Curioverse

An Inward Search: The Hermit’s Noble Mission in Tarot

November 10, 2022

When looking for answers, the best place to start is within. And, at least when he shows up in a tarot spread, the Hermit is your guide! “There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.” – Aldous Huxley“Buckle down and don’t take your nose out of that book until the exams are over.” – The Little White BookOf all the major arcana, The Hermit is most definitely the one you’d want to hang out with on a lazy Sunday...

Adventure is Calling: The Beguiling History of Tarot’s Siren

November 10, 2022

The most unique and rare tarot card in the Musterberg deck is also its most dazzling. Meet the Siren, and get your fanciest luggage packed! “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” — Bilbo Baggins“Enchantment and thrills await you, here at Pennyland!” — The Little White BookWhen playing the game of tarot, there are a few special high-scoring cards you’d be lucky to land. The Siren—only...

It’s Complicated: The Sweet Nuances of the Tarot’s Lovers Card

October 24, 2022

What is love but a series of huge decisions? How romantic! We break down the subtle details of the most desired card in the tarot’s major arcana. “Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.” – Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1738“To the altar!” – The Little White Book It’s a truth universally acknowledged that gossipy neighbors want to know two things: how much everyone paid for their houses, and who’s snogging whom; most especially the latter! The high drama of lovers (Will they, won’t they? Do they, don’t they?)...

Test Your Strength: The Hidden Meaning of Tarot’s Fortitude Card

October 23, 2022

With daily challenges that test our mettle, we could all use a little fortitude! The version found in tarot’s major arcana gives us a lot to . . . er . . . chew on. “Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” – Harper Lee “Face your fears head on. Also, with such a way with felines, you should consider circus work.” – The Little White Book One of the most exciting characters in...

A Ritual of Change: Tarot’s Death Card Isn’t All About Endings

October 12, 2022

Death can be the scariest card in the major arcana, but his appearance signals a lot more to be hopeful about than one might think! “Dying is easy; it’s living that scares me to death.” – Annie Lennox “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die.” – The Little White BookThere’s no point in being evasive on this point: Death is simply the coolest tarot card in the deck! And don’t get the wrong idea – we love all the major arcana (and the pips!) – but most of...

The Magician’s Tools: An Inspirational Look at the History of Tarot’s Wise Old Wizard

October 11, 2022

Of all the major arcana, the Magician has the biggest impact in a divination reading and a tarot game. Today we’re revealing his bewitching backstory! “Logic only gives man what he needs. Magic gives him what he wants.” ― Tom Robbins “Be honest with yourself and put your cards on the table – but maybe not all of them, because a 79-card tarot reading will take a while.” — The Little White Book When playing the tarot game for fun – which we at Curio always encourage! – the...

Why Are Tarot Decks So Different? A Historical Peek into the Details

September 13, 2022

Most card games have a single look and way to play, but not tarot cards! Over the centuries, variations have popped up all over the globe and it can be dizzying to sort them all out. Here’s a Curio & Co. tour through the different types of tarot decks! When first diving into the tarot game, you’ll be forgiven if your first thought is: “Why the heck are all these tarot decks so different?!?” Unlike most card games, with tarot there’s no guarantee you’ll get the same type of deck with the same number of cards every time, and that may be a bit intimidating to a new player. We’ll walk you through the art of the evolving tarot deck here, and rest assured that exploring the differences is part of the fun! THE PIPS, THE TRUMPS, AND THE THRILLS! Tarot has been around – in one form or another – for nearly 600 years now and to best understand what you can expect a deck to look like today, it’s good to start all the way back then, in the Piedmont area of northern Italy in the 1400s. Today’s widely familiar deck of standard playing cards – with its four suits and royal face cards – has an even longer history than tarot, and it took a sharp turn at that time in the region. When a fifth suit of what they called “trionfi” or “trumps” was added, most likely inspired by the costumes worn during Renaissance parades, a new type of game play was born. These trump characters were a wild bunch, and include what we tarot fans know today as cards like The Fool, The Magician, The Pope, and all their pals. The ”pip cards” are the numbered suits – the four of clubs, the eight...

