Harvey Eisenberg and the Art of Running

No one ever drew funny animal characters running through the air like Harvey Eisenberg did.
How can I best describe it? That he made them "weightless with speed", might be a fitting description.
His way of posing the arms and legs of the characters in a very special way while they were running made an impact on me as a kid, and I found it fascinating.
Here are a few examples to show what I mean. I hope you find them as inspiering as I do. :)

/Joakim.

Notice the way Eisenberg pushed the shoulder forward on Droopy here.

                                     

If you like the above you'll love the work of Oscar Martin.
The modern day master Tom & Jerry artist.
Make sure to check out his blog. Just click HERE!

Even More Russell Patterson Original Art

La - di -da, what about another original Russell Patterson illustration from my collection?

Harry never got his Patterson illustration either.
I think I've said this before but ... there's more to come. ;)

Duckburg Art Gallery 2

Apparently the first issue of Duckburg Art Gallery sold out before it was even printed. (Or at least that's what the seller claims, as the first issue was supposed to be printed April 1.)

 On eBay you can find the second issue listed. If you have trouble finding it, it might be because it's listed under Uncanny X-Men ...
The price this time is $1250 compared to the $100 the first issue sold for.

The same seller also got two original Barks paintings for sale.
One of them contains "9 Disney characters" ... Hmm ...
Now I get it. Donald, Daisy, the three nephews, the car and the three characters on the license plate.

And the second is the "first appearence and the origin of Bark's Uncle Scrooge" ...

I wonder what the seller have up his sleeve for his next auctions?
(He also claims to have his name in the Fine Art of Donald Duck book. Who is this guy???)

More Russell Patterson Original Art

Here's another drawing by Russell Patterson that I purchased this week.

Unfortunately the left part of the artboard has been cut. And as you can see it's signed, but I believe Dr. H. F. Koppe never got his drawing. Why? I'll get to that in a later post.

And there's a stamp on the back leading me to believe it was published in Life Magazine. Would like to get hold of a copy where this illustration was published. If you know wich issue to look out for, feel free to leave a comment.

And as I said before: there's more to come. ;)

Original Russell Patterson illustration art

Just picked up a nice Russell Patterson illustration.
It looks like it's from the 20's.
If anyone knows where and when it was published please let me know.

It should be noted that this illustration also appeared in
the "Art of Russell Patterson" book published a few years ago.

/Joakim.

PS. More RP to come. ;)

Auction day

Don't forget that today is the day of the Stripkrant auction. So if you wanna grab some fine dutch comic art you better head over to http://bnsstripkrant.nl/ right away.

Tom and Jerry by Eisenberg

I'm currently looking for an index covering the Our Gang issues featuring Tom and Jerry and all other titles where T&J appeared. If you have access to one and want to help, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me. Doesn't matter if it isn't complete or if it doesn't cover a long run.
I need an overview of when stuff was first published and maybe also when they were reprinted for a project I'm working on.

And for your viewing pleasure, and as a thank you in advance, here are some nice pages by the great, great Harvey Eisenberg. Enjoy!

Update:
Do not miss the interview with Harveys son Jerry Eisenberg!
To be found on the Yowp blog! Just click HERE!
And there's even more on TAG blog!


Edit: If someone knows how to scan proofs with screentones (The dot pattern on Tom) the best way to avoid moire, please feel free to get in touch. 600 dpi turned out to not work that well, so I'll give 1200 dpi bitmap a shot.  Any thoughts and help is welcomed.

New Lifestyle Magazine

 

 Image taken from eCopy, 2011.

Frank Robbins website

Just got a mail from Robin Olin telling me that there's a new website devoted to Frank Robbins!
It's still beeing developed, but I'm looking forward to see more good stuff coming there soon.
Go check it out by clicking HERE.

Frank Robbins self portrait. Photo by Robin Olin.

"These top cartoonists" Part IV

Should have posted these two bios when I posted other pages from the book "These top cartoonists tell how they create America's favorite comics" back in August last year. Somehow I must have forgotten that I scanned them.
Anyway, here are two pages on Leonard Starr and Alex Kotzky.
Enjoy!

Mickey Mouse in Death Valley

It's now just a matter of months until MM "Race to Death Valley" will be realeased.
Fantagraphics has a BLAD for download to wet your appetite.
And check out CBR for some info from Gary Groth by clicking HERE. 
For even MORE info see what David Gerstein has to say on Westfield Comics Blog.

Or ... pre-order from Amazon right away!

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