You Will Go to the Moon

Some instant nostalgia for children of the space age, courtesy of the Dreams of Space site which chronicles and exhibits some of the cool space art found in children's books from 1883-1974. A majority of the stuff dates from the 60s, when the fantasy of space flight was becoming reality, and the possibilities appeared limitless. The illustrations from the early 60s are interesting in that the artists weren't yet constrained by NASA's own project blueprints and were able to let imagination take over. In the late 60s and early 70s, the art was based on actual NASA plans, although still heavily optimistic.

via Boing Boing

Movie Flip Books

Yet another instance of pre-video movie collecting, as referenced in this post about 8mm versions, and early video traders. 5 cents gets you a stick of gum that slightly resembles sweetened pink sheetrock and a set of cards. On each card are two frame blowups from scenes from your favorite Universal horror film. Split the cards in half and you have two seperate cards that you need to compile with others in order to form a flip book. Buy enough gum and you too can have a piece of pocket cinema. Back in 1963, Topps' Monster Flip Movies gave you thrilling vignettes such as Frankenstein Cries Out ("Frankenstein suspects that someone has been in his secret hideout. Angered that he may have been discovered, the brute roars furiously"), Anger of the Wolfman, The Mummy's Wrath, or Frankenstein on Alert.

Flip books have been around for a while, of course, and so have flip books based on movies. Disney printed a bunch. There was a Bruce Lee Flip Book that came out in the early 1970s in Asia. There were even flip books of NY underground films by Jack Smith and Andy Warhol (although, perversely, the flip book of Warhol's Kiss appears to consist of a static image).