Little Golden Book Monday #142

I just about forgot about Little Golden Book Monday. I went to my bookcase and pulled one at random, and her you go... Animals on the Farm 1963. My copy is the eighth printing from 1977.

Hero Bear and the KiD

Today at work the librarian passed along a bunch of magazines that she was retiring from circulation, as s she knows that I collect ads. In a copy of Today's Parent, I found an ad for Kraft Dinner that featured some artwork of a turtle and a rabbit. I really liked it so i quickly tore it out to add to my pile ads to keep. When I got home and had a closer look at it I stated to realize that the artwork looked very familiar. It was the artwork of Mike Kunkel, which I recognized from a comic called Hero Bear and the Kid. A few years back I had found a copy of a comic called Hero Bear and the Kid in a back issue bin and picked it up because I liked the artwork on the cover. I ended up enjoying the comic so much that I purchased the Hero Bear and the Kid graphic novel "The Inheritance" from Mike's web site. He even signed it and drew a small sketch inside for me! If you have not seen these comics or the graphic novel, you should check it out. The artwork alone is worth the price. I especially love the way he has done the artwork in black and white except for the drawings of Hero Bear which include red for his cape. It makes for some very visually amazing artwork.

Most recently Mike did the cover to a comic mini series called Scratch 9. I checked it out because of the cover and ended up loving the comic. I just finished reading the 4 issues (over 2 nights) with my son, and he loved it. He couldn't wait for the second night to finish the story.
We have not read Hero Bear and the Kid together yet, so that will have to be our next bedtime reading for this weekend.

If you are looking for some all ages comics to read with your kids, that you will also enjoy, you should check out both of these titles! Visit Mike's website for all his latest projects and to order your copy of The Inheritance. Visit the official Scratch 9 website to order your hard copy or digital copies of the Scratch 9 mini series.

Little Golden Book Monday #141

Today's Little Golden Book is Disney's Tangled. I had to special order this at my local book store, as it was sold out before I though to pick one up, and I could not find it at any of my local stores. I wasn't that interested in the book, or the movie it was based on, as it looked to me to be a pretty lame movie geared towards preteen girls. Apparently Disney though so too, as they made a last minute name change, switching from Rapunzel to Tangled, hoping to make it seem more exciting for boys as well. I didn't go to see it on opening night, November 24th. I figured I would wait a week or two and see it at the cheap theater near my home. To my surprise the movie was getting really good reviews and it didn't show up nearly as soon as I had though it would. Finally last week the movie showed up at my local cheap theater, and I took the family to see it. We were all pleasantly surprised, as we ended up loving the movie... so much so, that less than a week later we went to see it again. If you have not seen it, you should definitely check it out, if not at the theater, on DVD March 29th.
I was also very happy to pick up the Rapunzel long playing record and book shortly after picking up the Tangled Little Golden Book. For more Disney vinyl, be sure to check out my Disneyland Records blog.

Little Golden Book Monday #140

Today's Little Golden Book is the Authorized Walt Disney Productions Edition of The Rescuers from 1977. I can remember seeing the film when it was originally in theaters, and enjoying it very much. I really enjoyed the slapstick comedy of Wilbur the flying albatross, and laughed every time he was on screen. Today my favorite characters in the movie are Madame Medusa's two pet crocodiles named Brutus and Nero. There are a few great illustrations of Brutus and Nero in the book, including the one below showing the two guarding Madame Medusa's old riverboat.

The film was one of the last Walt Disney classics to be animated by members of Walt Disney's "nine old men".

Little Golden Book Monday #139

Today's Little Golden Book is Good Night, Little Bear 1969 (First printing 1961), with story by Patsy Scarry and pictures by Richard Scarry.  Nothing more to say, except that it's late, so good night.

