Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Bill Peckmann sent on these scans of Keith Ward‘s illustrations for Elsie’s Cookbook. This book was a commercial product tie-in to Borden’s Foods who used “Elsie” as their trademark.The book was loaned to us by Denis Wheary. The two-color spot illustrations show off Ward’s ability to draw making it look like the most natural thing in the world. The ink line is also quite beautiful.

The remainder of the comments under the book’s pages are Bill’s.

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Book cover / inner dedication

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Main title page

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Elsie’s dedication to Elmer the bull. I’m assuming this
was before he went off and started hawking his glue.
Keith Ward is not listed in the credits, but Elsie gives
him his just due here in the dedication.

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Whoa there, this chapter takes on a little bit of a
surreal quality, but the human condition being
what it is, always has a way of making
everything seem okay.

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“Desserts”, this is the last chapter heading in the book, and kudos
again to Denis Wheary for sharing these not easy to find treats
with us! What a gift KW had to make animal drawing look so,
so easy. One wonders what he could have done in the animation
field given a chance, or if he had authored a ‘How to Draw’ animal
book, ala Ken Hultgren. In the ’50′s he did venture into
sculpting Halloween masks.

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From the years 1932 to 1952, from ‘Muggins Mouse’ to ‘Elsie the Cow’, from the age of 24 to the age of 44, we’ve seen in our last few postings of his work, artist Keith Ward‘s amazing range of talent. Here, at the end of our last posting of Denis Wheary’s marvelously, shared, book collection, we’ll reprise a few of KW’s charming, early examples of breaking into the field of illustration in 1932.
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(We’ve posted some of this material before, but these scans
came from the original books rather than copies of the books.
We thought it worth revisiting to show the varity and depth
of Keith Ward’s work.)

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Many thanks to Bill Peckman and Denis Wheary for forwarding this book to us.

Keith Ward is an illustrator whose work was highly admired by Rowland B. Wilson who introduced it to Bill Peckmann. Bill introduced it to me, and I’m posting this sampler here. We’d originally posted xerox copies of some of these, but the following material comes directly from the printed page. Here’s Bill to take over the post:

Here’s a treat for all fans of illustrator Keith Ward. It’s with of the kind generosity of knowledgeable collector Denis Wheary that we can scan some of the pages of Ward’s children’s books that were done during the period of 1930 to 1952.

Born in 1906, Keith Ward is one of the stellar illustrators of the 20th century. A true renaissance man, he touched all the bases of art, whether fine or commercial. In the field of illustration, he deftly rounded the bags with his book, editorial magazine and advertising art. His 1945 book illustrations were said to be the inspirations of a Disney feature. (More of that in the second post.) Borden’s “Elsie the Cow” was Keith’s unsigned classic for us kids growing up in the ’40′s and ’50′s.

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The following pages of “Jolly Animals” is from 1930,
done when Ward was only 24 years old, amazing!
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Even KW’s inside end covers of “Jolly Animals” are worth studying!

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“Muggins Mouse” from 1932. We posted this book already, but
those were color photo copies and harsh Xerox copies of the B&W pages.
So here are a few cherry picked B & W pages to show
what the softness of the original book looked like.

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“Muggins Mouse” inside end cover.

Here are two pocket sized hardcover books also from 1932.
Here are a few beautiful chapter headings and pages from these two tiny marvels.

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- Here’s the last installment of Muggins Mouse. This is a book that was illustrated by Keith Ward.

The copy I’m posting was a Xeroxed copy Rowland Wilson pulled for Bill Peckmann. They selected some to copy in color, and others they made B&W copies. Consequently, we have this mix-version of the book. Unfortunately, it’s a rare enough book that we don’t have access to the original. Regardless, there’s plenty to enjoy in Mr. Ward’s great illustrations.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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We’re missing a page here. No #53.

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- Muggins Mouse is a book, illustrated by Keith Ward. The copy I’m posting was a Xeroxed copy Rowland Wilson pulled for Bill Peckman. They selected some to copy in color and others, to save money, they made B&W copies. Consequently, we have this mix version of the book. Unfortunately, it’s a rare enough book that we don’t have access to the original. Regardless, there’s plenty to enjoy in Mr. Ward’s great illustrations.

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- Years ago, Rowland B. Wilson sent Bill Peckmann a lot of xeroxes of this book, illustrated by Keith Ward. Muggins Mouse is not an easy book to locate, and it’s a beauty. So let’s just take a look at part 2 of the book (which is all of about 60 pages.)

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- Yesterday, I received this note from Bill Peckmann about some old copies Rowland B. Wilson had sent him.:

“I finally found Rowland’s copies of another Keith Ward book that he had sent me. It’s a 60 page book, half the copies are in color, half are B & W (not the best Xeroxes), why this is so, is unfortunately lost in the mists of time. The book is oversized, 9 1/2 by 12 1/2. . . . I haven’t looked at these pages in ages and the art is a lot better than I remember it.”

Such beautiful line work, fantastic cartooning. Very original.

So without further ado, I’m posting these great illustrations. This takes us up to the first chapter break. More pics to follow as soon as I get them.

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