Bob Lubbers - Vildkatten

Just to show you what Long Sam looked like when it was published here in Sweden.
This panel of Vildkatten (the wildcat) is from the weekly "Året Runt" #41, 1960.

Compare it to the previously posted color panels by Lubbers. Sigh. Guess it was cheaper to run it in black, white, green and red...

Blog Lubbers

Yeah, I know, there has been plenty of Bob Lubbers artwork on the blog lately.
But why stop? :)

Here's a piece I bought a few years ago.

Comes from Orlando Country Club wich once had plenty of similar pieces by different cartoonists, like Alex Raymond, on their walls.

And look here! Yet another of those Barks forgeries.
Think this is the third one with the same drawing traced from the 50's model sheet.
Already got bids on eBay... $75 and the bidding has just begun.
What can I say? Suckers? :)

Bob Lubbers - Tarzan

I mentioned Lubbers Tarzan yesterday so why not post some of his artwork from that strip. He began doing the artwork in the summer of 1950 and stuck with it until 1953 or 54. (Can't remember right now and my reference files are at home. )
I own three original dailies. Two from the Shark God sequence and one from a later storyline. As you can see the zip a tone is still grey with no yellowing from the glue. :)
Enjoy!

Bob Lubbers - Long Sam

As a follow up to yesterdays post here are some nice samples of Bob Lubbers strip Long Sam, just to show you how good it was. If you ask me this is one of the finest newspaper strips that was made in the late fifties with it's mix of adventure and humor. It was both realistic and cartoony and Lubbers showed that he could draw anything with ease.
Just have a look at the samples below.
See how he plays with the form of the strip. One day it was straight adventure or drama, the next he experiments and gives the characters wild expressions and bends their bodies like they were taken out of a Li'l Abner daily. And sure, Lubbers also ghosted the Li'l Abner strip doing the girls. :)
Long Sam ran from 1954 until 1962 and the samples shown here are from 1956 to 1958. (All taken from proof sheets.)
They sure makes you want to see more, eh?

The style in the strip below reminds me of his beautiful Tarzan strips from the early 50's.



And finally: Bob having some fun with the panels and balloons. (Notice the signatures in the last strip.)
If you like the samples above, spread the word about them. The more people who are aware of this strip the more likely it will be that we one day will see a reprint, I guess. :)

Bob Lubbers - Coloring the mood

I was flipping through my collection of Bob Lubbers Robin Malone sundays yesterday and I found some coloring examples that I just wanted to share with you.

What struck me the first time I saw a sunday page by Bob Lubbers was his use of color. Instead of coloring the page after a formula and giving skin tones to every human in every panel etc. he chose to make extensive use of color to express a feeling. Or to highlight something or to make the reader to focus on what's important.
By looking at these panels you can tell that he loved to experiment to get the reader in the right mood. Not only by words and pictures but by the coloring.

Here are a few examples. I hope you like them:
In the sample below you can really feel the distance between Adam and Robin, and how he's in his own world thinking for himself.


And since this was the late sixties here are two experiments with more psychedelic coloring. They sure made the page stand out from the rest of the sunday funnies... :)

Hedvigs sketchbook 2008

Hedvig's new sketchbook is out now! :)

If you are in Stockholm this weekend you can grab a copy over at Kulturhuset's SPX.
It's 24 pages with a color cover and interior pages like this:

If you want to buy a copy feel free to mail her at vixie_87 /at/ hotmail.com and she'll let you know the price etc.

More on the Barks plot

As "dl" guessed the plot in the previous post was written by Carl Barks. And since it's labelled "Idea for future story, Scrooge O/S." I assume it's from the early fifties.
(There were only three Uncle Scrooge O/S.) Barks from his peak period in other words.
This plot is not in any of the library books. And as a bonus for todays post you'll get a photo of Barks first draft. Notice that there are differences. Click to enlarge.

Who wrote this?

Now here's a question: Who wrote the following piece and when?
I know the answer but let's see if any Disney experts out there can figure out who the writer is. And wich year it's from.

------
Scrooge finds that he has cornered all the money in the world. He is no longer happy with no new money coming in.
He learns about a distant planet that seems to have a civilisation like our own. He hires a strange scientist to whip up a rocket capable of soaring to this far-off place...
There he hopes to start cornering all the money in the universe.
The scientist is a queer-acting guy that has an uncanny knowledge of rare metals. He later proves to be a native of the new planet who had crashed on Earth in an exploratory rocket from space. He is anxious to get back home to Planet Z, and takes off with Scrooge and the ducks before they have had time to load much of Scrooges fortune aboard.
On the new planet the ducks find many strange sights and things. Scrooge's money is worthless, but he learns the trick of their trading, and soon is fabously rich in Planet Z money.
------
[Text above has been slightly altered for this blog for different reasons.]

Any guesses? (No, Germund, you are not allowed to answer because I'll bet you know...)