The Origins of Musterberg: Unique Tarot Cards with a Delightful History!

August 19, 2022

When the legendary Tarot of Musterberg was recently rediscovered, it opened up a lot of questions! From its roots in 18th century Europe to its famous star turn at the Pennyland Amusement Park, the rare tarot deck and its extra Major Arcana has a long and storied past. “Congratulations and welcome to the team at the Fortune Teller Tent here at Pennyland. We are a fun-loving and easy-going group, despite what the folks at the Tunnel of Love may say, and you’re sure to like it here.” – from “The Pennyland Handbook of Cartomancy” While a lot of kids dream of running away to the circus, we at Curio and Co. firmly believe the main allure has always specifically been the midway! Sure, lion taming is thrilling and tightrope walking is bouncy, but those tents along the way to the main event were always full of such mystery, beckoning the curious (often literally) to step inside and uncover the secrets. And if we were somehow able to step back in time (oh, say, 100 years ago) to a very particular place (perhaps, the world famous Pennyland Amusement Park), there’s one tent that would stand out above the rest – the one with the fortune tellers! A regular job in this part of Pennyland was rigorous, to be sure – Madam Prognostica ran a tight ship, and tardiness was not tolerated – but it was quite rewarding, as well. It has a special place in our hearts because the Tarot of Musterberg has its origins here, and the more we dig up on its history, the more it takes over our runaway daydreams. A BÜRGERMEISTER’S BIG IDEA Any dive into the history of the Musterberg Tarot begins further back than that, all the way to the early 1700s. The game,...

Hand holding two-sided instruction manual for the Tarot of Musterberg's game rules and cartomancy

Card Sharks, Nobles, and Mystics: A Revealing History of Tarot!

July 19, 2022

The history of tarot is a twisty path from rich Italian gamblers to French historians, a secret order of magic practitioners, a turn-of-the-century artist, an enterprising publisher in the ‘70s,...

Space Cadet Spaceman Jax Fanclub 1961

December 18, 2018

This official space cadet pin is a long-lost treasure from our memories. Do you remember collecting all those box tops, carefully treasuring each one of them and then sending them out at the post office directly just to make sure they wouldn’t get lost? Then it was a waiting game - checking the post everyday, sometimes more than once a day, to see if the surprise finally arrived. Well, now it’s here.

Frank's Friend of Clarence 'Otis' Dooley's Frank and his Friend with a coin operated horse and space ship.

Too Many Ideas, Too Little Time

October 30, 2018

Thinking about those 52 images in Finding Frank and his Friend that were previously unpublished really gets us wondering about why Otis Dooley set them aside. We asked Dooley’s son...

Curio & Co. consider the role of adults in the classic childhood comic Frank and His Friend. Curio and Co. www.curioandco.com

Grown-ups in Frank and His Friend

October 30, 2018

If they’re not with us, they’re against us. In the world of Frank and His Friend, relatives come in only two categories: Those bearing gifts or cookies, and those that...

The Rocks in Bloom

October 30, 2018

You’d almost think you were on Tarloc XIX! While out and about today, I cam across these blooms for sale at a local flower shop. I stopped in my tracks...

Philip La Carta

October 30, 2018

Originally from Italy, Philip La Carta was the main character designer at PUD Films in the 1960's. La Carta was the strong hand behind the styling of Spaceman Jax and the...

Hog Oiler

September 24, 2018

A hog oiler is a mechanical device employed on farms to be used by hogs to provide relief from insects and offer skin protection. It consists of a reservoir to hold oil, and a means to distribute the oil onto the hog, often via grooved wheels or cylinders. Hogs seeking relief rub up against a wheel (or cylinder) causing it to rotate and dispense oil onto their bodies. Like many vintage farm implements, hog oilers have a loyal following of collectors. Prices paid by collectors can vary widely, based on size, functions, and condition of the machine. Smaller hog oilers can be purchased for sometimes thirty dollars or less, while the rarest models have asking prices in the thousands. The majority of hog oiler finds today are in "hog belt" of the upper midwest United States.

