Redartz: Good day, and welcome to another episode of "Pulled from the Pack". Today we recall a series of wild, wacky stickers from the people at Donruss cards: Odd Rods (and a 'thank you' to Wikipedia for the background info on these goodies). These featured the always winning combination of monsters and cars, both depicted in an exaggerated, manic style.
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| 1965 Ad for Monogram "Mouse" models |
They were created by cartoonist B.K. Taylor (a cover artist for "Sick" magazine, and a cartoonist for "National Lampoon"), and were sold in several series between 1969 and 1973. In appearance, they were obviously reminiscent of the work of "Big Daddy" Ed Roth from the 60's ("Rat Fink") and Stanley "Mouse" Miller (designer of Monogram model kits featuring such characters as "Super Fuzz" and "Fred Flypogger").
They were sold in packs for 5 cents (when was the last time you saw ANYTHING for sale for 5 cents?). Thus a kid like yours truly, with limited allowance funds, could get several packs for his quarter (assuming there were no comic purchases to make that week). And of course, they also included a stick of that petrified, tooth-cracking bubble gum.
I discovered these stickers about the same time that I found "Wacky Packages", in the late years of elementary school. And like those "Wackies", the "Odd Rods" stickers became currency-du-jour at recess and after school. The appeal of these stickers to pre-teen kids was apparent: bug-eyed monsters, loud colors, hot cars with oversized engines. No wonder the classrooms were full of sticker-encased notebooks. Mine included, in fact my favorite was planted dead-center on my blue school folder: the "VW Varmit":
Here are a few more examples:
Anyone else remember these stickers? Perhaps you built some of those model kits, or had an older brother with those car magazines. Perhaps you still have a school folder, buried somewhere, covered up in monster stickers...
24 comments:
If you only knew how long I've languished waiting for this!!! Currency du jour indeed! Had them, collected them, could never trade them because we all had the same duplicate ones, lol! Love this post! I recall my fav being something like "fuzz buster" and "mad maverick?"
They were definitely around during elementary school-- although these guys were considered 2nd-tier to that collection of "gross-out" advertising spoof stickers (like "Crust Toothpaste", f'rinstance--). THOSE were the subversive sticker-pack of choice!
In our own household, these things fell into the "You don't need any of that junk-" category-- and that was that. My Dad (middle school teacher/principal for as long as I can remember) was, no kidding, the epitome of the of the It-was-good-enough-for-me/it's-good-enough-for-you school of child-rearing. Therefore, the nickle per week allowance he received circa 1940/41 was exactly what he saw fit to dole out in, like, 1966/67. I am not joking. It was maybe a quarter a week by 1969-ish-- and I think we were into the early/mid-70's before we petitioned for, come-ON, a dollar already, for pete's sake-! So-- not a ton of disposable cash during our early childhood. . . !
What these stickers do bring to mind, of course, are the wild old CARtoons magazine/comics, yeah? I have a couple of them still stashed away somewhere-- and had a relative we visited one single time out in the deep mid-west who had a HUGE stack of them, and I'm pretty sure I spent the entire visit (dull folks, that's all I remember of them--) engrossed in them. The hilarious, monster-ish grotesque characters; the dense, arcane, self-referential subject matter and language-- it was an utter hoot even though I only half-comprehended what I was reading-- ha!
HB
It does occur to me that our sizable contingent of assorted Britons are probably looking at each other quizzically, with no idea on earth what we're referring to here-- There's something intrinsically Rural Americana about souped-up hot-rod culture, yeah? Not even universally recognized on our own continent, I'm sure. . .
HB
I had spent dozens of quarters on this stuff, kinda out of boredom. Most classmates had 'em at school, so it was only for palling 'round with the other kids at lunch time.
Sort of a 'It's-all-we-had-back-then' entry, since there were no Trek or Marvel comics cards at that particular time (circa 1973/4), and found no POTA cards around either.
HB - ha! Yep these lil creatures would be exotic beasts on this side of the pond. I would have loved 'em. The style reminds me of t-shirt designs advertised in comics in the early 70's. File under 'so near and yet so far.'
I've never even heard of these, but like HB, the art style reminds me of CARtoons magazine in the 70s; I used to have a bunch of CARtoons, but I think I only have one left.
But the U.K. had Dandy, Beano, and Dennis the Menace and we didn't!
