Carl Barks 1962 (?) "Time Lost" script

Wednesday = Barksday!

[Edit: Changed the year from 1964 to 1962 after reading THIS. Submission date of dec 20, 1962 fits better than 1964 since I found two different sources saying submission for art was august 8, 1963 or the same date 1964.]

If last weeks post featured a rare item, here's something that's almost as rare. A 1960's handwritten preliminary script for an Uncle Scrooge one pager. This one was published in Uncle Scrooge 55 (1965) without title. It's later been labeled "Ticking Detector", but here we can see what Barks own title was: "Time Lost".


This sheet also have an unpublished script for another Uncle Scroge one pager. It's in the hands of a very talented artist, and will hopefully see the light of day in a not too distant future. :)

But now for the "mystery" I promised you last week. On the back of this sheet there are some "try-outs" for a sentence or two.

"But even so, I feel creepy going in this dark"
"But even so, I feel as if hidden eyes watching us from the dark crannies of this spooky place!"
"But it's too late now to do more than just"

Question is wich story he was working on and what the final version was. Any guesses?

[Edit: Thanks to Thisher who found the dialouge in Crown of the Mayas (US 44). The sentence can be found on page 20 in that story.]

Tenggren and Crane

I have no idea why I havn't linked to Lars Emanuelsson's Gustaf Tenggren page before. But better late then never! Go there for loads of info on Tenggren, index and beautiful images by this classic artist.


And don't miss the Tenggren exhibition at Åbergs Museum! Open now!

Captain Easy by Roy Crane
Fantagraphics now have a preview of the upcoming Captain Easy book available!
Just click HERE!

PS. Also added a link to my gallery at comicartfans.com under the "More me" label to the left. Go there to see some of the artwork I have collected over the years.

Panel layouts by Barks

Wednesday=Barksday.

If original comic book pages by Carl Barks from the 60's are rare, comic page layouts from that period are even rarer. But here are a few samples.
A sheet that features the opening panel and a panel from the 7'th page of Beach Boy, WDC 276, 1963.
The story was sent in to Western in September 1962 so it's a safe bet to say that these are from August-September that year.


As you can see he the layout for the opening panel is the same as the finished one.



For the panel on page 7 we have two different versions.


Now, the reason why these were saved by Barks was probably because of what was written on the reverse. An unused (?) Junior Woodchucks title: Cookieboy. Probably to be saved for later.

Instead the not-so-clever title Gpootkh was used.


Coming up next Wednesday:
The script for a published 1960's Scrooge page and some mysterious sentences written on the reverse of the script.:)

Mickey and Donald

Picked up a copy of the 1945 book Funny stories about Mickey and Donald a while ago. Now the interior are mostly redrawn versions of what I believe are Mickey and Donald sunday pages, told in story form. But the cover was made especially for this edition and I thought I should share it here.

And the title page also got an illustration that I hadn't seen before. (Art by? McKimson? Buettner?)

Nice, eh?
(If any publisher want's to use the above M&D illustration I can provide a restored high resolution image.)

Doing some spring cleaning yesterday, I found this ad for Swedish Kalle Anka & C:o. Probably from the 50's. As I said in my previous post: I got way to much odd stuff in my drawers...

Not only penguins

I'm not only drawing penguins. Yesterday I managed to crank out a cowboy too...


This week I'm having a "vacation", wich today means spring cleaning. Wohoo! (That's an ironic wohoo. Just so you know.) The whole apartment gets dusted and papers gets sorted. And plenty of stuff, comics and assorted things to be photographed and sold. And some to get junked. Got waaay to much stuff on my shelves, in my closets and drawers.

Now: Off to get Hedvigs next sketchbook to the printer. Then some workout and then maybe I'll post something rare on blog in the evening.
Busy as a bee. Wadda vacation.:)

Penguins

Sorry for the lack of updates lately.
I've been busy drawing penguins ...

Bamse 7 2010

Just downloaded the softproof for BAMSE 7 2010. And I just wanted to share the cover with you.
For a change this is a cover with Bamse's kids instead of Bamse himself.
Turned out to be a pretty dramatic cover. "The secret of Stonehenge"

It's fun to be able to design covers in the style of Dell's old Four Color comics these days. Not everything has to be cluttered up with loads of promotional text and flashy images to sell. :)
Artwork by Lars Bällsten, inks by Bernt Hanson and colors by Lise Jörgensen.
Idea and layout sketch by Charlotta Borelius and yours truly.
On sale May 4th.

The fairest of them all

From Disney's Snow White, the eBay seller says.
Must be from the early stages of the production when Walt Disney was considering drawing Snow White as a mushroom with a little door...

Who's Who in the Comics? No.2

Got a new "Who's Who in the Comics?"
This one is from January 3, 1942.
(Thanks, Alex!)
My guess this time is: Mytits.
(Oy, what a dirrrty contest this is...)

Rosetta Teddy

Swedish comics historian Fredrik Strömberg is currently working on a new edition of the book Swedish Comics History. (Published soon and distributed by Top Shelf in the US.) That book will feature a list of Swedish comics that at one time or another was published in German, English or French.

Trying to help out I was going through my files at work today. And I found some early samples of Rune Andréasson's strip Teddy from 1951.
In English and German! However I have no idea if they really were published in Germany or England or if these samples were just strips prepared by the syndicate. (If anyone have seen these in print in those countries, please let me know.)
Here are the first three strips for those of you who are interested in seeing them.



