Interior Design

Icon-filled pattern found on the interior of the covers of many Dell paperback books circa 1949 noting the various types of books the company published. In an era of largely misleading book covers the large identifying icon placed somewhere on the front of the book would let a reader (and vendor stocking the stands) know at a glance from what category of fiction they were browsing. Due to the extra expense of printing, interior cover patterns are nearly non-existent today.

From the Collection: Sinister Barrier

Sinister Barrier was originally published in 1939 for the pulp magazine Unknown and was re-issued for this 1985 volume with suitably horrifying cover art by the great Ralph McQuarrie.

There's being mischievous

...And then there is this little demon seed.
From the psychotic man-baby contemplating the gigantic mystery pie with horrible, unnamed ingredients to the shark-toothed demon-mother-wife-jailer and the rushing river euphemistically named the "County Orphanage" this Golden Age attempt at humor begs for a modern-day treatment by a good horror or shock writer. There's undoubtedly an entire unknown back story to this tale and I believe we are looking into a region of hell.
 
From Jack in the Box #11 (October 1946).

Because of Susan

Silver Age subtext, however unintentional, from Girls' Love Stories #117 (February 1966). Much like issue #152 of the same series, change a few word balloons and the story takes on an entirely different meaning.

From the Collection: Invasion from Mars

A Dell Backmap book. Invasion from Mars, Interplanetary Stories selected by Orson Wells (1949).

It's a trade off

I guess all that water that is saved using less soap washing clothes can be used to process the pulp to make all these paper tags hanging on bottles of laundry detergent.

BONUS: Don't forget the water saved in not nourishing all the trees that are cut down to supply the raw materials! It's a win/win!

- Found hanging on hundreds of bottles of laundry detergent in a local San Diego grocery store, May 2010.

Shut up and worship her

Blondie performs Contact In Red Square & Kung Fu Girls (1977).

Who, Iron Man and links

Movies: Went and watched the Iron Man 2 movie the other day and it was a fun time. The movie isn't as good in my opinion as the first but I still liked it. In fact, I liked it enough to take the time to ad the awesome Sam Rockwell to the poster. It's a crime he was left off it.

My main complaint, and one which applies to nearly every Marvel super-hero movie made in the last decade, is that the story once again was all about someone creating a mess and being hailed a hero for cleaning up after themselves. For some reason Hollywood seems almost incapable of making a comic book film that doesn't involve a threat from within and/or a relative of the antagonist.

The other problem I have is with armored fighters in particular who remove their protective head gear during battle. I'm sure this is done for the purpose of the story and sometimes due to contractual obligations for the actor to get so many minutes of screen time (Yes, I'm looking at you, Toby McGuire). But it still bugs me and has for some time. But then I guess if they didn't show the audience their faces from time to time then the film would be nothing but voice-over work with CGI and actors nodding their helmets as they pretended to speak like a super-ninja from Power Rangers.

I agree the Mandarin needs to make an appearance as the villain in the next film. I don't see that character as a racist sterotype as much as some do. It is probably a knee-jerk PC reaction to the name and the fact that the character has an origin during the Red-baiting days of Stan Lee being at the helm of the Marvel books. I think the company has redeemed the Mandarin as a viable character not only from the animated movie of a year or so ago but also in the classic Fin Fang Foom storyline from the comic book. No longer a Commie, just a megalomaniac who wants to use the trappings of the past to secure power in the present day.

I don't see the Ten Rings mentioned in the film being the magical or technological rings from the comic book series. That would be hard to accomplish and not look silly. More than likely the rings will turn out to be a family symbol of some kind or the crest of a branch of a guild. A film from years ago that featured a Thugee cult as the villains had the members being awarded a ring to place on the hilt of their murder-dagger every time they passed a stage in their training. Eventually the rings would complete the hilt and when held up to the light, the shadow cast by the rings on the handle would show a profile of the leader of the cult. Maybe the Ten Rings would turn out to be be something like that.

DVD: Re-watched Real Genius. Such a great and funny 80s movie. Liked Val Kilmer (how the mighty have fallen!) irked by the kid. Still inappropriately attracted to the weird girl.

Re-watched Night Shift. In my opinion Henry Winkler did his best job ever in front of the camera for this comedy though a pre-Cheers Shelly Long and then new-comer Michael Keaton stole the film. Fav quotes: "That Barney Rubble. What an actor!" and not to forget "Hello, this is Chuck to remind Bill to SHUT UP!"

