Pop Culture

Sadie Hawkins Day

  How a comic strip launched a high school tradition There’s something especially charming about fictional traditions that catch on in the real world. Though with Sadie Hawkins Day, the case of life imitating art has largely been forgotten. Having a day named after you is a pretty big deal, but poor Sadie might be excused if she didn’t feel quite so honored in this case. Sadie Hawkins was a character in Al Capp’s classic hillbilly comic strip Li'l Abner, which ran from 1934 to 1978. Though her father was... Read more...

The true spirit of Halloween

  Traditions that involve candy are the hardest to break. Ahhh, Halloween. When witches prowl the moonlit skies, and ghouls materialize in deserted graveyards, when jack-o’-lanterns howl with fiendish delight. It’s my favorite holiday, hands down. A whole celebration focused on scaring the jeepers out of ourselves may seem a little silly. But in entertainment, horror is as old as the grave, if you’ll pardon the expression. Folklore and legends have always focused on death and the afterlife, and stories of otherworldly creatures such as witches, vampires, werewolves and ghosts... Read more...

Lucky Luke, the Belgian Cowboy

   Sometimes you have to look east to find the Wild West. The myth of the cowboy and legends of the Wild West play a huge role in defining American cultural identity. Though the historical timeline of the Wild West was relatively short – just 25 years from 1865 to 1890 – the influence of the period has lasted much longer. Our idea of the Old West may have been created by dime store novels and Hollywood movies out of nostalgia for a lost frontier, but it lives on in... Read more...

The dying art of film

  Should we send flowers? Here at Curio & Co., we’re obviously vocal supporters of the past and its media. We love getting lost in 60-year-old animation (don’t worry Jax, you don’t look a day over 30) or 100-year-old advertisements. But while we admit to listening to digital files of our favorite vinyl (current favorite: Rex Ensemble), we’ll grumble over a digital version of an old film at the cinema. (Not that we didn’t still watch it – it was The Thin Man, after all.) So we’re naturally a little... Read more...

What do Mickey Mouse, Spaceman Jax and “Carrie Ann” by The Hollies have in common?

  Giclée prints. By the time “Carrie Ann” hit radio stations in 1967, Spaceman Jax and the Galactic Adventures had been off the air for several years. And it would take nearly half a century more for the hit song from the British Invasion group The Hollies and our animated “hero with the heart of gold and the intellect of a Ploridian Lunar Beast” to significantly cross paths. Though the classic animated series has yet to be released on DVD, we’ve been pleased to be able to bring you memorabilia... Read more...

The mighty Remington typewriter

    The pen, they say, is mightier than the sword. But as the 19th century came to a close, at least one weapons manufacturer was hedging its bets. By the middle of the 1800s, the Industrial Revolution had the business world buzzing along faster than ever before and brought with it the need to increase the pace of communication. Several inventors around the world put together designs for what we know today as the typewriter, but the first commercially successful model, called the Sholes and Glidden Type-Writer, was developed... Read more...

Is it Summer Vacation Yet?

  What better way to reflect on the past summer than to look at some posters of summer vacations long past?   Though the beginning of autumn is upon us, a terrific exhibition of travel posters on at the Austrian National Library can extend your summer vacation, if only in print. The exhibition, “Welcome to Austria: A Summer Journey in Pictures” is a tour through the history of Austrian tourist advertising, and especially the pioneering use of posters by the Austrian State Railways in 1910 that made the travel poster... Read more...

In appreciation the Lava Lamp

  Nothing says 1960s psychedelia like a Lava Lamp. Though the black light posters may have long since been rolled up and put away in the attic, the Lava Lamp continues to soothe and calm even the frazzled of nerves, all while looking pretty groovy. The “motion lamp,” as it’s officially known (since Lava Lamp is a trademarked name), is as simple as oil and water. Motion lamps combine water and an oil/wax/carbon tetrachloride mixture with a 40 watt bulb to heat the wax. The wax expands when heated and... Read more...

TV Guide Fall Preview Issue

  When leaves begin to turn and kids head back to school, you know it’s time for a new TV season. TV viewing habits have changed a lot in the last fifteen years. With the introduction of TiVo in 1998, we could start watching TV shows whenever we wanted. (Well, theoretically we could do that using the timer on a VCR, but I don’t know anyone who was able to master the clock on a VCR, let alone the timer.) Then with the rise of the internet, viewers not only... Read more...

Thinking inside the box

    Forget “You are what you eat,” for school kids, you are what you eat out of. When we were kids, Back to School Sales were the harbinger of death. Cruelly, they seemed to start in July when the sun was still shining and vacation days were still upon us, and served only to remind us of how little time you had left. But every cloud had its silver lining, and while another school year loomed on the horizon, at least you could go back to school with a... Read more...

