In 2005, someone named “BENBENEK” found a box of photos at a Southern California swap meet and realized he’d found a treasure, a glimpse of unknown history. The photos were bland and banal, yet oddly endearing, so he set up a website to share them with the world: HouseplantPicturesStudio.com.
Unfortunately the site is defunct, but via the Wayback Machine we can still enjoy Photos Of An Unknown Family Who PROBABLY Owned A Liquor Store.
Ernie Bushmiller‘s ubiquitous comic strip has intrigued me since I was a kid. It was rarely funny, sometimes creepy, and the drawing style was unique and constrained. Bushmiller was more of a draftsman than a comic strip artist, and it’s obvious that he used tracing templates, photography, and in his later years, photocopiers.
One day in the early 1980s, this panel showed up in the Sunday funnies. I was hooked, and I began paying closer attention to the Zen of Nancy.
The .gifs above have been posted here previously, and scraping them into a pile seemed like the proper thing to do. The one in color was an early experiment with Jasc Animation Shop v.3.11, a program I acquired in 2012 (thanks, Possum). Most of the panels were lifted from Nancy strips posted on X/Twitter by @JohnnyCallicutt and re-used with minimal editing.
[For more Nancy, Sluggo & Aunt Fritzi stuff visit The Nancy & Sluggo Archive.]
The Hoffman was a German three-wheeled microcar created by Michael Hoffman, a shop foreman from Munich. It features an aluminum body with asymmetrical roof/windshield, rear wheel drive and steering, a pivoting single-cylinder 6.5 hp engine, and many more questionable design flaws.
Only one exists: the only one ever built.
Images (and more) found here, test drive video via Road & Track.
Radioactive Flesh, Los Sinners (1964) From the nightclub scene in Luis Buñuel’s film Simón del Desierto (1965). St. Simon Stylites is sitting at a table with the Devil and asks “her” for the name of the dance. The Devil replies, “Radioactive Flesh.”
[Scene begins at 41:18.]
This video AND those comments.
Crêpe [via Mme. Jujujive]. Sound up.
Useful inventions [via Bunkerville].
“Mercy on us!” [via The View From Lady Lake].
Miss Frozen Rabbit Meat [via Memo Of The Air].
Decommissioned nuclear reactor guts [h/t Paul Y.]
[Top image: Houston Elvis fans, story here.]
From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.
Collected from all over the internest. More Space Bimbos here.
[See Part 1 & Part 2 for more. Source: Allen & Ginter Cigarette Cards 1888-1889.]
November 1969 issue No. 8 of M.A.R.S. PATROL Total War:
“When the M.A.R.S. Patrol destroys an invader weather-control ship, they capture a badly wounded courier whose name translates as Victor. Victor explains that his is an army of aliens, intent on capturing Earth for its resources. Through their interrogation, M.A.R.S. concludes that the next major attack will be on Miami. Gold Key Comics Club News. In ‘Part II: Seek and Destroy’, M.A.R.S. helps fend off the attack on Miami even as ‘Victor’ escapes, determined to redeem himself. A booby trap from his own side kills him just as M.A.R.S. discovers the secret underwater base, which they then destroy.” [source]
…and one of them appears to be a football star.
“When wound and the start/stop pull actuated, the incredibly detailed and realistically modeled standing monkey chef begins his performance by looking left then right whilst opening and closing eye lids as mouth moves to speak, lowering head slightly to indicate his latest culinary creation…”
This mechanical wonder (ca. 1880) sold for over $36k in 2014, and was presumably purchased by someone to keep their little brats and pets in line.
Retrofuture Volkswagen prototype was designed by Mikhail Smolyanov / Solifuge Design, and he’s got a similar VW Bugsled in black. Since there are no images of modications in progress, I assume that the version above was never built.
HOWEVER, there is this:
Similar design, yet not the same. Image searches for this work in progress produced no matches.
[Top & bottom images found here. Not quite Rat Rods, but I stuck them in The Archive anyway.]
Tacky Raccoons 