Little Golden Book Monday #138

This is a book my son gave me on the weekend while he was cleaning up his room. He was going though his two large book cases full of books and boxing up all the ones he no longer reads, so that he can donate them to a local thrift shop. He knows that I like Little Golden Books, so he brought this one to me and asked if I wanted it. Surprisingly I did not already have this one in my collection, so I thanked him for the new addition to my collection, and here we have today's book. Walter Lantz's Woddy Woodpecker at the Circus from 1981 (original printing 1976).
Along with the cover, I have scanned some images from the book, including a two page spread of Woody and his niece and nephew, Knothead and Splinter hanging out in the back yard sipping lemonade and reading the Circus Book.

Next up is a great Lion Tamer illustration. Reminds me of a lamp I used to have as a kid.

And lastly, I scanned the inside front cover. As you can see, this book was a prize at Lynne's 5th birthday party. Thanks Lynne!

Little Golden Book Monday #137

Today's Little Golden Book is The Wonderful School from 1969. Now that Christmas break is over it's back to work for myself and back to school for my son bright and early tomorrow morning after two weeks of staying up late and getting up at noon each day. All I can say is "Ah... do we have to?!"

Merry Pink Christmas

Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful Christmas morning and now that the waffles have been eaten and the presents have been opened, I have retired to my office to surf the net while the Christmas dinner is prepared for tonight.  I found this comic in a pile of comics by my computer earlier, and thought I would share it today. This is the cover to the 1979 Pink Panther comic book, issue #60. This issue features the Pink Panther TV special, Pink Christmas, which I happened to catch on TV this Christmas. Being a big fan of the Pink Panther, I tuned in to watch the special, but unfortunately, it wasn't up to the level of the Charlie Brown Christmas or the Grinch, both of which are on my 'must watch' list each Christmas season.

Bill Peet's Countdown To Christmas

If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time, you may remember that I am a big Bill Peet fan. I started collecting his books long before there was an internet, and back before Amazon and eBay, you had to go to your local book store to have them look stuff up for you. Once I had access to the internet, I started buying the Bill Peet books I was missing from my collection. I am not sure how I had totally missed this particular title, but I happened to see the cover of this book on line and I realized immediately that it was by Bill Peet, and that I didn't already own it. A quick visit to eBay and I had a copy of Countdown To Christmas in my hands a few weeks later. My copy comes from the Virginia Beach Public Library System, Kempsville Area Library. The book is from 1972 and is written and illustrated by Bill Peet. It was very enjoyable to have a Bill Peet book to read that was completely new to me. I had read all of his other books so many times as a kid, that this one was unexpected treat.

A Snow White Christmas Miracle...

Ok, so its not a Christmas miracle, but it is a neat Christmas coincidence.  Two weeks ago for Little Golden Book Monday #134, I posted the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs book, and mentioned how my father in law had seen Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the theater during its original release back in 1937. Today, I have another Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs post, again coming from my father in law. This time it is a cool Seven Dwarfs Christmas diorama display that had been on display at the Woodwards department store in Abbotsford for many a Christmas. My father in law received it once it was retired from the store 20 or so years ago, and he went to to display in his home each Christmas after that. This Christmas he passed it onto my wife, and it is now on display in our living room complete with blinking lights.

Wranglers to Black Out Midnight Game

The Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL will host their eighth annual Midnight Holiday Roundup on Monday, December 27th when they face-off against the Utah Grizzlies.
The Wranglers holiday tradition began in the team’s inaugural season and has remained a fan favorite. This year, the Wranglers have planned two special additions: a performance by Mini Kiss and an Orleans Arena Black Out.
“We are thrilled to bring back Mini Kiss,” said Wranglers President Billy Johnson. “They were a big hit when we had them here a few years ago and we can’t wait to have them back in the building this year.”
The Wranglers are also looking to make an impact with their Black Out of the Orleans Arena and $5 t-shirt promotion.
“We’re asking fans to help us by wearing black for the Midnight Game,” said Wranglers Vice President Matt Smith. “Be on the lookout for the $5 promotional t-shirts; they’re going to be a big hit!”
The Midnight Holiday Roundup on Monday, December 27th will begin at 11:59 pm and is sure to be the can’t-miss game of the season! For information on discounted group tickets, contact the Wranglers front office at (702) 471-7825.

