Punchy's Peculiar Advertisements

This is Punchy and the Black Crow (No.11) published by Charlton Comics in December 1985.  

This is also Punchy's second to the last issue because Charlton Comics went out of business in 1985. As you might have guessed by the cover,  Punchy and the Black Crow is one of those "funny animal" comics full of quaint innocent humor for young comic readers.  Actually, this comic is filled with reprints from 1953-1954 to be exact so its humor is authentically quaint and innocent.  

I don't know what other titles Charlton Comics were publishing in 1985, but I'd guess when they sold ad space that ad was printed across their entire line of comics.  This is only explanation I have for the bizarre selection of ads in this children's comic.  It also looks like times were exceptionally tough for Charlton because the credibility of some of the advertisers is rather "questionable."

Above is the first ad on the inside cover, and it's from the Dan Lurie Barbell, Co.  I think it's interesting to note that when you mailed in your coupon to the Dan Lurie Barbell, Co. you're getting a "Instant-Action" POSITRAIN Course (and some other stuff too) - not barbells.  I'm happy to report that it looks like Dan is still around and has a web site right here.

Next is an ad for Marcy brand exercise equipment.  The "EM-1" shown above has a 200 lbs. weight stack which is about 4x the body weight of the intended reader for this comic.

The ad on top is more bodybuilding stuff, this time get big with Mike Marvel and his "SCIENTIFIC ISOMETRICS" program named Dynaflex.  On the bottom our first non-exercise related ad with U.S. Government Surplus Directory.  Hey kids, get your very own real army Jeep for less then $30!

Here's five ads on a single page: Pen-Sized Spyscope, Authentic Badges, Live Bait Belt, Handcuffs, and Double-Lucky Hand-Carved Jade Elephant - all this can be yours from DeerCreek Products of Pompano Beach FL.  I think DeerCreek Products might have gone out of business in 2004 because that is the latest dates of the complaint reports listed on the Ripoff Report.

 "Gain up to 5, 10, 15 Pounds" proclaims this full page ad from Gain Products. There is no mention of exercise in this entire ad so unfortunately none of the weight you gain will be muscle.  I don't think 15 pounds of fat around your gut isn't going to impress any ladies at the beach no matter what that B&W photo may imply.  

Oh good, on the very next page is the Speed Shaper which promises to, "Turn Belly Fat into a Rock-Hard Lean Stomach."  This is convenient now that I need to loose 15 pounds caused by the previous ad. Send your money to Improvement Products Corp which just happens to have the same address as Gain Products.  So I guess there's intentional product synergy going on here and not accidental.

Wow I wish I could make others secretly do my bidding.  Although I'm much too lazy to even read all that text in the above ad.   If only there was an easier way to learn the secrets of "Automatic Mind Command." Google doesn't turn anything up for "Research Industries, LTD" so mind control was probably only a passing fad.

Here's the first "toy" ad, or is a game?  It's the Helen of Toy Co. (love that name) and their Task Force and Tank Trap war games (or toy).  Franky, I find the ad layout confusing, but it must have worked since these same ads ran for years. Want to know what you got if you sent in your money?  Check out this page for a few photos of the Tank Trap game. Spoiler alert: it's not very impressive. 

At the back are a bunch of small ads, and some PSA's.  One ad is for the famous Charles Atlas and his "Dynamic Tension" program.  I wonder if you publish a comic book if it's mandatory that you include a Charles Atlas ad.  Charles must be doing something right because he's still in business.

Here's the inside back cover, and it's the  Dan Lurie Barbell, Co. again. There's lots of exercise stuff, but still no actual barbells (although he does sell them - or did at least).   That "Power Krusher" looks impressive, and looks like it could double as a swell TV antennae too.

Finally we've reached the back cover, and it's an ad for one of the all-time great comic book advertisers - Johnson Smith Company.  There novelty items here that would certainly appeal to children, but then again there's a number of pocket knives which aren't very little kid friendly either.

So that's all the ads.  No ads for 1980's kid stuff like He-Man action figures, Nerf products, Reese's pieces or Hostess snacks as one might expect.  Just to see who was advertizing in comic books back then, I looked though some Marvel and DC comics from 1985.  I found many brand name advertisers in those big name comics, but they certainly avoided the Charlton Comics Company.

Just for fun here's an ad for Bonkers candy that brought back memories (I think Mort Drucker might have done the illustration)...

Bonkers Candy Ad 1985

...and the unforgettable commercial too.

Obscure Newspaper Comic Strips from 1973

Whoa it's 2012, and it's time for my first post of the year so I better make it an extra good one...

