Humor Magazines

I am exchanging emails with a person who collects humor magazines as I do. I got to thinking if I was to recommend the cream of the crop to a novice to humor magazine collection, what would I recommend?

Here are my choices:

Mad - 1952-1980
Crazy - 1973-1976; 1980-1983
Sick - 1960-1968
Cracked - 1969-1980
National Lampoon - 1970-1980
Help! - any issue
Trump - any issue
Humbug - any issue
Snafu - any issue
Bananas - any issue

This is not to say I don't like other stuff, this is what I find to be the best. I still buy and read "Mad" to this day, but really only for Sergio Aragones and Al Jaffee and the fact that it's the only one left. Incidentally, I started reading "Mad" in 1974.

Archie Fan Club Button, Part 2

Here's my first experience adding an image to my blog. This is a quickie photo taken with my webcam that shows the three different Archie Fan Club button designs. I'll try to do a photo more often with my blog posts. Enjoy!

Golden Wonder Crisps

Well, you learn something every day. On a recent DVD of "Little Britain", a joke was made about Golden Wonder Crisps. Being a true American, I had never heard of that brand, so I looked it up.

On www.goldenwonder.com, they talk about the products history and how it developed from 1947 to the present and have some adverts from the past. Great stuff!

Anyway, I guess we're just stuck here with Pringle's and Lay's in the good ol' USA!

"Iron Man" Review

Ok, I didn't think I would like this one, but I loved it!! It's just the right amount of humor and seriousness to make a superhero movie work. I didn't want to see it because of being disappointed with too many superhero movies in recent years ("The Fantastic Four" movies, "Ghost Rider", "Daredevil", "Hulk", etc.)

I wasn't even a big fan of the recent "Batman Begins". I know my opinion is a minority opinion, but I found it boring. In fact, when people ask me my favorite Batman movie, I usually say, "The one with Adam West where he wrestles the rubber shark and can't find a place to dispose of a bomb!" Of the more recent ones, I tend to like the Val Kilmer one.

Anyway, "Iron Man" was a surprise because I'm not a huge fan of Robert Downey, Jr., and thought he was a bad choice. I've changed my mind. Also, the director directed "Elf" before, but he did a great job here, too!

There are a couple of funny cameos and some great lines and apart from suspending your belief on some physics issues, it is a great ride. Must see.

Bee Gees

I always kinda hated The Bee Gees with their falsetto singing. Lately, I've been going to the library and checking out various music CDs of artists that I have ignored over the years such as Traffic, Genesis and The Bee Gees.

The Bee Gees album was a greatest hits collection called "Number Ones". I have to say that their earlier stuff from the 60s on the collection is quite good.

Listening again to their blockbuster 70s hits in hindsight is good too, unlike when they were played incessantly on the radio from 1977-79. The composing and orchestration are great.

The problem still is with the singing. Who told The Bee Gees to sing this way? I guess it gave them an identity, but it still is quite annoying 30 years on.

Finally, I will take this opportunity to let everyone know that Andy Gibb was NEVER a member of The Bee Gees. In fact, the rumor persists on non-Bee Gees project. I was watching an animation documentary by the people who did the opening credits animation for the film "Grease" and they said Andy Gibb wrote the song. Andy had nothing to do with this song, as it was Barry Gibb who wrote it (Frankie Valli sang it, incidentally).

Underdog help

Just FYI. I am still feverishly working on my Total TeleVision book and would love to know if you have any rare artifacts from the following shows:

King Leonardo
Tooter Turtle
The Hunter
Twinkles
Go-Go Gophers
Tennessee Tuxedo
Klondike Kat
Commander McBragg
Underdog
The Beagles
The Sing-a-long Family
Cauliflower Cabby
Gene Hattree
The Colossal Show

I am especially interested in scans of original art or scripts or photos of memorabilia particularly from the 1960s. Email me here or at thft@att.net if you have anything of interest.

Archie Fan Club Button

I realized that there are not two, but THREE Archie Fan Club buttons produced over the years.

FYI, here's the date range for the Archie buttons:

1. 1950s-1971 - Says "Member Archie Club" with Archie in a bow-tie.

2. 1972-1973 - Says "Member Archie Club" with Archie's head only in updated drawing.

3. 1974-1990s - Says "Official Member Archie Club" with Archie's head only and "Archie Club" in balloon lettering.

#3 is easy to find. #1 is a little bit harder, but it's #2 that's the difficult one as it was only available for two years!!

I finally purchased #2, so now my collection is complete!!