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June 29th, 2023

Illustration: Three Early Tenggren Books

Today, we digitized the illustrations from three more early books by Gustaf Tenggren. Tenggren was a key concept artist on Snow White and Pinocchio, and it’s clear that the Disney artists looked to his work for inspiration in establishing the Disney feature style.

As we scan more books, we are able to find interesting parallels. For instance, it’s interesting to compare Tenggren’s approach to Hawthorne’s “Tanglewood Tales” to Edmund Dulac’s highly stylized version.

And a similar comparison between Tenggren’s approach to a battle scene and the way Kay Nielsen handled the same subject in East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

We can also compare Tenggren’s early “Juan And Juanita” to his treatment of an almost identical subject in a totally different style in the Golden Book, “The Little Trapper”.

We can also see similarities to Tenggren’s contemporary book, “Small Fry And The Winged Horse”.

As our database fills out, more and more interesting comparisons and relationships like this will become apparent. That’s one of the most exciting things about the collection of Animation Resources. The information has always existed, but gathering it all together in one place, and making it searchable will add a level of understanding that has never been possible before. Stay tuned. It will get even better!

Here then, are three more books by the great artist, Gustaf Tenggren…

Gustaf Tenggren

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

This posting is part of a series of articles comprising an online exhibit spotlighting Illustration.

Labeled: fairy tales, fantasy art, illustration, tenggren |

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Posted by admin @ 11:36 am

June 21st, 2023

Comic Books: Kirby and Severin in Not Brand Echh

Animation Resources supporter, Kevin O’Neil was reading one of our comic book articles earlier this week, and it reminded him of some treasures in his own stash of comics. So he came down to the archive and lent us his collection to digitize. Thanks, Kevin!

Current superhero comics (now referred to self-importantly as "graphic novels") take themselves VERY seriously. It’s rare for a publisher to allow a parody of its own characters… and unheard of for the creator himself to get the opportunity to make fun of his own creation. But back in the silver age of comics, cartoonists didn’t take themselves quite so seriously. Here we have the unthinkable… Jack Kirby and Stan Lee doing a parody of their own Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer comics for Marvel’s Not Brand Echh!

Not Brand Echh was a short-lived humor comic line from Marvel that parodied superhero comics. The title was derived from the term of derision used in the letters section of Marvel comics to describe competing comic book companies… "Brand Echh" was a riff on TV commercials that compared products to their competitor, "Brand X". The series ran for 13 issues from August of 1967 to May of 1969, and featured art by Bill Everett (see our recent post on Bob’s Big Boy), Roy Thomas and John and Marie Severin.

Here we have a story from the premiere issue of Not Brand Echh titled, "The Silver Burper". The plot was loosely based on the story of Fantastic Four #57 through #60… It was written by Stan Lee and drawn by the great Jack Kirby. (Inking by Frank Giacoia and lettering by Artie Simek.)

Here’s a parody that mingles the superhero universes of both Marvel and DC. Other stories in this issue lampoon Gold Key’s Magnus, Robot Fighter and Tower’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.

Marie Severin is one of the underrated geniuses behind Marvel comics. She started as a colorist for EC Comics in the 1950s, where she established a reputation for creating sophisticated color schemes that raised the level of quality above the arbitrary primary and secondary colors that filled other comics at the time. She transitioned to working as an artist on the Doctor Strange and Sub-Mariner lines, but really made her mark doing parodies in Not Brand Echh and Crazy.

One of those unanswerable questions that never seems to go away (at least at gatherings of comic book nerds) is "Who would win in a battle between Batman and Superman?" Fanboys have expended many hours debating the fine points of this and other match-ups with no clear answer. But now we finally get to see the decisive outcome of a battle royale between the "Caped Crusader" and the "Web Slinger"!

Here we have a story from the second issue of Not Brand Echh titled, "Peter Pooper vs Gnatman And Rotten". It was written by Stan Lee and drawn by the Marie Severin. (Inking by Frank Giacoia and lettering by Al Kurzrok.)

Here is another great team-up of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, "The Origin of Forbush Man".

Mark Evanier has a new book out titled, Kirby: KIng of Comics. I haven’t had a chance to take a look at it yet, but I’m sure it’s great. Click through the link to find out about it at Amazon. If anyone out there would like to contribute a copy to the Animation Resources library, we would greatly appreciate it!

Here we have a story from the fifth issue of Not Brand Echh titled, "The Origin of Forbush Man". It was written by Stan Lee, laid out by Jack Kirby, drawn by Tom Sutton, with lettering by Artie Simek.

Animation Resources is looking for collectors of gold and silver age comic books, 50s and 60s Mad magazines, 50s Playboys, National Lampoon, etc. who would be willing to lend us their books to digitize. If you’d like to help out, contact me at… sworth@animationresources.org.

Check out the new book collecting Not Brand Ecch!

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

This posting is part of the online Encyclopedia of Cartooning under the subject heading, Comic Books.

Labeled: comic book, jack kirby, marie severin, marvel, superhero |

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Posted by Stephen Worth @ 1:14 pm

June 20th, 2023

Illustration: Dulac’s Hans Christian Andersen

The invention of chromolithography at the end of the 19th century opened up a new world for book illustrators. It was no longer necessary for illustrators to limit the number of colors and focus on high contrast line work. The printing press was now capable of reproducing oil paintings and watercolors with all of the richness of the original artwork. This resulted in an explosion of illustrated books around the turn of the century, and made superstars of the artists who created them.

One of the most striking aspects of vintage book illustrations is the use of color. In our memory, our impression of these beautiful images is made up of rich and vibrant hues, but if we analyze the way color is actually being used, we realize that the color harmonies are very subtle, with small brilliant accents used to direct the eye, and careful attention to the rendering of form, texture and lighting effects.

Art is all about beautiful contrasts, and so is the use of color… warm colors against cool colors, light ones against dark ones, large areas of color against small ones… Edmund Dulac was a master at juggling these contrasts to create a pleasing color scheme from a muted palette. Some of the pictures in today’s post are almost monochromatic, with a variety of shades and shapes defining the image. Others have a variety of hues all around the same value. Dulac is constantly varying the way he handles the lighting and color to convey the feeling of the story.

Collecting golden age illustrated children’s books can be a difficult and frustrating process. It’s hard to know just how many color plates a book should have. First editions might have had thirty or more color plates; but with each subsequent reprinting, the number might have been reduced to twenty, twelve, eight or four. Modern reissues might contain all of the plates, but the color balance and detail in the reproduction is usually nothing like the original. First editions are always the best, but they can be very costly, selling for as much as a thousand dollars or more for a volume in good condition. For the past twenty years, I’ve been collecting these books… on a budget. I look for damaged bindings or torn text pages that will reduce the value. As long as the illustrations are all present and in good condition, I don’t care how beat up the rest of the book is.

For a long time, I’ve been wanting to get ahold of an original printing of Edmund Dulac’s most famous book, Andersen’s Fairy Tales. However, the cost of first editions with all 28 plates was prohibitive. The other day I was searching through abebooks.com and with some clever search terms, I discovered that there was a German printing of Andersen’s Fairy Tales that contained all of the plates I was looking for. Since it was in German, the price was a fraction of what an English or American first edition would cost. Needless to say, I didn’t hesitate! Here are the scans…