Showing posts with label Al Dempster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Al Dempster. Show all posts
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Italian Full Page Magazine Ad
This large format full page ad features exceptional art of Alice with Figaro-as-Dinah (as previously mentioned in this post from several years ago), along with lots of other denizens of Wonderland. This image was also used for a small store display that I have hiding
somewhere, as well as a large movie poster, both from Italy. I do not
know if this is Al Dempster art, but it certainly looks adapted from it
if it is not. Notice that the ad also mentions Nature's Half Acre (la Terra Questa Sconosciuta), the True-Life Adventure that was in front of Alice in its original release.
I do not know from which magazine this came, but the reverse has an ad for Aurum, a sweet liquor popular in Italy. If anyone has any information on the source magazine, please let me know!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Little Golden Book from Japan 1958
Third new discovery of the new year, and second new Little Golden Book, this time from Japan. Ok, I guess I can't really call this a Little Golden Book, although it is the same size as a LGB. It is pretty much its own creature.
The cover is taken from the same art as the Japanese herald I posted about here, which in turn was taken from the Little Nipper book cover that I have not blogged about yet (stay tuned!).
The back cover tells us the year, and that this was apparently #7 in a
series of books. I'm hoping one of my readers can translate the other
six titles for me. Pretty weird art for Dinah on the back cover...
The first 4 pages of art are indeed taken from Al Dempster art, although in the case of the title page it has been cut and pasted from a variety of sources.
After that, it is all new art, with a limited color palette of blue and orange. Until page 21, when it switches to monochromatic blue (did they run out of money? Or just orange ink?
I'm totally digging Anime Alice in this art, and the best is the last interior page, page 36, looks like Alice in Wonderland meets Speed Racer. "Go Arice Go!"
Library
Volume 1 (April) Picture book and fairy tales
Volume 2 (May) Word book
Volume 3 (June) Disney Picture Book, Cinderella
Volume 4 (July) Ako-chan and picture book
Volume 5 (August) Kuri-chan's summer vacation
Volume 6 (September) Group of Little Detectives
1958, Volume 7
Name, Published by Shogakukan, Tokyo
Alice in Wonderland
(This book is due to our publishing company's exclusive
contract with Disney Productions)
A Disney Picture Book
Alice went to the land of playing cards.
What will happen?
See page 28.
(Right page)
The Wondrous rabbit-hole
(Left page)
As Alice was playing, a white rabbit went into a
rabbit-hole.
"I'll go into it, too."
"It's a little room".
(Right page)
The Magic Cat
"Mr Caterpillar, I want to become large."
(Left page)
"Oh, he's gone."
"Here I am".
"If you eat the mushroom, you'll become large."
Color the picture
Color with your favorite colors.
UPDATE: A reader did provide not only a translation of the back cover, but of EVERY page pictured! As follows:
Exclusive Disney printing rights reserved
Shogakukan's (publisher's name) First-grader, LearningLibrary
Volume 1 (April) Picture book and fairy tales
Volume 2 (May) Word book
Volume 3 (June) Disney Picture Book, Cinderella
Volume 4 (July) Ako-chan and picture book
Volume 5 (August) Kuri-chan's summer vacation
Volume 6 (September) Group of Little Detectives
1958, Volume 7
Name, Published by Shogakukan, Tokyo
Alice in Wonderland
(This book is due to our publishing company's exclusive
contract with Disney Productions)
A Disney Picture Book
Alice went to the land of playing cards.
What will happen?
See page 28.
(Right page)
The Wondrous rabbit-hole
(Left page)
As Alice was playing, a white rabbit went into a
rabbit-hole.
"I'll go into it, too."
"It's a little room".
(Right page)
The Magic Cat
"Mr Caterpillar, I want to become large."
(Left page)
"Oh, he's gone."
"Here I am".
"If you eat the mushroom, you'll become large."
