The end of the tour!

Yes, it's the last entry in my studio tour series, and as the sun sets in the west, we bid farewell... Oh, wait! We have to look at the stuff first!

Here's an overview of the corner of the studio we'll be looking at today -- detail pics and descriptions follow.

That's a framed Dick Tracy daily from the Model story -- signed to me by Chet Gould. A souvenir of my visit to his Woodstock, IL home. Caniff fans -- don't get too excited over the Dragon Lady -- that's just a print out of an image I found on the web -- the other Caniff art you'll see later are prints, too. My pin-up collection is represented here by a set of George Petty waterslide decal tumblers, reissue Marx Campus Cuties and an original set of Marx Beauties. Assorted pin-up matchbook covers and figures fill out the shelf. Yes, that's an Ideal Wonder Woman in the middle of it all.

A shelf full of comic strip character toys and assorted "smalls." Skippy is a bisque toothbrush holder. The Pogo figures and cups are premiums from the '60s -- joined by the Yoe Studios/Dark Horse Albert and Pogo. The Barney Google game is a recent find from SpringCon in St. Paul -- wonderful Billy DeBeck art all over the box and board. The photo of Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head in their cars was taken on my front porch in the early '60s -- something I begged my dad to photograph -- hey, I was a weird kid....

Here's a better look at all the small items. You can click on this (or any of the pics in my blog) to get a larger, better view. Too many items to list -- though I will note the "see no evil" monkeys were an item rescued from the ashes of my father's boyhood farm home which burned down -- hence the scorch mark!

More vintage comic character items. The Terry board game art is not by Caniff, but rather Henry Vallely, artist of the Huck Finn art shown in an earlier entry of this tour.

A better view of the items lying flat on the shelf. The Tarzan book has a sticker on it from a shoestore in my hometown of Muscatine, IA. The coin-like item is a Johnny Weismuller Tarzan premium -- and quite a good likeness of him. The little "Dad" plaque was a gift from my daughter when she was a youngster -- the #1 item here as far as I'm concerned.

Vintage comic strip books, puzzles and more -- plus a stack of movie star arcade cards. John Garfield, upon whom Pete Morisi based Johnny Dynamite tops the stack for that very reason.

What won't fit on a shelf, hides away in a drawer -- and this drawer is full of pin-up cards, matchbook covers, notepads, etc.

A drawer full of Edgar Rice Burroughs paperbacks. I'd like to find the time to read (or re-read) these someday -- perhaps they'll be bedtime reading for my son when he's a little older...?

I've already shown you this Shelly Moldoff Batman art -- but you haven't seen the True magazine George Petty print that hangs next to it.

A Silent Invasion cover by my friend and fellow Renegade Press cartoonist Mike Cherkas can be seen next to some Caniff prints and a signed print from old pal Mitch O'Connell.

Lone Ranger arcade cards.

Original art for a British western pulp. I'd love to find the print version of this! Has anyone out there ever read any "Zed Montana" books...? I hear "Trailbusters" is a corker....

Just a hint at how much stuff I've packed into the storage closet. You don't want to know how many long boxes filled with back issues of my own books are stuffed into this little space!

And, since I haven't shown the work spaces yet -- here they are. Yes, Mr. Taxman, this really is my work room!
I've had this drawing board since I was a teenager. Several thousand comic book pages have been drawn on it in the decades since I first brought it home.

This '30s vintage pin-up tie rack hangs on the door that leads to the back room that contains... well... something I just might share with you in another post sometime....

And that's it, folks! That's my reference library, my toy collection and various sources of inspiration -- and the scanner and drawing board where a lot of my work gets done. You might get a kick out of seeing what I started with -- here's the room just after we moved in -- bookshelves in place -- but otherwise empty....

And here's all the stuff waiting to go on those shelves, filling our family room to the brim. Unpacking all this was a chore -- but a fun one. Flattening and running all the boxes to the recycling center (multiple trips) was a pain, though!

I hope you enjoyed the tour. I didn't post this to show off my collections -- but rather to share them. I've enjoyed the hunt for all these items -- and there is a story behind almost every one. I love giving the tour in person to friends who are interested -- but only a limited number of folks are ever going to actually get to do that. Here on the web, I can share it with everybody -- and that's a fun thing. I'll never understand those who build collections only to hide them away -- what's the point of hunting for, tracking down and, in some cases, rescuing, all this cool stuff, if you can't share it?

So, I didn't show you everything -- as some stuff is packed away, etc. -- so there may be future posts in which I dig out more cool stuff to share -- so if you did enjoy this, please come back -- and, as always, please leave a comment or two, as that helps make this worthwhile for me. Thanks!

Studio Tour Part Seven: Caniff, Popeye, Frankenstein and more

Not content with filling my bookcases, I pile stuff on top of them, too! The barely seen GI Joe from a previous post shows his face as he sits next to a Tintin Moon rocket -- a San Diego Con purchase from sometime in the '80s. A jungle girl Betty Boop nodder takes the corner position and next to her is a line-up of hula girls, vintage and new -- including another Betty Boop.