Frank and his Friend - Clarence 'Otis' Dooley - you are throwing off the proportion

Clarence 'Otis' Dooley: Always Drawing

September 22, 2018

“My Dad was always drawing. Even when he wasn’t working. He would draw at the dinner table or waiting in line at the Post Office. The only time he wasn’t drawing, actually, was...

Frank and his Friend - Clarence 'Otis' Dooley - in time out

Frank and His Friend: Inspiration from the Dooley Household

September 22, 2018

“We didn’t get in trouble a lot as kids, but we were…pretty spirited. I can remember one time my Mom had her Sandusky Women’s Musical Appreciation Society and Bunco Club...

Cudworth-Hooper 1952 Memorandum

September 21, 2018

This memo was sent from Cudworth-Hooper President J.P. Cudworth to Burt Stradder, Division Head of Training Films & Manuals, which was one of the 14 divisions the company had at...

Cooper MacDougall: Biography

September 21, 2018

Born in 1941, Cooper MacDougall showed an interest in drawing, painting and sculpting from an early age, often building totem poles from household supplies and painting in vivid colors on the walls of his room. After finishing the School of Art Institute in Tacoma, Washington, he started working as an illustrator and poster designer for the advertising industry. But MacDougall's career took an interesting turn when his good friend Marvin Seafall, book editor at Ringer Publishing, saw MacDougall's sketches from a personal side project. MacDougall had been drawing funny ghost stories for his young children, and Seafall saw the potential for a children's book series. The "Spooky Ghost" series of books turned out to be an immediate success, and other books like The Pumpkin Patch followed and became bestsellers for Ringer Children's Classics. In his later years, MacDougall became interested in Polynesian art, and travelled to Hawaii and other Pacific islands to learn how to carve traditional tiki statues. As a result of these studies, MacDougall contributed some concept art to the popular animated series, Surf's Up at Sundown, which featured surfing vampires in Honolulu. Today, Cooper MacDougall is mostly retired, primarily working on sculpture in his studio in the mountains near Little Greenwood, Washington.

Conduit Beetle

September 21, 2018

Next to the AZR-0 robots, the conduit beetle is the only life form on planet AZR. The conduit beetle channels static electricity from its surroundings into painful charges, described as an annoyance similar to the bites of fire ants (source: Verdie Z. Goodsey, Field Journal, 2378).

AZR-0 Robots in the Wild book cover Verdi Z. Goodsey - Curio & Co.

Verdie Z. Goodsey

September 21, 2018

Verdie Z. Goodsey was born in Reta, North Exie on Malnar in 2350. Early on she became interested in biology and robology and won a Blankton Scholarship to Fleebus University...

Aether Instruments

September 21, 2018

Aether Instruments is a well established brand of laboratory supplies and equipment, including vials and beakers, as well as a line of print products. Their journals, like the one robologist...

The Dawn of Sunnington Morn

September 21, 2018

Martin Jr. And Gabe Sunnington never set out to get into the cereal game, but after several attempts at creating their fortune in the film industry, they needed to take a different approach. With their inheritance of Sunnington Farms after the death of their father Martin Sr., the brothers took to manufacturing All-Grain, a no-sugar (no-taste) breakfast cereal that floundered on the market. A few years later, Gabe married Margaret Sue LeCrowse - and married her family's business (sugar cane plantations) with his own, which resulted in many hyper but happy children, and their breakfast cereal empire had begun. Not to be outdone by his kid brother, Martin Jr. made their dream of working in pictures a reality, in a round-about way. He jumped on the television sponsorship bandwagon early, and sealed the deal to have Sunnington Morn sponsor animated programs for children, such as Brigadier Buffalo and Spaceman Jax and the Galactic Adventures.