And the “band” plays on

   It’s hard enough to make a living as a musician, without having to compete with machines for jobs. Fairground organs were the first juke boxes, providing music for parks and fairgrounds at the end of the 1800s. Usually including a pipe organ along with percussion instruments, the organ used air pushed through concealed bellows to play music. If you’re fortunate enough to hear one of these organs today – well, you won’t hear much else, depending on how close you’re standing. They’re not exactly quiet. But while the music... Read more...

The Sesame Street Generation

  “Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?” How to get to Sesame Street? Easy, just head straight back into your childhood. There is little that’s warmer and cozier than memories of Sesame Street. That is, if you were one of the kids who grew up watching the show. (With Sesame Street running continuously for over forty years – and in over 120 countries – there’s a good chance that you did.) When the program was first conceived in 1966, creators were looking to see if television... Read more...

All for just 25 cents

  Can you buy social harmony out of a vending machine?   A strange phenomenon has been taking place in the past year or so, and it has nothing to do with the fact that Curio & Co. had a vending machine at Comic-Con (we were offering advice for 25¢, since nobody wants free advice). There seems to be a return of old-fashioned vending machines. They are everywhere, from barbershops to Wal-Mart and the shopping malls are swarming with them. Could just be revisiting the past, but it seems more... Read more...

Tasty “snax” from childhood

  Forget the counting, there’s no spelling for taste! When you’re a kid, you know you’re in for a treat if a product name uses non-standard spelling. Froot instead of fruit, cheez instead of cheese. Are manufacturers legally required to change the spelling because there isn’t any real fruit or cheese in the product? Whatever the case, if it’s misspelled, you know it will be tastier than it is good for you. And kids get pretty good at deciphering labels and learn, for example, all of the synonyms for sugar.... Read more...

A well-loved Love Bug

Hollywood is fickle, even for a plucky little car that wears its heart on its fender.   The recent Pixar films might wish you to think otherwise, but no other car has won as many hearts as a little ’63 Volkswagen Beetle named Herbie. Dean Jones, one of Disney’s most popular actors in the 1960s and 1970s, was cast as the lead in the 1968 film The Love Bug, but it’s clear that the real star of the film and the franchise was Herbie. A feisty little car with a... Read more...

American Dreamer, 1984

  Turns out, imagined intrigue is just as dangerous as the real thing. Some films will just always remind you of home, either because you watched them as a child or because of the warm relationships they depict. American Dreamer, starring JoBeth Williams and Tom Conti, takes the audience on a whirlwind chase through Paris, but will always remind me of home. Cathy Palmer is a stay-at-home mother of two who dreams of a more exciting life. When she wins a short story contest writing in the style of her... Read more...

Curio & Co. at Comic-Con 2012

Pack your bags, we're heading to San Diego, California! The uneven bars have the Olympics, dogs have the Westmister Kennel Club. For the entertainment industry, the big show is Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. The show notoriously sells out almost a year in advance, and you'll bump into more people on Saturday afternoon at Comic-Con than most of us will meet in our entire lives. As far as big shows go, it's pretty big. As you can imagine, we're getting pretty excited. We've got everything all boxed up in... Read more...

Slip 'n Slide, 1961

Nothing says “summer” like a trip down the Slip ‘n Slide. You need a running start to get the best slide – at least six steps and then a loud whoop as you hit the plastic. After that, just hope it doesn’t end right at the driveway. For most of us growing up, summer meant Slip ‘n’ Slides. With just that thin yellow plastic and a garden hose, your backyard was transformed into a water park (though after an entire day, it looked more like a muddy swamp). Today we... Read more...

The Sears & Roebuck Catalog, 1893-1993

  From clothing to carriages and bridles to beaver traps, if it wasn’t in the catalog, it probably didn’t exist. In the late 1800s, it was difficult for rural Americans to get the supplies they needed for a price they could afford. Monthly trips into town to visit the General Store and farmers still couldn’t get everything they needed or wanted. In 1888, a railroad station agent in Minnesota changed all of that. That year, Richard Sears bought an unwanted shipment of watches and sold them to other station agents for a... Read more...

Curio & Co. at the American Library Association

  You can’t avoid “overdue” jokes at the biggest library conference. Here at Curio & Co. we love a good library. Shelves and shelves of books, helpful staff who can answer any question, and those crinkly book covers – what’s not to love? We’ve toured beautiful libraries in Europe that are practically museum pieces themselves (Margie’s a sucker for those ladders that slide along the shelves), but sometimes a hometown library is best. So naturally we’re pleased as punch to be taking part in the American Library Association’s annual conference... Read more...

