So it's the last day of September, and as anyone who has been following Branded for awhile knows, that means that tomorrow marks the beginning of another annual Countdown to Halloween blog-a-thon!  This will be my fifth year participating, and the second year for newly re-designed Countdown hub website (where you can find over a hundred other sites that are also digging up their coffins and dragging out all their orange and black goodies.)  This year I'm bringing back the 31 Days of Monsters which will showcase another batch of Real Ghostbusters animation cels.  So to kick off that theme I thought I'd share my collection of the 1989 Topps Ghostbusters II sticker cards!

Though I know a lot of people don't seem to care for the Ghostbusters sequel, I can honestly say that after walking out of the theater back in 1989 there was one big smile across my twelve year-old face.   I mean with an animated Statue of Liberty led by a modified NES Advantage controller, references to He-Man, one of my favorite actors at the time Peter MacNicol, pink slime, a Real Ghostbusters cartoon influenced make-over for Janine, Louis in full-on Ghostbusters gear, the ghosts of the Titanic, and the crazy courtroom scene with the Scoleri Brothers, what’s not to love?

As far as this set of sticker cards goes, I am so happy that the Topps designers decided to mostly forgo portrait stickers and stills from the movie in favor of featuring what at the time would have been rare concept art.  My best educated guess is that these paintings were done by Henry Mayo (not the famous doctor, but the 80s/90s era movie concept artist) based on the fact that he designed the Scoleri Brothers and that these are very similar to that original concept art.  There's also the clue of the four-armed, six-eyed specter in the group shot on sticker #2, which matches concept art for the same creature elsewhere.

All in all, this set totally makes up for Topps not covering the first film with a card and sticker set, at least in my book.  I wonder if Mayo did any concept art for the ghostly baby-snatching version of Janosz?

Anyway, get ready everyone, because tomorrow marks the beginning of the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters here at Branded in the 80s.com!

After the disappointing release of the Warner Brothers Saturday Moring Cartoons: 1980s earlier this year, I've been in kind of a cartoon on DVD funk.  Included on that set was a single episode of the series Thundarr the Barbarian, which though I had fond memories of watching it as a kid, I didn't realize just how damn cool that show was until rewatching that one episode.  Because Warners was moving away from full series and season on DVD in favor of cheaper anthology releases, I figured I'd never get a chance to see the rest of the episodes in a format that I really love.

Well, I'm really happy to say that my funk has been broken because the Warner Archive Collection, the company's print-on-demand arm, has announced that the complete Thundarr the Barbarian will be shipping starting today, September 28th, 2010!

I was excited a year or so ago when the WAC first launched as I was hoping to secure copies of some out-of-print flicks on DVD, but I didn't hold out any hope that they'd start releasing TV boxsets, let alone of classic cartoons.  But last month saw the WAC release of long overdue series on DVD from the 90s, Pirates of Dark Water…

…and from what I've gathered from the WAC twitter feed, it looks like a slew of other cartoons are also headed to the POD format…

"We have only just begun to delve into the animation library!  We've got a few more series in 2010, +/- 2/month planned in 2011"

Also slated for release are Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space and the 1973 Addams Family cartoon.   The idea that they're also planning on around two additional releases per month next year is fantastic!  Do I hear releases of the Herculoids, Grape Ape, Speed Buggy, Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles, and Mr. T on the horizon?  I sure hope so!

I'm stoked because aside from the looming Halloween season, we're getting closer and closer to the first Up! Fair!  I'm so excited to be a part of the organizational committee for this event as I really do believe that it's going to help provide a much more positive experience for independent publishers than most artist alleys at the standard comics and zine conventions.  We're not just aiming to provide a fun tabling experience, but also a venue to learn and grow as a writer, artist, and designer.

Anyway, I'm putting up this post to put one last call out for help with out Kickstarter fundraising campaign.  Though we've met our initial funding goal (and we can't thank everyone who has pledged so far enough), we're looking to bring our total up to $3,000 to help cover the costs associated with an event like this.  Aside from the considerable cost of promotion (banners, flyers, postcards, etc.) and getting programs for the event printed, we’re also looking to secure a budget for keeping all of our volunteers, special guests, and tablers fed.  One of our goals with the Up! Fair is to provide a very comfortable experience for the people tabling at the event where we can cut down on as much of the financial burden of attending.  Aside from a very low fee for tabling ($50 vs the industry standard of between $100 to $300), we also want to feed our guests so that they can concentrate on recouping any travel and printing costs, making a profit, and finding the time to get out from behind the table to attend or lead workshops without having to worry about losing sales.

