0112 Friar Tuck

Should have been at an Egmont kick-off this evening, but the headache I've had since I woke up this morning told me to stay away from the booze today. Tomorrow there's the big Kolik party so I better be in shape for it!

But since I'm in the studio tonight I might as well post two more model sheets. (I know you'll soon get bored. But since the number of visitors have skyrocketed the past few days I guess that a fair amount of you enjoys them? I do! )
These two are from Robin Hood. The movie lacks anything that can be labeled story or structure. (In my opinion it's one of the worst pictures made by the old team of classic animators.) But even if the story is bad most of the animation is just excellent! Watch it with the sound turned off and with a sketchpad in your lap. :)


Were in Copenhagen yesterday bought some fun stuff, including this collection. "Harley and Ivey" is a must have if you like the art of Ronnie del Carmen, Bruce Timm and Shane Glines. And there are two stories written by Paul Dini too!
To say that I was drooling like a nerd when I found this is an understatement. ;)

Bompf!

More model sheets (and less silly drawings like this) to follow this weekend.

0101 Edgar

Here's yet another model sheet from the Disney studios. This one from the Aristocats featuring Edgar the butler.
This one also seems to be by Milt.(?)
Study the actions in these poses, or what's even more important the re-actions. Varied and really expressive expressions. You can see what he's thinking in every one of these drawings! Not exactly the run of the mill stiff saturday morning cartoon faces, if you see what I mean.
He really bends and twists poor Edgars face to squeeze the most out of it when it comes to attitudes. And succeds!

2138 Kay

Continuing with another model sheet from the Sword in the Stone.
These looks like cleaned up Milt Kahl poses to me.
OK'd by Woolie in the upper right corner. (Might be hard to spot. The copies I got varies in quality.)

BTW: If you havn't checked it out already "the Animation Podcast" is a must if you are interested in animation.
There are now 20 free downloads, including a lecture held by Milt Kahl and a long interview with Andreas Deja + loads of interesting interviews with other animators and directors like Burny Mattinson, Ron Clements and John Musker.

Today I'm all alone in the studio. Listening to the radio and will soon get a cup of coffee before I head for the drawingboard. Have a strip to ink and an Emma & Sara page to pencil. So I better get some work done before lunch, otherwise I fear that I won't get any work done at all today...
Tomorrow it's Monday and I'm back to work as an editor for BAMSE again.

2138 "Wolf"

The Wolf from The Sword in the Stone.
OK'd by Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman. Sketches by ?

Pinocchio model sheets

Over the next few days I'll post several model-sheets from the Disney studios ranging from the late 30's to the late 70's.
I hope you'll like them. (And spread the word if you do.)
If you know who the artists are or if you have any suggestions I'd be happy to hear from you. Just leave a comment.
Or if you have other unpublished model sheets from Disney that you want to share, I'd be happy to put them on the blog.

First out are two model-sheets from Pinocchio. The first OK'd by Joe Grant on 2-20(?)-39 and the other OK'd by ? on 4-7-39.
Have these been published? (Unfortunately I don't have the thick Pinocchio hardcover, so they might have been used there.)


PS.
Click on the "Disney" label below or scroll down to find a previous entry with two model-sheets from Fantasia.

Key Diablo, Honey!

Rare Disney stuff

There's a bunch of interesting Disney items for sale by the same seller on eBay right now. (Basement Comics)
Anyone with too much money who wants to buy, scan and share the contents of these rare items?
I'd be happy to post it on this blog. :)
Just look at these eBay photos...

First we have a Hall Brothers Handy Book from July 1935 introducing Donald Duck


Then Pinocchios Christmas party. A giveaway from 1939. Contains comics according to the description...

Then a 1943 giveaway

A Brer Rabbit from 1955. Wonder what's inside this one?

And to round off things a nice Seasons greetings subscription card and a dental examination reminder from the 40's.


And, hey, he's got True Comcis #73 which features the story of Walt Disneys life... Never heard about that one before!

OK! Now I've wetten your appetite. Here's the deal. You buy and I get scans from you since I'm such a nice guy. Deal? ;)

Dagwood and the Cavemen

Here's an interesting piece on comics history taken from Winnipeg Free Press, Friday sept. 11, 1942.
The M.C. Gaines piece he refers to is probably the one reprinted in the Tales of terror! book a few years ago.
(Click to enlarge.)


PS. Have found some interesting stuff while browsing microfilm pdfs the past weeks and got some "lost" Floyd Gottfredson artwork to share with you. And plenty more of those old Disney model sheets. And the Kley artwork mentionend earlier and... lot's of more stuff. Stay tuned! :)

Hey stooopid!

