We Want You! To Come To JOElanta 2011

Poster #2 by artist & JOElanta founder Buddy Finethy! www.joelanta.com

JOElanta 2010 videos on You Tube

So you missed the show this year? Maybe you were there and you wanna relive some of the memories before your next Joe/Action Figure/Toy fix at next year's show on March 19th and 20th.

http://www.youtube.com/user/JoeLanta

Bild and Bubbla Magazine

Not too sure what type of magazine this is. My assumptions are that it could have been a general periodical from the Netherlands about the arts and this issue dated 1988 had an article on Don Martin.

Don Martin calendars

Back in 1979 I was thrilled to see that MAD was finally coming out with an all Don Martin calendar. I already had a taste of some great vibrant pages of Don's work in both the 1977 & 1978 calendars so I couldn't wait to see an all Don Martin all color calendar. Well it was all Don Martin -yeahhh!!! But it wasn't in color - Boooo!!!

1979 marked the 1st year that the calendars started being printed in black and white until a couple were released in color in the '90's.

Well Don Martin fans should definitely get their hands on these two released in 1990 & 1988. Incidentally these came out while Don was doing work for CRACKED and blk & wht 2 pagers of the art from the calendars were included within the magazine's pages.

Tom Feister to attend JOElanta 2011

Another talented addition to the guest list at JOElanta 2011 is Tom Feister who's worked for DC Direct, Cartoon Network, Marvel Comics and Darkhorse just to name a few. Among the many publications his art has appeared in is Gi Joe, Iron Man and The Avengers comics. www.tomfeister.com

Larry Hama to attend JOElanta 2011

JOElanta is proud to announce that Larry Hama, who has been a prolific force in the comic book field for quite some time now will by our special guest at next year's show. Larry was a Marvel editor and writer for Gi Joe A Real American Hero and has also written for the series Wolverine, Nth man, The Ultimate Ninja and Elektra. He also created the character Bucky O'Hare which was developed into a comic book, toy line and TV show.

Vintage plastic still has that Adventuring spirit!

Who said Action Man didn't have as many adventures as GI Joe? This adventurer seems to have gotten more than his fair share on his way to Safari Base 11. This is actually my only surviving Action Man that I got back in '71 or '72. As you can see he has some play wear and a little blood added for realism courtesy of my bro who is 9 yrs younger than I and inherited my toys for a while until I snatched them all back!!!!

The bugs, if you haven't already guessed it are molted cicada skins that my daughter Sierra and I pulled off half a dozen trees in our yard. I got the idea from a real creepy show on the Discovery channel last year that was shot as if it were filmed by someone with a video camera who was able to film some outlandish creatures before they met their demise. One episode had a guy being bitten by a Komodo Dragon and then as the poison set in he became weaker and weaker until he was tracked down and eaten by the huge lizard. The one that inspired the photo shoot involved these huge centipedes that where like 3-4 feet long and how they killed a whole bunch of soldiers on some island in South America before some of them crawled onto a boat floating to who knows where? Could be your neck of the woods......

Meet Parker Blackfoot

Introducing the latest addition to the ever popular Johnny West line of BEST OF THE WEST characters - Parker Blackfoot. Said to have Norwegian heritage, this "handsome" fellow was raised by his mother in her tribe of Waco Indians after his father perished in an unfortunate prune eating contest.

Our self described hero is seen here tracking Wild Turkey. We were under the assumption that he was referring to the bird but were later proved wrong once he awoke behind bars in Sheriff Garrett's jail cell after an all night drinking binge with his good friend Crazy Legs McPherson.

Always the colorful character, you be the judge of his play value....

Announcing Radio Cult to play at JOELANTA 2011

The JOElanta team is thrilled to announce that the world renowned band Radio Cult will be performing on Sat night March 19th at next years 11th annual JOElanta Action Figure and General Toy Show. Radio Cult are explosive on stage taking the audience through memorable performances of all your favorite tunes from 70's-today. I've seen them perform and I'm psyched! Are you ready to ROCK!!!!!

For more info on the band go to http://www.radiocult.com/

Don Martin "The All Nonsense Pad"

Here's a fun item from the early '90's.

Dave Berg caricature by Don Martin

This great caricature was done back in the '70's of Dave Berg and given to his son Mitch to adorn the walls of a Disco he had just opened. I believe that this may have been sold after Dave Berg's passing.

Don Martin Advertising

I am personally not that familiar with a lot of company's that Don Martin did any advertising illustration for. Unlike fellow MADmen Jack Davis and Mort Drucker Don's output in this area seems rather sparse. Other than a bubble gum ad (in an earlier post) and a pamphlet for Wild Irish Whisky the above examples are the only others I've seen. I would assume because of his massive popularity in Finland, Germany, Sweden and Norway that there may be many more examples that have not yet surfaced. If anyone has any other examples please share.

Don Martin's "The Bug"

There's no hiding it, Don Martin was and always will be my absolute favorite cartoonist. I, like many others imitated his style as a child and his wacky characters are really what inspired me to draw and create some of my own weirdness.

Over the years I have collected as much Don Martin imagery as I can get my hands on and still continue to find things I never knew existed. There are a couple of great fan sites out there as well as the Don Martin website that announces up upcoming "Completely CRACKED Don Martin". Hopefully this will become a reality for all us fans.

