Ads with Storybook Styles

Leif Peng over at Today's Inspiration has been doing a week of special posts related to a new group of Ads with Storybook Styles. He was nice enough to ask me to do a a couple little write ups about 2 of the ads. So go check out his site and get some Inspiration.

Today's Inspiration

Natural History

Yesterday we took a trip to the LA Natural History Museum. Millions of school kids tramping through halls filled with ancient bones and stuffed animals. Great fun.

Website Update

I have just updated my Recent Artworks section with a bunch of new work from the Ben Maltz show.

Recent Work

Also Jake & Beth are hard at work doing their own Mr Toast art. I think they have a future in the art business.

Watching Clouds

This is the third of our animations. Sit back with Mr Toast and watch the clouds roll by.

Clouds Animation

Also Charles figured out a way to make this into a screen saver for Windows users. If you want me to email you a Zip of the files let me know at grickily@yahoo.com.

One of those days

Lemonhead Speaks

Charles Barnard has come through with a new animation. Click on Lemonhead or below to see the first ever Imaginary World character to talk.

Lemonhead Speaks

Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs

Since I did a post of Trix, it is only right to do something on Cocoa Puffs. The first box shown here is from 1956 and is character free. By 1959, the Cocoa Puffs kids have appeared and will continue to represent the cereal into the 60's. Around the mid 1960's, Sonny the Cuckoo Bird took over as mascot for the cereal. I love the way he looked at first but by the 1970's he had become restyled and lost all of his original craziness.

Greasy Kids Stuff

Rabbits love Trix

I had to dig into the cereal box archive today to pull out a Cocoa Puffs box that a friend needed for reference. Sitting there with it were all the Trix boxes so I thought I might do a little post on them. The first rabbit to appear on a Trix box seems to be Brer Rabbit from Song of the South in 1956. Then in about 1958 came the Magic Rabbit whose companions included Mr Space Bird (Jets) and Eager Beaver (Cocoa Puffs). Then in 1960, the Trix Rabbit made his appearance. He started off as a stuffed toy but quickly morphed into an animated rabbit. He went through a number of incarnations as the years went by including the roller skater and sherlock holmes version. In 1970. they even threw out the trademark red for purple but that did not last. By 1972 the Trix Rabbit had stabilized into the design which would last into the 1990's.

Food Graphics

Today a group of food related items that have turned up recently. A few great ice cream signs that came out of a salesmans book (more to come). Also a Cocoa Marsh fudge mix box and a cool 60's Pillsbury flour bag with an offer for free Funny Face!

LA Times Article

There is an article about the Misfit Toys show in the Calendar section of the LA Times on Thursday. I have a nice quote and the article gives a nice overview of the show. The article can be read online.

LA TIMES ARTICLE

Ice Fishing

Strictly Fun Baseball candy boxes

In the 1960's, Phoenix Candy issued the Strictly Fun Candy & Toy Baseball Series boxes. each had humorus art and captions related to baseball. Illustration historian Leif Peng identifies the art as that of John Severin. The boxes had dashed lines on them so often kids would cut up the boxes and keep them as trading cards. It is a fun set to work on but pretty impossible to complete.

Mr Toast round up

Mathew Sargent of Sporky.net is having a fun time with Mr Toast and was happy to share a piece of pineapple upside down cake with him.

Paul Drew from Portland brings us the Toastalope.

Brody Blocker has Mr Toast obeying helmet safety laws.

Lastly Cindy K. Mui of Suits & the Angry Gamer has written a nice profile of me including an email interview we did.

Artist Profile: Dan Goodsell

Shirts Inventory Reduction

I am reducing my inventory and selling these shirts for $5 each + $2 shipping - I have the Spooky in Mens Large, Womens M Babydoll, Youth Large & Medium. The Smiling Sun ringer I have in Mens Large & Mens Medium. Email Grickily@yahoo.com to order. Quantities are limited.....

Midget Autopia at Disneyland

The Midget Autopia was one of those attractions at Disneyland that was being torn out about the time I was born. In my collection all I could find were 2 old snapshots and a postcard.

Wizard World wrap up

The show was a success. A ton of people braved the traffic nightmare caused by the LA Marathon and made it to the convention center. Sold a bunch more dolls & comics and made a lot more new Mr Toast fans including Sunday's Super Fan Jade, age 4.

Wizard World day 2

Day two at Wizard World went much quicker. Lots of people came through including Super Fan Sarah, who bought IW comics #1 and read the whole thing over lunch. Thanks to everyone that came by and said hi!

Wizard World Report

Well day one is over. Attendance was pretty light but the people that came were very cool. A few more Mr Toast's have new homes and will get a chance to see new things. Hopefully today will be busy otherwise I will be finishing the book I brought to read :)

Happy St Patrick's Day

Second Talk & Wizard World

I am giving my second talk at the Ben Maltz Gallery on Thursday, March 16th at noon. I will talk about the evolution of Mr Toast and the Imaginary World.

