Just wanted to take a quick break from my annual holiday hiatus to share this awesome magazine cover that I've been sitting on for far too long.  This was pointed to and provided by the awesome allhallowSteve over at Halloween Addict.  What more needs to be said other than Santa on a lightcycle!?!

This is just carrying on the new tradition here at Branded of showcasing Santa riding some kickass vehicles, like last year's BMX ad…

It has been a crazy and fun year here at Branded (my sixth), and I hope that everyone out there in internetland is having a wonderful holiday season.  Merry Christmas or whatever you celebrate and see you guys in 2012!

We're just down the street from Halloween town with August almost upon us, and it's getting close the time to start thinking about this year's ghoulish costume designs.  Well, the Strange Kids Club, is starting up an Annual Halloween Costume Contest to run in conjunction with a special Samhain edition of the SKC Comix Anthology!

But the SKC needs YOUR help to make it happen.  SKC is putting the call out to dress up like your favorite monster, ghoul, creep, or superhero for a chance to win some awesome prizes!

One Grand Prize Winner will even walk away with $125 in Halloween-related merchandise including a Nail Mouth Halloween Mask sculpted by Justin Mabry (based on original artwork by David Hartman), Limited Edition Strange Kid T-Shirt illustrated by Glen Brogan, FREE copy of their Halloween Comix Anthology and more!

I've had a chance to flip through the first SKC Anthology and it was awesome, so I really excited to see what's in store for the next issue.

Anyway, head on over to the Strange Kids Club and learn more about your chance to win some awesome Halloween-y swag!

As I've mentioned numerous times over the past year, there are really only three or four outlets left for find 80s animation released on DVD.  Of those companies, Millcreek has really been making strides to pick up titles that have fallen out of print or to produce low cost releases for some cartoons that have never seen the light of day on DVD.  In addition to picking up a number of titles from the now defunct BCI Eclipse (Bravestarr, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Defenders of the Universe, and Dungeons and Dragons), they've also struck up a distribution deal with Shout! Factory to release some of their catalog that was previously released or only available from their MOD program (namely C.O.P.S., and Best Of releases of Transformers and G.I. Joe.)  They also have a partnership with Cookie Jar which gives them access to a very large library of titles.

Well, a couple weeks ago they started shipping a trio of releases that I'm pretty excited about.  First up, they've released an updated version of the Littles, the Complete series in a three disc set which for the first time features all 29 episodes, the feature film (Here Come the Littles), and their one television special (Liberty & the Littles.)  Though the series have been released on DVD in the past (by Cookie Jar themselves), you could never get all the 80s era content in one package…

The best part?  This set is only $13, and can be found online as cheap as $9!  Like most Millcreek television releases, the discs come sheathed in individual paper sleeves which are housed in a snap-in section of the DVD clamshell cases, but at only three dics this is hardly an issue.  The video/audio quality of the discs is also the Millcreek norm, which is decent, but not quite as good as past releases.

Millcreek also released a 10-episode Best Of disc for those of us they don't need the full series and just want to get a taste of nostalgia on the cheap.  Basically a repackaged version of Disc 1 from the Complete series release, this set includes the episodes: Beware the Hunter, Lost City of the Littles, The Big Scare, Lights-Cameras-Littles, Spirits of the Night, The Little Winner, A Big Cure For a Little Illness, The Rats are Coming-The Rats are Coming, A Little Fairy Tale, and Prescription For Disaster.

Though it's cool that Millcreek is keeping the Littles in print on DVD, the release that I am really excited about is the Best Of the Get Along Gang!

I made a pledge to myself 10 years ago that I'd try and track down at least one episode of every cartoon I watched as a kid (and considering I grew up in the 80s, that's a tall order), so I always get floored when a series is released on DVD for the first time ever.  The Get Along Gang is truly one of the staples of Saturday Morning Cartoons from the 1980s, and it bridged the gap between action fare (like Dungeons & Dragons or Mr. T) and the more "good for you" content of PBS (like Mr. Rodgers or Sesame Street.)  Originally created for a series of greeting cards (much like another anthropomorphic set of critters, the Shirt Tales) and stationary, these characters made their first jump to the small screen on Nickelodeon back in 1984 in a single pilot episode created by the Nelvana company (which you can catch on youtube, part 1, part 2, and part 3.)  When the show was picked up for a series it was brought over to DiC Animation and then aired on CBS for three seasons consisting of a total of 13 episodes (each with two 11 minute segments.)

The series centers around 6 main characters, Monty (the moose), Dotty (the dog), Woolma (a sheep), Zipper (a cat), Bingo (a beaver), and Portia (a porcupine) who hang out in a train caboose clubhouse and have adventures around their town.  Each episode typically features a moral of good behavior, as well as a run-in with the town bully Catchum (an aligator) and his toady Leland (a lizard.)  Going back and watching some of the episodes for the first time in almost 30 years I was surprised at how well they hold up.  Sure, they're a bit hokey and stress the "goof for you" aspects of children's programming, but there was much more adventure than I was expecting/remembered.

The one thing that really bugs me about this release though is that Cookie Jar/Millcreek decided to only put out 10 of the 13 total episodes.  I'm having a hard time getting my head around the logic behind holding back three episodes.  Generally the price of production would pop up as a reason why, but when you compare this release with that of the two Littles DVDs, money really doesn't seem to be a factor.  Even if they would have included a second disc I doubt it would have inflated the price point much, I mean the difference between the Complete and Best of Littles sets are only $3 (and that represents 19 additional episodes and 2 feature films.)  Though they might release a second disc in the future, I have a feeling we're never going to see it.  I'm not sure if there was an issue with the master tapes on these cartoons, or if there is some other reason why they chose not to release these three episodes.  Personally I really think they dropped the ball on this release.

On a positive note, I have copies of the Littles DVDs to give away this week.  To enter for a chance to win a copy of either the Complete Littles DVD set (1st place winner) or the Best Of disc (2nd place winner), head on over to the Branded in the 80s Facebook page (like it, if you haven't) and leave a comment/response on the discussion board under the Littles DVD Contest thread with the name of your favorite Littles character. I'll be picking a winner at random on Monday, August 8th at 2:00pm est.  Remember, these are region 1 DVDs, so if you're an international reader take note. Good luck!

Longtime readers of the site will know that Halloween is a big deal at Branded.  It's the one main time during the year where I do my best to update every day, making October a month full of scary goodness.  It's also around that time that I help to organize and encourage a community of like-minded spooksters via the Countdown to Halloween website, a portal for hundreds of bloggers taking a shot at a month long blog-a-thon.  Typically around this time of year, specifically towards the end of July, my mind starts to wander a bit and I have a hard time not thinking about jack-o-lanterns, candy, and packing in as many scary movies as possible.  Traditionally, July is the time of year to start yearning for Christmas, but here at Branded, Halloween trumps Xmas, Thanksgiving and pretty much all of the other holidays.

