THE JP SHOW

And in the "almost too late to be worth mentioning" news there was an excellent art show over the weekend called The JP (Just People) Show. It was curated by the amazing artist Brandon Bird and features a number of artists' depictions of the humans from the Jurassic Park films, no dinosaurs allowed.

It was my honor to participate in the event and I decided to pay tribute to a human who helped contribute to the success of the franchise early on, Chip Kidd....


In addition to being a personal influence and cultural hero of mine, Chip designed the book cover for Michael Crichton's best selling novel which helped establish him as the most revered book cover designer of our time. In Mr. Kidd's live presentations he likes to point out that he traced the famous dinosaur bone profile from an illustration in a book and then simplified it and converted it into silhouette. Thus the title of the piece is "Chip Kidd breaks new ground in the art of book cover design by simply tracing an image from "Vertebrate Paleontology And Evolution" by Robert L. Carroll." Chip was quite surprised when his work became the central image in the film's marketing and merchandising campaign.

Check out more of the work on Brandon's site

WORLD OF THE UNEXPLAINED MUSEUM BROCHURE

Cryptozoologist Robert Robinson shares with us a rare look at a vintage brochure for the "World of the Unexplained" museum formerly located in Gatlinburg Tennessee...



Yes that is a naked woman. To explain the Unexplained, it's a statue based on a witch named Monique Wilson. Thanks to this paragraph, this post will bring a whole new set of Googler's.

The museum was open from 1972 to 1985 and was owned by Ripley's (as in Believe It or Not). It was originally called the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic but the name was changed to give it wider appeal.

Here's a brochure for their San Francisco location that I grabbed from ebay...



Few things embody "creepy" like gritty 1970s unexplained phenomenon documentaries. Imagine the terror of walking into one.

UPDATE: Robert also shares this great postcard from the museum's witchcraft days...

DARLING PET MUNKEE

Darling Pet Munkee is a "garage/surf rock supergroup" that's offering a free seven song EP based entirely on comic book mail-order ads.

From their press release...
"Sea-Monkeys, X-Ray Specs, and a necklace full of soil from Dracula’s castle are among the many bizarre items that were sold in comic-book ads of yore. Garage/surf rock supergroup Darling Pet Munkee aims to tell the tales of these lost items in song. For the next 6 months, the band will be releasing one song a month - with accompanying history - examining the bizarre knick-knacks sold via these misleading ads that promised fighting skills, wondrous creatures, and grand journeys."

The songs can be heard and freely downloaded here.
The stories and history behind each song can be found here.

It's great seeing others take creative inspiration from these beloved advertisements. It makes me feel like less of a freak.

MAIL-ORDER MASK OF THE GHOST RIDER

The proud owner of this mail-away Ghost Rider mask shares with us this nifty photo of his super-rare collectible. This version of Ghost Rider originated with a comics publisher called Magazine Enterprises but after the trademark lapsed Marvel put out their own version of the character which was eventually named Phantom Rider.

Here's the comic book ad which looks to be from the 1950s...


The actual product is simple yet cool looking (aside from the unavoidable KKK comparison). Plus it possesses that perfect, ever-endearing quality— it glows in the dark.

Unfortunately, it seems that I'll be mentally singing Ghost Riders in the Sky for the next week or so.

NEW HAUNTED HOME FOR PHANTASMAGORIA PROPS

Every time I think the story of my favorite defunct dark ride has come to an end it seems that a new chapter opens up. Recently I reported that several props from the Phantasmagoria were being sold off at the Vintage Tulsa antique show. Many fans came to the event just to see these pieces of Tulsa history one last time. However, I just got word that these spooks aren't dead yet, they're just moving.

About a half dozen gags from the "Phantaz" were purchased by Trimper's amusement park of Ocean City, MD to be installed in their historic Haunted House! Trimper's Haunted House is one of the most beloved dark rides of its kind and one of the last eight surviving attractions designed by spookhouse mastermind Bill Tracy who was also responsible for the Phantasmagoria.

Brandon Seidl, founder of Trimper’s Haunted House Online, tells me that the props which include the "skull cave" and the "coffin skeleton" are expected to be in place by Spring 2012. Trimper's is renowned for the pride they take in their history, and I can't think of a more appropriate location for this collection of scaries. I see a Maryland vacation in my future.