Spaceman Jax: Bunchy Pitchman

September 21, 2018

Like every profit-minded company in the 1960s, Bunchy Soft Drinks jumped on the Space Race bandwagon. Although real astronauts would have been an obvious choice for a spokesman, they were a little too expensive for this mostly-regional soft drink. Their next choice was much more animated: Spaceman Jax. He represented the excitement of space travel - saving planets in peril and defending the innocent from marauding Mantagons - without any of the danger. Spaceman Jax was the hero with the 'heart of gold' - perfect to remind consumers of those simulated gold flakes, as ridiculous as they might seem today. As an animated character, he was part of everything that was good about the artificial world. (Better living through plastics!) Why have expensive real gold flakes in your soft drink when you could have simulated gold flakes created in a laboratory at a tiny fraction of the cost? (Why have them at all is another question altogether.) Spaceman Jax could be forever charming and funny for the simple reason that he wasn't real. Most importantly, however, Spaceman Jax was the ideal pitchman for Bunchy because he came with a built-in audience. He was in comics and on national television, and most importantly, his audience was made up of the demographic that all soft drink companies want to reach: children. You couldn't ask for better than that.

AZR-0 robots in the wild - detail of illustration - Curio & Co.

The Field Study of the AZR-0

September 21, 2018

What we know from the journal is that Goodsey explores the dusty planet AZR and tries to gather information about the AZR-0 robots, who were previously unknown to the scientific...

Melvin Goodge

September 20, 2018

Melvin Goodge is a tenured professor at the Huntley Smoot University of Comic Sciences, and serves on the selection committee of the university’s prestigious Inker-in-Residence program. He is the Founding...

Cudworth-Hooper: From Hog Oilers to Businessmen

September 20, 2018

With a company as large as Cudworth Hooper, manufacturers of everything from gloves to Gadabouts, it’s easy to forget that even this huge corporation – with 36 divisions, they’re one of the largest manufacturers in the world – began from humble beginnings. And it doesn’t get any more humble than hog oilers. Walter Horatio Hooper was born August 8, 1899 in Sowville, Tenn. His father was war hero Horatio Hooper, who had a successful mercantile business in town, and Walter was the youngest of 15 children Horatio had with his second wife Alva. Walter was known as a shy dreamer, always thinking and tinkering, and often came up with improvements to some of the items his father sold in the store. Hooper met PJ Cudworth in 1922, when Cudworth came through Sowville on his route as a traveling salesman. Cudworth saw Hooper fiddling with a new design for a hog oiler and, impressed, offered to sell it on his route. Hooper, however, had a head better suited to mechanics than to business and misunderstood, believing that Cudworth meant only that one model. So when Cudworth came back with orders for 300 units, Hooper had to admit that he’d never drawn up plans for his design. They had to buy back the prototype at great cost just to have one to use a model. They founded Cudworth-Hooper in 1923 beginning with their hog oiler and the rest is history. Say what you will about the company – and getting through to their customer service line is frustratingly impossible – but they haven’t forgotten their roots. Despite a catalog that has expanded into bioengineering and telecommunications, the company’s bylaws dictate that all engineers must have advanced knowledge of hog oiler design and manufacturing, and working on hog oilers continues to be the most prestigious job...

Clarence 'Otis' Dooley: From Manual Labor to Comic Strip Stardom

September 20, 2018

Before getting his big break, Dooley worked for a number of years illustrating hog oilers for Cudworth-Hooper's successful line of agricultural and industrial equipment. While not exactly a comedy training ground (though 'hog oiler' sounds like a pretty hilarious piece of equipment), working for Cudworth-Hooper allowed Dooley to hone his drafting skills and keep working with his drawing tools. After getting his big break to create the comic strip Frank and His Friend, Dooley was quoted as saying that he would never buy any Cudworth-Hooper appliances for the family home....

