Pop Culture

Comic-Con 2016

November 2, 2022

Our favorite time of year has arrived – it’s finally Comic-Con time! The Curio & Co. year basically revolves around these five days in San Diego: we’re either gearing up...

Taking a break from the big show Summer is upon us, and for most of us that means a trip to San Diego for Comic-Con. However, for the first time since 2010, the Curio & Co. staff will be taking a break from the mega convention. But don’t worry: We won’t just be lolling around the beach. Instead, we’ll be hard at work in the archives preparing some treasures for release from the vault. So whether you’re headed to San Diego or will just be following all the Comic-Con...

What makes packaging work

August 25, 2015

When thinking outside the box just isn’t enough Packaging designers, like burlesque performers, know that pulling off the wrapping as fast as possible isn’t always ideal. Good packaging can help tell a story. Not only does it provide ample space to squeeze in a little more information about the product or company, but the process of opening a package can tell you how the company wants you to think about the product in general. Take Apple products as an example. Each Apple product comes with multiple layers of packaging...

Image of an double autograph, signed by 1960s animated TV show character Spaceman Jax, and the production designer who created him, Philip La Carta. Image www.curioandco.com

Collecting Autographs

August 18, 2015

Celebrity spotting is like the IRS – get an autograph as a receipt or no one will believe you. Although fame seems terrific from the outside, most of us would...

Time for a game night

August 11, 2015

Grab some friends and deal up some fun. One of my favorite parts of the terrific Wes Anderson film The Royal Tenebaums is the scene where Chas Tenebaum pulls his father aside to have a heated word with him, and they step into the game closet to talk. It’s a wonderful little moment about adult children back at their childhood home again, because I’m pretty sure every family must have had some kind of game closet. The Tenebaums’ game closet is pretty impressive – exactly what you’d expect given Anderson’s attention to detail – with what must be every board game produced between the 1960s and 1970s. And every time I watch the film I think, “Man, it’s time for a game night soon!” These days, busy schedules mean that we don’t often have time to sit down for a board game with friends and family, but a game of cards should be pretty manageable. A game night provides a good background to social interaction: a chance to talk and catch up, without any expense and an easy way for people to join in or opt out from hand to hand. If you only know tarot cards from fortune telling, then it’s probably hard to imagine them being dealt as a regular card game. But that’s exactly how the game began, with no connection to the occult just every intention to while away the evening hours with friends. For more about how an ordinary game turned into the extraordinary practice of cartomancy, see our earlier story. Sure, having your fortune told can be a lot of fun (especially if you get a lucky guess on some real winning lottery numbers). But let’s bring the game back, preferably in a regular game night. I think most of us probably don’t...

An ode to imperfections

August 4, 2015

In a digital world, “to err is human” is starting to mean a lot more. I know that my 3rd grade teacher would disagree, but I think sloppiness can often trump perfection. Just take registration in older comics. Putting together comics in the past required skills that few possess today. Before digital techniques, comic were printed using a complicated process to get pages in color. Each image was printed on a film, and color film had to be hand cut to fill the spaces. Generally, people were more skilled in the past, but we all know what it’s like at work. Although we want to be at the top of our game, sometimes you just do a so-so job. And that’s the best part of these 1960s comics: the little imperfections. The plates and films are often slightly off-register, with colors overlapping when they shouldn’t. The result is a softer, home-ier image, albeit one that is a little sloppy. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t strive to do the best we can with everything we tackle, but when I look back at those comics from the 1960s with their imperfections, they seem more human. Today, with the precision provided by digital printing, people don’t have as much to do with the quality of the final project, and you can be sure that each page will look exactly as drawn and colored. But maybe there isn’t the same life to the final product, not as much soul put into each image with its tiny, human errors.

Six illustrated cards from the Tarot of Musterberg

The History of Tarot

July 28, 2015

Card reading (for fun and profit) has a long history, but maybe not as long as you think. The Pennyland Handbook of Cartomancy that was given to the amusement park...

Bringing back postcards

July 21, 2015

Nothing says vacation like a “Wish you Were Here” postcard to friends or family. Margie has a wall of postcards behind her desk that is the envy of all the office. She has a lot of pen pals and they dutifully exchange postcards on a regular basis. Wherever she goes, even if it’s just a day trip, Margie sends postcards back to friends, family, and all of us left at the office. And I don’t mean one general postcard to the office to make us all envious. I mean to all of us at home. I’m pretty sure that if Margie has ever once known you, she has you on a permanent list of postcard recipients. At least she’s helping to keep the post office afloat. She even sends postcards from places where no postcards are available because she travels with a little kit containing her address book, some stamps, and a handful of postcards suitable for all occasions. It’s not a bad idea, either. She has certainly brightened up days for many of us in the office by sending us a funny card or inspiring picture. And you know, receiving her postcards has rekindled my own interest in sending cards, and I went out of my way on my last holiday to hunt down postcards to send to a few people – Margie especially. I say “hunt down,” because it was pretty difficult to find a good selection to choose from. And this was at the house of the most famous mouse, and if they don’t cater to tourists and advertising, then I don’t know who does! So I’m going to start keeping a pack of these Frank and His Friend postcards in my bag to send out to friends and family when I think they might need...

Old, older, oldest

July 14, 2015

When recreating an object that has had many different lives, you have to ask yourself: Which history do you want? It was fun watching the production come together for the Musterberg Tarot Cards. It started with going back through the Pennyland archives, which were made available to us by the Steepleback family who owned Pennyland. However, the cards used at Pennyland were themselves a reproduction of a deck created in the 1700s, so it was clear we’d have to go back a little farther. As it happened, the family still has that original deck, too, which was an amazing opportunity to get to see. The faces of the original cards were printed in black and then hand colored in water colors. The backs were printed with a dark blue-green (we matched it to today’s Pantone 3145U). One big question we had to answer for ourselves during the project was this: Which version of the cards’ long history would we try to capture, the way they looked when brand new in the 1700s or the way they looked when in use at Pennyland? In the end, we decided to aim for something that would show how the appearance of the cards changed as their history continued a little closer into our own century. Furthermore, since the wear and tear was different on each individual card, especially the backs, we had to decide if we would print them all with the same wear pattern to create one card back, or would we preserve the individuality of each card and leave them all different? You can probably imagine that it didn’t take us very long to decide to preserve their individuality. The history of our relationship with and use of objects is something our CEO Mr. Druthers is particularly fascinated with –...

