Archive for October, 2015



Creature from the Black Lagoon Poster from Weird Worlds #5 (Scholastic, 1980)

Creature 1980

Weird Worlds was a kid’s horror and fantasy magazine that ran for eight issues from 1978 to 1981. Much like other Scholastic magazines, many issues featured a detachable poster. I would love to scan the whole run, because it’s a great example of the kind of advanced, somewhat esoteric material kids expected at the time. There were stories by sci-fi luminaries like Bradbury and Asimov, features on UFOs and paranormal phenomena, weird and disturbing facts and Forteana, fantasy art portfolios (Frazetta, the Brothers Hildebrandt). I particularly remember the wonderfully graphic comic book strips by Steve Bissette, best known now for illustrating Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing in the ’80s. You can read a few of these strips at The Horrors of It All.

Also check out this Monsters of the Greek Myths poster, a Scholastic giveaway from the same year. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: 1980 was a hell of a year to be a kid.

(Image via Donald Deveau/Flickr)

Frank Frazetta Cover Art for Tales from the Crypt (Ballantine, 1964)

Tales Frazetta 1964

Tales Frazetta 1964-2

Nine years after Bill Gaines was forced to shelve EC Comics’ horror, crime, and sci-fi titles due to creative restrictions enforced by the Comics Code Authority, Ballantine reprinted a number of the original tales in five volumes published between 1964 and 1966: Tales from the Crypt (1964), The Vault of Horror (1965), Tales of the Incredible (1965), The Autumn People (1965), and Tomorrow Midnight (1966). Frazetta, who had worked briefly for EC in the ’50s, painted the covers for the whole series. Original art for The Autumn People and Tomorrow Midnight are below. You can see all the volumes together here.

Autumn Frazetta 1965

Tomorrow Frazetta 1966

Although the stories were in black and white and awkwardly laid out due to the smaller paperback format, the series is notable because it marked the first time the comics had been anthologized, thus introducing a new generation, already developing a taste for what would eventually be called speculative fiction, to the visceral and groundbreaking (pun intended) work of EC.

The following year, Ballantine would release the first authorized paperback edition of The Lord of the Rings, probably the single most important event in the popularization of the fantasy genre. Starting in 1969, Ballantine struck again with the remarkable Adult Fantasy series, which gave H.P. Lovecraft, William Hope Hodgson, Clark Ashton Smith, William Morris, Lord Dunsany, and several other genre pioneers the lofty status they hold today.

(Images via Cap’n’s Comics and Pinterest)

Collegeville Jaws and Jaws 2 Costumes (1975/1978)

Jaws Costume-1

Jaws Costume-2

There were at least two Jaws costumes released by Collegeville, as seen above via Babble and Plaid Stallions. There were also minor variations on each design such as different colored pants, etc. The Jaws 2 costume is below. The mask is the same.

Jaws 2 Costume-2

Jaws 2 Costume

Jaws 2 Costume-3

Jaws 2 Poster Art (Craft Master, 1978)

Jaws 2

Jaws 2-2

Found this one at Etsy. No badly burned corpse in a speedboat to color, unfortunately.

Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II Home Video Ad, 1989

Ghostbusters 1989

The slime is extra. Via Ecto-Containment.

Ghostbusters ‘Videocassette’ Ad (1985)

Ghostbusters 1985

The Ghostbusters “videocassette” was released on October 31, 1985, one day after the home video release of Beverly Hills Cop. The latter, in a bold move by Paramount Pictures, was priced at $29.95, while the former (a Columbia Picture) was priced at the standard-for-the-time $79.95. Says this September 1985 Los Angeles Times article:

It’s hard to imagine `Ghostbusters’ outselling `Cop,’ considering both are aimed at the same audience. In fact, `Cop’ will probably be stealing customers from `Ghostbusters.’

In fact, Ghostbusters set a record for first-day sales (400,000 units), beat the following year by Rambo (425,000 units), although both Beverly Hills Cop and Star Trek III, also priced at $29.95, went on to beat Ghostbusters in total year sales. Check out the February 1986 Gainesville Sun article below for some interesting figures.

Gainesville Sun 2-2-86

Gainesville Sun 2-2-86-2

(Original image via Reddit)

The Real Ghostbusters Poster Pen Set, (Craft House, 1986)

Ghostbusters 1986

Ghostbusters 1986-2

Yet another format made popular by Star Wars, it was well in decline by this time. Kids were too busy making stuff on computers. The last poster pen set associated with a major franchise/film may have been Jurassic Park (1992). There was also a Star Trek: The Next Generation set that came out around the same time.

Ben Cooper Close Encounters of the Third Kind ‘The Alien’ Costume (1978)

Ben Cooper Close Encounters

Ben Cooper Close Encounters-2

Ben Cooper Close Encounters-3

Ben Cooper Close Encounters-4

Ben Cooper Close Encounters-5

Ben Cooper Close Encounters-6

A kinder, gentler-yet-creepier alien.

(Images via eBay)

Halloween, 1979: Alien

Alien-2

Alien-1

Elementary school kid is wearing the Ben Cooper Alien costume! As in the Xenomorph from the movie Alien that was rated `X’ in the UK and yet spawned a massive amount of merchandise marketed to small children, a campaign I talk about here and here. File under: when Halloween wasn’t banned because “costumes and parading increases apprehension in an increasing number of students who are presently experiencing anxiety issues.”

(Photos via the Miami Herald)

Come See What It’s All About by Halloween (Mercury, 1979)

Halloween LP

Halloween LP-2

The cover is a bit of a misnomer, since the album isn’t space disco and has nothing to do with Halloween, but who cares? Dr. Mime N Time is coming out of a goddamn wormhole and Captain K-9 has laser claws! What we have here are pretty standard disco tunes wrapped in a deceitful yet irresistibly kitschy package. All of the songs were written by Jerry Marcellino, who wrote and produced for The Jackson 5 (and solo M.J.), Diana Ross, The Supremes, and lots of others. I made a playlist of all of the songs on the album but two. Listen here.


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