Monsterhoodoo

Four new pieces up now on eBay for the museum/Hairy Cell Leukemia fundraiser, including this piece by Patrick McDonnell.

More up this week, including a really neat piece by Patrick McDonnell!

4 new auctions this week, Daniel Warren Johnson, Jeffrey Brown, Matt Harding, and Kelly McNutt! Support two great causes and take home some original art!

Only one day to bid on this exceptional Daniel Warren Johnson piece at the CAM charity auction! Help out two good causes, but a piece of art on your wall. Thanks to Daniel and Felix for the donation.

Thanks for posting this and being a good friend of the Museum. Got some great new pieces up this week, closing tomorrow, including this gem from Stuart! He doesn't do a ton of watercolors I am told, and this piece is stunning. I held it in my hands to scan and didn't want to give it to the museum! https://outside-affiliatelinksnotallowed.com/ms3tbwtn

We have new auctions closing tomorrow. Great pieces, in no particular order by Stuart Immonen, Dan Cooney, Judd Winick, Denis St. John and Jon Bean Hastings.

Thank you for the support Ron!

Another round of auctions are ending in a few days. This time, we have some very nice pieces by Harry Bliss, Ben Seto, Roger Langridge, Brent Anderson, and Jonathan Lemon! Thanks very much for your support! https://outside-affiliatelinksnotallowed.com/2nptdrnj

A number of collectors got Jeffrey Brown sketches at Comic-Con, thank you for that. We have five new auctions running on eBay this week. Great pieces by Ryan Sook, Christian Meesey, Derf Backderf, Gareth Monger, and Roy Chang. Thanks as always for your bids. https://outside-affiliatelinksnotallowed.com/2nptdrnj

As our auctions are running, we are also doing a Sketch-a-thon here at ComicCon; you can order them from home and don't have to be at the show they will be shipped to you. Jeffrey Brown and others are doing them; link here. https://www.cartoonart.org/store/comic-con-original-sketch

Our next round of auctions is now live on eBay. This week we have a terrific piece by Aaron Conley, one of my favorite modern artists. He's got that cartoonish yet realistic look I love. He's a great cartoonist if you ask me! Thanks to Felix for rallying a few of his artists to help out. And, of course, a thank you to all the artists who so graciously donated their time and talent to help us out this year. Also this week, pieces by Tom Beland, Gemma Correll, Graham Annable, and Joe Staton. Thanks for reading and for supporting the Cartoon Art Museum! https://outside-affiliatelinksnotallowed.com/2nptdrnj

Hi- We've finally got these auctions underway. We had some eBay issues with the Charity part; possibly, due to their managed payments system, and we couldn't post as a charity for some reason. But after many phone calls, we finally got it sorted out. So, the first week of auctions started a few days ago. This week we're starting with four pieces. Jamie Cosley, Keith Harrop, Michael Jantze, and Bill Morrison of Bongo fame have donated pieces. Please bid if a piece speaks to you; the money raised will go towards funding the museum's activities, as well as a portion going to the Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation in Dave's name. In the coming weeks, we'll have pieces by Arron Conley, Ryan Sook, Harry Bliss, Stuart Immonen, Judd Winick, Jeffrey Brown, Partick McDonnell, Mark Badger, Jon Way$hak, Paul Pope, Scott Morse, and many more! So check this URL every week if you are interested, and I will try to remember to post the week's auctions here as a reminder. Thanks again for your support of the Cartoon Art Museum. It's been a tough few years for non-profits and museums, so if the mood strikes you, throw a bid or two our way! https://outside-affiliatelinksnotallowed.com/2nptdrnj

The Cartoon Art Museum, in cooperation with The Rocketeer Trust, announces an all-star tribute to Dave Stevens and The Rocketeer, the Museum's latest original art auction fundraiser. Original artwork created for this auction will be exhibited at the Cartoon Art Museum this spring and will be featured in an exhibition catalog. We already have an impressive list of creators lined up, and as the pieces come in they will be posted here, and at our Cartoon Art Museum page on CAF Twenty percent of the auction proceeds will go to the Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation in honor of Dave Stevens. Dave's sister has graciously given us permission to do this show/auction. "It is very exciting to have an exhibition at the Cartoon Art Museum honoring Dave’s art legacy, spanning from Saturday morning cartoon art to comic and pin-up art,” says Jennifer Stevens-Bawcum. “I appreciate the Museum's desire to pay tribute to his Rocketeer comic book creation with the auction and exhibition." The tribute art auction will be followed by an exhibition of Dave Stevens's original Rocketeer artwork this summer. Proceeds from the auction and catalog will also support the Cartoon Art Museum, an educational non-profit institution that will be celebrating its 40th anniversary next year. If you are a working comic or strip artist and would like to participate, please contact Andrew Farago (gallery@cartoonart.org) for more information.

