Paul Murry Monday

As promised here's the first installment of "Murry Monday". Each monday there will be "new" Paul Murry artwork here on the blog. Mainly rare cartoons fron 1950's gag magazines but also other rare stuff. All from the collection of Germund von Wowern.
The following examples are from Smiles #25:





Buck O'Rue

I also hope to present some samples from his and Dick Huemer's western strip "Buck O'Rue" soon.
It was published in American newspapers from January 15, 1951 to approximately January 1953, though noone seems to know exactly what date the strip folded. It was written by Disney veteran Dick Huemer and illustrated by later Disney comic book artist Paul Murry. The strip has been practically impossible to find since the 1950s, so now Richard Huemer, Dick Huemer's son, and longtime Murry fan Germund von Wowern are planning to reprint the complete Buck O'Rue in a single volume. However, they only have black and white proof sheets, i.e. the material that was sent out to subscribing newspapers, of ca 75% of the run. Richard and Germund are searching high and low for these last missing strips and pages, so if anybody knows where they may be accessible, please contact them at germund_vw (at) yahoo.com

The following Buck O'Rue artwork is still needed:

Daily strips: July 21, 1952 and later

1952 Sundays: Jan 20; July 13,20; Oct 7; Dec 14 and later (if they exist)

The following 1952 Sundays have been obtained as newspaper "thirds", but complete halfpage versions would be much preferred: Feb 3; May 4; June 8,15,22,29; July: 6,27; Aug 3,10,17,24
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Also: Hi to the new readers in Mourrepiane (France), Lod (Israel), Houston (USA) and Vänersborg (Sweden) just to name a few. :-)
Great to have you all here!

And in case you wonder what has happened to part IV of the Emma & Sara page I can just say that I had a hangover yesterday. Didn't draw a single line. So I gotta work on it now...

Murry Monday

No Murry artwork today (won't make it to the studio this afternoon) but a link instead.
Did you know that there's actually a blog devoted to entirely to Paul Murry?
You can find it at: Paul Murry.
(in portugese I believe)
More artwork by Murry next monday. Promise!

Copy+paste

Here's an original Mickey Mouse page by Paul Murry from my collection. It's taken from the first part of "Message in a Nutshell" in WDC 380, 1972.


Picked it up from Don Ault many years ago. He probably got it, along with the rest of the pages from this part, from Del Connell in the early 70's.
(If you got an original Murry page yourself, you should give Don your regards. He told Connell back then that Murry's pages really should be in museums rather than burned. And so, If I got it right, Del saved a lot of them himself and returned some to Murry. That's how the Murry pages from the 70's and 80's survived.)

Now, besides beeing a nice 70's Murry page there's something I've enjoyed with it since I first got it. You can tell that Murry felt that this scene was boring as it left no space for action or scenery.
What to do then? Let's do it as quick as possible and move on to the next page.
How to do it? Let's use the same faces over and over again. :)
If you didn't catch it while looking at the full page, here's a "summary".
Enjoy! :)

Murry Monday Pt. III

Just returned from a Midlake concert and way too tired to blog today. But hey, its Muuuuuuuuuurry Monday!:)
For a change here are two samples of surviving Murry art. The cover to Mickey Mouse 159 and a Super Goof cover. Scans that I saved a few years back when Paul Murry artwork was really, really rare and fetched high prices.

Nowdays it seems that every collector has at least one page. Myself I've got four comic book pages and a few sketches and nude pastels. Got mine from Don Ault who met Murry in the 70's. BTW: I guess that Don is also the reason why so much 70's Murry art has survived, something wich I'm really grateful for. More on that some other day. I'm in sleep mode now... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

The Imp Press - Part III

Some ten years ago or more there was an eBay auction that caught my eye. A lot featuring items that once belonged to Disney artist Bill Wright. And not just any items. Proofsheets and tearsheets to Mickey dailies + sundays and most interesting: A set of proofs to the Uncle Remus sundays drawn by Paul Murry and later Dick Moores. My friend and colleauge Germund had also spotted the lot so we decided to go "all in" on it. We just had to have it.
And we won!

Here are a few snapshots of what was in that lot, focusing on Bills own stuff. Enjoy!

Two late Mickey Mouse sundays drawn by Bill:

The "cover" to a collection of Brer Rabbit tearsheets.

Two "books" of Mickey Mouse dailies by Gottfredson numbered 49 and 56. I wonder where the other books ended up.

The first Brer Rabbit sunday proof. Drawn by Paul Murry.

This scan is courtesy of Bill Peckmann. 

Also: Check out the story "Temporal Displacement", published by the Imp Press and posted HERE.

Bonus:
Here's something I found in my drawer while looking for the above Bill Wright items. An envelope addressed to Frank Reilly - Bill's old boss at the Comic Strip Dept.

Question: what does the following codes stand for?
WDP-173
R-3
68-A
228-S
Any Disney Studio expert out there who can enlighten the rest of us? :)

More from the Bill Wright collection and some snapshots of the True Life Adventures proofs found in the ablove envelope can be seen by clicking HERE.
/Joakim.