So, where do we currently stand?  We're currently at $1,645, which is only $1,355 away from our goal!

There are only three days left in the Kickstarter campaign, but we're hoping to make it to $3,000.  So what do you get for pledging besides the warm and fuzzy feeling of helping to support and celebrate independent publishing?  Well, we’ve set up a tiered section of rewards that come with various pledge amounts including a hand-sewn and designed plush ink monster (designed by my talented wife), access to the various levels of the Art & Story Supreme podcasting and community content, inked sketches by the various artists putting the Up! Fair together, and a beautiful screen-printed event poster by the awesome Sara Turner (of cricket-press.com)!

Aside from a monetary donation, we could also use some help in spreading the word via Twitter, Facebook, or blog posts.  Just getting the word out about the Kickstarter campaign would really help. Thanks in advance for any help in making the Up! Fair the best that it can be!

In honor of the impending spooktacular festivities coming in just one short week I thought it would be fun to make today's Wax Paper Pop Art a super-sized, all-horror edition.  First up we have the complete set of wrappers from the 1988 Topps Fright Flicks card set (you can see the Stickers here)…

Next up we have the wrapper from the 1986 Topps Little Shop of Horrors Sticker Card set…

Straying a bit into some more classical monster territory we have the wrappers for the 1980 Topps Creature Feature sequel set (the stickers for which I talked about here), as well as the wrapper for the original 1973 set…

You can't talk about 80s horror without mentioning the Gremlins.  Well, at least I can't.  This is the wrapper from the 1984 Topps trading card set, the stickers are mentioned here…

For this last wrapper we'll need to hop in the DeLorean and travel back all the way to 1964, ending up on 1313 Mockingbird Lane for a visit with the Leaf Munsters trading cards…

Even though I've been a little bummed about this year's crop of Halloween goodies and the lackluster displays at the various stores, there have been a few interesting new (or newish) products on the shelves.  In the same way that I'm happy to see Ghost Dots popping up each season, I've also been happy to see Quaker bringing back Cap'n Crunch's Halloween Crunch each year…

For 2010 the Cap'n has ditched his mummy inspired wrappings of previous years in favor of a new lupine make-over which is heartily welcomed!  I'm hoping this theme continues because I could totally see him with a Frankenstein's Monster make-over...

In the absence of my yearly Halloween Jones Soda fix, the Dr. Pepper/Seven-Up company has stepped in to save the day with some fun redesigns of their mini-cans…

Though these are a much tamer variation on the cans Jones has been putting out for the last four years, I'm glad to see them pushing their annual Halloween designs forward a bit.  These also have an interesting feature in that portions of the cans change color when chilled.  Basically the characters' eyes and teeth change, but I'll warn you that the effect takes forever to happen.  We had the cans chilling in the fridge for 10 hours before we noticed anything (and our fridge tends to freeze liquids.)  Also, don't get attached to the color change because as long as it takes to happen, it disapears in a matter of seconds once the can is removed from the cold...

Probably my favorite Halloween themed products this year are the most coincidental in nature.   Lego recently introduced a series of blind-pak collectable mini-figs that feature all sorts of cool designs not found in any of their regular series and sets.  Among the crowd of surfer dudes, clowns, Spartan warriors, and disco Stu's are a handful of neat classic monster designs. Thanks to Justin at Weirdo Toys I've managed to find both the Vampire and Witch mini-figs from the second series.  There is also a zombie available in the first series and a rumored mummy in the third.

While looking for the mini-figs I also stumbled upon this Lego constructible game set called Monster 4.  Sort of like Tic-Tac-Toe or Connect Four, the game features monster and Halloween themed pieces including a green monster, a skeleton, a jack-o-lantern, a devil and a werewolf.  These are perfect fodder for creating your own custom monster mini-figs.

I wanted to do a quick follow up to last weeks Target rant.  I'm still disappointed with Target's overall vibe this year, but looking a bit closer there are some interesting things going on.  First though, I wanted to thank everyone for the feedback on last Friday's post, in particular AllHallowSteve who pointed to some overall Halloween sales trends for the last few years that helps to predict and explain this year's bottom of the barrel offerings from most if not all of the big chain stores. 

