Merry X-mas from the Graff family

Graff-a-day

One thing I didn't know about Mel Graff was that he contributed to the KFS panel "Laff-a-day". Well, not until I was sent this image via facebook.
A real oddity by the Adventures of Patsy/Secret Agent X-9 artist.
[Thanks for sending this piece my way, Justin!]

If you want to grab the original art, it's up for sale on eBay right now.
Just click HERE.

More Wilda

Remember the song "Wilda" by Mel Graff I posted last week? I checked my set of 1947-48 X-9 strips, and whadda ya know... There it was!
Graff used it in the strip as a part of the plot. I guess this was a smart way to market a song. Or not. I dunno how many copies it sold.
Below are a few sample strips where the song is sung or mentioned.

Hogan's Alley has a great selection of old sheet music covers with comic characters. If you want to see what the cover to Wilda looks like, just click HERE.

Wilda

Want a song to hum while you are reading Mel Graff's Secret Agent X-9 dailies from the 50's?
Here's Graff's own little tune: Wilda.

Now, who's Wilda? She was Phil "X-9" Corrigan's gal in the daily strip. They later married and had a girl named Philda...

While I'm at it: here's a pin-up of Wilda done by Graff.

Mel Graff original daily 1935

Continuing my never ending series of posts with Mel Graff's "Adventures of Patsy" here's a scan of a nice original that an italian fan sent me.
(Thanks, Milone for letting me share these scans!)
It's dated 9-16, 1935 and that makes it one of the earliest Patsy dailies by Graff I'm aware of. Got a nice bunch of Graff originals myself, but none this early.



And while on the subject, Bruce Rosenberger has posted the very first Patsy story here: http://www.mediafire.com/?kfzwfwlltrm
April and May 1937 here: http://www.mediafire.com/?jfwygmmz2mh
And June 1937 here: http://www.mediafire.com/?mqmmyh5ynnm
Enjoy!

Patsy 1937

Just a break from the "Felix week" to show you some of the Adventures of Patsy I scanned today.
I'm now doing 1937 and Graff is really doing some impressive Noel Sickles influenced type of work.
I just have to share these fresh scans with the (few but devoted) Mel Graff fans out there. :)
Enjoy!

Patsy, January 1937

Still scanning Adventures of Patsy dailies by Mel Graff... Unfortunately these 1937 strips are a bit "butchered". But still better than nothing. :)
If you're not familar with the strip please check out the samples below. They are from January 1937 and Patsy has now arrived in Hollywood. Please notice that these are only my unretouched scans. However, I doubt I'll restore these since they were cropped by the newspaper. Enjoy!







PS. The name "Joe Kaplan" sounds familar. Anyone who knows who Graff was refering to?

Sangor Sammy and Patsy

Today was the first day of work at Egmont after my vacation.
It's back to the hectic life of publishing again. :)
But as usual I'll find time to blog about this and that.


Got another unsigned Sangor Shop story that I own the original art to.
I have no idea who drew this. If anyone recognise the style from a signed story please let me know.




I've also started to scan more of my Adventures of Patsy dailies. Here are some sample panels from mid 1936 that I scanned yesterday. These are from before Patsy went to Hollywood to become a star. Mel Graff's best years as an artist was still ahead of him. Enjoy!

House for sale

If you are an obsessive Mel Graff fan you might enjoy this virtual tour of his home near the great lake Sacandaga
http://tour.circlepix.com/tour.htm?id=681332&refurl=lakehouse.com

Coming up soon: A hare in the snow and lots of bags...

More Mel

A few more examples of the Mel Graff illustrations I got.
Ger Apeldoorn has posted some nice and rare Milt' Caniff illustrations over at his blog. Check them out if you havn't done that already.

Ger: Maybe you know when these Graff pieces were published?

Before I leave the studio for today I just have to share a panel from an upcoming Emma & Sara episode, drawn by Hedvig in what she calls a "fonky" style. :) I loved inking it and I hope the readers will enjoy it when it's published in Julia 8-9/09.

Mel Graff ca 1935

Mel Graff is well known for having drawn Secret Agent X-9, 1940 - 1960 and Adventures of Patsy, 1935-1940.
Some of you might even have seen his Captain Easy sundays from the 60's.
But how many have seen his illustration art from the 30's?
I recently bought a set of X-9 dailies from the 40's and as a surprise bonus I found a set of illustrations from the mid 30's included. I don't know wich paper they are from or if they were syndicated. Guess they were done for AP.
All the illustrations I got are heavily yellowed and torn. I really should scan and do some restoration work on these when time permits.
Anyway, here's one of them. (If I get requests I can always post a few more.)

Norris?

