Friday 12/10.

Sorry if this blog hasn't been updated often this week. I've had a cold (and I still do) and have packaged what feels like a million parcels for stuff I've sold on auctions, that has yet to be weighed and sent out. And Iv'e been working as usual.
But I've got some stuff for this weekend so check back then.

Right now I'm in the studio, waiting for some microwave food to be ready.
Then I'm gonna finish inking one of Hedvig's Emma and Sara pages. I've only done a small part of it yet. (See scan below.)
11 panels on this page so I'll guess I'd better eat and ink instead of beeing on the net...

A question from Bill.

Here's a question from Bill Wright. (!!!)
Actually it's a note written on one of the many sheets of pasted up Mickey Mouse dailies that he left behind when he passed away in 1984. Myself and my friend Germund has a big stack of proofs for Mickey Mouse, Brer Rabbit etc that he once owned. But there are stuff missing. Anyone else who has parts or maybe the rest of his collection?

Anyhoo, here's a sample of his paste up pages featuring samples of Floyd Gottfredsons work late in his career.

Myself I think Gottfredson did the pencils on that particular daily but it was inked by someone else. It's certainly his lettering. Any thoughts?

Caught in the act.. Its my birthday tomorrow btw. :)

Hello everyone who reads this blog!
Joakim here has his birthday tomorrow, so go and send him some nice comments and wish him a happy birthday! ;) Im pretty sure this image will be removed when Joakim himself finds out.. So enjoy it while u can! ;P

PS. Never leave the password to your blog in the hands of your girlfriend... Mohaha! ;P

Gottfredson 1956-57

[Edit: The sheets are now gone.]

I recently ended up with an extra set of Floyd Gottfredson's 1956-1957 Mickey Mouse daily strips.
I thought I should check if there's anyone interested in this set? Ca. 100 large sheets with a weeks worth of strips per page. (Missing January 1956. And some weeks are missing a daily. But most are complete weeks. Sharp from proofs.) These are not in the German Floyd Gottfredson portfolio wich covers 1930-1955 and will most likely not appear in any upcoming Gottfredson library since these are after his "adventure period".
Written by Bill Walsh they feature corny and sometimes surrealistic and weird gags. :) And naturally Gottfredsons strong sense of design. I enjoy just flipping through these sheets and beeing inspired by his artwork. He even inked these himself, even if I see a few dailies that are inked by Bill Wright.
Besides the regular cast there's also Mortys cousin Kilty, Ellsworth, Li'l Davy Crockett and a spaceman appearing on a regular basis. There are even some mini-continuities. (The last of these strips are from one.)

Here are some samples. Enjoy!

Simone and Ajax!

Don't miss today:
Andrew Pepoy's "Simone and Ajax" on www.comicmix.com
The fun begins today with the earliest adventures. Brand new episodes will follow! An interview with Andrew about the girl and her dinosaur can be found here.
Go check it out!

Bill Wright

Here's a real rarity!
Bill Wrights (1917-1984) work resume!
Now, who was Bill Wright? If you are interested in the history of Disney comics and newspaper comics you probably already know. If not, please read about him in his own words. It's fun and interesting reading. Don't skip it.
This edition was printed in only 325 copies for the National Amateur Press Association (That's the info covered up on the back by his business card.) and maybe the original was printed larger than this rather small edition.
Now, enjoy!








Now, you might wonder how much more junk like this does Joakim have in his apartment. Way too much I'm afraid...
And the worst thing is that he'll continue to put it on his blog. Don't tell me I didn't warn you!

Myself, I'm still having a cold. Just don't get any better but today I have at least been able to ink a while and will try to write a script or two. Hopefully I'll be able to lay my hands on the new Terry and the Pirates volume later :) and maybe some other people will come to the studio and cheer me up. Let's hope so.
But now it's time to walk over to Indian Express to grab some lunch!

New original art

It's time to update my Comicartfans.com gallery. Something wich I haven't done in a while despite the fact that I've been buying stuff all the time. But you, my loyal followers will see the new stuff first.
When?
Now!

First out are some real gems by Swedish artist Rune Andréasson.
Here we see a page from his last comicbook story "Bamse i Trollskogen", from 1990.
This story was actually written back in the seventies as a shorter leadstory for the BAMSE comic book. However he decided to make a movie out of it and I've seen storyboards dated 1981. The film was released in early 1991 if I remember right. It took him 15 years to get that movie/comic done!!! I should add that he and his wife drew and hand painted the whole movie themselves at the same time as they did a monthly comic book... Other people drew the comics, but still.
I was able to pick my favorite page from the story. :)

Then we have two dailies from the 50's and 60's. Rune did Brum for many, many years. Again I was able to pick my two favorites of the more than thousand strips made. They are very different both in size and the way they are made (Brush vs. nib.) but I love them both.


And here is the cover for the 1970's collection of Lille Rikard and his cat. Handpainted on a cel. Will have this one professionally framed. Nice, eh? ;)

And lastly, my three X-9 dailies from 1942 by Mel Graff. Got the last one by mail yesterday.
I can only say one thing: I want mooooore! (Yes I know, I'm a sicko...)

Two of these also have stamp on the back of the art. Does the name Chester Kozlak ring any bells?