To Felix and Chris's point, it took me over a decade to get a commission from Arthur Adams. And this is after knowing him for many years (manning a booth across from him at SDCC for many years, seeing him at set up, and chatting, etc,) and buying art from him-- he's one of my favorite "modern" artists. But I'd always be too far down the list or found it to be far too long by the time I got to his table to sign up because I can't stomach lines. But I'd ask when I'd see him at random shows, and he'd generally say "sign up." So I did it more than once, but it was years before I got one. Sometimes he never made it that far down the list where my name sat. I never took it personally, and certainly never sold off any of his art because of it. Who knows why? Maybe he just wasn't "feeling it." Or maybe he was tired of doing commissions and seeing them flipped on eBay for 2X 15 minutes after he delivered it. The last thing you want is a commission from an artist who isn't in the right frame of mind to draw whatever it is you want. Arthur crushed my commission. I mean, he really did a nice job for me. It was worth every penny as well as the 10-year wait. I'd say hang in there. When you do get a DWJ commission, it'll make it that much more special.

Hi Ricky Bobby. I assume that’s a screen name. Mine is John Butler. Yes, I owned it for a bit longer than 10 months. And that link to Rob Stiefel's piece on the Kirby Museum page that you posted was written before I had researched the piece. I think it’s human nature probably (or at least mine) to defend something you own or care about. And I did at the time, as Eriks post sort of blind-sided me. But then I spoke with several people. Kirby scholars? Well, I’m not sure about that designation. But Mark McDermott's name never really came up alongside some of the dealers, artists, and collectors that I spoke with. Greg Theakston, Joe Mannarino, Mike T, Todd Seisser, Glen Gold, Erik Larsen, and David Schwartz did-- I would consider all to be at least educated and knowledgeable about Kirby because they all either knew him or have done the work to know about him for decades. I spoke to all of them. The only guy I couldn’t get to was Evanier. He never answered me. The rest did, and rather quickly. All had slightly different things to say, some just weren’t sure and couldn’t really say other than to mention they saw it on Jack’s wall at one point, (that was literally the best piece of info anyone had as to its legitimacy… didn’t pass the sniff test for me) some were certain it was mostly done by another hand… none said, “Oh no, that’s Jack and Jack alone.” So, just an opinion here, but that came after a lot of research and an open mind. The key clues for me were 1. The back of the piece is bone white. So, it never hit Jacks' drawing board which made very specific graphite smudges on the backs of his art. Possible that he did it elsewhere, but that was a rare occurrence. 2. If you look at pieces Jack did in the late 80s, as you mention as the time period that this was done, they are wonky. Nothing like this. 3. The piece is very tightly rendered. Some of it looks outlined and filled in. Jack worked with the edge of his pencil and spit the graphite out like he was chiseling, it’s just far too meticulous. Like those cover recreations from the 90s… possibly by the same hand. Look at other Kirby pencil pieces. This is very different. 4. The pieces the artist traced or used as reference are clear if you look at other Kirby work. The Surfer Sketch from the Kirby Collector issue 48, and a flopped surfer drawing by Kirby and Sinnott from a Marvel Portfolio done in 1979 (with modifications) is the main surfer body. I’ve lined them up in Photoshop and they come pretty darn close. The Doom head is from a panel in FF #59, and an exploding planet from the Gods portfolio is at least part of the background. I think it would have been odd for Jack to have traced these out. He just didn’t do that. And these are almost exact. The Doom head scales up perfectly, except for the eyeballs. 5. The erased leg. Kirby just wouldn't have done that. Of course, people will believe what they want. Probably Rob's designation as The Studio of Jack Kirby is about as accurate as one can be with the piece. Someone else's hand is in there. I have a pretty good idea whose it is, but I’m not comfortable saying who that is here. How much Jack is in there if at all? Who knows? Unless the Kirby estate wants to say and that’s probably not going to happen. But I personally think there is very little. But I also don’t think it’s a forgery, as Erik originally stated. I believe someone helped Jack out because he and Roz needed the dough, and it was a decent thing to do between friends. Now that stuff is worth thousands of dollars, I think it matters. So, I flipped it back through Heritage. They gave me a slightly better deal than the hammer price in the end, but I still lost money. But I made sure people knew what they were getting and wrote the auction description myself, with some additions by Todd Hignite. I did write a lengthy article about this in the APA as Felix mentioned. I won’t post that here for anyone to download, but if you want to read it, I think it's in issue 102. This is really what it says though-- Most were kind enough to talk to me about it and help me come to my conclusion, but of course, we’ll probably never really know for sure.

