It’s an original Hazel!

Posted on December 6, 2022 by Tom Falco

I bought an original “Hazel” cartoon by Ted Key, done for the Saturday Evening Post.

It’s hand drawn and colored.

Hazel has always been one of my favorite single panel cartoons, along with Our Boarding House, Out Our Way, of course The Far Side and a bunch of others.

I watch Hazel on tv too, one of the nostalgia channels shows two episodes every morning and sometimes I watch, and listen, as I’m drawing.

I may or may not sell this and the same with the recent Peanuts cartoon cel I purchased.

My goal has always been to sell ephemeral items. I’ve done that in the past with Flintstone cartoon cels and old magazines and magazine advertisements, too.

This Hazel cartoon is from an estate collection of original art.

This early Ted Key ink and watercolor cartoon is done on paper that has been mounted to a board. This would have been done to give to an executive for their wall or even a retirement or going away gift. The cartoon has a hand written caption that reads “You’ll Have To Speak Up” with OK RUN written in blue pencil.

Overall paper that art is on measures 11″ x 8 1/2 inches. It’s not easy to find any hand colored Ted Key originals, so this is extra special.

Receive an email each time I publish a blog post by clicking here

I bid and won this Linus cartoon cell

Posted on December 1, 2022 by Tom Falco

I bid on and won this Linus original cartoon cell created by the Bill Melendez Studio for A Boy Named Charlie Brown in 1969. I was the first Peanuts movie.

I bid on another one featuring Charlie Brown and another character, but didn’t get it.

My cousin works for the auction house that sells orignial cartoon art. They are based in Hoboken, so every time I come up from the PATH train (subway), one of the first things I see is the buidling he works in. I’ve only been inside once.

He told me a month or so ago about some of the Peanuts art they had getting ready for auction. He wasn’t allowed to show it to me, but he informed me about it.

A few weeks ago he texted me about two hours before the auction ended and I bid. I now have this great thing to add to my original cartoon art collection.

Receive an email each time I publish a blog post by clicking here

Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the gang on sneakers

Posted on May 19, 2022 by Tom Falco

Peanuts characters are featured on a new line of sneakers from Converse.

The collection will include the Chuck 70 ($100), One Star ($90), and Chuck Taylor All Star ($70) styles.

There are also matching t-shirts, shorts and other items.

I’m tempted to buy this read pair, but I don’t wear high-tops and I’m not sure I would actually wear them. Although I might.

The collection is available Tuesday, May 24. You can see them here.

Get my blog via email when it’s updated Click here.

Trades people mid 1800s

Posted on April 6, 2022 by Tom Falco

Found these old Daguerreotypes online – mostly from 1850s and 1860s.

Pillaging through the past

Posted on February 6, 2022 by Tom Falco

My fascination of ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece and all sorts of archaeology goes way back. I studied it in college as part of Art History. My textbooks, which I still have, are in my living room and I glance at them every once in awhile. Guided tours of ancient Egyptian sites are part of my bucket list.

I do a lot of cartoons based on ancient times, I enjoy doing those.

And now that I think of it, if asked, what I would do if I wasn’t doing what I do now, I might say, “I’d like to be an archaeologist , digging around in Egyptian deserts. But not now, I think.

**A MEME THAT POPPED UP THE OTHER DAY.**

I was shocked into reality the other day while watching a tv show on Egyptian and Greece archeology. They were digging up ancient Greek tombs and relating them to Egypt at that time and one of the archeologists said something like, “We’re lucky to find this one in tact. The tomb raiders did not find this tomb, but we did through sonar (or radar, he said something like that.” And I was stunned. Why is a modern archeologist, digging up ancient tombs any better than ancient, or even current tomb raiders.

The main difference is that tomb raiders are taking gold and silver and precious items. Archaeologists are taking bodies; actual bodies. Why is this any better?

One lady archeologist, I can’t remember her name, has a life quest to find Cleopatra’s tomb. And do what with it when she finds it? Display her remains to the world? Another has a quest to find Alexander the Great’s and Cleopatra’s ancient Alexandria under present day Alexandria, I guess that’s ok, as they are looking for cities, not entombed bodies.

I can understand digging up and finding ancient cities, but I’m having second thoughts about digging up entombed, embalmed bodies.

So I have to think on it now. Is desecrating an ancient body permissible in the name of science? Is it ok to dig it up, pillage, analyze it and show it off in museums? I’m wondering. I’m sure I will still do ancient Egypt related cartoons, because in my cartoons the people are alive and in their time in their settings.

Get my blog via email when it’s updated Click here.
Go ahead, sign up – I won’t spam you.

New design

Posted on August 22, 2021 by Tom Falco

A friend suggested I design a character or something that could be sold on items or as posters, etc. I came up with this design. I’ll do more.

This is the first design, but I’ll get into it more when I get a chance and do themes. For instance, say NYC, I’ll do a piece with all NYC images or Paris with Paris images and so on. This one is a mishmash of different happy images and I like it.

I have it on some items at my Etsy shop – t-shirts, mugs, hoodies and even a shower curtain. You can see them here.

Receive an email notification each time I publish by clicking here.