As a bonus for the Swedish readers, here's a presentation from the early 50's:

And while I'm at it.
Here's a strip from the adventure of Teddy and the little donkey. (A storyline that Rune used over and over again through the years.) What makes it interesting, to researchers of the history of Rune Andréasson's comics, is that this might be the very first appearence of the Krösus Sork (Croesus Vole) prototype Sork-Sam, even if he's not named here.

Who's Who in the Comics? No.8

This not-so-hard-to-guess-the-answer question ran in the Chicago Tribune February 23, 1942. Found it on eBay. The artworks looks like it's scrambled from various strips. (Maybe not, but I don't have access to my Caniff collection at the moment.)

My guess is: Retry.

"Thanks a million fellows!"

Wednesday=Barksday.
Three seldom seen images by Barks.
The first two was printed in the Scandinavian Carl Barks Collection.
(A limited edition 30 volume, 10 box set of the complete Carl Barks Disney comics.) But they deserves to be seen by a wider audience of Barks fans. The third is possibly unpublished.

La mode cartoone!

Don't miss:
La mode cartoone!
from French Elle magazine at the Disney History blog!
Some top talent was involved in doing this, as this message from Ulrich Schröder explains:
"[...] as this was a collaboration I just wanted to mention that DAAN JIPPES helped me by going over most of the layouts and all of the caricatures, MARIO CORTES drew the all the Disney characters on the last spread (Galliano) and FERRAN RODRIGUEZ inked these (again Galliano) and IVAN BOIX did the color."

Great stuff! Go check it out, if you havn't done it already!

Donald Duck puzzle from 1950

OK! So I guess the quick quiz in last post was a bit too hard even for the most fanatic donaldist. (Not counting Germund von Wowern, of course.)
The puzzle piece shown was taken from a 1950 Whitman frame-tray puzzle. And what makes this puzzle interesting is that it's drawn by Paul Murry. One of the best Disney artists in Western Publishing's stable at that time. As far as I know it's the only puzzle done by him.
And it's quite large too. I've placed it next to a 1950's issue of Donald Duck so you can compare.
Got it from the Western Publishing files.
That explains why it looks like new.
Enjoy!



[If any publisher would like to use the image, just let me know and I'll make a sharp, high resolution scan. Then you can either remove the colors, or use as is.]

Edit:
Gunnar Andreassen just pointed out the similarity to the cover of WDC 129. If the seller of Western Publishing's archives had his papers right the puzzle was published in 1950. WDC 129 hit the stands in the spring of 1951. But wich image was actually drawn first we'll never know, I guess. Might even have been roughed by someone on staff at Western and sent out to the two artists at the same time.

A quick one

A quick (donaldistic) quiz:
Name the artist and where the full image was published.
Hard? Yes.
Impossible? No.

Modesty Blaise un-edited

In the latest issue of Swedish Agent X9 comic book you'll find an unedited Modesty Blaise panel by Jim Holdaway that never has seen print before!

The strip we are talking about here is #1021 from "The Head Girls", and the panel is the last one in that strip.
This is what the strip usually looks like. (Sans text, since it's taken from co-production files.)

But when we looked at the original art, we saw that there was something "wrong" with he last panel.


Apparently Holdaway must have felt the composition in the panel was wrong. He then made a stat to enlarge the woman and pasted it on the original art.(You can see traces of the edge of the stat on the published strip. Right in front of the womans face.) The stat then fell off at one point or another, and left us with the original image.

What we should have done was probably to restore the image to Holdaways intended version, but it was forgotten.
Anyway, we hope you don't mind us bringing you a previously unseen version of a Holdaway panel instead. ;)

To make it easier for you to compare here are the two panels side by side. Enjoy!


It should be noted that the original art was provided by Peter Hartung. If you want to own your own piece of original Jim Holdaway Modesty Blaise art, please check out his online gallery: www.comicart.dk
He's got some really nice ones for sale.

Edit: In fact, he's got this very strip up for grabs at the moment!

The return of Barney Bear and Benny Burro

Wednesday=Barksday

Today I'm happy to share another sneak peak with you. This time of a fan-dream-come-true: The complete collection of Carl Barks' Warner comics.
"Carl Barks Bruno Björn och vänner"
A thick book including all of Barks' Barney Bear, Benny Burro, Porky Pig, Happy Hound and Droopy stories!
Even those he only wrote and Harvey Eisenberg illustrated are included.

Most of these has been shot from pristine proofs thanks to Ulf Granberg. Beeing an editor for the Scandinavian edition of Tom & Jerry in the 80's he ordered these stories from Western publ. and ran them in T&J. And most important, he kept them unaltered with the logos intact.

So, with a few exceptions where proofs couldn't be located, what you'll find in the book are the best presentation and reproduction of these stories ever! Prefaces by Geoffrey Blum and Ulf Granberg.
Can you tell I'm excited? :)

Here are some low resolution scans from our printers proof, just to show you what the coloring will look like.

And some samples in black and white. Click to enlarge. See how sharp and crisp the lines are. :)




Beautiful, eh?
The book will be released in Sweden late March/early May.
It can be pre-ordered HERE.
I'm not sure when the other Scandinavian countries will publish their versions. And as far as I know, no american edition is planned. 

Now for something completely different. A quick quiz.

What does Barks refer to here? Googling is cheating... ;)