R. I. P JACK DAVIS

You may not recognize the name, but you will recognize the artwork. Mad magazine and TV Guide covers, print ads for the TV show Cheers, Sesame Street children's books, covers for several country artist (he must have been a favorite of Homer & Jethro), the famous "giant Frankenstein Monster poster" that was advertised in comic books of the 60s & 70s, the designs for Mad Monster Party and the Jackson 5 cartoon and the Man From UNCLE lunchbox. Jack Davis was everywhere.

THE STORY BEHIND TERROR TALES AND THE OTHER EEIRE PUBLICATIONS

February 1973

As I mentioned in my last post, I only recently became aware of these wacky black and white horror comics magazines of the late 60s and 70s. Some of the artwork I was familiar with because it had been used on some DVDs and LP/CD covers. I recently purchased these at a comic book convention here in Springfield, Missouri.

Inside are black and white reprints of pre-code horror comics. The stories seem to date anywhere between the 30s to the 50s, with about one new story per magazine. Besides being in black and white, the publisher has had artist redraw some of the panels to add more blood or a touch of female nudity.

However, what makes these memorable are the unorthodox cover art. They are a monster kids wildest dreams mixed with absurdity and insanity. There seem to be a pattern to the covers. There are usually at least two monsters featured. They are usually fighting each other, with heads being lopped off, eyeballs gouged out and hearts staked. They all have fangs and pointed ears, even skeletons. In the middle of all of this mayhem is a buxom female victim in a torn dress. There is also an abundance of blood, drool, (possibly) vomit, and slime. I'm surprised they didn't have the female victim wetting or soiling her pants.

While the Warren horror comic magazines of the day featured well drawn covers, these have a cartoonish feel. The color is garish. Like those magazines, you will occasionally see a famous face in the covers. Herman Munster (He has fangs, pointed ears and robot parts falling out of his dismembered body), Barnabas Collins, Jack Palance, Max Shreck (from Nosferatu), Oddbod from Carry on Screaming and the Mad Scientist from Monsters Crash The Pajama Party all pop up on various covers. Also cover were sometimes reused for a magazine of another title.

These were created to cash in on the success of Warren's Creepy and Eerie magazines. The publishing company was even named Eerie Publications. The mad mind behind it was a comic book artist named Myron Fass, best known for the mid-60s Captain Marvel who would yell "Split!" and then break into pieces.

None of the titles seemed to be published on a regular basis. Besides Terror Tales, there was Horror Tales, Tales from The Tomb, Tales of Voodoo, Witch's Tales and Weird.

These have a growing cult following among collectors. I might consider buying a few at a reasonable price, although I would prefer to save my money for Creepy and Eerie.

TERROR TALES Vol 4 No. 5 August 1972

I recently discovered these black & white horror comics of the late 60s and early 70s. I will tell you more about them soon.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!!!

I found this on Facebook. It is from 1949 Life magazine.

DAVE BRUBECK FOR SEARS KENMORE DRYERS

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A few days ago, I mentioned that somewhere, amid the ray guns and killer robots in my mad scientist lab beneath Springfield's Park Central Square (The readers of my old blog will get this reference),  I had a magazine ad that the late jazz Dave Brubeck and his wife did in the late 60's for Sears-Kenmore appliances. I found it in a Better Homes and Gardens from November 1969.  I apologize for my scanner not being big enough to accommodate the whole magazine. There were several versions of this ad featuring well-known celebrities. The idea was "If a famous person with lots of money can by appliances from Sears, I shouldn't be ashamed of getting my appliances from Sears." The tag line on the ad (That unfortunatly was cut off by my scanner) is "Sears Kenmore Dryer for women who want the best even if it does cost less."

Actress Deborah Raffin dies at age 59 - MiamiHerald.com

LOS ANGELES: Actress Deborah Raffin dies at age 59 - Movies Wires - MiamiHerald.com

This is from a photo shoot that appeared in the June 1985 Good Housekeeping. Not to take anything away from the late Ms. Raffin, but I don't recall ever seeing any movies or TV shows she was in. I mainly remember her being on the cover of magazines, especially Good Housekeeping.

FAMOUS MONSTERS 100

Published in August 1973.

FORMER KY3/KBUG CO-OWNER LARRY DIXON DIES

Larry Dixon is the one in the middle.

Former KY3 personality Larry Dixon dies

I realize people outside the Springfield/Ozarks area will not see the point in this post, but I wanted to mention the passing of Larry Dixon. Larry was a pioneer broadcaster here in Springfield, MO. He was one of the first anchormen on KYTV, was co-owner of KBUG radio in Springfield in the 70s and early 80s, worked in publishing and advertising too. The good thing about Larry was he was a media person, who had a working knowledge of each medium's strengths and weaknesses. He was not an interloper from another business that hated the media and blamed the media for everything that was wrong, but felt he had a right to be apart of it to get some sort of revenge or satisfy something in his ego. I believe Larry was in media because he loved it and wanted to promote it, not promote himself.

The other good thing about Larry Dixon was he was always upbeat and optimistic. I linked to the story by KYTV's Steve Grant and in it Larry is described as "cheerful." That sums Larry up very well.

I wanted to repost a fun magazine ad from an 1980 Springfield magazine for KBUG, the radio station Larry co-owned. Larry may have came up with the idea for this ad, which was aimed at advertisers. It portrays a microcosm of the Springfield radio market in 1980. The news format came after their short-lived disco format. You have to give credit to Larry Dixon for taking chances.



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Former Cosmopolitan editor and author Helen Gurley Brown dies

Former Cosmopolitan editor and author Helen Gurley Brown dies