I have listened on line to the past 7 midnight madness games and can't wait for the game next week! Nothing like listening to a hockey game at 2 in the morning to make your family and friends think you're nuts!
Check out this great sound clip from the 3rd Annual Midnight Madness game for a chuckle.

Little Golden Book Monday #136

Today, being the last Monday before Christmas, I thought I would bring you 3 Christmas themed Little Golden Books, Two stories based on Rudolph and another with reindeer on the cover.
First up is The Night Before Christmas from 2001. Next up is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from 1985 (original printing 1958). And lastly we have Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Shines Again from 1982. All three books were purchased today at a thrift shop for 50 cents each.

I also thought it would be fun to show the back covers of all three in random order. You can have fun trying to figure out which back cover goes with each book!

Weihnachten in den Bergen

I picked up this 1978 children's book last summer and put it aside for closer to Christmas, which is now! The book is not in English, so I had no idea what it was called, but I really loved the cover artwork. A quick Google search and I found out that Weihnachten is the German observance of what is commonly known in English as Christmas Day. I love that the front cover shows six children in a horse drawn sleigh on their way to some really fun Weihnachten type event, and then on the back cover, we see them on their way back home a little while latter. We know that just an hour or so has passed by the movement of the moon across the sky.

Little Golden Book Monday #135

Today's Little Golden Book is The Cat That Climbed The Christmas Tree. The book is from 1992, written by Susane Santoro Whayne and illustrated by Christopher Santoro. The story is about Benny the cat's first Christmas. Benny is fascinated by all the Christmas decorations, especially the angel on the highest branch of the Christmas tree. "Up Benny climbed, past silver flutes and tiny drums. Miniature skaters called to one another, and old-fashioned clothespin ladies gossiped on their boughs..." Now if we all remember back to Little Golden Book Monday #131, we learned all about boughs ;-)

A Family Circle Christmas

I picked up this great old Family Circle magazine at a recent library book sale for 10 cents. Most of the magazines I picked up that day were recent magazines which I bought specifically to pull adds out of for my collection, but this December 1968 issue of Family Circle has been put into a magazine bag with a backing board and is now part of my Christmas decorations for this year. Its also in the bag to conceal the funky old magazine smell!

Little Golden Book Monday #134

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs. This edition is from 2003.  Not to much to say about this one, other than the fact that I was lucky enough to have had the chance to see the film during its theatrical re release in 1993. And although it is not one of my favorite Disney movies, it was very cool getting the chance to see it on the big screen. Whats even more impressive is the fact that my father in law saw the film in a theatre as a kid, during its original release of 1937. That's pretty cool!

Cricket Records Winter Wonderland

Now that it is December I can start getting into the Christmas spirit. Anytime before December is just too dang early to be listening to Christmas songs or seeing those pesky Christmas television commercials. So to kick thing off, I have dug out a few of the great Christmas records I have picked up over the past few months. First off is the great looking Cricket Records 45 RPM record of Winter Wonderland. I love the cover artwork.
While working in my office tonight I have turned on my Ion TTUSB10 USB Turntable to listen to a bunch of my Christmas vinyl. There is something so comforting in all those clicks and pops while listening to your old favorites. I have to admit though that listening to 45 records with one song per side seems like way too much work now. At least with an LP I can put it on and don't have to reach over to flip it over for 10 to 20 minutes. Three minutes per side just seems crazy now in the age of iPods full of hundreds of hours of continuous music. And yet, here I am reaching over to flip this one over to hear "The Sounds of Christmas" by Warren Vincent & Orchestra with The Cricketones. Silly me.

Little Golden Book Monday #133

Today's Little Golden Book is Tweety and Sylvester in Birds of a Feather, from 1992. I didn't expect to like the artwork inside this book, as the generic Warner Brothers cartoon artwork of the 70's and 80's was pretty awful. But this book really surprised me with some very inspired artwork by Joe Messerli. I was also a little put off by the fact that it said Tweety and Sylvester on the cover, as I have come to dislike Tweety over the years. Don't get me wrong, he was a great foil for Sylvester in the old WB cartoons, but make no mistake, Sylvester was always the star of those cartoons.