Betty Page covers herself us next to a third Betty Boop -- a cowgirl this time. Funny -- I didn't realize I had so darn many Bettys here! The Phantom is a resin "garage kit" based on the concept drawings for a never-produced Aurora kit. He and his wolf, Devil are appropriately placed next to a resin copy of the Revell Flash Gordon model kit from the '60s. Behind them all are the recent Polar Lights reissues of the Aurora Odd Job and James Bond kits and an authentic vintage 007 action figure in its box (the box is great -- the figure not such a thrill). A boxed Francis the Foul Weird-oh kit sits waiting to be built some day.

From left to right, we have a trio of Dan Clowes Enid toys from Ghost World and two variations of a Japanese Phantom of the Paradise figure flanking the Moebius reissue of Aurora's Captain Action model (for which I sculpted a new alternate face part that was included in the kit). The original issue Aurora Tonto kit box came with a build up of the kit that I'm planning to restore. In front of the boxes are a pair of Aurora pirate kits, the remarkably well designed Blackbeard -- and Captain Kidd (both announced to be reissued at some point by Atlantis Models). Next to them we have the Toy Biz Hulk and Thing kits, facing off on a scratch-built base.

Yeah -- I like a good Western. All sorts of cowboys are represented here, from a Lone Ranger big little book inscribed by Clayton Moore, to a Bonanza model kit from the '60s (great likenesses!) to Toy Story's Woody and Jessie.

No, Popeye, I don't think you're a cowboy -- your shelf just happens to be in the same bookcase as the Western shelf. I've been a Popeye fanatic as long as I can recall -- growing up watching the Fleischer Studios cartoons on Captain Ernie's Cartoon Showboat every afternoon on WOC TV (Davenport IA) -- and discovering the E.C. Segar comic strip with the publication of the Nostalgia Press volume. New and old items share shelf space. My two favorite pieces here are the vintage sitting carnival chalk Popeye and the recent Jeep figure -- both great representations of the characters.

Another GI Joe keeps watch over books by Peter Arno, Will Eisner and more. A wide format Popeye big little book snuck onto this shelf as I ran out of room above. The bottom shelf is all art instruction books -- many of them leaned on hard when I was teaching in the comics program at MCAD.
Can you tell I'm a Milt Caniff fan? Here are two shelves worth of Steve Canyon and Terry and the Pirates books and collectibles -- with Roy Crane's Wash Tubbs and Capt. Easy sneaking in -- Noel Sickles' Scorchy Smith is there, too. Maybe the oddest item here is a pair of mint condition, never worn childrens' size Steve Canyon pajamas!

Hal Foster's Tarzan, a wonderful book on Rockwell Kent, Lynd Ward's Storyteller Without Words, and a boxed collection of miniature reproductions of early Tintin books are some of my favorites from this next shelf. The bottom portion of this bookcase holds most of the EC Library volumes -- and a bound volume of an early illustration/cartooning correspondence course.
The many faces of Frankenstein! I'm crazy for the Universal Studios monster movies -- and figural model kits -- so here we are! The "Big Frankie" is a Japanese vinyl reissue from some years back -- he stands in front of a more recent boxed glow styrene reissue from Moebius. The Lil' Frankie in front is a customized Munny figure I whipped up for a gallery show in Minneapolis. Various other Karloff-style monsters, new and old, fill the shelf.

Here's another shelf stuffed full of Max Allan Collins novels. He just keeps writing more!

My father loved ventriloquist act, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, having grown up on the radio show. I would pick up whatever items I could find in my antique shop and thrift store excursions, and they became birthday and Christmas gifts for Dad. When he passed away, the collection came back to me. I've added to it since.

Several vintage model kit boxes (some empty --some housing unbuilt kits) sit behind this great Lon Chaney Man of 1000 Faces resin kit. Lon's make-up box was damaged in our move -- it'll have to be repaired. A wax bust of Eddie Cantor (my sculpt) looks on. Too bad we can't see the Superman box better....

More books, a favorite issue of Mad, and a cool Metamorpho action figure finish up this part of the tour. We'll be back with more -- yes, there's more -- soon!

POPEYE's How to Draw Cartoons by Joe Musial

Today I'm sharing a few highlights from this 1939 volume on drawing cartoons the Popeye way by Joe Musial. Musial does a mighty fine Segar impression, doesn't he? This was a recent used book store find.

TBG Christmas cover 1982

In the early days of my comics career, I was a regular contributor of cover art to Alan Light's weekly fanzine, The Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom.  I'm not sure how many covers I drew for TBG over the years (though someone did send me a checklist once -- which I'm sure is packed away somewhere in some box in my storage closet) -- but I only kept the original art for a handful, and this Christmas cover below is one of them.  This scan is of the original -- the color added version done in Photoshop, after scanning the original color mask overlay.  I did at least one more Christmas cover.  If I can find it before Christmas, I'll post it, too. 

The comics and toys are items from my own collection that I thought collectors might enjoy finding under a Christmas tree.  I've since sold that Daredevil #1 (darn it!) -- but still have the rest of this stuff.   Shortly after publication, Milt Caniff  sent me a postcard telling me he enjoyed seeing the Terry and the Pirates characters on this cover!

I yam what I yam!

Here's a great vintage Popeye item I used to own -- but sold on eBay years ago.  Why the heck did I sell THIS!?!  What a great piece!  And why didn't I keep a bigger, better scan of it? Aw shucks.