Author: DOuG pRATt

Genuine Faux?

A few weeks ago, Mark Evanier said, “There is forged original artwork out there. Fake. Bogus. Fraud. Not actually by the person they say it’s by.” Amen. I now direct your attention to a press release for a charity auction at this link.

Autograph Store is proud to have provided these celebrity signed memorabilia items for the Make a Wish Foundation fundraisers:

1. Bruce Springsteen autographed guitar
2. Eric Clapton autographed guitar
3. Rolling Stones autographed record album
4. U2 autographed record album
5. Miley Cyrus autographed 16×20 photo
6. Jack Nicholson autographed 16X20 photo
7. Joe Torre & Rudy Giuliani autographed 16×20 photo
8. Julia Roberts & Richard Gere autographed 16X20 photo
9. Harry Potter Cast autographed 11X14 photo
10. The Jonas Brothers autographed 11X14 photo
11. Lance Armstrong autographed 11X14 photo
12. Charles Schulz Lucy sketch
13. Sylvester Stallone Boxing Glove
14. Muhammad Ali LeRoy Neiman Print
15. Barack Obama & Joe Biden autographed 8X10 photo

One of the items is a sketch of Lucy Van Pelt, supposedly drawn and signed by Charles M. Schulz. There are other Peanuts sketches available for charities to select for auction. Let’s take a look…

Charles Schulz – Snoopy – Signed & Framed Original Sketch
Not by Schulz

Charles Schulz – Snoopy as the “Red Baron” – Signed & Framed Original Sketch
Not by Schulz

Charles Schulz – Lucy – Signed & Framed Original Sketch
Not by Schulz

I don’t doubt these sketches are framed, but were any of then actually drawn by Charles M. Schulz? I doubt it. I can’t tell you if a Rembrandt preliminary drawing is authentic, but a brief glance is all I need to assume these weren’t done by Sparky Schulz. They’re most likely tracings. The flatness of the line, with its lack of variation in width, is one indication.

A week ago I featured Jean Vander Pyl, the woman who gave voice to Wilma Flintstone, so I’ll toss in this auction sketch, allegedly signed by Bill Hanna. It appears to me to have been drawn by the same hand that produced the Peanuts sketches.

Bill Hanna – Wilma Flintstone – Signed & Framed Original Sketch
Fake Flintstones sketch?

I’m willing to give the sellers of items such as these the benefit of the doubt, that they procured them in good faith believing them to be genuine. They should, however, not be so quick to label sketches as genuine when it’s a relatively easy matter to check their authenticity.

Home on the range

Only five months ago I replaced the bulbs in the microwave oven that light the stovetop. And now one of them has already burned out again. Rather than wait for the other one to go out I replaced them both.

Yesterday we were about to leave to go out to dinner, when an intense hail storm hit. They were the size and shape of Mentos candy. In this video you can hear them hitting the skylights on the porch which, fortunately, weren’t damaged.

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After the hail there was heavy rain. Ten seconds into this video you can see that the downspout next to the garage couldn’t keep up.

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Later, at Legal Seafood in Framingham, MA, Eric’s salad was delivered with hair in it. That’s a first for us at any Legal Seafood restaurant, and it took way too long for a replacement salad to be delivered. It should have been complimentary, but it wasn’t. Boo, Legal Seafood!

Anime-ted

Eric and his cousin Kate are somewhere here in the Hynes Convention Center,  where we’re attending Anime Boston. The Hynes has a very good free WiFi network, as I just found out.

Unlike last year’s Anime Boston, I have only good things to say about the registration process, because it was 3 hours and 59 minutes shorter! Yesterday, as pre-registered attendees, it took all of one minute for us to get our badges. Dealer space has been doubled, making navigation much easier, and there are lots of well-trained volunteers. Bravo, Anime Boston organizers! Thank you.

I’ve been hanging out in the video rooms, partly to check out the various projectors. One of the Animes being featured is Kino’s Journey, which Eric had us watching a couple of years ago. Here’s a shot of the room taken with the Acer netbook’s webcam.

Anime Boston video room

That old car smell

I’m not big into driving for its own sake like my buddy Bismo is, but I’ve always noticed the makes and models of other cars while behind the wheel. Without thinking about it, I make mental notes about other vehicles, and I can recognize many cars with the smallest of visual cues. For example, have you noticed how the fenders are now flat vertically around the wheel wells? That’s a recent design trend.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I carry a percentage of typical car vintages, and some weeks ago, while commuting on the Mass Pike, I realized that it seems there are fewer new cars on the road these days. Since then I’ve been consciously looking for brand-new cars, and I’ve confirmed there really are fewer of them showing up compared to a year and more ago. The way things are going, we’ll probably be hearing auto dealers proclaiming “The 2009’s are here, so come on down!” for another year or two.

Monte Schulz to unveil “This Side of Jordan” at Book Expo

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Fantagraphics has put out a press release about Monte Schulz’s new novel, “This Side of Jordan”:

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS ANNOUNCES THE ACQUISITION OF THIS SIDE OF JORDAN, A NOVEL BY MONTE SCHULZ

THIS SIDE OF JORDAN, by MONTE SCHULZ, will be unveiled at the 2009 Book Expo America in New York City, May 29-31, with an appearance by the author on Saturday, May 30, at 2:30PM in the Autographing Area.

Monte Schulz

The novel is described as, “a tapestry of American life in the summer before the economic crash of 1929, and a quintessential novel of the rural Midwest offered unexpectedly as a crime thriller.” You can pre-order it from Amazon at this link. Monte says “This Side of Jordan” is very different from his first novel, but like “Down by the River” I’m sure a ripping good read is guaranteed for all!