I am not sure why Magic Mountain opened Spillikin Corners in 1978. They billed it as the only year long large scale crafts village in Southern California. It was kind of like the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach but smaller and full time.
But I loved it as a kid and basically ran around the entire park to get there. Once I got there, the only thing I remember doing was making some candles. But I kept those candles for years and never lit them.
Today as we were walking around at the flea market, I looked over on a table and saw a box of comics. Right there in the front was a copy of Funnies on Parade. At first I could not believe it but I pulled it out and it looked right. There was also a nice copy of Popular Comics #19 from 1937 right behind it. All the other comics were from the 70's and 80's so I paid for the books and moved on.
When I got home I did some research on this book and found out that it is considered to be the first comic published. It was produced in 1933 and contained reprints of popular Sunday newspaper comics reproduced at half size. It was given away as a premium for Procter and Gamble and only 10,000 copies were printed. It was a huge success and many other reprint comics followed as did a flood of superhero, romance, horror and genre comics that continue up to today.
I don't know that I will keep it but as a life long comic collector, it is quite a neat thing to find on a Sunday morning.
Not my standard character type but I think the classic pie eyes were necessary.
If you are not doing anything next Sunday, come on down to the West Hollywood Book Fair. I will be set up with Mr Toast books, dolls and even some t-shirts. I am always happy to sign books and do sketches and I will be giving out free posters. It is a great event and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola is one of the special guests. Fun Fun Fun!
When I ordered my Mr Toast dolls at the end of last year I did not realize how fast they would go. I only got 200 large dolls and I have sold almost 150 of them! I got 3000 small dolls and I have sold about 900 of those little guys. So if you are thinking about getting a large doll, I would suggest you do it soon because when they are gone, they are gone!
Also if you want to buy the dolls in person try Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, I am just packing up a box of stuff for them, and the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana. I can't promise they will have Mr Toast in stock because he seems to be selling real quick....
I just started a Mr Toast Photo Group on Flickr. Flickr is a great free photo hosting site by Yahoo. One of the functions of the site is the ability of members to start groups where everyone can contribute photos along a certain theme. So currently the Mr Toast group has 38 members and 119 photos. So stop by and check it out.
Before the Jay Ward Studios got the job to do Cap'n Crunch, Quaker cereal must have shopped around to see what other studios might come up with. This group of drawings were all concepts that the Ray Patin Studios came up with for their pitch. I am not so sure the Cap'n would have gone on to be the beloved cereal character that he is, without the incredible designs of Jay Ward. And "Hog-Nose" Hogan is certainly no Jean LaFoote!
Took some time this holiday weekend and redesigned the World of Mr Toast page. I think it looks a lot nicer but there is still some more work to be done....someday I may even have a real online store.....