Collecting animated history

July 7, 2015

Cartoons may have been thought of as entertainment for little kids, but selling animation art is all grown up. Animation art today is big business, with original production art from major studios such as Disney or Warner Brothers fetching high prices at auctions from fine art sellers like Christie’s or Sotheby’s. In fact, buying animation is a pretty good investment, as the pieces continue to go up in value. That wasn’t always the case, however. Finding the art today can sometimes be pretty difficult as some pieces were thrown...

Comic-Con 2015: Where to find us

July 3, 2015

Going to Comic-Con this year? Stop by and say hello! Comic-Con International is the highlight of the pop culture year – it’s Christmas and the Super Bowl and the Oscars all rolled into one. And we can’t wait. First of all, it’s the most important entertainment trade show in the US. So if you’re in the business of entertainment – like comics, films, publishing, toys, etc. – you’ll find all the movers and shakers there. But it’s also the biggest playground for fans of the same industries. The tickets...

New Product release

June 29, 2015

What does the future hold for you? Turns out, we know! We’ve looked into The Great Beyond and we’ve seen a piece of entertainment memorabilia in your future. And Curio & Co. is pleased to bring you this latest treasure – a reproduction of the Musterberg Deck tarot cards used for years at Pennyland amusement park. The Musterberg Deck of tarot cards was created sometime in the early 1700s just as tarot cards began to transition from a simple card game into a divination deck for fortune telling. The...

Pinterest: taking your childhood collections online

January 11, 2015

Reinventing the simple scrapbook We’re pleased as punch to find that we’ve reached 2000 followers on Pinterest. Pinning collections and boards on Pinterest is a lot of fun, and when you find people to share it with who enjoy it as much as you, it just makes the fun a little sweeter, you know? And Pinterest is a lot of fun. From the discovery of new artists or missed classics, to reconnecting with childhood favorites, Pinterest never fails to give us an “Oh, yeah” moment with each pin. Plus, while...

Happy New Year

December 31, 2014

C’mon 2015, we’re ready for you! Looking back on the year gives us a lot to be thankful for – 2014 was pretty good to us at Curio & Co. We were so happy to be able to bring you so many pop culture classics this year – especially our favorite childhood memory in print, Spaceman Jax: Through the Mantagon Minefield. Any day that brings back those warm, cozy feelings from childhood is a real treat, and we were happy to share those days with friends old and new at...

Merry Christmas from Curio & Co.

December 24, 2014

There’s no reason to pout – Santa Claus is coming to town! The tree is trimmed. The stockings are up. We’ve even put out some milk and cookies (the ones we haven’t eaten, anyway). All we need now is the Big Guy. It’s amazing how Santa manages to get all around the world in one night – and even remembers Spaceman Jax and his friends across the galaxy. (Do they have chimneys in space?) Here’s wishing you all the best that jolly old elf can bring, and – taking a...

It’s still story time

December 18, 2014

Who says that only kids get to have stories read to them? I used to think that audio books were only for blind people or truck drivers. Once you’d graduated to reading on your own, I thought, story time was over. I’m so glad I finally saw – well, heard – the light. One holiday many years ago, an audio book-loving friend gave me an audio book of a Christmas Carol, and although I’d never listened to audio books, I figured that it might be something to listen to while...

Galactic Time

December 12, 2014

Meeting with a species from another planet starts to get tricky when it’s time to synchronize your watches. The dates in Spaceman Jax’s world are complicated and unwieldy. Spaceman Jax was born in 6324 1/2, Tarloc was born in 6298 3/5 and he started his first company in 6304 1/9… which I guess would be 20.3888888889 years before Jax was born? Putting the dates in fractions – and such ridiculous ones at that (a 17th of a year?) is pretty funny, but I certainly hope that once our society gets...

Spaceman Jax today

November 18, 2014

What would the Spaceman Jax character be like done by a studio today? If Spaceman Jax and the Galactic Adventures were back on TV today, I’d love to see a really faithful adaptation. Sure, they’d need to update the animation, and I could see Jax rendered in CG with flashy animation, but I’d hope that they’d keep the mood of the original and especially the personality of Jax. Because Spaceman Jax isn’t really cool, and it would be awful to see a studio turn him into a backwards baseball cap-wearing,...

Happy Halloween

October 30, 2014

We wanted to take five and wish you all happy trick or treating a very scary Halloween. – BOO!

Don’t change that channel

September 24, 2014

Everything comes to a halt for a TV marathon When I was a kid TV marathons were an annual event. Every year some TV station would show a day’s worth of Elvis movies on his birthday, monster movies in the lead up to Halloween, and all the Rankin and Bass claymation Christmas specials seemed to run in a continuous loop throughout the holiday season. Needless to say, my TV calendar was full the whole year long. However, my favorite TV marathon was the weekend of Spaceman Jax and the Galactic...

Summertime Treats: Corn Dogs

September 9, 2014

When you’re ready to grab life by the handle. I’m not really sure why so many treats we enjoy in the summer are so greasy – hamburgers on the grill, funnel cake, chili cheese fries at the ballgame. You’d think that with the hot temperatures summer days can bring, we’d want something a little easier on our stomachs. But, I guess the heart wants what it wants. And my heart (or stomach, I guess) wants corn dogs in the summer. A corn dog is simple enough: a hot dog, dipped...

Summer Cinema: Jaws, 1975

September 1, 2014

Maybe skip the water altogether this weekend. There’s nothing worse than working while everyone else is away on vacation. Not only are you picking up the slack for your coworkers, but some have the nerve to send those “Wish you were here” postcards back to the office just to rub your nose in it. But don’t let sour grapes ruin your day. Maybe all you need is a reminder that beach vacations aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Jaws will help you feel better about skipping the beach. From...

