Duckburg Art Gallery

Just saw this on eBay:

"The first Duckburg Art Gallery Catalogue . ship to Europe, China, Austrula, New York, Vietnam, all over the world.  There will be over $501,000 worth of Carl Barks Painting pictured in this Catalogue.  I will accept offers of $100 for each catalogue  First Printing due out April 1st 2011  Printing limited to only 1000 each will be certifited and signed by me not  Carl Barks" 

Hmm ... 

Barney Bear by Gil Turner

Just gotta share this.
After reading all of Carl Barks "Barney Bear and Benny Burro" in the recently published book, it's a treat finding out that there were more good Barney stories made after he left the series.
Gil Turner, who wrote at least one of the Barney scripts illustrated by Barks, did a number of delightful BB & BB stories himself!
Just look at these three panels by Turner from T&J #65.

Wouldn't his stuff be worth to reprint? I sure think so. :)

Lille Rikard

Spent the morning scanning and restoring old sunday pages. Got a batch of original "Lille Rikard" pages by Rune Andréasson on loan and prepared them for coloring by converting them to bitmap. However, lots of the gray areas will be missing when these pages are printed. No proofs has survived and the dot pattern has faded on the original boards.
Here's a sample of what the artwork looks like before it was converted.
(The inserted image is naturally not part of the page, but added in photoshop. )

BTW: The originals are fairly small. Less than A4 size!

The final, colored, pages will appear in Bamses äventyr #32 this spring.

The Disneyland Memorial Orgy

I guess you've all seen the Disneyland Memorial Orgy by Wallace Wood?
 If not, here it is:

It appeared in The Realist #74, May 1967. (Scan taken from the Realist site.)

Now, last week I was checking comicartfans.com when I stumbled upon a set of drawings by Frank Follmer. Click on his name to go to the website where loads of his artwork is beeing sold.

A quote from that site: 
"He's been called the man who should have been the 10th old man. Or maybe he's the new Charlie Thorson or "Tex"
Henson. He's Frank Follmer, and a well-known dealer of cartoon-related items was selling his artwork at the San Diego Con. Frank Follmer was one of Disney’s greatest cartoonists. “Snow White” among all, is one of the most unforgettable characters Frank mainly developed." 

10th old man? One of Disney's greatest cartoonists? Well, let's just say that I dont agree. 
(OK. The guy was an a-m-a-t-e-u-r. How he could land a job at Disney in the 30's is beyond me. The owner of the Follmer site claims " I have a letter from Walt Disney archives signed by Robert Tieman the manager, that frank worked at Disney from April 12, 1937 to November 28, 1940. " I'd like to have that confirmed... )

Aaaaaanyway, this post is not about Frank Follmers artistic qualities but about the Disneyland Memorial Orgy.
 
The first image I saw on Comicartfans.com reminded me of the Wood piece. 

And then I found another one, and another...

On the Frank Follmer page I found even more...

Now, the question is: Did Wood see one of Follmers pieces and simply "traced" it?
(Notice that the black and white Follmer piece is dated 1953.)
Why did Follmer do so many versions of it?
And why so long after he left Disney?
And most, most, most important: was nude Disney characters a turn on for Follmer?

Edit: Don't miss Ron Harris post 

Frank Follmer's Naughty Disney

BNS Stripkrant 2011

Just got a mail from Dutch comic artist Alex van Koten!
Last year he and Gerben Valkema produced a free comic strip paper for the Dutch Comic-artists organisation BNS.
And this summer number 2 will be coming out.
But in order to make this possible ( To produce a free comic strip paper is expensive.) the Dutch artists have decided to organize an auction; Original comic strip art for sale. 
So if you want to grab some great art by Dutch comic artists (You DO!) please take a look at their blog. New items added daily ...

http://bnsstripkrant.nl/

Here are a few samples of what has been posted so far: 
 

Ulf Granberg & the Phantom 1976

Here's a gem for Swedish fans of the Phantom.
An article about the editor Ulf Granberg and the Phantom, taken from "Rundsnack" 1/1976.
Enjoy!

Brotherhood of Billy Goats member 350373

Remember the Barney Google "Brotherhood of Billy Goats" membership card I posted back in 2007?  If not, check it out by clicking HERE.  

Now, what did a member of this secret and mysterious brotherhood look like? 

Wonder no more, cause you're about to find out.
Thanks to Terry Grotefeld who sent me a page from his father's photo album we now know who member 350373 was.

Take it away, Terry:

"My father was a member of the Brotherhood in Chicago in 1925, he was only 19 when he went from England to the USA and worked for Western Electric. He helped install the first talking pictures in America, I believe it was "The Jazz Singer" with Al Jolson."

 "My father died in 1978 and his photo album had been safely tucked away and I decided to copy some of the photos for future generations to see. 

