This is a beautiful book I just saw up for bid over at Heritage Auctions, published in 1940. I'm sure it's entirely wishful thinking on my part, but I have this crazy idea that the cover could maybe have been illustrated by . . . wait for it . . . Walt Kelly. It's just the kind of parade of characters he would do; he worked on Fantasia, the film, especially that roly-poly god of the grape there in the middle; the cherubs and fauns are somewhat of his style—and what isn't in his style (such as the Fred Moore centaurette) may just have been his emulating the rest of the film's characters; and Kelly has made mention that he was an illustrator-for-hire before doing comic books. It was published by Simon and Shuster, Kelly's publisher for all his "three foot shelf of books".
Aaa, if you know differently, please let me know. It's really a nice cover, isn't it?
2 comments:
Disney Merchandise and Publicity Department artist Hank Porter created the art for the dust jacket of this book.
In my own collection, I have a photo of Porter at his desk, and an image of this cover is tacked to his bulletin board.
A color copy of the art was also in the trove of material supplied to me by his children. Porter kept a copy of virtually every piece of publicity art he created.
Cheers,
David
toonsatwar.blogspot.com
vintagedisneymemorabilia.blogspot.com
David, thanks for clearing that up. Porter was such a great talent, but so unsigned!
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