Sometimes I'm just sooo stupid.
Earlier today I made an illustration and saved it in high resolution for print, as usual.
But, hey why not use it in my portfolio on www.illustratorcentrum.se while I'm at it. It's been a while since I made any updates there. So I made the file smaller and clicked "save for web" and saved...
But, did I save the large file first? No...
I guess that everyone has made this mistake once or twice, but arghhhh, It's so frustrating when it happens. I'm glad there was no deadline involved this time.
The "petite" version can be seen below. This is the largest version I have of it now. But with those bright colors I might just as well be better off *not* having it larger than this...

But to cheer things up a bit: Here's a photo of a li'l but early piece of TS Sullivant artwork.
From Life March 23, 1911 entitled "The red danger flag".
I prefer his drawings from the 20's, but any Sullivant artwork is good Sullivant artwork. Enjoy!

PS.
This blog never had as much hits as when I posted those Sullivant drawings earlier this week. Glad to see that I'm not the only one liking his stuff. I hope that someday someone will collect his work in a thick and massive hardcover book. Until then I'll try to post stuff whenever I come across new pieces.

More Hedvig artwork

If you have followed this blog from the start you know that one of the artists here in the Studio is the talented Hedvig.
It's been a while since I featured some new art by her (if you don't count the post earlier today...) so I think it's time to post some more.

She's currently finishing the final pages of artwork for a new Bamse story that will appear early next year and a cover for Bamses äventyr #12. But if you want to catch some of her Bamse artwork and can't wait until next year, you should buy BAMSE 12 2007, wich is out any day now. That issues lead/cover story features her artwork.
Inbetween her Bamse work she's also pencilling Emma & Sara and working on her new sketchbook.
(The first one is all SOLD OUT. Good luck finding one on eBay. Don't be surprised if you have to fork up $30-40...)

But until Sketchbook #2 is finished here are some stuff I found on her desk and on her hard drive. Enjoy!

Blue cat

Watch out for a Hedvig update featuring some new artwork by her later this evening or tomorrow. :)
Now I gotta do some more inking and less goofing off...

Seq. 10.2 2004 Hippos

Taking a break in work with a big cup of coffee. Have just lettered the new Emma & Sara page and handed it over to Hedvig for pencilling five minutes ago. With her working speed I wouldn't be surprised if the page is finished when I have finished my coffee...

For todays post I had planned to show you some rare artwork by Heinrich Kley taken both from original art and photos there of. But that will have to wait for a while. Because... this morning we were going through one of my files when we found a stack of Disney model-sheets ranging from the 30's to the 70's. From Fantasia and Pinocchio to Fox and the Hound. So, for todays post I instead of Heinrich Kley artwork selected these two model-sheets from Fantasia.
You can see that the artist behind these sheets had studied Kleys work.
Giving a Hippo all that grace we see in these drawings takes a skilled artist. Beautiful, eh?



For those unfamilar with Kleys work there's a great site featuring his sketchbooks: Coconino World
Images#1 and 8 also features good selections of rare pieces. Those are must haves for the Kley fan! Available directly from the publisher and Bud Plant.com.

More Sullivant! :)

T. S. Sullivant... Do I have to say more?
I'll just let these two gags talk for themselves.
Both are taken from Life March 26, 1925, the year before Sullivant passed away.


BTW: Anyone who knows if Andreas Deja is still working on the Sullivant inspired animation he once mentioned? I'm really curious to see it...

As a bonus here is the cover and an interior page by Charles Dana Gibson, one of Life's most famous illustrators. (He might even have owned Life by 1925. I'm not sure.)
I hope you like them as much as I do! (The last illo should really be seen in high resoulution so you could see all his lines close up. Magnificent penwork!)


PS.
Some John Held Jr, Inwood and fgc artwork in the same issue.
Can be scanned if anyone's interested.

The greatest cartoonist of all time

Who's the funniest cartoonist on earth?
My vote goes to Kyle Baker. I've read a lot of his graphic novels and his cartoon collections, but it was a while ago and I really hasn't been catching up what he's been doing the past year or two.
But... I just found his website and was reminded of how great, great, great this guy is.
Man, he can draw like the devil! Big foot cartoons or realistic drama, you name it, he can do it.

He can even draw cute little kittens. Kawaii!!!

So do yourself a favor and follow the link under "Artists - International" to the right.
There are even a bunch of funny cartoons on his site. :)

Also: make sure to check out his many blogs! Especially his "Funny Cartoon of the Week" where I found the cartoon that began this post.


