Miss Evelyn Leigh Ralliston, of Teaneck, New Jersey winner of the costume contest at the first annual Ectomo Halloween Masquerade Ball, a 1919.

}|{}|{}|{}|{}|{}|{ [retro futurism]

For those who like their canine companion but love their car, Popular Mechanics, circa 1936, has this stupendous invention made, seemingly, just for you. Not so much a sidecar but a burlap sack, attached to your vehicle with c-clamps and hooks, it assures a sense of danger and excitement that your pooch is sure to appreciate as you hurtle down the freeway.

Popular Mechanics magazine: June, 1936. [vintage ads]

She Touching Bottom…In Efficiency [Flickr] uploaded by Fun House : phantomoftheradio

Man that pisses me off. Just the thought of it chaps my ass. Who the fuck do they think they are? I mean, really? Fucking really? They think they’re so fucking cool with their goddamn cool names and pretentious fucking initials. Fuck them; fucking cocksuckers. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK, they piss me off so much. GOD FUCKING DAMMIT WHAT DO THEY HAVE THAT I DON’T! RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU ALL! FUCK YOU AND YOU AND ESPECIALLY YOU, YOU MOTHERFUCKER!

Seriously, I’m out. I’m going the fuck home. You can all blow me.

VINTAGE ADVERTISING OF 50’s AND 60’s [retro_futurism]

It has been a constant struggle in our relationship for my other half and I to reconcile our respective environmental proclivities. I, for example, abhor nature and would not shed a single tear should it be decided that the verdant fields and sweltering jungles be paved over, where she finds the bustling, concrete hives of cities to be a sensory apocalypse of which she wants no part.

This becomes especially evident when we travel. I simply cannot think of a more uninteresting vacation destination than Pangaea. Really, I ask you, besides cowering in fear from the vicious flora and fauna, what is there to do? Lounge around the resort? No, thank you, give me the Outer Colonies. Even future Tokyo, with its loathsome, robot denizens, wins hands down over the unpopulated super continent.

Whichever you prefer, you can remember your trip with these retro-styled time travel posters. 826LA, McSweeney’s non-profit student writing center, is offering five of them. Perfect for you, or the time machine enthusiast in your life.

826LA Store [826LA] : Laughing Squid : your monkey called : Josh Spear

As much as I appreciate the work that has come out of Pixar, Wall-E is the first of their films that I have anticipated. These fantastic, and pricey, retro prints — featuring illustrations by Eric Tan — only increase my desire to see it.

Wall-E Limited Edition Artwork [Acme Direct] : Signalnoise : Monoscope

Sonic Blaster, 1966

The Mattel Agent Zero M Sonic Blaster 5530 fires compressed air with a deafening blast. Our measurements top out at 157 dB–above a level that can do permanent damage to the hearing of an adult. We rate the toy Not Acceptable.

1960-1969 Archive [Consumer Reports] : Laughing Squid

Some examples from a British game, circa 1940, called “Vacuation”; the object of which was to “complete evacuation by discarding every card in the hand.” The packaging reads:

Vacuation
TOPICAL AND FASCINATING
BRITISH MADE
THE GAME OF THE MOMENT
A GAME FOR ALL AGES.

Fun for the whole family!

Vacuation Card Game [Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Cary Playing Cards Database] : Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities

Mago de Oz and Robot, 1920 by Julian Totino Tedesco

Robot 1920 by Sebastiàn Giacobino

A collection of work by seven artists who post illustrations based on a particular, pre-arranged theme.

1 x semana [Artist Collective] : Super Punch

Greg Brothertron creates figures and ray-guns from metal and retro objects, such as an Electrolux vacuum and 1955 DeSoto Fireflite.

Pictured above and continuing after the jump: “Desoto Rising”, “Mercury 5000″, and “Minitron”

Continue Reading…

“Being in demand as an actor hasn’t changed my lifestyle or my Malt Liquor. The Bull. It’s big and bold.”

—Richard Roundtree (Thespian, moustache enthusiast, and Malt Liquor connoisseur.)

Two different replicas of the bipedal land machines employed by intelligent fish for over-land expeditions. Two of the many robot and ray-gun replicas from Builder’s Studio.

Retro Ray Guns Robots Rockets & Other Tech [Flickr] uploaded by Builder’s Studio : Dark Roasted Blend

Wendy and Richard Pini, creators of long-running indy comic series Elfquest, are making the whole caboodle available free of charge at their website. New issues will be posted weekly until 30 years’ worth is online.

Comment from BoingBoing and Metafilter remind us why this is one of the best comics you’ve never heard of, but here’s a quick primer on why it rules.

• With Dave Sim’s Cerebus, it was among the first self-published comics to make it big, booting down the door for new talent the nation over. Its success as a graphic novel in mainstream bookstores helped infect the American mainstream with a European-esque appreciation for comics. Women actually read this. Women.

• Wendy Pini’s art is a melting pot of comics, manga and classical illustration. And she’s been at it since before most people had even heard of manga…

• The feral, omnisexual, hallucinogen-guzzling protagonists aren’t Tolkien-derived clichés, but a freakish medley of european lore, native american myth and hippy free love.

• No superheroes, magic wands or other arbitrary magics. It’s consistently plotted to tight rules of engagement and expertly crafted by the same wife-and-husband team thats been doing little else since 1977.

• It’s a neat blend of high fantasy and science fiction: the “elves” are aliens who wanted to impress us by appearing as angels, but got stuck in a genetic disguise by their slaves’ violent rebellion.

• All the fashions in it are either from the 1970s or the 1930s: everyone is either a pimp in furs and leather or something sculpted by Erté. They just don’t make ‘em like this any more.

• Winnowill is the best arch-villainess since Maleficent Cthulhu.

• It’s not over: the story’s final showdown, the creators write, has been written but not yet published.

• 6,000 pages of full-color classic indy brilliance free of charge. Precedent set.

• Issue #17’s Elf Orgy. If nothing else, a great name for a punk band. (Brownlee has already demanded scans, but I don’t have a copy to hand — any fans out there who can do the honors?)

This grotesque creature inspired a thousand coulrophobic children to imagine a clammy, corpse-white hand grasping them around their ankles and pulling them down into the cold black deep every time they went to the beach: it’s Glurpo, the Underwater Clown! Even his name is the onomatopoeia of a drowning man’s scream.

Glurpo was apparently quite the tourist attraction at the San Marcos Texas “Aquarena,” where — during a sub-aqueous show mostly devoted to bathing suit beauties combing their luscious, liquid hair — he would swim out of an underwater cave and horrify small children by mutely laughing and sucking his insane rictus up against the glass like a parasitic eel.

Glurpo and Glurpo 2 [Swapatorium] : Quiddity

A meeting of the Albuquerque Optimist Club of 1954. Note the banner hanging in the background: “Why wait till 1955? We might not even be alive!”

From this incredibly retarded Vintage Photo thread.