Little Red Riding Hood (Art by Pablo Ramirez)

In our last post we saw Peter Pan turned into a girl (and Tinker Bell turned into a man!), now with today's post we find loveable Little Red Riding Hood turned into a sinister, black-eyed alien! Not really. It's just some wonderfully surreal examples by childrens book illustrator Pablo Ramirez from 1965. His style isn't everyone's cup of tea, but personally I love the bizarre, angular visuals and dynamic choices in color and texturing (and you definitely don't want to overlook details like the otherwordly foliage, and especially in one case a clock on a wall that is just about the craziest thing you will ever see!) Pablo's approach is deceptively cute and bursting with a haunting dream realm life of its own, some of you may actually find it nightmare inducing... but for me, anything he provided art for that I was lucky enough to read as a kid I have never forgotten.

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Peter Pan (Peanut Butter) Coloring Book '63

If you're a fan of Peter Pan, or a fan of Peter Pan Peanut Butter (or both!), then this is your lucky day. In 1963, Derby Foods published this great coloring book featuring some really super fun artwork, and re-telling the famous J. M. Barrie story with 31 easy-to-color pictures! And in line with the Peter Pan Peanut Butter mascot of the time, our flying hero in this version actually becomes a heroine (and poor Tinker Bell pulls a gender-switcheroo too!) All of the other characters: Captain Hook, Wendy, The Lost Boys etc., remain recognizable. Enjoy a small sampling of the coloring pages, as well as the full color covers and inside cover ads.

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BORN: May 1st, 1968

A few years ago I got into the habit of buying back issues of pretty much every type of magazine (and yes comic books) that were published the month and year I was born: May 1st, 1968. It was just a fun little thing to do to give me a bit more understanding and insight about the groovy time era I was born into. And being the TV / pop culture fanatic that I still am today, one of the most revealing printed treasure troves of my first day outside of my mother came from the April 28th - May 4th issue of STL Post-Dispatch TV Magazine (our local version of TV Guide.)



Aside from learning that STL phone numbers still contained letters in '68, that the STL Cardinals played the Houston Astros (Cards won 3 - 1, I looked it up), and that at the time a brand spankin' new Dodge Charger only cost $2,661.00 (!!!), I learned my date of birth was also Linda Thorson's TV series debut in STL on The Avengers! Like I said, IMPORTANT STUFF! Click to enlarge the listings below from May 1st, 1968 for other cool, important stuff:





It's also interesting to see that back then (and with only 5 channels to choose from) there was still alot of greatness on TV to watch: Captain Kangeroo, Superman, Bewitched, Dark Shadows, Three Stooges, Leave it to Beaver, Lost in Space, Alfred Hitchcock, and some neat movies too! The ads sprinkled throughout as page fillers are also very defining of the time era-- look at those boat and beef prices! Below are a few more STL advertisments that I found interesting:

Do these car prices blow your mind?!! And I love the first letter above from the whiney old guy in the "Television Letter Box" section about how much better TV was back in his day. Good lord, nothing ever changes. Ever. Except that these days we have hundreds of channels to choose from and to complain about.

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Cookin' with-- Soda Pop!

I wasn't aware of food recipes that included popular soft drinks as an ingrediant until I moved back to STL a few years ago. Having stumbled upon Orange Crush and Mr. Pibb flavored cakes at the local Shop 'n Save bakery, I imagined this was some new "midwestern thing," but the two booklets I have featured here today from 7-Up (1953) and Dr. Pepper (1965) prove otherwise... and whether you actually utilize some of these recipes for your next feast, or just want to enjoy the fabulous design of the booklets themselves (and the gorgeous old soda bottle designs) is of course Up to you.

And now for you Dr. Pepper fans:

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I like 7-Up and Dr. Pepper, but I'm more of a Mountain Dew fanatic myself... below is a cover image from the "Hillbilly Party Book" put out by the makers of Mountain Dew in the 60's or 70's. Has anyone ever seen this, or have a copy they're willing to part with? I've been searching for it for years without much luck, and any help in tracking down a copy is very much appreciated-- thank you!

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Buster Brown Goes to Mars

Earlier this month we blasted off into the stratosphere with Clutch Cargo, now today we find everyone's favorite shoe mascot Buster Brown and his four legged friend Tige taking a detour into the weird realms of science fiction too. Buster Brown comics were in-store, promotional give-aways (today's tale is from 1958), and you can bet getting one of these 4 color mini-masterpieces most definitely made a trip with mom to the shoe store just a little more tolerable-- especially one with cover art as gorgeous as this!


















Overstreet notes that Reed Crandell worked on a few issues of an earlier Buster Brown comic book series, does anyone know who worked on this issue? (GCD entry HERE!)

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