20th C. American Cartoon Originals
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GUEST:
Well, my father was a cartoonist. He started drawing in the 1930s. In the old days, cartoonists used to travel together going to shows to do chalk talks where they would draw and talk to the audience and entertain. And the cartoonists got to know each other, so they would swap originals. So I was a little boy, I was about four or five years old, and every so often a new cartoon would come in. And there's nothing cooler than cartoons to a little kid. And it would come in and get framed and put on the wall in our basement. So I've had these with me all my life.
APPRAISER:
Well, what we have here is just a great example of 20th century pop culture. I mean they're just the essence of what cartoons are. And I love it because it really starts from the '30s and goes on. And cartoons nowadays are popular on animation and on television and multimedia. But where it really all started was here. We start here, what I was impressed with, the Dick Tracy. Both of these pieces right here are dailies. They were used for a daily comic strip in a magazine or a newspaper. And they're original artwork, and it is signed actually, by Gould, which makes this even more valuable, the fact that the artist signed it. Over here what we have is Joe Palooka, which a lot of people don't know who it was, but this cartoon came out in the 1930s and became one of the most famous sports cartoons. So for people that collect sporting art, this actually is very, very collectible. And then right here we go back and we have Blondie. Now, some people these days don't really know Blondie, but in the '30s and the '40s it was very, very, very popular. And actually, Chic Young won an award for being the National Cartoon Artist at the time.
GUEST:
I may have been at that award.
APPRAISER:
Oh, really, at the ceremony?
GUEST:
Because my father used to take me to the National Cartoonists Society meetings.
APPRAISER:
Yeah.
GUEST:
And these people would be there. And I would always get dragged along, just... awed, all these wonderful people.
APPRAISER:
Well, it's like the Academy Awards for cartoonists.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And then I thought this was interesting up here because you have Popeye, but it's much later on. It's in the '60s. And a lot of these are much earlier. So it's collectible. It's not as collectible as the ones from earlier years. And what's happened now is Popeye's kind of not as popular because he was beating people up.
GUEST:
(laughs)
APPRAISER:
Now here we go, the crème de la crème is this piece. 1950s when Schulz started, this is 1951. It's so early, it's so beautiful. And this piece alone, I saw you in line and I just got so excited because it's so rare. It's just one of a kind, it's a great piece. This piece alone is worth $8,000 to $10,000. And I would say your whole collection together is worth about $10,000 to $15,000.
GUEST:
You're kidding.
APPRAISER:
No, I'm not.
GUEST:
(laughing) Oh, my goodness. My wife wins.
APPRAISER:
It's a wonderful piece.
GUEST:
My wife and I had a bet going. We didn't have exact numbers, but she definitely wins.
APPRAISER:
(laughing) Yeah, it's a wonderful collection.
GUEST:
Oh, it's marvelous.
APPRAISER:
Thank you for sharing with us.
GUEST:
Oh, thank you.
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