Jiggs Day Fishgetters

From one of my prettier packaging entries in our last post, to what is easily the grossest thing I've ever purchased in my life (for the vintage label art!), this funky old, rusted-out jar of Jiggs Day Pork Frog, (*urp!) aka "Nature's Best Fishgetters" is still chock full of the chopped-up stuff that fish apparently love, and that would be, I guess, pork frog?!! Eeek! Uhh, so do fisher people actually touch this stuff with their hands?! Oh god. Anyway, I love the little fisherman and the mermaid, plus the other assorted cute underwater detail art on the label, but seriously, if you have a weak stomach, DO NOT scroll down beyond the third image scan below or you might receive a prompt return visit from the last meal you consumed. I have no idea how old this shit is either, it's kind of freaking me out even having it now. There are 6 frogs in there, or whatever they've possibly mutated into by now, all these many decades later. The rusty metal lid is starting to slowly turn on its own somehow... something inside wants out... AIEEEEE!

Suddenly You're Prettier

If you'll humor me for a bit, I'd like to show off some great, late 50's or early 60's style packaging design in the form of a Color 'n Tone 6 Week Hair Formula from Nestle (hmmmm, any relation to the company you're actually thinking of?) The brightly colored yellow and pink box is certainly eye catching, but the real clincher is that dandy die cut perspective portal with a lovely lady peering back at you from just inside-- she's even sporting the hair color yee be seekin'! That is one heckuva cool design touch. (And is it just me or does she kind of look like a young Shannon Doherty?) The instruction booklet inside is no less exciting, featuring a neat mix of pupil pounding pink headers, black and white photography, and even a groovy illustration! And take a look at the shapely glass bottle still holding all 2 ounces of unused, enriched formula! It's kind of turned into petrified Nestle caramel at this point... gray, gray go away!

Orgy of Blood

I had a very busy week and totally missed our Friday Frights post yesterday (sorry!), so here's a Shocking Saturday "Orgy of Blood" to unliven your weird weekend, with a truly great Skywald art collaboration between Jack Katz, Ross Andru, and Mike Esposito! As mentioned, we're counting down the release date for my new series of horror comic reprint one-shots with Asylum Press, and VAMPIRES #1 should be in stores on October 13th (CLICK HERE to learn more!) And yes, you'll have to buy a copy to read the stories that will be included, but until then, I'll be spreading a vampire plague of various other bloodsucker themed tales all across AEET every week until then! If you find this plan to be a bit "draining", then I know I'm doing my job correctly! From the December 1970 issue of Nightmare #1.

The Wraith!

A cool taste of Michael T. Gilbert fun from his early underground comic days, more specifically, the July 1976 issue of Quack #1, where we shockingly discover that The Spirit-- errr-- I mean, "The Wraith" is a dog detective and taking on the baddies to save an innocently sexy sex kitten from-- errr-- sex! Great artwork and probably my favorite story in this dynamically ducky debut issue. Michael is probably best known for his superb run of magnificent 80's Mr. Monster comics.

RKO's The Thing (RCA VideoDisc)

I'm a fan of just about everything related to John Campbell's 1938 sci-fi horror novella classic, Who Goes There? aka The Thing from Another World. And both versions of the film from 1951 and 1982 are equally tremendous to me as well, so it was with jaw dropping excitement that I fist pumped the air and shouted "Yessss!" to myself when I stumbled upon this RCA SelectaVision VideoDisc copy of the Howard Hawk's version yesterday, which features some wildly unique, crazy AF cover art that was completely new to my eyes. Okay, I don't own a Video Disc player (it's kind of like a laser disc player but played on a machine more like a record player with a needle instead of laser beam-- errrr, I think) --but anyway, I never had any intention of playing it as I already have both the VHS and DVD, and this was mainly something else awesome to add to my Thing collection. So, anybody out there wanna tell us all about Video Discs?

Nobody Believes in Vampires Anymore!

Friday Frights will likely focus on the vampiric side of horror for a few weeks, as we get closer to the release of my new series of horror one-shots for Asylum Press, --the first of which is simply called, VAMPIRES, and comes out October 13th (CLICK HERE to order your copy!) Incidentally, I will not be posting any of the stories featured in that issue here at AEET, so never fear if you're worried about seeing double! Also fear not, as everything so far planned in the issue will be a lot better than this goofball story from the October-November 1978 issue of Secrets of Haunted House #14, featuring one of the worst con man plans ever concocted in a horror comic! It's still a load of freak-out fun though, none the less...

Campy the Tramp

This hilarious "Campy the Tramp" rubber squeak toy I found yesterday was the later version of Ho-Jo the Bo, and based on the popular knot-hole peekin', Brooklyn Bum baseball mascot for the Dodgers. The original 1952 Ho-Jo version even wore the team colors, a blue suit and hat, and white vest, while this later version from 1957 is identifiable by having a more bumly brown jacket, green pants and hat, and yellow vest. He's quite the kiddie toy with his stubbly chin, chewed up cigar, and gigantic toes pokin' through his old worn-out shoes. A little more online research shows he came neatly packaged in a wood plank fence box designed to simulate his sneaky cheapness over actually attending paid admission price ball games (CLICK HERE to see the side by side variations and to get more info.) Having already owned a Freddy the Gremlin squeaker, I knew this was a Rempel toy before I ever even picked it up off the antique store shelf. These old Rempel squeak toys are made of a uniquely super soft rubber material and molded with lots of fun detail, wonderfully subtle paint color choices, and just the overall funny cartoonish quality make these Rempel's rise well above and beyond most other inexpensive mid century toys of this type. A great find for me this week-- and at the ridiculously cheap price of only $7 too!

The Woman's Razor

You read the post title and immediately thought, "Is it Friday Fright time again?" But no, today we're looking at a 1920's, antique Curvfit woman's razor that came smartly packaged in a gorgeously embossed, golden, art deco box, --and prepare yourself, because the beautiful design doesn't stop there. Advertised as "curved to fit the armpit", the razor itself probably seemed ultra modern at the time, and it most certainly is a thing of shining, silver toothed beauty. Complete with a blue velvet travel sack, plus back-up razors in yet another tiny box (featuring lovely 1920's girls illustrated on both sides), once you get to the 4-page instruction / catalog booklet folded up and tucked away at the bottom, you really feel like you scored an endless box of jaw dropping awesome. Imagine if razor companies still packaged their products in such a stunning manner, --for both women and men? If they did, I bet this bushy beard fad lately wouldn't be nearly as popular these days...

Tattle Tale!

A funny old hillbilly themed shotgun weddin' post card I saw matted and framed up for sale at an antique mall recently. I didn't buy it because it was a tad bit overpriced, but I took a pic of it none the less! Can't beat a good 'ol Daisy May lookin' Ozark mountain lass, haha...