Issue 5 of the swedish Agent X9 this year will run a Secret Agent X9 (Agent Kelly in Swedish) story by Mel Graff from 1952.
But... now let's see what you have to say about the artwork posted here:

The adventure begins on February 16 with Wilda (Anne) giving birth to Philda (Paula) and the strip is signed by Graff. On Feb 22 Phil (Paul) says to Wilda that he's going away on a mission.
Then between Feb 25 and April 5 the strips are unsigned. And it's two of thise you can see above. Then on April 7 we are back where we left off on Feb 22. Looks like this is one of the fill in stories that Paul Norris did. But since I'm no expert on Norris style it woild jut be fun to see if anyone can confirm that this is one of his stories.

Before leaving the subject of Secret Agent X9 I have to show you these two panels from the sequence that ends this adventure. What you see are aged versions of Phil Corrigan and Wilda. :)

X-9

Picked up this X-9 daily last week.


This is fourth from this sequence I have. :)
Stamped with Chester Kozlaks name on the back.
I wonder how many Mel Graff X-9 originals he had?
Maybe he assisted Graff this period and kept some of the originals? Just a thought.
Anyone seen more originals from this 1942 adventure?

Adv. of Patsy 1938

Anyone who has bought these and can tell me if the reproduction is good?

March 30, 1940

Did you wake up this morning wondering what happened in the funnies this very day 68 years ago?
Wonder no more...

Patsy by Graff, Scorchy Smith by Frank Robbins and well just click on the pics and see for yourselves. Enjoy! :)

Mel Graff

Got two requests for Mel Graffs bio. So here it is!

A few years ago Mels drawingboard was for sale. Anyone who know were it ended up? Is it still for sale? I'm tempted to buy and have it shipped here. :)
Anyone with rare Graff art or runs of his (or Charles Raabs) Adventures of Patsy: please send me a mail. Got stuff to trade and I'm always interested in buying if the price is right.

Three more to go. I'm tempted to do Fred Lasswell next. He did a really good illustration of Snuffy Smith in the future. :)


And as some of you might have seen "The Floyd Gottfredson Library: The Best of Mickey Mouse - Daily strips 1930-1933" will be released next summer. However the "best of" treatment might mean we get censored or missing strips...
Let's hope not.
Heres a link to amazon.com: FGLibrary

More Graff! :)

Won this one on eBay last night. :)
My third (!!!) original daily from Mel Graffs 1942 Agent X-9 story "Lady diplomat".
Just can't get enough of them! I love how he handled the brush back in the 40's.


If I manage to finish my next Emma & Sara page this evening I'll post some uncut Floyd Gottfredson artwork that hasn't seen print since the mid 40's tonight. Stay tuned!

Nerd heaven!

I'm in nerd heaven. :)
Have spent way too many hours the past days going through Newspaperarchive.com looking for obscure items and strips.
And today I struck gold! Just look at these samples.
Vintage Adventures of Patsy by Mel Graff and Scorchy Smith by Frank Robbins looking better than on any previous microfilm I've seen.

And remember, these samples has been reduced a lot from the original files for this blog. The original files can be printed with good results. :)
They are taken from the Moberly Monitor-Index. They ran the strips large and the microfilm quality is as good as it can be. I've only downloaded pages from the late 30's/ early 40's but they might be a good scource for earlier/later stuff too. Yummy!
(Told ya I was a nerd...)

This blog will be down until monday August 13.
See you around then!

/Joakim.

PS. The original art to the first panel of the Patsy strip was given away by Graff to Charlie Roberts in 1974. I was happy to buy it from him a few years ago, and it's still my favorite piece of Graff art in my collection. :)

Patsy Jan. to July 1939 scanned.

Have just finished scanning all of the "Adventures of Patsy" strips from January to June 1939.
So if anyone has other Patsy strips to loan me you can get a CD with the raw scans from the above dates right away. :)
But before starting to scan another batch of Patsys I just have to share two panels from June 29 ,1939.
Damn, he was good!

Calling all Adv. of Patsy collectors.

Just a quick note to tell you all that I'm in the middle of scanning my collection of Mel Graff's and Charles Raab's "The Adventures of Patsy". Got several half years of the strip in various quality and looking for what I'm missing. If you got any strips that you want to loan or sell me, please let me know. (Don't have the dates I'm missing here in the studio, but drop me a mail at sekvenskonst (at) telia.com and I'll send you a list. )
The strips are scanned in high resolution and will be mounted as the sample shows. In InDesign and saved as pdfs.
Anyone who loans strips to me for this project will naturally get these pdfs.
When I get some full years scanned and mounted I'll take the pdfs to the printer and have them printed. Naturally I will make additional books for the people who has participated for the same amount I'm paying myself.
Please be aware that this is my "little hobby project" and that it takes time, time and even more time.
But anyone who wants to participate: feel free to let me know, so that we who loves this strip finally can get our runs complete! :)

PS. If you're planning to bid on Patsy strips on eBay please feel free to drop me a line. I wont bid against you if you are willing to loan me/scan the strips. But I'll fight (with a truckload of money) for the strips I'm missing. Now you have been warned.:)