Well, with the many rooms of my mind already decked out in orange and black, it came as a very welcome surprise to start stumbling across a bunch of Halloween-themed goodies in the stores and I thought it would be fun to share some of them here.  First up, 2011 marks the return of Mountain Dew Pitch Black.  Probably one of the first sodas specifically designed for the season, Pitch Black made its concord grape-flavored debut back in 2004 and it didn't stick around for very long.  Released to coincide with the holiday season, the soda left store shelves only to return the next year as Pitch Black II (a sour-tasting variation of the soda), which again was pulled from store shelves after the end of the season, though this time it seemed for good.  Over the last five years there have been many new contenders for the official soda of Samhain, including four years worth of Jones Soda mini cans in a variety of Halloween-y flavors, a series of monster-head A&W/7-Up mini cans, and a purposefully generic Halloween soda offered at Aldi's.  Though any Halloween soda is better than none, I've still been silently waiting for the return of Pitch Black, and finally the wait is over.

Unfortunately, like in years past, this is a limited edition return to store shelves, and as cool as it is to have it back, I have a feeling it won't last until coming Halloween season.  Guess I'm just going to have to stockpile some and hope for the best next year…

If the return of Mountain Dew Pitch Black wasn't enough to get me in the mood, Toys 'R Us and Diamond Select Toys have partnered to release a series of Real Ghostbusters Minimates figures!  I knew the first series was scheduled to hit the shelves sometime in July, and in this first batch there are 4 monster figures exclusive to the toy chain (The Boogeyman, a Terror Dog, The Pharaoh Ghost, and Sam Hain.)  I was on the hunt for the figures while vacationing in Florida, but even after tracking down my original childhood Toys 'R Us location, all I could find was one set featuring Janine in her pink Ghostbusting gear and a Slimer.

Upon returning to Atlanta I took one more shot and scoped out my local TRU.  Low and behold they had one set left of each of the monster packs, which I quickly grabbed up.  So what can you expect out of these toys?  Well, besides the fact that this is the first time we're getting some of these cartoon accurate characters in toy form, they leave a little to be desired.  As far as the good aspects go, these figures look great, in particular the Boogeyman and the Energy Terror Dog…

…the thing that I find frustrating about these figures is that for some reason the toy designers felt an unholy urge to stick so strictly to the basic minimates design that all decent articulation and functionality has been thrown out the window.  Basically all four figures have a variation of the standard minimate buried underneath various wrap-around coverings (e.g. Sam Hain's cloak, etc.) and attachments.  To think that there is a normal minimate at the center of the Terror Dog is just weird adherence to toyline's design, not to mention the fact that it hampers the figure's poseability to just one stance.  Some of these coverings and attachments, though beautifully sculpted with great paint applications, are also unfortunate as they make some of the figures insanely top-heavy (in the case of the Booglyman) or impossible to keep the figure together (in the case of Sam Hain whose head won't connect to his neck joint because of the cloak.)  It really makes these figures frustrating in the form over function department.

Oddly enough, I believe that the designers intended to have the figures taken apart as there are some cool hidden details.  For instance, if you take Sam Hain's head and cloak off you'll reveal a clear orange minimate with some fun exposed ribcage paint applications on the chest.  Similarly, if you pull off the Pharaoh Ghosts's head and chest covering you'll expose the original un-haunted Thief's body underneath.  Though I'm kind of disappointed in these figures, I'm really glad that I finally have some of these characters displayed on my shelves and they make a nice accent to some of the animation cels I have in my collection (like the Pharaoh Ghost, The Boogeyman, and the Terror Dog)...

I've just discovered that there will be a second series released this coming September just in time for the Halloween season that'll include Evil Slimer, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Sandman, and oddly enough, the living embodiment of the Ghostbusters logo that always reminded kids to stay tuned during the commercial break interstitials!

In other Minimates news, while searching for the Real Ghostbusters figures I also stumbled upon a bunch of Universal Monsters figures on the Toys 'R Us clearance pegs.  I couldn't pass these up at $2.50 a set, so I picked up a couple of Creature From the Black Lagoon figures (one normal and one that glows in the dark) as well as a Wolfman figure.  These have prompted me to dig out my collection of Creature figures including a Little Big Head, my Creature Tech Deck Dude, and the very Creature-esque Lizard Man from the Secret Saturdays line.

Since I was already displaying these I decided to also bring out my collection of Frankenstein's Monster figures including the Scooby Doo, Little Big Head, Tech Deck, Lego, Dollar Store, Smurf, Rubber Ducky, Glow-in-the-Dark and wind-up Frankys…

Finally, this past week saw the release of Rankin/Bass' 1972 animated special Mad Mad Mad Monsters, the sort-of sequel (prequel?) to R/B's 1967 swanky stop motion creepfest Mad Monster Party.  Though it's not quite as fast-paced and fun as MMP, Mad Mad Mad Monsters is still a fun flick and a reminder of a better time when studios were still producing holiday cartoon specials.  There aren't very many Halloween specials floating around, let alone being released on DVD (check out this episode from the Saturday Supercast podcast where I join in on the conversation on some classic Halloween cartoon specials), so it was really cool to see this offered by ClassicMedia.  The disk also features a Halloween-y entry in Rankin/Bass' 1972 series Festival of Family Classics called Jack o' Lantern.  The best part?  This single disc release is only $7, and that's the MSRP!  Here's hoping ClassicMedia releases some more cult Halloween specials in the near future.

All in all this has made for a wonderful Halloween in July!

**UPDATE**  The winner of this set has been picked!  Congrats Mark H.  I've notified you via the Facebook messaging system.  Stay tuned next week for another DVD giveaway!

With the new Thundercats revamp set to launch on July 29th on the Cartoon Network I thought it would be a great time for a new contest!

I'm sort of psyched to see where new production team takes this new series even though I'm a pretty big fan of the Rankin/Bass original.  I've always been impressed by how insane the Rankin/Bass animation villains were in shows like the Thundercats and the Silverhawks, and it would be really cool to see if this new series can match that old intensity.

Anyway, back to the contest, I happen to have an extra copy of the Warner Bros. original season one, Volume one DVD set, which contains the first 33 episodes (including the episodes that form the pilot movie)…

So, to enter for a chance to win this copy of the Thundercats Season One, Volume One DVD set, head on over to the Branded in the 80s Facebook page (like it if you haven't) and leave a comment/response on the discussion board under the Thundercats DVD Contest thread with the name of your favorite Thundercats character.  I'll be picking a winner at random on Thursday, July 28th at 2:00pm est.  Remember, these are region 1 DVDs, so if you’re an international reader take note.  Good luck!

