Rock Pincus versus the Earth-Monster! Part I

First: A short history lesson.

Back in the 60's the Swedish weekly magazine "Året Runt" ran Li'l Abner, or "Knallhatten" as he is known as here. Unlike the the american publication, where a certain sunday page had to be published on a specific date, the pages in Året Runt could be published years after they originally had been printed in the US. Not that it mattered, though. A good story is always a good story.
    However, the editor of Året Runt didn't think all Li'l Abner stories were that hot. He got them in bunches from Serie-Service who provided Året Runt with syndicated material, and he said no to plenty of them. Serie-Service even ordered lots of older stories from the United Feature Syndicate when the editor ran out of newer stories to choose from.
When he did come across a story he liked the sundays had the english dialogue removed and Swedish text added before publication.
End of story.

Or...

What happened to all the stories he rejected?
Guess what? The proofs to them just surfaced!
Covering the late 40's to the mid 60's, there are plenty of rejected ones that didn't see print in Sweden in that pile. And to see the artwork in sharp black and white: Wow!
Beeing a fan of Bob Lubbers I thought I should share a short story here, featuring his gorgeous artwork. (Don't know if he did all of the work on these pages, or if it was a teamwork. But Moonbeam is drawn by Bob, thats for sure.)
Three pages from 1963 featuring the Pincushions and Moonbeam McSwine.
Enjoy!

To be continued ...


PS.

More great Lubbers panels
from Li'l Abner?
Make sure to visit
the Cartoon Sexy tumblr!

For more Li'l Abner sundays
check out the new collections from IDW.
So far four volumes has been published, covering 1934 - 1942.


For more Lubbers on this blog,
just click HERE.

Coming soon ...

More of this:

And while you are waiting, here's another Moonbeam:

Anyone who wants to take a stab at guessing who the Moonbeam artists above are?


PS. Just updated the previous post with a third (!) version of the final Robin Malone daily.

The death of Robin Malone?

Fans of Bob Lubbers "Robin Malone" might be interested to know that the strip ended not in one but in two ways. One where Robin dies and one where Mike dies.

Don't know if the newspapers had an option of running the strip of their choice or if the death of Mike were something that just one paper made up. (That version was found HERE.)

Update: Check the comments for more info on this from Ger Apeldoorn!

Update: Well, what do you know... There's a third version of the final Robin Malone daily!

There's no doubt about the death of Robin here. Notice that this one is dated 3.14 while the Mike versions are dated 3.11. This one is signed "BL" while the other versions aren't signed at all.
Makes me even more curious about the first two versions.

This one was found in Glamour International #26. A great publication on Bob Lubbers, edited by Alberto Becattini.

Carl Barks Lithograph "Scrooge Plowing for Gold"

This "preduction" guy... His eBay auctions gets weirder and weirder. Enjoy! :)

"Very Rare and unusall Lithograph "One of a Kind" Only one Lithograph was ever made of this Image The art was done by Carl Barks. I was at the Carl Barks Estate Auction bought the Painting of two horses plowing under the rainbowl I just discovered this Lithograph of Scrooge. It was made by adding Carls Famous painting "Another Rainbow" to this painting of the two horses under the rainbow. Only one such image was ever made."

How much he's asking for this sloppy Photoshop job? $2000 ...

The Adventures of Buck O'Rue

 Those of you who reads Previews might already have seen this:

Buck O'Rue by Dick Huemer and Paul Murry will finally be released. :)


For more info head over to Classic Comic Press:
http://www.classiccomicspress.com/

If you just can't wait there are plenty of sunday pages in color to be found here: 

http://buckorue.blogspot.se/

Carl Barks and the Seven Dwarfs

Since Carl Barks was born on this day in 1901 here's an odd piece from his days at the Disney studio. Four storyboard drawings for what seems to be the abandoned bed sequence in Snow White. (I'd guess these were drawn in late 1936 or early 1937.)

The Phantom Survey

Are you a fan of the Phantom?
If so you should check out Kevin Patrick's Phantom site and take the survey:

http://phantomcomicsurvey.wordpress.com/

"The History of The Phantom Comic Book in Australia, India and Sweden’ is a three-year research project (2011-2013) being undertaken by Kevin Patrick, a PhD candidate at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia). It will combine archival investigation, along with field research interviews and an international online audience survey, to provide a holistic account of the creation of an American comic-strip/comic-book franchise (The Phantom), and the various political, cultural and economic factors that have influenced its popualrity in its most important international markets – Australia, India and Sweden."

High C! Imagine that!

How about a Carl Barks painting from 1967?
Titled "High C! Imagine that!" and numbered #25-67.

Maybe not one of his best... But still.
Nice to see something "new" by an artist you admire.
You might want to compare it to the painting
that followed:  #26-67 "Spring in Samarkand",
and #23-67 "What a Nerve!".

More on these portraits can be found here: http://www.cbarks.dk/thefirstportraits.htm

Artist identification. Help needed.

Update: The artist is Cecil Surry. Se the comments for more info. Thanks, Alberto!

A quick question.
We're about to reprint this Tom & Jerry story from T&J #69 soon.
And we'd like to give the artist credit for his work.
Anyone (Alberto?) who knows who did the artwork for this "Adventures of Tom" story?

/Joakim.

Meow!

A sketch by Hedvig, that she left behind in my apartment today.
Asked if I could post it and she said OK. 

For more of her stuff; just click HERE.

Rare Michanek

Taking a break from work for some digging through my files, I found some promotional items drawn by Bo Michanek. I know there are fans of his artwork out there, so I hope you'll like these. Most of them are pretty rare. Seen 'em before?

Stat of a pencil sketch.

The Westerner #194, 1966 part VI

Here are pages 24 to 28 from The Westerner #194:
"Hitch Your Wagon To A Star – Famous Names Help to Sparkle Whitman Products"

The rest of #194 will follow...

Mirror, mirror, tell me true

Seen this watercolor by Barks before?
Sold at auction in oct 2007.
Titled "Mirror, mirror, tell me true".
Anyone with more info on this?
Which year was it made?
Was it made for any specific occasion/person?

The Carl Barks Paintings

I was recently asked to do a review of the new book on Barks oil paintings.
Well, you know what they say about images vs words.
Here's a set of thumbs that will give you an idea about the book.
Even if you got the Another Rainbow book this is a must have for every Barks fan.
Editor Geoffrey Blum did a fantastic job assembling paintings and rare material!
And it's thick as a brick: 416 pages!
ISBN: 9789174056969