Saying thanks with Ken Hultgren.

Trying to stay in sync here with the festivities, I thought I’d post some nice classic comics from Thanksgiving Day 1948.  "Ha Ha Comics" were published from October 1943 to January 1955 by the American Comics Group, a small publisher that existed from 1943 to 1967 and carried a whole lot of comics by the famous Ken Hultgren (1915 – 1968). Ken worked for Disney from 1935, doing model sheets and layouts on “Snow White”, “Bambi” and “Sleeping Beauty”. For Western, Hultgren worked on Mickey Mouse comics and did the very first “Panchito” story, based on the character from “The Three Caballeros”, Disney’s animated feature from 1944. Being part of Sangor Studio’s, Ken created a lot of comics based on Warner’s and MGM’s cartoons. His comic stories include classics from the 1940’s such as “Robespierre and “Izzy & Dizzy”.

After Sangor closed in 1949, Hultgren reunited with Disney. First as an animator, then working on the Mickey Mouse dailies in the 1950’s. He also worked as an animator for UPA on Mr. Magoo, for Jack Kinney on “Popeye” and Filmation's “The Archie Show”. Being a master at drawing (funny) animals, Hultgren published his how-to book “The Art of Animal Drawing” in 1951. "Ha Ha Comics" #60 was published at the end of 1948 and contained seven comic stories of which I’m posting four, including a “Lizzy and Dizzy” story and the very funny “Doc E.Z. Duzzit.” Have a great weekend! Click to enlarge the pages!

Guess what's for dinner?

Doing some late night shopping, trying to get something decent on the table, I found myself lurking around the local comics shop, looking for a classic story. Although not my initial destination, I did find something  that would serve well with some chiante.

It’s a little gem from 1968, a first edition Cuvelier, which he created while still working for 'Le Journal de Tintin', the Tintin comic magazine, published in both French and Dutch between 1946 and 1993. Entitled 'The Devil’s Canyon' ('De Duivels Kloof' in Dutch) this comic was Cuvelier’s second comic featuring the female character 'Line' (or 'Dientje'as she was called here). In all, five books were published between 1966 and 1982, written by Michel Regnier aka Greg, the Belgian comic author who had worked with Franquin and wrote his scripts for 'Spirou'. Above: front and back cover of 'The Devil's Canyon')

Paul Cuvelier (November 22, 1923 - July 5, 1978) started out in comics for Belgian comic magazine 'Bravo' in 1946. Bravo magazine was a 16-page Dutch/Belgian weekly comic magazine founded by Belgian author Raymond De Kremer aka john flanders or Jean Ray and published by Jean Meuwissen between May 1936 and April 1951.

De Kremer (1887-1964), also wrote the French novel 'Malpertuis' in 1943, which was turned into a movie in 1973 starring Orson Welles, director of 'Citizen Kane', which, according to AFI (the American Film Institute) is still the #1 movie in their list of the 100 best (American) movies.

Bravo initially published popular American comics like 'Flash Gordon' and 'Jungle Jim', both by Alex Raymond, 'Felix the Cat' by Pat Sullivan (1887 - 1933), 'The Katzenjammer Kids' by Harold Knerr (1882 - 1949) and 'Connie' by Francis Godwin (1889 - 1959).

During the second World War, the Nazis outlawed American comics and paper became scarce. So local talents came forward and started making their own comics, that could replace them. One of those people was Edgar P. Jacobs (1904 - 1987), who created 'The U Ray', a prologue to his later famous comic series 'Blake & Mortimer'. Other artists were Jacques Laudy (1907 - 1993), a good friend of Jacobs, after who he had modeled his 'Blake' character, Raymond Reding (1920 - 1999) and Willy Vandersteen (1913 - 1990), who would draw 'Sinbad', 'Thor' and 'Lancelot'.

For Bravo magazine, Paul Cuvelier would draw his western comic 'Colby', written by Hergé and Edgar P. Jacobs.

When Hergé started 'Tintin' magazine, it was Cuvelier who was there from the first issue with his comic 'Corentin', on September 26 1946. French publishing house Le Lombard, founded by Raymond LeBlanc (1915 - 2008), who had also launched Tintin magazine, published seven Corentin books between 1950 and 1974. A Re-edited and restored series was published between 1996 and 1998.

"The Devil's Canyon" is in Dutch, but it's absolutely worthwhile to post some of that gorgeous interior artwork as well. Time to start reading! Bon Appétite!

Karaoke from the forties.

Following up on my last post, here’s Larz Bourne’s “Winter draws on” cartoon from 1948. Made with the Famous studio’s, which later turned into the Paramount cartoon studio until it closed in '67. This is probably one of the oldest Karaoke stuff around. Dunno, not much of a karaoke man myself, but the cartoon is absolutely funny!

Photo above was made at the Famous studio with Bourne on the left end (thx to  Mike Lynch for the pic).

Saving Classics for a Rainy Day.

Althought climate changes seem to be on the news 24/7, I've always been able to count on one thing this time of the year, and the weather hasn't let me down this time: It's raining cats and dogs and it doesn't seem to stop any time soon. So maybe a good time to grab some classic comics and check out the timeless idea's of yesteryear.