**Update** Alright, I picked three names at random from a hat (well, empty coffee mug) and the lucky winners are: Laura I., Jeremy T H., Khris L.  Congrats guys and gals (I've notified you through the FB messaging system for your snail mail address) and thanks to everyone else for entering!

So I came home yesterday and found a package waiting for me at the door, and upon cracking it open I was excited to see this…

These came courtesy of a contest in the premiere issue of the Strange Kids Club Comix Anthology, and I couldn't wait to dig into the individual boxes to get a glimpse at the loot.  These Cereal Killer trading cards are pretty darn cool and they follow in the tradition of Topps Wacky Packs and Garbage Pail Kids.  The brainchild of artist Joe Simko, this set of spoofs perfectly blends a childhood love of sugary cereal with a score of monsters and horror movie icons.  These sets come with three mini cereal boxes, each containing 20 cards, a special prize and a gross piece of eyeball gum.  As for the special prizes you can expect to find black-light stickers, magnets, gold foil cards, and if you're lucky an original sketch card from Joe himself.

One of the cool aspects of the set is the social networking built into trying to complete a set.  Wax Eye has set up a thread for trading doubles over at the Wacky Packages forum.  Sure you can buy additional packages, but it's kind of cool to get back to what it was like in elementary school trading with classmates trying to complete the latest series of Garbage Pail Kids.

In the spirit of this, I've decided to hold a mini contest to get my doubles out into the world.  I'm offering up three prizes, a stack of 20 cards, a stack of 10 cards, and one of the super cool black-light stickers.  To get your grubby hands on these all you have to do is head on over to the Branded Facebook Page and leave a comment in the Discussions tab on the left (you can also click on the cards below).  I'll be picking three winners at random this Friday, May 20th at 3:00pm est.  Good luck, and go check out Joe Simko's Cereal Killers trading cards!

I've spent an inordinate amount of time in my life combing through paper.  Aside from the thousands of hours of flipping through comics that I've logged since I was a kid, sorting and folding paper was a large part of my day-job for years.  Every day I'd sift though reams of medical claims, arranging them into piles by insurance company so that I could send out as many in bulk as possible.  But there was always a pile of singles left over, two to three hundred a day that needed to be folded by hand.  Yes, I'm well aware that there are machines built for this task, and believe me our office had one that must have been constructed around the turn of the century.  It was older than sin and only worked about a fourth of the time.  Even then it would eat up and shred claims which was more of a headache than folding them by hand.  Besides, there was no way that company was going to invest in a new folder/stuffer when they were already paying me.  I became so adept at sorting and folding that I was almost as fast as the machine when it was working properly.  At one point I started having nightmares about spending the rest of my life folding paper and stuffing it into envelopes.  It was around this time that I came up with the brilliant idea of securing a second job, working nights at my local Kinko's.  Yet more paper.  Sorting, folding, and stuffing.

Around five years ago I made the jump into IT, laughing manically as I left the paper behind.  The blurred sorter's vision, the constant paper-cuts, and the smell of printers ink on my hands were all fading away.  Of course, around five years ago I also started this site, and thus began a second wave of kneeling before the gods of paper as ephemera because an important passion in my life.  I've replaced the medical billing clearinghouse drudgery with the never-ending search for amazing forgotten tidbits that are hidden in million comic long-boxes, tucked away in the corner of an antique store cubical, and buried in mountains of 30 year-old stacks of magazines. Articles, postcards, stickers, posters, packaging, calendars, flyers, magazines, books, and of course, advertisements; this is the ephemera that keeps this site running.  Sometimes, in the middle of investigating every page of practically every single issue of Woman's Day magazine from 1983, I swear that I'm going to go blind (just like Donald Pleasance in The Great Escape.)  But every so often I find something so irrevocably awesome, that it makes the whole process completely worth the struggle.  Below is one of those finds.

Maybe I've built this up a bit too much with this long-winded intro, but every time I set eyes on this poster (which will hopefully soon be hanging in my office) I get a bit giddy because it transports me so effortlessly back in time to when I was six and my family was having cable TV installed for the first time.  1983 was my first introduction to the wonder of the classic children's programming on the first channel devoted to kids, Nickelodeon…

The only thing keeping this poster from being the perfect piece of 80s era Nickelodeon ephemera is that it was released about a year and a half before the network really came into its own with the introduction of all sorts of animated series and game shows.  Even so, 1983 was the year that they really took a step in the right direction with the debut of Mr. Wizard's World, which cemented the last corner of the triumvirate of series (along with Pinwheel and You Can't Do That on Television) that more or less defined the look and feel of early Nickelodeon.  And that is what this poster is all about!

Well actually this poster is all about the 1983 Nickelodeon Sweepstakes.  In an effort to get the word out about the network to the millions of new cable subscribers during the boom in the early 80s, Nickelodeon concentrated their efforts on two fronts, non-violence and educational programming.  This Sweepstakes offered one lucky kid a $10,000 dollar college scholarship (though in the fine print you can see that this can be transferred to a cash payout when the winner turns 18, I guess in case attending college just wasn't in the cards.)  You can tell, from the pages that make up the back of the poster below, that a lot of the original programming on the network was geared more towards education than entertainment.  Of course there was always the Canadian sketch comedy of YCDToTV and the insanity of Wild Ride, the live action series hosted by Matt Dillon focusing on the countries best roller coasters and thrill rides.

Anyway, back to the poster.  It was painted by a fella named W.S. "Bill" Purdom, a talented artist who's worked with huge companies on everything from advertising to movie posters, and is currently specializing in capturing classic moments from baseball on canvas.  The poster features a ton of celebrities and characters including Reggie Jackson, Mr. Wizard, Matt Dillon, Chris Makepeace (from Meatballs and My Bodyguard fame), Leonard Nimory, Bill Bixby, Slim Goodbody, Christine McGlade and Les Lye (from YCDToTV), as well as Jake, Coco, Plus & Minus, Aurelia, Ebeneezer T. Squint, Silas the Snail, Luigi, and Admiral Bird from pinwheel.  Hell, even the Nickelodeon pinball makes an appearance!  Sigh.

Yup, finding a poster like this tucked away in a 28 year-old issue of Woman's Day is the whole reason that Branded in the 80s exists.  It makes all the work, the hunting, the sorting, the flipping, the scanning & digital enhancement, and all the ailments, the paper-cuts, the old-mildewy-ink-stink on my fingers, completely worth it.  Hope you guys dig seeing stuff like this as much as I do.