Summertime Treats: Cotton Candy

August 25, 2014

Nostalgia at its stickiest. Cotton Candy is a delightful summertime treat, and one that seems to sum up a lot of summer experiences. From a distance, it’s big and bold and commands a lot of attention – the same way summer vacations loom large in our anticipation and are the subjects of so many of our daydreams. It is available at so many summer destinations and it’s perfect for sharing. But alas, just like summer trips to the beach or summer tans or even a summer fling, the cotton candy...

Where, exactly, is Spaceman Jax?

August 21, 2014

Is Spaceman Jax like Star Wars – set in a galaxy far, far away? Over sixty years have passed since Spaceman Jax and the Galactic Adventures first premiered on TV (and then later, comics) and with each year that passes it’s always interesting to see how close we’ve come to Jax’s world in terms of science and technology. Spaceman Jax is set in Star Year 6354 ¾, of course, so if their measurement of a year is the same as ours we still have a long way to go before...

Summertime Treats: Watermelon

August 18, 2014

The refreshing fruit that takes you right back to childhood. Summer means many things: warm days, bar-b-ques outside and watermelon! In fact, I’d argue that the refreshing fruit is practically mandatory at picnics everywhere. As humans, we’ve certainly been enjoying watermelon as a summertime treat since way back to ancient Egypt. Watermelon seeds were even found with the goods stored with King Tut – who certainly knew what he should bring for a refreshing snack on the other side. Today you can find watermelons in a variety of colors, from...

Summer Cinema: Beach Blanket Bingo, 1965

August 14, 2014

When the temperature goes up, it’s time for something silly. Summer is many things, but one thing it’s not is serious. It’s just too hot. Too hot for neckties. Too hot for stuffy offices. Too hot for pesky rules about eating ice cream on the bus. In the summer, people celebrate the idea of spending a whole weekend lying on the beach (or picnic blanket or hammock) and doing nothing. By the time August rolls around, you need a break from taking things so seriously – which is exactly why...

Kids' secret energy sources

August 12, 2014

Spaceman Jax’s niece Dekkin seems to run on super power. Spaceman Jax’s niece Dekkin is a real firecracker of a little girl. She’s enthusiastic, prone to uncontrollable giggles and she talks a mile a minute when she’s excited. In short, she’s your average seven-year-old. In many ways, she’s the ultimate match for Spaceman Jax – even his only match. Tarloc’s power-hungry manipulations can’t beat Jax’s single-minded dedication to justice, and the Mantagons with all of their Ultra-turbo-zap-guns can’t shake Jax’s unswerving courage and confidence in himself. Only little Dekkin and...

Spaceman Jax, Pitchman from the Stars

August 8, 2014

Even a galactic hero can’t say no to advertising money. In the late 1950s, Bunchy was still a regional soft drink popular in the southwest. It was western-themed (hence the gold flakes) and used the tagline, “Rustle up refreshment!” But in the early 1960s, the US was focused on efforts to launch the first human in space, and Bunchy re-branded the beverage to capitalize on the Space Race (turning those gold nuggets into gold stardust). Although the company was distributing nationally by then, Alan Shepard or John Glenn were still...

Summer Cinema: Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, 1962

August 5, 2014

Sometimes you need a break from your holiday. Summer vacations don’t always work out the way they’re supposed to. But while you might not get the experience you’re looking for, you could still get a summer you’ll never forget. That’s certainly the case in the 1962 film Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation. Based on the book by Edward Streeter, who also wrote Father of the Bride, the film stars Jimmy Stewart as Mr. Hobbs, a banker just looking for a little peace and quiet on his vacation – maybe a...

Spaceman Jax - Sheer, dumb luck

August 1, 2014

A hero with a heart of gold, but the intellect of a Ploridian Lunar Beast. Spaceman Jax isn’t the brightest star in the galaxy, not by a long shot. He consistently makes mistakes – and miscalculates, misfires and just generally misunderstands the situation. So how is he so successful in all of his adventures? For starters, he isn’t exactly stupid. No, really. Stay with me here. Even Jax’s close friends would have to admit that, although I’m sure they’re sometimes tempted to think otherwise. Jax demonstrates average intelligence and general...

Spaceman Jax Comics Coming Soon!

July 29, 2014

Comic-Con got a sneak peek of another jewel.Comic-Con is always a lot of fun: big stars, great swag and aisles and aisles full of amazing collectibles that turn you into a kid again. But maybe one of the best things about Comic-Con is getting an early sneak peek at exciting things to come. So Curio & Co. was very excited to share a soon-to-be-released treasure from the vault with visitors to Comic-Con.In October of this year, we’ll be officially releasing 1000 copies of the first issue of Spaceman Jax comics,...

Comic-Con Panel Discussion on Tricky Books

July 21, 2014

Join Curio & Co, for a look at Horror Stories of Creating Comics.We are thrilled to be organizing a discussion panel at Comic-Con this year, and we hope you can join us.The panel, called ‘Horror Stories of Creating Comics: How to produce tricky books’, will be chock-full of behind-the-scenes stories of making some of the most interesting books around. We’ll be discussing the red flags to watch out for on the long journey to get the details right… with our friends Calista Brill (Senior Editor, First Second Books), Peter Maresca...

Summer Cinema: Gidget, 1959

July 17, 2014

Hit the waves with Moondoggie and the Big Kahuna The person most responsible for bringing surfing to the mainstream public isn’t George Freeth, Duke Kahanamoku or even any of the Beach Boys. It was a fifteen-year-old girl named Kathy Kohner, but everyone called her Gidget. The story of her entry into Southern California surf culture was immortalized in the 1957 book Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas written by Kathy’s dad, screenwriter Frederick Kohner. A slightly fictionalized version of her summers in Malibu, the book publicized the still pretty...

Comic-Con 2014

July 14, 2014

We’re heading to the biggest entertainment convention around. For us at Curio & Co., the summer doesn’t officially start until Comic-Con. Sure, the weather might heat up and schools might be out, but it’s just not summer until we get to San Diego. Now in its 44th year (though it doesn’t look a day over 18), Comic-Con has the biggest range of pop culture and entertainment – from film and TV to toys and games, and with plenty of superheroes to go around. It just makes you wish there were...

