Walt Kelly Poster Design for an Exhibit of American Cartoons

This original poster artwork by Walt Kelly features his signature comic strip character Pogo Possum. The medium is brushed india ink over blue pencil, the very technique he used when creating his comic strip art.

The poster publicizes a 1959 exhibit of American cartoons. It looks as if it might have been a worthwhile show. Imagine what the 1959 visitors to this show would have thought of Galerie Laqua's selling price for this today!

Walt Kelly, Original Artwork for An Exhibition of American Cartoons, April 6, 1959

http://www.galerielaqua.de/seiten_englisch/eoauskelly01.html

Note:  This post concludes my survey of Walt Kelly artwork for the time being. Earlier posts remain on view here. I'm far from done with Pogo and his creator, but I have other exciting subjects I want to move on to. I never really thought I'd spend this much time on Pogo, but I'm not sorry. I have always maintained that the subject matter of most any single post on this blog could serve as the basis for an entire blog if one kept coming back to different aspects of the subject and that's more or less what I've done here. In the case of Kelly, there's already the Whirled of Kelly blog here and Pogo in Pandemonia here. I focussed more on original artwork rather than published newspaper pages, taking advantage mostly of eBay sales featuring splendid scans of original artwork. These sales tend to vanish from eBay after a few months. What I'd really like to do some day is match up some of the original artwork I have here with the printed comic strips, particularly the color Sunday pages. If anyone has scans of the individual Sunday strips shown here, please get in touch.

By the way, Galerie Laqua in Berlin was mentioned on this blog once before in the Mail from Mr. Herriman post here.

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Steamboat Willie Poster Design

On Walt Disney's birthday, here is a memento of Mickey Mouse whose birthday I somehow failed to celebrate this year. November 18, 1928 was the original release date for "Steamboat Willie." Although "Plane Crazy" was the first Mickey Mouse short made, "Steamboat Willie" was the first theatrical release. No copies of the published poster are extant.

Walt Disney Studios 

Steamboat Willie, 1928
Mickey Mouse at the helm, original layout for U.S. cinema poster, graphite on paper, unframed
Image -- Mickey: 5x4in. (12.7x10.2cm.)
Sight -- 11x7¾in. (28x19.7cm.)

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot/walt-disney-studios-3839335-details.aspx?pos=5&intObjectID=3839335&sid=&page=6

Walt Disney,"Steamboat Willie" (1928)

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