Umm, to be honest, this post is just OK, but I swear there will be some good ones this year sometime - I just don't know when.

So anyways I was looking through an old newspaper the other day, looking for something that might make for an interesting post.  It wasn't a "major" newspaper, but the Redford Township edition of The Suburban News for the week of May 30, 1973...

Redford is a suburb of Detroit, and like many hometown papers the contents seems to focuses on things like school fairs and civic activities.  But as I leafed through the want ads  I was rewarded with a number of obscure and mysterious comics sprinkled here and there.  Like this one called Half-Past Teen...

I have no idea who the creator is, and Google was no help at all.  Heck, I'm doubting this comic has anything to do with teens.

Near the back of the want ad section was over half a page of comic strips.  I like to think I know a little something about comics, but at fist glance I didn't recognize a single one.

Do you recognize anything?

This first one is a Mutt and Jeff by Al Smith.  Mutt and Jeff is a name I recognize. The only problem is whoever laid out this page left off the title and artist name.  This now concludes the only comic that I was even remotely familiar with.

 

This next strip is Grubby by Warren Sattler.  Grubby is not a strip about a bear, but an old west prospector.  I like the layout on this one.

Deems by Tom Oka looks like a strip that would have been a favorite of mine as a little kid, you know, before I could read.   I think Deems is a character like Henry who never speaks. Also Google doesn't really turn anything up on who Tom Oka is.

Sonny South by Courtney Alderson.  Can't find any info on  Courtney Alderson or this strip, but someone has been auctioning off the original art.

 

This Grandpa's Boy by Brad Anderson.  Brad Anderson is best know for Marmaduke, and well, that's what I know him for too.

 

Those Were The Days by Art Beeman.  Art has a nice classic old-timey style that fits this strip well.

Above was another unidentified comic, but I think it is Citizen George by George Wolfe.

Of all the comic strips on this page I think this drawing of the deep sea diver reading a newspaper might be the most fun thing.

Lastly, this is the most bewildering thing I found in the want ads.  It looks like a classic Ripley's Believe It or Not! comic, but why is it named Nothin, But The Truth by Arnold?  When searching for info on Deems I found this comic page from the July 6, 1956 issue of The Deming Headlight (Deming, New Mexico) the with another "Nothin, But The Truth by Russ Arnold."  What's going on here? These are obviously "Ripley's" what's the deal with the name change?

Crazy Christmas Cavalcade: Holiday Spirit 2011

Hey everybody it's the eve of Christmas Eve, and it's time for my last holiday animation of 2011.

Please gather the entire family around the computer (or smart phone or tablet) to enjoy the short animated musical Christmas adventure of Jingles the bell ringing elf, and the holiday spirit that possesses him...



If this animation seems familiar it's because it is.  It's a "special edition" of  animation I made back in 2007.  Hey if George Lucas can do it so can I.

Anyway I think I've made some improvements.  The little red elf was originally intended to be in the animation, but was cut due to time constraints. I have a better grasp of particle systems so I think the avalanche looks more dynamic.  At the very least the picture quality is certainly much better.  Yes the Internets have improved over the last 5 years.  Here's how it looked back in 2007 for those of you who didn't click the link...



Merry Christmas everybody!

Crazy Christmas Cavalcade: Santa's Shaver Sleigh

Time for another festive holiday animation.  This time I take a child-like look at a classic Christmas commercial...



Norelco has been doing these Santa riding a razor spots for decades. Here's the earliest looking one I could find on the ol' YouTube...




... and here's the most recent with Santa now riding a newfangled flying razor!

Crazy Christmas Cavalcade: Christmas on Easter Island

Here's another new animation for the holidays.

It's a new animation based on an old Christmas card I made years ago...



If you're an avid reader of this blog maybe you remember this card from a post way back on December 7, 2007.

Hmm, I think I like the way I originally drew that Santa hat better than what I've drawn in the new animation.

Crazy Christmas Cavalcade: Ice Skating Wonderland

Seasons greetings all ye merry gentlemen, and gentleladies! I bring you tidings of great joy.  I'm creating a series of short heartwarming Christmas specials that are destined to become holiday classics, or quick cheap jokes that are sure to be forgotten immediately after viewing.

Either way please enjoy my video creation that's the virtual embodiment of the yuletide spirit...



I don't know how many of these things I'll make.  I have a few more ideas that I'd like to try to get to before the "fat man" slides down the chimney.

Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland Brochure

Well it's that time of year again, so to get in a festive mood here's a 1990's brochure for Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, MI.