I have decided to start a series on this little blog, dedicated to Don Martin's art. The decision as to what piece to kick it all off with was easy. Just look at the title of my studio and the sound effect in this unpublished piece, most probably from the late '60's or early '70's - my favorite era of Don's style. Enjoy!

Humor Magazines - TRUMP

The story behind the origins of this classic humor magazine is that of legend at this point and really does not need to be rehashed. Needless to say when Harvey Kurtzman left MAD, in my opinion rather than the world losing out on a great creative editor and what had been achieved thus far with MAD we all gained so much more with TRUMP, HUMBUG, HELP and Little Annie Fanny, not to mention MAD exploding under the editorship of Al Feldstein.

TRUMP was a sophisticated Kurtzman's MAD with full color spreads and all! With super talents like Jack Davis, Will Elder, Arnold Roth and Al Jaffee how could you go wrong? Nothing wrong with the magazine, just too high a cost to produce and ultimately it was laid to rest after only 2 issues. Still without a doubt it has remained one of the best examples of a "beautifully crafted humor magazine"

There has been talk that these 2 issues will be reprinted although the release date has been delayed multiple times so it may not happen. It really is too bad that there is not more demand for reprints of classic humor magazines. Maybe someday......

JOElanta 2010 wrap up?!

Some "Wild and Crazy Guys" at JOElanta 2010! I wonder what'll happen in 2011?

Hangin' out in the Toy Room

Ahhhh... Nothing like relaxing while surrounded by a lot of vintage plastic, much of it accumulated at various JOElanta's over the years. See you at next year's show!

Check us out on Facebook.

JOElanta 2011 THE 1/6 Scale Show!

As we get closer to this next year's show the excitement is already starting to build among the troops here at JOElanta headquarters. Great dealers, great variety, great fun and camaraderie!

Everything our loyal friends and guests have come to love about JOElanta - THE 1/6 Scale show!

Check out all the updates www.joelanta.com

Ice Cream Anyone?

Here's a quick poster/flier I did recently for Martha Brown UMC in East Atlanta where my wife has recently been appointed Pastor.

Relay For LIFE banner

Here's a piece I did a few years ago for RELAY FOR LIFE in Atlanta Ga.

Humor Magazines - JUDGE

JUDGE 1881-1947 JUDGE Publishing Inc.

This long running humor magazine came into being after a number of cartoonists and artists left PUCK magazine. James Wakes, one of the cartoonists left after having a quarrel with PUCK's founder Joeseph Keppler and started JUDGE as a weekly publication that quickly gained momentum until it surpassed PUCK's sales with over 100,000 by 1912. The magazine switched to a monthly by 1932 until publication ceased in 1947.

Mostly comprised of various gag cartoons the magazine also has many articles on issues of the day and is filled with advertisements.

Humor Magazines - BALLYHOO

BALLYHOO 1931 - 1939 Dell Publishing Co.

Of the early satire magazines Ballyhoo most resembles MAD in the parody ads scattered around the magazine as well as some of it's features. Originally started as a weekly magazine and showcased talent such as Dr. Suess. The publication ran until 1939 then two additional attempts to resuscitate in 1948 and then in 1952 were not successful with the magazine finally folding in 1954, ironically less than a year before MAD became a monthly slick magazine.

Humor Magazines - LOONY SPORTS

LOONY SPORTS #1 Spring '75 3 Strikes Publishing

Although most of the magazines that have been reviewed/listed here are non-genre specific, LOONY SPORTS is included here because a couple of very well known humor magazine artists contributed to its 66 page only issue, Al Scaduto and Tony Tallarico, who have both been contributors to CRAZY and CRACKED. A great Monster baseball team piece as well as a variety of sports related satires makes this a very enjoyable read.

Humor Magazines - BLAST

BLAST Feb '71 - #2 May '71 G&D Publishing

A terribly "Worried" Mr. Muggles Mohasky lasted a mere 2 issues as he and BLAST quietly disappeared into the depths of the humor mag history. This publication was the 1st magazine sized satire book of the 10 more titles to come out in the '70's.

Humor Magazines - THIMK

THIMK May '58 - May #6 '59 Counterpoint Inc.

With the tremendous success of MAD magazine as a comic book and then its move to a magazine in July 1955 the flood gates were opened again and a host of other publishers wished to capitalize on MAD's format. In the latter part of the '50's 16 other titles emerged that were similar in content. One such addition was THIMK magazine with it's mascott "Otis Dracenstein" a Frankenstein type character (probably capitalizing on the then in full bloom) Monster Craze. THIMK also devoted a number of interior pages to Monsters and also did a number of articles and a cover appearance by the king of rock n' roll Elvis Presley. Overall an OK addition to the long line of parody/satire magazines.

Frankenstein JACK DAVIS style

Whenever I think of great Frankenstein images I always think of Jack Davis's renderings over the years. I think back to that great life sized poster from the late 60's that you could order through most comic books, the wide variety of Monster record album covers, magazine covers (CREEPY #1 being a real stand out) and the tons of interior pages to the EC line. Above are a few examples not seen too often.