Wait, hold on a second! I'm not finished yet!
As a reward for reading this far here's Kim Novak reading Dick Tracy in the bath. Enjoy! ;)

Sketches on a Train

I've missed you so much, my dear blog readers while I was away.
So I just have to post some more today. :)
Here are some quick skeches made on the train back from Gothenburg to Malmo.
Cute girls and cuddly animals and... cuddly girls and cute animals. I've realized what I enjoy to draw the most and I think I'm gonna stick to it. ;)



And, hey! I even met one of the readers of this blog at the bookfair!
Always nice to meet you in person. It's kind of scary knowing that hundreds of persons are reading this and I don't have clue who you are...

Beetle Bailey - complete

Back from the bookfair, with a cold. At least that's what it feels like in my throath. In a few days I'll be sneezing over my artwork instead of inking it. Katchoooo...
[Edit: Artwork and text removed.]

BEETLE BAILEY - Complete!
Before I log out for today I should mention that I went to a presentation on the bookfair for the complete Beetle Bailey book series! It will cover all the strips and sundays from 1950 and onwards. Large hardcovers with top reproduction and loads of bonus material. I've seen the first three volumes and they look just wonderful!
Editor Alf Thorsjö presented the project and showed a documentary filmed in Mort Walkers studio. Interesting stuff. Lots of old original art on his walls. :) This documentary will be released with the fourth book as a free DVD if you join the book club. Unfortunately I havn't found any proper presentation of the book series on the web yet. But here's a pic of the first book.

Oddities

I'm off to the Gothenburg bookfair tomorrow and there's no time to blog really. But, try to stop me...

Today we have three oddities. Strips that never saw print. First out is a rather small photo of a strip called "Shadow at beaver creek". Saw this on eBay a while ago and was almost tempted to buy it. Not that it looks good or anything but someone must have believed in his idea. ("His idea", by the way, it looks more like a Spirit rip-off...) You see, this is strip 757 and 758 (!!!) dated 2/15/54 and 2/18/54.
Just imagine doing over 700 strips and not having them published. Or maybe I'm wrong? They could have been published in some local paper.

The second example is a half finished 1942 sunday of "Duke and the Major" by Garnersmith and Burroghs. It doesn't look that bad. Anyone who knows what happened to them?


And last we have some samples of an unfinished Bus Sawyer page. Anyone who knows who did this? Bill Wright?
It was for sale a while ago and I regret not buying it. If the owner reads this, please let me know if it's still available.




Now I gotta run. Have to pack my bags and eat something. Off I go!

Rube Goldberg stuff

[Edit: Artwork and text removed.]

And here's a pic of Rube himself from 1964.

And just because I can post whatever I want on my blog:
A photo from 1929 when he and his family visited the president.

I'm off for the bookfair soon, but hopefully I'll manage to post something interesting tomorrow too. That is, if you find old stuff like this interesting. And I bet you do. I now have over 900 different visitors every month! I'm glad that you enjoy the stuff I post! :) There's more to come. Not to mention that mysterious Terry and the pirates page I...
Oooops I mentioned it. Better log out now. :)

Jens Lekman

Just back from the Jens Lekman gig! He finished playing at Inkonst (right below our Studio) a few minutes ago.
I just have to tell you all how great, great, great it was. A mix between Elvis and Dexy's Midnight Runners with both a horn section and a string section. If you just heard the record I can promise you that seeing him live is a totally different experience. An amazing mix of soul music and pop all whipped upp with swedish sadness and frantic joy!
If Jens plays in a town near you don't miss him!
Now, my head is full of rum and coke and I'm gonna head back into the Malmo night.
See ya tomorraw! OKMNX!

Baaa!


PS.
Today I found a 1941 Terry and the Pirates sunday that no one of you has ever seen before.
Now, some of you have all the different collections that has been printed over the years, but... this one isn't in any of those.
I've been hunting this for YEARS! And you know what? It's coming to a blog near you soon! isn't life grand? :)

OK Ham and Eggs!

Here's the follow up to the last post!
79 year old newspaper ads for our favorite strip: Barney Google! :)
Back in 1928 he was elected The Mysterious and Secret Brotherhood of Billy Goats president candidate and ran for it. And there was coverage in the newspapers, like Barney was a real person! In addition to the last posts membership card (wich I won on eBay a few days ago) here are some of the ads and two (rather blurry) strips from the beginning that year. Just to show some of the newspaper coverage.

First off is an ad from January 21, 1928.


Then some strips and ads from February 18-26 the same year.





All of this makes me want to read more of the dailies. But the microfilm I've found is too blurry to make it an enjoyable experience. If anyone has a good scource for runs of DeBecks Google feel free to mail me.
I'm also looking for Kitchen Sinks collection of the strip. Anyone with an extra copy?

Okmnx!

I'm happy to report that I'm now a member of the Secret and Mysterious Brotherhood of Billy Goats!!!
Woooha! Am I cool or what?


Now, whatsthis? you might wonder. Click on the pics to enlarge, and if you're still as confused as I was when I first saw this I can ease your mind telling you that it will all be explained with some historically Googlealicious documents in a day or two.
Now, I'll just have to learn how to write shorter sentences...

Baaa!

Sparrow

A question for those of you who has Shane Glines book "S curves" and his new "Sparrow": Are the drawings in these overlapping or are the contents all different?
I'm tempted to buy "Sparrow", but if it's only stuff I already have in "S curves" then...