2 cvrs and a sheep

This is what I call a REAL comic book cover! How can you resist it? You just gotta love it!
Drawn by Bob Oksner for the very first issue of Angel and the Ape (Nov-Dec 1968).
Filled with good girl art and a monkey who is a comic strip artist. It's silly and fun, fun, fun. :)

Myself I've drawn a bear, an elephant and a rabbit lately for an interior "cover" to the second Bamse story from 1967. Watch for the finished version in Bamses äventyr #16 out in the summer. I'll begin running the early sunday pages sideways beginning in #15. All having new interior "covers" by yours truly. Buy, buy, buy... ;)


And to round off this post: a japanese sign printed in a swedish newspaper (DN) recently. Enjoy!

Bob Evers link

It's always fun when other artists from all over the world visits the blog and leaves a comment or a "Hello!" in the comments field. Last week Wanda Gattino stopped by and now Hans van Oudenaarden. :) Hans is the artist behind the Dutch albumseries "Bob Evers" that he do together with Frank Jonker. If you didn't know about it already they have a blogspot were they show sketches and artwork from the series. http://debobeversstrip.blogspot.com/ Go check it out! :)

/Joakim.

PS.
It's been busy week so far for me and tomorrow morning I'll be heading for the Rune Andréasson family archive to dig out some archival material. Mostly "Lille Rikard och hans katt" but who knows what I'll find. Wish me luck!

Popular pose

Remember this one?
If not, check my earlier posts by using the labels function.
Seems like this is a popular Scrooge pose since the drawing below just turned up:
Gee, I never knew Barks inked with a brush. And he obviously couldn't draw the ducks himself so he had to copy a 1950's model sheet. Not once but twice...
What's next? An authentic Duck Tales animation drawing signed by Walt Disney? ;)

Links

It was pointed out to me that I gave the wrong web address to the Elsje home page in a post earler this week. The right one should be www.elsje.nl.
However this give me the excuse to show you a few samples from the strip. I hope Gerben and Eric don't mind. These are in English so you'll all be able to understand them. :) Enjoy!




It should also be noted that Disney artist Wanda Gattino has started his own blog. It can be found at:
http://wandagattinocomics.blogspot.com/ If you like Disney artwork in the Barks/Branca style you should check it out!
(There's an english version available. Look at the far right on the page.)

Rare Russell

Some of you might like the art of Russell Patterson and I guess that many of you already have the book published by Fantagraphics.
However, here are some odd pieces that was recently sold but escaped me 'cause I've been lazy when it comes to watching auctions lately. (The pic above, dated October, 1940 was also sold a few days ago.)

First out is a painting from late in his career. You can see that it's the same artist. the same bold strokes as in his early works but the fine touch has been lost. (Check earlier posts for more Patterson including another late painting.)





Then we have some beautiful pieces that went for pocket change. Wish I had been more alert...
First the sellers description then the watercolors:
"Patterson and Charles Biro had a long friendship as demonstrated by this lot of New Year's greatings spanning more than two decades. Included in this lot are four pencil and watercolor images each produced on 8.5" x 11" stationary. Two are dated, 1949 and 1972, and the other two appear to fall somewhere in between those dates. The image of the woman with large white wings and the small Santa hat is executed on a piece of Patterson's stationary bearing the date "1952", so it must date from around or after that time. Stylistically, it is much closer to the image dated 1949 than the 1972 example. All four are inscribed and signed by Patterson to Biro and his family. Also included in this lot is a charming letter from Patterson to Biro dated March 2, 1952 expressing his appreciation of Biro's friendship and a photograph of Biro and Patterson (2nd from the left, Biro in middle) in a recording studio, probably taken in the early 1960s. This material comes directly from the estate of Charles Biro."



Then we have a nice one titled "Her hangout". Probably from the 30's.



/Joakim.

PS. Anyone with access to the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Magazine Section from ca. 1932. They ran his "The Countess and the Cowboy" and "Carolyns Cadet" around that time. Full pages in color from his peak. Would love to see those!
I just have a few small, small photos. Like the one below. But it sure makes me want to see more!

Another Wunder try-out

The fifth of Wunders try-out strips found!

Elsje and Havank

A few weeks ago a thick package from dutch comic book artist Gerben Valkema arrived in my mailbox.
Among loads of good stuff there was a signed copy of his new Elsje album. And I just have to share the drawing from the inside cover with you:

The album itself looks like this and is 68 pages filled with Elsje strips, three to a page in color.

And here's part of the back cover featuring the writer, Eric Hercules along with Elsje and Gerben. Make sure to click on the picture to enlarge. Gerbens style reminds me of great artists like Walt Kelly, Franquin and Daan Jippes and the album is well worth having even if you don't understand dutch. Just looking at the artwork is inspiring!
You can find more info and artwork at www.elsje.nl.

And speaking of Jippes, there was also a copy of his Havank album in the package! (See previous posts.) Also signed with a great drawing!!! Thanks, Daan and Gerben! I really appreciated the albums! :)

The paintings of Frank Robbins

Here are some photos I found in Cartoonist Profiles 8, Nov. 1970.
I have long wondered what Frank Robbins paintings looked like and now I know. Or at least what they look like in black and white... Anyone with color photos of his paintings? This issue also features a long interview whith Robbins about his hobbies and working methods. Interesting and a must have if you are into his stuff.