Comic Books: Slight yet geeky Iron Man movie spoiler! The stunt of "crossing the streams"? Iron Man first did that way back in Avengers Annual #6 (1976).


Television: The up-coming television series Terra Nova is getting a lot of internet press lately. Many are comparing it to The Land of the Lost because of the time-travel element in which a family is thrown back to the dinosaur age. From what I'm reading it sounds more like Jurassic Park but without all the messy licensing and contractual issues. I'm looking forwards to watching it. Even if it is terrible some SF is better than no SF. I'm tired of the long periods in which the best science fiction on TV is contained in car commercials.

Doctor Who: Been watching episodes of the Jon Pertwee interpretation of the Doctor recently. His version is full of humor and honest horror. Not a lot of running but a heck of a lot of shouting and yelling.

The new Doctor played by Matt Smith is fresh, the fans are negative goofs and so far the show is keen to watch. Vampires of Venice was notable for one trait of the Doctor that a lot of people miss because they always accept him as some sort of super-hero. The Doc, as much as he meddles, would stand by and watch (albeit with sadness) if the entirety of humanity were killed and eaten by aliens if that were the natural order of things. He gets involved usually only when the characters are evil, monstrous and get a thrill when applying their rapacious ways.

Lost: Enjoying this show. Can't wait for the climax. Dread the inevitable very special Lost Christmas Reunion Special in 2020.

Fringe: This is the show I'm most excited about right now. Waiting a week for each new episode is painful. But if I had the power to cancel the show with extreme prejudice I would have done so after that storyteller/noir episode a few weeks back. That was nearly unwatchable. Happily the next episode redeemed it. I'm a sucker for alternate universe stories and the appearance of Walternate totally nailed.

Toys: 30 years ago I would have killed for an Iron Man toy. Fortunately nowadays I can avoid the moral implications of murder and jail time by a visit to the mall and about 6 bucks. Yesterday I picked up the classic comic series toy for my desk. It is cool. This Iron Man game I may get just because it is silly.

Immigrant 1/American Citizen 0: It bears repeating that they man who called in the failed Times Square car bomb planted by an American citizen of Muslim faith was an immigrant from Senegal who is also of the Muslim faith. The media however is continuing to demonize the naturalized citizen and has made little or no mention that the hero of this tale has the same basic religious philosophy as the bad guy. The more I read about Shahzad the more he comes off as an bitter loser and there are no shortage of people ready to take advantage and use someone like that. A second well-deserved tip of the hat to Samurai Frog.

Art: The news that Frank Frazetta died sure sheds some light on the fight going on between his son and the rest of the family. It will probably be some time before fans find out if the various members of his family was fighting to protect his legacy or being greedy poopy-heads. Conan vs. the Man-Ape is one of my favorite illustrations from one of my favorite Howard stories.

No idea what music has to do with Cricket

But the book is full of musically-themed gags.
From The Art of Coarse Cricket (1963). Art by Antony Wysard.

From the Collection: Armor

John Steakley has written a total of two books in his career thus far. Armor (1984) and Vampire$ (1991). Both books kick genre ass. Director John Carpenter even adapted Vampire$ into a movie that was enjoyable enough but doesn't really do the book justice.

Of the two novels Armor has the deepest plotting though readers are often split on the success of the two inter-mingling plots. I enjoyed both equally. While it is superficially reminiscent of Starship Troopers that goes only as far as the relationship between the the antagonists (the aptly named Ants) and the Armored Corps.

The novel tells two separate stories that crash headlong with a pretty good pay off at the end. One of my favorite novels for quite a while.

A sequel to Armor is in the works.

The Blogger Who Ate Stress For Dinner

A year ago I couldn't type in "boy breakfast vintage" into a search engine without the advertisement I used to make the mock-up of the book cover for The Boy Who Ate Stress For Breakfast unfailingly showing up on the first page of the results. Now, I can not locate the original image online anywhere.

The original ad I had located and saved was lost in last years' drive crash. I thought it might be a Leyendecker but it doesn't show up in any of his collections, not that it isn't one of his works. I'm looking for the original ad because I may have to secure the rights for use sometime in the near future.

Can anyone identify the ad this image came from?

I'm willing to send a prize to whoever finds it.

Related: Questions That Need Answers.

From the Collection: Jack of Eagles

Originally published in Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1949, expanded to novel-length in 1952 and re-issued in 1982, Jack of Eagles is one of the lesser-known novels of award-winning author James Blish.

James Blish was most familiar to me in my youth as the author who adapted the Star Trek television shows to book form and wrote the original Trek novel Spock Must Die! One of the ways in which I was introduced to a greater universe of science fiction was through screenplay adaptions of James Blish.