He was in Chicago in 1925 till 1928, during the prohibition and the
Al Capone era. His brother Bill was with him and they took a long trip in a
very early car across America."

"[...] picture of my Father (on the left ) and
some friends all looking a bit like Chicago gangsters."

Thanks for sharing the images of your father, Terry!

OKMNX!

Live action "Up" from 1965

This is just too good to not be re-posted here.

(Thanks to Cartoonbrew. To see it on YouTube, click HERE.)

Schjerfbeck 1945

Beeing a fan of Helene Schjerfbeck's art (Who isn't?) I was thrilled to see a piece on the Swedish version of Antiques Roadshow, Antikrundan.
It turned out to be a painting from 1945 that I've never seen before.
Bought a long time ago and never re-sold.
I just had to make a few screen grabs of it. Enjoy!

And while I'm at it, here are af few more seldom seen pieces:

 The above image was found on Bosses blogg.

What A Nerve!  1967

Hmm... The last one isn't a Schjerfbeck but a Barks.
Kinda cute anyway.

Kley and Fawcett

Got the following news from Ulrich Merkl:
"From Feb. 17 to May 1 there will be a wonderful Heinrich KLEY exhibition in München/Germany:
http://www.villastuck.de/ausstellungen/2011/kley/index.htm


It has been curated by world’s no.1 KLEY expert Alexander Kunkel, author of this brand-new & definitive KLEY biography:
http://www.amazon.de/Heinrich-Kley-1863-1945-Leben/dp/3897396505/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1295279476&sr=8-1
Apart from more than one hundred original KLEY drawings, you’ll also find selected top pieces by Klinger, Stuck, Kubin, various Simplicissimus artists, and artwork from Disney cartoons.
There will be a catalog with 120 colour illustrations (25 Euros).
Please spread the word about this wonderful effort!"

And from Bill Peckmann I got the word that Manuel Auads Robert Fawcett book is hot off the presses!
This is a book I personally have been waiting for. Can't wait to get it!

Check out at http://www.auadpublishing.com

Puzzle VIII - The Answer

Finally, here's the answer to the puzzle.
Guess this one's for the harcore Barks fans only. ;)

It all began with an auction on eBay earlier this winter.
The seller offered this drawing for sale:

An unpublished cover rough by Carl Barks! The father of the seller had gotten it from Barks in the 70's.

Notice the circled X on the drawing. I'd say that it means the idea was sold or at least approved by / or sent to Western. Now, there never was any cover like this during the late 50's or early 60's. (The gag covers ended with US 44 so it was most likely made before that. And the proportions of Scrooge also looks like the late 50's/early 60's era.) I guess he felt the gag was too weak or hard to get and filed it away.


But what if Barks had finished the drawing and it had appeared on a cover in 1959?

I took Barks layout and made a finished ink drawing based on it.
Then I scanned the cover of US 28 and used the logo from that cover.

I used the colors from US 28 and added them to the new one.

And finally I did some photoshop magic to make it look old. :)

 Thanks for the feedback I got on this one. I got some good guesses from people all over the world, but Are was the only one who guessed 100% right.
I had some fun doing this this puzzle of "The Barks Cover that Never Was" and I hope you have enjoyed it too.


/Joakim.

Puzzle VII

Just got the right answer from Are Myklebust!
He guessed the exact right answer. Well done!
Other people have been giving me some good guesses,
but Are really nailed it.

Before letting the rest of you know, here are the two final pieces.

 

The answer will follow later this week.

Puzzle Pt VI

Two more pieces!


Now, there are only two pieces left after these two.
I have to admit it's almost impossible to figure out what the right answer is.
A clue: Sold on eBay a while ago.
(Doesn't mean that this actual item was sold on eBay, though. But if you saw the eBay item, the clue will hopefully lead your thoughts in the right direction. )
If you just want to guess, feel free to do so. The original art cataloge will be given to the one with the best guess, if no one gives the right answer. (If you want to submit your guess privately please mail me at: sekvenskonst at telia.com )

? by Gottfredson

Ah! Found the li'l rascal hiding in my drawers.
Here we have the drawing by Floyd Gottfredson I mentioned in the previous post.

I don't know the name of this character. Maybe someone can help out?
This was saved next to a folded Skippy sunday from Sept 1, 1935. That sunday features the character, but not this exact pose.

And speaking of Skippy, the release of Skippy vs the mob seems to be an interesting one! Have to check it out!

Skippy

Some great, great poses on this Skippy page by Percy Crosby.
Just look at how Crosby handles his crow quill.
How he's twisting Skippy's body in a dynamic way.
Strong confident lines filled with ink and action. Me like!

The sample above is taken from Life, April 16, 1925.
More on Skipy can be found on www.skippy.com.

Hmm... Now that I think about it I might have some Skippy characters drawn by Floyd Gottfredson in my drawers.  Gotta dig 'em up.