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Annnnnd…it’s too late

There was an art auction this morning in California of sketches and animation cels from a lot of cartoon greats. So we’ve missed it. Sorry. BUT the catalogue is online and if you like that sort of thing, it’s just the sort of thing you’ll like.

I like that sort of thing very much, so let me direct your attention to some specifics.

■Page 4. My hero, Winsor McKay, and a frame from his 1914 cartoon Gertie the Dinosaur. Expected to fetch $3,000-5,000.

■Beginning page 5. Betty Boop sketches in pencil ($400-$600) and other Fleischer Studios.

■Popeye, beginning page 8.

■Beginning page 9, ladies and gentlemen, the Sixties: Mister Magoo, Beany and Cecil, Chilly Willy, Tom Slick, Super Chicken, Pink Panther. A cel from Yellow Submarine and one from Fritz the Cat.

■Beginning page 17: Peanuts. (Not a fan, me).

■Warner Brothers, Loony Tunes, starting page 22.

■Page 37. Production stills from The Grinch ($1,000-$1,500).

■Hanna-Barbera’s crap starts page 40.

■Page 95 is interesting. Artist Bill Mack bought the “Hollywood” sign in 2007 (the original was taken down and put into storage in 1978) and did paint upon it a very good homage to Steamboat Willy, Disney’s landmark Mickey Mouse cartoon. He managed to keep much of the grunge from the original weathered sign material. $20,000 – $40,000.

And from there on, it’s Disney, in more or less chronological order, to the end (total of over 250 pages and almost a thousand objects). The drawing at the top of the post (p. 136 $400-$600) was by Disney’s best caricature artist (no points for guessing the subject). His name was Thornton Hee, so of course he signed himself T. Hee.

Of course he did.

Comments


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 31, 2013, 10:36 pm

They’re hosting the catalogue in high resolution (so you can zoom way in) so no telling how long it’ll be online. But I gather this gallery specializes in this kind of thing and holds several auctions a year.

Page 250, they’re advertising sale of the Walther that Sean Connery held in the Bond publicity photos, but the auction dates were actually a couple of days ago, so I are confused. I don’t think any of us would be interested in the $200,000 to $300,000 guide price anyway.


Comment from mojo
Time: July 31, 2013, 10:52 pm

Bugs and the Bull!

(snort snort)
“Oh course you realize…”


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 31, 2013, 11:13 pm

The company hosting this does general Hollywood memorabilia auctions. Watch them at Profiles in History dot com.


Comment from Anonymous
Time: July 31, 2013, 11:15 pm

Mr McGoo was my favorite cartoon character. Road Runner and Bugs Bunny were pretty good too. Rocky and Bullwinkle ..eh..watched them only because that was what was on, and our TV only had three channels.

“It’s Howdy Doody Time”, ya nothing else on. Captain Kangaroo and Mr GreenJeans. Lone Ranger, and Lassie. I Love Lucy was my sister’s favorite. I hated it, and the Three Stooges. “The Honey Mooners”, ya watched Ralph, Alice, Trixie and Norton.

I admire you people who have the talent to draw stuff. I can’t draw a straight line.


Comment from Anonymous
Time: July 31, 2013, 11:16 pm

Nope, that was Trixie, not Kristie, No edit for anonymous


Comment from Mrs Compton
Time: July 31, 2013, 11:34 pm

Really wish I had known about this. *sigh*


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 31, 2013, 11:36 pm

It amazes me how little some of this stuff goes for. If I had excess income (ha! ha!) a few hundred bucks for a classic animation cel would be just the thing. The sellers surely know the value, so it wouldn’t be an investment, it would just be, like, w00t! I own a genu-wine fragment of a Bugs Bunny cartoon!


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 31, 2013, 11:36 pm

Keep watching, Mrs C. They described this as their “Summer sale” so I bet they do it at least twice a year. There are a hell of a lot of cels in a cartoon.


Comment from QuasiModo
Time: July 31, 2013, 11:50 pm

T. Hee…awesome name 🙂


Comment from Mrs Compton
Time: August 1, 2013, 1:08 am

I could have picked up some nice Dumbo stuff. That’s all I collect.


Comment from Christopher Taylor
Time: August 1, 2013, 1:10 am

Ralph Bakshee is selling his stuff on Ebay I think it is, cels from Wizards and Fire and Ice and so on. There was a really nice one of Holly Would I would have liked to have bought. I have him on Facebook, that’s pretty much all he does, advertise his stuff heh.