The Tarot of Musterberg at Pennyland: Crocodile Snap

September 20, 2018

The Tarot of Musterberg played a big part at the Pennyland amusement park, where it was the official deck of 'The Great Beyond' for prognosticators in the Fortune Teller tent. But who could have predicted that one of Pennyland's favorite rides, the 'Crocodile Snap' would bear a strange resemblance to the winking crocodile on the Emperor card of the Tarot of Musterberg? And stranger still, it only came up in readings for people who had gone on the ride at least four times in a row - known as going...

Spaceman Jax: Lost in Spaaaace!

September 20, 2018

With more than 170 billion galaxies in the observable universe, it's more than likely that Jax is causing trouble in some other galaxy altogether. Neither the show nor the comics ever mention the Earth, and no planet is shown with our distinctive arrangement of continents. With the exception of the Space Cadet fan club pins, no reference is ever made to any of the planets in our solar system or any stellar body humans have observed. Considering that the show was created during the atomic age of the early 1960s,...

Ringer Comics: Animated Hijinks to Comic-book Capers

September 20, 2018

Whether you grew up watching Spaceman Jax and the Galactic Adventures or the Sneekey Twins Mystery Club, Ringer comics had a knack for taking our favorite shows and turning them...

Dillinger Printing

September 20, 2018

Dillinger Printing was a printing company based in Musterberg, California, which printed everything from advertisements (such as those for Oberpfaffendorfer) to manuals and other books. Howard Dillinger, active with the...

Plasticash

September 20, 2018

Plasticash charge cards debuted in 1966. Associated with youth culture, Plasticash specifically targeted young adults, promoting independence and fun. Plasticash saw a second boom in the 1980s, and was the...

PUD Film

September 20, 2018

PUD Film (also p.u.d. Film) was an animation studio, active in the 1950s through the 1970s. The studio was run by Leo Ulrich and Bill Pendergast, and featured work by...

Clarence 'Otis' Dooley

September 20, 2018

Clarence ‘Otis’ Dooley was born in Kickapoo, Illinois in 1945. He first put his artistic skills to work drawing comics while in the military, and was part of the then-classified 22nd...

First Ticket to Pennyland

September 18, 2018

Penny Steepleback, Co-Owner of the Pennyland Amusement Park, happily waited in line with all of the other guests to buy the very first admission ticket to the park. She framed the validated ticket and displayed it in the park's office, as a reminder that although she and her husband George were creating a park that they hoped would become popular with visitors, first and foremost, it should be a space that made them happy, no matter the revenue.

Curio & Co. unveils Spaceman Jax face with Philip La Carta dedication "Best Wishes"

Ringing in the New Year with Philip La Carta

September 18, 2018

Well, getting to meet him and having a slice of his wife’s fruit cake. But it was a big celebration for us. When we got Philip La Carta’s phone call...

Curio & Co. in the Family for Generations

September 18, 2018

Mr. Druthers remembers his Great Grandfather – who worked at Curio & Co. side by side with his father – bringing out a collection of matchbooks collected from travels around the world. “Listening to his stories of those matchbooks; well I was right there with him…in places I’d never even seen.

Rex Ensemble

September 18, 2018

Rex Ensemble is a jazz combo, active from the 1960s to the 1990s, on the Needles Records label (out of Needles, California in the Mohave Desert). The band members themselves...

Sunnington Morn

September 17, 2018

Sunnington Morn was a manufacturer of breakfast cereals, and with their sugary cereals such as Double Scoop, they were a major sponsor of animated TV shows in the 1960s, such...

Pennyland

September 17, 2018

From thrill rides to afternoon picnics, from concerts to games of chance and skill – there was something for everyone at the Pennyland amusement park. Built by the Trans-Ardellia Traction Company (the company that provided trolley services through Ardellia and out to the suburbs) as a trolley park at the end of the line to bring people out to suburban South Ardellia on the weekends, the park opened to great success on October 25, 1905. Although it originally had only five attractions (the carousel, the Ferris Wheel, miniature train, boat ride and the Lolly Pop Lane arcade), the park also included picnic grounds a bandstand and dance hall and two restaurants. Through the years the park became a second home to many who lived in South Ardellia. Pennyland captured the hearts of millions of children and adults and was sweet, wholesome and charming – all the qualities for which Penny Steepleback was famous. Indeed, she was very much responsible for the character of the park. When she wasn’t behind her desk, she could be found walking through the park chatting to guests she recognized. A good place to find her was down on Lolly Pop Lane, sharing a cotton candy with visiting children.

