"Movies are a complicated collision of literature, theatre, music and all the visual arts." - Yahoo Serious

September 11, 2004

Movie Flip Books

Monster Flip Movies: They Move!

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).

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