Chip,

Since you ran one of the WB animation depts/studio store, I figured you would know this.

Did the DC Animated Lithographs all come framed?

I've seen some floating around that look like copies, and are not framed. I assume the true lithos were solid blocks of color correct? Where a digital copy would most likely have patterns, or imperfect, color coverage.

Regards,

Geoff

Correct, everything was sold framed. On the lithographs...especially if talking about the "square face" ones, if they are not numbered on the front they are not originals. Even the proofs (artist and printer's) were numbered.

Everything originally from WBSS should still have the COA, as well.

Peace,

Chip

Thanks.

The guy selling this one has a tube, with the WB logo on it, and the certificate. It just seems odd that it is not framed.

He states:
"Not all of the 350 lithos were framed. Same goes with all WB Studio Store artwork.
They were stored at WB, and framed on an as-ordered from the stores basis.

This is also why I am including an original WB tube with it, as that is how it came to me from him. (his friend who was a Manager at a WB store)."

Regards

That's complete BS. First of all, all the square face lithos sold out so they all would have been framed. Second, if the persons "friend" was only a store manager the only way he'd have seen one is if it arrived to his store either for display or an order. They were never shipped to stores in tubes. Nothing was shipped unframed save for some gallery receptions getting unframed production cels for sale at the show, but upon purchase were sent back to the Cali warehouse for framing. The only time I saw unframed lithos was when I was in the Wall Art department at the animation artwork HQ in Burbank during the 1995 Gallery Manager Conference.

Peace,

Chip

This is a neat little discussion. I've seen the square face ones around for years but now I know more about them Say, how many faces were there? I remember seeing Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Ivy + Harley (I think they were together)...but I'd be curious to know exactly what the total was.

I miss the WB stores.

Especially those cool 2/3 torso statues they had of the Superfriends. I remember Supes, Aquaman, Batman, and Wonder Woman for sure, but there might have been GL and Flash as well.

I could never afford the animation cels, but I sure loved looking at them!

Ah well, one less reason to go to the mall.

Chip, what was the real reason for shutting them down? There was some kind of merger, wasn't there?

Interesting discussion. I have a couple of this print: http://cgi.ebay.com/1992-Limited-Editio ... 2eb4d1bc90

It's just the cell, unframed, no background. A friend of mine had purchased them at SDCC in 1992; the seller claimed he worked at the Burbank location and a small amount of these prints were specifically unframed and provided to employees for some reason (I don't recall). At the time, I suspected them to be fake but they appeared to be legit, or at least excellent copies.

Anyway, I still have one up on my wall in my office. I'll take a pic and post it soon.

Okay, I think I can do this in order of release, but my memory just sucks these days. I'm old!

Batman
Joker
Riddler
Two-Face
Catoman
Poison Ivy
Batman on Batcycle
Batgirl on Batcycle
Robin
Harley Quinn
Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy
Superman
Flash
Green Lantern
Wonder Woman

Bugs Bunny
Daffy Duck
Sylvester/Tweety
Taz
Pepe Le Pew
Gossamer

I *think* that's it. Sadly, in 1997 I had nearly all of them, and all #1's as well because the distributor for the "Wall Art" (non-cel artwork), Dan Waite, was a friend of mine.

Here's a blog I did a while ago on the *almost* inclusion of Kyle Rayner as a companion piece to the Hal Jordan :

http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/blog/chipcataldo/wbss-memories-part-2-the-green-lantern-animated-lithos/

Peace,

Chip

I believe it was AOL's attempted acquisition of Time Warner that did them in. After the failure of the AOL/Time Warner merger, they decided that it wasn’t worth staying in the retail game when they could just license out the characters to other companies instead of manufacturing and managing an entire chain of retail stores (which expanded way too fast, IMHO).

Peace,

Chip

That was the first piece of animation artwork done for Batman: The Animated Series. It's a sericel (seriagraphed cel). I believe it was limited to 1,000 pieces even though none were numbered. I bought the one I used to have in an animation gallery in NYC back in 1995, I think. A nice little piece.

Peace,

Chip

Yes! It IS a sericel...been a while since I used that term. Thanks for the info!

No prob, bud. Hope all is well in Prastball Land.

Peace,

Chip

WOW, small world, I don't know the seller, but I'm at most ten minutes from them!

Hey Chip,

Thanks for telling your story about the Kyle piece. Never read that, so it was nice to see why (well...not "nice" exactly) the stores eventually went under when they produced so much great stuff!

I adore the Wonder Woman maquette, for instance. Imagine the kind of stuff we could have seen if they'd stuck around long enough to produce pieces for JLU!

I've got the Riddler Square face litho. Most everything else I ever purchased while working for WBSS has been sold or traded off with the exception of the Alex Ross Justice League piece.

I miss those days. That video wall was always a hodge podge of WB clips, music, and videos. The staff was one of the best, most geek-knowledgable teams I have ever had the pleasure of goofing off with and still get paid.

Ah ... memories.