Spaceman Jax and Robots in the Future

July 11, 2014

As household robots go – Artie just can’t be beat. If there’s one consistent view of the future, it’s that robots will handle all of the dirty work. From the grime of a factory to the drudgery of a mine, we always imagine handing over the hard work to robots to keep our hands clean. And in the real world, we’re getting pretty close to a regular use of robots in industrial settings. But in the optimistic views of the 1960s home of the future, personal robots are so domesticated...

Summertime Treats: Popsicles

July 7, 2014

Nostalgia might keep you warm, but our love for this icy treat still keeps us cool. It’s been pretty warm around the Curio & Co. headquarters these past couple of days and everyone’s been feeling it. Fortunately we’ve had a plan to beat the heat that takes us right back to childhood: popsicles. We’ve been sharing the responsibility for providing office popsicles each day, and I’ll admit that when it was my turn I just grabbed whatever was on sale. But ever since Shirley made us fresh strawberry and...

Spaceman Jax – Ahead of its time?

July 3, 2014

The classic 1960s characters from animation and comics dealt with some of the same issues we do today. It’s no surprise that a show set in the future might look familiar today some fifty years later. Spaceman Jax and the Galactic Adventures was set in the Star Year 6354 ¾, so we’ve still got a long way to go to catch up with them. None of us are living aboard our own spaceships yet or visiting several planets across the galaxy in a single day, but we do have...

The Menacing Mantagons

June 25, 2014

What good is having a couple thousand Ultra-turbo-zap guns if no one knows about it? Does Spaceman Jax think he can reform the Mantagons? He certainly doesn’t seem to understand that they are only in it for the weaponry and the power. Jax tries to reason with them, but never successfully, since the only ones who really understand the Mantagons well enough to negotiate them out of an action are Tarloc and Farlo, both of whom use the promise of larger weapons to manipulate the Mantagons into doing what...

Behind the Late Night Desk

June 18, 2014

You know a talk show means serious business if they put the host behind a desk. Talk shows use their sets to communicate subtle hints about their content. The soft armchair of a daytime show like Oprah tells you that it’s going to be intimate and confessional. The stools of the Today Show or Live with Kelly and Michael recall a breakfast nook and clever quips over bacon. But the desk of a late night talk show means that show business is serious business. And it is, of course. Appearing...

Parenting Tips from Spaceman Jax?

June 11, 2014

He may cause more trouble than a Ploridian Lunar Beast, but his heart is in the right place. As Father’s Day approaches, we’ve been thinking about how some of our favorite fictional characters fare as parents and surprisingly, one of the most inept bumblers ever to cross the galaxy – Spaceman Jax – actually turns out to be a pretty good Dad. Spaceman Jax wasn’t really a father, of course. The show made it clear that he was Dekkin’s Uncle and explained the sad circumstances of her guardianship. Jax and...

Brought to You by Sugar

June 4, 2014

Advertising and packaging in the 1960s was enough to give you a tooth ache. It is truly amazing how much advertising messages have changed over the last fifty years. Today, advertisers are careful to distance their products from any ingredients that are seen as a health taboo. This means that they hide evidence of salt, fat, carbohydrates, and especially that demon of the cereal aisle: sugar. They use clever words to trick us into thinking the product is good for us, so sugary products become “naturally sweetened” or “honey-kissed”....

007: The Spy Who Serenaded Me

May 29, 2014

James Bond knows hand-to-hand combat, defensive driving at high speeds, and how to pick a great song. The 007 films are a genre all of their own, and although each film varies across the 50 years of the franchise, you always know what you’ll find within the genre. There are several elements found in the best Bond films: A few gorgeous Bond Girls (preferably with ridiculous names). A car chase along a winding mountain road. Gadgets, of course. And all of these elements are introduced with a great song. With...

Robots in Spaceman Jax

May 21, 2014

Are we training our own robot replacements? Good – they can have the jobs. It’s funny that Spaceman Jax still has a job, since it’s clear that a robot could do a better job – heck, a Ploridian Lunar beast couldn’t do a worse job than Spaceman Jax. And yet, in Spaceman Jax’s world, we see guys like Jax holding down a good job delivering zandabite crystals while the robots in the series work menial or dangerous jobs. It’s enough to get any robot a little hot under the circuit...

Vengeance in the Star Trek Universe

May 13, 2014

As the Klingons say, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” J.J. Abrams’s new Star Trek franchise is cornering the market on revenge. From the first film of the reboot focusing on Nero’s patient wait to avenge his planet Romulus, to the recent re-imaging of Khan’s revenge against the Federation’s abuse and condemnation of his own super-race…for all of the Prime Directive talk in the Star Trek universe, the real struggle is just to rise above “an eye for an eye” justice.The original series was truly about new worlds and...

The Mantagons vs. Modern Society

May 5, 2014

The Mantagons may be the strongest armed fleet in Spaceman Jax’s galaxy, but how would they fare against the selfie? The Mantagons were the best bad guys on the 1960s animated TV show Spaceman Jax and the Galactic Adventures. Though skinny little octopus-like aliens, they had the strongest army in the galaxy, proudly boasting more Ultra-turbo-zap-guns than they had arms to use them. They were single-minded, which they would probably take as a complement, since with no society outside of their military, the single goal all Mantagons shared was to...

Animal Crackers, since 1902

April 29, 2014

Sometimes, you need to think inside the box. The way food is presented to you can really affect the way you think it tastes. Shows like Bizarre Foods certainly bear this out. This is why food producers spend a lot of time and money on the packaging for their products, so you’ll not only pick it up at the supermarket, you’ll also enjoy it enough to buy it again and again. And sometimes those packaging gimmicks are the best part of the product. For me, this is the appeal...

Catchphrases catching fire

April 21, 2014

Beam me up, Scotty. Play it again, Sam…How can it not be in the film if we know the catchphrase so well? Pop culture is full of famous catchphrases, and our conversations around the office here at Curio & Co. are littered with movie quotes and old advertising slogans. We can have whole conversations about everyday topics just using favorite lines. For most of us, these catchphrases become part of the stock repertoire of expressions that we use in normal conversation, so that we may even forget where they originated....