The wife and I stopped back in our local Target for some odds and ends when we noticed that their Halloween section seems to be fully up.  Lo and behold we were greeted by the following signage…

"Trick or Treat On the Cheap" indeed.  So the intentionality is to pare down the section and focus on spend-thrift customers, but I'm still confused as to the design decisions that were made with what was presented.  Before I get to that though, can someone explain to me what the hell is up with that sign featuring the girl in the cat get-up?  Is she yawning?  Meowing?  Or perhaps pissed at the slapdash section she was modeling for?

Seriously though, outside of the cost-conscious nature exhibited, it's evident that Target did spend some time and money on their Halloween branding this year, but what gets me is how restrained it appears.  When the wife and I first walked into the section we were having a hard time picking out the themes.  We got the kidified monsters and their slightly more adult counterparts, but everything else just seemed boring and generic.  Taking a closer look we realized that one of 2010's themes was apparently a callback to the 50s and 60s paper cut-outs…

You can see it in the color scheme of the above jack-o-lanterns, the deep oranges and the yellowed-paper-tans, not to mention the intentional miss-registered color flats and spotting.  There's also the jack-o-lantern on the end with the witch's hat that kind of speaks to some vintage Beistle designs (like the jack-o-lantern with the bowler hat and pipe.)  There are a handful of products, mostly dinnerware, some decorations and bathroom accessories, that feature this theme but it's not prominent enough in the branding to really stand out or communicate the intent of the homage (though they sort of tried with the bath towels by having some misplaced "bad newspaper printing" accents.)

This concept was further diluted by mixing it in with three other themes in the Halloween section, the in-your-face cheap looking glitter skulls, the last vestiges of the "adult" party favors (a tiny offering going with a Grey's Anatomy medical illustration theme this year), and another odd and under-used UPA inspired cartoon modern theme (which is another of the themes that slightly peaked my interest.)  These 60s era cartoony renditions of the classic monsters are pretty neat and feature a whole roster of cool designs…

What kills me is that these characters are utilized very oddly in the branding.  On the one hand they stick out loudly in some of the lawn decorations (and on some plush dolls), but on the other they tend to be very tiny in a lot of the other products they appear on.  Also, none of them appear on any of the actual packaging, which instead is very generic looking with an orange background and white lettering.  Why not pimp these characters out on the packaging as well and complete the branding?  A good portion of these characters aren't even featured on many the products, in particular the wolfman (who only really appears on a couple) and the Audrey II-esque man-eating plant which is pretty much only on a cheap set of bingo cards.  Why go to the trouble of designing these characters if you aren't going to use them?  Confusing things even further is the fact that a separate, yet similar, set of characters were developed for the branding on their in-house candy and some of the baking products…

I mean, it's not like the UPA inspired designs above aren't kid-friendly already, so why did they go out of their way to way to also commission these more child-like trick-or-treating characters for the candy?  They're just butting heads with the other designs...

Again, it just muddles up the branding.  Sure it's not to the extent where it's going to effect sales, but it's also not everything that it could be either.  I just don't get it I guess.

To end all this Target-Schmarget stuff on a positive note, I have to say that I'm in love with their cartoon modern mad scientist character.  You don't see these little evil geniuses popping up on much merchandise.  I mean there are a million bits and baubles with the Frankensten's Monster on 'em, but hardly any with Dr. Frankenstein himself.  I hate his name though, Dr. Cut-A-Rug.  Shudder…

For anyone who is a regular reader here at Branded, you'll probably know that when September rolls around, it marks the beginning of a very special time of year for me.  Whereas most people probably look to Christmas or the start of summer with excitement, it's a safe bet that I'll start getting giddy with the coming of fall and another Halloween season.  I'm pretty sure it's always been this way for me, but it wasn't until I started this site that I realized just how much I dig the season and this time of year.

Participating in October blog-a-thons, geeking out over crazy new candy designs, overdosing on old horror movies, and documenting the holiday's more commercialistic aspects have become a tradition in my household.  For me the season officially starts when my local Target puts up its yearly section dedicated to all things spooky.  Like the Macy's and Gimbels Christmas displays of years past, Target has become a cornerstone for the Halloween season offering not only the basics (candy and costumes that you'll be likely to find in any other store), but also a slate of interesting bits and baubles exclusive to the retailer.  I'm always curious to see what themes the store will introduce; what sort of design and packaging.  In years past there's usually been dueling concepts, one aimed at kids (Edgar and Ellen, Skelanimals, or Domo), and another aimed at adults (prominent themes have evoked the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration as well as the cocktail and tattoo cultures.)