Comment from scottthebadger
Time: August 1, 2013, 1:52 am

i watched Run Silnet, Run Deep over the weekend. Clark Gable had an interestingly shaped head.


Comment from Oceania
Time: August 1, 2013, 2:11 am

Wait for the real art to slip out.

Weasles of the Third Reich … The Untold Story …

🙂


Comment from Nina
Time: August 1, 2013, 4:46 am

Yeah, I wouldn’t mind some of those on my walls. Very cool!


Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: August 1, 2013, 5:50 am

No Checkered Demon? No Wonder Warthog?


Comment from Rich Rostrom
Time: August 1, 2013, 6:28 am

T. Hee, huh? I know of people named Bee, Dee, Gee, Lee, and Veee (three e’s). Also Key, Rhee, Wie, and Yee. Add Hee to the list.

Stark Dickflüssig @ August 1, 2013, 5:50 amNo Checkered Demon? No Wonder Warthog?
This was all animation-related art, and S. Clay Wilson and Gil Shelton never had any animated work.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: August 1, 2013, 10:19 am

I’ve noticed that with Twitter, Christopher. Anyone the slightest bit famous, all they do is tweet about their next TV appearance or show. That, sir or madam, is boring.


Comment from Deborah
Time: August 1, 2013, 12:30 pm

I loved Saturday morning cartoons. But watching them came at a high price: my two older sisters ruled the television and I had to promise all sorts of extra chores just to watch my favorite—Merrie Melodies.


Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: August 1, 2013, 12:55 pm

I would love to a beautiful Sleeping Beauty Cell. She always makes me think of a slightly naive Disney-ized Vargas Girl.


Comment from ermine
Time: August 1, 2013, 2:30 pm

It’s with trepidation I ask but why the hate for Peanuts Weas?


Comment from Christopher Taylor
Time: August 1, 2013, 2:41 pm

Yeah, there are a few exceptions like Bruce Campbell, but most celebs use social media to advertise, like a talk show appearance. Dull.


Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: August 1, 2013, 2:54 pm

Oh, animation cartoons! I’ve watched a few of those.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: August 1, 2013, 7:26 pm

I don’t hate Peanuts, ermine. I just never liked it much.


Comment from Deborah
Time: August 1, 2013, 8:25 pm

The ubiquitous “Happiness is a Warm Puppy” Peanuts advertising campaign hit when I was a freshman in high school. Saccharine on steroids. My girlfriends and I exchanged an endless stream of notes beginning with “Happiness is … .” My favorite and the all-time winner from a girl friend: “Happiness is peppermint schnapps in your lunchtime Coke-Cola.” Roger that.


Comment from Christopher Taylor
Time: August 1, 2013, 9:12 pm

I like and don’t like comics like Peanuts and BC. They were often clever but the art was so minimal and often poor it was painful to read. Look back at the old comics and you see brilliant artwork.

Bill Watterson used to rant about this, and he was right.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: August 1, 2013, 11:01 pm

I think it’s that, Christopher. I like my artwork better executed (Watterson can put out a mean watercolor).

That’s why I admire Ramirez so much. He has awesome editorial cartoon ideas and he’s a splendid artist.


Comment from ermine
Time: August 2, 2013, 4:39 pm

The old school Peanuts were very different.


Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: August 4, 2013, 4:24 am

Peanuts was awesome because Schultz drew every single panel himself. Even at the end, when he was getting shaky, he still drew & lettered it himself, quivering lines & all.

It was also quite a good comic.

Dunno about the animated crap, though.


Comment from Steve Skubinna
Time: August 9, 2013, 9:45 pm

There’s Chuck Jones Gallery in San Diego (now they have two or three other locations, including Las Vegas). Of course they started specializing in Jones and his stable, sketches and cells and the like. That being a finite supply they later on made arrangements with the estates of Charles Schultz and Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) to sell their stuff as well.

And then they have lots of newer works that fit within the comic/cartoon milieu. I have spent many hours, as well as many dollars, at the gallery, to the point that I’d have to take something down to hang a new piece.

Incidentally, when I revisited the old alma mater UCSD a few years ago, three decades after graduation, I found that the old Central Library is now the Geisel Library. Dr. Seuss left a major endowment to the school. To make sure nobody misses the connection, there’s a larger than life sized sculpture of the Cat in the Hat at the entrance.

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