Rat Pack Vegas: Ocean’s 11 (1960)

  Hitting the town with Frank, Dean and Sammy There’s probably no crime that elicits more sympathy than robbing a casino. When the house always wins, a person can develop a strong sense of revenge. So for one of the best heist movies to be set in Las Vegas is no surprise. But for that film to star the complete Rat Pack brings a ton of cool to the dry desert. The Rat Pack was a major producer of cool. Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Dean Martin, together with... Read more...

Please Mr. Postman

In this world of technology, is there anything better than receiving real mail?   NASA may be the coolest government agency (hello, space food!), but the post office is still our favorite. Who else brings delightful missives from friends and love ones? True, the postman brings bills and jury duty notices and chain letters (actually, does anyone send those by post anymore?). And most packages today go by outside carriers. But when it comes to birthday cards wishing you many happy returns or postcards “wishing you were here”, the postman... Read more...

Gadabout TM-1050 in Believer Magazine

  The Gadabout hits newsstands this month in a review by Stephen Burt. Our favorite literary magazine, The Believer, has published a review of the Gadabout TM-1050 Time Machine Manual in the June issue. Written by Stephen Burt – poet, literary critic, Harvard University professor – the article is thoughtful and interesting and funny, everything you’d expect from the Believer and McSweeney’s. The fact that it’s about the Gadabout is almost a bonus. There’s a preview of the article online, but you’ll have to go to the print issue to... Read more...

The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, 1960

Comedy gold, one phone call at a time. Bob Newhart is certainly the world’s most successful former accountant. His debut comedy album, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, was the first comedy album to win a Grammy award for Album of the Year, and he is the only comedian to win for Best New Artist. Billboard Magazine lists the album as the 20th best-selling album of all time. Not bad for a guy onstage with a prop phone. As a kid, I learned a lot about history through my parents’... Read more...

Lights, camera, popcorn!

  Celebrating the real star of the silver screen. Popcorn and entertainment have long been partners. As early as 1870, popcorn was a common staple at stadiums and parks in the United States. Popcorn in the cinema really took off during the Great Depression; because of its cheap price it was an affordable luxury for audiences. Sold for 5 or 10 cents during the 1930s, popcorn now costs half the ticket price in cinemas, sometimes more. Why the sky-high prices? Popcorn and other concessions are the cinema’s main source of... Read more...

How to Steal a Million, 1966

  A terrific how-to for film or fashion. How to Steal a Million is a perfect film. It’s a heist caper, first of all, and those are always perfect. (I’ve never met a heist film I didn’t like – except maybe Art Heist with one of the lesser Baldwins.) So let’s start with the heist: Stealing a work of art from a museum. Check. A forgery. Check. Using human nature to do it under the guards’ noses. Check. This film pretty much hits all my heist buttons. The fact that... Read more...

Modern, stone-age branding

  The Flintstones characters are (bed)rock-solid salesmen. The Flintstones haven't gone out of popularity since they first came on screens in 1960, so the characters have graced a wide variety of merchandise. While candy seems such a natural fit for cartoon characters, you have to wonder why this particular company didn't go for "rock" candy. Wouldn't that make the most sense?  At least the product most associated with the Flintstones is a little healthier. Flintstones vitamins were introduced in 1968, after the show had already been off the air for... Read more...

Schrödinger’s Saturday Night Fever

  At last, the scientific community has made sense of the John Travolta “classic.” It’s a familiar story: you exit the cinema with a friend after seeing the latest cinematic clunker only to hear your friend exclaim, “That was the best movie ever!” Huh? Were you both watching the same film? Science has a principle that can finally tackle this question: Schrödinger’s Saturday Night Fever. Okay, so it’s not exactly science. It’s what passes for science in the books of Jasper Fforde. In Fforde’s Thursday Next series, the world is... Read more...

E.T., the flop

    Take one mega-blockbuster, put it in the hands of the leading video game manufacturer, and you’ll end up with a sure-fire winner, right? E.T. opened in June 1982 to immediate success. By the end of its first theatrical run it had grossed over $600 million worldwide. A video game based on the film, timed for a Christmas release, should have been a no-brainer. So how did one of the biggest films in box office history turn into the biggest video game flop ever, forcing Atari out of business... Read more...

WonderCon 2012 Round-up!