Just wanted to give a quick heads up that Branded in the 80s now has a Facebook page.  The general idea is to use it as a place to host future contests as well as a point of contact for the future Postcard Project waves.  I've also been posting some pictures there that have never popped up here on the main Branded site like book covers from my collection of Choose Your Own Adventure style paperbacks...

If you're so inclined, click on the picture above to head on over, "like" the site, and join in on the conversation!

One of the weirder areas of nostalgia for me lies within the realm of the not-so-exciting household products that either my mom would buy or that I'd see while grocery shopping with her as a kid.  Sometimes I get the same sort of longing pangs for a Fresh'n Up room deodorizer (the kind that came in a rectangular cylinder where you'd lift the outer casing to expose the room-freshening power contained within) that I do for some of my long lost G.I. Joe and Transformers toys.  That's one of the beautiful things about flipping through 30 year-old issues of Woman's Day and McCalls, getting a chance to see some of these mundane extinct products that I never in a million years would have guessed had such an impact on my youthful self.

In the category of obscure and unfortunate household style degradation comes today's advertisement for the line of colored Cottonelle toilet paper, circa 1982…

Seriously, in this age of ever increasing and exciting technologies, why is it so apparent that the toilet paper industry is practically falling apart at the perforated seams?  When the key advancements surround thickening the sheets to an extent where we're practically rubbing our nether-regions with small pillows, and the best the industry's advertising has to offer aesthetically speaking is a bunch of multicolored bears with dingle-berry issues, we know we're in trouble.  What happened to the days when companies were so secure in the age-old technology that they began to shift their focus to enhancing the color scheme of the paper to make for a better looking lavatorial environment?  Long story short, where are my mint green rolls of toilet paper?  Why has this advancement been stripped from store shelves?

At the end of the day I just want a toilet paper option that'll really (design-wise) tie the room together.  Is that so much to ask?  In the immortal words of Weird Al, "You better squeeze all the Charmin you can...", because one day Mr. Whipple and Charmin might not be around...

For the last couple months I've been working with my favorite local Atlanta band, the Serenaders, on their new album My One and Only You (the album cover is featured above.)  I've been doing a bunch of graphic design and illustrations for their CD and vinyl LP, as well as on some record release party flyers and posters.  I've been super psyched as this stuff has been coming together at the same time as they've been hard at work recording the album and I can't wait to see everything done and in print.  I've gotten a chance to listen to a bunch of tracks off the album and they are really nailing the sound without losing any of the intensity of their live show.

The album is set to be released on May 24th, but in the interim the band is looking to raise some additional funds to help promote the record and to get it out into the hands of the public.  So they've begun a Kickstarter campaign to help out and I really want to help get the word out about the band and their music.  If you're unfamiliar with Kicksterter, it's basically a pledged fund drive, but instead of simple donations there are a bunch of tiered rewards that people receive for their pledges.  So it's not charity, but a way to help the band while buying copies of their record, T-Shirts (featuring the above heart illustration I did) and gig posters, win-win.  But they have to make their projected goat of $6500 in order to receive any of the funds or all of the pledges are cancelled.  I'm also super excited about this since I designed and illustrated the album art as well as the artwork for the T-shirts and posters, so I'd love to know that this stuff was getting out there.  So, help the band out with a pledge today and you can get your hands on some awesome music and some of my artwork.  There are 42 days to go and they still have a ways to go, so if this sounds like something you might want to help support, please head on over to their kickstarter page, watch their pitch, and listen to some of their tunes while you're at it!  Thanks for taking a gander…

Also, if you live in the Atlanta area and want to attend the Serenaders record release party, it's being held on May 28th, at 8:00pm at the Goat Farm.  Admission is $10, and with that you get a complimentary copy of the CD, so again, win-win.  Go on over and RSVP to the event today...

Though I feel completely like a child of the 80s, I have to say that being born in 1977 there were a handful of 80s pop culture events in which I completely missed the boat.  Tron and the boom of arcade gaming are a couple  phenomena that I didn't get to really immerse myself in as a kid.  Sure, I had an Atari 2600 (bought at a garage sale) after the big home console crash, and I was a full-blown Nintendo kid, but I didn’t catch a screening of Tron until only a few years ago.  In fact, aside from a vague idea of the iconography of the arcade console (in particular the awesomely large joystick) and what the characters in the flick more or less looked like, I was largely unaware of the film.

My childhood video game movie experience surrounded flicks like the Wizard, Wargames, and the Last Starfighter.  I've met so many people at work over the last 10 years that attribute Tron as the incipience of their awakening to the potential of computer technology and quite possibly the reason that they entered the IT field as a career.   Having never experienced a film like Tron and being exposed to the idea of anthropomorphizing the inner workings of a computer, I never saw the excitement inherent in programming and computing.  Like most people, it took the wide acceptance of the internet to open my eyes.  Because of that I'll always probably feel a little left behind.

On the bright side, getting a chance to catch up with the film as an adult I can both appreciate some of the more technical aspects to the conceptual nature of the flick, and it gives me the unique opportunity to discover something new and nostalgic.  It's rare that I get a chance to stumble upon something from the 80s that I'm either not familiar with or have been inundated with during the last 10 years of the 80s nostalgic resurgence.  For that I'm thankful.  Because of this and because of the news of the new sequel over the last couple of years I've been keeping and eye out for any bits of scan-able Tron ephemera, in particular vintage advertisements.  Here are a few I've found while flipping through old issues of Woman's Day and Muppet magazines…

First up is this 1982 ad for Dial and Tone bar soap with a mail-away coupon for a discounted Tron beach towel.  Featuring the static hero pose of the titular character, this towel is one of the few times when I think that image is successfully striking.  I'm always curious how many of these mail-away items make it into the public (and it's not like old beach towels get proffered up on ebay all that often), so it's cool when you can find some photographic evidence of these items.  Thanks to Hillary over at I'm Remembering for coaxing her readers into submitting old photos for her site…

Next up is this 1982 Smuckers ad for strawberry jam and the in-store special offer for a free Tron Futuristic Adventure Book with the purchase of a bottle of preserves.   Maybe not as cool as a collectable jelly glass with Tron characters and scenes, but the book did come with a fold-out 17"x22" poster, and featured games, puzzles and stickers!  I've seen a couple of Tron sticker sheets over the years, but I don't think I've ever laid eyes on the stickers from this free book.

