HAPPY PRESIDENTS DAY

I jumped in the official Neato Coolville time machine and zapped back to 1862 to say Happy Presidents Day to Abe and Mary. Silly me that I forgot to bring this photograph back to the future. At least it was passed down thru the family for 146 years so I could post it here on the blog! (Yeah, this post could work as a far-out April Fools post too)

COMIC BOOK MATCHBOOK COVERS

I suppose it was a good idea in the 1940's to advertise comics on matchbooks so kids would be reminded to pick up the latest funny book after they bought their cigs and matches.

The Black Cat issue is hard to see on the matchbook, so I found a scan over at the Grand Comics Database to post for a closer look.


As a bonus, here’s a Superman matchbook cover from the 1970's advertising the Superman museum in Metropolis, Illinois.

THE CORN PUFFS KID

THE BOTTLE CAP MAN

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #29

I’ve probably seen hundreds of these kitchy bottle cap folk art men for sale over the years, but I’ve never purchased one until now. I’m not sure why I picked this guy up? Maybe it was his expression or maybe because he was only two bucks. Regardless he’s starring in today’s flea market find.


He really does have a lot of character in a misfit-toy kind of way. I’m not sure what’s better the Carmen Miranda earrings or the Falstaff Bicentennial beer can for a body? I like the fact that his arms and legs are made from the 2 liter style caps instead of the much thinner regular bottle caps like most the other bottle cap men. The Nehi Orange cap for the neck is a nice touch.


He probably was forgotten about and banished to someone’s attic or garage many years ago. Hopefully he’ll like it better on my computer desk. (I have a feeling he was worried that I was going to leave him outside)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

I did this one for the First Lady of Neato Coolville. I've misplaced my box of childhood school valentines that I was going to post today, so this will have to do.

TOM'S MONKEY JUNGLE ELDON, MO

I’m afraid I don’t have much info on this tourist attraction that was once located in Eldon, Missouri at the Lake of the Ozarks. It was next to the Corral Drive-In Theatre and I believe it disappeared sometime in the late 60's or early 70's. Here’s a few souvenirs that I’ve found over the years.








Update - I just found an old brochure from this place and you can see it here. Nice to finally have a photo of the front of this attraction. Also, when you read the brochure you'll notice they advertise a free gift to newlyweds. I bet the ashtray pictured above was the newlywed gift.

STEVE GERBER R.I.P.

I’m sorry to hear that Steve Gerber passed away Sunday. He was an amazing writer in comics and animation and is probably best known for his popular character Howard the Duck. Check out these links to learn more about Steve. Stevegerber.com stevegerblog The Comics Reporter Steve Gerber Obit Mark Evanier's news from me Wikipedia

I dug out my copy of The Man-Thing #22, the final issue of the first series. Steve put himself in the story and I thought it would be nice to share the last page and appropriately the last panel.



I’m glad that I had the chance to meet Steve at a 2004 comic convention in Kansas City. Steve was super nice and really easy to visit with. He was gracious enough to bring and donate an original script from the Ruby-Spears Saturday morning cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian to be auctioned off for A.C.T.O.R., now known as The Hero Initiative.


The script is now one of the best items in my Thundarr collection and thanks to Steve it also helped out an important cause. Steve touched a lot of imaginations thru his writing and I’m sure his body of work will continue to do just that.

GETTING OVER THE SICKY ICKY FLU

Sorry for the lack of posts this month, but I’ve been feeling kind of . . . kind of on the dead side of things. Yes, that fantastic sick bug known as the flu found me and it really shut me down. Not to fear I’ve finally returned to the land of the living and I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.

Whenever I come down with the flu or a cold, I sometimes think back to those miserable sick days from when I was a kid. An early memory was from when I was four years old and I had a bad case of tonsillitis. Oh man, was I ever sick. My temperature was so high, you could’ve fried an egg on my forehead and my nose was clogged tight making it almost impossible to breathe.

My mom set up a hot steam vaporizer to help open my sinuses so I could get some sleep. This big jar full of water and Vicks looked like something a b-movie mad scientist would’ve used. It was a good device and it was my lifeline that helped me breath and sleep. The bad thing was that I shared a small room with my big brother who was only eight at the time and this bubbling smelly contraption kept him awake. What would any smart older brother do to get some peace and quiet? Naturally he would unplug the silly thing and that’s just what he did. Without my Aladdin’s lamp sending out magical vapors my sinuses clogged back up and my temperature rose. Had I known what a coma was I probably would’ve thought I had slipped into one.

Thanks to the high temp I was hallucinating and I still remember the terrible and weird dream that I had. A bunch of dumbbell weights were falling from the sky crashing down on me until I was at the bottom of a heavy pile. Finally, the dumbbells quit falling and I had survived from being crushed. I could see up thru the pile of bronze colored dumbbells and slowly floating downward was a bright yellow feather. It gently landed on top of the dumbbell pile and just like in a cartoon the pile collapsed crushing me. Of course I woke up screaming for mom and when she came to my rescue she found the vaporizer unplugged. Needless to say there were two sick boys in that room that night. One was suffering from tonsillitis and the other one from scolding-in-trouble-itis!


I was amazed that my mom still had the old vaporizer, hopefully I’ll never have to use it again.

This second photo is of a Kaz Inhalant bottle I picked up at a flea market.