We have two more this week, my buddy Scott Morse did an awesome painting (word is there is a making of video coming as well, check his Instagram feed for that - https://www.instagram.com/crazymorse/) and Keith Knight surprised us with an homage strip. Note that Keith colored his digitally, and what you are bidding on is the uncolored ink drawing on eBay. Both are great, check them out when you can. Scott: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-original-art-Calvin-and-Hobbes-painting-by-Scott-Morse/153932714288?hash=item23d71ad130:g:sJwAAOSw951evaxe Keith: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-original-art-Calvin-and-Hobbes-by-Keith-Knight-K-Chronicles/153932657400?_trkparms=aid%3D1110001%26algo%3DSPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D225086%26meid%3D9367f2739f0748cdb1a185aa3452666f%26pid%3D100623%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D153932714288%26itm%3D153932657400%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2047675&_trksid=p2047675.c100623.m-1

Looking for whoever owns this. I don't want to buy it. I used to own it many years ago, and had it cleaned up-- it was really yellow and missing some stats. Some of the art was on very thin craft tint I believe, and had yellowed terribly... Anyway, a tiny portion of the stool was replaced with a small stat-- it couldn't be cleaned without ruining the ink as I recall. I have the original craft tint piece from the stool in my possession, found it in the flat files. It should be with whoever owns this cover. So, if you are that person, and you can prove to me you own it, (email me a picture of your smiling face holding the cover maybe) and I will drop it in the mail to you. John

We thought we were finished, but Scott Morse, Gilbert Hernandez, Keith Knight, and Bill Wray have recently donated pieces, so after a great finish with Watterson's signed print and Patrick's piece, that both exceeded our expectations (thank you!) we have a few more weeks to go. Starting with Bill Wray. Bill was an animator for years on Ren & Stimpy before he turned to painting full time. He's a really talented guy, if you've seen his paintings and his animation, it's really incredible that they came from the same guy, if you ask me. This piece is watercolor and it is 10 x 14 https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-original-art-Calvin-and-Hobbes-by-Bill-Wray/153912733494?hash=item23d5e9ef36:g:Vk8AAOSwfZpeqRvs The second piece we have for auction is from Gilbert Hernandez of Love & Rockets and Palomar saga fame, among others. Its pen and ink and we were thrilled to get a piece from him. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-original-art-Calvin-and-Hobbes-by-Gilbert-Hernandez/153912715253?hash=item23d5e9a7f5:g:bMgAAOSw7hReqRdh Look for more next week.

We're in the home stretch now with two of our most anticipated pieces on eBay right now! A few more have come in recently, one very special piece by Gilbert Hernandez that we will be posting on eBay in the coming weeks, but we’re sticking to our schedule and have put these two pieces. So, first up this week is the cover to our forthcoming catalog, a great piece by Patrick McDonnell. Save the Tigers. Plenty have asked about this piece over the past months, so I expect it will do quite well. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-original-art-Calvin-and-Hobbes-by-Patrick-McDonnell-MUTTS/153860283100?hash=item23d2c99adc:g:cHMAAOSw7hReaBj8 Next is another piece that has had many “please notify me when this goes live!” requests in our CAF in box. It’s a signed print of the final Calvin and Hobbes Sunday comic strip autographed by Bill Watterson. This lot has good provenance, as it includes a hand-written postcard from Andrews McMeel Universal editor John Glynn, verifying the authenticity of Watterson's signature. It popped less than an hour after posting at 100.00, and is currently over 5K already. I imagine this one should do quite well for us, too. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-signed-print-Calvin-and-Hobbes-by-Bill-Watterson/153860295114?hash=item23d2c9c9ca:g:JoAAAOSwAsFeaBuO As always, thanks for your support to CAM!

