Sunday, May 24, 2015

Aviators of the Golden Age of Comics Cover Gallery

An amazing assortment of aviators who flew thru the four-color pages of the Golden Age of Comics including AirBoy...
...The Black Commander (who appeared with AirBoy in Air Fighters Comics!)
...Captain Aero...
...Captain Flight...
...and Captain Wings!
BTW, did we mention that ALL these covers (and seven more including Captain MidNight) are available on our Aviators of the Golden Age of Comics 2015-2016 12-Month Calendar? ;-)

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Design of the Week "United We Stand"

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
This week: A vintage painting showing the WWII-era 48-star flag with a sunrise in the background.
A tad kitschy, but stirring, and a reminder of an America that once stood for Truth and Justice.
The perfect gift for Flag Day (June 14th)!

Friday, May 22, 2015

1981: When Disney Met Star Wars in TomorrowLand...

Long before Disney bought LucasFilm...
...they took a shot at doing a Star Wars-style property!
Before the Disney Channel and Radio Disney, the marketers at The House of Mouse would occasionally try to tie-in with popular trends.
Halyx, a pop-rock band that performed at TomorrowLand in the early 1980s was one such attempt.
And, being Disney, it was no half-baked, quickie tie-in, but an example of the Imagineering crew at its' best.
You can read about the creation and implementation of the project (by one of the participants no less) HERE and HERE.
Here's the band performing (audio with still photos)...

Too bad they don't even make a cameo in the new film TomorrowLand...

Thursday, May 21, 2015

TomorrowLand...the Way It Was!

Here's some kool posters from the early days of Disneyland's TomorrowLand...
...giving you a taste of the superb then-futuristic graphic sensibility that dominated the theme park.
The future was fantastic back then...
It's the same "feel" they're going for in the new flick!

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Reading Room DONALD DUCK IN DISNEYLAND "TomorrowLand" Conclusion

...the Disney cartoon characters are given total access to Disneyland the day before it officially opens.
Splitting up to visit the various sections, Mickey Mouse and his nephews Morty and Ferdie go to TomorrowLand and meet Gyro Gearloose, who rigs the Rocket to the Moon flight simulator to actually work!
On the Moon, they run into the villainous Black Pete who stole Gearloose's spare space-travel device...
Yes, it's the "It was all a dream!" plotline!
Written by Carl Fallberg, penciled by Tony Strobl, inked by John Liggera (all of whom had extensive experience working on Disney characters), this section of the 100-page 25 cent comic Donald Duck in Disneyland is a classic example of Disney's knack for cross-media marketing for promotional purposes.
In fact, it was so effective that, when DisneyWorld opened in Florida in 1971, most of this issue (including this chapter) was reused in Walt Disney Comics Digest #32 (1971) as promotion for DisneyWorld along with new material about the elements of the theme park that differed from Disneyland!
Note: the various Disney characters did not appear in the actual TomorrowLand theme park.
They're just used here to introduce Disney-oriented kids to the concepts promoted by the exhibits.
opens Friday!