A Trilogy of Terror from Yoe Books

A haunting trilogy: "Mummies," Swamp Monsters," and "Ghosts"! 
Curated by Steve Banes & Craig Yoe
Intros by Stephen Bissette & Steven Thompson 
Mummies: tinyurl.com/yxunldsm
Swamp Monsters: tinyurl.com/y248q9ez
Ghosts: tinyurl.com/yxm8ru7b

Frank Godwin in Hollywood

Frank Godwin's work as a cartoonist and a children's book illustrator has aged extremely well and continues to be appreciated by collectors and connoisseurs. He drew a few Wonder Woman stories and was known for his Robin Hood illustrations. Here. though, we have some lovely 1930s celebrity art by the great illustrator. Wish I could give you some more info but I found these on my hard drive and don't recall where I found them online. 

Graduation Day

Sorry there haven't been any new posts lately. Been dealing with preparations for our son's college graduation, which finally occurred yesterday!

I never attended college. It's been a sore point with me for years. When I was in high school, even though I had one of the highest grade point averages in the Class of '77, not once did anyone ever discuss college with me--no counselor, no teacher, no college recruiter. Not one word. So I graduated high school, 12th in my class (and 2nd highest scoring male student), and neither I nor my parents had the slightest clue about colleges, scholarships, ACTs, SATs, finances, or any of that. So I didn't go. When my dad was hit by a car and needed a year-long recovery, I took on his part-time job as a night janitor. A year after his recovery, my mother was hit by cancer just as I was looking to get my own apartment so I stayed home and helped my dad take care of her. After she passed, I got a part-time bookstore job and stayed on with my dad for another 11 years until he had a massive stroke and ended up in a nursing home for 16 months.

By that time I was managing a bookstore and married. Not long after my dad's death, my wife miscarried. We were told it might not be a good idea to try to have kids but a few years later, when we weren't trying, along came David.

We spent a lot of time worrying about how to finance his education when he was little. At 3, he was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome. He was on the autism spectrum. Doctors said he might not be able to learn much.

But he was already reading...on a 6th grade level. By Kindergarten he was reading on an 8th grade level. The teacher had to literally buy books for older kids for him and give him a shelf of his own in the classroom.

He was 2nd in his class in high school and gave a marvelous speech at the Honors presentation, after which he received multiple scholarships.

In spite of all our early worrying, David was able to attend a prestigious liberal arts college for four years completely free, with a double major in Mathematics and Education!

Yesterday, he graduated Magna Cum Laude, with NO student debt,  and is now looking to go on to achieve his PhD with another 5 years in Grad School where he has already been accepted as a teaching assistant!

I couldn't do it. For whatever reasons that conspired against me (including me), I was never a college graduate. But my son sure is!

Mr. Hop

Craig Boldman reminds me of MR. HOP, one of my favorite Saturday morning shows from the early 1960s. MR. HOP was produced locally starring WLW-T announcer Dave Manning. It was shown throughout the midwest on the network of WLW-T's various WLW sister stations.

I couldn't find a photo of Manning (aka Dave Stull and David Stull Manning). That's a rival kids host, Skipper Ryle, at lower right below. 

In his true identity, Manning also hosted the local version of the franchised IT'S ACADEMIC game show for high school students. 

Jack Louiso was Artie Mouse. Jack was apparently also a dancer as whenever Hop and Artie made a personal appearance, the Jack Louiso Dancers are credited as being on the bill. 

By the 1980s, Manning was an instructor at Cincinnati's School for the Creative and Performing Arts, where Sarah Jessica Parker had once attended.