November 24, 2004
The Great Cartoon Murals
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Back on October 29th, 2002 (scroll down), Jerry blogged at CARTOON RESEARCH on the old Museum of Cartoon Art's bathroom murals, which included work by Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Wendy Pini, and many others. I'm not sure if these were saved when the Museum left Port Chester, New York for Boca Raton. (Anybody know?) But at least we have photos. (Matthew Hasson, if you're reading this--maybe it's time to repost yours on the Web?)
Like Dick Huemer, Charles Schulz decorated a wall at his home with children's illustrations. Fortunately, Sparky's work was not only saved, but is on public view at the Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California.
When I was a kid, I didn't consider any trip to New York complete without a visit to a saloon called Costello's. No, I wasn't a budding barfly--Costello's had amazing murals by James Thurber, and a less-amazing but still interesting wall with art by the likes of Milt Caniff and Mort Walker. Here's an article from early 2004 with the alarming news that the Thurber murals are missing and the cartoonist's wall is threatened. (By now, it may be history.)
Lastly, LA's Chinatown welcomes visitors with a big outdoor mural of a dragon by Disney inspirational artist Ty Wong. (Click here and scroll down to see it--I learned it was by Ty when his BAMBI colleague, Maurice Noble, pointed it out to me.) Ty Wong has done a remarkable number of interesting things in his long career--here's the online companion to a recent museum exhibit of his work.
Anyone know of other cartoon murals, past or present? Hmmmm--there's Mary Blair's Disney theme park work...