Bill Layne "Greetings" Calendar (1949)

From a scary Scream Queen to some sizzlin' cream dreams, we once again enter into a new month of everything else in the Karswell Kollection, too! And okay, I had planned on saving this for an AEET New Years day post this coming January, but then remembered there's never really a bad time for posting pretty pin-up art. And this was an absolute amazing find for me recently after much antique mall diggin'-- another lovely --and most importantly, COMPLETE-- late 40's cutie "Greetings" calendar of cartoon gals, all illustrated by the one and only, Bill Layne. We tend to typically see tons of Elvgren and Vargas art from this time era, but one of my other favorites is good ol Layne, who was, of course, much much more than just a fabulous background artist for Disney (CLICK HERE for more info!), as you will soon testify while scrolling through all of the darlingly delicious dames below...

Scream Queen

A few months ago I found this very interesting, though seriously defective, art deco styled statue. Noting the beautiful design of the gilt-bronze dress, ivory hands, and heavy as Hell marble base, I had a sneaky suspicion that I possibly just discovered an affordable Demetre H. Chiaparus figure! The price was indeed right, even in this rather poor condition, and googling around for days, I sadly came up with absolutely no information on her. Now the real downside. Her original head (whatever that may have been), unfortunately appears to have been destroyed at some point (not by me), and then someone attempted a reconstructed head (and headdress) made from a ball of wax covered with some type of painted plaster. This clearly didn't hold up either, as the new face apparently crumbled apart (also not my fault), revealing the disturbing weirdness that lies beneath. But you know me, finding something like this just means that it's time for Mr. Karswell to get creative, ie: with a small plastic halloween skull prop (sliced in half) draped in a black veil to give our hideous queen an even more hideous new face-- aka a Face of Screaming Death! Try not to stare at her too long, or you may find yourself screaming as well...

Heavenly Honey in a Haunted House! (PART TWO)

And now for the second half of the hilarious Bob Hope haunted house hijinx mystery, from the June - July 1951 issue of The Adventures of Bob Hope #9... and be sure to CLICK HERE first if you somehow missed Part One (cuz you gotta read this stuff in order, ya know!)

Heavenly Honey in a Haunted House! (PART ONE)

If you're like me, minglin' amongst the mix of slashers, monsters, and horrors from the grave, you also enjoy some ghoulish gags and spooky slapstickery from the golden age of comedy! Abbott and Costello did it with the Universal monsters. Three Stooges, Martin and Lewis, Laurel and Hardy etc also met their fair share of booin' bad guys 'n creepy crooks in both film and comics! Even 'ol slope nose, Bob Hope got in on the supernatural shenanigans in a handful of truly fun encounters with the eerie, as seen here in the first part of the June - July 1951 issue of The Adventures of Bob Hope #9. It's the old readin' of the will routine in a haunted house again, which somehow never seems to get stale even in todays era of mystery and horror... and CLICK HERE for PART TWO!

What a place to pull the rug out from under ya's, eh?! PART TWO is up next! Stay tombed...