Here’s another installment from my garage. This wizard was a gouache illustration for a German book publisher. Considering how carefully I reproduced the “Fun & Fancy” logo, I’m guessing that was their name.
This odd map of how to get to the Mortgage Bankers Association convention in Atlantic City was a strange journey. The ad agency had hired cartoon legend Mort Drucker to do it, and Mort quit after doing the sketch. The job paid pretty well, and Mort’s sketch was nice, and I had met Mort through the National Cartoonists Society, so I gave him a call and asked, “What’s up with this job?” I paraphrase from my 30 year old memory – Mort told me this was a job from hell, and the art directors had so many changes he couldn’t stand it any more.” I asked if he minded that I take the job and work from his sketch, and Mort was fine with that, as long as he never had to hear from those art directors. So I rendered this from Mort’s sketch. And the art directors from hell didn’t give me any trouble – I guess Mort had taken all the flak before I stepped in.
If I was an art director, I would never think of asking Mort Drucker to make changes. Twenty years later, mortgage bankers would destroy the economy – oh! The irony!
This gouache painting, without my usual black linework, was three sides of a package for Hasbro’s “Classic Kermit” Plush. The dark area was a die cut window showing the plush inside. I came up with the Greek theme because Hasbro had previously done a plush Kermit wearing reporter clothes, and they wanted to do a naked Kermit to cut costs and raise the price, so make Kermit “Classic” and raise the price! There’s also a top and bottom to this box somewhere in the garage.
I did lots of book covers, for Ballantine, Random House, Berkley Books, Warner Books, Little Brown, Doubleday – lots. Here’s a spot for a Berkley Books paperback cover.
For a time, I did a regular spot in Sports Illustrated for Kids magazine with a caricature of a sports figure of their choosing – here are two examples. I forget who the hockey player was.
Hey, remember that Baby Piggy shampoo bottle art for Avon that I posted a couple days ago? Here’s the shampoo bottle, still full of 30 year old shampoo.
This 1981 game for Hasbro’s Milton Bradley was a big project, as big as a children’s book. There was the cover, a board with background scenes from the movie, and a whole deck of illustrated cards. I liked this cover – an executive from the Muppets took it so I didn’t get the original painting back. I later heard from a guy in England who bought it and has it framed and hanging on his wall. This pic is from ebay, on sale for $8.99 – be sure they have all the cards before you buy!
These two are a little nasty. I used to draw the changing puzzles and games on the backs of boxes of the Swedish Chef’s “POST Croonchy Stars” cereal – for kids to read while they eat their sugar breakfast. I didn’t do the art on the front of the box, just the changing backs. I still have a couple of these boxes, still full of 30 year old cereal, and they look just as fresh and crispy as they day I bought them –through the miracle of corporate chemistry. A thousand years from now, when future archeologists dig up my garage, I’ll bet they take a bite and the Croonchy Stars will be as sugary/croonchy good as they were on day one.
I did lots of Muppet and Muppet Baby preschool puzzles, many for Playskool and Hasbro. Here’s one.
I did a big line of Muppet shoes for Keds, including a nice POP display that got crunched in my garage. 
🙁
Here I found one Keds kids snow boot, which had a wrap around painting of the Muppets having a snowball fight. Now I need to find a kid with one peg leg, who loves Muppets and lives in a snowy state.
I did a big line of these “Dri Mark” Muppets coloring posters that were packaged with markers. It looks like my kids found the markers in this package – this is front and back coloring posters, about 14″x17″, part of a line of many, each with two posters and a batch of markers.