Last, but not least, is this 1984 holiday ad from Disney Home Video featuring a VHS copy of Tron.  Back in '84 this cassette copy of Tron was a steal at $39.95 (msrp at the time was a whopping $84.95.)  This was back before most people had started purchasing movies for their home libraries, and videos were largely still priced for the rental market.   Also, at first I was pretty excited when I flipped to this ad in the back of an issue of Muppet magazine because I though the video came with a free Tron ornament.  How cool would that have been?  Well, even though there is that die-cut gold Tron disc on the packaging, the ornament is actually the image on the top left featuring Mickey as the Sorcerer's Apprentice.  Still a cool ornament, but not nearly as cool as one featuring Tron.

There is another thing that stuck out to me in this ad.  I thought it was weird that the graphic designers of this advertisement chose to feature a rare red variation of the Tron character artwork.  Though my memory might be a little shady, I thought that red was reserved for the "evil" programs in the Tron world like Sark and his minions?  I guess this is sort of the equivalent of catching a glimpse of Luke Skywalker with a red lightsaber…

Just wanted to break radio silence one more time to remind everyone that coming this Friday and Saturday I'll be at the 1st Up! Fair!  What's the Up! Fair you ask?  Well, I'm joining Jerzy & Anne Drozd (of Tiny Astronaut, Make Like a Tree Comics, and the Art & Story Podcast), Sara & Brian Turner (of Cricket Press and Make Like a Tree Comics), Mark Rudolph (of Control Voice Comics, the Requiem Metal Podcast, and the Art & Story Podcast), Kevin Cross (of the Art & Story Podcast, as well as being a swell freelance artist), and my wife Carrie Robare (demonals.com) in putting on one heck of an independently minded comic book and zine fair in Lexington, Kentucky.  You can get an idea of what we're shooting for in the below comic by Sara Turner and Jerzy Drozd…

We've all put a good year's worth of work into this project and we're bursting at the seams to see it finally realized.  If you're in the Lexington, KY area and would like to stop by and meet me and the other organizers, we'd love to see you.  Admission to the event is free to the public and we’ve got a great roster of artists and writers on hand selling their stuff as well as leading all sorts of awesome workshops (you can download a pdf of the program by right-clicking and saving here.)  I'll see you at the Up! Fair!

I'm stoked because aside from the looming Halloween season, we're getting closer and closer to the first Up! Fair!  I'm so excited to be a part of the organizational committee for this event as I really do believe that it's going to help provide a much more positive experience for independent publishers than most artist alleys at the standard comics and zine conventions.  We're not just aiming to provide a fun tabling experience, but also a venue to learn and grow as a writer, artist, and designer.

Anyway, I'm putting up this post to put one last call out for help with out Kickstarter fundraising campaign.  Though we've met our initial funding goal (and we can't thank everyone who has pledged so far enough), we're looking to bring our total up to $3,000 to help cover the costs associated with an event like this.  Aside from the considerable cost of promotion (banners, flyers, postcards, etc.) and getting programs for the event printed, we’re also looking to secure a budget for keeping all of our volunteers, special guests, and tablers fed.  One of our goals with the Up! Fair is to provide a very comfortable experience for the people tabling at the event where we can cut down on as much of the financial burden of attending.  Aside from a very low fee for tabling ($50 vs the industry standard of between $100 to $300), we also want to feed our guests so that they can concentrate on recouping any travel and printing costs, making a profit, and finding the time to get out from behind the table to attend or lead workshops without having to worry about losing sales.

So, where do we currently stand?  We're currently at $1,645, which is only $1,355 away from our goal!

There are only three days left in the Kickstarter campaign, but we're hoping to make it to $3,000.  So what do you get for pledging besides the warm and fuzzy feeling of helping to support and celebrate independent publishing?  Well, we’ve set up a tiered section of rewards that come with various pledge amounts including a hand-sewn and designed plush ink monster (designed by my talented wife), access to the various levels of the Art & Story Supreme podcasting and community content, inked sketches by the various artists putting the Up! Fair together, and a beautiful screen-printed event poster by the awesome Sara Turner (of cricket-press.com)!

Aside from a monetary donation, we could also use some help in spreading the word via Twitter, Facebook, or blog posts.  Just getting the word out about the Kickstarter campaign would really help. Thanks in advance for any help in making the Up! Fair the best that it can be!

So in 1983 the various companies making toothpaste decided to bring their product competition to comic book pages in the form of some dramatic stories aimed at kids.  Brushing your teeth was no longer a chore, it was WAR, and Crest and Aim were enlisting kid’s help in defeating cavities all over the country.  On Tuesday I shared a couple Crest comic ads that were a bit weird, but overall kind of boring.  Today I'm going to focus on a much cooler ad campaign from the makers of Aim, that features one of the coolest advertising gimmicks I've ever seen…

Before I jump into the gimmick, I thought I'd start with the above, which was the basic full page ad that ran in magazines during 1983.  It has an awesome concept with the sword/toothbrush battle that's unfortunately marred by the weird addition of a tube of toothpaste obscuring our view of the full action.  That aside, I love the design on the villain character, the Evil Tooth Invader.  He's a cross between a swashbuckling space pirate and the Marvel comics villain Ultron.  I honestly think I would have cared about brushing my teeth more as a kid had I thought this guy was running around causing all sorts of shenanigans in my mouth.

Anyway, the ad agency that got the Aim account was totally on their game when they decided to come up with campaign based around offering a full on, eight-page removable storybook in magazines back in 1983.  Not only was it hard to pass up while flipping through an issue of Muppet Magazine, it was filled to the brim with Jack Kirby-esque artwork that was totally leaping off the page…

The story is set in the galaxy of your mouth, near the Constellation of Teeth, on the planet Molar.  We join Jeff Smilemaker and his companions, the lovely Fluoride and their robot friend Floss, right after being defeated in a battle with the evil Tooth Invader and his Plaque Troops on the planet Bicuspid.  While resting on Molar and attending to their wounds, the three happen upon a strange crystalline creature named Sugar who they hope will help them in their battle against tooth decay.  But the three are soon besieged again by the Tooth Invader and his horde of Plaque Troops. Will sugar help them?  Will they win out against impossible odds?

Honestly, this story, though derivate of Star Wars and a million other action stories, is so damn cool I don't even care that it's an advertisement!

If all advertising was done with this level of awesome, I think I would probably have been inspired into the ad game as a career choice.  Seriously, I want another chapter in the continuing adventure of Jeff Smilemaker and the gang.  I'm curious about the time they got stuck in the pit of Gingivitis and had to fight the tribe of abscessed tooth monsters!

Seriously, I wonder if there were any other Aim storybooks created during the early 80s?