I'm having a terrible headache this evening so that T. S. Sullivant art from a 1925 issue of Life I planned to scan will have to wait until tomorrow. :) See ya then!

PS.
Before going to bed, make sure that you have checked out Chris Sanders new website!
He's another of those multi-talented guys in the biz that I hate just because they are so talented.
Links under "Artists - International" to the right. Be prepared for a cuteness shock!

Little Nemo 1911

Winsor McCay animation from 1911.
Watch out for the color animation in the end!

Nerd heaven!

I'm in nerd heaven. :)
Have spent way too many hours the past days going through Newspaperarchive.com looking for obscure items and strips.
And today I struck gold! Just look at these samples.
Vintage Adventures of Patsy by Mel Graff and Scorchy Smith by Frank Robbins looking better than on any previous microfilm I've seen.

And remember, these samples has been reduced a lot from the original files for this blog. The original files can be printed with good results. :)
They are taken from the Moberly Monitor-Index. They ran the strips large and the microfilm quality is as good as it can be. I've only downloaded pages from the late 30's/ early 40's but they might be a good scource for earlier/later stuff too. Yummy!
(Told ya I was a nerd...)

This blog will be down until monday August 13.
See you around then!

/Joakim.

PS. The original art to the first panel of the Patsy strip was given away by Graff to Charlie Roberts in 1974. I was happy to buy it from him a few years ago, and it's still my favorite piece of Graff art in my collection. :)

Who am I?

Who am I and what's the purpose of this blog?
To most of you who reads this I'm a total stranger and you probably found this blog by surfing the net searching for artwork by a specific artist. Or maybe you followed a link posted in a forum or on a mailing list.
Well I thought it was time to write a few words about myself.
Sort of an introduction to this blog, and me.

Born in Sweden 1974 I was hooked by the comics medium in the late 70's, by reading comics in the morning paper.
Rip Kirby, Felix and Rasmus Nalle. Ahhh, those were the days. ;)
Growing up on Disney comics from my fathers collection (Especially Mickey Mouse by Floyd Gottfredson and Paul Murry.) I kind of always expected myself to be a comic artist.
So after finishing school I spent a few years in art schools, learning nothing but how to drink wine and throwing paint on a canvas, I decided to really go for the comics medium in 1997.
I had already been writing stuff for BAMSE, Swedens most popular comic book back then, since 1991 but now I made an attempt to really learn to draw comics.
I got the job as artist on BAMSE in 1998 and stayed with it for two years when I instead got a job as assistant editor for the book. I'm still working there and by now my title is "artwork/editor" wich means that I check all artwork by the other artists, designs covers etc. and also edit two of the Bamse titles.

In the evenings I do the one page comic Emma & Sara wich started in early 2001. A bi-weekly comic that runs in a magazine for teenage girls. I do that together with Emma Billbäck as co-writer and Hedvig Häggman-Sund assisting me with artwork. (Samples from E&S can be found earlier in this blog.)

If you wonder what I look like for real here's a silly photo taken last year. (Thats my cubicle here in the studio you see in the pic. And no, spooky ghost hands doesn't grow from original art. Don't believe every thing you see...)


Well, that's what I call a brief summary.
But what is the purpose of this blog?
Actually there is none...
"The artwork I make -The stuff I like" stated below the Sekvenskonst title probably says it all. I have created this blog to share rare comic related gems I find. And to show some of my artwork every now and then.
I hope you enjoy it. :)

/Joakim.

PS.
Still only ONE who has dared to guess who the artists are on the pics I posted a few days ago.
Is it really that hard to recognize them? My girfriend made a correct guess who the female artist was at her first attempt...

By Ethel!

Here's an ad for Ethel Hays that appeared in newspapers on March 7, 1929.
Can't remember if this one has appeared in any recent books/magazines.
(A little fuzzy since it's taken from microfilm.)

Gottfredson 1928

While microfilm isn't the best way to view old newspaper I'm still very, very, very happy it exists.
Without it I probably never would have found this picture of Floyd Gottfredson as a second prize winner in a drawing contest March 2, 1928.
Little did he know that two years later he would be drawing Mickey Mouse for the rest of his career. :)
Enjoy!

Name that cartoonist!

Time to play "Name that cartoonist"! :)
Since there now are over 700 different people visiting this blog every month I thougth I should put you all to a test. I know that there are plenty of knowledge about comics among you out there, but...
do you know what the cartoonists behind the stories and art from the classic era of comics looked like?

Let's start with one really easy and another wich might be a little harder.
The first is dated 1/7/25 and taken at Palm Beach. The second is dated 2/12/25 and taken at Madison Square Garden.
Any guesses?