What makes a TV personality?

April 15, 2014

There are plenty of people famous for rather dubious talents on television, with “nice guy” perhaps the most dubious. With the recent news that Stephen Colbert will be taking over when David Letterman retires next year, we’ve been thinking a lot about the backgrounds of TV celebrities. Although he started his career as a newscaster, Letterman caught the attention of the studios through his stand-up comedy. His successor Colbert also has a background in comedy, having got his big break with Chicago improve troop The Second City. While most...

Glowing reviews for Frank and His Friend

February 12, 2014

Have you seen some of the nice things that people have been saying about us? Not to toot our own horns or anything, but we wanted to pass on the good news to some of our friends. Do you remember that feeling when you were a kid and your teacher would say something nice about you to your Mom and Dad right in front of you? This only happened once or twice for me (mostly I heard “Talks too much in class”), but it was a real thrill. Partly...

Happy New Year 2014

December 27, 2013

Celebrating the present right now means reflecting on the past year and looking ahead to the future. 2013 was a good year to us at Curio & Co. We got to meet so many new friends and spend time with old friends at trade shows and conferences like Angoulême in France and Comic-Con in California. We released a Special Collectors Edition of Frank and His Friend to bring back all of the best memories from childhood. And best of all, it was another year of fun being a part of...

Merry Christmas

December 21, 2013

Sending out holiday cheer to all of you from Curio & Co. Our stockings are hung, the egg has been nogged, and we’re all set for a visit from Old Saint Nick. We hope that after he’s checked his list twice we’ve made the cut this year and we’ll get everything on our wish list: some relaxing downtime, a little snow, and maybe a toy or two. Doesn’t Christmas bring out the kid in all of us? From the whole team at Curio & Co., we wish you a very...

Special Collector’s Edition

December 6, 2013

What do you buy the collector who has almost everything? We are very excited to release our latest book, Frank and His Friend – Special Collector’s Edition, Vol. 1. The book has been released to bookstores everywhere, but you can still get your copy here of course, and we ship them out with all the careful attention that you’ve come to trust from Curio & Co. We’ve got a great relationship with the publisher, Ringer Publishing Paperbacks. We’re big supporters of Ringer’s catalog, of course, and Frank and His Friend...

Trick or Treat!

October 31, 2013

Frank and His Friend get us into the Halloween spirit. What’s not to love about Halloween? You start off with costumes and games and end up with a big bag of candy. Count me in. Although I’ve never bobbed for apples myself or seen a real haunted house, the Halloween strips of Frank and His Friend certainly depict the kind of idealized Halloween that I would love to be a part of. But I can remember Halloween carnivals at my elementary school – complete with fishing games and even a...

Frank and His Friend: Re-reading the classics

October 12, 2013

What is it that makes a book good enough to return to again and again? Getting a hold of the latest bestseller and losing yourself in a new world is fun, but some books are so good you want to return to them year after year. What is it about the classics that keep us coming back for more? Some books give up all their secrets on the first reading and, upon closing the book, there’s no reason to open it again because you know everything about the story. For...

Giving young fans a hand

October 5, 2013

The creator of Frank and his Friend may not have liked the limelight, but he sure brightened the lives of others. Clarence ‘Otis’ Dooley was a very modest guy and disliked attending formal events, even if – or especially if – they were given in his honor. He actively tried to discourage awards – going so far as to campaign for other artists to awards committees – and once said, “I’ve never been to a humanitarian banquet, but I’ve known a few vegetarians, so the idea is frightening.” However, Dooley...

Much ado about nothing

September 27, 2013

Frank and His Friend offers a helpful gauge to know when to start worrying. One thing that always cracks me up about the Frank and His Friend comics is how divergent the characters’ reactions are to problems. When things are going well, they’re in agreement. From their smiles to their body language, the two are in sync with their contentment and joy. When faced with a problem, though, they react oppositely. Often, we’re seeing the child calm and collected when the audience knows there’s reason to feel otherwise: we know...

Disneyland Records

September 20, 2013

Read along with your favorite hit records. I had a pretty extensive record collection as a kid. Blockbusters like Ernie’s Rubber Duckie, seasonal standards like Merry Snoopy’s Christmas. But the discs that got the most rotation were the Disneyland Records “Read Along” book and record sets. The book and record sets claimed to give kids a head start in learning to read. Now I can’t say whether or not that was true, but I definitely followed along and listened to those records over and over. I loved following the story,...

Disneyland Autopia, 1955

September 13, 2013

The freedom of the open road…where the cars can’t leave the track. Kids can’t wait to get the keys to the adult world, to be able to call the shots and make their own decisions. And driving is the ultimate expression of control over your life. So why does that still work when you know the cars aren’t real? At Disneyland, the line between reality and fantasy is pretty effectively blurred, but any kid can tell that they’re not able to take the Autopia cars out on the actual highway....

Lunchbox Identity Crisis

September 6, 2013

Picking out a new lunchbox was the best part of back-to-school shopping, and maybe the hardest. For a kid, a lunchbox is more than just a means of getting your PB&J to school in tact. It’s a badge of identity in a world where alliances are brokered over intimate knowledge of the world of pop culture. You didn’t see that movie? Well then, you’re out. And one of the hardest things, really, is finding the right balance between popularity and individuality. The worst would be to have someone else get...

It’s a Small World

August 31, 2013

Stuck in your head since 1964. The 1964 World’s Fair in New York was pretty groundbreaking, if not partially because it was also a little rule-breaking. Technically, it wasn’t a World’s Fair, or not an officially-sanctioned one, anyway. It was stripped of its status by the committee that oversees these things, the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) in France. The BIE denounced the fair when organizers planned to extend the fair past the six months maximum allowed by official World Fair Regulations, and to charge exhibitors a rental fee for...