Last year I was struck by a sense of pre-nostalgia.  I was convinced that I'd eventually look back and pine for the various displays, characters and merchandise.  It's almost as if I could feel it slipping away even though there was a ton of cool offerings right there in front of me.  A year ago today I wrote the following:

In fact, for once I can feel the future nostalgia building as all of this stuff, the characters, products, and signage starts seeping into my consciousness.  I can already see the day when the company will switch gears to follow a new, cheaper, pared down trend, and I can already feel myself missing the current one.  It's sort of like that cliché wish where one imagines utilizing time travel to go back and grab all the stuff that you miss from your childhood, except I'm already there.  The future me is sending back messages via brainwave wifi technologies, begging me to scoop up every piece of flat scan-able branding, or else…

Well, I thought (or hoped) that the future me was years away, but I'm pretty sure I've just stepped into those distant shoes.  Walking into Target this year has been kind of shocking in that for the first time in five years there was only one word that I could think of to describe their Halloween section.  Bland.  There are no real visible themes, no licensing partnerships, and not much actual merchandise.  The aisles are sparsely stocked with mostly boring tidbits in pretty drab orange packaging.  There's also sort of a weird disconnect to the one bit of branding that is apparent.   Target usually has a handful of branded characters that show up on packaging and decorations, and this year they've decided to go with a classic monster theme (similar to designs that they've used in the past.)  There are three main child-like characters, a vampire, a mummy, and the Frankenstein's monster, that for the most part are adorning the various candy and paper products, pretty much anything aimed at kids.  But in the home décor section there are a slew of similar, more adult renderings of some of these classic monster characters that are all presented in a completely different style, mainly a mummy, a witch, and a variation on the Frankenstein's monster.  Normally I'd be all over these characters, but honestly, most of the products they're paired with are gaudy or boring.

For once, it just feels hollow.  I'm not sure if it's the once awesome giant sugar-skull planters that have been hideously bedazzled with neon glitter, the lackluster candy section with nothing new to offer, or the general "warehouse" feel to the seasonal displays, but it's just such a let down.  It doesn't help that many of the companies that provide neat season merchandise have also been disappearing or simply resting on their laurels.  I haven't seen a single four pack of the tiny Halloween-themed Jones soda cans.  Though the Tootsie company is still pumping out one of my personal seasonal favorites, Ghost Dots candy, they didn't follow last years trend with any new varieties (such as the Candy Corn and blood orange-flavored Bat Dots.)

Certainly not the most enlightening statement, but this just reinforces the importance of making your own traditions outside of corporate beasts.  Growing up I also tired of hearing my parents go on and on about the glory of the good old days, but facts are facts and companies mindsets of drastically changed in just the past five years, let alone fifty.  These days business isn't just about wowing the customer to get them to part with their cash, it's a hairy balancing act of promoting, packaging and selling in the cheapest possible manner.  With the all new layout and redesign of many Wal-Marts nipping at Target's heels, maybe it makes sense for them to fight back by dumbing down their stores.  Fanatics like me aren't the basis for good business in such a broadly reaching consumer market, and shooting for a homogenized, obvious esthetic makes good business sense.  It's just unfortunate.

While 1984 was an insanely banner year for television, where almost every single new series was a hit that would run throughout the rest of the decade, 1985 was more about trying to capitalize on the previous year's successes.  Though there are a few shows that could easily be deemed TV classics, a lot of the new series were either directly aping recent hits, or were trying to carry on the torch of shows that were on their last legs.

Two of the stand-out new series that would go on to help define the decade couldn't have been more disparate in theme.  On the one hand we have the Golden Girls starring Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, Estelle Getty, and Betty White, which had a much broader audience than I'd bet the studio predicted.  On the other we have MacGyver, which was finally the vehicle that would launch Richard Dean Anderson into stardom as pacifist secret agent Angus MacGyver who can solve any problem with some bubblegum, a toothpick, and a lock of his inspiring mullet.  Whereas the Golden Girls would prove to studios that age had no bearing on comedy success, MacGyver was a good 15 years ahead of it's time illustrating that there is an audience for detailed procedural science and technology outside of PBS (even if most of it's science and tech was pure hokum.)  Think about it, would we have shows like CSI and Mythbusters without MacGyver?

