I recently fulfilled a childhood ambition by getting my hands on some original artwork from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. James Eatock, creator extraordinaire of the incredible cereal:geek magazine was selling off some of his humongous collection of He-Man animation cels and storyboard art that he has acquired over the years, often directly from Filmation artists themselves. Below you can see the awesome fruits of my purchase.

This got me thinking about what other original cartoon, animation or comic art I would like. I would obviously love to get some more animation cels of 80s cartoons such as Transformers or Dungeons & Dragons but I’ve mostly gone down the route of hand-drawn sketches for my list below. I’ve included cartoons, comic strips and also children’s books. I think a lot of these are out of my reach as the price will be too high but I may still get prints of some of them to hang up.

Asterix
I absolutely love the artwork by Albert Uderzo in the Asterix books. The amount of personality he is able to inject into each of the characters he draws is just incredible, particularly when drawing the Romans. The detail in some of his panels is amazing and the colour palette incredibly rich. I would love to have some kind of sketch of Asterix or Obelix punching some Romans. Or even better a full page of panels, perhaps with one of the incredible closing scenes of the full village eating dinner and loads of little things happening in the background when you look close.

Calvin & Hobbes
THE best newspaper comic strip, bar none. Sublimely written and soooo beautifully drawn. It’s hugely impressive just how much emotion Bill Watterson can portray in the face of Calvin in particular with just a few lines. The style is so simple and yet so beautiful. I would love to have an original 4-panel strip or even just some sketches of Calvin & Hobbes in various positions.

Disney
This is perhaps a more obvious choice but it kind of has to be on here. I’ve got a fantastic hardback book about Disney animation, The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, and the hand drawn sketches in there of Mickey Mouse and other characters like the Seven Dwarves are great. It really is ‘cartoon animation 101’. I would have to go with an original sketch of Mickey Mouse or alternatively something out of the Jungle Book (which was probably the Disney cartoon I watched the most as a kid) like a sketch or an animation cel.

Richard Scarry
I don’t actually know how well known Richard Scarry’s books are. I never really hear anyone talking about them, but they were big in my family. In particular Richard Scarry’s Busy Busy World. I loved all the stories in this massive book and now have the joy of reading them to my own children. It would be amazing to get an original sketch or painting of one of the scenes.

Marvel
I think I could make a whole blog post just about comic artists that I would love to own art from, and I’m sure I will write that post in the near future. But I thought I would have to include one of these for this post. There are so many amazing Marvel artists to choose from including Jack Kirby, Todd McFarlane, and the John Romitas etc. But I have always dearly loved the book How to Draw Comics the “Marvel” Way. I think the incredible art in there, by John Buscema, absolutely epitomises the mainstream perception of what a superhero is and it’s a gorgeous representation of the artistic process too, which is kind of what I’m after with this particular list. I would love to own an original of some of the sketches in there. In particular the anatomy breakdowns of how to draw bodies correctly.

What comic or cartoon art would you like to get your hands on?

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