BIG FUN #6

Big Fun #6 is now for sale over at American Comic Archive! In this issue we find the never before reprinted Scorchy Smith strips by Bert Christman and Frank Robbins.* It covers April 12 - December, 1937 and May 22 - December 23, 1939. I guess the strips between those dates are missing?
I really hope we'll se the end of Christmans run in an upcoming issue. He was really good when he quit. The Robbins strips in this issue are so early that you really can't tell that they are by him. His style matured during his run on Scorchy and I hope we'll see the rest of his strips too.
But until then: Buy! Buy! Buy! :)

*Yes I know they were reprinted in Famous funnies during the 40's. But those cut up and re-lettered versions doesn't count...

390812

Two daily strips published on the same date in 1939: August 12.

The first one is obviously a Mickey Mouse daily by Floyd Gottfredson and Bill Wright, featuring the Blot.
But the second one is the less familar Inspector Wade. "The Feathered Serpent" looks a lot like the Blot, I'd say...
Now, the Blot first appeared in May 1939. I wonder when the Serpent first showed his black hood? Before or after the Blot first appeared?
My friend Germund von Wowern found this strip and will (hopefully) research further. If he comes up with more info I'll post it on the blog.

Chocolate dreams

Just finished inking the latest E&S page. It was drawn by Hedvig and I just have to share this dream sequence with you. This is what happens if you eat too much chocolate. :)

Gottfredson sketch

Just added a previously unseen Floyd Gottfredson piece to my Comic Art Fans gallery.
If you have any unpublished sketches or documents by Gottfredson that you want to trade for scans or prints of what I have, please let me know. I'm especially interested in story notes and sketches from his "Mark O'Polo". (Wich I BTW have plenty of sketches from.) My mail address is
sekvenskonst at telia com

Fred Ray 1943

Thanks to my friend Germund von Wowern here are some Fred Ray illustrations from The Daily Mail, August 10 1943.

The Mickey Mouse Theater

Tune in to the 1938 Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air!

Found on www.archive.org. Thanks to Per Starbäck who mentioned it on Facebook.

Fred Ray strips

I recently bought these two strips on eBay. Both are by Fred Ray and signed "FRAY".


Notice how he uses light and shadow just like Noel Sickles did. And, yes, he was a big fan of Sickles. It was from Fred's collection Alex Toth and some other artists got their Schorcy Smith sets a long time ago.



I suspect these were drawn while he was doing his military service during the early/mid 40's. But does anyone know where these were published? If they were published at all. They seem to be aimed to people not in the army since they explain how things are in the army. If you have any clues please leave a comment.

[Edit: As a bonus here is the third strip that was sold at the same time. But I didn't get this one.]

Bamse Pigg

I was talking to my girlfriend on the phone two days ago, while sketching on a piece of scrap paper.
You know how those phone conversation doodles usually turns out, don't you? Often only symmetrical patterns, but every now and then I do rough sketches of characters. This one became really weird. I started to draw swedish comic book character Bamse as if he would have been designed like Mickey Mouse. And to my surprise it worked quite fine to blend the two. The character both looks familar and pretty wierd at the same time...

Coming up tomorrow: Two original strips by Fred Ray, with a (heavy) touch of inspiration from Noel Sickles.

India tinta box

Oo, kung ano ang maaaring maging ito?

Mickey Mouse photo

Here's another vintage photo. But this one is even scarier than the ones posted yesterday. If I had been that girl I would have been running (Fast!) instead of smiling to the camera. (The photo above is also for sale att disneyana.de)

Hot babes

I like babes.
And I like Mickey Mouse.
I make no secret about two of my big passions in life. Butt oddly enough [!] I didn't get very excited when I saw these photos. Maybe it's true that just because you like two things they don't get better when you combine them...(The photos above are currently for sale at disneyana.de )

DD covers

Back in November I showed some nice new Daan Jippes covers on the blog. Now, thanks to Henrieke Goorhuis who sent me some scans, I can show you what the card tower cover looks like uncut:
I actually prefer Egmonts coloring (too many gradients on this version) but it's nice to see without all the text and stuff covering the art. And the dutch version have so much more depth thanks to the smart desicion to not cover the end of the card tower.

She also sent me three more scans wich I thought you might enjoy. First we have a Daan Jippes cover wich wasn't used in Sweden. Though it was printed in Norway...

Then a nice Scamp cover by an unidentified artist. I really like when the artists are using black as a dominant color on a cover. And I miss having other characters than the ducks on the covers of the Donald Duck weekly in Scandinavia. Using Mickey, Goofy etc now and then gives some variation, you know.

And finally the cover of next weeks DD with artwork by Gerben Valkema. I just can't imagine how long time it must have taken to figure out how to fit all the characters together to do this image. :) Let's hope this will be used in Scandinavia too.

Henrieke also sent me the lemur drawing below! If you want to see more of her artwork you should visit her blog Ducks and Lemurs.

Complete Rip Kirby

Just read that Dean Mulleany will reprint the complete "Rip Kirby" by Alex Raymond in five volumes! Beginning next year. If anyone can do this right it's Dean. Just look at the Scorchy Smith book released earlier this year. I'm really looking forward to these books. :)

Now, back to the Christmas candy and the family. Only 5 minutes left until Disney's "From all of us..." begins. Gotta go!

Merry x-mas to you all!

Zip - POW!

A wonderful claymation Krazy Kat Kartoon made by Banana Park.
Thanks to Sofia for showing me this yesterday.
I think Geo. Herriman would have been proud of what they did with Krazy and Ignatz

And speaking of the Kat don't miss the new Krazy & Ignatz book from Fantagraphics! It's filled with loads of extra bonus material. A pleasure for the eye and a delightful, weird piece of comic art.

Give me Liberty or ...

Beautiful cover art... Nuff said.