   Who couldn't use a dose of Stan Lee?  WonderCon's always got you covered. What a terrific WonderCon! Many die-hard WonderCon fans were worried about the show's move from San Francisco to Anaheim. While it's true that we missed seeing our friends in the bay area, we thought Anaheim was a great location for the show. The Southern California location attracted a lot of people from the entertainment industry, and there were so many wonderful artists to meet. We were very happy that animation director John Musker stopped by the... Read more...

Ready for WonderCon?

  The books are boxed and our bags are packed; Anaheim Convention Center, here we come! The excitement level at the office is rising as we get ready for WonderCon 2012. If you're heading to the conference - and why wouldn't you? There's so much to see and so many great artists to talk to - stop by and see us at the Curio & Co. booth. You can find us at SP 56. We'll have special sneak peek copies of Time for Frank and His Friend, deadstock copies of... Read more...

Civil War - Back to the Battlefield

  Drama, special effects, rounds of applause. Forget Broadway, try Gettysburg. Civil War re-enactments might sound like a just a bunch of history buffs with guns, but you couldn't be more wrong. Some of us in the office took a trip to the Annual Spring Civil War Re-enactment at the Vista California Antique Gas and Steam Museum (with Margie in a full hoop-skirt, naturally), where there was something for everyone.  It might have been brother against brother during the war, but the re-enactments are as welcoming as can be. We... Read more...

Curio & Co. discussion panel at WonderCon

  Join us for a discussion on ‘The Myth of Nostalgia’ We’re thrilled to be putting together a discussion panel at this year’s WonderCon – and we hope you all can join us. The topic of the panel is ‘The Myth of Nostalgia’ – a topic near and dear to our hearts.  We’ll be discussion collecting and memory with out good friends Pete Maresca (from Sunday Press Books) and artist James T. Walker (from pretty much all your favorite animated shows). How does nostalgia for certain periods of time go... Read more...

Congratulations to Wired.com Geek Dad winner!

  Congratulations to Larry from Pennsylvania, the randomly selected winner of the Gadabout TM 1050 User’s Manual. Thanks to our Geek Dad friends at Wired.com for hosting the contest – everyone’s comments were so terrific to read, that I’m glad we didn’t have to be the ones to pick one winner at random.  We’ve sent off the manual, and depending on whether the post office uses a Gadabout, Larry will have already finished reading it! 

Angoulême International Comics Festival in France - with Tintin, Asterix and Art Spiegelman!

  A week of French food, French wine, and French comics – Vive la bande dessinée! You would hardly think the small town of Angoulême could hold such a big festival.  But the Angoulême International Comics Festival is big.  With 21 exhibition areas, the 4-day event drew over 200,000 comic fans from all over the world.  The festival is the largest in Europe, and one of the largest in the world.  And with such a high profile, the festival brings in some amazing artists.  The guest of honor for this... Read more...

Win a Gadabout User’s Manual from Wired.com!

   Let's face it - we've all thought about using time travel to win contests. Our GeekDad friends over at Wired.com are hosting a contest to give away a copy of the Gadabout TM 1050 User’s Manual. All you have to do to win is visit the post and leave a comment saying how you would use the Gadabout time machine. The contest is open until 11:59pm Pacific Time, Wednesday, February 8, and the winner will be announced at the end of the week. Remember, the Gadabout’s manual specifically states... Read more...

Curio & Co. in Angoulême

We travel to France for the largest comics festival in Europe. Angoulême is France’s capital of comics, animation and visual arts.  The city is home to the Angoulême International Comics Festival, Europe’s largest event dedicated to comics attracting nearly a quarter of a million international visitors.  Curio & Co. will be there with a booth in Le Nouveau Monde section (F18, BD Alternative, Nouveau Monde, Place New York).  We’re pretty excited. Though the festival only lasts about a week, the city has plenty to over comics fans year-round.  There’s la... Read more...

Happy Birthday Hayao Miyazaki!

  Grab a slice of birthday cake to celebrate our favorite anime director. January 5th is the 71st birthday of Hayao Miyazaki – writer, animator and director working in the industry for over 50 years. Miyazaki began working in 1961 as an in-betweener for Toei Animation.  He established his own studio, Studio Ghibli, in 1985 where he produced most of his best-known work: Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away (for which he won the 2003 Oscar for Best Animated Feature). But here at Curio & Co., our... Read more...

Holy rhyme scheme, Batman!

A poem for a Robin figurine Robin, dear Robin, where have you been? You're beat up and scratched, with a faded grin. I only mention it because we all care, But you're looking a little the worse for wear. Did the Penguin find you and turn up the heat? Because you have holes in the bottom of both of your feet. Did you fall for another of the Joker's pranks? Because there's a hole in your head that's fit for a crank. Did you learn that the Riddler's jokes aren't... Read more...