Color the picture
Color with your favorite colors.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Simon and Schuster Golden Catalog - Spring 1951
Another recent acquisition is this excessively cool catalog for Golden Books and Golden Records for the spring season of 1951. The cover is taken from the Al Dempster art for the Big Golden Book cover.
Lots of great stuff in here, S&S was pulling out all the stops with their support of Alice in 1951, and there are no less than 12 separate Alice items advertised in this catalog.
The inside front cover is a full page notice for the Big Golden Book, again utilizing Al Dempster art from the book itself.
Pages 4 and 5 list the new titles in the Little Golden Book line for 1951. Notice that the release dates of the various books are spread throughout the year, and at this point there are only 2 Alice titles - the Live Flowers and White Rabbit - the Mad Hatter book apparently had not been put on the schedule yet. Notice also the Mary Blair title I Can Fly. Based on the dates here, it appears that this catalog was released late in 1950 in anticipation of the spring season.
Pages 8 and 9 promote the relatively new Little Golden Records, of which they produced 8 different titles for Alice. And as Brian pointed out in his comment, some of the titles vary from what was actually produced, notably the Jabberwock title, and the Christmas Title (which I think is just a typo by an overeager editor, should be Unbirthday instead of Christmas).
The back cover is basically a check list for all the current titles available; none of the Alice titles appear yet.
There is one more item in this catalog, but I'm saving that for my next post. Stay tuned for when I explore one of the most elusive items in the world of Disney's Alice in Wonderland, with a shocking conclusion (well, perhaps a bit melodramatic, but still, should be worth a read).
Lots of great stuff in here, S&S was pulling out all the stops with their support of Alice in 1951, and there are no less than 12 separate Alice items advertised in this catalog.
The inside front cover is a full page notice for the Big Golden Book, again utilizing Al Dempster art from the book itself.
Pages 4 and 5 list the new titles in the Little Golden Book line for 1951. Notice that the release dates of the various books are spread throughout the year, and at this point there are only 2 Alice titles - the Live Flowers and White Rabbit - the Mad Hatter book apparently had not been put on the schedule yet. Notice also the Mary Blair title I Can Fly. Based on the dates here, it appears that this catalog was released late in 1950 in anticipation of the spring season.
Pages 8 and 9 promote the relatively new Little Golden Records, of which they produced 8 different titles for Alice. And as Brian pointed out in his comment, some of the titles vary from what was actually produced, notably the Jabberwock title, and the Christmas Title (which I think is just a typo by an overeager editor, should be Unbirthday instead of Christmas).
The back cover is basically a check list for all the current titles available; none of the Alice titles appear yet.There is one more item in this catalog, but I'm saving that for my next post. Stay tuned for when I explore one of the most elusive items in the world of Disney's Alice in Wonderland, with a shocking conclusion (well, perhaps a bit melodramatic, but still, should be worth a read).
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Al Dempster Art from Big Golden Book
This is another of my favorite pieces of art, an original page from the Big Golden Book, beautifully painted by Al Dempster. I've had this for a very long time, 15 years at least. Thank goodness too, because a few that have turned up recently on the Heritage auction site have sold for surprising amounts of money.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Goebel DIS 84 - Dinah
DIS 84 is Dinah. I hear you saying “hey Matt, Dinah is not a black cat, she's an orange cat, and what’s that thing on her head?” I’m glad you asked.
Years ago when I first studied the TOMART books ('cause that's just how much of a geek I am), I couldn’t figure out which characters DIS 84 and 85 were, since at that time no one had pictures of most of the figures nor the catalog pages (at least not in the US). Most of the figures listed had a best guess as to the character represented, but not those two figures. Based on the description “sitting cat with flower on head”, I made a guess that DIS 84 was Dinah. As you may recall, in the film Alice places a daisy chain on Dinah’s head, so it seemed a reasonable guess.
Fast forward 13 years, and the German Goebel book was released, with pictures of 84 (and 85). Still, no convincing evidence as to which Disney cat this was supposed to be, although both are pictured on the Alice in Wonderland page (but then again, so is a Donald ashtray).
