Saturday, October 24, 2009

Ichabod and Mr. Toad Fan Card

One of the most fun studio fan cards ever, promoting the 1949 debut of two fabulous characters in one fabulous film:  The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.   So full of action and excitement, it's hard to resist these 7"x 9" cards for fans who wrote the Walt Disney Studio.

Unlike the flat painted animation cels seen in the movie, promotional materials like this allowed for the characters to be more fully rendered to a higher level of detail.

Artist Hank Porter created the illustration of Toad in his motorcar racing alongside Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman, and here is the original sketch!  I think it's beautiful.

13 comments:

The Viewliner Limited said...

Nothing like vintage Disney artwork. Fantastic.

Major Pepperidge said...

I especially love anything to do with the Headless Horseman... I remember years ago, my friends who scratched their heads at my fascination with Disney animation had to admit that the HH was pretty cool!

Unknown said...

SO AWesome! It sure does have that Disney feel to it!

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

WOW - Fantastic! Toads having a blast in his amazing car, the Headless horseman's horse is downright frightening and Ichabod is too much! I've never seen this before - Thanks Kevin!

Donnie said...

Disney needs to hire you guys to make more Toad merch!

thepicklebarrel said...

...most probably drawn and painted by Hank Porter.

David said...

Absolutely 100% Hank Porter...you beat me to it...I was going to post the image of the fan card on my vintage Disney site.

Both my toonsatwar.blogspot.com and vintagedisneymemorabilia.blogspot.com sites feature dozens of images of Disney art created by Porter.

A copy of the Ichabod and Mr. Toad fan card was amongst the cache of close to 1,000 images of art or artifacts sent to me by the two siblings and the grandson of Hank Porter.

Porter kept a copy of many of the illustrations he created at Disney's.

Walt Disney referred to Porter as his "one man art department," hence the title of the biography I am writing:

"One Man Art Department - The Life and Times of Disney Artist Hank Porter."

Kevin Kidney said...

Thank you Jordan and David for identifying Hank Porter as the artist. I love his work, and David, I can't wait for the biography you are writing!! How cool!

Ralph Stout said...

I recently added this card to my Mr. Toad collection a couple of months ago, it is without a doubt one of my favorites!!

Centaurette said...

With a hip-hip and a clippity clop...as part of the Halloween festivities at Walt Disney World, the Headless Horseman gallops dramatically "over the bridge that spans the brook" out of Liberty Square and down Main Street! It is very affective--even though it would have better to play some of the film's underscoring music for him. Instead, he flew by, pumpkin flaming and cape unfurled, to Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries!" Undeniably dramitic, but not as "Ich-y" as it might have been.

Yes, Hank Porter was brilliant, and though he was fortunately very prolific, it is so sad that we did not get to see his beautiful styling applied to the later 1950s film characters. Just imagine what he might have done with the graphics of early Disneyland, too!

Chiana_Chat said...

Kevin, always enjoy your blog. :)

Ol' Icky's among my favs. Love Washington Irving's story - if anyone hasn't read the original story, it's Public Domain so you can read it free and legal at Project Gutenberg!
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/41

Also love the film. To my surprise, of filmed versions, Disney's is also the most faithful to the book. Most importantly it manages to catch the feel pretty well, including Bing's narration (I'd hazard he read the story 'cause he seems to be trying to satisfy the Bing Thing and catch the feel too). Don't whistle "Katrina" alone on an autumnal road... hehe

jba of hello prints! said...

Thank you for posting this, you're right, it's beautiful :)

Zafran ali said...

I visit your site,Nice done i like your great art you have done absolutely brilliant.These are all so nice.Thank,s for great sharing.
Plastic Card.