We'll miss Bil Keane

  The Family Circus lost its ringleader, and the Sunday Funnies lost its heart. Since 1960, The Family Circus has brought sweet family moments and childlike humor to 1,500 newspapers around the world.  The strip, featuring the antics of Billy, Dolly, Jeffy, and little PJ celebrated the closeness of the family - even when that closeness led to chaos. Bil Keane was a self-taught artist, learning to draw by studying the cartoons in the New Yorker in the 1930s.  He began drawing his own cartoons while still in high school,... Read more...

Salzburg, 'Cause It's Cool'

The Sound of Music was in the air Over the weekend, Mr. Druthers attended a conference in Salzburg on Is It 'Cause It's Cool?' organized by University of Vienna & Saarland University, put together by the Austrian Association of American Studies.  "Salzburg is just so charming, and especially at this time of the year… You should have seen the colors of the changing leaves..." All day he spoke like this around the office in a soft, faraway voice.  He went around the office sneaking behind people, jokingly poking with his... Read more...

Boba Fett clones everywhere!

Costumes Costume Costumes It seems that there's absolutely no way of going to a trade show/comic convention without being ambushed by Boba Fett clones.  Stormtroopers are everywhere!  Lucca Comics and Games 2011 was no exception.  Even though we have to say that our favorite costumes at the show were: a Spaceman Jax that Philip La Carta would've been proud of, and a Calvin and Hobbes that Bill Watterson would've been proud of.   Both costumes appeared from the never-ending crowd as we were swamped by gamers (we were next to... Read more...

Lucca Comics

   Curio & Co. is headed to Lucca Comics - will we see you there? Lucca Comics and Games is one of the most popular comic conventions in the world, and it's certainly popular with our staff.  Launched in 1966, it's one of the oldest too and draws top names in comics and gaming.   The fair itself is right in the heart of the historic old town (the city was founded by the Etruscans, but doesn't look a day older than 1100 years) and when you're not goo-goo-eyed over the... Read more...

Who's up for a contest?

  They say there's not such thing as a free lunch, but they didn't say anything about free collectibles! Our friends over at Kollectible Kulture are hosting a contest to give away one copy of the Gadabout time machine user’s manual.  Number 100, in fact. All you have to do to enter is head over to their site and leave a comment on the contest post telling us about one of your childhood memories featuring one of our products. Entries will be judged by our CEO Elmer Druthers (who you... Read more...

Frankenweenie 1984-2012

Oh no he's not R.I.P., he's rising from the grave on Oct. 5, 2012 Woo-hoo!  Tim Burton is coming back to stop motion animation. From the Frankenweenie short to a full-length stop motion feature, Frankenweenie will be back or at least properly released on the big screen for the first time on October 5, 2012. And believe it or not, the production also marks one of the rare occasions in which Johnny Depp is not part of the production, but it does bring back some of the old crew from... Read more...

The faces and bodies of Frankenstein's monster

38 faces & 42 interpretations, adaptations of Frankenstein's looks Charles Ogle was the first face of Frankenstein for the first adaptation of Frankenstein (1910), which believe it or not it was produced by Edison Studios. Yes! Thomas Edison the inventor.  Here are the ones that followed: Boris Karloff - as Monster -  Frankenstein (1931) , Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Son of Frankenstein (1939) Lon Chaney, Jr. - as Monster - Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) Glenn Strange - as Monster - House of Frankenstein (1944), Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) Christopher... Read more...

Saul Bass - The Shining (1980)

  Saul's work shining again and again and again Continuing looking at Saul Bass's work. Stanley Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's book The Shining is a masterpiece of modern horror.  We started connecting some dots and remembering:  The Comedy of The Shining - trailer The Horror of The Shining - trailer When was the last time that you saw a good poster that made use of only 2 colors and using tone only as an attention grabber!.  Saul's work really has soul. DID YOU KNOW THAT: The opening panorama shots never used in The Shining were then... Read more...

Guerre Stellari for A Fistful of Dollars

  Not the poster you were looking for As Louis Smeedley was doing research on our recent post "Is Star Wars George Lucas's Fantasia?" he came across this Italian poster of Star Wars (1977) (Guerre Stellari).  Illustrated by Michelangelo Papuzza there seems to be little available on the net about this artist, much to our dismay.  What we did find is a that he also painted the posters for Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars - Per un Pugnio di Dollari (1964). DID YOU KNOW THAT: A Fistful of Dollars was originally... Read more...