Getting back to the apparent theme of capitalizing on other series successes, in 1985 we were introduced to three long-running shows that were direct descendants of other productions from the early 80s.  Mr. Belvedere picked up where Benson and Who's the Boss left off, dusting his was way into America's hearts and minds, while Growing Pains introduced the world to the wicked smile of Kirk Cameron, and one of America's most famous stars, Bruce Willis, got his first big break as David Addison opposite Cybil Shepherd's Maddie Hayes in Moonlighting.  Whereas Moonlighting was aping multiple hits such as Remington Steele and Scarecrow & Mrs. King, Growing, Growing Pains was taking sight as just one show, Family Ties, stealing not only the basic family dynamic, but also the concept for it's opening credits sequence (told in a series of family photos.)  At least Moonlighting would find it's own kooky voice as the years went on, setting it apart from the series it took inspiration from.

Similarly, based on the success of the relatively new anthology series Tales From the Darkside, 1985 would see an explosion of scary and interesting anthology TV that lasted well into the 90s.  Making their debut that year were three new series, the Steven Spielberg Produced Amazing Stories, as well as two series reboots, the all new Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.  Though none of these three series would run for that long, they were the first big wave of anthology television that would be followed by shows like Monsters, Freddy's Nightmares, Tales From the Crypt, and eventually a second Outer Limits series.

My favorite new series of 1985 was also probably one of the least successful shows that year, Misfits of Science.   Starring Kevin Peter Hall (the guy inside Harry from Harry and the Hendersons, as well as the guy inside the original Predator), Dean Paul Martin (son of Dean Martin, and ex-husband of Olivia Hussey and Dorothy Hamill), Courtney Cox (yeah, that Courtney Cox), and Mark Thomas Miller (ex-bodyguard for Van Halen) as a group of super-powered scientists and their subjects.  Though Martin's character, Billy Hayes, doesn't have any powers, he leads the team consisting of his assistant Dr. Elvin Lincoln (Hall), who can shrink down in size to a mere 11 inches (Hall in real life was a towering 7' 2"), and two research subjects, Johnny Bukowski (Miller) who is a rock star that was electrocuted and now has the power as a conduit and can shoot bolts of lightening from his hands, and Gloria Dinallo, a telekinetic young girl who believes her father was an alien…

There were a few other interesting debuts in 1985.  For one, we got our first exposure to Jaleel White in Charlie in Company (four years before he’d set the world alight with his obnoxious Steve Urkel.)   We also got a chance to see a young Michael Madsen fresh off his small cameo in Wargames, in the cop show Our Family Honor.

One of the things I love about looking through these old TV Guides is getting a glimpse at the various cartoon schedules and advertisements.  In this issue we got a chance to see a variation of the 1985 CBS ad that ran in comic books back in the day. In this version we get a slightly more accurate portrait of Hulk Hogan as well as a clearly depiction of the "Monsters" from the retooled Muppet Babies cartoon.  In '85 Muppet Babies was popular enough to have a second live action half hour added to the show that revolved around the adult Muppets and a series of monster characters.  Jim Henson pulled the plug on the this addendum series after three episodes though, and the for the remainder of the season they ran two MB episodes back to back.

There's also an ad for the regular Challenge of the Go Bots cartoon (returning for a full series run after the previous year's 5-episode miniseries debut.)…

The other thing I really dig about this 1985 issue is all of the awesome artwork for shows like Knight Rider, Small Wonder, and Webster.

The art looks a whole heck of a lot like Drew Struzan's work, but I don't know for sure.  Though I'm sure its extremely cost prohibitive, it would have been so damn cool if the TV Guide company or the studios had commissioned this type of artwork for the entire season of these shows…

The last thing I wanted to point out in this issue is a series of star-studded specials that ran in the fall of 1985.   Seems like all the stations were gearing up for these gala events to get the word out on the new fall season.   Though the art is awesome in the below CBS ad, I love the NBC ad the most because of Don Johnson's swagger.  Though this is a composite shot, apparently the network wanted to play up his bad boy attitude by putting him front and center as the only guy who is too damn cool to wear a tux.  I wonder if he was all Miami Viced up for the actual special as well?