Laff Time '77 (ADULTS ONLY!!!)

Time again for some dirty funnies, this time from the March 1977 issue of Laff Time Adult Cartoons & Gags Vol. 14 #3. Kids, don't try any of this stuff at home (adults-- go nuts!)

More Power '68

Two wonderfully illustrated story highlights from the Scott, Foreman and Company "Open Highways" series of 60's children's books, (as part of their diagnostic and developmental reading program) --this collection in the series titled MORE POWER is full of poetry, games, recipes and stories-- and to me, Margaret Stimson Richardson's "The Seven Little Pifflesniffs" is the stand-out tale here thanks largely to Dick Scott's deliciously fun, stylized art. Connie Elliot's "Pogo Leaves the Circus" performs wonderfully as well with super cute art by Justin Wagner.

Monster Museum

It's still August, but many stores here in the STL area have already started putting out the Halloween merchandise, so what the heck-- let's jump the gun too and take a quick look at some eerie imagery from Alfred Hitchcock's Monster Museum (Random House, 1965.) This is a typically cool collection of creepy horror featuring short story classics by Theodore Sturgeon, Manly Wade Wellman, Ray Bradbury, Guy Endore, and many others-- introduced by Alfred Hitchcock and highlighted by some wildly unusual, scarily surreal art by Earl E. Mayan (seems to be a collage mix of illustration, photography, cut-out elements and image manipulation.) Take a moment to carefully analyze each nightmarish image, you may find a bit more here than you've b-b-b-bargained for!

Bozo Helps Dinky Toot His Horn

A fun adventure featuring TV's animated Bozo the Clown and Butchy written by Larry Harmon and Helen Jill Fletcher, with super art by Ron Dias and published in 1964. This is one of the larger sized, plastic spiral bound cardboard books with a die-cut cover and rounded page corners used as educational game aids for ages 2 to 6... though, these days I'm sure the title of this book will probably draw a bunch of inappropriate jokes from ages 10 to 65. And golly gulumpus, dig that cute nurse on page 14-- OOM-pah-pah, OOM-pah-pah!