I always saw Tweety as the character you needed to give Sylvester something to do in his cartoons. But Sylvester didn't 'need' Tweety, as was evident is the awesome 1948 Chuck Jones directed "Scaredy Cat". If you haven't seen it (or haven't seen it in a long time), you need to seek it out. I guarantee it will make you chuckle.

Little Golden Book Monday #132

Today's Little Golden Book is The Koala Brothers; Mitzi's Day Out. I didn't realize that the Koala Brothers was a Disney property until I opened the book and saw the Playhouse Disney logo inside. I had never heard of the Koala Brothers before finding this book, but I liked the cover. The photo of the 3D characters reminded me of the cool 3D View Master reels of my favorite Disney characters, Flintstones, Bugs Bunny and so many others that I enjoyed as a kid... and still do today!

Here is what a Koala Brothers View Mater reel might look like ;-)

Joe Liptak working on one of his sets for the View-Master reel of "Peter Pan."

Heckle and Jeckle Visit the Farm

Yesterday we visited a few of our local thrift shops and I came home with some really neat stuff including this Wonder Book, Heckle and Jeckle Visit the Farm. The copyright for the book is 1958, but this particular edition is from 1983. I have always been a fan of Heckle and Jeckle and back when I used to still get up early to watch cartoons, I used to get pretty excited when they would toss in a Heckle and Jeckle cartoon in the mix of usual Bugs Bunny, Casper and Popeye cartoons. I can also remember back in the 80's before VCRs became popular, you could actually pay to see cartoons in a little cartoon hut at the mall. Once I got this book, it got me to thinking about those little cartoon huts. I can remember that they had one in the Surrey Place Mall and than when I was working at the A&A Records and Tapes shop, I would use my breaks to run over to the Sears, where they had one such cartoon hut in their stairwell leading out to the parking lot. For just a quarter, you could sit and watch a full length (roughly six minutes) cartoon. I loved it because it only played Terry Toons and your odds of seeing a Heckle and Jeckle cartoon were pretty good.
After a short Google search, I found this guys site where he showed off his very own original Kiddierama Theatre. Be sure to check out his site to see who these things actually worked. Now a days, a quick YouTube search will instantly bring up a whole bunch of Heckle and Jeckle cartoons to view in the comfort of your own home. Pretty amazing to think back and realize how much things have changed in just 30 years.

Little Golden Book Monday #131

Today's Little Golden Book is Baby's Mother Goose Pat-A-Cake. This copy is a seventh printing from 1971, with the original copyright being 1948. The quality of this copy is not that great, but I had never seen it before and I liked the 50's style artwork on the cover. Inside the book is a cute illustration of a cat playing a violin with this note about the artist: While this is Aurelius Battaglia's first children's book he has done murals for children's rooms and worked in the Disney Studio. He studied at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., and now lives in New York City.
I thought it was funny that they listed his accomplishments as doing murals on children's room walls and working for Disney. It's pretty hard to decide which should come first on your resume.
Along with the cover, I have scanned a few of my favorite pages from the book, including a two page spread of Little Miss Muffet and the last page of the book, Rock-a-bye baby. I've always thought that so many of the young children's nursery rhymes and songs are kind of morbid and/or depressing. This one is a cheerful story of a little baby in a cradle stuck up in a tree, and eventually falling to the ground, bough, cradle, and all. I did learn something from this though, as I don't think I have ever included the word "bough" in the last line of the song when I have sung it. I'll have to remember to add that next time I have occasion to sing this tune.
[Ed note, here is the fun learnin' part of the blog. Bough -noun, a branch of a tree, esp. one of the larger or main branches.]

Lastly I have scanned the inside back cover and back cover of the book. The inside back cover lists the current titles for 1971 and the back cover is one I don't see very often. I love the 'eyes' in the letters GB. And by the looks of it, I would guess that the Donald Duck at the bottom left of the back cover was done by Aurelius as one of his bedroom wall illustrations.