Our pal Steve Stoliar caught this. On this week's new episode of Pawn Stars, a gent brings in a book from the mid-seventies to sell — a bound book in which 41 cartoonists signed autographs and most also did a sketch for someone named Katherine. I used to like this show when I first discovered it but it got so repetitive and formulaic and obviously rehearsed that I gave up on it. (I also didn't like how in some episodes, the Pawn Stars family treated each other badly. I'm told there's less of that on the program now.)
As is usual for this show, a member of the Pawn Stars team (in this case, Chumlee) says something like, "Hey, this is neat. Would you mind if I got a buddy of mine who's an expert in these things to come down and take a look at it?"
The would-be seller says sure. The Expert Buddy comes in…and about 90% of the time, the E.B. authenticates the item and says it's worth X, then says "Thanks for letting me take a look at it" and leaves. Expert Buddies in Las Vegas seem to have nothing better to do than drop everything they're doing and rush over to the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop to help out, even if it means helping a competitor. The seller almost always accepts what the Pawn Stars guy's friend says. Then, once the E.B. is gone, the haggling starts with the seller starting by asking X and going down from there.
In this case, the seller came in wanting $2000 for the book and though the expert said it was worth $2000, the seller settled for [SPOILER ALERT!] $800. I don't know how fair that would be since we don't see all 41 autographs. We get quick peeks and see Milton Caniff, Don Rico, Steve Leialoha, Trina Robbins, Frank Ridgeway, Brad Anderson, Russell Myers, George Clayton Johnson, Walter Gibson, Jim McQuade and one or two others.
The two biggies the show focuses on are Joe Shuster and Jack Kirby. What would make this book truly rare is if someone somehow managed to circulate a sketch book at a San Diego Con and somehow didn't get Sergio Aragonés.
My keen deductive abilities suggest the book was circulated at one or more San Diego Cons and I have a hunch some of the circulating was done by the con's figurehead founder, Shel Dorf, on behalf of Katherine, whoever she is. The Caniff drawing is dated 1976 and I don't think Caniff was at the con that year. Shel was then lettering the Steve Canyon newspaper strip for Caniff and visiting him often. Maybe Shel took it along on one of those visits.
Two other things I should mention. One is that if you catch the episode, ignore what Chumlee says about Jack Kirby and Joe Shuster. His command of comic book history is not great. In fact, most of the expertise we hear on that show from the principles sounds like it comes from a researcher on the staff who cribs stuff from Wikipedia.
Secondly and oddly: The drawing they show most during this segment is this one…
I assume that's because it's Bugs Bunny. It certainly isn't because the "cartoonist" is very good or notable. I used to do such sketches for those who asked but I was never too comfy doing it. Even if I'd had real art supplies and a lot of time available to me, I didn't feel I should despoil a book containing drawings by folks like Kirby and Caniff. When I did, I always heard the Sesame Street song, "One of These Things is Not Like the Others" playing in my brain.
I drew a lot when I was a lad but while I enjoyed it, I never enjoyed it the way most great artists I know enjoyed it. I liked writing about a hundred times as much and felt I was way better at it. I'm not sure whether I enjoyed drawing less because I wasn't as good at it or if I wasn't as good at it because I enjoyed it less but either option gets you to pretty much the same place.
Have I ever told you the moment when I decided to give it up? I'll tell you if you promise to not think I'm suggesting I am in any way comparable to James Thurber. I was reading a book about him and they were discussing the period when he was going blind. About that, he wrote…
If I couldn't write, I couldn't breathe but giving up drawing is only a little worse than giving up tossing cards in a hat. I once flipped in forty-one out of the whole deck, at twelve feet.
That's about how I felt and upon reading that quote, I instantly felt that I had permission to not draw in any venue where a real cartoonist was expected. It's one of those life decisions that I've made and never regretted for a second. Since then, what I do are not drawings but doodles…and on that basis, where absolutely no standards apply, they ain't bad. I'm also, by the way, not very good at tossing cards in a hat. Maybe I should try that again, only having it not be on somebody's head when I attempt it.