You can take a look at the classic haunted house in this photographic walkthrough or better yet, a video ride-though.

WORLD'S DEADLIEST TATTOO

An upstanding individual by the name of Jeremy has blown me away with his Count Dante: Deadliest Man Alive tattoo, based on the legendary ad...

Not only is the concept brilliant the artistry is excellent, I can't imagine a better translation from ad to arm. Check out his Flickr Feed for a closer look.

But that's not all, Jeremy has curated what is possibly the most appealing assembly of body art that I have witnessed. Lando Calrissian himself would have made for a fine subject, but this is Kenner action figure Lando!...


...and while you're still reeling from that, BAM! it's Vincent from The Black Hole!

Thank you Jeremy for brightening our day, one limb at a time.

THE HAUNTED MANSION STORY ANIMATED

Story and Song from the Hanted Mansion from David Witt.

H-A-LL-O-W-EE-N SPELLS HALLOWEEN

Jason Willis of the legendary Scar Stuff blog among other things, has bestowed on us another celebratory Halloween video inspired by the haunts of yesteryear. This is his stop motion interpretation of Kay Lande and Wade Denning's classic song "Halloween." It does a fantastic job of capturing what is so endearing about this time of year. Read all about his creative process here. And please, PLEASE don't forget to have a happy Halloween!

CSA FLAT FILE

If you savor the look of vintage ink printed on vintage paper, do yourself a favor and visit CSA Flat File. The site "features current projects from CSA Images, including the daily feature Paper Cuts, a full-bleed source of printed inspiration curated from the millions of images that make up the CSA archives. Paper Cuts span the history of design and preserve the legacy of ink on paper in the digital age"

KEVIN KIDNEY AND JODY DAILY

For years Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily have created a breathtaking assortment of artifacts for the Disney parks drawing inspiration from yesteryear's best Disney designs. Their body of work is truly phenomenal, placing them high among my personal creative heroes.

If you like to treat your eyes well then I recommend visiting this gallery of nearly all of their creations, as well as Kevin's Portfolio and Blog.
If you need further convincing I invite you to take a hard look at the following delights...

Ceramic replicas of vintage concession packaging...

Paper sculpture that cannot be fully appreciated unless enlarged

original illustrations by Kevin Kidney, Boy and Girl with Disneyland souvenirs

Tin Signs

60 YEARS OF TALKING TEETH

Collectors Weekly has a nice article about the history of wind-up chattering teeth, the products they inspired, and the historic H. Fishlove novelty company.

KID-CUSTOMIZED FUN HOUSE CATALOG

When I was a kid I would have gotten along very well with Rick Nagel. When his novelty "Fun Catalog" began to fall apart due to heavy use Ricky, as he was known back then, designed an all-new cover featuring products like the Snake Nut Can, the Hypo-Phony, a Frankenstein mask, and a boomerang.


His filled-in order form still reveals his wish list: a rubber bloody hand, a spud gun and a color-changing handkerchief.


Rick explains why the order remained unsent, "I distinctly remember panicking when I realized I had failed to follow their admonishment to PRINT ORDER CLEARLY. My 12 year old brain convinced me they would not honor my order due to the scribblings and it was never sent."

He did however, obtain a phony hot dog which was met with the standard disappointment.
"When the rubber hot dog finally arrived it was a big, fat, curved, old-fashioned butcher style frankfurter, not the straight skinless ballpark type hot dog Mom always bought. No way Dad was gonna fall for that"

Thanks Rick for sharing this little piece of history. May your days be abundant with rubber bloody hands.

NEW YORK COMIC CON + ME

Hey folks! I'll be at New York Comic Con this weekend celebrating the release of Mail-Order Mysteries. I'll be signing books on Saturday, Oct. 15 from 1-3 PM at the Insight Editions booth #1939. (Plus I imagine I'll be checking in at the booth throughout the Con.) They'll be giving away the cool pinback buttons that you may have seen pictured on the Secret Fun Blog a few seconds ago.

I like saying hi to people so feel free to come by and say hi.

MAIL-ORDER MYSTERIES NOW AVAILABLE!

After five years of development, and dreaming about it long before that, my new book Mail-Order Mysteries is finally available nationwide in bookstores and online! The delays are over and it's officially in stock on Amazon. That fine lookin' video up there is the official book trailer, I'm incredibly thankful to my friend Scott Kinney for producing it.

