Jim Tyer: It’s All in the Mind

Fortunately, not all Heritage Auctions are out of the common man’s limit. I snapped up this beautiful original art by Jim Tyer for a 5-page Dinky Duck story recently. I don’t know which issue it’s from, or the year, but Milton Knight suspects 1955. From Milt:

“The lettering indicates that this was done in 1955 or slightly after; for some reason, the Terry comics adopted an upper-and-lower case font right after the CBS buyout. The change in (lovely) lettering may have been because of the change in publishers too: from St. John to Pines. The energy and quality of the art picked up, too, in my opinion.”

Update: Bob Jaques has a definite answer: Paul Terry’s Adventures of Mighty Mouse – (no issue number) April 1956.

The art and story is a good example of summing up the Terrytoons at their best. Just about every aspect about the cartoon is borderlining retarded in execution, but it’s still eerily beautiful in its uniqueness, an aura almost always coming directly from Jim Tyer. Possibly the funniest part of this story is Rudy Rooster, after getting his sweater, immediately trying to beat up a little baby, then proceeding to “BIFF!” his old man after getting a reasonable warning. Tyer (or whoever wrote the story) needs to establish that the rooster is now a douche, and gets it done as overtly as possible, capping it with the absolutely brilliant “What a sweater!” panel.

The greatest joy in owning the art is seeing some of Tyer’s original penciling and lettering by examining the pages more closely, shattering the common perception that he was always just shitting this stuff through (though in many cases he probably was). Tyer’s greatest work was a carefully calculated brand of insanity, and I’m glad he never got the opportunity to be ‘well-directed’ elsewhere because I can’t begin to imagine a Jim Tyer who wasn’t allowed to do whatever he wanted.