Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Morticia and Fester at the British Museum

This single large sheet has two drawings of original advertising art by Charles Addams that was created for British Telecom. It features the classic Addams Family characters Uncle Fester and Morticia on holiday at the British Museum. The artwork was offered for sale by Taraba Illustration art in 2009 for $9,600 and was subsequently sold.


"I do hope it's who you think it is, Fester."

"It's all been wonderful, Grandma—and Fester has at last established his ancestry!"



The Charles Addams Listing at Taraba Illustration Art, LLC



February 12, 2023 Update:  The original ad is on Tumblr and has been sitting there for eleven years! The British Telecom print ad omits entirely the caption for the mummy cartoon. Thanks to @John_Barach on Twitter for finding this in response to a query from Neil Gaiman, @neilhimself on Twitter and Instagram. Gaiman writes about purchasing the original Addams art when he won the John Newbery Medal here.
“We’re having a wonderful time Grandma, and Fester has finally found out who his mother is.”
When you’ve seen something to write home about, phone.
It’s quick, cheap and very easy to dial America direct.
PHONE HOME. IT FEELS GOOD.
British Telecom International





February 13, 2023 Update:
  A higher resolution image is provided by John Freeman. On close inspection, it's clear that these two Addams family images are not the same as Neil Gaiman's originals; they're a close variant. Gaiman's are in the upright portrait orientation, as we now call it, whereas the ad's two illustrations are in horizontal or landscape orientation.
Scan provided by John Freeman



October 15, 2023 Update:   Another Addams ad from the BTI campaign, this one in color, appears on Twitter from the collection of H-Bomb, @BeastsOfLuxury.
". . . Oh no Grandma, we're not a bit homesick. The folks Fester and I have met could be part of the Family."
https://twitter.com/BeastsOfLuxury/status/1626996571253493761










0507

Carl Barks: Halloween in Duckburg

It's trick or treat time for poor Donald Duck, who has to contend with more than just his three nephews this Halloween. This 1973 painting by Carl Barks sold last year at Heritage for $83,650.
 
Carl Barks, Halloween in Duckburg, 1973

Carl Barks, Halloween in Duckburg, 1973

Carl Barks, Halloween in Duckberg, 1973
http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7036&lotNo=92003
[End of Heritage Auction Listing]

Carl Barks, Walt Disney's Donald Duck No. 26, in "Trick or Treat"

Carl Barks, Walt Disney's Donald Duck in "Trick or Treat"

(Gladstone Comic Album Series No. 23), a 1989 reprint


Carl Barks, Le Journal de Mickey 1752,
France, 1986
This magazine cover makes use
of the 1973 lithograph artwork.



Walt Disney's "Trick or Treat" (1952)



Carl Barks, Halloween in Duckburg,
Final Pencil Layout



Carl Barks, Halloween in Duckburg,
Final Color Layout


Carl Barks, Halloween in Duckburg,
1973 Published Lithograph



Carl Barks, Halloween in Duckburg, 1973

Carl Barks, Halloween in Duckburg, 1973


506

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

The Great Pumpkin

Last December, Profiles in History sold this original artwork to a classic Peanuts comic strip from 1963. Linus and Snoopy are in the pumpkin patch on Halloween night. Linus expects to see the Great Pumpkin appear, but he seems to have a moment of doubt.

I've never really gotten used to the soaring prices that original Peanuts comic strip art now commands. Still, the quality of this strip was never surpassed and it is hard to underestimate its cultural impact.

Charles M. Schulz, Peanuts, October 30, 1963



Toxic Charles Addams

This original drawing by Charles Addams in a copy of his collection My Crowd was offered on eBay in July 2009 for $4,500. The writing on the spine of the book reads Toxicology.

Charles Addams, My Crowd,
Copy inscribed "To Russ Aitken in appreciation for
a most beautiful book
With all best
Chas Addams
1972"

*******

Charles Addams Google Doodle

0504

Monday, October 29, 2012

Hurricane Sandy and the Roosevelt Island Lighthouse

Even before Hurricane Sandy makes landfall, the storm surge is significant. Here is a photo of the Roosevelt Island Lighthouse I took back in 2007, used for comparison with how the lighthouse looks in today's storm.