Last of the Murry Mondays.

Seems there isn't that much interest in seeing Paul Murrys cartoons so this is the last of the Murry Mondays.
For those of you who really want to see it all I suggest that you get in touch with Germund Von Wowern. germund_vw at yahoo.com

But to end it all I thought I sould bring you a grande finale. A halfpage from 1956 that never was finished.
The original art belonged to Don Ault for many, many years but has now found its home in my collection.
Just look at this piece. While there are plenty of 1970's pages available, there simply doesn't exist more pages like this.
Intended as cover 3 in Donald Duck #47, May 1956, here it is.
Enjoy!

For those of you who want to see it in print: check out the next Hall of Fame volume devoted to Paul Murry.

Murry?

This piece of artwork was recently auctioned off as an original drawing by Paul Murry.
However it's not by Murry!
If the lucky owner is a reader of this blog I'm happy to announce that this drawing is by Floyd Gottfredson! (It once belonged to Donald Ault, who supplied this info.)
Congratulations to a really good buy!

And there are some really interesting stuff on Disney's Robin Hood over at Will Finns blog!
Don't miss this post:Robin Hood Confidential pt 2

More Murry from Smiles #25

Here are three more rare Paul Murry cartoons from Smiles #25.
No pin-ups this time. Sorry. ;-)




More Murry next week. Maybe some Cheerios art, more gag cartoons or... or... some really nude nudes?
Now I know for sure that you'll be back next week. ;-)

Emma & Sara #151 pt.I

It's been a while since I wrote something about my own artwork and what I'm up to now. As usual it's "Emma & Sara" for the Julia magazine that occupies most of my time. Had some trouble with my new script but with the help of my co-writer Emma I managed to get past the writers block and actually get an idea down on paper.
The plan was originally to get page #151 done this easter weekend, but thats most likely not about to happen. I just work way too slow for my own good. However, for this page I'll post every step and take you through the daily development of a comic page.

This first post shows the scribbles/the script that I finished in my kitchen right after lunch today.
Since I quit early from my work at Egmont I went straight to the studio afterwards. I then started to prepare the sheet of paper that I'll draw on, like drawing all the borders and pencil all the dialouge. (Unlike some of my colleauges here in the Studio I do all my work on one sheet of paper and then erase all the graphite lines when inking is finished).
But... well... Myself, Kim and Johanna started to drink Rum and Coke instead of working, not much work has been done so far. But the day is not over yet! Stay tuned and you will see this page develop, step by step.

DISNEY ALERT!
For those of you that's here for the Disney stuff I have some good news: Germund Von Wowern has allowed me to post rare stuff from his gigantic collecction of rare artwork by Mickey Mouse artist Paul Murry. There will be pin-ups from 1950's girlie magazines and unseen/unpublished stuff. (And some nude (!!!) drawings from my own Murry archive too!)
Begining this monday every monday will be "Murry monday"! Don't miss it!

Murry for sale.

Have spent the weekend with my girlfriend and have been too busy watching movies, taking walks and doing other fun stuff to even think about blogging. And today I just feel too lazy to write or upload anything. Well, I changed my profile pic to the right to a really nerdy one... (Sat down to study Harvey Eisenbergs Tom & Jerry as you can see. Anyone got an original page by him for sale? Or any other early Dell funny animal pages?)

BTW: Got a message from Ulrich Merkel who told me that he's got a really nice five page sequence from the Paul Murry serial "The Case of the Talkning Toth" (WDC 391, 1973) for sale. For a large size scan and other nice stuff (Pogo, Rip Kirby etc.) for sale check out his CAF gallery.

Murry model sheet

Found this in the trash a few years ago along with a huge stack of other old model sheets. The only example of something Paul Murry made at the Disney studio that I've seen his name attached to. A fourth grade photocopy, but still better than nothing.


Today I'm having a slight hangover.
Drank rum and coke last evening with David Gerstein, Germund Von Wowern and Hedvig Häggman-Sund while watching old cartoons. We had a fun evening and today is just a lazy sunday. :)

Walt Disney? +Murry pt. V

Found this newspaper clipping dated 1936 in the files of comic book artist Rune Andréasson.
The text reads: "The father of Mickey Mouse doesn't have time to draw!" " Walt Disney surrounded by a part of his numerous family."
What I wonder is; from wich publication is this taken? The back of the clipping doesn't give away any information.
And, is it really Walt Disney in the photo?

And since Germund has bugged me about the lack of nudes here (As if the two dirty pigs in yesterdays post weren't enough nudity for you...) well, here you are: Two nudes by no one else than Paul Murry. These comes from the collection of Don Ault. Probably from the early 70's or 1960's.

This and that, on a Sunday evening

Hedvig just sent me a bunch of drawings. Some characters from one of her projects. And with her permission I'm sharing them here. Enjoy!






Buck O'Rue
My friend Germund is busy with his Paul Murry & Dick Huemer project: The complete Buck O'Rue comic strips and sundays. Well almost complete. He's still missing a few dailies and some parts of a few sundays. So I take the liberty to repeat a plea from Germund posted in 2008.