I recently picked up a big run of Muppet Magazine and while flipping through the issues I was astounded by the number of awesome advertisements.  I figured I'd share some of them here and there, and this week I thought it would be fun to take a look at some toothpaste ads.

First up we have a couple of Crest ads from 1983 and 1984 respectively.  Though using the comic layout was nothing new for companies in the 80s (just take a gander at the huge Hostess comic ads archive here at Branded), I do think there was an upswing in the trend.  Unfortunately, even though it was kind of cool for Crest to develop the idea of a crack team of cavity fighting heroes, the end result was kind of weird and boring…

Whereas the Hostess comic ads were wonderfully wacky and over the top, these two Crest ads are totally weak.  From the context clues in the two comics, I'm guessing the Crest team's home territory of Toothopolis is actually located in one of two places, either in little Chucky's own mouth, or the shared space of every mouth in the known universe which coexist on a metaphysical plane (which is in turn called Toothopolis.)  Either way it's confusing and little Chucky has been teleported into his own mouth.  Okay, I take back my initial statement, these comics are absolutely bat-shit crazy.

I love the imagery of turning a tube of toothpaste into a gun, and I'm actually surprised one of the companies didn't think to try this out in their actual packaging.   I guess some kid would want to put the toothpaste directly on their teeth and the imagery of a kid with a gun to his mouth would be kind of wrong.  Still, it exists in the comics, so we can always get our dose of unfortunate design that way.  Also, though I realize that the writer was restricted to a single page of comic storytelling, I think it's a waste to introduce an entire team of Crest heroes just to have the leader order the rest to lounge around while he single handedly goes out to fight the cavity creeps.  Kind of full of himself.  At least he lets the kid help out in the second comic...

T.L. over at Flashlights are Something to Eat has been posting a bunch of vintage E.T. goodness that I've had a lot of fun reading, so I thought I'd take a second and riff off that today.  Watching E.T. in the theater was one of those seminal movie-going experiences I had as a kid, one where I was at that perfect age where there was no need to suspend my disbelief.  Santa Claus was still real, and so was that fugly little Reese’s-Pieces-eating alien.  What I think is strange is that even though I loved that flick, and despite the fact that it was a huge mega hit which was merchandised to hell and back (E.T. even a spokesman for Coors), I never really had much E.T. swag.  I know I had a plush E.T. doll (not the cool faux-leather one, but the regular fuzzy edition), and I eventually got a copy of the Atari game with an old used 2600 console that I snagged at a garage sale, but that's about it.  I bet my mom never thought to pick any of the toys up because she figured it was too tame for my tastes, not as action packed as say He-Man or Star Wars figures.  Even so I always sort of coveted my friend's E.T. stuff though, from board games to read-along books, it all just seemed to damn cool.

Well after flipping though a bunch of older magazines lately I've come across a couple of odd bits of E.T. merchandising that I thought would be fun to share.  This first ad is for a series of E.T. branded Buster Brown kids shoes…

I'm betting this line of shoes catered more towards little girls as two of the three styles shown are distinctly feminine.  Actually, I'm kind of disappointed in the boy's pair as they're kind of bland.   Sure, there's the neat iconic silhouette of Elliot and E.T. riding a bike in front of the moon, but for all intents and purposes these are just plain brown leather shoes.  They're not even sneakers, which is more in line with what a boy would want to wear, so these were probably regulated to family parties and church.  The girl's designs, on the other hand, are pretty neat though.  The one pair has the sweet E.T. heart pattern on the bottom tread, and the other has that neat plastic decal that really shows off one's love for the little alien.

I also think it's interesting that Buster Brown decided to use packs of the Topps bubblegum cards as a sales incentive for picking up a pair of these shoes.  I mean bubblegum cards were still about a quarter a pack around 1980-1986 or so.  I'm sure the shoes were still like $20 a pair back then, so it's not like the parents were getting a deal.

**Update**  Thanks to Craig for commenting and posting a link to the E.T. Buster Brown shows commercial.  There were at least sneakers for boys...

The second ad was for a Kuwahara BMX bike.  Billed as the bike Elliot rides in the flick, Kuwahara sure wasn't working very hard to sell this fact with any sort of movie specific branding.  Not only was it sans basket (to make it a little more movie accurate), there weren't even any E.T. decals or logos.  In fact, unless you popped for an additional $3.50 for the poster, how would you ever know?  Actually, that poster seems a little weird, I mean what kid wanted a poster of just a bike sitting in some fog?  Actually, now that I think about it I would probably kill for a poster of my old GT Performer just sitting in a bank of fog, so scratch that…

I thought I'd take a moment today and put up a special Saturday post to let everyone know about some exciting updates for the Up! Fair.

We've got some ambitious ideas for what we'd like this event experience to be like for both the tabling guests and the attendees.  While we're not brash enough to claim that we're the alternative to huge established shows like the San Diego Comic Con and the various Wizard World events, we do see some areas that need improvement, in particular the role of the independent comics artists, writers, and publishers.  Typically relegated to Artist's Alleys, it's extremely tough to make a profitable go of tabling at these events because of the combined cost of travel, lodging, high table fees, and printing costs.  Breaking even at these shows is difficult enough, but on a creative level, even finding the time to get anything out of the event outside of tabling is also difficult.  Networking with other artists and writers is hard when you're stuck behind your table, and the idea of utilizing the opportunity inherent in gathering a large crowd of artists to share ideas and learn from one another is almost non-existent.

Our idea is to treat the Up! Fair, first and foremost, as an opportunity for independent artists and writers to meet up and share their passion for comics and zines through hands on workshops, lectures, and panel discussions.  We want to bring the craft to the forefront, and leave the pop culture shenanigans to the other shows.   We also want the experience to be as exciting to just  attend as a cartoonist/writer, as it is to table or to put on these workshops.  That's why we're thinking more in the direction of a conference as opposed to a typical convention.

Obviously these types of events don't happen overnight and there's always a bottom line of costs and logistics.  One of our main goals was to try and make attending this event, both for the general public and those who are tabling, to be as low cost as possible, which is why we're keeping table registration very reasonable ($50 for a full table, and $30 for a half table) and general attendance to the show absolutely free.

While we're trying to cover the majority of the costs associated with the fair (we're certainly taking a loss on this show), we do need some help making the event the best that it can be.  Earlier in the week we put out a call to cartoonists and writers for help with creative donations to the show, in particular sketches, finished comics work, or a couple copies of your independently published comics, mini-comics, books, or zines for distribution to guests and attendees of the Up! Fair.  On the one hand, these artistic donations will go towards helping to get the word out on independent publishing, giving everyone who comes to the show an opportunity to sample the rich and diverse landscape of comics and zines that exist outside of mainstream publishing.  On the other, it's an opportunity to get your work out into the hands of the public in a much more personal method than just name dropping and link exchanges.

