Spectacular Shorts! - God's Money

General surrealist weirdness playing with the symbolism of sacred objects. Babies, money, bibles, blood. Those are all scary separate, but check out the strange combinations!

Old Comic Ads: Muscle Hunk Ads pt. 1

In Old Comic Ads, I reprint ads I found in comic book scans. Ads are part of the fun!

It's easy to be a big muscle hunk! Just mail me five bucks and I'll send you a pamphlet! Charles Atlas popularized the comic ads that promised children the chance to grow into big muscle he-men, fast! These ads are all over comics and they seem to really just promise to rush you through puberty. But notice how homoerotic they are! It makes me think of Fredrick Wertheim's preposterous notion that Batman & Robin made kids gay. I don't think that's true at all, but I do believe that comic books are integral into shaping sexuality. It offers an image of the ideal body. I bet a lot of gay boys fantasized about the men in these ads, and I that's great! Comics help people find their sexuality. 

Great Strips! - Cycle

This creepy sci-fi story was published in horror comix classic Fantagor. I can't tell who wrote or drew it, though it is drawn in a very European style. It shows a horrible future where soldiers are made in laboratories. War never stops!

Great Strips! - Once Upon a Midnight Dreary

This story reveals the profound horror in tripping down the stairs of your basement. No one would hear you. You'd have no way to get out. I found it in DC's the Witching Hour.

Amazing Animation! - Alma

Pixar animator, Rodrigo Blaas directed this eery short that uses cuteness to augment it's creepy. Alma is outside and sees a doll that bears her uncanny resemblance. What curiosities await here in the shop? This is the first of ten spooky cartoons this month. Don't worry: they get scarier.

Weird 60s Literature Ephemera!

Collector's Weekly highlighted an epic collection of counter-culture literature this week. Boasting practically every signed, first edition of a Beat book you could think of (Howl, On the Road, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test signed by almost every character in the pages). Rick Synchef has apparently been collecting since he went to UoMadison, WI in the 1960s (allegedly the coolest place to be in the midwest in '68). He has lots of really neat books. Very expensive artifacts of American literary history. I bet some university librarian will really enjoy acquiring these.

But for me, it's all about the ephemera.

Like, this delightful bottle of methadone proscribed to William S. Burroughs. I wonder if he got it with a phony script or if he just bribed the doctor. ound the bottle there was no opiates in it. Burroughs probably them all. So instead, Synchef filled them it with gravel from the author's grave. Sounds like a pretty powerful totem. Awesome.

He also has a shell from Burroughs' shotgun, but I suspect those were a dime a dozen. Not like this check Jack Kerouac sent to the IRS in 1963! I wonder why he owned $300? Great signature.

Somebody saw Bukowski at the race track and asked him to sign their pamphlet. Didn't Chuck write a poem about fans who'd come up and ask for autographs? Seems like he didn't mind, looks like there's even a doodle!

There's also has a super-small pressed book (100 copies) with a an even better doodle!

Finally, here's a really great Ken Kesey autograph with a really weird sentence.

It's the truth even if we dig deeper in the odor

Thanks BoingBoing. 

Great Strips - Daniel Clowes Needledick!

Don't forget, Chicagoans, you can only go see the Daniel Clowes exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art until October 13. Now, here's some contemporary art.