That Jack of Eagles has not been reprinted is a shame as this story is a must read for anyone who is a fan of tales involving telepathy, telekinesis and other mind powers. I would go so far as to say anyone thinking of writing a novel or cinema using those fantastic elements and want to experience how to do the subject matter right should read not only Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human but Jack of Eagles as well.

From the Collection: Dagger of the Mind

Hard to find and out of print, Bob Shaw's Dagger of the Mind is a good blend of science fiction and Lovecraftian horror featuring alien mind-control and murder.

Thought missing, this book was recently rediscovered in a mislabeled box from my storage area. The book was used along with a few others to top off a box before it was sealed.

Some art from The New Wonder Book of Knowledge

Another proof circa 1935 showing that stupidity was not always a virtue.


Note written on the inside front cover "From Uncle Virgil, Xmas, 1935."

The New Wonder Book of Knowledge (1935).

Related: Man's Crown of Distinction.

Quit asking about your mom

She's staying with a "friend", okay?

The redirect possibilities are endless

One of the more seemingly harmless though in reality careless acts a parent can do is placing the name of their child on the exterior of their child's clothing. Predators could sometimes use that information to the disadvantage of a child who would believe anyone who knows their name must be a friend of the family or knows them.

While it statistically isn't all that likely that having a name visible on an outer article of clothing will make a child the victim of a crime it becomes ever so slightly more possible that they will. Given their druthers a predator goes for the easier target, something that allows them to separate prey from the herd. For that reason the makers of those stick figure family car window decals advise against identifying the family members by name. I would advise against displaying them at all.

So it was that yesterday while at the mall I witnessed one of those Things That Make You Go Tsk. A barely-supervised child was running up and down the sidewalk, playing, ducking out of sight, wandering further away from the parent by increments and being distracted by things. All in all being a typical kid. She was pretty gregarious and talked up every person that walked by. Not a problem mostly except that on the front of her dress was a piece of tape with her name written on it, apparently a remainder of a class field trip that was not removed before school ended.

When her Billy-esque wanderings brought the child to my side I asked her for her name tag because I had lost mine. Without pausing the youngster stripped the tape off and handed it to me. As she then bounced off to play I wadded up the tape and tossed it into an adjacent trash can. The parent, siting on a bench a few feet away, paused the phone conversation long enough to glare at me with her piggish, dead, hate-filled eyes. "Yeah." I told her. "You probably don't want strangers to know your daughter's name." She then resumed her phone call, annoyed perhaps that a complete meddling stranger was the better parent to her child than she was.

The name tag incident led me to think about how funny/cool it would be to put an ambush QR Code on a shirt or on stickers to place around playgrounds. When some weirdo photographs happy children playing on a jungle gym their phone will detect the code in the camera field and immediately lead them to some website like whyareyoutakingpicturesofmykidyoufreak.com, preferably with some self-starting, screaming audio designed to draw attention to the creepy stalker. The destination of the code link is limited only by the imagination of the creator.

QR codes are easy to generate and print out on a variety of media. Don't be surprised if some educationally-themed QR codes start showing up in the wild around some local San Diego playgrounds, schools and parks.

Take that, sneak-hunter!

I sincerely doubt anyone can go six minutes in a Fiction House jungle without getting attacked by something. That is one angry, hungry universe.

From Jungle Comics #43 (July 1943).

LEND ME YOUR DREAM OR I'LL CUT IT FROM YOUR COLD, DEAD BRAIN!

When it comes to the old romance comic books that various companies published the writers gave forth a story that more or less followed a few standard plots. They were typically Girl-Meets-Boy kind of tales with a few twists thrown in as morality fables. Love usually overcame all obstacles that lay in the path of true happiness. Some stories were precautionary and did not have a happy ending due to the sacrifices or selfishness of the heroines invloved. A few stories even skirted the subject of gay issues in subtle and some not-so-subtle ways.

Then there were those stories where you knew the writer was just screwing with the reader.

Pretty much eight pages of unhinged obsession from Falling in Love #60 (July 1963).

Vicky's Secret

And so...Pre-Code cheesecake for the kiddies from Vicky #4 (Dec 1948).

Pocorn for Two

Nice illustrations by a pre-Herbie Ogden Whitney for a text-story in Keen Teens #3 (Feb-Mar 1947).

This is why you're fat

Oh, sure...The shovel is supposed to be for use with the bucket for sandbox play after all the snacks have been eaten but who they fooling?