Carl Barks

Do you think you are a fast artist?
Well after looking at this sheet written by Carl Barks ca 1952 you might have to re-think that. (Click on image to enlarge.)
The speed he had while doing some of his finest stories (Both when it comes to scripts and artwork) is stunning.
Only 1h 15minutes to rough a page and then 1h 20min to ink from those roughs! And still beeing able to maintain high quality. I mean we are talking about such stories as "Donald Duck and the gilded man" and "Trick or treat" here...

As a bonus to this post here's a small but rare photo of Barks at his drawingboard:

Tools and workspace Pt.II

Was home sick yesterday with a fever. No fun at all. My body is still working on getting a "back to normal" feeling.
But I'm in the studio now taking a break from my inking. Not that inspired today so I thought I should post the stuff I promised the last time around.

So here we go:
I sometimes use blue pen with neon leads ( Pilot eno) that are non reproduceable when I sketch a page. And I also use it when I transfer Hedvigs pencils to the board that I ink on. That way I dont have to erase the lines and it actually looks quite good to have lots of blue lines on your original art. Everyone who has a Pogo strip or a Jippes page know what I mean. :)

To pencil I use three different sizes of GraphGear 500 from Pentel. (All depending on if the details are small or big. Sizes vary from 0.3 to 0.9) They have a wonderful weight that makes them great to work with. All with HB leads.

To erase the pencil lines I either use a standard eraser or (for small details) a japanese eraser pen that I found on Åhlens in Gothenburg.

For lettering (Everything I do is hand lettered...) I use a Staedtler pigment liner 0.3 for standard size letters.
The frames are ruled with a Copic Multiliner 1.0. Both have ink that doesn't bleach with time. (Or at least I hope so...)
The third pen from the left is a brush pen from Pentel. Or my "Craig Thompson pen" as I call it. :)

The nibs I use are Brause 511 and 513 all depending on the mood I'm in. (One is stiffer the other softer.) Those I use on "Katten Nils". For "Emma & Sara" I use a W&N series 7 size 0. But since the quality is so crappy nowdays I'll probably switch to another brand.

To erase mistakes after I've inked a page I use a scalpel.

Then something to brush away all the dust from the original after I've erased the pencil lines.

I use Talens ink that I pour over from the big bottle into the smaller bottle. That way the ink stays fresh longer. The worst thing to work with is ink that has been exposed to air a long time and has become thick and hard to work with. Impossible if you work with nibs.
(If I notice that the ink in the small bottle gets thick I pour it into yet another bottle. The ink in that one I use for large black fields that needs really intense black.)
And lastly you see the thing I pour the ink into when I use a brush. (When I use a nib I just dip it into the bottle.)

For some more on my working methods please see the entries for February 2007 here.

Tools and workspace Pt.I

Inspired by Wanda Gattino's post on his blog I decided to post some pics of what my work space looks like and wich tools I use. I hope at least some of you can find some interest in this. :)

First we have an overwiew.

Let's take some closer looks:

I might add that I don't necessarily use all of the pens and stuff I have. But you'll never know when they will be in handy.



And some closer looks at what I have on my walls. I pin up stuff I get from friends and other pieces of artwork that gives my inspiration. (Including a deadline schedule... Not everything I have on my walls is fun.):




Here's what my bookshelf looks like:

In part two I'll take a closer look at the tools I use.

Blog updates

My Emma & Sara blog has been updated with a page from 2004 today. The first in a series of pages from that year that will be posted this and next month.

Shane Glines has started a Cartonretro blog with previews of what can be found on his Cartoonretro site. Plus that it features extras just found on the blog and not on the site.

And Disney comics artist Wanda Gattino has posted some inking tutorials + photos of what materials he use to draw and ink with on his blog. Go check it out! (And remember there is a translated version to be found to the right on the webpage.)

Blow me down!

Here are two more of those scary Popeye pics. :)
The first one is from May 23, 1933 taken at the Chicago World's Fair.
The second is from April 26, 1939 and has the following caption on the back: "KFS comic strip characters arrive at KFS performance of Hellzapoppin'"
Hellzapoppin'???
I dunno, but here are the photos anyway:




And here's a bonus Segar I saw on eBay a while ago. Enjoy!

Random Russell day

Here's an unusual piece by Russell Patterson. Dunno who ended up with it. Hope it will see print one day.



What I really hate today: W&N brushes nowdays. They split after a few minutes of inking. :(
I used to have and use a brush for up to 6 months before. Not anymore I guess.

Man About Manhattan 1942

THE EVENING CAPITAL. ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, SATURDAY, JANURY 31, 1942.

[Some parts of this text are f**ked up by the "translation" from the microfilm.
In case you wonder about some strange words...]

