Snapshot of Death!

Ghoul Friday — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 06:59:59 -0700

(via Mark's Scrapbook of Oddities & Treasures)

Don't Lose Your Head

Ghoul Friday — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:32:37 -0800

Dangerous times for advertisements. Someone has dedicated themselves to decapitating figures in the posters, or at least collecting images of this. Be sure to look through the entire flickr collection. I especially enjoyed the "Sex in the City" billboard.

Smoking Kills

Ghoul Friday — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:36:30 -0700

I know this ad is supposed to make me think "smoking kills".

My brain will get to it after it's done cooing "Coooooooool".

Source.

Do-it-Yourself Werewolf Kit

Ghoul Friday — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:27:19 -0700

I came across this on Mark's Scrapbook of Oddities and Treasures. It's a full page advertisement for the secret components needed to turn yourself into a real werewolf (including curses to chant and an official werewolf calendar documenting the moon stages). All this and more for just $1.00.

The best part of the ad is when it threatens "Don't be a wallflower! Have fun the easy way!". Ok wait. There isn't a middle ground between wallflower and werewolf? And hold on. Becoming a werewolf is the easy way to have fun?

Click the image below to see the full ad close-up.

Captain Company

Ghoul Friday — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:47:00 -0800

Look at that image. I feel like a budding paleontologist spying a treasured dinosaur fossil for the first time. It's like documenting the history of haunting.

That is a classic example of the Captain Company collection. This one is courtesy of toyranch's flickr account where he has kindly shared a tremendous collection of these vintage ads.

So what is (or sadly, was) this Captain Company? Here's a very simple history from someone who just missed this cultural gemstone.

Horror movies really hit their stride in the livingrooms of the late 1950's, and UHF stations entertained audiences with classic films. Riding the monster popularity wave into the 1960's and 1970's was Famous Monster's of Filmland Magazine, in the back of which you would find Captain Company ads.

Captain company was a Philadelphia-based mail order business, and the merchandising arm of Warren Publishing. It specialized in horror movie related products including masks, model kits, rings, posters, Super 8mm films...you name it.