We also decided that in lieu of straight up monetary donations, we want to raise some money for the event by providing an opportunity to help out, but also by getting some great rewards in the process.  On Friday afternoon we launched a Kickstarter Pledge drive to help raise some funds for the show.  For those unfamiliar with Kickstarter, basically it's an online fundraising platform partnered with Amazon.com that allows monetary donations in exchange for tiered rewards.  Basically it's an all or nothing deal.  We set a monetary goal and a drive end date and if we make our funding by the date we receive the money to help with the Up! Fair.  If not, all pledges are cancelled.

The exciting part for me is that after only 8 hours our project met its minimal fundraising goal!  I can't even begin to thank everyone who helped make that possible, and so quickly even.  Much like the Grinch, my heart grew three sizes bigger knowing that we're putting together a project that people are excited about helping to make a reality, and honestly, November 19th can't get here soon enough. 

But the work isn't done yet, and this is where we're going to get a little PBS for a second.  Though we've reached the initial funding goal, we still need help with the Kickstarter pledge drive to make the event all that it can be.

I'd like to remind folks that there are a lot of cool things you can purchase through this pledge drive.  The system we've set up is tiered, and with each step up in the pledge amount you'll receive all the stuff in the tiers below.  Here's some of what's available…

For $5 you'll be listed in the event program as an integral supporter, as well as receiving a link on the soon to be constructed Friends of the Up! Fair page on the website.  Oh and our honest, undying and heartfelt gratitude.

For $15 you'll receive a one year subscription to the forum access on the Art & Story website, which has an awesome and growing community of like-minded artists and writers, as well as being listed in the event program as an integral supporter, as well as receiving a link on the soon to be constructed Friends of the Up! Fair page on the website.

For $35 you’ll receive a hand-sewn plush Ink Monster (Oghma, the mascot for the Up! Fair), made with love by my talented wife Carrie, as well as the forum access and being listed in the program and on the website.

For $75 you'll receive an inked sketch from one of the Up! Fair organizers (Sara Turner, Jerzy Drozd, Mark Rudolph, Kevin Cross, Anne Drozd, or even me if you'd like), as well as a plush Oghma, forum access and being listed in the program and on the website.

For $135 you'll receive a one-year subscription to Art & Story Supreme (29 comics and writing process podcasts a month and tutorial videos to boot), as well as an inked sketch from one of the Up! Fair organizers (Sara Turner, Jerzy Drozd, Mark Rudolph, Kevin Cross, Anne Drozd, or even me if you'd like), a plush Oghma, forum access and being listed in the program and on the website.

For $200 or more you'll receive a limited edition screen-printed poster for the Up! Fair event hand done, drawn and designed by the wonderful Cricket Press, as well as a one-year subscription to Art & Story Supreme (29 comics and writing process podcasts a month and tutorial videos to boot), an inked sketch from one of the Up! Fair organizers (Sara Turner, Jerzy Drozd, Mark Rudolph, Kevin Cross, Anne Drozd, or even me if you'd like), a plush Oghma, forum access and being listed in the program and on the website.

The beauty of Kickstarter is that you can also pledge any amount you'd like, so as little as a dollar would help to make the Up! Fair that much more awesome.  Also, none of this money is going into our pockets, it's all being funneled into the show to cover the costs of printing programs, signage for the event, promo materials like buttons, food for the tabling artists and guests, materials for the workshops, badges, and much more.  If you enjoy independent comics and publishing, please consider helping out.  I honestly believe that when it comes to events like this that it's not about the organizers, it's truly about the community of people coming together to share their passion for art and creativity.  This show is about every single person who supports it and attends, and it can send a clear message that there is a better way to celebrate independent publishing.

A quick aside from this week's McDonald's shenanigans to make a call out to all independent artists and writers out there who are interested in helping out the Up! Fair.  In order to cover our operating costs, we'll be auctioning off artwork from guests and co-organizers of the event.  If you'd like to donate a piece of original artwork for the auction, you can send it here:

Cricket Press

PO Box 21952

Lexington, KY  40522-1952

No need to frame the piece or prepare it in any way.  Just send it in sturdy packaging with your name and website info clearly indicated so we can credit you as a supporter of the show.  The piece can be anything you wish; a piece of brand-new artwork that promotes our theme of independence, or a page from a comics or illustration project you've worked on in the past.  We only ask that the piece not feature any characters from any established publishers.  The artwork will be auctioned off on the Up! Fair website.  Deadline for donations is November 1st, 2010.

We're also looking for your independently published works! 

You can help us demonstrate the wonderfully diverse world of entertainment in self-publishing by donating a copy or two of your own work.  We're accepting any independently published comics, mini-comics, or prose books to be distributed to the guests of the event as well as the general public.  You can send any donated books to the address above.

All material supporters of the event will get a mention on our “Friends of the Up! Fair” page along with our undying gratitude.  So don't forget to include your website information!

And thanks in advance for your support of the Up! Fair!

Since I decided to empty my backlog of McDonalds related ephemera this past Monday, I thought I'd also spend a little time talking about the weird craziness of the fast food giant trying a bit too hard to reach out to kids and families in the 80s.  On Monday, I mentioned an ad for a McDonald's branded storybook and record series that was at the back of one of the yearly coupon calendar.  To me it seemed like Micky D's was overstepping their bounds by taking it upon themselves to offer educational children's books outside of their restaurants.  Heck if these were part of a Happy Meal I probably wouldn't think anything of it, but because they were sold in bookstores and the like it just seemed wrong.  Well, the weirdness didn't stop there.  In fact in 1987 McDonalds was also getting into the fashion industry as well…

Dubbed McKiDS (not to be confused with the 1992 NES game of the same name), McDonald's partnered with Sears on a line of branded clothing for kids 1-7 years of age.  The tagline for the collection was, "Fun Clothes for Small Fries".  Thoguh they were branded with McDonald's iconography, they were really a product pushed by Sears, and the management of the fast food chain was really only involved in a consulting and licensing capacity.

Branding on clothes is obviously nothing new, but an entire line of children's clothing like this from a company that specializes in burgers and fries is just weird.  Not even addressing the idea of a creepy mustard and ketchup-colored adult clown thinking about playing dress-up with our children, it points to the fact that some companies can easily lose sight of what it is they do well in the race for more money.  It was another step into that distopian future ideal of countries run by single corporations providing us with everyting from the food that clogged our arteries to the healthcare that cleared them.  McHousing, McClothes, McFood, and McEntertainment.  I'm not the kind of guy who typically puts on a sandwich board and grabs a bell, crying out to his fellow men about the evils of corporate America, but things like this really do scare me a bit. 