Marketing Nostalgia

August 22, 2013

Cracker Jack sweetens up America’s past In 1893, brothers F.W. and Louis Rueckheim mixed popcorn, peanuts and molasses together and introduced their concoction at Chicago’s First World Fair. A salesman sampling the snack exclaimed, “That’s a cracker jack,” and this popular slang term became the brand name. The rest, they say, is history. History – because since then very little has changed, and though Cracker Jack has been sold from one company to another they have continued to market themselves as a piece of America’s past. Cracker Jack’s first...

Summer Sequels: The Threequel

August 16, 2013

When one (or two) films just aren’t enough As the old School House Rock song goes, three is a magic number. That’s certainly true for the cinema. In the past, studios waited to see the box office numbers before green-lighting any sequels, then negotiations would start to bring the actors back for a rematch. That could cost studios a lot of money, though, in higher salaries as a result of the re-negotiation process, not to mention that the delay to screens allowed the audience’s interest to wane. Enter the...

Surf Rock

August 9, 2013

The kind of summer that only exists in a song I don’t surf, own a “Woody Wagon,” or know anyone named Moondoggie. But every year when the temperatures heat up, I put surf music on repeat and yearn for a summer vacation that only exists in Beach Party movies. Instrumental surf rock is great to listen to while you’re working. Its fast tempo will keep you moving, and without lyrics (or only those wah-wah-wahs) you can stay productive. If you can find all of the albums the Ventures released...

Summer Sequels: Despicable Me 2

August 2, 2013

Once you start, you just can’t stop. In the summer heat, no one really wants to do any work, the clock gets watched more closely, and the calendar count-down to vacation gets a lot of attention. What we could all use right about now are some minions. Fortunately, Despicable Me 2 is out, and it’s got all the minions you need. Despicable Me was a huge hit – over half a billion dollars worldwide – so it’s clear the studio would get busy producing another one. But this is...

Summer Sequels: Smurfs 2

July 26, 2013

When warmer temperatures return, so do some very familiar faces. If it’s summer, then it’s time for a sequel. Why are sequels so inviting? Maybe the higher temperatures draw us to the familiar, and we feel that it’s just too hot to invest our time in learning the names of new characters. Of course, sequels generally come with so-called “popcorn” movies – films that guarantee broad audiences of people who will not only splurge for the 3-D version, but who will also add some snacks to the price of...

Darth Vader: Deadbeat Dad

July 19, 2013

At the end of the day, Star Wars is just another custody battle with the kids caught in the middle. Darth Vader is many things; powerful, merciless, fond of capes. But primarily, he’s a Deadbeat Baby Daddy. Where was Darth Vader when Luke and Leia were growing up – shouldn’t he have been providing for their well-being? As a princess, Leia was raised by a wealthy family, but Luke’s Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru probably could have used some extra credits to keep the farm running. (And how about sending...

Comic-Con 2013

July 12, 2013

Hey there San Diego – we’ll see you soon! Have you packed your bags for San Diego yet? I suppose packing to go Comic-Con is the easiest thing to do. One giant empty suitcase and you’re done! You’re going to need space for all of the wonderful books and toys you’ll be bringing back. And let’s face it: there are always tons of cool t-shirts that you’ll want to get. So don’t bother bringing more than you absolutely have to, because you can always just get it there. We...

Frank and His Friend for Collectors

July 5, 2013

There is a brand new limited edition collection of Frank and His Friend – and Curio & Co. has got them for you. If you’re like us, there are probably a lot of things that you wish you still had from when you were a kid. The top of that list for me would be my books of Frank and His Friend comics. I wouldn’t have called it a collection back then – because I thought of collections very differently when I was a kid. Collections were things that...

The Return of Mickey Mouse

June 28, 2013

Mickey gets his groove back in a series of new shorts that premiere today. Mickey Mouse returns to screens today in a brand new series of shorts that reminds us why the world fell in love with him in the first place. It’s easy to forget that Mickey Mouse was once cool. His name on a marquee might only have referred to seven minutes of an animated short, but it sold tickets. “What, no Mickey Mouse?” was the cry of angry disbelief when cinema-goers discovered that the day’s...

A very real imaginary friend

June 21, 2013

The beloved doll from Frank and His Friend proves to be the best friend a kid could have. The classic newspaper comic Frank and His Friend, created by artist Clarence ‘Otis’ Dooley, is about many things: childhood, adventure, avoiding broccoli. But mostly, it’s about friendship. And Frank is a terrific friend. He’s patient and loyal, good at keeping secrets, and never argues. Of course, it helps that Frank can’t talk. Frank is a rather world-weary rag doll. If he seems a little skeptical of his Friend’s plans, that’s only because...

One terrific idea, beaming right up

June 14, 2013

Sometimes, small budgets and short deadlines can be the best thing to happen to a project. Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. One of my favorite stories is about the development of Star Trek’s most innovative technology: the Transporter. According to legend, the original plan for the show was to have the Enterprise land on each planet to allow the crew to explore. However, this presented a number of problems. First, they’d have to do some pretty hefty special effects each time the ship landed, and secondly, the...

Before they were famous: Clarence ‘Otis’ Dooley

June 7, 2013

What do Cudworth-Hooper and Frank and His Friend have in common? Hog oilers. It can be hard for a comic artist to get started without a name that newspapers recognize or a following to convince a syndicate to take on a strip. Most artists have to take on commercial work to pay the bills until their ship finally sails in. For Clarence ‘Otis’ Dooley, creator of Frank and His Friend, this meant catalog illustrations. Before getting his big break, Dooley worked for a number of years illustrating hog oilers...

Dennis the Menace in the 1950s

May 31, 2013

Some classics get a little too mellow with time. Dennis the Menace started out so good. If you’ve never read the early strips from the 1950s, you’re really missing out. In those early strips, he’s clever, carefree, self-centered and more than a little dangerous. Most of all he’s funny – with a brilliant take on the world. However, somewhere along the way his character changed pretty substantially. He became good-natured but dimwitted – unable to see, for example, that Mr. Wilson’s headache worsened, rather than improved, with a little...

Tagging along with Frank and His Friend

May 17, 2013

You might be a couple of minutes late to the party, but you haven’t missed any of the action. One of my favorite things about Frank and His Friend is how open the storylines are. You often get the feeling that you’re just coming in on the middle of the action. Artist Clarence ‘Otis’ Dooley often drew panels in such a way that the scene or the dialog hinted at what came before, but didn’t provide you with a complete picture. Like a snapshot, rather than a home movie....

