Archie Graffiti

A friend of mine, Karl-Erik Lindkvist, just picked up a piece of artwork from Jeff Shultz (One of the current Betty & Veronica/Archie atists.) that I just have to share with you.
As you can see the commission was to do a version of the famous American Graffiti poster. But with Archie characters instead.:) Enjoy!
(As usual: Click to enlarge.)


And here's the original poster by Drucker if you want to compare.

Paul Fung and scanning

I've been pretty busy this week. Meetings, meetings and meetings. Small piles of paper at work that has grown into monster piles during my vacation has consumed most of my time at work. Tomorrow: two more meetings scheduled at work and them I'm off to my girlfriend for the weekend. Phew! I need that. It's hard getting adjusted after a long and nice summer vacation...

And in the evenings I've been trying to catch up with my scanning and restoration projects. Besides Adventures of Patsy by Mel Graff I'm also going through my sets of Paul Fung stuff.
If you have tearsheets for sale or want to trade high quality scans/copies please let me know. (Gus&Gussie, Dumb Dora, Guy from Grand Rapids etc.) If you are as much of a Fung-fan as me I'm sure we can work something out.:)

I'm scanning the strips and then mounting them for easy printing as you can see below. (This is only a low-res jpeg. My files are larger and sharp.)


The process I'm using is time consuming but the result gets pretty good.
First I scan the tearsheets in 600 dpi color. I then use the wand to select the black areas. (Tolerance between 80 and 110 depending on the condition of the strips.)
I then make a "new layer via copy". After that I drag the color background in the trash leavign me with only a black outline. I then change the image from color to grayscale.
Then under Adjustments I use Treshold to get nice sharp lines and to get rid of small spots etc. Then clean up and fill in black areas where neccesary and save as a bitmap. The results can be seen of you scroll down to my previous post. Those Patsy panels were all from yellowed newsprintpaper...
If anyone have a smarter, better and faster way to do it please let me know. :)

Before I call it a day here in the Studio here are two Paul Fung ads. Ger Apeldoorn has been posing several over at his blog so why shouln't I? :)
These are from 1941 and 1944. The one from 1944 is one of the very last things he drew before he died. More to come if there's interest.

Sangor Sammy and Patsy

Today was the first day of work at Egmont after my vacation.
It's back to the hectic life of publishing again. :)
But as usual I'll find time to blog about this and that.


Got another unsigned Sangor Shop story that I own the original art to.
I have no idea who drew this. If anyone recognise the style from a signed story please let me know.




I've also started to scan more of my Adventures of Patsy dailies. Here are some sample panels from mid 1936 that I scanned yesterday. These are from before Patsy went to Hollywood to become a star. Mel Graff's best years as an artist was still ahead of him. Enjoy!

A drawing and a page

As a break from the old comics I usually post here on the blog, here are two pieces that I made myself. :)

The first one was made yesterday with a nib on copying paper. No fancy tools or expensive paper here...

The second one is a comic I made for Malmö Högskola (Malmö University) earlier this year. (The script is not mine.) The original is quite large (A2) and it was inked with a W&N Series 7, #0 on a piece of good, old fashioned Schollerhammer 4G. I haven't seen it in print but I hope it turned out well...


Now, I'll have a cup of coffee and open that big package I got from Amazon.com :)

Not Gonzales...

This Donald Duck "daily" just sold on eBay for $412.
Labeled as a Manuel Gonzales original from the 50's or 60's.





Well, In case the buyer reads this: This is a redrawn version of Al Taliaferros DD daily for 1942-03-11.

The poor lettering and inking suggests this is a tryout by someone. Not Taliaferro artwork and not Gonzales artwork, even though it comes from the estate of Gonzy. (MG had already worked at the studio for several years in 1942.)

Sangor Shop artist ID?

Now, here's some more stuff that needs to be identified.
I bought a chunk of original pages last week and among them were these four "Puss and Toots" pages.
All I know is that they are from the Sangor Shop and that I like them a lot. :)
(The style looks very familar, but I can't put my finger on where I've seen it before.) I guess they were drawn by an animator since the Sangor Shop had several Disney/Warner people working for them? So all of you animation fans out there, please give me your 2 cents. :)




Also, if anyone can tell me where they were published - you deserve a gold medal.

Identification day

Hans Holm at Svenskt Seriearkiv (Swedish Comics Archive) is currently going through old weekly Swedish magazines, to index the comics published there. The latest magazine to be indexed was "Veckorevyn"
(The Weekly Review). And there are a few "mystery strips" that needs identification. Maybe you can help? Artist, original title and country of origin needed.

