Elder & Kurtzman Original Art: Goodman Beaver Watches TV

"Goodman Watches TV" ---Page 143 (1962)

8" wide x 9.25" high board. (Image area 6.75" wide x 6" high)

Pen & ink on heavy illustration board.

From "Goodman Gets a Gun," which originally appeared in the November 1962 Help! magazine. Will Elder inks, Harvey Kurtzman layouts and script. This was the last of the five "Goodman Beaver" adventures in Help! because in October 1962 Kurtzman & Elder's long-running "Little Annie Fanny" feature began appearing in Playboy and Help! soon fell by the wayside. (See the introduction to Volume 1 of Dark Horse's Little Annie Fanny collection for the full explanation of how Goodman in fact morphed into Annie.) In this panel Goodman is watching a Marlon Brando movie. The TV screen is blank because the printer strpped in a "halftone" from a still of On the Waterfront in the published version. This is page 143 in Kitchen Sink Press' 1984 Goodman Beaver collection (which is out of print, but also available on this site ---Steve]. The art is immediately bordered on the bottom by a strip of white masking tape. This original comes with Elder's original hand-drawn overlay (not shown here) which indicated to the printer where to apply the 30% gray tone that appears in the published version. There are pencil notations on the blank screen area and on the illustration board outside the image area, but the drawing itself is virtually flawless. The blank TV screen may put off some collectors but, if desired, the buyer could fill in the blank spot with a cut out from the published book which is the identical size. In any case, the price for this is lower than comparable Goodman pages to reflect the relative incompleteness. A great price for an original example of Elder's remarkable cross-hatching and pen work.