Sherlock Holmes, Private Life or A Game of Shadows

  Elementary Watson! So we were doing research looking at Billy Wilder and then the new Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Homes: A Game of Shadows caught our eye.  It will be hitting theatres on December 16, 2011.  Brace yourselves for the impact! Getting back to the research…Take a look at the trailer for The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.  You can see how much info and detail was carried over into Guy Ritchie's reboot version.  The trailer itself has a full narrative and you really notice an emotional change from the beginning of it to the end.... Read more...

Another Saul Bass home run - Love in the afternoon (1957)

  SAUL CONTRIBUTION TO THE FILM INDUSTRY AGAIN. Selling a movie  with the name of the cast is not news - producers, distributors, and investors push it all the time. But here with Love in the Afternoon (1957), Saul Bass does it with a command of design, with style! Would you trade this for some floating heads? And, yes Mr. Bass worked often with Billy Wilder in his career. DID YOU KNOW THAT: Maurice Chevalier used to be a farmer before he engaged in acrobatics and cabaret, he then landed... Read more...

Saul Bass Designer Galore - One, Two, Three (1961)

Saul Contribution to the Film Industry. How about some basic design! Saul Bass really knew his A, B, C's of design, and he's definitely showing it in One, Two, Three (1961) a crazy Billy Wilder comedy.

A good time for toys

  Don’t you just love it when two of your favorites come together? We couldn’t be more thrilled that Swiss watchmaker Swatch has teamed up with vinyl art toy specialist Kidrobot for a special collection of watches and toys.  The collection combines Swatch’s classic ‘Gent’ watch with Kidrobot’s ‘Dunny’ – an iconic and customizable 3-inch vinyl toy.  Put these in the hands of exceptional artists: Gary Baseman, Jeremyville, Frank Kozik, Joe Ledbetter, MAD, Tara McPherson, SSUR, and Tilt and you’ve got a great combo! Kidrobot and Swatch asked each of... Read more...

Comic-Con 2011 Round Up - Part 2

Everywhere you looked at Comic-Con 2011, you were surrounded by legends. We all had our “you won’t believe what just happened to me” moments.  Mr. Druthers discovered that he and Darnell Duffy attended the same summer camp and both went home early covered in poison ivy.  For Louis it was getting to inspect not one, but two DeLoreans.  He gave them a good once over to see how they compared to the Gadabout, but he was probably prouder of the picture of him in the driver’s seat. And of course,... Read more...

Comic-Con 2011 Round Up – Part 1

Fans of Comic books, films, and the popular arts invaded San Diego again, in a big way. Comic-Con gets bigger every year. Between all the panels and the costumes and all the great stuff in the exhibit hall, sometimes it’s hard to know what to do first. For Margie, first on the list was trying to run over to the booth for the new TV show Pan-Am to try to score one of those retro flight bags they had. She’s a sucker for vintage travel glamour and if the show... Read more...

Time for something very different

Need a little extra time in your day?  We might just be able to help. The buzz you’ve heard is true.  Yes, we’ve got a 1950s manual for a Cudworth-Hooper product.  And yes, that product is a time machine. Cudworth-Hooper products are everywhere.  We just didn’t realize that they were also everywhen.  We’re always excited about an auction that includes ‘printed ephemera.’  You might find printed souvenirs for world fairs and expositions, programs and tickets for early films or advertisments and posters.  What we found in a recent auction were... Read more...

Something for everyone at the big show

  THE BEST PART OF COMIC-CON?  THE STARS?  THE COSTUMES? THE GOODIE BAGS? For us at Curio & Co. the highlight of the summer is always Comic-Con.  There’s so much to see and do when we’re there: from panels and discussions to costumes and fan meet-ups, and of course the treasures in the exhibit hall.  There’s truly something for everyone.  Once we’re back in the office and compare notes, it’s almost as if everyone’s seen a separate side of Comic-Con. So we asked around the office for some favorite memories... Read more...

Has Comic-Con still got it?

   With several big studios skipping the ‘Con this year, has Hollywood lost interest in comic fans? Blogs have been a-buzz since the New York Times published a story last month warning of the absence of movie studios at Comic-Con.  Should fans be worried? Not at all. Of course, it’s true that Disney, DreamWorks, and Warner Brothers have all decided not to stage big presentations for films at this year’s Comc-Con.  Recent films haven’t lived up to expectations and the poor performance of films such as “Sucker Punch” and to... Read more...

Summertime Splash

  Well, the days are longer, Margie’s obsessing about the temperature, and we’re packing for Comic-Con – so it must be summer! From tiny squirt pistols to water balloon bandoliers, nothing kicks off summer like a good water fight.  But for such a universally simple premise – soak your adversaries before they soak you – there’s a surprisingly complex history behind the armaments. After a cupped hand full of water, a water balloon is maybe the most basic weapon in water combat.  Simply fill an empty balloon with water and... Read more...

