Caniff Class Artwork

This piece was sold on eBay a few days ago.

At $143.50 it was a steal for the lucky winner.
If it's a real Caniff, that is. The piece is unsigned and here's what the seller wrote:

"[...] a MILT CANIFF Original STEVE CANYON Drawing Pencil & Ink. The guy that I got this from said that Milt Caniff drew and inked it as an example in his art class. Measures 8 1/2" x 11".

 Could be the real deal or a darn good copy of an original Caniff piece. Guess that's why it didn't fetch more. A beautiful and iconic piece none the less.

Terry and the Pirates 1935

Just when I thought I had seen them all.
A Terry and the Pirates speciality strip by Milton Caniff from 1935!

Is this one published in the IDW books?

Who's Who in the Comics? No.8

This not-so-hard-to-guess-the-answer question ran in the Chicago Tribune February 23, 1942. Found it on eBay. The artworks looks like it's scrambled from various strips. (Maybe not, but I don't have access to my Caniff collection at the moment.)

My guess is: Retry.

eBay oddities

Some people are just begging for the cops to knock on their doors.
Like The Gallery on Baum. They are continuing to sell forgeries on eBay for loads of cash. The Krazy Kat drawing I showed some time ago sold for $769.99! And the "Larson" cartoon went for $1035. They are really drawing their own money!
I wonder how much this "Caniff" will fetch...
[Edit: It went for $76. For a piece of worthless paper! Wooha! There are sooo many suckers out there!]

From the item description: "Any monetary refunds after initial 7 day return policy must include a signed letter by a noted authority stating item is not as described and what is wrong with item. We do not accept opinions." That pretty much says it all.

And while I'm on thew subject of odd eBay objects. What's this? "Carl Barks, Scrooge and Christmas".

Rare Savings Bonds ad

This rare page was sold on eBay yesterday for $355. (!!!)
Never seen any of these images before. Caniff, Schulz, King etc. I hope IDW can get hold of a good scan of Raymonds piece for their books.

Higgins ink ad

Above is an ad for Higgins ink with artwork by Milton Caniff. I found this on the back cover of the January 1946 issue of American Artist.

Burma by Caniff

Got this mail and thought it might be of interest to some of you:

"The attached piece has just come in- I am selling it for the widow of an old friend . It is 9 by 16 and the art almost fills the entire board- looks like color pencil and ink – perfect shape.

Opening bids are $1200- if you are interested make an offer –

Best George Hagenauer"

Myself I don't have the cash, but if you are interested drop George a line at
yellowkd at tds.net

/Joakim.

Dragon Lady

In the 60's and 70's Milton Caniff began to do some nude drawings of his characters. Some are to be found in Craig Yoes book Clean cartoonists dirty drawings but not this one. Found it in the Illustration House Illustration Art Action catalog of May 8, 1999. So here she is, the Dragon Lady:

Pen and Ink #2, Part IV

Here are pages 10, 11 and 12.
Notice the mention of Milton Canniff [sic!] on page 12. The same Milton that ten years later drew Dickie Dare for AP? He would have been only 17 in '24, but it might be him.



The final post of Pen and Ink #2 will feature Hardie Gramatky, "Bill" Blum and market news. Stay tuned!

Some photos

While you are waiting for me to scan those Saturday Evening Post Disney photos here are a few others.
(Recently found on that marvelous site eBay. )

First a nice and rare shot of EC Segar dated 11/11/35.


Then two of Milton Caniff from January 1947 that was taken to tie in with the release of Steve Canyon.

Milt' 1947

I've seen tons of cartoonists photos but few are as charming as this one. Milton Caniff in a 1947 photo. He had just launched his new strip Steve Canyon and life must have been good for him.


Nice, eh?

Coming later today:
An update with some rare and unseen Disney artwork!

Jim och piraterna

If you are a fan of Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates ("Jim och piraterna" in Swedish) you might have heard that during WWII other hands were involved in producing an european version. My guess is that the proofs/stats at some times never reached Europe because of the war. What to do then? The answer was to continue the stories by doing new art and stories with Terry.
Here's a rare example. The very first one I've seen after searching for years. It appeared in the weekly magazine Allers #1 1941( January 1).
I've checked to see if it was just a redrawn version of an american page but the story doesn't seem to fit in anywhere.


Does anyone know who did this? For how long? Does anyone have more examples of this crude but interesting version of Terry and the Pirates?

Milton Caniff photos

Darn, drawing/inking is going really bad...
But to cheer these posts up a bit here are some photos of a guy who could really draw! These are some seldom seen photos of Terry and the pirates/Steve Canyon artist Milton Caniff in his office.

Even more Raymond...

As promised here are some more Alex Raymond photos. There are more to be seen but I don't want to shove them all down your throats at once. Some of you probably prefer to see photos of babes dressed up in bunny suits instead of photos of a cartoonist that died more than 50 years ago. Right? But what do I care?
Here are Raymond in his prime. Enjoy!

First off is a photo of a younger Alex. This was shot in late 1940. (Date on back of photo is Dec. 24.)

Here he is in 1950 with Rube Goldberg and Milton Caniff! Anyone knows what happened with the artwork he was presented? Reproduced anywhere?


Here he is seen signing something in 1950. Anyone knows what and who the other people on the photo are?


OK! OK! Now I'm getting tired of Alex photos myself.
Let's see... What do I have here? A photo of a babe in a bunny suit!
You knew it, didn't ya?
Info for Bunny spotters: This is Lori Lancester picking cotton (For her tail?) in 1962.

Hey, waiter!

An "Adventures of Patsy" strip from 1941. (Click to enlarge.)
Doesn't that waiter remind you of someone?
Noel Sickles is rumored to have ghosted a big chunk of this sequence, so it's probably not just a coincidence that the waiter looks like Milt' Caniff even if this strip looks like the work of Raab. What do you think?

Always looking for Mel Graffs and Charles Raabs Adventures of Patsy strips. Copies, tearsheets and original art. Drop me a line at sekvenskonst at telia.com if you got something I might be interested in.

Rare Caniff

Like yesterdays post this was found on the rarities CD I made a few years ago.
It's signed by Milton Caniff, but the question is what this was made for? Was it for an unpublished project? Any hardcore Caniff fans out there with more knowledge?





To end this Caniff post: Here is a scan of a nice original owned by my neighbour Germund von Wowern. Me like... It's faaaar more impressive than the one I got.


PS. Check out the new post at Arf lovers blog, if you havn't already. There's a scan of the very, very, very first Pogo strip that Craig Yoe owns.

Three gems

After yesterdays horrible pics I have some better ones from the rarities CD I mentioned in an earlier post.
First a Frank Robbins Hit Kit of popular songs cover:
Not that easy to find I guess...

A drawing by Milt' Caniff from 1937:


And to round off this post a Burma panel from 1938, for no other reason than I like it. Ahh, that use of blue wash on the original art. Just love it!