Sketches

I'm tired today.
Was in Copenhagen yesterday with my friend Germund and listened to Dirtmusic.
We missed the train back to Malmo and didn't get home until the early morning.
So I've been sleeping most of the day today. Zzzz...

Wile Hedvig sketchbook ( Use the "labels" function for a pic of the cover.) is filled with stuff she's done the past year here are some sketches I found that didn't make the book.
Enjoy.

Adv. of Patsy 1938

Anyone who has bought these and can tell me if the reproduction is good?

Wunder #2

I'm back in the studio again. :)
Having spent the past five days relaxing and just enjoying life it's time to get back to the drawingboard. And the blog. :)

I got a very interesting mail from blog reader Mike Napolitano a few days ago were he told me that he had the second of George Wunders "Terry and the Pirates" tryout dailies!!! And he asked me if I wanted to show it on the blog. :)
So here it is for all to enjoy. Thanks for sharing, Mike!

This means I've seen 7 of them now. And knowing mine is #13 there is at least 6 more...
Wouldn't it be great if all of them could see print in the last of IDW's Terry and the Pirates volumes?
So if you got one please don't hesitate to get in touch with Dean over at IDW. Or drop me a line if you want to share it here also.
If you want to see the other Wunder strips just use the labels function below this post or the Labels menue to the right.

[Edit: Hmm... I just had a look at the strips here on the blog and It might be a case of two different sets of try out dailies. One signed set and one unsigned set. All 4 of the signed strips seems to feature a storyline beginning on a train and then having Terry & Co. flee from it. The unsigned doesn't seem to hang together. Maybe Wunder did a set of dailies with no connection and then was asked to do a set with a storyline too? Who knows. The only way to solve this "mystery" is to get more pieces.]

More on the Barks envelope

Remember that "Carl Barks" drawing on a envelope I mentioned a few days ago?
It sold on eBay for $305!!!
Incredible! For more stuff by the same seller check out aaabooksnthings on eBay and learn how to make a fast buck.
Or check out http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290208884155
Hmm... Doesn't that $255 drawing remind you of another?

Lubbers photo and Tarzan.

I'll be taking a few days off and this blog wont be updated until tuesday.
But before I leave the studio I just have to post one more thing.
Did I hear you say another Bob Lubbers piece? You bet! :)

This photo and artwork appeared in "The Burroughs Bulletin" #15 in 1964 along with a text written by Bob about his career.


(Vernell Coriell was the editor and publisher of TBB.)

Have a nice weekend!

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.