Established in 1945 I think Bronner's was probably the first store of its kind to sell Christmas decorations year around.  One thing for sure is the place is huge, and you can buy any sort of Christmas decoration imaginable. For example, maybe you where searching for those upscale mechanical animated figures, like the kind you might find in your local malls' holiday display - well you can buy them at Bronner's. 

Bronner's also wins my admiration for the most information packed into a single brochure.  I now know how to write "welcome" in 57 different languages, the miles to Bronner's from 40 North American cities, what the Bronner family looks like, and a short history Frankenmuth.

Happy Wacky Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

To celebrate the day of the big feast here's my salute to the greatest food related comedy of all time...

Acknowledgments to Norman Saunders the master artist of the Wacky Packages. 

You're a Lousy Cook Charlie Brown

After the success of A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966) the next big Peanuts holiday special was A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973).  Well two out of three isn't bad.  Seriously, do they even still air this one?


Nevertheless it was popular enough for Scholastic to publish a cute little picture book in 1975...

The text in the book follows the television script almost verbatim. The art looks like it came directly from the TV special as well, but it has some slight differences. For example check out the side-by-side comparisons below...

... on the left side is the book and it shows Peppermint Patty's phone as white and Charlie Brown's phone as red, but in frames on the right taken from the TV special the color of the phones are reversed.

Oh wait folks, I've just received an email...  It's from the Guinness World Record people, and because of that bit about the phone colors it seems I've won "Blog with the Most Pathetic Piece of Trivial Information." Wow, I didn't even know that was a category.

Anyways in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Charlie Brown has a predicament of course, and when he's advised that he prepare a special Thanksgiving meal for his friends he says...

You're damn right Chuck.  You can't cook a Thanksgiving dinner, and you can't make a kid-friendly cookbook either...

Let's get real, the recipes in the Peanuts Lunch Bag Cook Book obviously weren't written by Charlie Brown, but they were written by someone completely out of touch with what most children want to eat.  Just take take look at this "Linus Loves Liverwurst Sandwiches"...

Who even eats liverwurst much less a kid?  Hey, I'm not just cherry picking a recipe for maximum child objectionability (well, maybe a little),  the recipe before this one is "A School of Tuna Sandwiches"  (OK it's possible a kid might eat a tuna fish sandwich, but it's that weird kid who carried his lunch in the brown-paper bag that had a giant grease stain on it), and immediately following are "Some Salmon Sandwiches" and "Lucy's Crabby Sandwiches." So here we have tuna, liverwurst, salmon and crab sandwiches - how many kids are going to go for this?  If you don't understand what I'm getting at maybe watching this recent Domino's Pizza commercial will help...


As a kid, I practically lived on peanut butter sandwiches, and so one may think when I got to "Stick-To-The-Roof-Of-Your-Mouth Peanut Butter Sandwiches" I'd finally find something I'd like to try, but no, not really...

There's nothing here that improves on a simple plain peanut butter sandwich, or a PB&J. The very fist recipe calls for finely chopped celery and catsup on a PB sandwich.  I know of the famous "Ants on a Log" kids snack so I guess that's were the chopped up celery comes from, but catsup?  Did Shaggy and Scooby come up with that?  Another Shaggy and Scooby-like PB variation was the suggestion of pickle relish.  Hmmm, peanut butter and pickle relish - these don't at all seem like two great tastes that taste great together...


Now who the hell walks down the street eating straight out of a jar of peanut butter...

Adventures Of Isabel

Back in September I was searching for something school related to post about, and so I flipped through an elementary school reading book published in 1965 by the Scott, Foresman and Company titled Ventures...

Ventures cover

 ... I didn't find much, but the illustrations for the poem Adventures Of Isabel by Ogden Nash really caught my attention.  They were so fun looking, and the subject matter was sorta scary so I thought it would make for a good Halloween post.  Well I never got around to posting this back in October, but since there's good deal of eating in this poem, and November is month for that big turkey feast, this poem is still fitting...

These great illustrations are by Rod Ruth.  I hoped to find a wealth of information about Rod at the blog Today's Inspiration.  Today's Inspiration celebrates classic illustrators of the 20th century with a comprehensive collection of their work, but there was nothing on Rod Ruth.  In fact it looks like Rod Ruth has sorta fallen through the cracks of the vast Internets.

The best source for Rod Ruth illustrations is at a blogger acquaintance of mine - The Haunted Closet.  Here you can find Ruth's expert illustrations of monsters and dinosaurs.

Well, with no biographical information available, wherever you are Mr. Ruth, I'd just like to say you're an exceptionally accomplished illustrator, and I admire your work very much.

If you'd like to hear Ogden Nash recite his poem accompanied by the illustrations of Rod Ruth, check out the little video I've made...

