Animation Drawings

I love animation drawings. You really see the artists hand and how they think and convey action. I picked up a nice group of drawings from some Dr Pepper commercials which featured a pair of dogs. Enjoy

Dr Pepper Animation Gallery

Art Show in February

The Otis Board of Governors and the Ben Maltz Gallery are pleased to present on February 10 – April 15, 2006
From the Island of Misfit Toys: an exhibition of artwork inspired by toys
Curated by Meg Linton, Director of the Ben Maltz Gallery & Public Programs
Artists: Elizabeth Berdann (blu), Deborah Brown, Nathan Cabrera, Jonathan Callan, Jeroen de Vries, Dan Goodsell, Kelly Heaton, Walter Martin & Paloma Muñoz, Anne Walsh, and 8 Bit Weapon.

Friday, February 10, 7-10pm Reception for the artists with live music by 8 Bit Weapon, model car dancing performance by Jeroen de Vries (Jevries), and special guests Mr. Toast from The Imaginary World and Santa Claus.

From the Island of Misfit Toys looks at how fine artists are manipulating toys to create sculpture, video, and music that push the boundaries physically, emotionally, or conceptually to address larger themes of consumerism, the surrogate, and death. Through exaggeration of scale, excessive use of material, and do-it-yourself methods, this exhibition introduces a set of artists who are blurring the lines between creative fields and taking toys to humorous, thoughtful, and poignant places.

Lectures and Events:
Sat, Mar 11, 1pm, & Thu, Mar 16, Noon, Gallery: Dan Goodsell: The Imaginary World

Location: Otis College of Art and Design, 9045 Lincoln Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045
Parking: Free visitor parking in structure on La Tijera and on street
Gallery Hours: Tue – Sat: 10a – 5p / Thu: 10a – 7p. Closed Mondays & major holidays.
Gallery Admission: Free
Information: 310.665.6905
www.otis.edu

Play-doh

A few years ago a friend of mine decided to sell his Play-doh collection so I went ahead and I bought it. My main interest was in the advertising materials that included a lot of cool sales brochures and b/w photos. But the collection was mainly comprised of sets ranging from the 1950's up to the 1980's. I ended up only keeping a few of the nicest sets but I did take photos of all of them but forgot to ever put the link to the photos up on my site. So here for the first time is that gallery of the sets.

PLAY-DOH GALLERY

Website to Return

Well I have changed from My Yahoo to Yahoo Business and it seems that everything is OK but I had to back up all my files and now re-upload them - UGH - it might take a day or too.

7 Years Bad Luck

Feet Really Fly

I am pretty busy today so I thought I would throw up these cool little Poll Parrot Shoes signs. I like them, hope you do too.

Dynamints

Dynamints were Dentyne gums answer to Tic Tacs. Their big improvement on the small mint concept was to orient the box the other way. Thanks to Randy Jones for his contribution of this piece.

King Kong Cartoon

I had never seen the King Kong cartoon show as a kid but I became a fan of it when I saw some of the toys they had produced when the show was on. Mattel made a cool talking doll and puppet and MPC made a jungle playset. But today we are shining the spotlight on a syndication folder from the late 1960's. This material would be sent out to TV stations to try to sell the show. This one makes great use of only 2 colors and a great diecut design. It definitely sells me on the show.

Merry Christmas

and Happy Holidays.

Christmas Morning

It is finally here and the anticipation is over. The presents are open and hopefully everyone has gotten what they wished for. Mostly I get clothes now which actually makes me very happy. When I was a kid all we got were toys which most definitely made us happy. But now I spend all year buying toys so it is nice change to get things that are more practical. It is funny how life shifts in these ways.

Flying Saucer Santa

I think the one image that epitomizes Christmas more then any other I have run across is this one from the Shell Fertilizer 1958 calendar. Santa Claus, Mr High Nutrient fertilizer and the NH3 guy traveling the night skies in their flying saucer. Oh what joy they will bring to the soy bean crop around the world.

Christmas Greetings from Rudolph

Space Dust & Cosmic Candy

Ahh the 1970's, first Pop Rocks then came Space Dust and Cosmic Candy. I am sure there is a story out there as to why the name was changed perhaps it was a little to close to angel dust. Certainly the graphics on these packs seem pretty drug inspired.

Department Store Santa

Space Duck in 3D

One last bit of the Space Duck pitch, a 3D model of him. Roughly carved it captures his rough and tumble demeanor. Actually I just like the folksy look of rough carving and it saves me a lot of finish work.

