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.

MAIL-ORDER MYSTERIES PREVIEW!

Behold one of the few copies of Mail-Order Mysteries that exists in the United States! [UPDATE: IT'S AVAILABLE NOW!] The rest are somewhere on a slow boat from China, but while the noble captain braves the seven seas I invite you to rest your eyes on this exclusive sneak peek at a dozen of the one hundred and fifty-six pages within. Click 'em to see much larger images...

The book covers a variety of toy solders, also known as Comic Book Flats

My pal Eddie Guevara of HouseOfTheUnusual.com online novelty shop supplied the "book safe" as well as some of the rarest items in the volume.

This spread appears in my favorite section of the book,"House of Horrors."

Raymond Castile, monster kid and curator of the Gallery of Monster Toys, photographed his amazing collection of Topstone brand masks for the cause.

Sea-Monkeys are essential, in this book and in life.

This is my interpretation of a bargain "Surprise Package" which were offered by most novelty distributors and usually consisted of discontinued items.


Oh, and one other thing...

!!!

The book should be available everywhere by UPDATE: October 11th so if you pre-order from Amazon now, you can experience a highly appropriate four-to-six week wait, just like a kid ordering from his first comic book ad. But hopefully this mail-order mystery will not disappoint.

INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF NOVELTIES

Earlier this year Devlin Thompson directed me by way of AltJapan to the site of a Japanese collector that is one of the great treasures of the internet by my assessment. It features the best and most comprehensive assembly of 1960s and 70s era (they call them Showa Era) novelties that I've ever seen. Much of it is the same stuff Americans got through comic book ads, souvenir shops, and dime stores, and some is even more freaky. The author of the site often includes catalog clippings that look like the Japanese versions of the Johnson Smith Company catalog. Best I can tell, the collector actually owns and photographs all of the items.

As a service to mankind I've provided some handy links to my favorite parts of the site. Since it's written in Japanese all of the following links run through the Google translator. Here we go...

I'm obligated to start with the Home Page, the first few links are galleries of badges which are interesting, but it's the next stuff that I'm crazy about. The "What's that Thing?" collection is a directory of galleries that includes the following amazing subsections...

Novelty and Wind-Up toys
Pranks
Money Banks
Keychains
Useful Gadgets
Souvenirs
Toys and Magic Tricks
Nostalgic Gifts for Children
Toy Memories from the webmaster

There's also
Character Toys
Directory of Plastic Trinkets
and his Blog

To demonstrate the level of incredibleness that I'm talking about I did some willy-nilly image grabbing from all over the site. It's like a massage for the eyes.