As I’ve said in previous posts, the studio released stills of character designs to licensees prior to the release of the film. Sometimes the pre-production art does not match the final design. This is one such case. This is a licensee still of a test cel setup of Alice, Dinah, and the Sister from the final scene of the film. You’ll notice that Dinah is black, not orange.
This is a detail of Alice and Dinah from the Big Golden Book by Al Dempster. Again, Dinah is black, AND Alice is holding a daisy over Dinah’s head.
But the best and most compelling evidence is to be taken from the Dell Four Color comic book adaptation (FC 331). On the first page of the story there is this panel which is pretty much the exact representation of Dinah as modeled in the figure, right down to the color of the flower.
I don't know if there was additional licensee art available that has this image, but it seems an unlikely coincidence that this image and the figure resemble each other so much. And as you'll see in the next post, the "coincidence" extends even further.
UPDATE: The plot thickens. A kind reader forwarded this image of a Figaro model sheet from 1939 for Pinocchio.
Looks like the early designs for Dinah were lifted directly from this Figaro model sheet. Take a look at this side by side comparison and tell me we don't have conclusive evidence now.
UPDATE #2: I recently discovered that in an Italian book (see this post) there is another rendering of Dinah that looks just like the above. Wonder how many more will be uncovered...
Years ago when I first studied the TOMART books ('cause that's just how much of a geek I am), I couldn’t figure out which characters DIS 84 and 85 were, since at that time no one had pictures of most of the figures nor the catalog pages (at least not in the US). Most of the figures listed had a best guess as to the character represented, but not those two figures. Based on the description “sitting cat with flower on head”, I made a guess that DIS 84 was Dinah. As you may recall, in the film Alice places a daisy chain on Dinah’s head, so it seemed a reasonable guess.Fast forward 13 years, and the German Goebel book was released, with pictures of 84 (and 85). Still, no convincing evidence as to which Disney cat this was supposed to be, although both are pictured on the Alice in Wonderland page (but then again, so is a Donald ashtray).
As I’ve said in previous posts, the studio released stills of character designs to licensees prior to the release of the film. Sometimes the pre-production art does not match the final design. This is one such case. This is a licensee still of a test cel setup of Alice, Dinah, and the Sister from the final scene of the film. You’ll notice that Dinah is black, not orange.
This is a detail of Alice and Dinah from the Big Golden Book by Al Dempster. Again, Dinah is black, AND Alice is holding a daisy over Dinah’s head.
But the best and most compelling evidence is to be taken from the Dell Four Color comic book adaptation (FC 331). On the first page of the story there is this panel which is pretty much the exact representation of Dinah as modeled in the figure, right down to the color of the flower.
I don't know if there was additional licensee art available that has this image, but it seems an unlikely coincidence that this image and the figure resemble each other so much. And as you'll see in the next post, the "coincidence" extends even further.UPDATE: The plot thickens. A kind reader forwarded this image of a Figaro model sheet from 1939 for Pinocchio.
Looks like the early designs for Dinah were lifted directly from this Figaro model sheet. Take a look at this side by side comparison and tell me we don't have conclusive evidence now.
UPDATE #2: I recently discovered that in an Italian book (see this post) there is another rendering of Dinah that looks just like the above. Wonder how many more will be uncovered...
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Al Dempster Art from Little Golden Book
This is one of my most prized pieces of art, an original painting for the Little Golden Book Alice in Wonderland Meets the White Rabbit. I've had this for a very long time, but I cannot for the life of me remember exactly when or where I got it...a sure sign of old age . The art is surprisingly small, it is essentially actual size compared to the art as published in the book.
Over the years I've seen a number of the paintings from the Big Golden Book (I've owned two myself, and still own one), in fact Heritage has recently auctioned off two pages in their two most recent auctions here and here. But this is the only page from a Little Golden Book I've ever come across.
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