STAN AND OLLIE Trailer

Here's a preview of the new STAN AND OLLIE movie, which will be released in early 2019. It looks pretty darn good and I have hopes for it.

1977 Batman and Robin Electric Toothbrush by Janex

Seen on eBay, asking $100. A rare 1977 Batman and Robin electric toothbrush made by the Janex company.

No comment.

Coming in 2019: Detective Comics: Before Batman Omnibus

DC Comics is releasing a number of Batman-related books, what with his 80th birthday being next year. Here's maybe the most stunning item: a slipcased hardcover two-volume edition of Detective Comics, reprinting the issues BEFORE Batman's debut in Detective #27. The official solicitation goes out today, with on on-sale date of March 20, 2019.

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DETECTIVE COMICS: BEFORE BATMAN (VOLS. 1 AND 2) HC
Written by JERRY SIEGEL, MALCOLM WHEELER-NICHOLSON and others
Art by JOE SHUSTER, FRED GUARDINEER, BOB KANE and others

DETECTIVE COMICS exploded in 1939 with the debut of Batman in issue #27—and now, for the first time, DC reprints the first 26 issues of this groundbreaking series, almost none of which have ever been reprinted before, in a two-volume slipcased set! The first volume, collecting issues #1-13, stars crime-fighters like Slam Bradley, Bart Regan, Speed Saunders and more! And Volume Two, collecting issues #14-26, stars characters like the Crimson Avenger, Fu Manchu and more!
Please note that these stories will be scanned directly from original copies of these issues.  
ON SALE 03.20.19
$150.00 US | Each 896 PAGES
FC | ISBN: 978-1-4012-9302-4

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It's a high-price tag item, but these pre-Batman comics have not been reprinted before. I would add that there should be a good helping of some great Creig Flessel art in these books as well.

Hat tip to the 13th Dimension, which has links to more Batman 80th birthday swag. 

The Garden As of Mid-September, 2018

The waning flowers of summer. The trees are getting that dull green color, and some are going a bit red. And the days are shorter. 

Above: what's left of the tomatoes and cucumbers.

See You Soon

I'm away from the blog for a couple of days. More anon!

Picture Nine Game Cards

Here are some of the 9" x 12" Picture Nine Game Cards, from Set C of the Speech Improvement Cards series from Scott, Foresman, and Company. These are designed to be used in group games as suggested in the Teacher's Manual. Speech in the Classroom. It's copyright 1951, 1941 by Scott, Foresman, and Company.

I bought these at the Arundel, Maine flea market a couple of weeks ago because I liked the inking and the coloring. I have no further information.

Video: "The Carbonite Maneuver" A STAR TREK/STAR WARS Mashup

A fun STAR WARS/STAR TREK mashup by SonOfSpork:



Hat tip to Blastr. 

1970s Graphics: Developmental Learning Materials

Here are a dozen  7 1/2" x 11" graphic cards (both sides) from the Developmental Learning Materials company. They are all dated either 1974 or 1976, and were part of an educational comprehension program for kids. No other information is available, at least not by Googling. I just liked the graphics and the colors.

These are all two-sided, on heavy stock and coated in a polymer so that a waxy crayon can easily be used to complete the mazes and drawings, and then be wiped/washed off. As usual with stuff like this, there are no artist credits. But aren't they lovely to look at?

Of special interest were these pages which invited you to finish the picture with a line or two:

SEXCAPADES THE LOVE LIFE OF THE MODERN HOMO SAPIENS by Al Ross

Above: the tattered book jacket.

SEXCAPADES THE LOVE LIFE OF THE MODERN HOMO SAPIENS by Al Ross, with text selected by Kerwin Bowles, is a lovely book little hardcover. There's a quote (by Swift, Shakespeare, Goldsmith, Keats, etc.) and a drawing (by cartoonist Al Ross) on every page. It was published by Stravon Publishers in New York in 1953 and is copyright 1953 by Al Ross.

Sweet babe, in thy face
Soft desires I can trace.
— William Blake

At first glance, the book is about mating rituals of heterosexuals — a base subject made lofty by some serious quotes. The meaty quotes are matched by the drawings — fresh and spontaneous drawings — by New Yorker cartoonist Al Ross.

O! Let me have thee whole, — all, all be mine!
That shape, that fairness, that sweet minor zest
Of love, your kiss—those hands, those eyes divine,
That warm, white lucent, million-pleasured breast—
Yourself—your soul—in pity give me all!
— John Keats

From the SEXCAPADES dustjacket:

"After years of cartooning for Colliers, Saturday Evening Post and other mass circulation media, Al Ross one day looked at himself in the mirror. The face with the lather on it began to ask:

"'If this then love? Is sex always a symptom of psychoneurosis? Was Kinsey right? Or don't you suspect that there may have been a time, somehow, somewhere, when Boy did meet Girl and True Love's course ran true?'

"Al Ross cleared the lather from his face and brushed away a cobweb from his mind. He resolved to draw a whole bookful of cartoons, exactly as he felt, not as a caption writer prescribed. He would express his essential, romantic self in sensitive, simple strokes; he would wreck the sex hex. The result— Sexcapades."

Well, actually, he has some of the best caption writers around, as chosen by Mr. Bowles.


Love is a species of warfare.
— Ovid, Art of Love


Above: the girls in the distance, and below, the guys having a sports-related dispute.

Alas! Regardless of their doom
The little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come
Nor care beyond today.
— Thomas Gray

Banish the canker of ambitious thoughts.
— Shakespeare, II Henry VI

A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness.
— Robert Herrick

He unabashed her garter saw
That now would touch her skirts with awe.
— Robert Louis Stevenson

O pwerful love! That, in some respects, makes
a beast a man, in some other, a man a beast.
— Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor

From the dustjacket:

"He is an accomplished painter, having studied at the Art Students League under McNulty and Lebrun; traces of this background have been discerned in his delineations by connoisseurs. To round out the picture it must be reported that he is a devotee to billiards, a weight lifter of sorts and an avid collector of African sculpture."

More on Al Ross:

Cartoonist Al Ross

Al Ross and his Cartoon Style

-- Edited from an original blog entry of September 8, 2008.