What's even more confusing to me is that even though the clothes all featured the iconic golden arches logo somewhere, a lot of what's in these two ads looks like regular non-branded clothing.  If you're going to go so far as to introduce a line of McDonald's clothes for kids, why wouldn't you make the best of the stable of iconic characters you own?  What parent is so into McDonalds as a trusted company on that kind of level?  Only 15% of the clothing featured images of the McDonaldland characters (according to some articles I dug up), so even going past the parents, why would kids want these clothes either?  This just makes it seem kind of devious, as if the company isn't interested in spreading their brand, just positioning themselves for new revenue streams in a monopolistic maner.  It's the Wal-Mart effect.

Apparently there was a slew of similar clothing lines coming out in the late 80s including Jell-O branded toddlers garments, Coca Cola clothes, as well as a line of Burger King kids and teen clothing.  I don't remember any of this at the time (well, I do rememer oversized Coke sweaters and sweatshirts), so I'm wondering if it didn't catch on at the level were it was really country-wide?  When looking up the clothing line on the interwebs I found a ton of articles about a re-launch of the McKiDS line back in 2004 mainly launching in other countries, so my guess is that it originally petered out pretty quickly here in the States.  I wonder if this is still an idea the company is pushing?

One Interesting thing I'd like to note about the above ad (outside of all the grouchy Big Brother talk) is that it featured two discontinued characters from the McDonaldland crew, The Professor and Captain Crook, but surprisingly did not feature Ronald McDonald.  I bet there was some market research done that pointed to the fact that parents might not have been interested in a clothing label promoted by the iconic clown.  On the other hand, I wonder why they brought back some characters that they'd made efforts to remove from their branding?  Also, is it just me or, in the above ad, does Mayor McCheese seem to think this whole thing is a bad idea?

A Little while ago I shared a vintage McDonalds calendar from 1979.  I actually managed to get that calendar in a lot with others from the early 80s, so today I though I'd share some more.  Most of these calendars had some sort of gimmick (like the hidden messages and pictures in the 1979 edition), but the 1980 edition was a lot more straight forward featuring general history trivia as a theme (as you can see from the Christopher Columbus, Wright Brothers, and George Washington images on the cover…)

The artwork on this calendar is pretty weird too.  It has sort of a stained-glass vibe, but it also reminds me of the Count Morbidia pages in Dynamite magazine.  McDonalds wasn't a huge part of my life growing up as my parents didn't care for fast food, so most of my memories are of times when I'd tag along with friends and of the various television commercials.  Part of this un-exposure comes with an unfamiliarity with some of the McDonaldland characters, though I do think the early 80s was also a time when McD's corporate was culling the bunch so that didn't help either.  Because these characters seem so strange to me I find them endlessly fascinating, in particular the human characters like Captain Crook and The Professor.  I also think it's fascinating that half of the cast were villains intent on stealing your food.  The Fry Guys (called Goblins in this calendar) would snatch your fries, Grimace would take your shakes, the Hamburglar burgled your burgers, and Captain Crook wanted to frisk you for your fillet-o-fishs.  With all these food-napping shenanigans going on it's a wonder that anyone wanted to visit McDonaldland.  Seems like more of a mid-level hell to me…

The one thing that I also found a little strange was that as soon as Birdie the Early Bird showed up on the scene (introduced in 1980, but she doesn't appear on a calendar until 1981), Officer Big Mac was forced into early retirement.  Hope he kept his pension, though I'm betting Mayor McCheese found a way to funnel that dough into his own personal money bin.

Though I tend to try and stick with a mainly analytical/nostalgia-ridden eye towards the stuff I write about, I can't help but slip into Robot Chicken mode every once in awhile (Kickin' Jeans anyone?)  So when I saw this 1981 animal-themed Ronald McDonald Coloring Calendar I did a double take of creepy-clown proportions.  How were kids not crapping their pants and crying when they set eyes on that cover?  If the big-eyed Ronald wasn't enough, the realistically rendered animals with the human eyes would have sent chills down my spine.  Seriously, what's up with that panda and fox?  Eloping anytime soon?

There really wasn't a gimmick with this calendar either except its theme and the fact that it had a cut-out mobile on the back cover…

This edition also featured an ad for a branded read-along book and record set called the Ronald McDonald Discovery Series.  Personally I think this is a little weird.  It's not that I'm against branded characters shilling products to kids; I love 80s cartoons despite all the merchandising.  I think it bugs me that this series isn't about selling hamburgers, and instead seems to be education in nature.  It just doesn't seem right for Ronald to lead kids on this journey.  I mean if it were ever the responsibility of a parent to step in and take center stage, it's when teaching their kids about the basics of the world.  That aside, I'm dying to see what these books looked like…

Though I do have a copy of the 1982 calendar, I'm going to save it for another post as it's a variation on the Little Golden Sticker Fun books from the 70s-90s and feels like it should be discussed in a Peel Here column.  Instead I'll skip ahead to the last calendar in my collection, the 1983 Ronald McDonald Space Explorer Coloring Calendar with Magic Rub 'n Discover Spots…

First off, I love the Space Ronald theme for the calendar.  It's almost as if McDonaldland was in another galaxy and this is how Ronald gets from home to Earth to shill his burgers and chicken nuggets.  As we can see in the below coloring page Ronald decides to take a trip around the galaxy with all of the Mcdonaldland villains.  Strange…

Maybe he was planning on flying them all to Mars where he's leave them stranded in a big pile of red space dust.  Hey, maybe that cosmic face everyone sees on the planet is really a giant temple built to Grimace?  Anyway, the main gimmicks in this calendar are the magic rub and discover spots, which is a technology that I hadn't seen before.  Basically, there are missing images and text in the calendar that are surrounded by a dotted line.  By rubbing a coin over the area the images or text "magically" appear.  I'm not sure if it's the age of the paper or if the trick was always sort of subpar, but it's kind of difficult to see the revealed images, even with photoshop enhancement…

It is an interesting idea though…

The other thing that was really interesting about this 1983 calendar is that it came with two sets of coupons, one for McDonalds food products and another that were actually rebates for a series of Mattel branded products.  Actually, most of the other calendars also came with McDonalds coupons that you could redeem throughout the year, but this was the only one with a toy company tie in as well.  It was kind of neat to see rebates on Masters of the Universe figures and playsets, though at a combined rebate of $2.50 I'm betting not many kids or parents sent them in…

On Wednesday I'm going to share some more McDonalds craziness, so stay tuned for that.