First out is Laura Larsson wich ran 1936-39 in Veckorevyn. The page below is from 1936:44.

Update Sept 2015: Thanks to Lars Skovmand we now know that Laura Larsson is a Danish comic called Hanne Hansen made by Arne Ungermann. Thanks, Lars!

Then we have Flintkvist wich ran 1940-41. (Most likely a french strip since the copyright tag says Paris.)

And Familjen Flax that ran 1952-54.
This sample is from 1954, issue 19.

Familjen Flax is also the Swedish title for Browne's and Walker's Hi and Lois but this is obviously not the same. :)

Jackson, Bradbury & Disney

More Disney stuff today.
This artwork was supposed to be auctioned off at the cancelled Michael Jackson auction earlier this year.
Why posting it here?

Well,I thought it should be noted that this piece is actually a drawing traced from a comic book panel. The original was done by Jack Bradbury who drew Donald Duck for the comic books for many, many years. (For more on Bradbury just click on his name above and you will be directed to a great website devoted to him.)


So are the both the drawing and the signature fakes? Or was the traced drawing actually signed by Disney to a fan? Buyer beware... forgeries are to be found everywhere.

Chanticleer storyboards?

Today I'm posting a few odd Disney items I've found on the net.

First a set of drawings that I saw on eBay. The seller credited them to T.Hee and I guess these are from the unproduced Disney film "Chanticleer and the Fox"?
Now, that's the one unproduced feature that I'd really would like to see a coffee table book devoted to. I just hope there's still artwork left in the Walt Disney Archives to make that possible.






Second we have two pages from a script from a 1953 Donald Duck Album (OS #450). The published artwork was made by Tony Strobl, but I have no idea who wrote this or did these scribbles. I'm posting them here so maybe someone in the Inducks group can identify the writer based on the style. (It's currently for sale on line, but I can't find the web address at the moment.)

Long Sam's new dress - 1956

One of the great things about having a blog is all the people with similar interests who gets in touch.
Last week I got a mail from Pat Thompson. Back in 1956 she and her sister Peggy sent Bob Lubbers a design for a new dress for Long Sam.
And what a reply they got!
An original drawing of Long Sam in the dress they designed!

Pat still has both the original mailing envelope and the artwork and has allowed me to post them here. Enjoy!



As a bonus to this post here's a Long Sam promotion piece made for the Bridgeport Herald. Might also be from 1956. (Grabbed this file on the net some time ago. Don't know where. Hope the owner don't mind.)


For more Bob Lubbers artwork use the label below.

Mickey Mouse 8-3 to 8-8/1959

Here's another set of Mickey Mouse dailies from 1959. The artwork by Floyd Gottfredson is good as always but the strip for 8-7 feels pretty dated...


 Now start bugging your local Disney editors so we can get some unreprinted Gottfredson back in print. :)

Milt Gross - A Stroke of Genius

Milt Gross from Life (Pedestrians' number) September 24, 1925.
What a genius! Want more Milt Gross right now? Just click HERE for some Banana Oil and more!

And watch out for the Milt Gross book this fall!



(Craig: Want this cartoon for your book? Just let me know. Maybe it was this one you asked me about? I keep forgetting what I got and not...)

Bamse på skattjakt

A public service announcement:
Today my second Bamse book will be released! :)
The title is "Bamse på skattjakt" ("Bamse on a treasure hunt") and will be available in bookstores here in Sweden and via Adlibris.
The book is based upon a comic book story from 2006. (While I've written the script for this book the comic book was plotted by me and scripted by the very talented Mårten Melin) The artwork in the book is by Lars Bällsten with inks by Bernt Hanson.

Here are some samples. Enjoy!

Elsje & Havank

The rain is pouring down here in Sweden, so I spend the first day of my vacation indoors. Ho and hum. But there's stuff to be done, comics to be drawn and coffee to drink so I don't really mind.

Last week I got a nice package from the Netherlands that I just have to share with you. :)
It contained both the special edition of Hercules and Valkema's new Elsje book and Danier's new Havank!

The Elsje book contained some original artwork drawn on the title page! Thanks, Gerben!


And so did the Havank album! Thanks, Daan!


And to my surprise there was an original Elsje daily in the package!!!


Just so you can see the fine details in the inking here are close ups of the panels. Enjoy!