Nina Taylor Kester, Program Coordinator at CAM, forwarded me a few shots from the museum. It's a hard place to photograph, but these do a pretty good job of showing the layout of the gallery that has the Calvin and Hobbes show.

We're back with three auctions this week. First up is a piece by Karen Luk his delightful ink and watercolor illustration by Luk measures 8" x 8" and is mixed media. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-original-art-Calvin-and-Hobbes-by-Karen-Luk/153900257470?hash=item23d52b90be:g:OZ4AAOSwvGxemMGW Next is another great piece by Steve Purcell Steve is a long time friend of the museum, and did a piece for our Hellboy auction a few years ago as well. This delightful acrylic painting by measures 7" x 10" and it is really something to see in person, the scan does it no justice. Steve, as you know if the creator of Sam & Max, an Eisner winner, and behind a Pixar films like Cars, and more. Be fast on this one, it’s going to do well. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-original-art-Calvin-and-Hobbes-by-Steve-Purcell/153859115510?hash=item23d2b7c9f6:g:gd8AAOSwZxZeZtAk Finally, here’s another cartoonist you don’t see doing a lot of commissions. Lynn Johnston. She’s a Reuben award-winner for her strip, For Better or For Worse and her ink and colored pencil illustration by measures 9" x 11" This will be another one that will jump considerably at the end, so watch it closely. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-original-art-Calvin-and-Hobbes-by-Lynn-Johnston/153859107926 As always, thanks for your support to CAM!

OK, so two auctions this week-- the first is by Filipe Andrade, who you'll know from those great commissions he does for Felix Comic Art, as well as some of his Marvel books-- Captain America, Wolverine and Black Widow among others. Filipe did a cool homage to a popular Watterson Sunday. I recognized it immediately, and it is the sort of thing he does very well in his commissions. Filipe is a true Watterson fan, and this piece shows it. I'll link to the original Calvin and Hobbes Sunday as well so you can see the inspiration. This piece is mixed media, and it measures about 5 x 7. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-original-art-Calvin-and-Hobbes-by-Filipe-Andrade/153892167220?hash=item23d4b01e34:g:2ZUAAOSwyIlejq0O Our second piece is really interesting. It's by Colleen Doran, the creator behind the award winning "A Distant Soil," but she'S worked on so much that it would take half this page to list much of it. Recently her adaptation for Neil Gaiman's "Snow, Glass Apples" was nominated for a Stoker and a Rondo. If you are a horror fan like me, you know those are hard to come by. This drawing is done in liquid charcoal, and it's 11x14. A really interesting depiction of C&H! These close in a few days, and these auctions like all auctions I suppose, tend to pop near the end. I've gotten a number of emails from collectors who were bummed that they were outbid last minute, so throw down if you want one! Thanks again for your support of CAM! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-original-art-Calvin-and-Hobbes-by-Colleen-Doran/153859112453?hash=item23d2b7be05:g:~c0AAOSwk9FehlAn *FOR THOSE SKIMMERS OUT THERE (you know who you are!) I'M GOING TO MENTION THAT THE C&H SUNDAY DEPICTED BELOW IS NOT AT AUCTION, IT'S JUST TO SHOW FILIPE'S INSPIRATION.

Hello again, I hope everyone had a great Easter or is continuing to have a nice Passover, whichever you celebrate. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to secure any photos of the exhibit, we didn't think to capture it before we had to shelter in place. I will share one piece that is in our permanent collection that is in the C&H exhibit, though. Sorry, it isn't up for auction! But, it's worth checking out the show just to see this original, it's a beaut. We also have a few more eBay auctions up currently, I’ll do a post about them later tonight. If anyone out there took photos, please feel free to post them here. As I said, we’ll try to keep it up a bit longer so those who want to see it, can. Thanks again for the support! John

