Season’s greetings! Here’s a special Yuletide gift: an unproduced children’s book written and illustrated by Art Davis!

Steven Marshall, the husband of Art’s grandfather, Sharon Davis, provided a manuscript entitled “Curly Q. Ball” from Davis’s holdings. Its main character, Algernon Quincy Ball, boasts the nickname “Curly” after the brown curls atop his head. As Curly grows older and becomes more arrogant from the attention his hair receives, he finds that his curls are slowly falling out and seeks a quick solution to avoid humiliation.

Art’s picture book includes an autobiographical element: Davis began losing hair at a young age and remained bald for much of his life. The Davis collection contained several surviving gag drawings from Art’s time at Screen Gems, dating from the mid-thirties and early forties, which poke fun at his bald pate. (click to enlarge)

There is little information about this unknown venture in Davis’s career, though Steven had mentioned finding paperwork in Art’s collection that an unknown publisher had declined his proposed book. Therefore, the book (75 pages, below) only exists in partially colored pages and rough illustrations. While it is hard to determine precisely when Davis worked on the book, the fashion sensibilities of its characters—short skirts, wide ties, and long-haired classmates—evoke the 1970s.

Enjoy!