Dailies x 3

My friend and colleauge Germund got a few nice dailies for sale.
One Frank Roberge Mrs. Fitz's Flats daily with a Bat-theme.
A Buz Sawyer daily by Schlensker and Granberry from 1980. Late in the run, but I've actually seen fewer of these than I've seen originals by Crane.
And then a "Mystery strip" by Al Wenzel called "The Hackers". It's numbered #13 in the top right corner and lacks a copyright stripe. I'd guess this is an unpublished daily.
If you are interested in any or all of these: please mail Germund at germund_vw /at/ yahoo.com

The Carl Barks Index

Just recieved the Carl Barks index from Kim Weston!
And it's such a massive overload of information on that CD! :)
Just take a look at the screen captures I made below. You'll find info on when Barks submitted the stories, references and cross references and lots of other info listed for every story. And it's fully searchable and you can sort after title, submission date etc making it easy to find whatever you are looking for. Much more handy than a printed book.

There are also plenty of pdf's included where Weston goes into detail on different subjects like unpublished stories and rewritten dialouge.

If you are Barks fan this is something I really recommend that you get.
You can reach Kim at    kpjwest @ aol.com  to order your own copy. (No spaces before and after the @.) Please include "BARKS INDEX" in the subject line of the email.

/Joakim.

Tothday Nightmare

Tothday comes on a Friday this week.
In case you don't follow ComicLink's auctions you might not be aware of this one. An 8 page story called "Nightmare", from ca 1970. Pencilled by Alex Toth and probably written by Gerry Conway.

Nice to see this hidden treasure see the light of day.
Download images to see them in larger format or go to the website of ComicLink.

Fans of Toth should also check out the Facebook group Toth of the Town and the official website of the Alex Toth estate Tothfans.

Firebug finale

European Barks fans probably already have this panel, that appeared first in volume III of the deluxe Carl Barks collection. But, for overseas readers and old timers who are content with their CBL boxes, here's something that you might not have seen before. Geoffrey Blum and Daan Jippes did a great job restoring the final panel of The Firebug to Barks original intentions, having Donald ending up behind bars. Enjoy!

Mit Luff

Someting quite exceptional...

A hand colored Krazy Kat daily presented to Lee Falk!

PS. I do not own it. Just found it on the interwebs.

Nils the Cat in B&B 199!

Frequent visitors may have noticed the lack of regular updates the past ...um... year or two...
I havn't been lazy if that's what you think. No, no, no.
I've actually been writing and drawing comics more than before. One of the regular things I do is Nils the Cat (Katten Nils) togheter with my colleauge Johanna Kristiansson. Recently we were asked to do the cover for Bild & Bubbla #199, and last week it arrived!
If you can read Swedish and are interested in comics for kids this issue is something for you.

BTW: Here's my original inking for the cover, before we colored it.

(My layout sketch can be seen HERE, and Johanna's pencils can be seen HERE.)

/Joakim.

Jimmy Jell-O

Bill Peckman recently shared some of his designs for a never used Jell-O character with me. I thought that more people would enjoy seeing his sketches, so here they are with a few words by Bill himself:

"These xerox copies are of exploratory character designs done over 30 years ago. The character's name was Jimmy Jell-O, he was supposed to be used in TV commercials. I believe the character never went beyond this design stage and never materialized. Designing charcters was one of the real perks of TV advertising in those days. You were able to cut loose and then see which character would make the grade. Hope you'll have as much fun looking at these as I did doing them!"

That's all folks!

Scorchy Smith by Robbins

Just picked up a large batch of Scorchy Smith dailies from the early 40's. Artwork by Frank Robbins! Not as polished as it would be later in the 40's, but it's interesting to see his development as an artist these years. Just thought I should share some samples.
And if any serious publisher needs dailies from 1940-43 to scan for a Robbins Scorchy book, just let me know and I'll be happy to loan you my set!

Hippies in the mine!

These two sketches by Carl Barks recently surfaced.

The first one is titled "Illustration in search of a story"
The second "Migod! Hippies have taken over our mine!"

Looking at the composition I'd say that both of these drawings were made before Barks made the famous "Student Witch" painting in 1974. 

Alex Toth x 4

The brand new catalog from Graphic Collectibles featured these four Alex Toth model-sheets. All new to me. Enjoy!

Klump by Nørgaard

Just noticed that there are no samples of Tove Nørgaards version of Rasmus Klump/Petzi on the net. Time to do something about it. Here are a few samples of her take on the classic Danish strip.
    This was the version of the strip that ran in the papers when I was a kid. Sadly none of her strips made it to the collections. The plots are easy to follow and good fun for the younger kids. Time for a reprint I say.

Mermaid Margarine

So this is what the Toth drawings I posted lately were done for. Mermaid Margarine. Who would have guessed.

Edit June 27, 2014: Just found out that the full set of Mermaid Margarine presentation pieces can be found in Scott James' comicartfans gallery! Just click HERE.

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.