NSFW post

Time for some dirty stuff! :)
A friend of mine, Pidde, posted two sheets of naughty Gaston sketches by Franquin on his blog a while ago. And I just couldn't resist sharing them myself.
So without further ado here they are. Enjoy!

The Donald Duck backup issues, Part I

Way back in February this year we made an interesting "discovery" at Egmonts Malmö office. (That's where I work.)
I had been told that some old Bamse artwork was supposed to be found in a safe on the 7th floor. And since I work with this title I was naturally curious. Still, it took me a few weeks to actually investigate it further. It turned out that the Bamse artwork that was found wasn't anything previously unseen. Anyway, it was decided that we should move it into the Bamse archive on the 6th floor. And so we did.

But ...
Underneath the Bamse packages were two other packages! One large and one small.
The small package was labeled "Filmer till reservnummer KA & C:o" (Films for backup issues Donald Duck & Co. "KA & C:o" stands for Kalle Anka & C:o. The name of the Swedish Donald Duck weekly.)
The large package was labeled "Original reservserier, KA & C:o". (Original backup comics, DD & Co.)
Woha! It seemed like I had found some "lost" issues of the Scandinavian Donald Duck weekly I never even knew were lost. 

A day ot two later we gathered in a small conference room to open these packages.
A day ot two?!? How could I wait, you might wonder? Well, I wanted everyone who was interested in this kind of stuff to be present. The more the merrier. And the handful of people who attended the "grand opening" was indeed merry and curious about the "mysterious" packages.

Here we see Germund von Wowern opening the large package.

And Karin Wahlund Franck and Barbro Andersson are watching as the wrapping unfolds.

But let's stop for a while and go back in time. Back to the 70's!
To the time when these packages was prepared. Barbro, who has been at the company for a long time, told me what she suspected the packages would contain and why they were stashed away and forgotten.

At some point during the 70's someone at the main office in Copenhagen must have decided that it would be good to have a set of backup issues (Or "nød nr"/ emergency issues as they are also known as.) ready in case something disasterous happened. Like a fire at the printer or at the office.
Said and done, they prepared what would be twelve "emergency issues".
I don't know who was in charge of this, but in one of the package there is a letter from Leif Jørgensen in Copenhagen to Inge Lantz in Sweden. It's dated 1977 and Leif writes that Henning Dahl will deliver supplemental film for the German edition to be stored in the bank vault.

Barbro told me that she had heard about this material before and that it was indeed kept in a bank vault earlier. I guess that it at some point was decided that there was no longer a need for these backup issues and they were moved to the Malmö office. Stashed away in a safe and ... forgotten.

Now let's take a look at what's in those packages, shall we? :)
The small package contains films, proofs, translated scripts and compilation lists.
The first four issues are made up out of material published in Scandinavia in 1967, except for the covers.
Here's what was supposed to be used on the cover for the first issue. Barks cover to WDC 350. Not one of his best ...

The covers to #2-4 would have featured covers from the German Micky Maus weekly.
(D2684, D2484 and D1043 respectively.)

Then we have a photo of the stack in the small package, with issue 1 on top. Notice the post-it note (added at a later date) saying "Töntig" ("Silly") about the Barks story. :)

To be continued ...


Coming up in part two: The lost stories from issue 5-12 and what we found in the big package.

Some noses are bigger than others

Laff o' the day! 

If I had been a drummer, I know what I would have wished for this x-mas. :)

Can't help thinking of the lyrics to The Smiths "Cemetry Gates": 

"There's always someone, somewhere, with a big nose ..."

Original Peanuts daily for sale

[Edit: SOLD!]

For sale: An original Peanuts daily from 8-14, 1954.
Price 30000 sek. (Thats around $4185 or €3083.)
Please mail me for more info if you are interested.
sekvenskonst at telia dot com

Terry and the Pirates 1935

Just when I thought I had seen them all.
A Terry and the Pirates speciality strip by Milton Caniff from 1935!

Is this one published in the IDW books?

Coming soon...

Working on a blogpost about the "lost" 1960's issues of the Scandinavian Donald Duck weekly.
Some interesting stuff for hardcore Disney fans coming up this week. ;)

Update

[Edit: As you can see everything is back to normal here on the blog.
Now, what have I learned this weekend?
1) Never change something that works, just because you can.
and
2) It's more fun playing Left4dead, killing zombies on your Xbox360 together with your girlfriend than re-modeling a blog. :) ]


Have tried to re-model this blog during the weekend with the new blogger templates.
With vairied success and some frustration, I might add.
Still not happy with the way it looks, so you might see some changes over the next week.
Just in case you wonder what's going on. :)
/J.

PS. The image above is from the "Alfapojken" story I'm working with Hedvig on. So far 17 of 22 pages are done. Five more to go...

Best Modesty Blaise cover of the year?

Vote for the best Swedish Agent X9/Modesty Blaise cover of the year!
Choose between covers by Romero, Loopydave, Alejandro Sicat and Kim W Andersson!
Just click HERE!

Looking for a Tom and Jerry page

If anyone knows the whereabouts of the original art to the Tom and Jerry page below, please let me know. I'm interested in buying it! There's a $100 reward if you have a tip that makes me the owner of the page. (You tell me where to find it. If it's for sale and I buy it and you'll get $100.)
Mail me at: sekvenskonst at telia dot com
Thanks!

PS. If you have another page of Harvey Eisenbergs T&J for sale, please feel free to let me know.

Thumbelina character designs

As a follow up to the last post here are a few more Bill Peckmann sketches. And here's what he has to say about them: "Over twenty years ago when Rowland Wilson was on staff at Don Bluth's in Dublin, he got me on board to do some pre production character designs for the Studio's "Thumbelina". As far as I know they never went anywhere, c'est la vie."

The Inbetweeners

For the past two months or so Bill Peckmann has been sending me a series of gags called "The Inbetweeners". Here's what he has to say about it: "Back in the '80's, while working with two of the best assistant animators that I had ever worked with, (As was our want, studio gags always flew back and forth, hot and heavy, it is amazing that we ever got any real work done.), I made this collection of Eddy (A huge Disney fan.) and Mike (A huge fan of life.)."
With Bill's permission here are some of my favorite gags!
Enjoy!

Roy Nelson original art!

Finally!
The Roy Nelson artwork has arrived. :)
Check it out!
And for your viewing pleasure, some close-ups.



You can find references to the prohibition with speakeasies and smugglers. And there's a talkie and a pole sitter. This would date the artwork to ca 1930. I bet there are some famous actors portrayed here. Any guess?

Anyone who knows where it was published? I'd love to have the printed magazine. The back of the illustration says "G-#5 12/18". Any bells ringing?

Sketchbook site

There's a new site devoted to artists sketchbooks.
Both in print and as apps.
It's called --- drumroll ---
Artists Sketchbooks!
Go check it out!

Floyd Gottfredson 1942

Another watercolor by Floyd Gottfredson has just surfaced! Appearing in the William Randolph Hearst 1942 Birthday Book along with other artwork by KFS artists, this might be the oldest one of them all.


You want it? It will be up for auction at Heritage Auction Galleries soon.
If no one else bids it can be yours for $4000.
The catalog can be downloaded HERE.
There are plenty of nice items to bid on, if you got a few thousand bucks to spare.