3 Shopping Days til Christmas

My Life In Collecting Part 1 - Comics

The first comic book I remember owning was Incredible Hulk #165 (July 1973). There may have been others that I had read or seen but Hulk #165 was the first that was mine. As I remember it, we were on a family trip and we stopped at a convenience store and I got it. I don't remember picking it out but I do remember sitting in the car reading it. It is one of my earliest memories. My second comic memory is of me being with my grandmother and her buying me Amazing Adventures #21 (Nov. 1973) starring Killraven in the War of the Worlds. I still remember the life and death struggles that played out in these comics.

By the time I had bought Fantastic Four #143 in 1974, I had begun to understand the concept of collecting. Each month the new issues would appear at the El Rancho or Tick Tock markets. I would spend my $1 allowance and buy a couple .20 cent comics. This actual issue of FF #143 is the one I have had since childhood. As you can tell I was rough on my early comics and a lot of them are missing pages and covers.

With Avengers #118, I really began to see the depth of the Marvel Universe. In addition to all the lead characters, there were all these other characters running around and each of them had powers and histories that could only be explored by buying more comics. Spider-Man #129 was also significant to me. Even as a child of 9, I understood that it was new and unusual to have someone trying to kill Spider-Man with a rifle. I still marvel at the intensity of this cover.

The final event in my childhood collecting was the arrival of the X-Men. I was introduced to them in Captain America #173. But it was X-Men #97 that reintroduced them to me as the All New, All Different X-Men. I am sure my experience of discovering this comic was similar to kids seeing Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four for the first time. I quickly went on to trade with friends at school to get Giant Size X-Men #1 and X-Men #94-96. By this time I was buying all the new issues and collecting the old ones by going to local comic conventions. Later I would collect the toys of my childhood, Krazy Kids Food stuff and theme park items but it all began with comic books.

The Christmas Toad

(click to see larger)

Linus the Lionhearted

Post cereal did not do alot of premiums in the 1960's instead they tried to make the box itself the selling point with games and comics. This series of box back comics coincided with Linus cartoon on CBS and co-starred all the other Post cereal characters including Billie Bird, So-Hi and Sugar Bear. They contain some of my favorite cereal box back art and quite a bit of fun to boot.

Matchbooks

I find that when I am working on this blog, I like to dig around in my boxes of stuff and see what jumps out at me. Today it was an old cigar box full of matchbooks, actually matchcovers because all of them have had the matches removed. Each one is like a tiny mass produced painting. I love anything that was meant to catch the eye and then be discarded once it was used. it seems like everything now is sold on brand name or by the power of commericals and this artistry has to a large extent been lost. In the 30's a matchbooks tiny graphic image would go out into the world and hopefully secure new customers for a business. So they tried to be bright and flashy, often employing metallic inks. So enjoy this small look at some of my old time favorites.

Happy Holidays

Cracker Jack paper Prizes

In the 1960's Cracker Jack produced a number of great little paper prizes. The booklets and comics were 16 pages and had color printing inside. They are pretty fragile with just a glue binding so often front and back cover are detached. The little put together animals are just great. It would have been fun for a kid to put together their own little paper zoo.

Mr Toast Button Set

Buttons, buttons, buttons. Everyone loves buttons and now you can have them of the most popular Imaginary World characters. They are $1 each or $5 for the set of 6 (add 50c for shipping). Buy one million sets and get free shipping (limited time offer).

Space Duck

I am not sure where Space Duck came from. The first time I drew him was for a series of comic book ideas I was working on. Since that time his look changed and I gotten to know him a little bit better. Somehow he just slipped into the Imaginary World and sat down and we can't seem to get him to leave. He is not really like my other characters in that he is not a piece of food or an inanimate object. He can be a little obnoxious at times but he is out there being a space hero which is something good I think. In October I pitched him to Disney as part of their amazing shorts program. As part of the pitch I did 17 acrylic paintings and a number of drawings in about 2 weeks. It was an amazing outpouring for me, it usually takes me a couple weeks to get 3-4 paintings done and then can't paint anything for a month. Luckily this material just came out. The short ended up not getting made but it was a great experience and fun to work with Mike and John at Disney. To see the rest of the paintings click here - SPACE DUCK.

Christmas in 1966

(click to see large)

"Just one more look at it before we take it down. 1966" reads the back of this great photo. That tree really is looking pretty dry....