Hi everyone, I hope you are all safely sheltering in place and taking good care of one another. The museum has been closed for the past 3 weeks now, as that was what local health officials advised. The show has been up, and was probably only live for a few days when we got the shelter in place order. We’ll probably extend it once this is over, to give everyone a chance to see it that wants to. Unfortunately, I didn’t get photos of it, but have asked around because I am sure someone did. We took a brief hiatus, once the Shelter in Place order went through, but have resumed auctions this week. We’re also taking pre-orders for the catalog, that I’ll be designing again with Ryan Graff. If you’ve gotten our Colan, Sandman, Hellboy or Sam Kieth catalogs in the past, you’ll know what you are getting. Hellboy sold out very quickly, in less than 2 weeks. We should have printed more! We do still have the rest, but those numbers are dwindling, and these things do not go back to press. So, if you want one, the museum can ship them as soon as we open again, and frankly, we really could use the help. So if there is someone in the art collecting community you need a gift for, please consider a catalog! You can pre-order it here: https://www.cartoonart.org/boyandhistiger The catalog has not gone to press yet, but will in the coming weeks, and it will ship around the time that the winners receive their pieces, in a few months. We have two auctions this week: First up is a piece by cartoonist Jon "Bean" Hastings. This incredible tribute to Spaceman Spiff is a mixed media wall sculpture, combining wood, acrylic, and paint (airbrush and pen, if you want to get technical) and measures 14" x 18"! It’s really cool, and the acrylic is used to show the path Spaceman Spiff has travelled. I’ve see it, had the pleasure of trying to figure out how to photograph it (ha) and can tell you it would look great on your wall. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-original-art-Calvin-and-Hobbes-by-Jon-Bean-Hastings/153859123309?hash=item23d2b7e86d:g:6fkAAOSwTr9eZtJC Next up is a piece by award-winning cartoonist Stacy Curtis. This great ink and watercolor illustration measures 8.5" x 10.5"! Stacy has illustrated several children's books including "The Seven Habits of Happy Kids" written by Sean Covey, the Raymond and Graham chapter book series written by Mike Knudson, the Meghan Rose series written by Lori Z. Scott, "Snack Attack" written by Stephen Krensky and many others. He also creates hand-pulled screen-printed movie posters, gig-posters and art prints through his company, Mile 44 https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-original-art-Calvin-and-Hobbes-by-Stacy-Curtis/153885794734?hash=item23d44ee1ae:g:B4gAAOSwG8NehlUu Thanks again for helping us out in this difficult time for non-profits, and please take care.

Another week of auctions are up on eBay, as we quickly approach the end of our benefit. I believe there are 3 more weeks worth of art and the show will be hanging and open to the public as of this Monday. I’ll post photos when I get over there later next week. If you’d like to preorder a catalog, call the museum and ask for Summerlea, she is starting pre-sales this week. The Hellboy catalog sold out in less than a month, so if you want one, I would pre-order it. I’ll be designing it with Ryan Graff again, like the Colan, Hellboy and Sam Kieth catalogs that we’ve done. It will be a nice one, and it will be 4-color. Order one today! We have four auctions this week First is a piece by Jonathan Lemon, the artist behind Ally Oop and Rabbits against Magic. The image is 11 x 14, and features a meeting between C&H and Ally Oop. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-original-art-Calvin-and-Hobbes-by-Jonathan-Lemon/153854950719?hash=item23d2783d3f:g:pDAAAOSwZRFeYYhb Next up is a piece by Where’s the Penguin artist Chuck Whelon. This piece is a big 9 x 12. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-original-art-Calvin-and-Hobbes-by-Chuck-Whelon/153854952760?hash=item23d2784538:g:h9kAAOSwGVVeYYuz My buddy Scott Hanna did a nice acrylic painting for us this time (he was there for us with our Hellboy auctions too, Scott and his wife Pam are great supporters of the museum,) and it’s a big one, 12 x 16. Scott and I used to live next to one another in the dormitory at Pratt. I have stories. He has stories. We had a blast there and Scott has really made quite a career for himself at Marvel and DC, working on titles we used to trudge through the snow to get at Forbidden Planet. This was back when it actually snowed in NYC, instead of the rain. I love this piece, Scott really came through for us again. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-original-art-Calvin-and-Hobbes-by-Scott-Hanna/153854955943?hash=item23d27851a7:g:bUsAAOSwkfVeYYzj Mo Williems' illustrations don’t really need much by the way of introduction. Everyone knows the Pigeon books. Try to find art by Mo out there, I have and I will tell you it isn’t easy. This is your best bet to get something by Mo, and it’s for a great cause! Calaphant and Hogges is one of my favorites this time around. I’ve gotten a lot of emails through CAF to let people know when this one was live. It’s going to go big. So, Bid, bid, bid! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoon-Art-Museum-original-art-Calvin-and-Hobbes-by-Mo-Willems/153854943653?hash=item23d27821a5:g:Gz4AAOSw86ZeYYbi Thanks again for your support of the Cartoon Art Museum!