-----
Now I've compiled a list of all the Buck O'Rue artwork Richard Huemer and I are missing to complete the book. I'm making a last attempt to locate it through a few blogs, so if you could help us by posting a search plea we'd be exceptionally grateful. Practically the entire run Jan 15, 1951 to late 1952 is ready and scanned from black/white proofs and I have already spent much of last year cleaning up the artwork.

The year 1951 is 100% complete, so all the missing art is from 1952. We would like to obtain the full 12-panel versions of the following sundays:
January 20
Feb 3
May 4
June 8,15,22,29
July 6
August 10,17,24
December 14 and later, but these were probably never even produced.

The dailies are complete Jan 15, 1951 to July 19, 1952, except the week of July 7-12, 1952. These late dailies were probably never even published in newspapers at the time, but were most likely drawn.
-----

If you can help Germund please mail him at germund_vw (at) yahoo dot com

While waiting for the book to be finished, here's a promotion pic of Buck and his horse Reddish drawn by Murry.


Ba-Ba
And speaking of book collections of newspaper comics. The Ba-Ba book seems to be forever delayed. I have finished my part a loooong time ago and now it's all in the hands of others. All we can do is wait I suppose...

Murry in Hollywood

What's a Monday without some rare Paul Murry art?
Last week there was a break due to my neck pains (It hurts I can tell you. Still taking those painkillers everyday...) but this week we are back with five gags from "Hollywood". Enjoy!





Five more from the same publication to follow next week.

Donald Duck puzzle from 1950

OK! So I guess the quick quiz in last post was a bit too hard even for the most fanatic donaldist. (Not counting Germund von Wowern, of course.)
The puzzle piece shown was taken from a 1950 Whitman frame-tray puzzle. And what makes this puzzle interesting is that it's drawn by Paul Murry. One of the best Disney artists in Western Publishing's stable at that time. As far as I know it's the only puzzle done by him.
And it's quite large too. I've placed it next to a 1950's issue of Donald Duck so you can compare.
Got it from the Western Publishing files.
That explains why it looks like new.
Enjoy!



[If any publisher would like to use the image, just let me know and I'll make a sharp, high resolution scan. Then you can either remove the colors, or use as is.]

Edit:
Gunnar Andreassen just pointed out the similarity to the cover of WDC 129. If the seller of Western Publishing's archives had his papers right the puzzle was published in 1950. WDC 129 hit the stands in the spring of 1951. But wich image was actually drawn first we'll never know, I guess. Might even have been roughed by someone on staff at Western and sent out to the two artists at the same time.

Coming soon...

And speaking of "coming soon": I heard yesterday that advance copies of the Buck O'Rue book by Paul Murry and Dick Huemer has been shipped from Classic Comics Press! :)

Buck O'Rue to be released

 News of the day:
Classic Comics Press will publish the Buck O'Rue book!

Cover by Paul Murry and Gerben Valkema.

 More info to come...

Follow Classic Comics Press on Facebook by clicking here.

Andy Hardy by Al Hubbard - Part I

A few weeks ago I picked up a scribbled script for a 1953 Andy Hardy story.
Andy Hardy was produced by Western, the same company that produced Donald Duck and Woody Woodpecker and had artists like Carl Barks and Paul Murry as freelancers back in the 50's.
I think there were only six issues made of Andy Hardy and that four of them were published as Four Color one-shots. This scribble was made for the third one-shot. (Click on image to enlarge.)

Now, the artist responsible for the artwork in the issues I've seen was Al Hubbard. The artist behind "Scamp" in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories. He also did the best version of Fethry Duck for overseas publication and "The Adventures of Peter Wheat"and "Mary Jane and Sniffles". While I don't have a copy of this issue of AH yet (I'm waiting for it to arrive from the states)I suspect this script is also done by Hubbard. Or does anyone have any suggestion who the writer might be?
As soon as I get the published version I'll post a page by page comparisation between the script and the finished comic.

While we wait for that one, here are some panels from Andy Hardy One-Shot #515. Just to wet your appetite. :)

Who are these people?

Update October 24 2014!
These photos most likely are the ones Don Ault is talking about during his interview with Paul Murry in the 70's. If so these slides comes from Bill Wright and were taken in 1941.
( Can't update any text below the Gottfredson photo on my ipad, but the shortest guy is Bill Wright. )

It's identification time!
These photos turned up in a flickr gallery a while ago and I guess they come from the collection of Don Ault. (?)
Now, it looks like they were all taken outside the Disney Studios Comic Strip Department. But who are these guys? Who took these photos? (My guess is that they took turns shooting and that they come from one of the artists.) And when? The mid 40's? (And of course, if anyone got these in better resolution that would be fantastic. Images like these can always be used in books and articles on Disney comics history. )

Well, the he first one is actually easy. It's Floyd Gottfredson.


Could this be Dick Moores?


This looks like Al Taliaferro.







Please use the coments field if you got any info on these.