Above: 'Jingle Jangle Comics' 22 from August 1946 (cover artwork by Larz Bourne) and the Dutch Donald Duck Weekly 42, October 2010 (cover by Michel Nadorp). Below: Endre Lukacs, working for the Dutch Donald Duck weekly in the 1950's, created similar cover artwork for the magazine in July 1956.

'Jingle Jangle Comics' was a bimonthly full color comics magazine, published between February 1942 and December 1949 by the Eastern Color Printing Company under their "Famous Funnies" label. 'Famous Funnies' are still considered to be the first true comic books in the USA, following Dell's 'The Funnies' from 1929 and Eastern's 'Funnies on Parade' from 1929.

Main artist for Jingle magazine was George Carlson, born in 1887, just ten years after the reconstruction era officially ended which followed the American civil war from 1861-1865. (His mother had actually worked for General Ulysses S.Grant, who became the 18th president of the restored USA.)

Carlson had become very famous in 1936 for his cover design of Margeret Mitchell's debut novel, which sold over a million copies in less than  half a year and would earn her the Pulitzer price the next year:

 "Gone with the wind" would be her only novel. Mitchell died tragically in 1949 while crossing the street, unable to avoid a speeding car.  Carlson was there right from the beginning of the magazine and did at least two stories for each issue. Other authors were Dave Tendlar, who was an animator for the Fleischer studio's (Betty Boop, Popey the Sailor), Jack Ehret, R.Johnson, Doug Anderton and Larz Bourne (see covers) who also animated with Tendlar for the "Famous" Studio aka Paramount Cartoon Studio. As you can see from the covers above, the classics still rule. Beneath you can catch some of the 24th issue from December 1946, the story features characters "Bingo and Glum"!

All I want for Christmas is...

 November 13, Artcurial, the auction house that gives you the chance to bid live online on their goodies, is selling another high profile comic art collection and they've got some fine things over there that make your heart go poom-poom.

The comic strips department of Artcurial was launched in 2005 by Francois Tajan and Eric Leroy and their World record still stands with the selling of a small Hergé original ink and Gouache. It’s 32 X 32 cm and yes, it was sold in 2008 for
€ 764.218,- Euro’s. Check it out on the left, now that’s what a million dollars looks like!

ORIGINAL FRANQUIN FOR € 40.000,- .

Well, that’s the estimated price. It’s the original page in inks (below) from Spirou issue 4 ("Spirou and the heirs"). There’s also a Spirou by Franquin for one of the magazine covers. Who said you couldn't getting rich drawing comics? Ehm.. that would be my father.

FIRST EDITION FRANQUIN.

Among all the goodies, there’s not only original art. There are also first prints of every major European comic book. The Tintin’s are going for an estimated € 7000,-.There’s of course also the original first Spirou by Franquin (featuring his story “The Tank” from 1947) in excellent condition if I might say. It’s only € 3000,- Euro’s... Who said there was an economic crisis?

If you’re interested in first print editions and your money’s tight there are still some cheaper interesting pieces though. There are some great issues of “Johan and Peewit” from 1954 by Peyo (known for his popular Smurfs, which actually first appeared in Johan and Peewit’s ninth album “The Flute with Six Holes” from 1958). They start at € 300 euro’s a piece and go on to € 4500,- for the hard covers, but if you would actually like to read any of these then you better start practising your French, ‘cause these are the original editions. Equally great are Peyo’s “Steven Strong” comic books, which go for € 150 - € 1200 Euro’s. (remember these are estimations, if you run into another collector who’s eager to get his hands on specific book prices will run higher).

ORIGINAL COMIC ART HERGÉ.

From Hergé (George Remi) there's also first draft sketched page from “The Castafiore Emerald”, Tintin’s 21st book from 1963. It's going for € 35.000,- and a beautifully finished piece from 1943 for "The Secret of the Unicorn" ,Tintin's 11th comicbook. It's inked and colorised with watercolors personally by Hergé and it's inside the first edition of the comicbook itself! Going once, going twice.... it's € 20.000,- Euros.

A lot less pricy, but still very nice, are Hubinon’s pages from Buck Danny, for merely € 800 euros they can be yours. And there’s also a very small piece of a page by Edgar Pierre Jacobs from his Blake and Mortimer story “The Necklace affair” from 1967 for only € 150 euro, There are also some original colorings from the 1950’s for several books by Jacobs going for € 150 - € 200. Absolutely awesome!

Also some nice original Lucky Luke illustrations by Morris, and again, some work by Peyo (originals for the Smurfs). Several original illustration by Maurice Tillieux for his Gil Jourdan series, which recently inspired Daan Jippes for his new series “Havank”and some great original artwork and comic pages by Uderzo hand lettered in Dutch (Asterix and others stuff).

There are also some original original pages by Greg (Michel Regnier), who also worked for Hergé and was the man who wrote “Le Thermozeró”, a Tintin comicbook that was never made, except for a few pages. If you buy everything, you could start your own comic museum right there! Anyway, check it out here for yourself. If you want the PDF it's this way.