Art of Disney Stamps book out from US Post Office

The US Post Office is selling Art of Disney Stamps, a US$50 hardcover book on the making of the 4 sets of Disney stamps they've issued. Their description reads:

Offering a rare, behind–the–scenes look at a popular stamp series, The Art of Disney Stamps book is filled with seldom seen developmental sketches and beautiful artwork from the Disney creative team.

Discover the fascinating process of bringing the full magic of Disney to a space the size of a postage stamp. This unique book comes with all 20 The Art of Disney stamps and a special Walt Disney stamp issued in 1968. A true collector’s treasure!

The 1968 stamp is the one issued for Walt Disney after his death.

They've got other new Disney products too like The Art of Disney Postmark Collectibles Collection (Set of 4) which is also US$50. All of their Disney products can be seen here - if anyone adds up the complete cost, let me know.

Picture of LAT launching his stamps

See "Give local cartoonists more prominence: Lat," Malaysia Star December 4 2008.

Postage sale on Zazzle through Sunday

Zazzle's knocking $6 off their sheets of postage until Sunday - they've got Zippy stamps from Bill Griffith. I'm looking for other licensed comics and cartoons now. They still have Disney, although you could spend your entire income on those. Two other comics - Liberty Girl, a small press comic book and 100 Covers, a webcomic from Comicmix (at least as of a couple of months ago)

Thanksgiving Postage Sale!
$11.99/sheets of postage! Ends Sunday!

Hartford Courant features French Garfield stamps

The Hartford Courant for November 26, 2008 featured an article on the French Garfield stamps that came out in September. Given the fantastic amount of French comics or b-ds, I don't really know why the French post office is featuring Garfield. Is he wildly popular in France?

LAT stamps coming from Malaysia

http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/bnm/20081126/tts-stamp-cartoon-with-pix-993ba14.html

The great cartoonist LAT is getting a set of postage stamps next week. This article says "said the stamps would have a variety of images related to Lat's cartoon collections -- The Kampung Boy, Home-Made Games, The Fierce Teacher and the Town Boy."

There's a variety of material to collect - "The Lat's cartoon stamp collection comprises four designs in the 50 cent denomination, and it will also include a First Day cover, miniature sheet, RM5.50 folder and a RM3 stamp booklet."

Zippy stamps?

Zippy stamps? Could it be? Well, there's Zippy postage at least. Unfortunately these things are always more expensive than they should be, but I ordered 1 set. Only 7 more to go. Hopefully Bill Griffith is getting a decent cut of the price.

Former cartoonist and political illustrator designes stamp

The stamp is on Alzheimer's disease and by Matt Mahurin. I'll be buying a sheet on Monday even though it's not a cartoon image. See "From Rock Videos to an Alzheimer’s Stamp," By ROBIN FINN, New York Times November 2, 2008 and the press release is here.

Garfield appears on French stamps

Dave Astor says Garfield is on two French stamps in his article, "A Pair of 'Garfield' Books -- and French Stamps!" E&P Online October 17, 2008.

[A correspondent of mine says this is actually a booklet of 10 stamps]

Smurf your letters

50 years of little blue men leads to nice new stamps in Belgium. No less than two issues : one set of two times five stamps featuring the main characters (and a few post-related ones) from Peyo's celebrated comic series, and one souvenir sheet featuring a festivity scene that seems to be rather clumsily copy pasted together. But it's printed on a luxurious large size for once, so who are we to complain ?



This release is accompanied by an awareness campaign by the Belgian Post to get children to use their services again. If they manage to collect ten different, cancelled Smurf stamps, they receive free Smurfs gifts and can compete for bigger prizes.




By the way, this is the second major Smurf stamp (not counting the crass commercialism that is the duostamp).

More at the Belgian Post Philately site.

Belgian philately site finally up to date

It has taken them a while, but the Belgian Post Office's official Philately site is finally up to date, which enables us to give you an overview of comics-related releases that have been published already, or are still to come.

Early in the year, Philip Geluck's Le Chat graced the annual Red Cross stamp. One stamp, available a single and as a row, with illustrated tab.

Another annual event, the Youth Philately stamps, carried the likeness of Hermann Huppen's hero Jeremiah. Again, one stamp, available a single and as a row, with illustrated tab.

A special series of five stamps celebrated the 70th anniversary of Belgian comic character Spirou. It was only the first of three commemorative editions, followed by a stamp on the occasion of Mickey Mouse's 80th anniversary (one stamp, available a single and as a row, with illustrated tab), and, later this month, a quite nice sheet of five stamps featuring the Smurfs.

Finally, Belgian cartoonist and illustrator René Hausmann created the art for a special sheet of five stamps about Belgian predatory mammals.

No Tintin this year ;-)

Al Hirschfeld artwork on new stamp

Today's Washington Post reports that Al Hirschfeld's artwork will be featured on a stamp again - "First- Class Act: The Postal Service Puts Black Film History In a Starring Role," Sunday, July 20, 2008; Page M06. The article says:

The last stamp is the work of the famed Al Hirschfeld for "Hallelujah," a 1929 film made by MGM with an all-black cast and directed by King Vidor. Nina Mae McKinney, another talented beauty who was known as "the Black Garbo," was a co-star. The film itself has been debated for years for including both the reality of rural life and stereotypes. The poster shows a stylized flapper raising her yellow-gloved arms.

DC Comics stamps in Singapore

They're appearing this summer starting today. See "DC Comics' super heroes featured on SingPost stamps," By Heather Tan, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 12 June 2008.

Disnemation is back

Bill Silvester wrote in recently to note that his excellent Disney in stamps site is being updated again:

After almost five years in hiatus I have finally found time to update my Disnemation website. Anybody with the remotest interest in Disney on Stamps will find something of interest here. It is still under construction but the checklist has been updated to 2008. Check it out at: www.disnemation.8m.com/HOME.htm

Slow in US cartoon stamps, so here's a drawing

By Peter Arkle from the New York Times Book Review, March 9, 2008.

This isn't a real stamp of course, although it's pretty.

French stamps

Here's the stamps from a package that Philabulle compiler Thierry sent with Tintin and other cartoon stamps. Unfortunately, when I mailed a package in return to him, the clerk didn't hear when I asked for $36 worth of stamps and instead gave me a printed postage label.


I was planning on coating his box with Marvel Comics and Star Wars. Oh well.

Drew Struzan podcast interview

The stamp illustrator who's also done comic book covers -

The Quiet Giant - It's DREW STRUZAN (September 26, 2007)