people on the photo are?


OK! OK! Now I'm getting tired of Alex photos myself.
Let's see... What do I have here? A photo of a babe in a bunny suit!
You knew it, didn't ya?
Info for Bunny spotters: This is Lori Lancester picking cotton (For her tail?) in 1962.

The masters touch

While waiting for tomorrows Alex Raymond photos here's an obscurity. His handprint! Now you can study every line of his hand. Confess it. You know that you will click on the picture to enlarge it you, you hand fetishist you...

You can also print this out, bring it to your plastic surgery clinic and ask them to re-make your own hand to look like Alex'. With a hand like that you should be able to draw like the master himself!
Now, who will be the first idio... ahem blog reader to try it?

Meet Wag Patakey Pt.III

Here are the last two Easy sundays.


Tomorrow you'll get another dose of Alex Raymond photos.
I just can't get enough of those. :)

If you like what you see on this blog: Please spread the word!
List it in search directories, post links on mailing lists and on forums. The more visitors the more fun it is to share rare stuff and keep it updated.:)

Meet Wag Patakey Pt.II

Here's the second installment of Leslie Turners serial about cartoonist Wag Patakey. The last two will be posted tomorrow. (Still missing the second to last sunday.)

More Raymond photos

Before posting the rest of Leslie Turner's Easy sundays, here are some more Alex Raymond photos from ca. 1949-1950. All sent to me by Ulrich Merkl, author of the new Winsor McCay book "The complete DREAM OF THE RAREBIT FIEND (1904-1913)" (Follow the link to his website.)





The first photo has Raymond together with his assistant Ray Burns, but who are the persons in the last two photos? Anyone who knows?

Meet Wag Patakey Pt.I

Any fans of Leslie Turners "Captain Easy" out there?
For years I've been aware of a sunday episode from the 50's about the cartoonist Wag Patakey trying to meet his deadline on his strip "Giddy McWaddle". A character based on both Turner himself and his mentor Roy Crane.
But it wasn't until two weeks ago I could sit down and actually read the story. (A big "Thank You!" goes out to Ron Goulart who sold me the sundays!)
For all of you who hasn't seen it, I thought it would be unfair just to keep it for myself. So, beginning today and continuing next week here are Turners sundays from 3-15 to 4-26, 1953.
(However I'm missing the 4-19 sunday to complete the storyline. Anyone out there who can help? And since the 4-26 is the last I got maybe the story continues after that one? It looks like an ending but...)


(Files big enough? Or too big?)

Here in Malmo the weather has been really bad today. Rain just pouring down. Spent an hour or two at a café reading a book and trying to plot some one page gags. Went home. Soaking wet. Read a book. Then made pasta with sun dried tomatoes, garlic and shrimps. Watched V for Vendetta. Called Hedvig who is in Eskilstuna hanging out with her good friend Maria. Checked my emails and then went to the studio where I am right now. I really should avoid working today so I'd better head home again soon...

Alex Raymond photos

I'm back blogging again!
It's been hot, hot, hot here in Sweden the past week but today the rain came and made it easier working and thinking again.

Anyhow, here are some rare photos of Alex Raymond that was sold on eBay a while ago. If you didn't catch them then, here they are now: (Please click on photos and descriptions for larger images.)

First we have Alex and his assistant Ray Burns. (Notice the poster by Raymond in the background. The pencils to it can be found in one of Russ Cochrans old Graphic Gallery catalogs.)

Last of the Murry Mondays.

Seems there isn't that much interest in seeing Paul Murrys cartoons so this is the last of the Murry Mondays.
For those of you who really want to see it all I suggest that you get in touch with Germund Von Wowern. germund_vw at yahoo.com

But to end it all I thought I sould bring you a grande finale. A halfpage from 1956 that never was finished.
The original art belonged to Don Ault for many, many years but has now found its home in my collection.
Just look at this piece. While there are plenty of 1970's pages available, there simply doesn't exist more pages like this.
Intended as cover 3 in Donald Duck #47, May 1956, here it is.
Enjoy!

For those of you who want to see it in print: check out the next Hall of Fame volume devoted to Paul Murry.

E&S&H

This post is just to say a big "Thank You!" to Hedvig for literally saving my neck with her work on the "Emma & Sara"-page I'm finishing right now. She just pencilled and partially inked a page in no-time, when I had pain in my neck and facing a deadline. Will do the logo today and turn in the work on Monday. So everything is on schedule, thanks to you Hedvig. :)
Here are two panels from the page in a soon-to-be-finished stage.



And two recent photos of the most beautiful artist around. ;)

Nisse Neger

Browsing old newspapers you are bound to find offensive images of racial stereotypes.
This is an example from a Swedish newspaper, a strip called "Nisse Neger" published in Aftontidningen in the early 50's. One can only wonder how anything like this could ever have been accepted. It's not even a bit funny. But for those of you interested in the history of old comic strips I thought I should share this sample.
Can't read the signature in the last panel. Anyone knows the origin of this strip? American? Scandinavian?

Hey, waiter!

An "Adventures of Patsy" strip from 1941. (Click to enlarge.)
Doesn't that waiter remind you of someone?
Noel Sickles is rumored to have ghosted a big chunk of this sequence, so it's probably not just a coincidence that the waiter looks like Milt' Caniff even if this strip looks like the work of Raab. What do you think?

Always looking for Mel Graffs and Charles Raabs Adventures of Patsy strips. Copies, tearsheets and original art. Drop me a line at sekvenskonst at telia.com if you got something I might be interested in.

Murry in Hollywood Pt. II

Here are the rest of the Hollywood gags, as promised last week. Not on a Monday, but still. Here they are:




(Just noticed that the above panel was also used in Smiles #25 and already posted on the blog... But since it was used twice I'll keep it in this post also.)

BTW: Have got zero feedback on these Murry posts. Anyone interested in seeing more?

And for those of you worried about my health, I feel much much better now. Neck pains almost entirely gone.
Life feels good again. :)