Young girls

Ahhh... the life of a cartoonist is a life in leisure. At least if you are to believe old press photos. Here we see Chic Young sketching Betty Stark and Doris Pert in Miami Beach 1937.

Edit Aug 2015: Updated this post with the text from the back of the photo.

I'm back from the bookfair. 

What a great time I had. :) I'll try to upload some photos later this week. Until then here's the upper half of Hedvigs pencils to the Emma & Sara page she pencilled two days ago. 

Just to begin the week on a happy note. :)

/J. 

Last day of the Bookfair today!
Just getting ready to eat some breakfast and then we are on our way back there again. Never thought there would be so many kids wanting a signed Nils the Cat drawing as there has been these two days. We've been drawing and signing until our backs has been aching. Phew. But it's so much fun meeting our audience.
I'll post some photos etc when I get back to the studio next week. :)

/Joakim.

PS. Some comic related photos and updated news from the bookfair can be found at Fredrik Strömbergs website: Sekventiellt.

Taliaferro printing plate ca. 1951

Here's another Al Taliaferro piece that I havn't seen before. (Inducksers: I hope this will be possible to include in the Inducks.)

It's currently for sale on eBay, but until someone buys it and makes a print here's a flipped and quickly photoshopped version for easy reading.

Two animals

I know that some of you actually comes back to this blog to check if there are any new pieces drawn by me, and are uninterested in all things Disney and newspaper comics. (!!!) Well, here are two small pieces for you. :)

The first one is a drawing I did on an envelope I sent to my girlfriend. She actually hates Billy DeBecks way of drawing giraffes so I really don't know what I was thinking when I did it. The guy to the left is supposed to be me, drawn in DeBeck style.

The second is a sketch made a few minutes ago here in the studio. Kim asked for suggestions to a female character in his last "Love Hurts" episode. I made this quick sketch but she'll probably appear rather different in the story. (Yes, the name is inspired by Alex Toths character with the same name. And Kim is on an Toth diet when it comes to comics right now. I'm really looking forward seeing the finished story.)

Lillgubben Patrik

Here's another neat "discovery".
I thought I had seen all of Paul Murrys printed Disney artwork, but no!
Today this "FIBs gyllene bok" caught my eye in a used bookstore here in Malmoe.
The swedish edition is called "Lillgubben Patrik". The finished artwork is obviously not by Murry himself, but just like Barks did for these books he did the pencils. I wonder if Murry, like Barks got credit for his work in the US edition. The Swedish book only credits Anne North Bedford as the writer and no credits at all for the artwork.

Just a fun thing to find while taking a saturday walk. :)

Edit: Just found the US cover on the net: Maybe this is a reprint edition since it's a Mickey Mouse Club Book and not a Little Golden Book. I don't know.

Carl Barks Donald Duck dailies

Ever wondered wich gags Carl Barks sold to the comic strip department while working at the Disney studio?
Well, here's the answer. :)

Polly and her pals

Any fans of Cliff Sterrett out there?
I have a large collection of vintage sunday Polly pages that's crumbling to dust every time I handle them. The floor just gets filled with brown paper flakes.

Maybe I should scan them properly and make nice prints to look at instead...

Anyhow, here are three pages from 1918, 1920 and 1925. Enjoy!

Hmm, just realized the photos got a little too blurry after reducing them for the web. Still, you can always look at the art and see how much Sterretts style developed during these years.

Mystery Disney script

This script for a Donald Duck was up for sale on eBay a year ago or so. (I didn't get it but saved the photos.) If I remember right the seller wrote that it was from the 50's (1953?) and that it was missing a few pages. I've never seen a scribbled script for a 50's story before and I have no idea wich issue this story was published in. As you can see on the scribbles the name of one of the characters is Professor Egghead E. Egghead and Donald is tiny as a bug.
Anyone who recognize the story?
[Edit: See the comments for more info on these script pages!]

Disney clones

Here's an interesting link to a page showing how Disney "cloned" pieces of animation in the features: Disney clones.

Jumbo in Copenhagen

Here's an ufortunately rather blurred photo that was sent to me by Simon Bülow.
A short newspaper piece published in connection with the danish premiere of Dumbo.
Here misspelled as "Jumbo".
The text reads as follow:
"Tungt vägande reklam för Walt Disneys tecknade film 'Jumbo'
[oläsligt] vid
premiären i Köpenhamn. I det att inte precis
huvudrollsinnehav[oläsligt] men[?] [oläsligt]
var närvarande i salongen (se bilden). Det var bra att han kom i tid,
annars hade
det varit så besvärligt när han skulle tränga sig in i bänken."

I dont know if this is a true story or if the newspaper made this up? Did Disney really bring an elephant to the premiere in Copenhagen?

Had a sketch session with Hedvig yesterday. Made this (obviously Nelson ispired) drawing then.
Feeling stressed this week. Much tension at work. Gotta work on the next E&S now. Will try to update this blog with some interesting stuff soon. ( Have bought some really rare and beautiful stuff that is beeing shipped right now. )

/J.

Just did a version of the drawing in the previous post with colored outlines instead of black ink lines.
Just to see what it would look like.

No real work done today and I'm much too tired to start now. Yaaaawn...
Better get to bed and try to do something worthwile tomorrow instead.

/J.

Update

It's been a week since last post.
I've just been too busy (and I still am) to sit down and write something. But here are some recent "Emma & Sara" panels from the continuity we are doing now.



Any publisher out there that would like to do something with a backlog of 8 years of "Emma & Sara" material? I'm open for suggestions...


And don't forget the bookfair in Gothenburg later this month! I'll be there drawing Nils the Cat togheter with my colleauge Johanna in booth F01:14. I'll be there friday, saturday and sunday. Stop by and say hello and don't be ashamed to ask for a drawing. :)

PS. A nine page, fully illustrated with plenty of examples of the strip, article about Nils the Cat ("Katten NIls" in Swedish) can be found in the new issue of Bild & Bubbla. Buy, buy, buy! :)

Noel Sickles book

Just saw the new Noel Sickles/Scorchy Smith book over at Germunds apartment. And what a beauty it is! Sharp reproductions and a ton of extra material. 

There's absolutely no excuse for not owning it yourself. 

You heard me: no excuse!

Go get it at Amazon or your favorite bookdealer.
That's what I'll do in a few seconds. :)