Spotted in a San Diego store April 2010.

Things I've Eaten When Sober

Missing elbow

What is it about the marketing mind that believes false or forced perspective, the erasing or addition of body parts is so important in advertising that it is such a common practice? I wonder, is it contempt for the average consumer that leads to such errors a child with a PC would not make. Or is it that ads with such "errors" are considered a stylized form of art and are legitimate as they are?

Don't know if this qualifies as a Photoshop Disaster but the erasing of an apparently aesthetically displeasing elbow seems a bit of a hasty decision. I, for one, think Ashley Judd's elbows are cute and they should have been left in the photo, if in fact the lower half of that body is actually hers.

Related: Join the Mutant Navy.

Spotted in a San Diego grocery store, April 2010.

Friendly Greetings from ZOLAR

From the collection.

You might want to keep the volume turned down

John Halifax , Gentleman

Pickings have been kind of slim for a collector of old books and LP's like myself. Thrift stores that once reserved entire rooms of valuable square footage to crumbling novels and vinyl have let the stock dwindle to almost nothing. This is occurring at a time when the groovy, cool or odd bit of entertainment ephemera of the past is of greater interest to collectors of vinyl. The youth market particularly is re-discovering LP's (several stores have consolidated their vinyl to one location or are separating them out before they get to the sales floor for sale via other outlets) and their scarcity may be due to this interest.

A sobering thought is that whether or not I am successful in finding something I like may have origins in the loss of a loved one from some unknown family. Books, statuettes and records are often disposed of via thrift stores from family members who are loathe to just trash the precious mementos of a deceased family member. Rather than toss boxes of LP's into the landfill it is hoped that others may find as much pleasure from the spoken-word styling of Jackie Gleason covering torch songs of the 50s as their mother once did. While the observation is purely anecdotal, cleaning out the parent's garage of a lifetime of media may be why there are so many copies of the same obscure Italian lounge singer and Swingin' Sixties instrumentals of movie themes at the local Salvation Army discount outlet. Hopefully (?) once Health Care reform is fully underway then the death panels will ensure a steady stream of old junk from Granny's attic will hit the Goodwill for collectors to pick over.

Sadly, books are becoming less important as technology renders print ever more obsolete. Thousands of books are just left to crumble from age. Truthfully there is not much of interest to be found in the copy of John Halifax, Gentleman that I scanned other than the book is of advanced age, published sometime between 1902 and 1945. Originally written in 1856 by Dinah Mulock it is a reflection of the times this volume was printed that the author is referred to only by her married name of Mrs. Craik.

The art by veteran illustrator of many Victorian tales A. A. Dixon is serviceable and competent but is rather generic. Fans of the artist may appreciate seeing some scans of his work that may not be available elsewhere. Also, those with an interest in antique medical devices could find some interest in the wheelchair used by one of the characters but it is unknown if the chair is truly representative of the devices of the time or merely an artists' fancy.

Of greater interest is the provenance of the book itself. Published in England, the inside cover bears a tag from the bookseller and personal notes of previous owners. These are artifacts that would shortly have been lost to history if not for being preserved here.

How the book made its way to San Diego, California in the United States will probably never be revealed. Moreover, the days when books were considered important enough to transport across a city during a move, much less to another continent are long past. Due to shipping costs most books are more likely to be disposed of in the trash or left in donation bins than taken along during a family relocation.

Fortunately much of the text of old, orphan works in the public domain are being preserved by libraries and other services and can be found online. Anyone who cares to read John Halifax, Gentleman can find it via Project Gutenberg or other resources. The accompanying art from the original books are rarely preserved or made available unless some publisher creates a collection for sale or amateurs like myself do so just out of enjoyment or a desire to share.

While I take pains to ensure the books remain intact others are not so respectful or cautious. I'm simultaneously horrified and grateful that industrious artists and entrepreneurs are raiding old magazines and books for the art and framing it or selling the individual pages off piecemeal. I myself own several antique and newer books full of gorgeous hand-drawn and highly-detailed illustrations of drawing and survey equipment and full-color aeronautical flight charts and night sky maps. These drawings just beg to be excised from the binding, framed and hung on a wall. While I can appreciate that old art is being preserved in some form damaging or destroying books for any reason makes me twitch a bit.

Here is a link to the entire set of scans of the art of John Halifax, Gentleman. Enjoy!

Happy Easter

See what you get when you trust somebody who purports to speak for the Universe? Decades and decades of lies and corruption through every level of the church hierarchy because those in charge are just thieving, grifting users of gullible or desperate people.

