In The Meantime: The Golden Age Of Coloring Books

Comic Cover Paintings

Painted Cartoon Comic Covers

Norm McGary Golden Book Paintings and HB Nerd Time

Norm McGary is one of my favorite Golden Book painters.He has a slick style and puts just enough detail into the backgrounds and characters to give you a different experience than what you get from watching the cartoons.The cartoons have the advantage of sound and motion but are limited in how the characters can be rendered, so good Golden Books like McGary's give you extra treats in the rendering.
I like when he does the 2 color limited palette pages too.
Hawley Pratt drew these and he was lucky guy to get so many great painters to polish his rushed drawings. I think more people know his name than the painters who spent must have more time on the books.

I always wondered what the pay rates were for each job. Does the layout artist get as much as the painter? Even though the painter does the most work?
And how much does the writer get who spends half an hour writing a whole book in retarded baby-talk? I love how the writer gets top billing - as if that's what anyone buys a Golden Book for.
This Huck and Friends book has everything an HB fan could want- a bunch of favorite characters in a rocket.

And such a beautifully rendered rocket too! I used to fake sick, skip school and stare at this picture for hours and wonder how many years of intense schooling, whippings and study it would take to become a giant of the Golden Book world of painters.Sometimes McGary would use more grays and neutral colors than most cartoon painters (who tend to use too much primary and secondary colors.)
He used darker colors than the typical Golden Book.
I sometimes confuse his work with another good GB painter - whose name escapes me right now. (I think he did the Beany and Cecil Book)



I also like the way he painted all the humans' noses red, like they went around drunk everywhere.
Aww, how cute...

http://goldengems.blogspot.com/search/label/Norm%20McGary

With so many ways there used to be to paint cartoon characters, you have to wonder why this terrible style is the only one left. Does anyone like this??
I also wonder why CG films have settled on making once cute characters as ugly as possible, when there is so much reference on how to render cartoon characters as appealing as their original designs and cartoons.
Like is there a law that says if you revive a classic character, you have to make him look uglier than real life?

When do you think it was decided that cartoons should no longer appeal to the eyes and whose idea was it?

Uncle Remus by Mary Blair

They should have made some cartoons in this style.

and more Disney Friendssuch a happy style!

HB Fun

Here are some neat images from 2 of my favorite sites.

BARBIE'S COLORING AND ACTIVITY BOOKS

I love the look of these early HB cartoons. The BG colors in 2 Corny Crows are really clever and tasty.
Sometimes I think it's harder to pull off simple than complicated.
These layouts have everything I talk about, with just enough detail to give them organic texture.
I think I will take that superficially simple "Nowhere Bear" cartoon from the other day and compare it, creatively point by creative point to some big budget modern animated executive created leviathan. Any ideas of what movie I should use? That furry picture would be good. Or the afro-'tude-frog-princess-revert to our roots and sell more princess dolls picture? There are too many to choose from.

I'll leave out the amount of inbetweens comparison, because obviously if you have an unlimited budget you can afford as many inbetweens as you crave.

YOWP

P.S. Is there someone who lives in the San Fernando Valley who is good at the technical stuff I'm always asking about? I could trade someone a drawing and t -shirt for an hour or 2 of your time.

Hey There It's Yogi Bear by Mel Crawford

There are at least 3 different Golden book adaptations of this Yogi Bear animated feature film.
Here are some pages from the Mel Crawford version.
Mel really has a great combination of design and color.
If only the movie looked this good! (There are actually a couple good things in the movie)