The Roosevelt Island Lighthouse in fair weather, September 15, 2007
The Roosevelt Island Lighthouse in the East River at 11:30 a.m. on October 29, 2012.
Photo courtesy of Bert Oberlander.
The Roosevelt Island Lighthouse, October 29, 2012, around noon. Photo courtesy of my wife.
0503

Answers to the Second Attempted Bloggery Quiz

Answer Key to the Second Attempted Bloggery Quiz:








Below are the correct answers to the Second Attempted Bloggery Quiz which I proudly published in my 500th blog post. If you haven't yet taken the quiz and you wish to do so before checking the answers, click here.














Correct answers are highlighted in yellow.
















Directions:  Choose the best answer for each. If there is more than one best answer, choose the bestest answer. Record your answers to all questions in ink. Hey, I'm not kidding this time!









1. The most expensive work of art yet sold at auction by a living artist is

a) Balloon Flower (Magenta) by Jeff Koons
b) Flag by Jasper Johns
c) To the Unknown Painter by Anselm Kiefer
d) Abstraktes Bild (809-4) by Gerhard Richter
e) For the Love of God by Damien Hirst

Gerhard Richter is the new auction record holder. Damien Hirst's diamond-encrusted skull may have sold for much more, but it was sold privately.





2. After the first 2012 Presidential debate, this blog came out strongly in support of

a) Barack Obama
b) Mitt Romney
c) Big Bird

That was a giveaway, right?




René Magritte, "La Trahison des Images" ("The Treachery of Images") (1928-9)
or "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" ("This is not a pipe"), LACMA

3. Google Translator publishes a French version of this blog with the title

a) Froggy et Bloggy
b) Le non Blog
c) Ceci n'est pas un Blog
d) Tentative Bloggery

Google Translator has given this blog the French title Tentative Bloggery, which I don't think captures the fanciful nuance of Attempted Bloggery. I would prefer something like Ceci n'est pas un Blog, which at least makes reference to Magritte, except that this is not analogous to a picture of a blog.




4. The only artist currently to appear in more than one of my top ten most popular blog posts of all time is

a) Charles M. Schulz
b) B. Kliban
c) Roy Lichtenstein
d) George Herriman
e) None of the above

Just as this blog publishes material on many divers subjects, the popularity of published posts is quite varied as well. I never know in advance which posts will resonate and which will not. No single artist currently appears twice in the top ten list.





5. Many well-known personalities of the past are mentioned on this blog, including all of the following EXCEPT

a) Walt Disney
b) Walt Kelly
c) Immanuel Kant
d) Groucho Marx

Immanuel Kant had many profound philosophical insights, yet that's not quite good enough to earn him fervent mention on this blog. For those needing a good night's sleep without the use of prescription medication, I recommend curling up with a copy of his Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals.







6. I love posting drawings or even minor doodles by great cartoonists and illustrators that have not otherwise been available anywhere on the internet. To date I have done this with each of the following artists EXCEPT

a) Hank Ketcham
b) Edward Koren
c) James Gurney
d) Ronald Searle
e) Jean-Jacques Sempé

Sorry, no Hank Ketcham--yet.




Andrew Wyeth, Christina's World, Museum of Modern Art



7. Christina's World is Andrew Wyeth's most well-known painting. On this blog we've also seen

a) Christina's Bathroom
b) Christina's Bedroom
c) Christina's Closet
d) Christina's Garage
e) Christina's Kitchen

See, it's an easy quiz if you read the blog!



René Magritte, Golconde, 1953
The Menil Collection, Houston, TX

8.The number of people who publicly follow Attempted Bloggery after its first sixteen months is approximately

a) 19
b) 219
c) 419
d) 619
e) 819

The blog has only a paltry 19 followers after sixteen months. This is only two more than at the time of my first quiz. My Twitter account (@doc_nad) has more followers, and I don't even understand tweeting.





9. The classic rock song lyric I quote most often is from

a) "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" by John Lennon
b) "Truckin'" by Jerry Garcia of The Greatful Dead
c) "Squeeze Box" by Pete Townshend of The Who
d) "Life's Been Good" by Joe Walsh

"I can't complain but sometimes I still do."





10. To date this blog has had approximately

a) 28,000 page views
b) 128,000 page views
c) 228,000 page views
d) 328,000 page views

The blog had nearly 128,000 page views at the time this quiz was published. Yes, that's about 6,700 per follower, which means that for the most part it isn't followers who read this blog. It's Googlers, searchers, and lurkers!





Scoring: Give yourself one point and only one point for each correct answer.


Score  Assessment
9-10     Such wisdom in one so young! And so good-looking!
7-8       Clearly you have potential, young Grasshopper.
5-6       You are maybe one step ahead of the crowd. Maybe.
3-4       You are not spending nearly enough time with this blog.
0-2       You would have been better off guessing at random.