Hedging your bets

May 10, 2013

Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, buddies George Lucas and Steven Spielberg made a friendly bet. Star Wars is a billion-dollar franchise. When Disney bought the property last year, it sold for another 4 billion dollars, and with new films planned, it’s safe to say that it will continue to bring in billions more. Of course, expectations originally weren’t so high. Although filmmakers tried to drum up buzz for the film’s release, the studio was still pretty worried about competition, and decided not to release...

Slowing down with Frank and His Friend

May 3, 2013

Let comics help you unwind. When things get a little crazy and stress starts to overwhelm you, it can certainly seem like the last thing you have time for is to stop and smell the roses. But that might just be the time to break out the flowers. I have a stack of Frank and His Friend anthologies that I keep next to my desk and when work stress threatens to drown my day, I make it a priority to spend six minutes perusing one of the volumes. Why six...

Blacksad

April 27, 2013

It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, especially if you’re a cat. Quiet as a mouse, sly as a fox, busy as a beaver – animals carry a lot of meaning for us humans. So when your comic book is made up solely of anthropomorphized animals, you’re going to be able to cover a lot of ground, story-wise, without having to rely on as much leg work. Blacksad is a film noir comic book series where all of the characters’ species reflect their personality and part in the story. Set in...

The Spaceman Jax Family

April 17, 2013

Despite blasting into adventures among the stars, maybe Spaceman Jax and the Galactic Adventures was really just another show about family. It’s no surprise that family is so important to Spaceman Jax. He and his niece Dekkin were the only survivors of the blast that destroyed their home planet, Tiberion 3 – so family isn’t just important to Jax, it’s everything. As he often mentioned on the show, Spaceman Jax was the last child in a family of eight girls, “Enough for a Maxxon Handgrip tem!” With so many...

Bash Brannigan, 1965

April 10, 2013

Some films create such a realistic – and hilarious – world that you wish their supporting brands were real. One of our favorite fake comic strips was created for the 1965 film How to Murder Your Wife, staring Jack Lemmon as a cartoonist playboy who wakes up from a friend’s stag party to find himself married. The comic strip, shown several times in the film, plays an important role in the film’s plot. The film’s comic strip, Bash Brannigan, features a hero working on cases such as the ‘Skyscraper Gaper...

In praise of the bad guys

April 3, 2013

Every story needs a strong villain, but in the case of Spaceman Jax and the Galactic Adventures, it’s the villains’ weakness that makes them so hilarious. Each episode of Spaceman Jax and the Galactic Adventures saw the intrepid, but dimwitted, hero Spaceman Jax facing a variety of perils – at the hands of menacing mercenaries-for-hire the Zalfonen, wily industrialist Tarloc, or quite often, Jax’s own ineptitude. But our favorite galactic bad guys were the Mantagons, who proved that knowing your own weakness was everything. The Mantagons hailed from the planet...

The theft of time

March 27, 2013

Peter Lorre on the concept of time. Despite what the critics said back in 1953, Beat the Devil is a terrific film. And why shouldn’t it be? You’ve got Humphrey Bogart and the lovely Gina Lollobrigida. You’ve got John Huston directing a story about international crooks stranded in Italy from a script partly written by Truman Capote. Not a bad start. Sure, the film has its problems. The script was supposedly written day by day as the film was being made, and that shows through in some places. But...

The Last Straw

March 19, 2013

It may not break the camel’s back, but a straw can really take you back. A lot of people will argue that beverages taste better out of a glass container or over ice, and there is a lot of science that goes into the shape of a container to maximize aroma or flavor. But one thing that’s clear – drinks are always more fun with a straw. Nothing is more seemingly bland than a simple straw, yet it’s loaded with nostalgia. From its candy-striped appearance it takes us back to...

V for Vendetta, 1982

March 12, 2013

The comic creates a world that is more than the sum of its parts. V for Vendetta is an extremely popular comic book for good reason. The powerful story of freedom and identity is told through haunting visuals in stark black and white tinted with pastels. The V for Vendetta stories first appeared in the British comic magazine Warrior, published by Quality Comics in 1982. It was one of the most popular titles in that magazine, and when Warrior was cancelled in 1985, several companies vied to publish the...

Vintage illustrations

March 4, 2013

A picture sells a thousand words when it’s a vintage advertisement. It’s hard to imagine collecting any of the advertisements we are bombarded with today. From ads on toilet paper to spam in our inbox, it seems like someone’s always trying to sell you something. Maybe that’s one of the reasons we collect vintage advertisements – they can’t sell us anything anymore. Whether it’s because the product doesn’t exist any longer or because the prices that they’re offering would make today’s salesmen laugh in our faces, we can’t possibly...

Maya the Bee

February 23, 2013

She may be a little strange, but we love her. Sometimes the things we loved as kids just seem bizarre now. Eating boogers, spinning around so fast you fall down, most of the candy from childhood. In comparison, Maya the Bee doesn’t seem all that strange. Maya the Bee was an animated series made in Japan and originally broadcast from 1975 to 1976. The series was rebroadcast around the world and become a big hit. It was popular in Europe, South America, Asia and the Middle East, and was broadcast...

Asterix creator Albert Uderzo

February 15, 2013

The Roman Empire has been no match for this village of Gauls, and neither are our hearts. When asked about the enduring success of The Adventures of Asterix comic strip he created with René Goscinny in 1959, Albert Uderzo replied, “We are like magicians who don’t know how they do a trick.” Uderzo may not understand it, but with 325 million copies of Asterix books sold worldwide, the secret to the trick is clear: Asterix is hilarious. Uderzo is a self-taught artist, who first became interested in comics through...

Behind the Wheel of Mickey Mouse

February 8, 2013

For the 40th anniversary of the Angoulême International Comics Festival, organizers went back way more than 40 years to trace the history of Mickey Mouse in comics around the world. A special pavilion at the Angoulême International Comics Festival focused on the artists working behind the “Walt Disney” name to bring Mickey (and Donald, Minnie, Horace Horsecollar, Scrooge McDuck and more) to the pages of comic books and to bring smiles to faces everywhere. I went first thing when the festival opened on Thursday, knowing it would be crowded...

Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots

February 2, 2013

Once robots do all of our cooking and cleaning, the next logical step is to have them do all our fighting too. In all of our visions of the future, robots don’t make out very well. We force them to run our households (The Jetsons), replace our deceased family members (Astro Boy), and police our cities (THX 1138). And never once do we offer to pay them – no wonder they’re always rising up against us! One of our favorite pastimes for robots is to have them fight each other....

A bottle of memories

January 27, 2013

Why do soft drinks taste so great in glass bottles? When I was a little kid, I was told to be very, very careful with my soft drinks. Use two hands when carrying it from the fridge and always sit down while drinking it – never walk around. My parents weren’t worried that I’d spill it, though I managed to do that plenty of times. They were worried that I’d break it and cut myself. Because back then, soft drinks came in glass bottles. Today, of course, you generally...

Mr. Bubble, 1961

January 18, 2013

“Gets you so clean, your mother won’t recognize you!” For most of as adults, a morning shower is just a small part of our wake up routine (I myself am pretty adept at shampooing while still asleep). But back when we were kids, bath time was a huge chunk of our days. The battle parents had to wage just to get us in the tub could be pretty prolonged. There could be threats, bargaining, even high speed chases around the sofa. What is it about getting clean that kids...

Mickey Mouse Club, 1955

January 11, 2013

Come along and sing a song And join the jamboree! M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E Humans are pack animals; we like to join things. From the bowling league to the PTA, it can be comforting to be a part of a group and to feel included. It’s no wonder that fan clubs abounded when we were kids. The best of these by far was the Mickey Mouse Club, especially in its original 1950s incarnation. It was everything you could want in a club: spacious club house, enthusiastic roll call,...

Nostalgia calling

December 31, 2012

What will we pass on to the next generation? As 2012 comes to a close, we’ve been thinking a lot about what we’ll bring into the New Year, and what we can bear to part with. That can sometimes be a tough choice. Back in 2000, Fisher-Price decided to update its iconic Chatter Telephone. After all, most kids then had never even seen a rotary phone. So Fisher-Price changed out the dial for colorful push-buttons that would light up and make sounds. Who could possibly have a problem with...

Season's Greetings from Curio & Co.

December 22, 2012

It's that time of the year... When snowflakes get us dreaming (and snowballs get us scheming), and it's time to get down on the floor again and play like kids. We've brought the Lego bricks down from the shelf, and have a pile of books and at the ready and a puzzle on the table. We're not snowed in, but as the song goes, "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow." Wishing you some time off that keeps you cozy and warm. So turn up the...

Captain EO, 1986

December 21, 2012

“The planets are linin' up, we're bringin' brighter days, They're all in line, waitin' for you” Back in 1986, Michael Jackson was the biggest star in the galaxy. So it made perfect sense for him to star in the 3D science fiction film Captain EO, shown at Disney theme parks in the 1980s and 1990s. In the film, Jackson plays the title character, sent with this ragtag group of misfits to fight the Supreme Leader of an imprisoned planet. (Doesn’t it seem like it’s always a ragtag group...

Campbell’s Soup

December 12, 2012

Thinking outside the can There’s nothing like a bowl of hot soup on a cold day, and now that winter is upon us, we’ve got plenty of those cold days to go around. While homemade soup warms both your heart and your stomach, the iconic red and white label of Campbell’s Soup that debuted in 1898 is what a lot of us think of when we think of soup. Winter or not, soup sales have been down though, and Campbell’s is looking to attract a young, sophisticated demographic....

Corto Maltese, 1967

December 4, 2012

Taking your fate (literally) in your own hands. Corto Maltese is a comic book sailor and adventurer created by Hugo Pratt in 1967, and premiered in the serial “Ballad of the Salt Sea” in the first edition of Sgt. Kirk magazine. But though the “rogue with a heart of gold” is fictional, he would say that no one but himself set the course for his life. Born in Malta in 1887, his father was an English sailor, his mother a gypsy from Seville. Growing up in the Jewish...

Betty Boop selling Lancôme mascara

November 27, 2012

A match made in licensing heaven Starting this Saturday, December 1st, Betty Boop will be selling Lancôme’s Hypnôse Star mascara in Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s. With Ms. Boop’s famous peepers, it’s a wonder such a pairing has never happened before. Created by Max Fleischer, Betty Boop first appeared in the cartoon Dizzy Dishes in 1930 – albeit as an anthropomorphized French poodle. Turning her ears into earrings, she became human in 1932 and epitomized the flapper girl of the Jazz Age. She was given her own cartoon series that year,...

A Thanksgiving Dinner that Couldn’t Be Beat

November 22, 2012

“You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant” There are few Thanksgiving dinners more memorable (or which have sold more records) than the one – or actually two – that Arlo Guthrie had in 1965. That year, he was visiting friends in Stockbridge Massachusetts, where he had gone to school, when he had a run in with the law. Guthrie and friend Richard Robbins thought it would be a “friendly gesture” to take out the garbage for their hosts, and finding the dump closed (as it was Thanksgiving)...

Adventure Through Inner Space, 1967

November 17, 2012

A little amusement park ride that made a big impact on a kid. I loved Adventure Through Inner Space; it was my all-time favorite ride at Disneyland. It might seem like a nerdy choice – it had no flying pirate ships or dancing ghosts; it was a ride that took you through a shrinking microscope to the world of atoms – but it was different from all other Disneyland rides in one very significant way: it was 100% real. I was certain about this. The proof was right out there...

To You from Curio & Co.

November 9, 2012

We all know not to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes that cover can sure put your mind at ease. When you order one of the prints available on Curio & Co. (or maybe two, since it’s so hard to pick just one), the packaging will reassure you that we’ve taken great pains to make sure that your print will arrive safe and sound. Safe in shipping The non-descript brown envelope is certainly misleading. Aside from the Curio & Co. stamp on the front, it...