My friend Germund pointed out to me that Bill Wright probably was inspired by a story by Ray Bradbury when he wrote the story I posted earlier this week. Dunno what the original title was but it was adapted into an EC story called "A Sound of Thunder" in Weird Science-Fantasy #25 1954. The artwork was by Al Williamson who also drew the cover for the story. Wich you, ta-da, can see below. These EC's has been reprinted umteen zillion times so there's no excuse for you to not own at least an nice set of Kurtzmans war books, the early Mad magazines and the Science fiction books. Some really good stories and artwork in those.

Modern Art and Moppe!

Damn, I had promised Germund to put a few of Frank Robbins paintings om my blog today but forgot the pics at home. I'll try to remember tomorrow...

Until then here's another Floyd Gottfredson daily on the same subject as the last one. Evidently he (or his writers) had something against modern art. (Or more likely, they just liked to poke fun at it.) This one is from 1956.


/Joakim.


PS.
Below is an interior "cover" for "Lille Rikard och hans katt" that I made last year. If you want to see it in glorious color, it appears in Bamses äventyr #14 wich should be out in the stores any day now. That issue has improved paper quality and looks reeeeally good! If I may say so myself, beeing the editor too... :)

Temporal Displacement

I know that there are some Bill Wright fans reading my blog so in addition to the sketches and the work resume I've posted earlier here is a short story by Bill!
First "published" under his own imp-rint "The Imp Press" and titled "Temporal Displacement". I guess this was only copied, stapled and distributed among Bills friends and fans. I don't know how many he printed but I guess very few still exists today.
The story is well worth reading and leaves you thinking about... well just read the story. OK?




For those of you who don't stand big chunks of scanned text, here's a Floyd Gottfredson strip from 1966 on the subject "modern arf" to round off this post.

Purple tights

If you were a crook, hiding in the djungle: would you be afraid of this guy in purple tights?
You just gotta love this Wilson McCoy drawing of the Phantom. :)

Now its past midnight, I've finished the Emma & Sara page and I gotta work all day long tomorrow.
So off to bed I go. Zzzzzzzzz

Alex and Cutie

Just got the news that the book "Alex Raymond: His Life and Art" finally is out there. :)
Guess it's one of those "must have" books this year.

BTW: I just finished the new "topper" (wich actually is a bottom strip) to the Emma & Sara page: Sötis (Cutie).
It's not ment to anything more than... silly. And cute. Enjoy!

PS.
There was a Franklin Booth (!!!) sunday page posted on Strippers Guide yesterday! No joke!
Never knew he ever did comics.

Mystery cartoonist

This photo was recently sold on eBay with the description:
"a very nice vintage photo showing a cartoonist with pen and ink on his desk. Lots of familiar characters adorn the walls like Mickey, Minny, Donald Duck etc. There is also a photo of Walt Disney on the wall. I was told the cartoonist was Carl Barks, but I have been unable to find a photo of him in his youth to determine if that is true or not. Sold as is. EX condition. 8 x 10. Original photo."

Now, this obviously isn't Carl Barks and I guess it's from the mid/late 40's judging by the art in the background. (I can identify two pieces of Barney Google in army clothes.) So, who is this. A young cartoonist that never made it but was able to collect a nice wall of originals and prints. Or some one familar in the early stages of his career?

Anyone out there who knows?

Two close ups for those of you who wants to give a shot at trying to identify the art on the wall...

SIMONE & AJAX goes Color!

Here's a press release from my friend Andrew.
___________

Andrew Pepoy, probably better known presently as the inker on DC/Vertigo’s “Jack of Fables” and Bongo’s “Futurama”, is writing and drawing all-new stories of “The Adventures of Simone & Ajax” in, for the first time, full color, starting Thursday February 7 exclusively at ComicMix.com and entirely for free. Pepoy’s zany tales of a fun-loving 20-year-old girl and her small dinosaur pal ran for several years in the ‘90’s in a variety of anthologies and one issue of their own comic book, prompting one reviewer to describe them as "a bit like the best issues of Cerebus, and a mood that harkens Bone". ComicMix has been re-presenting these stories online each week leading up to the new comics, with the first 3 weeks picking up from the cliffhanger they were left in a few years back and telling the story of “Simone, Queen of the Jungle.” Following that will be serialized the first full-length Simone & Ajax graphic novel, “The Case of the Maltese Duck.” Moving from Saturday to now being updated on Thursdays, all chapters will remain available for free at ComicMix.com with print versions planned for later.
Additional news and information can be found at www.pepoy.com and www.simoneandajax.com.

Andrew Pepoy’s other credits include writing and drawing the recent revival of “Katy Keene” at Archie Comics, drawing the relaunch of the “Little Orphan Annie” newspaper strip, and inking many comic books, including “Fables”, “Scooby Doo”, “G.I. Joe”, “The X-Men”, “The Simpsons”, and others.
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And to wet your appetite here are two sample pages:


The new color stuff begins tomorrow.
Don't miss it!

Angouleme Pt. II

Continuing yesterdays post with pics from Angouleme here are some sweet Totoro merchandise.


Then we have two pics from the argentina exhibition. I have forgot the name of the artist but these two pieces really were right up my alley.


Just to give you an idea of the weather and what the entrance to the "New York" tent looked like:

A tiny, tiny, tiny piece of plastic in a corner on the mainstreet. Guess if I was surprised when I leaned forward to read what it said...(Hora means Hooker in Swedish...)

And to round off this post. A pic taken on the way back home in the afternoon.