Saturday, May 31, 2014

Your blogger says...




"Of course, he meant to say that the world revolves around ME."--Rosie (below)


Lee

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

At Lee's Comic Rack: "Exposed: The History Behind X-ray Specs, Gogs, Tubes, Pens, and Scopes."





The behind-the-walls, true story of a gimmick that worked infinitely better for its marketers than its market:  Exposed... at Lee's Comic Rack.


 Lee

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Comic book ads, before they were comic book ads

A He-man body; money-making opportunities at home (seeds, cards, etc.); weird novelty items; magic tricks; X-ray scopes that see through walls, etc.; sound-effects devices; cut-rate disguise kits; at-home electronics; cheap trinkets hawked as miracle inventions; correspondence schools....

The stuff of Boomer-era comic book ad pages, right?  Actually, I'm referring to boys' magazine ads from the turn of the (previous) century, a bunch of which I'll be featuring very soon in a Lee's Comic Rack post.

Some samples, dating from 1902:






Coming soon to Lee's Comic Rack....


Lee

Sunday, May 11, 2014

At Lee's Comie Rack: Grace Gay Betts and Bill Molno, side by side





Could my favorite Charlton artist, Bill Molno, have been influenced by the great painter, muralist, and children's book illustrator Grace Betts?  We all should be so lucky.

At Lee's Comic Rack, I've posted side by side comparisons of Molno and Betts, with Molno's work rendered in a darker-shadowed and orange-tinted form for convenience.  (Or, why did this post take me a week to complete?)

Lee