Souvenirs and sweet memories

What do you bring back from your travels for friends and family? Jay recently came back from Eastern Europe and brought back some fun chocolates and candy bars for everyone in the office (which of course means mostly for Margie), and it got us thinking about souvenirs. By very definition, souvenirs are little packable memories that you can bring back to remember your trip – where you went, what you saw.  Most of us keep small souvenirs to remember special trips, maybe in scrap books or photo albums.    But... Read more...

Thanks for your support.

  Voting for the Eisner Awards has closed, and we wanted to thank all of your for your support of our nominated book, Finding Frank and His Friend. We’re really looking forward to the award ceremony that will be held on Friday July 22nd as part of Comic-Con.  We can’t wait to meet the other nominees (can you believe that terrific list of talent?) and celebrate everyone’s amazing work.  And Margie, of course, loves anything with the word “gala” in it. Comic-Con itself is always a blast.  Every year we... Read more...

Friends help your collections add up

  Sometimes you start a collection, sometimes they’re started for you. Margie never intended to collect calculators.  But one day when she discovered an error in Jay’s expense report that resulted in a little extra cash in his pocket, he thanked her with a calculator-shaped chocolate bar.  Later on her birthday, he revived the gag with a monogrammed calculator.  Then of course, the way these things always progress, the idea took off with the rest of the office, and a collection was born. As soon as friends think that you... Read more...

It takes all sorts (or Allsorts?)

   One man’s treasure, so they say, is another man’s junk.  Collecting pop culture – especially when they’re cult objects – means collecting things other people think are, well garbage.  Movie posters from the 1920s?  Original packaging for a 1960s Barbie doll?  Boxes of Sunington Morn cereal with Spaceman jax on them?  All coveted by some people, yet deemed clutter by others.  Heck, even the original creators didn’t expect that they’d survive! But some of these impermanent things somehow escaped destruction by others, and the fact that they made it,... Read more...

Back to the Future of the Past

An upcoming exhibition at the British Library looks at our past visions of the future through the history of Science Fiction. From technological utopias to robotic uprisings, Science Fiction gives us a pretty clear look at our own society.  Though seemingly about the future (or events that took place long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away), Science Fiction has always recorded the dreams and fears of the present day.  We dream of new societies and new social structures that relieve poverty, hunger and disease; and we imagine new... Read more...

Just our cup of tea!

  The cutest little vinyl toys, along with their custom-brewed friends, are on tour now.  Don’t miss the Mini Tea Tour if you can help it! Lunartik’s Mini Tea Tour features more than 70 custom works of art created from Matt JOnes’s toy, Lunartik in a Cup of Tea.  The show starts off in Europe, will be in the US this summer, and will end the year in London. These little cups of cuteness sure don’t require any sugar – they’re sweet enough!  The little wide-eyed critters (which come in... Read more...

Don't forget to vote!

  The history of election ballots and voting machines is a lesson in ingenuity. The humble election ballot has a rich history – starting with the ballota, or “small colored ball” voters dropped into a candidate’s clay pot and which gives our modern ballots their names.  The first lever voting machine debuted in New York in 1892.  The machine used a mechanical lever, assigned to each candidate.  Voters pulled the lever for the desired candidate, and the machine reordered each vote, along with the total number of people who voted. ... Read more...

“It’s an honor just to be nominated.”

  We’ve been hitting the cake pretty hard since the Eisner Award Nominees were announced last week and Finding Frank and His Friend was among the books chosen. The nominees represent a wide range of really stunning work.  From Juanjo Guarnido’s work on Blacksad, Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys and, of course, Mike Mignola’s covers – it’s an impressive list to be on. Our Finding Frank and His Friend is nominated for the category Best Graphic Album – New.  Voting, which will begin this month, is open to comics creators,... Read more...

WonderCon wrap up

  Mondays are no one’s favorite day of the week, but when it means no more WonderCon, a Monday is especially disappointing. We had such a great time in San Francisco at this year’s WonderCon.  We saw terrific art, met a lot of great people, and ate the best sandwiches of our lives! If you haven’t seen Tiny Kitten Teeth, you should hurry up and check them out.  Their work is adorable and hilarious, and Becky and Frank are just as nice as could be.  But don’t take our word... Read more...

Come see us at WonderCon!