0502

Sunday, October 28, 2012

NYC 2009 Halloween Decorations

Here are a few Halloween decorations photographed by me on November 1, 2009 in Manhattan.

Witch at 100 United Nations Plaza
Decorations on York Avenue
G-g-ghost!



****


Danse Macabre - 

Camille Saint-Saëns


501

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Blog Post No. 500: The Second Attempted Bloggery Quiz

The Second Attempted Bloggery Quiz:




Remember the First Attempted Bloggery Quiz? It was published with my 400th blog post, or so I thought. I subsequently figured out that I miscounted and it was my 403rd post. So it goes. I'm sure I'm the only one who noticed.

Now I'm reasonably certain I'm up to 500. What I'm not sure of is whether anyone actually took the first quiz, but that's not going to stop me from carrying on with a second. This is a blog that doesn't know the meaning of the word failure.

So here I proudly present the Second Attempted Bloggery Quiz. It mostly covers material from the last 100 posts, or should I say the last 97? If you are one of the billions who haven't yet taken the first quiz and you are so compulsive that you wish to do so before having a go at the second, by all means click here.





Correct answers are to be published Monday, October 29, 2012.




Directions:  Choose the best answer for each. If there is more than one best answer, choose the bestest answer. Record your answers to all questions in ink. Hey, I'm not kidding this time!





Jeff Koons, Balloon Flower (Magenta), Christies

1. The most expensive work of art yet sold at auction by a living artist is

a) Balloon Flower (Magenta) by Jeff Koons
b) Flag by Jasper Johns
c) To the Unknown Painter by Anselm Kiefer
d) Abstraktes Bild (809-4) by Gerhard Richter
e) For the Love of God by Damien Hirst






2. After the first 2012 Presidential debate, this blog came out strongly in support of

a) Barack Obama
b) Mitt Romney
c) Big Bird





René Magritte, "La Trahison des Images" ("The Treachery of Images") (1928-9)
or "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" ("This is not a pipe"), LACMA

3. Google Translator publishes a French version of this blog with the title

a) Froggy et Bloggy
b) Le non Blog
c) Ceci n'est pas un Blog
d) Tentative Bloggery





4. The only artist currently to appear in more than one of my top ten most popular blog posts of all time is

a) Charles M. Schulz
b) B. Kliban
c) Roy Lichtenstein
d) George Herriman
e) None of the above






5. Many well-known personalities of the past are mentioned on this blog, including all of the following EXCEPT

a) Walt Disney
b) Walt Kelly
c) Immanuel Kant
d) Groucho Marx




6. I love posting drawings or even minor doodles by great cartoonists and illustrators that have not otherwise been available anywhere on the internet. To date I have done this with each of the following artists EXCEPT

a) Hank Ketcham
b) Edward Koren
c) James Gurney
d) Ronald Searle
e) Jean-Jacques Sempé




Andrew Wyeth, Christina's World, Museum of Modern Art, NY


7. Christina's World is Andrew Wyeth's most beloved painting. On this blog we've also seen

a) Christina's Bathroom
b) Christina's Bedroom
c) Christina's Closet
d) Christina's Garage
e) Christina's Kitchen



René Magritte, Golconde, 1953
The Menil Collection, Houston, TX


8.The number of people who publicly follow Attempted Bloggery after its first sixteen months is approximately

a) 19
b) 219
c) 419
d) 619
e) 819



9. The classic rock song lyric I quote most often is from

a) "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" by John Lennon
b) "Truckin'" by Jerry Garcia of The Greatful Dead
c) "Squeeze Box" by Pete Townshend of The Who
d) "Life's Been Good" by Joe Walsh




10. To date this blog has had approximately

a) 28,000 page views
b) 128,000 page views
c) 228,000 page views
d) 328,000 page views



Again, the answers will be published Monday, October 29, 2012.

Update:  The answers are here.

0500

A Goofy Halloween

Why is this dog laughing? I mean, it's not as if the magazine were named for him. Happy Halloween 1939 from Goofy! 

Mickey Mouse Magazine, No. 50, Vol. 5, No. 2, November 1939
0499

Friday, October 26, 2012

The Best Kind of Boo

This Halloween season many ghoulies and ghosties ask, What is the best kind of boo? For the answer, I owe many thanks to my 13-year-old nephew who today shares with us his photograph of a clever license plate. A little humor is all it takes to make my Halloween happy!


"BOO  B"
New Jersey license plate
0498

Thursday, October 25, 2012