OCTOBER HALLOWEEN-A-THON 2009

I’m officially throwing my Jack O’Lantern into the race of Halloween bloggers that will be posting ghoulishly good Halloween and monster related items every day in October. This will be my fourth year of insanity and for the first time I’m getting a bloody head start.

You’ll see old mag scans, found photos, illustrated Jacks and the return of the second annual Monster Head Races where you’ll have a chance to win a monster-ly good prize. I’ll even post my amazing skull rock that I found earlier this year! How ‘bout that?

Of course I can’t contain all this horrible goodness on one blog. You’ll need to visit the spookiest street in Neato Coolville, Weird Hollow for more crazy creeps. There you’ll find my pals Vlad and Scary Larry on KRYP-TV and I’ll show more items from Saint Bloodworth’s Museum of the Odd.

As I prepare for the big month, posts might be a little scarce until October, so hang in there Neato Readers as I hope this will be the best Halloween Countdown yet!

I leave you with one of Vlad’s video moments. Let’s just say we had some problems with this one. (Between you and me it’s really a waste of time. Really, I’d skip watching the video!)

MAD MEN YOURSELF

You can zap yourself into the world of Mad Men with this snazzy Mad Men Yourself creator! It's like Colorforms for adults and the hip music will put you into a mid-century trance!

ILLUSTRATED SUNSHINE #10

From a 1961 Solacraine ad.

FRITZ LANG'S METROPOLIS MASH-UP W/ THE MUSIC FROM BLADE RUNNER

Uploaded to YouTube by jmm1233

TIME TO LIGHT UP THE BARBECUE

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #44




Wow, this only cost $2.98 back in 1959 and it cost me five bucks at the flea market in 2009!

RANDOM COMIC BOOK PANEL #5

APOLLO 11 - HAPPY 40TH ANNIVERSARY

A thank you to all the men and women who helped send a tin can with three men off of our blue rock to a gray rock. Now we need to visit that red rock!


Moon rock collected from the lunar surface during the Apollo 11. It’s on display at the Kansas Cosmosphere Space Center.


The Space Window located at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. that contains an actual moon rock brought back home from Apollo 11.

ILLUSTRATED SUNSHINE MOONBEAM #9

Since today is the 40th Anniversary of the moon landing we're going with a moon instead of a sun!


This sleeping moon comes from the 1963 Busy Book of Learning Games and is illustrated by Albert M. Barker.

MY UNCLE'S MOON LANDING SLIDES

Most Sundays I try to post a vintage found snapshot or slide. This time I’m posting a few slides that my Uncle snapped during the live broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Years before homes had VCRs or DVRs the only way to preserve something from television was to take a photo of the screen.

My good Uncle took five photos. The first is with the flash and it wiped out the screen’s image. (Glad he did use the flash or we would've missed out seeing that nifty portable TV set.)


The next four slides are of the historical moment. The screen shots are kind of dark, but I did my best to try and bring them out of the darkness a bit. Actually, I like the extra static!





This last photo is the same as the first slide, but through the magic of photoshop I’ve inserted one of his screen shots onto the TV screen. Now I can see exactly how it looked when my Uncle witnessed history forty years ago.

WALTER CRONKITE R.I.P.

I just heard that Walter Cronkite passed away. Growing up - we always watched the CBS Evening News with Cronkite during supper. For a kid I didn’t have much interest in the news but I sure enjoyed listening to Cronkite’s calming voice and he reminded me of another Walter that was also from Missouri.

I guess it’s fitting that Walter Cronkite left this earth as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11. Godspeed Walter Cronkite.

This KODE TV Guide ad is from September 7, 1964.

1965 SPACEMEN YEARBOOK

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #43


I finally picked up Forry Ackerman's 1965 Spacemen Yearbook with the out-of-this-world cover by artists Wally Wood and Russ Jones. Also, in the stack was a silly 1963 Cartoon & Gag magazine. I purchased it for the cartoon on the back cover - the one below.


Maybe the boys of Apollo 11 dreamed they would find some sexy space women on the moon. Of course we all know sexy space women only live on Mars.


Ok. Sexy is not the right word to be using.

APOLLO 11 LIFTED OFF FOR THE MOON 40 YEARS AGO TODAY

Uploaded to YouTube by jimnxsq.

Snapshot artwork by little ol' me!

RANDOM COMIC BOOK PANEL #4

ILLUSTRATED SUNSHINE #8

From a 1969 Sea Breeze Antiseptic ad.

THE IRON-PATCH

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #42

Hey Pardners! Check out this mid-century Iron-Patch with the nifty lil cowboy character.


Kind of creepy that the patch is a breathing patch!

UNION SOLDIER FLAG BEARER

I’ve owned this amazing ambrotype for at least five years and it once belonged to a close friend. She had it for more than twenty years and she purchased the photo at a small antique show in Springfield, Missouri.

On Sundays I usually like to post old snapshots from the 20th Century, but I looked thru most of my snapshot collection and didn’t see any patriotic or 4th of July images. Ah yes, my Union Flag Bearer will be perfect for today’s post!

Too bad he didn’t come with identification. Like most of my photos in my collection, I wonder who the people were. Who was this brave soldier? I wonder if he survived the Civil War? Questions I’ll never know.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!