Then this weekend I will be set up at the Wizard World comic book show, it runs Friday to Sunday. My booth number is #1116.

World's Coolest Sign

What more could you ask for in a sign. A space kid whose smile is a hot dog. And the hot dog package has an ad for Disneyland. So good.

Sticky Situation

Politics

Mr Toast got political while spending some time in Texas.

Store Displays

Gibraltar Paper was a company that produced many of the incredible cardboard store displays of the 1950's and 60's. Kool AId, Jello and Nabisco were just a few of the companys they worked with. These images all come from a catlog of things they produced. The first two photos are of their displays at trade shows.

Zolar of Hercules

Zolar was one of Los Angeles' many local TV show hosts. This amazing poster turned up at the flea market on Sunday and was promptly purchased. For more info on him and other LA tv hosts like Engineer BIll and Sheriff John go to the Local Legends site.

Fruit Stripe Commercial

The guys over at Bedazzled have just loaded up a great 1960's Fruit Strip Gum commercial. Click on the image to get directly to it and while there check out their other great offerings!

Misfit Toy

While getting some dolls ready to take with me for my talk on Saturday, I found this little Mr Toast suffered a mishap at the factory, he was made with 2 left feet! It is kind of ironic with my being in the show "From the Island of Misfit Toys." Well the talk is on Saturday at 1PM at the Ben Maltz Gallery, I will be there with my misfit Mr Toast.

Bell Brand Potato Chips

Bell Brand chips were a southern California brand. This group of photos includes some from the 50's and 60's. Nice grocery store display set ups, promo photos and behind the scenes distribution pics.

Sugar Crisp Variations

Kellogg's Sugar Crisp?!?!? The box on the right is from Venezuela where I guess Kellogg's distributed Sugar Crisp in 1966. The image on the left is some preliminary art that was mocked up and eventully done in guache for the actual boxes which are shown below. All the boxes are 1 ounce snack packs. I love trying to collect all the weird little variants that were put out in the marketplace.

Gordon Parks dies

He was 93. He was the first black photographer to work for LIFE magazine and was also the director of Shaft. He was also a writer and composer.

Self Destructive

More Mr Toast

Our first photo is from Jess Hutch. Jess is a softie creator extraodinaire and great taker of photos. Her site can be found here and her blog here. Her Robot design is a true work of art.

Mr Toast got a trip to the car show to see the Munstermobile with the Burkett girls.

Contest winner Debra Potipcop is having a fun time teaching Mr Toast to ride with her dog Sparky. They seem to be getting on famously.

Lastly Thomas Gill contiues to update the ongoing adventures of his Mr Toast on his blog Tom's Mr Toast Photos.

Ton O Gum & Candy Graphics

A couple years ago I collected together all of our gum and candy items and digitally shot them. Here are a few of my favorites including an incredible Fruit Stripe ad with one of my favorite graphics of all time.

Kid with Pretzel

Upcoming Events

I have a few things coming up in the next two weeks. First up is a pair of talks at the Ben Maltz Gallery in conjunction with the show I am in "From the Island of Misfit Toys.

Saturday March 11th at 1 PM
Thursday March 16th at Noon

I will have comics, dolls and buttons for sale and free posters for everybody. The talk will be about 30 minutes and be about the history of Mr Toast and the Imaginary World - click here for more info and here for directions.

And then starting Friday March 17th until Sunday March 19th, I will be set up at the Wizard World LA comic book convention. I will have comics, dolls, t shirts, posters, buttons, etc for sale and will be happy to do pencil sketches. Go to the WIZARD WORLD SITE to get directions, show hours and parking info. The show is at the LA Convention Center near downtown & the Staples Center.

Hopefully I will see a few blog readers at these events, it would be fun to meet you.

Krazy Kids Food

I am always trying to pick up stuff that we would use if we ever did a Krazy Kids Food volume #2. These are a few of those that have turned up recently.

Mary Blair Christmas Card

This piece is one of my personal favorites. It is a hand silkscreened Mary Blair christmas card, signed by Mary and Lee. I have it framed right abouve my computer so I spend a lot of time everyday enjoying it.

A Little Mr Toast

A few more contest winners have checked in with photos. Dennis Hasty presents Mr Toast and his maker, who is none other then the Kellogg's character Milton the toaster.

And Chilan Ta brings us "Butt of Mr Toast"

Lastly Robin G. brings us "Mr Toast tries on a Suit"

Run, Run, Run

Mary Blair Handkerchiefs

Since others of late have been spotlighting Mary Blair, I thought I should shoot my small collection of handkerchiefs that she designed. I have no history on these, all I know is that they are amazing. For more Mary Blair check out the ASIFA Animation Archive's postings Little Verses part #1 and Little Verses part #2. Also Amid's Cartoon Modern is having a Mary Blair Week right now.

Thanks

Just a big thank you to everyone that has been supporting and enjoying the blog.