Man About Manhattan
—Bv George Tuektr—
"NEW YORK—Urbane is not descriptive of the people you
encounter in the Harlem police stations after 4 o'clock in
the morning. Motley would be better. There are drunks with
blood-shot eyes, frightened juveniles, sullen strangers with
snap-brim felts and dark overcoats, unlicensed beggars, and
hard-eyed, middle aged Isoldes
who can stare a blank wall out
nf countenance.
Into this assemblage bounded a
comic strip artist the other morning.
He was Charles Raab, author
of the widely syndicated comics
feature "Patsy." His car had been
t-.111 en. lit: had attended a new
fi.ior show in one of the Harlem
i'ubs. and when he came out—
shortly alter 3:30 A. M., it was
gone.
I LEFT it right there," he told
lite sergeant, "and when I came out, it was gone."
"Is that so." said the police ser-
geant. "Well, where's your bill of
sale? If you haven't got it, I
can't look for your car. How do we
know that you own a car. You
might just want us to pick up a
car for you."
Fortunately. Raab had the pa-
pers.
The copper looked them over
carefully.
"Listen,"he said, finally,"There
are three types of people who
steal cars up here in Harlem.
First, there's the guy who is a
Ions way from home. He doesn't
want your car. He just wants a
ride. So he hops in your car.
drives to his neighborhood, and
leaves it a block or so from his
house.
"Second, there's the good time
Charley who wants to make an
impression nn his girl. He takes
your car. collects his gal, drives
around till IK:'S tired of it. takes
his girl home, and abandons the
car.
"HTHIRD, there's the guy who
1 takes vour car for quick re-
«njn If that's the case, you can
kiss it good bye. Two minutes
after he has it it's in a garage,
the license it changed and the
car's repainted. TWO days later
it'll be in Pennsylvania, or some
other place.
"Right now, it's pretty late for
a guy who just wants to go home,
so we'll rule that out. We'll rule
out the re - sale idea too. It
wouldn't do any good to look for
it in that case. Our best bet is to
work on the theory that some-
body wanted to give his girl the
idea he was a big shot. If that's
so, we'll probably find the car
abandoned somewhere. We might
even catch him in it. Come on."
SO RAAB and the coppers piled into a police car. They went
cruising through the gray Har-
lem streets. They cruised for an
hour. Finally, they turned into a
street where a big armory was
located. There were Negro sol-
diers walking sentry duty, as
there are all over New York. And
there, in front of the armory, was
Charley Raab's car.
Whoever had used it had aban-
doned it there, leaving no clue.
There were other cars all along
the street. Personally, Raab wasn't
interested in catching the culprits.
He was too glad to have his
buggy back.
* * *

Walt Gottfredson

Here's an odd thing that I stumbled upon on eBay today:

And here's the description:
----------
You are bidding on an original art by Arthur Floyd Gottfredson (May 5, 1905 - July 22, 1986), an American cartoonist best known for his defining work on the Mickey Mouse comic strip.
Hand drawn Walt Disney logo, undated. Pen and ink on a business card size blank card.
* Size approx. 2 in x 4 in (5 cm x 10 cm)
* Condition: Superb original con
-----------
Now, I wonder why they believe that it's by Gottfredson?
First time I've seen an autograph (without art) for sale that isn't by the person whose name appears on the autograph card.
It's just such a bizarre little gem that I couldn't resist sharing it with you wether it's a Gottfredson piece or not.

Restoring Gahlin

It's sunday evening here in Malmö, Sweden and I'm back in town after a few days away. Having mostly relaxed this weekend. I watched 101 Dalmatians on DVD and I had a great dinner at a greek reataurant last evening just to mention two things I did.
I also bought the remaining "Fredrik" strips by Torvald Gahlin that I showed some samples from in an earlier post. And this evening I'm scanning them and making them ready for print. Thinking about making a very, very, very limited edition of all the strips I found (31) before the originals are scattered with the wind.
Below are two panels showing what they looked like before and after they were digitally restored. Isn't Photoshop a wonderful tool? :)


PS. For those of you who wonder what happened with my Adv. of Patsy project: I'm still hoping to find more strips to make my runs complete before doing more. If you got strips and are willing to loan or sell me, please let me know!
Also: I recently saw that there are two volumes of 1938 dailies for sale on eBay. (Publ. by Tony R.) Anyone who got those? Is the reproduction good? Excellent? Or terrible?

Ignatz Mexico 1916

An early and nice tearsheet featuring Krazy Kat and Ignatz from 1916.
From the collection of Ron Goulart.

Rare original art!

[Edit: This is my girlfriend making an April Fool out of me... "Lirpa Loof" ...]

Have you ever dreamt about walking in to an antique store just to find a stack of original art among the old lamps, tables and used tin soliders? And the artwork then turns ot to be comic strip art from 1990? And by an artist you happen to like and never seen original art by before?
That happened to me two days ago. Not in a dream but for real. :)
The artist is Lirpa Loof, and is very famous here in Sweden, known for her very detailed and advanced drawings.
This beautiful piece was published in one of Swedens biggest newspaper back in the early 90's, and is estimated to be worth up to over 13.000 US-dollars(!)