Easter 1969 - 1970

I'm sure there are more adorable pix of me, Mr. Karswell, on Easter throughout the years of my life, but none so heartwarming and eggcellent as these from the first 6 years of my life. Not only will you see how fashionable I was at this phase, but also my early and masterful techniques at egg hunting, egg coloring, and making a mess with the faux plastic basket grass. Also SEE! --how awesome my Easter presents were (RIP vinyl blow-up Easter rabbit!) I've scanned and grouped them in some sort of order by year, sort of, the one where I'm poking my head through the red and pink rabbit board was taken at the STL Zoo and probably not actually on Easter, but still seemed appropriate to post today--- enjoy, and have a great holiday weekend!

Don Dracula Meets the Werewolf

I'm not sure what the actual title of this Don Dracula story translates into (help?) but damn it's an awesome manga classic. Visually there are too many exceptional moments to even try to list, as master Tezuka pulls out all the stops, mixing cute and gory / realistic and cartoony / sexy and sweet / hilarious and horrific in a way that will seriously make your head spin-- from the brilliant opening beach party gone wrong sequence, to the full on awesomeness of the monster battle (Don Dracula even disguises himself as a mummy in this one!) Unlike my previous DD post (click HERE), I just left everything as it originally appears in my collection for this post-- just remember to read RIGHT to LEFT!

Don Dracula (ドン・ドラキュラ Don Dorakyura)

Don Dracula, (aka Earl Dracula) is a slapstick vampire serial by Japanese manga master Osamu Tezuka, the brilliant creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion, among others. Here we find everyone's favorite Transylvanian monster misplaced in NY city with not only his daughter Chocola and servant Igor, but also his castle-- and all the while unintentionally wrecking havoc everywhere he goes in search of virgin blood to drink. Hilariously original and fantastically illustrated of course, Don Dracula originated in the May 1979 issue of Weekly Shonen Champion Comics and ended in December of the same year. Don Dracula also spawned a short lived animated TV series (check youtube for all 8 episodes --now subtitled!) as well as a few later appearances in some other Tezuka manga series and video games. Below are scans from Don Dracula's very first appearance, presented in its original Japanese language format (easy to follow story even if you don't know Japanese, just remember to read right to left!) and padded out with a sampling of other various cool panel and page art from some of the other DD stories. If anyone wants to see a super great and very gory werewolf tale from this collection, let me know!

Bananas... How to Serve Them (PART TWO)

Continuing now where we left off-- here's the last half of this super 1940's banana recipe booklet (see last post for all the details.) Yes, more delicious dessert ideas, as well as ice creams, shakes, sauces, toppings, salads and scrumptuous sandwiches! And of course the illustrated Banana People return too, this time demonstrating a darker, sexier side to the fishing and tap dancing abilities, with: harassing women, slave driving, choking chickens, spanking, torture, and even-- MURDER! *gasp!* All is not forgiven though, as you'll see a page devoted to mashing, slicing, and fluting those bananas that deserve it most, as well as encasing them alive inside a gelatin dessert! Take that you bad 'ol tasty nanners!