Signed, Vampira

Presenting a few photos of Maila Nurmi from my vast collection of Vampira imagery. These are not particularly the most "rare" photos of her in my possession, but what makes them so special of course is that she autographed them for me during our brief friendship back in the early 2000's while I was living in LA.

BELOW: comparison of how Maila enjoyed manipulating her own photos. This shot for example is from one of her more famous beach series'. "I never liked the way my thighs looked in this picture," she told me on a couple occasions, and taking a Sharpie in hand, she simply painted some strands of ragged fabric right over my photo (she also painted her lips red in the other.)

 

Find out more about Maila and Vampira by clicking HERE!

Frightful Frankenstein Friday!

Today, 17 blogs will unite for a Web-wide event celebrating a new book by Eisner-award winner Craig Yoe, DICK BRIEFER’S FRANKENSTEIN and the character by that name. Prominent bloggers across the Web will be posting vintage Frankenstein comics, both from Yoe's book, which collects Briefer's top comics, and from the bloggers' personal collections. (More info at the end of this post.)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Read the Frankenstein PART ONE Origin at The ITCH Blog, and then PART TWO at The Horrors of it All-- then it's time for PART THREE in Dick Briefer's Frankenstein Saga from Craig's new book right here at AEET! (Originally presented in the February 1941 issue of Prize Comics #9)
 

 
 
 
 














And of course there's lots more fearsome and funny Frankenstein action courtesy of these fine blogs too:

Blog of Frankenstein

Cartoon Snap!

Comicrazys

Four-Color Shadows

Frankensteinia: The Frankenstein Blog

Magic Carpet Burn

Pappy’s Golden Age Comics Blogzine

Random Acts of Geekery

Sekvenskonst

Sequential Crush

Stephen Bissette’s Myrant

The Big Blog of Kids Comics

The Comic Book Bin

The Fabuleous Fifties

The ITCH Blog


DICK BRIEFER’S FRANKENSTEIN: The first volume in Yoe Book's thrilling new series, "The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics," fittingly features the first and foremost maniacal monster of all time... Frankenstein! Dick Briefer is one of the seminal artists who worked with Will Eisner on some of the very first comic books. Briefer created a bizarre, twisted version of the classic Frankenstein that is legend among comic book aficionados. If you like the comic book weirdness of cartoonists Fletcher Hanks, Basil Wolverton, and Boody Rogers, you're sure to thrill over Dick Briefer's creation of Frankenstein. The large format book lovingly reproduces a monstrous number of stories from the original 1940s and '50s comic books. Briefer did both a dark horror take and a more humorous-yet twisted-styling of Frankenstein, and both are powerfully showcased here. The stories are fascinatingly supplemented by an insightful introduction with rare photos of the artist, original art, letters from Dick Briefer, drawings by Alex Toth inspired by Briefer's Frankenstein-and much more!

($21.99, 144 pages, hardcover) is now available in stores and online HERE!

And don't forget to visit http://www.idwpublishing.com/ to learn more about the company and its top-selling books.

Little Audrey and the Moon Lady

Halloween is all about tricks, treats, and dressing up. And while todays post isn't exactly a Halloween story, it does contain plenty of tricks and plenty of dress-up, and of course the fabulous Harvey Cartoon Studios artwork from 1960 Wonder Books is always a treat! And "Ood-goon!" to all arty-smoon ants poons who don't agree (that's moon talk, you know!)

Trick or Treat Candy Bag Art

There's a zillion bloggers posting about vintage trick or treat candy bag art this year, so I guess I'll join in the fun. And some of these featured here today have undoubtably already turned up on many other sites in the past, but the thing I find really annoying-- itty bitty scans! So here are some non-itty bitty scans from my own collection (just click to ENLARGE!), and if there's a few here you've never seen before then great.

Cereal Box 45's: Ghost Story Edition

In my vinyl record collection I have three 45's that aren't vinyl at all-- they're actually made of cardboard and cut from the back of a cereal box. Yes, back when I was a kid you could get a cool record that was printed right on a box of Alpha-Bits, Honeycomb, or any of the great Monster Cereals, etc. The three 45's I have featured in today's post haven't been grooved by a needle in over 30 years, and only just recently did I learn that most of these spooky stories originated from actual horror albums that were previously released... this gave me the sweat-free option to just link to some of them already uploaded on youtube.

[NOTE: If memory serves, I believe the first record is the same re-telling of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow which is also featured on RECORD 3. So far I've only found the stories from that one, so if anyone has links to RECORD 2 please let me know. Now, click the highlighted links to hear the stories!]

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RECORD 2:

• The Haunted House
• The Ghost in the Attic
• Sounds of the Unknown

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RECORD 3:

• Legend of Sleepy Hollow
• Miser's Gold
• The Hitchhiker

"It's Murder"

Before we get into one of AEET's lengthier holiday posts, let's quickly check in with Super Duck, Uwanna, and Faunteroy and see what their plans are for Halloween this year-- even when *EEEK!* there's a vicious murderer on the loose!

From the April 1953 issue of Super Duck #49

Monsters are the Rage!

The first issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland hit stands in 1958, and as in any era with any sort of pop cultural phenomenon explosion (monsters!!!!) the satirical spoofs were quick to follow. Here's a good 'n silly one from the Nov-Dec 1959 issue of Broadway Laughs Vol. 13 #10, (also padded out with some extras found in the Jan 1960 issue of Dolls & Gags Vol. 5 #2.)