Big Boy: the million dollar doodle

Stephen Worth says:

Today at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, we scanned and posted the very first Big Boy comic book from 1956, along with vintage TV commercial art and menus. The story of the creation of Big Boy is a fascinating one. Here's a snip from my article...

"Years later, when Big Boy had become a familiar figure to the entire country, animator Benny Washam admitted to his fellow artists at Warner Bros that he was the cartoonist who had created the character. They laughed and teased him, saying, "Benny, you should have been heir to a hamburger fortune, but no! Your lot in life is to toil day and night making animated cartoons!" They were joking, but there's an element of truth in it. Never underestimate the power of a doodle. That Big Boy sketch that Washam traded away for a free meal sold millions of dollars worth of hamburgers."

Link

[#1 posted by Moon , January 23, 2008 3:46 PM]

You are SO in trouble when the Big Boy people see this. They'll be all over your ass with copyright infringement lawsuits!!!

:D

[#2 posted by License Farm , January 23, 2008 10:21 PM]

God, I wish this wasn't such a common type of story in comics and affiliated disciplines. The template is: eager young kid pretty much gives away a character that nets a savvy marketer (or just a lucky stiff) multimillions, and said kid becomes a jaded burnout and dies with far less credit to their names than they rightly deserve. Happier renditions have said kid(s) eventually getting something of their due (though arguably too late to enjoy it), as was the case with Siegel & Shuster for Superman, or going on to work of comparable importance, as was the case with Jack Kirby. Unhappier versions tend to be fairly self-destructive or just unremarkable, like the near disappearing act Steve Ditko pulled, or the fate of some of the EC stable who got shitcanned in the wake of HUAC. Let's not even get into the imbroglio over who owns the rights to Miracle/Marvel Man.

One ought not discount the impact success can have, too: Jack "Plastic Man" Cole offed himself at the top of his game when he was cartooning for PLAYBOY and reaping the benefits of that association, possibly because of them.

[#3 posted by devophill , January 23, 2008 10:56 PM]

License Farm- Never forget: Bill Finger.

[#4 posted by License Farm , January 24, 2008 12:13 PM]

Oh, I didn't forget him, Phill. But Bob Kane sure did.