There's a Monster at the End of this Book!

There are only a few beloved books from my childhood, but this Little Golden Book featuring my second favorite Sesame Street character, Grover, is a book that I will never forget for the rest of my life. My Mom and I used to sit and read this book together and we would laugh hysterically until tears rolled out.

The story itself is hilarious, the art is exquisite and the twist ending is like a 4-year-old's introduction into Hitchcockian-ism.

I found another copy recently and scanned it it for your enjoyment. So, enjoy... but whatever you, don't turn to the end of the book!

 

 

Artoo & Threepio in "Shiny as a Droid"

I found this book in a used book store a while back and even though it's a little after my time (it was released in 1986, probably in conjunction with the Droids Saturday morning cartoon, by which time I was a little too old for Star Wars kids' books, much less one intended for two-year-olds), I just had to pick it up, give it a scan and post it here to forever record the myriad forms in which Star Wars fandom found its way into kids' hearts and minds.

This is basically one of those baby books, with thick cardboard pages, that has some sort of sensory interactive piece glued into each page that little tots can touch or look at or even smell.

I find the additional monsters odd, which were clearly designed at the whim of the illustrator and make absolutely no attempt to appear as thought they are from the already established, vastly rich and massively populated Star Wars universe, whatsoever. i mean, instead of that big, red Muppet knock-off, just use a Taun Taun! They're fuzzy, too. Or a Dewback for the scaly creature. Maybe there are a couple of Jawas in the rocks, instead of those random chompy plant things.

Whatever. Perhaps I'm looking too deeply into a 30 year old baby book. You be the judge.

The 1976 Superhero Catalog!

Remember those killer, hand-drawn toy ads found in comics books back in the day? Well, this is like and entire comic book of nothing but those ads. I had a blast poring through this book (which I scored a couple of years ago at Emerald City Comic Con), thinking to myself, I want that, and that, and two of those. It's like a 1,000 ton nuclear nostalgia bomb. The prices alone are shocking. No matter how you slice it, 1976 was a good time to be a superhero fan. Enjoy...