Way back in 1954 while attending Billy Hon's Cartoon School in Los Angeles I wrote to one of my favorite magazine cartoonists, Brad Anderson, and begged for an original that I could pin up in my studio for inspiration. I worshiped his crisp clean confident brushwork . . His work reminded me a little of Frank O'Neal . . Brad's work was simple, without one extra line and was at the time, in my opinion one of the top 4 in the field of magazine cartooning. ( not even counting that he was also one of the funniest ). I was influenced by Brad.
One day a package arrived and the *%$#!* Post Office had dropped what must have been a 100 lb. boulder on the 9x12 manilla envelope exactly on its edge and the contents, the above beautiful drawing, inside, which was a masterpiece, was rendered on 3ply kid finish bristol and was wrinkled & damaged forever.
I tried flattening and straightening it out over the years with a little success. The drawing was 7 1/2 x 11 inches and was executed with india ink and wash.
The gag line was reset for readability. The cartoon appeared in The Saturday Evening Post or Collier's .
I've seen Brad a couple times over the years at NCS Conventions and told him the details . . He not only remembered the drawing, but me writing him.
This was BEFORE there was a SCOOBY-DOO, BEFORE MARMADUKE . . BEFORE A LOT OF THINGS !
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