  We arrived to absolutely beautiful weather in San Francisco – lots of sun and the bluest sky.  It’s a good thing that there’s so much to see at the Moscone Center, otherwise we’d want to be outside this weekend.  If you’re in San Francisco this weekend (and with this weather, you should be), you should definitely visit WonderCon.  There are so many exciting guests (we’re getting our autograph book ready) and we can’t wait to do a little shopping in the Exhibit Hall and pick up some souvenirs.  ... Read more...

On a Secret Mission

  At Curio & Co. we take silly very seriously. After all, most of what we collect so passionately – animation artwork, movie memorabilia, comic books and more – were originally created to thrill, entertain and just be downright fun.  So we’ve got a lot of fun things around the office. But one of us has been on a secret mission to further surprise and delight all of us at the office.  These little Lego army men from Toy Story 3 showed up in the office around December, presumably on... Read more...

Planning a day off at San Francisco’s WonderCon?

  We can’t wait to visit our favorite City by the Bay for this year’s WonderCon.  The conference promises to be terrific – have you seen the list of special guests? – and WonderCon’s size makes it perfect for connecting with people. But we’re also looking forward to some off-duty fun in San Francisco.  What’s on our to-do list?  We’ll be sure to pay our respects to the Comic Rockstars Toilet Seat Museum at the Isotope Comic Book Lounge.  (I’m sure you already know that the Isotope is one of... Read more...

Making Connections at Comic-Con

  As the recent ticketing fiasco demonstrates, Comic-Con is getting a little crazy.  There are so many people there that it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle, and it’s getting harder and harder to make connections with people. But those brief connections make a difference.  We’ve always had a terrific time at Comic-Con, and we’ve been lucky to meet a lot of great people who take the time to stop by the booth (Tim Walker, Marcelo Vignali, Wil Wheaton, the one and only Mitch Van Danderson!).  There’s so much... Read more...

Best of Frank and His Friend

Pouring over the new images in Finding Frank and His Friend, we’ve started reminiscing about our favorite ones from the past. We asked some of the folks around the office who were responsible for getting this beautiful book out, what their favorite classic strips were: Bert’s favorite from the old panels is the surprise party.  “I remember trying to throw myself a surprise party as a kid, but it didn’t quite work out as well.” Hildy claims the ‘Hurry up or we won’t have time to wait’ panel was the... Read more...

Sweets for the Sweet

Margie likes her candy bars. A lot. But she makes a point not to eat them “just because” or “whenever she wants to”.  Instead, she seeks out new candy bars to try so that it’s not snacking, it’s “research” or “adding to her collection”. She does a lot of research. So whenever one of us comes back from a trip away, she’s the first one to greet us at the office door.  Oh, she’s pleased to see us alright.  But she’s also pleased as punch to get a new candy... Read more...

Laramie recommends: Vienna

It’s raining lightly in Vienna as I write this.  But isn’t that the best weather in which to poke around in small shops? Ned and I are in Austria for the 2011 Knickknacks and Novelties Convention (as part of the world-wide Year of the Snow Globe).  And between the panels on Lava Lamps and sourcing originals from the Atlas Crystal Works, we found some time to mosey through one of our favorite cities. The other day we wandered into BilderBox on Kirchengasse, which is an airy little gem of a... Read more...

A New Look for the New Year

We’ve been updating our site with a brand new look, just in time for New Year’s. When your business is collecting, you’ve got to update the system every few years. Take Ned’s record collection: he’s got more LPs than anyone around (a copy each of the 16 international releases of Halifax), but he doesn't keep a list of them on floppy disks anymore.  You can’t protect the memories of yesterday without moving into the future of tomorrow.  Even history gets updated every few years. In fact, that’s one of the... Read more...

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DETAILS?

Cars don’t have amazing grills anymore.  Men don’t wear dapper hats.  Homes aren’t constructed with those great built-ins.  What happened to all the details? Here at Curio & Co., we spend a lot of time in the past - understandable given the fantastic products we handle on a daily basis - but we also look forward to the future, and to the return of details that make design so lasting.

FINDING LOST TREASURES

Thinking about these illustrations from Frank and his Friend hiding in the garage for the last 30 years still has us reeling.  How many times did we close the Completely Final and Absolute Anthology of Frank and his Friend and wish that there were more?  Hundreds of times, I’m sure.  And if we’d known that these were waiting for us, what would we have done to find them?  Melvin Goodge, Professor of Speech Bubbles at the Huntley Smoot University of Comic Sciences and Dooley expert, sums it up best: “Thinking... Read more...

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Hand holding Time For Frank & His Friend paperback book - Ringer Publishing - Frank held up by the kid hosing water under him - comic strip

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