Preston Blair Swipes: Harvey Comics and Speed Racer

Most of the Preston Blair swipes we’ve linked to in the past are by amateur artists, but this post shows that professional comic artists and animators are also not immune to “borrowing” from Preston Blair’s classic how-to books.

Kevin Langley offers the following unbelievable find on his blog: an old Harvey comic in which artist Ben Brown created a funny animal story comprised nearly entirely of swipes of Preston Blair characters and poses.

And Brew reader Gerard de Souza recently sent me frame grabs of his discovery: a Preston Blair bulldog in an old Speed Racer episode called “The Great Plan, Part 1”. I think it’s safe to say Blair was referenced as there are only three character animation drawings in the bulldog scene, and two of them are the Blair expressions below. The non-Blair drawing is an inbetween connecting these two drawings.