Sunday 16 March 2008

Torvald Gahlin



Have you ever dreamt about walking in to an antique store just to find a stack of original art among the old lamps, tables and used tin soliders? And the artwork then turns ot to be comic strip art from 1940? And by an artist you happen to like and never seen original art by before?
That happened to me two days ago. Not in a dream but for real. :)

The artwork seen here is from a strip named "Fredrik". Drawn ca. 1940 by swedish artist Torvald Gahlin (1910-2006). (One of the strips I bought is dated July 24, 1940.) He's most known for his "Salon Gahlin" in Dagens Nyheter and "Klotjohan" and he did "Fredrik" between 1934 and 1973 according tho sources on the net.
Anyone who knows for sure if it really ran all those years?

Judging from the samples in the stack there were some recurring characters besides Fredrik in the strip. Two small black birds and a mean wolf. The two samples below (wich I had to scan as two pieces each since they were too large for my A3 scanner) showcases all three.



Most of the jokes in the strip are pretty dated. Jokes about he war and local events in Gothenburg. But the two strips here will probably still be understood by everyone 68 years after they were made. I hope you enjoy them just as much as I do.
Finding them really made my day!

Anyone who knows what happened to the rest of Gahlins artwork?
Are there any "Klotjohan" strips out there?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the wolf, nice design!

Jimmy Wallin said...

Sture lär ha koll på det. Den här serien är en av hans gamla favoriter, han är antagligen den som har bäst koll på Gahlin över huvud taget. Säg till om du vill ha hans mailadress.