Monday, January 18, 2010

Woody Woodpecker - "Woody Buys a Car"

I love the art of Dan Gormley; who did the pencils, inks, and lettering for all of the following (including the lustrous cover). Little is known about Gormley. He worked for Dell on-and-off throughout the 40s and 50s. What happened to him after about 1958 is anyone’s guess. Nothing seems known about his private life. Place or date of birth? Death? Favorite color? All a mystery.

What is known, for sure, is that he had an incredibly bold, cleanly-rounded style that is pure pleasure. This is from Four Color No 336, June/August 1951.

These two, black & white, one-page stories are from the inside covers. Gormley was certainly an artist that was well served by black & white: nothing to get in the way of those luscious brushes.

This last one is from the back cover. On the other hand, color certainly didn’t do Gormley any harm.

10 comments:

  1. I would be proud to own that contraption as my 1st car !

    The b & w strip with the neighbor and the hose is the perfect solution to that problem !

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  2. Lysdexicuss: Woody always knows what to do! -- Mykal

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  3. The inking is beautiful! Every time I see WW's beak I get hungry for Pringles.

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  4. KW: HaHa - I bet a pringles would be hard to draw well, too!

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  5. I would like to specifically point out that this issue has a great cover.

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  6. I shamefully must admit, I was not familiar with Dan Gormley, although I know his work. My friend, Alan Hutchinson, says Gormley's work look like the artist who drew the New Funnies story that introduced Knothead and Splinter. Glad I could add Gormley's name to my head. Nice work (and I agree, Chuck, nice cover).

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  7. Gary: No shame - I stumbled upon him myself because of all the comics I chase down for this blog - I wanted an Andy Panda from a particular vintage - and it was by this guy named Dan Gormley. I have hunted down much more, so there is more where that comes from. For the first Gormley post, click his label at the end of the post. - Oh, the covers all look like that! -- Mykal

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  8. Jukka Laine of FinlandJanuary 28, 2012 at 4:23 AM

    http://lambiek.net/artists/g/gormley_dan.htm

    This page says Gormley died in 1988.

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  9. Jukka: Thanks for the info. I think that Lambiek entry has been updated since this 2010 post.

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