Shadow sketches

 

Frank Cho free con sketch.

Commission from Ben Hatke

Thank you note from Ben Hatke

I'm arranging my original art and prints into new portfolios off-and-on.

Here's Big Barda in a bikini by Rob Ullman, just because.

Here's Big Barda in a bikini by Rob Ullman, just because.

John Held, Jr. artwork on card game

I picked up this card game, Pit, in New Jersey last weekend. John Held Jr. did the artwork. It's copyrighted 1919, which I think may be for the game, not the artwork, but I also think the game may still be sold.

Add a footnote to the Secret History of Comics...

Last year's Team Cul de Sac art auction

I got this sweet piece of Team Cul de Sac art
work by Shannon Gallant - Miss Bliss as G.I. Joe's Baroness.

Lucky Safety Cards

Originally a set of 40 cards, distributed in New York newspapers. Thanks to Bert Hansen for giving me most of these.

Original Christmas ornaments by cartoonists

Barbara Dale had a few people over to her house after a tour at Geppi's Entertainment Museum. After pizza, she coaxed people into decorating ornaments. Here's the one-of-a-kind ornaments now on my tree with a Thomas Nast's Santa Claus, a Cliffored Berryman's teddy bear (from the Smithsonian) and a couple of Snoopy's (from Hallmark's Peanuts line).



Carolyn Belefski



Joe Sutliff



Barbara Dale



Steve Artley

I kept getting this glowing nose on Artley's ornament - Christmas is magical after all...

Artley's zombie

Steve Artley kindly gave me a drawing at OSU's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum opening when I was looking forlornly at his caricature of Chris Sparks.This was done for the blood drive that Carolyn Belefski spearheaded a couple of weekends ago.

Steve will be auctioning off similar artwork tomorrow night at the Cartoons and Cocktails fundraiser.

Mike's flea market finds, continued

Because everyone needs a set of Family Circus buttons from Burger Chef.



I don't even like Family Guy, but I rescued them from the 6 for $1 bin.



These are all brand-new in 2013. Zodiac Starforce webcomic, animator Raul Aguirre Jr, and Halloween Comicfest 2013 buttons. Zodiac Starforce is done by local creators out of Big Planet Vienna.

And here's what I'm happiest to have found. My second Daumier print from the AAFSW book sale at the State Dept.



"C'est pourtant comme ça qu'on se donne des tours de reins!....... "
From Le Charivari August 28, 1868. "This is just the way to catch a strain in the back." See http://www.daumier-register.org/werkview.php?key=3658

Flea Market finds this weekend

I found some material by formerly famous cartoonists over the weekend.

Digby Bell in The Education of Mr. Pipp by Augustus Thomas: The Charles Dana Gibson Play postcard
New York: Carter & Gut, 1905

The Road to Paradise sheet music (missing middle pages)
New York: G. Schirmer
Cover by Raeburn van Buren

Donald Hessler Said "Hello" original cartoon
Richard Yardley, Baltimore Sun cartoonist

Cartoon matchbooks revisited

A while back, I noted some cartoon matchbooks that I had found. This weekend I picked up three more at a flea market:



Lawson Wood - "The Old Skate" - more of Wood's work was featured here.

"Duded Up - Ain't He" by Garrity.                                                     "Pretty Sunset... Ain't It?"

Decorating my office with original art

For a short time, I've got an office at work. I've started framing some of the original comic art that I've gotten, and putting it up.  Buying this type of art is a good way to support cartoonists you like, of course.



The great Rob Ullman, who illustrated the sex column for the Washington City Paper for years, did the above. As a spot illustration, this doesn't have a title, but I call it "Coffee I.V." He's got a new minicomic for sale.

 

"Dr. Jenner's Vaccine" original scratchboard art by Baltimore children's book artist Jeff Thompson (of Big Planet Comics) on vaccinating for smallpox with cowpox. You can buy his art here.

 

"Penicillin" original art by British cartoonist Hunt Emerson, - a Christmas gift from my wife. You can buy his work here.

Marvel Comics & Williams-Sonoma - together again & on sale!

These pictures were taken last night at the Williams-Sonoma kitchen store in Clarendon in Arlington. You can get a lot of baking equipment to make your Marvel Comics characters, and it's on sale! And so are the Iron Man, Captain America and Hulk spatulas - I got Iron Man! $3.99!

Photos courtesy of Claire Rhode.

Santa Clinton?

Here's a special Christmas treat for ComicsDC readers.

Anybody have any idea what this cartoon is from, and who did it? (don't click through to see the original yet)



No? How about this one?



This?



Or these?













They were originally grouped like this:



Scroll down for the answer:

Give up? It's a shopping bag from Tyson's Corner mall from 1994. 

 

According to Kirstin Downey Grimsley in the Washington Post (November 1, 1994), "This year Tysons Corner Center is unveiling something specially designed for the mall. Mall spokesmen are calling it 'A Capital Christmas,' and it will offer a whimsical greeting tied to the region's role as nation's capital."Apparently that included a shopping bag with "cartoon illustrations of President Bill Clinton portraying Santa Claus." The cartoons (in this order) are by local creators Richard Thompson, Kevin Rechin, Nick Galifianakis, Joe Azar, Ron Coddington, Peter Steiner, Sam Ward, Mike Lane and John Kascht - some of whom have since moved out of the area.

Thanks to Richard Thompson for the gift of the bag and to he and Nick for identifying some of the cartoonists. Easier-to-read greyscale illustrations can be seen here.

Snyder, King and Hatke at Capicons

The bi-monthly Capicons con at Tyson's Corner saw a few new faces today. I picked up a couple of pieces of original art as a result (and blew my budget, but if you go to the show with friends, you can borrow money from them).



Baltimore County's John K Snyder III did this Shadow sketch with the money going to Hero Initiative charity. Keep an eye out on IDW's variant covers for the Shadow as John is doing one in 2013.

 

Front Royal's Ben Hatke's Zita the Spacegirl original art for page 98. Zita's aimed at kids, but I like it a lot.

 

Ben Hatke's Zita the Spacegirl original art for chapter breaks. He tossed this one in after I bought the previous.

Washington's Tom King was signing his book A Once Crowded Sky, a novel about what happens when all the superheroes vanish, but the supervillains don't. I reviewed it for the City Paper and had the strange experience of seeing my words as a pull quote on his banner.  I liked the book enough to buy another copy for a comics-collecting buddy's Christmas present. King told me that some additional comic book news from him should come out this week - remind me to follow up if I don't post something here.

A bit of cartoon ephemera

Once upon a time, ink didn't come in ballpoint pens, and you often had to 'blot' or soak up the runny stuff before your writing smeared. Companies distributed blotters with advertising on, and sometimes they had cartoons. Here's 10 of JR Williams' strip 'Bull of the Woods' and one of 'Ripley's Believe It or Not' that I picked up last weekend.