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.

MAIL-ORDER MYSTERIES, MY NEW BOOK AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!

Hi folks! I'd like to finally announce my upcoming book, Mail-Order Mysteries! For over a decade I've been tracking down actual products that were sold in novelty ads from vintage comic books and in this book I compare the wild marketing claims with over 150 of the actual products. The concept is loosely based on a section of the Secret Fun Spot that I put together nearly ten years ago, though much more extensive and polished. Mail-Order Mysteries, is slated for a late September release (the date on Amazon isn't quite correct) by Insight Editions, and can be pre-ordered at Amazon. I'm happy to report that the hardbound, 156-page volume is only $13.57!

If you're in an extra supportive mood, feel free to click the Facebook "Like" button on the Amazon page. I've learned that even something like that (not to mention the pre-orders themselves) can affect the size of Amazon's second order.

In upcoming weeks I'll talk more about its origins and share sneak peeks and a number of entries that didn't make the final cut. Stay tuned!

AZIZ ANSARI CRITIQUES MY ART

Ha! I just discovered that my Human Giant portrait for "Is This Thing On" is one of several pieces of fan art that actor/comedian Aziz Ansari critiqued on complex.com.
HERE's the brief video.

He says that he doesn't remember being shirtless in a Human Giant sketch, and he is incorrect. This sketch was my source material for his torso (his head came from another). He also claims that he would never say during a portrait shoot, "you know what guys, let me take my shirt off." I say he's wrong again.