Mobil Ad by Ward Kimball

For nearly thirty years, animation legend Ward Kimball contributed a cartoon page called “Asinine Alley” to the bi-monthly magazine Horseless Carriage Gazette, which was a specialized magazine geared towards collectors of vintage automobiles. For a few issues, he also created ads for Mobil, and someone on Ward’s very active Facebook page has been posting them on-line.

I read an interview with Ward once in which he described how Walt Disney became angry when he saw these ads displayed at a studio show, and told Ward that he couldn’t do them anymore. Ward said he was never paid for the ads and was making them as a favor to the magazine, but nevertheless, he stopped. The last one was created in 1960.

Like the cartoons he created for the Gazette, the ads are created in a diverse range of styles from cartoon drawings to collage paste-ups to photography. A gallery of Ward’s Mobil ads can be seen after the jump:

Mobil Ad by Ward Kimball

Mobil Ad by Ward Kimball Mobil Ad by Ward Kimball Mobil Ad by Ward Kimball Mobil Ad by Ward Kimball

Amid Amidi

Amid Amidi is Cartoon Brew's Publisher and Editor-at-large.

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