I've been blessed with loads of great press and even more to come. It was featured in a story on Huffington Post, it inspired an article in the New York Post, and got a mention on io9.com.

While you're waiting for your copy to arrive, feel free to read the interview I did for WIRED GeekDad, or you can hear me talk about it on BoingBoing.net's Gweek podcast.

And here are some sweet blurbs...

"If childhood disappointment could ever be considered an art form, then Mail-Order Mysteries is a masterpiece. Really. The metaphors for life itself are inescapable, the disillusion heartbreakingly laid bare, the tackiness a drug you just can't quit."
- Chip Kidd, graphic designer and author of Bat-Manga!

“If I could put one thing in a time machine to send back to my eight-year-old self, it would be Mail-Order Mysteries. This book would have saved me dozens of allowances and hundreds of glacial hours spent standing on the porch waiting for the mailman to arrive. I always knew there was something fishy about those ‘Gigantic Dinosaurs!’”
—Mark Waid, writer of Kingdom Come and Irredeemable

“Mail-Order Mysteries reveals the secrets behind those too-good-to-be-true gizmos advertised in the comic books of my youth. What a mind-blower!”
—Mark Frauenfelder, cofounder of Boing Boing

Unlike most of the items it showcases, Mail-Order Mysteries delivers the goods.
—John Booth, WIRED GeekDad

"It is...genius." —NeedCoffee.com

"just as magical and weird as the goods it chronicles."
—Comics Worth Reading

"Anyone who loves old comics both for the comics and the ads will have a great time reading this one."
—Comics Bulliten

What was that Amazon link again? oh, yeah, HERE IT IS!

THE ELECTROSTATIC GENERATOR!

The Electrostatic Generator is an item that was sold in comic books for decades, yet in all of my years of scouring eBay I've never seen one pop up. In fact I've never been able to find even a single image of one anywhere on the world wide web. Thus it was one of my wish list items for Mail-Order Mysteries that remained a mystery.

...Until now! Thanks to David of the bookmark-deserving Gorillas Don't Blog blog, we the Internet can gaze upon the Electrostatic Generator!...

It's smaller than I originally imagined, of course, but it did indeed light up. David says, "You'd hold it by the bottom brass ball, rub your feet on the carpet, and the touch the ball on the end with the little light bulb. The bulb would issue a faint orange flicker, for fractions of a second." So it's not exactly good for a spare flashlight, but it sounds like enough to keep a kid intrigued for a while.

Thanks for sharing David!

PHANTASMAGORIA, DEARLY DEPARTED

I've blogged numerous times about the defunct dark ride, the Phantasmagoria, formerly of Bell's Amusement Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but this may be my final post. Though a scaled down version of the park recently reopened, the pieces of the beloved dark ride are being sold off.

However, if you happen to be a Phataz enthusiast with money to burn, you have one last chance to own a piece of Tulsa history. Some of the props will be for sale at the Vintage Tulsa Show this weekend at the SpiritBank Event Center. For more information see their web site.

Here are some of the items that will be there...


UPDATE: Here are a couple pics from the show thanks to Kelly Scott...

IMAGINEERING MONSTER MAKE-UP DOCUMENTARY

Imagineering! from David Hansen-Sturm on Vimeo.

It made the rounds a while ago but somehow I neglected to post this amazing mini-documentary on the Imagineering Halloween make-up company. One of my favorite experiences while researching Mail-Order Mysteries, was talking with Larry Liff the founder of the company and inventor of plastic fangs! Watch the video to hear him discuss the genesis of the company and a time when fake vampire blood was assumed to be deadly.

8-BIT HOUSE OF HORROR

(click it for hugeness)

Hiya folks! This Friday the Gallery 1988, Venice Beach location is debuting an artistic tribute to old school video games and I was more than happy to contribute. House of Horror is my attempt to merge two of my favorite things: classic arcade games and amusement park dark rides. (Yet again I was influenced by the Phantasmagoria.) I used a dayglo color pallet based on vintage Halloween decorations to tie it all together.

If you're near Santa Monica this weekend please visit the gallery and tell my painting that I already miss it.

Better yet, you could buy the original and talk to it all the time.