Art Binninger contributes to our never ending parade of Preston Blair rip-offs. Says Art:

“The set-up: last night I went over to a converted Von’s supermarket that’s now a Mexican-themed plaza with a restaurant, food marts and other booths that will be ready for their grand opening. I wandered through the aisles of the standard issue Coke’s, Pepsi’s and candy until I spotted this interesting packge. I’ll have to stop back when they’re fully up and running to see what other Preston Blair images turn up. Or turnips?”

Next, Kyle Carrozza sent this whoopee cushion spotted at a Dollar Tree in Riverside. Says Kyle: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rip from this part of the book before!”

The Preston Blair rip-offs never end.

Mark Kausler sent us this 78rpm kiddie record cover, which proves the swiping began a lot earlier than i’d imagined:

Christian Geoghegan, on a trip to Belgium, photographed this from the window of one of the trams he took in Antwerp. The van is for a local supermarket.

If you spot a Blair swipe in your travels, we invite you to send it in.

Most of the Preston Blair swipes we’ve linked to in the past are by amateur artists, but this post shows that professional comic artists and animators are also not immune to “borrowing” from Preston Blair’s classic how-to books.

Kevin Langley offers the following unbelievable find on his blog: an old Harvey comic in which artist Ben Brown created a funny animal story comprised nearly entirely of swipes of Preston Blair characters and poses.

And Brew reader Gerard de Souza recently sent me frame grabs of his discovery: a Preston Blair bulldog in an old Speed Racer episode called “The Great Plan, Part 1″. I think it’s safe to say Blair was referenced as there are only three character animation drawings in the bulldog scene, and two of them are the Blair expressions below. The non-Blair drawing is an inbetween connecting these two drawings.

We’ve posted other swipes from Preston Blair before (here, here, here and here) but this one is the mother of them all!

Steve Stanchfield and Mary Dixon spotted this arcade attraction at the Fowlerville Family Fair (in Fowlerville, Michigan) and it blew their minds:

We were greeted first by a great array of sideshow freaks, including a little guy named ‘Poobaa’ who the barker proclaimed as being the last living Muchkin from the Wizard of oz alive (he was 9 at the time). Poor Poobaa was made to swallow fire over and over to a bored looking crowd of locals.

Then, turning the corner, I see THIS. I’ve seen a lot of things before, but this is far, far beyond the normal Blair ripoff; it’s almost an outsider art homage! I took a bunch of pictures (forgive my not quite perfect alignment of the whole thing…). I have more if you want, but I think these tell the story pretty well. This is a walk though carnival attraction. I didn’t go inside, but I bet I would have seen Red in progression, the policeman and maybe even the hippos from Fantasia…

(Click on pictures above and below to see full sized images)

Here’s a topic that never gets old: amateur illustrators who pilfer artwork from Preston Blair’s classic animation textbook and use it for their own commercial projects. Brew reader Trevour Meyer recently found a blatant (and blatantly incompetent) batch of Blair rip-offs at the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth, Minnesota and he’s posted them all on his BLOG along with some amusing commentary.

Previous Blair rips on Cartoon Brew: Ohio lottery ticket, Australian restaurant ad and Ohio school mascot.

Giuseppe Pantaleo, an eagle-eyed Brew reader from Melbourne, Australia spotted the following Preston Blair rip-off from down under. He writes:

I came across this shoddy looking flyer for a pasta & ribs restaurant near where I live. This time the image being ripped off is a drawing of Goose Gander. However, on the flyer the image has been flipped and traced
horribly, and quite frankly it looks worse than the public domain video covers for WB cartoons.

Previous Blair rip-offs HERE and HERE.