Kay Stanley's Model-Craft - Box Insert Catalog from 1950

 

Kay Stanley's Model-Craft - Catalog from 1951

 I've been doing a lot of scanning recently for another project, and have come across several Model-Craft catalogs.  Seemed like a good way to restart this blog.

Here's a little something on Kay Stanley and Model-Craft from my in-progress "Alice in Wonderland" book .

Prototype Playboy Femlin

In my previous post I showed you all the set of four fabulous Femlins from the Playboy Club in 1961.  As some of you may know, Playboy created a few additional models for use on the cover of the magazine, but were never commercially available.  What I have today is a prototype of a Femlin, either for one of these cover shoots or perhaps for an unproduced commercial figure.  We may never know exactly what its intended use was, but it sure is cool to look at.

Playboy Femlins

So, yeah, it's been a hundred years since I posted anything here, but as with all else, life finds a way - in this case to derail all my various past-times.  But, fear not, I aim to post here periodically when I can, and I can think of no better topic with which to re-start than Playboy Femlins.

Full Set of Playboy Femlins - Collection of the author

The Femlin (female gremlin) was created by LeRoy Neiman and first appeared in Playboy in August 1955 on the jokes page.  She was never not in an issue after that.  These figures however appeared much later.  When Hef started the Playboy Clubs in February 1960, these figures were available in the gift shop, and later by mail order from the magazine.

Kneeling Femlin with Playboy Club Key - Collection of the author

 There appear to be two different editions of these elusive little figures, presumably because of production problems.  One variation generally tends to retain its bright white skin tone, but is very prone to crazing.  These appear to be painted wood or some other material.  The other variation is almost always found with a more ivory appearance, and these seem to be some sort of resin-like material.  These do not typically have the crazing problem the other variation has.

Prone Femlin - Collection of the author

As you might expect, fingers, toes, and heels are very fragile and are many times found repaired or missing altogether.  All except the standing figure are very stable and have no issues sitting quietly on a shelf, but the standing figure more often than not is slightly off-balance and needs a little shimming to remain stable.

Reclining Femlin - Collection of the author

These are really rare.  In the 30 years that I've been collecting I've seem probably less than 10 of each, with the standing one being by far the rarest.  The kneeling one is by far the most common, probably because that pose was the unofficial emblem of the Playboy Club and I'm sure she far out-sold the others.

Standing Femlin - Collection of the Author

In 2002 Playboy issued a commemorative Femlin figure, in her classic pose sitting in a champagne glass.  While not as whimsical as the original figures, the addition of the prop is classic Femlin.

Albedo NR 2 Silk Screen Cover

So my comic book renaissance geek period continues, and I thought I'd share something that is truly scarce.  As many of you know, I love the independent comic book Albedo, created and published by Steven Gallacci in the mid 1980s through the early 2000s.  And many of you also know that this comic is famous for issue #2, which introduced Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo.  But what many of you may not know, is that issue was supposed to have a silk-screened cover!  That's right SAG was pushing the boundaries of not only comic content, but publishing style and format too.  Sadly, the process did not work and the cover ended up being standard offset printed, but during the initial production process SAG printed some copies on card stock as a test.  Again most did not turn out, but those that did he offered to collectors.  And this is one of them.

You can see the problems with registration and spattering (and this is a GOOD one),  What's neat about this copy, is that SAG wrote a note on the back detailing what happened,

So there you have it, Albedo NR 2 almost had a very different cover, see below what a cropped final cover would have looked like.  At least some of these survive so that the dozen or so hard-core Albedo fans know what they looked like ;-)

Don't Be a Hurry Bug, Slow Down and Live - 1955 Disney Glass Ashtray

I've never heard of this before. I know that Disney did art for various organizations, most notably LOTS of military units in WWII, and Toys for Tots, but this is the first I've seen of this particular art.

Dated 1955 with a very cartoony bee character, this is a slogan for keeping your driving speed down. Dont' Be a Hurry Bug, Slow Down and Live.

This does retain its label on the back, so we know who manufactured this painted glass ashtray, Houze Art of Point Marion, PA. If anyone has any additional information on this particular campaign I'd be quite interested to know more about it.

Matt Wagner Grendel / Mage Custom Art from 1980s

I've recently been going through all my older comics and comic related art, sort of reliving my early 20s, and I came across this exceptionally cool piece done by Matt Wagner during the height of popularity of his Mage comic and Grendel backup stories.

Coro Advertising Postcard for Paramount Alice in Wonderland Jewelry

Way back in 1996 in the early years of the WWW, I found an image of this postcard while search for 1951 Alice in Wonderland Coro jewelry stuff.  Who knew they also did stuff for the '33 Paramount film?

I later found some of the jewelry, I'll save those for another post.

Albedo 0 - All the Printings

So I'm going through a pretty significant comic book geek period right now, and I decided I'd post my full set of Albedo #0 printings - I'm fortunate enough to have even the elusive 'gold' cover which only had a 50 copy print run.  Enjoy.

1st print first state - so-called 'gold' or 'yellow' cover, only 50 printed before SAG decided it was not coming out the way he wanted.

1st print second state - same as above but with drawing board now without yellow, 450 copies printed.

1st print third state - colors inverted to make it look more like a true blueprint which is what SAG was really going for anyway, 500 copies printed.

2nd print - same as first print but labeled 'second printing' inside, 1000 copies printed.

3rd print - ditto, 1000 copies printed

4th print - reissued to look like the true 1st but with the newly added red price circle.  Also contains Erma content from Huzzah!

Unexpectedly Going to Disneyana Mania this Sunday

Well I didn't think I was, but now I am.  I'll be at the Disneyana Fan Club show and sale this Sunday July 19th.  This year will be a decidedly smaller display, but thanks to the generosity of Erin & Robby I will be there.  Hope to see you too!