Barks 321

Previously un-documented as a surviving piece of original Carl Barks art; the cover to WDC 321 just surfaced!

The owner, Robert Wiener, wrote the following on his comicartfans.com page where he posted the art: "Carl Barks cover to Walt Disney's Comics & Stories #321, April 1967. I got this from Don Phelps in the 1970's in trade for a copy of "Donald Duck Tells About Kites". At the time they were equivalent in value but I think I made the better deal. (I thought so at the time.) I hadn't seen it for 25 years and found it last week when looking for something else. Long story!"

Robert sure made the better deal ...

Tothday

These concept pieces by the one and only Alex Toth recently surfaced on eBay. Wonder if they got any connection to the two pieces I posted last October? If so it looks like a mash-up between Cinderella and The Little Mermaid. Hmm...

Now, I'm even more eager to get the last of the three Toth books: Genius Animated.
To be published in May by IDW.

Zaboly!

Check out Fred Grandinettis article about "Popeye's Bumblebee"
Bela Zaboly. Just click HERE!


To wet your appetite here are a few scans taken from old proofs.

Tothday...

... comes on a Sunday this time of the year.

Chris Samnee is currently posting a lot of nice Toth art on his tumbler.
Just click HERE to check it out.
Besides having good taste when it comes to comic book art he's one helluva artist himself! Working in the Toth tradition of high contrast black/white. A visit to his website is a must, I'd say. http://www.chrissamnee.com/

While I'm at it.
Here's a nice Toth piece that I found on the net some time ago. Forgot where. A cover to Sponsored Comics "At Ease". Published?

We just lost one of the good guys.
Michael Sporn passed away this past Sunday.
As I feel it's hard to write about this without crying here are few links...

* Michael Barrier
* Mark Mayerson
* Animation World Network
* Variety
* The New York Times

And of course the Splog that I visited almost daily for so many years.
http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/

/Joakim.

Sekvenskonst featuring "Good ol' Skippy Skinner"

Now, I've been told that Charles M. Schulz was inspired by Percy Crosby. After seeing the above Sunday page I don't doubt it. :)

Stanley by Jack Bradbury

Today I have the pleasure to upload a previously unseen, and unpublished, comic book page by the great Jack Bradbury! I'd say that this is an unfinished Stanley page made in the mid 40's. Enjoy!

For more info on Bradbury, and a ton of his comic book work, visit the The Comic Art of JackBradbury website. It's a labour of love and if you like his stuff you can spend many hours there. I have...

Elsje aka Lizzy aka Elsa

A package from the Netherlands arrived just before the holidays. A set of the latest Elsje books by Hercules & Valkema! Really great gags and artwork. And a visual delight for fans of the Kelly and Franquin school.

As you can see there's now a promotional english Lizzy book and I have the pleasure to announce that beginning in 2014 Elsje (Elsa in Swedish) will be published by Egmont in Sweden as part of a comic book with various other strips.
Check out the Elsje website HERE!

And as a surprise gift there was an original Elsje daily in the package! Thanks Gerben!

For those of you who wants to get a closer look at the magnificent brushwork. Here are a few close ups. Enjoy!

Want to see more? Check out the brand new website that Gerben launced! http://www.gerbenvalkema.nl/

Happy New Year all! See you in 2014!

/Joakim.

F is for Fake

Time for some Barks forgeries again.
This time they turned up in the Barks cataloge produced by Karl Heinz Richard.
(He's the guy that makes Barks oils rare...)
Click HERE to see the online version of the cataloge.

First we have this piece that was sold by Profiles in History July 29, 2012

So obviously not by Barks I'm amazed that it can fool anyone. But... obviously it can, so I thought I'd better post the image here, to make people aware of this piece. This one should be destroyed by the police to avoid it entering the market again. Two close ups for those of you still in doubt.

The second one is what appears to be a study for the cover of Donald Duck 77. To me it looks like a rather crude tracing. Not by Barks. 

The third piece from the Barks cataloge is not a forgery.
But it's not by Barks... Sorry.
(The cover art is from Uncle Scrooge 189, 1981.)

To end this post on a happy note the catalog contained one piece that was new to me!
A pencil "rough" for the money salad cover! Enjoy!

D-day

For no particular reason, here are a few nice snapshots of Walt that turned up on eBay recently.

1258-733

Walt with Big Red? Photo is stamped 1964 on the back, so maybe not.

764-C-564

 Walt + Emmy = 1956?
Imdb lists him as winner, being "Best Producer - Film Series Disneyland" that year.

+ two favorites that I found on my hard drive.
Can't remember which site I found them on.
Both seems to be from the same photo session. Ca 1930?
Promotional KFS photos for the daily strip?

And finally, my all time favorite photo of Walt.
Got it framed and placed on a shelf in my studio. The image speaks for it self I guess. 

Happy holidays everybody!

/Joakim.

Merry Kat-Mas

 

 

Sheilah Beckett, 1913 – 2013

Just got the news that a great illustrator passed away yesterday.
This was posted by Sean Smith on the Facebook group "The Art of Sheilah Beckett":

To all our friends, I have some sad news. Ian's and my mother Sheilah Beckett passed away yesterday. it was quick and I feel peaceful. she was about to go and work on a piece on the computer, my brother went to turn it on and came to get her and she was gone. So she was working right up to the end! So if you do something creative keep doing it and think of her,or look at some of her work and think good thoughts and know how much it meant to her that people loved her work.

If you'r not already familiar with her work please check out Leif Peng's post on her by clicking HERE. And make sure to pick up Illustration Magazine 38 for a great selection of her work in print.

A link to follow

If you enjoy the art of Paul Fung (and the history behind newspaper comic strip artists) you'll sure enjoy this link: http://chimericaneyes.blogspot.se
Eight posts covering the history of Fung, illustrated with really rare artwork and historical pieces. I've been collecting Fung for years and most of this was new to me. Top researcher Alex Jay has done it again! :)

Billy the Mouse

Oh, just a random page of original art I picked up recently. ;)

#floydgottfredson #dickmoores #billwalsh #WCD64 #soincrediblyrare #thisshouldntevenexist

Sleeping Beauties

UPDATE: Just learned that this story and several other WDToCT stories are reprinted in the second Mickey Mouse sundays volume. Check it out HERE.

 While shuffling paper in my archive I found a small set of sunday pages called "Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales". And a treasure they are!
Scripted by Floyd Gottfredson and drawn by Julius Svendsen, the story of Sleeping Beauty ran from August to December 1958.
I checked and it turned out they have never been reprinted in english! So here are a few pages from the end of the story. Enjoy!

BTW: The Treasury of Classic Tales are an overlooked part of the Disney newspaper comics legacy. Spanning from the Robin Hood story drawn by Jesse Marsh (!) in 1952* to early 1987! Art for the first ten years was made by a bunch of really talented guys: Manuel Gonzales, Bill Wright, Ken Hultgren, Floyd Gottfredson, Dick Moores and the above mentioned Marsh & Svendsen! What a line up!

(*There were actually two sunday stories in 1950 and 1951 that usually are sorted as Silly Symphonies, even though the SS sundays had ended years before. I'd say those are "prequels" to the ToCT title. )