Sunday, November 14, 2021

Dogpatch Exorcist

Stumbled into a pawn shop on the east side yesterday and found a literal treasure trove of amazing things, two of which I'm putting together here in one great post --with the other stuff on deck for later this month! First up, you might recall my Daisy Mae Picto-Puzzle key chain posted HERE last year, well now I have a Lil Abner as well! It's not exactly in the greatest condition unfortunately, it's missing a tile and most of the imagery on said tiles has nearly worn away to be practically indecipherable, but I'm still pretty happy to have it none the less! Not only that, but I also have the original backing card (in all of its off register glory) that the puzzle originally came attached to! An incredible find, indeed, and I'm always happy to add another piece to my Dogpatch USA / Al Capp collection, of course! And secondly, The Exorcist soundtrack (and other deviltry) on 8-track cassette! With colorful cover artwork that I've never even seen before, not to mention some really crazy added audio material not found on the official soundtrack-- "actual devil exorcism rites from Haiti, as well as an epilogue of Dr. Phibes conquering the darkness with his great organ! To quote Lil Abner: it too is "amoosin' an' confoosin'" and I'm not sure I even care to "figger it out!", and say now, ain't Daisy lookin' awfully purdy on that card?

5 comments:

Brian Barnes said...

8-tracks advertising themselves as "continuous play" has to be the #1 grand bull moose winner of turning a negative into a positive. Yeah, it'll play forever, but it'll also fade out in the middle of songs!

That picot-puzzle has seen better days, a little more play with it and eventually it'll be easy to solve as the image will be all rubbed off!

Real Al Capp artwork, too! Neat finds!

Wendy said...

I know it's always preferable to find things in great condition, but I kinda think the level of wear on the puzzle gives it some added charm! At the very least, it shows that it was loved, and added history -- even unknown history -- is a bonus in my book. The backing card still looks amazing!

I never would have guessed there was an Exorcist 8-track kicking around out in the world. Super find!

So the real question is do yo' reckon that li'l Abner will EVA notice how purdy Daisy Mae is?? I'm a' startin' ta' think the poor boy is'a blind in one eye......

Mr. Karswell said...

> it'll play forever, but it'll also fade out in the middle of songs!

Yes, that drove me absolutely CRAZY, especially in the middle of some of my favorite songs too

>do yo' reckon that li'l Abner will EVA notice how purdy Daisy Mae is?

Haha, he did! They finally tied the knot in the early 50's... it was such a huge media event that it even made the cover of Life Magazine!

Mr. Cavin said...

Looks like you can still get an 8 Track player on eBay for somewhere between $25.00 and $550.00, depending on how cool you want it to look (and whether it's for your car or home). I mean, you may already have a working player for all I know--but I had no idea they would be so available. And so... not decrepit? My aunt's boyfriends rolled up blaring them from their rides. I remember the format in truck stop spinners when I was a kid. But the cassette had already overtaken the cart long before I ever bought my own first portable music. We never had a player at all. These things already felt like ancient history to me when I was still in the single digits.

Mr. Karswell said...

I do not have an 8-track player, I just collect the ones with interesting art on them, the weirder and more generically off model the better, haha... thanks for the comments ya'll, more Li' Abner comin' right up