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.
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.
I have just updated my Recent Artworks section with a bunch of new work from the Ben Maltz show.
Charles Barnard has come through with a new animation. Click on Lemonhead or below to see the first ever Imaginary World character to talk.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.....
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.
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.
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!
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 :)
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.
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.