Commentary on The Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion Animated

Well Halloween is over, and for those interested here's a quick commentary on my animation of the classic The Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion.

Back in 2009 when I made the Unused Concept Art from the Haunted Mansion  Animated I used the record cover art by Collin Campbell for the open.  At the time I thought it would be cool if the cover art would animate, but the prep work needed to do this was a monumental chore in its self.

So I basically forgot about it for 2 years, but this summer I thought I should finally do it for this Halloween.  Early on I thought I would just animate the cover art, but I soon decided I would animate some (not all) of the "Story and Song" art.

Okay now I'll go through the animation one shot at a time...

The cover art was the biggest chore to animate (and a bigger chore to prep), and there over 30 moving characters and elements. Originally I thought I might try to make it 3D, but that was way too difficult.  The audio mix was a challenge too. I first thought I might just use the music of the band members and opera singers, but I quickly learned hearing those opera singers for any extended period of time is pretty brutal.  I decide to fade the singers out and primarily use the ballroom music which I had used back in 2009 on the concept art animations.   At the end of the open when the titles appear I brought in a little bit of the title theme from The Haunting (1963).




It's been reported that this movie was influential during the creation of Disney's Haunted Mansion.  I also used the spooky look of The Haunting's opening titles (which look very much like the effect used on the type in the above trailer), and ghostly transitions used during the first few minutes of the film where the history of Hill House is told.  If you haven't seen the movie, or don't know what I'm talking about you can check it out here if you wish.

I like animating Haunted Mansion art that hasn't been done in real life.  That's what appealed to me about animating unused concept art, and it's this philosophy that guided my choices when I animated the "Story and Song."

The first page

Like the above opening page has almost nothing to do with the Haunted Mansion attraction.  Sure there's an executioner in the ride, but he is singing in the graveyard and not opening the front door for you.  I thought I could use a 3D camera with a short depth of field to get this shot, but it was impossible to get the framing correct so I cheated the look in 2D.  It's not perfect, and it's something I wish I had more time to finesse.

Madam Leota

I know Madam Leota is in the attraction, but I animated this art because Collin Campbell staged the seance scene so differently from how it looks in the attraction.  I love how lively the room looks here.  In recent years the Disney Imagineers have gotten Madam Leota to float in the air, which is a neat trick, but I'd be truly amazed if they could make all the furniture float like it does here.

A wide shot of The Bride

The bride art is not by Collin Campbell.  It's by me.  Did I fool you?  I hoped it looked like Campbell's work, but the talent gap between me and Collin is pretty huge.

I based the look of the Bride after a couple early versions, but mostly this maquette...

I've borrowed this photo from the encyclopedic Haunted Mansion blog Long-Forgotten.   HBG2, who owns the blog, is using a Photoshoped photo of the "corpse bride" I did so I don't think he'll mind too much.  I know she doesn't look much like an actual bride, but she is a very early version of sorts.  For hardcore Mansion fans there's also a couple of "Easter Eggs" in my Bride scene, like the bust on the sideboard and the hanging portrait. 

CU of Bride art before animation

Above is a close-up of the original art.  You can see the skull face which is something that I experimented with. I though it might look cool if you saw the skull flicker as her heart beat, but I dropped that idea.  One idea I did keep was a faint flicker of the artery and veins that surround the heart, but I don't think it's very noticible in the final animation. Also starting with the Bride I tried to make my shots a little more POV (point of view).

Hatbox Ghost

Here we have the most infamous Mansion resident - the Hatbox Ghost.  The history of this character is well known by Mansion fans, and so I had to include him.  He's been long absent from the Mansion, but the hope is strong among the faithful he'll return one of these days.

Last Page

Lastly we have the escape thru the crypt ending and that crazy alien-like ghost with the yellow eyes.  This is where the POV becomes the most obvious (with mixed results).   I which I had more time to finesse this shot a little more.  I think if I made the shot 3D the POV would work better, but prepping the art for 3D would have taken time which I didn't have. 

Well that's it.  Thank you for reading this, and thanks to those of you who have left comments.  Thanks to Disney for not getting upset with these fan creations of mine.  The Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion is available on CD, so if you don't have a copy for yourself go get one now.  I think this will be my last animated trip into the world of Disney,  but rest assured I have ideas for other fun and stupid animation in the future.

Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion Animated

Happy Halloween folks!  This animation basically ate up all my free time this month, so I hope it was worth it...




Please leave a comment, and tell me what you thought.  I'll be back in a day or two with a post-mortem on this thing for those that care. 

UPDATE:  Here's that commentary I promised if you are interested.