COMMENTS
Comic Mint is pleased to offer HONG KONG PHOOEY fans this SOLD-OUT limited edition cel, signed by Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera & Iwao Takamoto.

This is a MEGA-RARE Limited Edition Cel which was produced EXCLUSIVELY fifteen years ago for the U.K Warner Bros. Studio Stores Gallery, and was issued in 1998. The 70's had perhaps more than it's fair share of fads, not the least of which was an exponential rise in interest about the martial arts in general, and the discipline of Kung Fu in particular.

The adept and creative minds at Hanna-Barbera responded to this trend with Hong Kong Phooey, a hilarious send-up of both the martial arts craze, and the super hero genre. Mild-mannered Penrod Pooch was but an unassuming canine janitor in a big-city police station. That is, until trouble was brewing, when he would transform inside a handy filing cabinet into the heroic crime fighter, Hong Kong Phooey! Along with his sidekick Spot, his trusty 'Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu' and his Phooeymobile, our hero would make trouble fall with a single "Hong Kong Phooey Chop" (well, maybe with two...).

This cel began with a drawing from Iwao Takamoto, the original designer of Hong Kong Phooey. A master inking by Helene Hartman was silk-screened, along with the Hanna-Barbera seal, onto an acetate sheet (or "cel"). Each cel was then expertly hand-painted on the reverse side. The background drawings by Iwao Takamoto were created specifically for this limited edition, and special attention was paid in the printing in order to capture the delicate line quality.

A model sheet, from which this background was adapted, is a collection of drawings of a specific character used to show that character's varying attitudes and characteristics. Animation directors pass these sheets out to their animators so that the animators can all draw the characters the same way (or "on model"). Famed character designer Iwao Takamoto, along with Studio co-founders William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, approved each cel with their signatures.

In the final step of production, the edition number was hand-inked on each cel. This is a long SOLD-OUT edition and limited to only 100 pieces (worldwide). The artwork measures 16" x 13" inches.
The cel has the Hanna-Barbera seal (lower right corner) and the artwork is in excellent condition.