Saturday, November 24, 2007

Preston Blair Swipes

I was reading a Speedy Rabbit comic, in fact it's the only issue of Speedy Rabbit and I noticed that the characters and some of the poses looked really familiar. It wasn't 'til I came to the Rudolf The Pup page that I realized that everything was swiped from Preston Blair's Animation 1 book. Which I thought was strange as the issue was drawn by Ben Brown, who if I'm not mistaken, drew the Richie Rich comics. Anyway, I thought it was amusing since I've spent so much time practicing from that book and that so many of the drawings in it pop up as small business logos or mascots for school teams. Here's some scans from the issue with the corresponding drawings from Blair's book.

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13 comments:

  1. Thad11/24/2007 11:19 PM

    Wow! Good imitations!
    Preston Blair drew ONE comic story for the All Comics Group, and he told Dave Bennett it was such a terrible experience that he'd never do it again!!!

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  2. david11/25/2007 12:14 AM

    hahaahah whoa. this crazy. he somehow fit all of preston's poses into a comic. sigh. but this isn't a popular comic for obviously reasons.. crime doesn't pay.

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  3. J. J. Hunsecker11/25/2007 2:40 PM

    Good eye, Kevin!

    Bad enough that the comic artist stole from Blair, but he didn't even draw the swipes that well. (But then, if he could draw better, he wouldn't need to steal.)

    In that first comic panel, that dog head reminds me of Terrytoons' character Dimwit. Specifically, his pose on his title card.

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  4. Anonymous11/25/2007 3:22 PM

    Well, most Harvey Comics fans think Ben Brown did the weakest drawings. So it's not surprising that he relied on someone else's drawings to finish a comic.

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  5. Kevin Langley11/26/2007 11:06 AM

    I think it's funny how he drew a whole strip using mostly Blair's poses. It's not surprising to hear he's not considered that great by Harvey fans.

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  6. Doomsday11/26/2007 4:37 PM

    Good Find!! hawhaw! good swipes indeed!

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  7. Krishva12/05/2007 10:44 AM

    Part of what's amazing about the "Rudolph the Pup" comic is that it looks like the artist built the story and dialog out of the Preston Blair faces (like he was just making an excuse to use those faces since he couldn't draw his own).

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  8. Fun Ideas12/05/2007 7:30 PM

    Just curious, how did you know it was Ben Brown? Did he sign it? Usually, the Harvey artists never signed their work, but yes, he did draw Richie Rich for a time in the late 70s/early 80s. Here's another site about Ben Brown: http://www.publiceye.org/ifas/library/cartoons/index.html

    Mark Arnold
    http://thft.home.att.net

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  9. Steven Rowe12/06/2007 7:59 AM

    actually Preston Blair did two comics for ACG, not one. (I guess the experience caused him to forget he did one of them)

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  10. TheFuzzyPubes12/07/2007 10:33 AM

    :0
    !!?$"%/$*
    HAHA!
    GREAT Post!

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  11. Kevin Langley12/11/2007 11:32 PM

    Just curious, how did you know it was Ben Brown? Did he sign it?

    Hi Mark. Yes, each story was signed by Brown. This comic was published through I.W.

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  12. Kevin Langley12/11/2007 11:35 PM

    Oh, and thanks for the links Mark.

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  13. Steven Rowe12/12/2007 7:03 AM

    Mark, Ben Brown did lots of signed comics in the mid1950s (when this particular story was done).
    Even did lots of adventure comics.
    Worked for Atlas-Marvel, ACG, Stanmore, Quality, et al.

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