I can't help but think that the ROBOT POPE would rather delete its hard drive than overwrite the truth about child-molesting members of the church.

Yeah, "Happy Easter".

Reason for the season? Gimme bunnies, ducks and chocolate.

Bath salts

Gorgeous, highly detailed package illustration for multi-pack of scented bathing salts packaged in China. One of a series, more to follow.

Recharging

:: Long hours and changing sleep schedules is taking a toll. No energy for anything other than watching television and snoozing so I'll just post a funny comic book panel (From Beware #11, August 1952).

:: It'll be about a month until I can afford to buy the next chapter of Futura. So should I wait for the real thing I can scan or post the awful, low resolution microfiche copy I found online?

:: Zzzzzzzz...

Fun & Educational!

One of the things about religion that bothers me is how the sheer horror of some of the tales associated with a religious faith are sanitized. The terrible acts of man and deity that purportedly exhibit how awesome the Gods are have often been glossed over, cleaned up and presented in a manner that a relatively reasonable person could accept as not being too awful to turn away from.

This is particularly evident when religion is taught to children who have little to no reference with which to compare how the real world works. Children and unfortunately many adults do not think critically. Critical thinking must be taught in many cases. But it is hard to do so when fear of terrible retribution is the ultimate lesson. Children for the most part believe what they are told. Up to a point they do not have the capability to evaluate and decide what is real and what is fantasy. They trust and accept what their caretakers present to them. They are as apt to believe what they learn in a church as they are in a talking sponge that encourages them to share with others. Ironically, a child is probably able to determine that much of what they observe on television is fiction long before they question their belief in a magical sky fairy who will send them to eternal torment if they disobey their parents.

So when I discovered the Passover Bag of Plagues at my local grocery store it stopped me in my tracks. This "teaching tool" is a perfect example of taking descriptions of horrific events and rendering them bereft of shock so children can accept them without question. A child can not intellectually associate a plague of disease with horrible suffering. They simply accept the tale as fact. So the horrible is made to be cartoonish propaganda. In the modern era cartoon violence is often seen as harmless but there is a big difference between a cartoon and the lessons of religion: Bugs Bunny is not being taught to children as something real.

The Bag of Plagues contains fun toy representations of the fabled Ten Plagues of Egypt for children to play with and help them learn about how much God loves them over everyone else.

Here is a little background for those not familiar with the many iterations of the Bible:

According to the legend, once upon a time God punished a Pharaoh for reneging on a promise to free a bunch of slaves. Now, one would think an all-knowing universal force could avoid causing some collateral damage but that was not how the story goes.

While the Egyptians were supposedly the primary targets, even the innocent ones who did not agree with their government's domestic policy regarding slavery, pretty much everyone was boned in one way or another just because the Pharaoh wanted a year-round work force. The slaves, supposedly the chosen of God, had to have suffered along with the Egyptians. I imagine the rain of frogs put quite a strain on the infrastructure not to mention all the water was rendered non-potable and all the food was eaten by bugs. At one point the slaves even had to resort to painting magical blood spells on their homes to avoid getting whacked by over-eager genocidal angels. That's so crazy you couldn't make that stuff up. Except somebody did.

Take a look at what the bag contains and what each item represents:

I could brainwash kids with this stuff for hours! Sunglasses to simulate a darkness covering the land? How cool the Egyptians would have looked sporting some Oakleys! One of those springy sticky hands covered in disease? Keep that out of the carpet, kids! Of all these symbols of death and suffering the Cattle Plague mask is my favorite.

What could be more fun and educational for a child than pretending to be an innocent cow cursed by God with disease and sentenced to a horrible, lingering death just to spite a politician? Good times!

Cattle Plague sounds like an edgy indie band that exists only to make your parents angry.

The piece of resistance though is the Death of Firstborn 9-piece puzzle.

Heinous.

Light a candle rather than curse the darkness

In a previous entry I linked to an example of the Dark Halo, the extinct video artifact caused by the limitations of the equipment of a bygone television age. While the Jimmy Dean video had some good music and was a fine example of the unique lens flare it is this Boing Boing segment showing a candle burning on the old Mr. Wizard television science show that demonstrates the Dark Halo perfectly.

Show it to your kids so they know how bad we actually had it and tell them to stop whining about how their computers are not powerful enough to play Goldeneye when chatting on the Tweeters at the same time.

And your breasts

All Romances #2 (October 1949).

Related: Not Your Daddy's Issues