Dekkin

September 17, 2018

Spaceman Jax's 7-year-old niece is an energetic little firecracker. Despite her adorable sweetness, she loves nothing more than to jump into the action and take on the Mantagons, much to...

Frank and His Friend: Animated Series

September 17, 2018

In 1982, creator Clarence ‘Otis’ Dooley was in negotiations with Benday Studios to bring Frank and His Friend to television sets in an animated series. (Although the deal ultimately fell through when the studio folded as a result of heavy investment into the North American LaserDisc market, much of the pre-production work still exists.)

George Julius Steepleback

September 17, 2018

The co-founder of the Pennyland amusement park started out as an engineer with the Trans-Ardellia Traction Company, which sent Steepleback to Europe to observe a new funicular project there in 1892. While there, Steepleback was given a unique deck of tarot cards, known as the Tarot of Musterberg, and brought them home to his fiancée Penny. In 1905, Steepleback persuaded the Trans-Ardellia Traction Company to build a funicular railway over the mountains south of the city, and to build a trolley park there at the shore to bring residents out...

Oberpfaffendorfer

September 17, 2018

Founded in the early 1900s, Oberfpaffendorfer is a family-run company manufacturing packaged foods. With roots in German-speaking Switzerland, the company is as known for its family loyalty as it is for its packaged “comfort food.” Oberpfaffendorfer fully embraced the frozen food market in the 1950s, and some of its popular products include Neptune Nibblets and its Croquettes. The company slogan, “We’re a mouthful!” plays on the company’s difficult-to-pronounce name, as well as its reputation for hearty food.

Premise of Spaceman Jax and the Galactic Adventures

September 17, 2018

The show chronicled the continuing exploits of intrepid but dimwitted Spaceman Jax and his friends in the Star Year 6354 ¾. Spaceman Jax and his young niece Dekkin were the only survivors of Tiberion 3, a planet destroyed for its energy-producing crystals. Jax vowed to avenge his planet and bring the perpetrators to justice, while ensuring that no harm ever comes to young Dekkin. Working as a freight pilot shipping crystals for Tarloc Industries, Jax’s travels across the quadrants brought him into weekly encounters with the armed fleet of the Mantagons, across the path of the power-hungry Tarloc, and into the clutches of the Zalfonens. He succeeded through sheer dumb luck, and with the help of his long-suffering girlfriend Red and his loyal friends Rusty and Star Cowboy. With each adventure Spaceman Jax brought “truth and justice to the farthest reaches of the galaxy,” even if only by accident. The show featured work by animators such as Jim Dewicky and Bud Marsh. Spaceman Jax (the “hero with a heart of gold, and the intellect of a Ploridian Lunar Beast”) was voiced hilariously by actor Jay Bernard, and other voice actors for the series included Barbara Daws, Eddie Oarke and Fred Fabray.

Premise of Roger Believe

May 17, 2018

In the comic, Roger Believe wakes to find himself in Paris in an alternate 1940s. Unable to remember how he got there, Roger struggles to come to terms with a...

Brigadier Buffalo

March 8, 2012

Brigadier Buffalo is one of those shows that made Saturday mornings complete when we were kids. Maybe it was the sugar rush from those endless bowls of Sunnington Morn cereal,...

Kid screaming Frank - Finding Frank and His Friend sketch at Curio & Co.

Making a Name for Yourself

February 4, 2011

“I’m really surprised that my Dad never published this idea. On the one hand, it pretty clearly addresses the question of which one was Frank. For my Dad, Frank was...