Faded pictures

Posted on May 19, 2021 by Tom Falco

I was looking through pictures of our kayaking adventure and also pictures from when my friend was in town in April. A lot happened – went to the zoo, Everglades, etc. But I don’t have many pictures. Is it possible we are finally, as a society, getting over taking pictures of everything, including our lunch every day?

There was a time where we took pictures of everything. My friend likes to post “stories” on Instagram, which disappear in 24 hours, so he doesn’t have any photos to see or save.

I used to take so many pictures of everything, sort of documenting my whole life. When I published the daily news, I literally would have 150 photos of an event I attended and then I would have to go through every one of those photos and edit them down to a handful that I would publish. I finally learned, after so many years of that to just edit as I went along. I would take maybe 12 photos and then whittle that down to 9 or 10. And this way, I literally cut out hours worth of work going through images.

But now I sort of don’t take pictures of things. When we went kayaking, my biggest fear in that rubber raft was sinking. Not so much drowning, but sinking and losing my keys and my phone. But I left them home and went out “naked” so to speak, and it was so much more relaxing not having to worry about anything.

I remember once I went out and left my phone at home and rather than panic, I was totally relaxed.

So I’m wondering now if we are letting up on the photos. For one thing it’s rude when you are with people, you know, you’re out and about and maybe at lunch and you are taking photos of everything. I don’t even answer the phone when it rings when I’m with people. I try to think of years ago when we didn’t have that option, so why is it so important now? Let people wait, you don’t need to text right back or answer right away or take pictures of your lunch all the time.

Receive a notification by email each time I publish an article here by clicking here.

Monopoly pieces

Posted on February 16, 2021 by Tom Falco

I saw this image on Facebook.

I didn’t know there were new pieces. I don’t remember when I played Monopoly last, but when I did play, these were still the pieces. Are there new pieces now?

Whenever I played in the past, I was the thimble. Why? I don’t know. There must be some psychology of why people choose certain pieces. I suppose the car is the most common, if I had to guess.

I don’t sew. I am not domestic, so I don’t know why I always choose the thimble.

My first memories of Monopoly was when I was quite young. My friends used to play with their father outside in the summer. They never invited me to play, I just watched. I do remember a D-cell battery that they used as one of the pieces. I guess they lost pieces and they used that. So in my mind, the regular size D-cell battery is a game piece.

But as I look at the image here, I can sort of feel each piece in my hand. I guess I touched all of them, so it’s so clear in my mind what they feel like.

What piece is your favorite?

Digital art taking vs pen and ink

Posted on December 10, 2020 by Tom Falco

Artist Tom Richmond, who you may know from Mad Magazine, and many other places, has a great blog post about original cartoon art, “Is Digital Killing Original Art?”

Well for one thing, digital art is original art, but of course Tom is referring to actual pen and paper art.

There are still many artists who prefer to use pen and ink, rather than draw digitally and it makes the original art even more valuable in the long run. But of course, most of the art these days, I daresay, is digital.

When I see original cartoon art at ComicCons, some very old, I often think, “Is this the last of it?” But I’m sure lots will show up over time, afterall, cartoonists had 365 drawings a year, so that is a lot of work over many years’ time.

I don’t remember when I went from pen and ink to digital, but I don’t think I will ever go back to pen and ink, digital is just so easy to work with, it makes the work go faster and the end results are basically the same – except for not having original art.

I remember when digital cameras firts came out, I couldn’t wrap my head arount the idea of not having film. “How can you not have film?” I thought. “What if I need copies of the images?”

To tell you the truth, in all my life, I don’t think I ever had copies of photos made after the first one was printed. Remember you used to get two prints of each one when they were developed?

Anyway, I took to digital drawing faster than I did to digital photography, which of course we all use daily now, taking pictures with our phones every few minutes. We all know what we ate these past few years, thanks to that.

But getting back to Tom Richmond, he says, “I really do find it sad that one of the major drawbacks of the rise of the computer as a tool for art is that less and less physical art is being created.”

Sad, but it reminds me of so many other things that are gone or almost gone – the sound of a typewriter bell, pay phones, handwriting, floppy disks, card catalogs, paper maps, landlines, and Mad Magazine, ironically, where many of us know Tom Richmond from.

One reason I like my old fashioned mechanic, who I mentioned the other day.

Art, food, music, friends and of course cucumber punch at Gifford Lane

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Tom Falco

Once a year, in our little village, we have what’s called the Gifford Lane Art Stroll – it’s about art, but it’s also about food, music and friends – it’s an old fashioned block party and it’s a place where everybody knows everybody else.

I took a Freebee over, it’s a little golf cart that drives people around town, and the driver told me, “The whole town is there!” And that’s the way it’s been for 21 years. It’s one of our favorite events of the year.

Money raised through the art, food and cucumber punch – the best part of the event, goes to two local charities.

My friend Dave and his wife Trina, who started the event so long ago, open their house to visitors. The green cucumber punch is ladled out in the kitchen and people stroll out back to their tropical back yard. It’s old Florida.

A funny thing is that Dave calls out to people as they obliviously walk by, “Thank you for coming! Take all the punch you want!” If I said it, that would be sarcastic, but he means it. And that’s part of the charm of the whole thing.