Wait, wait-- we had Dennis the Menace--- sure we did!
My sisters managed to get my Mom to buy a few off of the spinner rack.
HB
HB - the UK has a completely diffferent Dennis the Menace than our US Hank Ketcham Dennis the Menace. FYI to all - I have an upcoming post about the US version upcoming soon. So stay tuned.
Regarding the "Odd Rods" - despite being of the same age group as most here and from the Midwest, I have absolutely zero recollection of these cards. I honestly can say that I don't think I ever saw them. I am not recollecting anything with neighborhood kids or with school chums at all concerning these cards. And some friends were "gearheads" so this would have been up their alley. Could it be that there was an extremely tight timeframe for these? Or any chance that they were regional in some respect? Does anybody recall where you purchased them?
The U.K. Version of Dennis who was a real menace!!! Not the USA softie, HB. Kind of like comparing Godzilla to Gentle Ben or Jaws to Flipper lol!
I was born in 61 and we got them at the candy store and corner grocery along with baseball cards and Bazooka Joe gum. Not hard to find at all.
I don't remember these, but I had a stack of Hot Rod magazines that had similar art. Wacky Packs were the currency of my day.
Sorry, continuing the off-topic thread Red - but I received news this week that libraries across the UK will badge their annual Summer Reading Challenge with characters from The Beano in 2018.
This means promotional resources and incentive resources like stickers and medals - for children reading up to six books in the summer holidays - will be Beano themed and branded.
It makes for lots of opportunities to promote comics and comic-related activities with the 10,000 or so children who join the Challenge across my library network. It will be fun!
HB- boy, my allowance was generous next to yours! Thirty five cents per week, enough for a comic and a little something else...
Marti- I grew up in small town Indiana,,but our local drug store had a candy rack replete with baseball cards, Wacky Packages, Odd Rods, Poop-a-Troopers, candy cigarettes, and all,the other junk that so appealed then! Perhaps they were regional in popularity. They were big in our neighborhood...
Luther- yes, those magazines were everywhere. And so was this style of art, t-shirts with "Super Fuzz" and the like were visible on every Midwest streetcar nervous.
Colin Bray- that sounds great! Glad to hear of any occasion for comics to help promote youth reading. Very good stuff!
Colin B - ole buddy, ole pal, friend for life! Is there any way you could find a few of the Beano promotions for good ole Charlie??? It would look swell next to my Beano Mug! I promise I would read 6 books in the summer of 2018! (Do they have to have hard covers and may they have pictures???)
(As an aside, it could make for an interesting discussion to see how frugal our parents were or how sensitive they were to us buying shtuff like comics, candy, odd rod packages... Since my dad loved baseball, we got no grief about baseball cards, lol,)
Charlie, I had already resolved to do precisely that! Let's hold that thought into 2018...
Colin - You da man!!! (Not sure you are familiar with that? An expression from over here, but not sure from what show.. might be 10 -15 years old or older?)
Charlie - my wife's first answer is 'Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.' My first thought is 'A-Team' but surely that's too old?
Colin and CH47 - my understanding is that the saying had its roots (in some variation) back in the jazz age.... but it actually became popular in pro sports rather than entertainment in the 80s. Nearly unbelievably it was said frequently at golf outings and in golfing articles back in the 80s, and then basketball. Some of the earliest recognition of it in film and television was on the "Simpsons" with Bart saying to Homer "You the man, Homer. You the man." But also almost simultaneously in a Bruce Willis movie -"Armageddon" I think after he diffused a bomb.
Now honestly I may have that 100% wrong but that is my understanding.
Aha, thank you Marti. Pretty murky beginnings then, like so many of these things!
Marti, Colin - Very interesting sidebar! Marti - Now that I think about it, you are probably spot on. My problem was I was overseas in Germany from 85 - 89 and may have missed the beginning of it. My other problem is that, as I age, things are starting to blur a bit! Unless I can connect it to an event of some type like "Oh, I was in Germany at that time" or "Oh I was working with Reuters at that time" then things get harder to place on the time line!
Late to the party again!
If there's anyone left to stumble upon this, an Australian bubblegum manufacturer licensed a lot of US-derived material, and I'm happy to say this was one of them. I still have a dozen or so still intact (I was one of those pesky sorts that never wanted to stick stickers on anything, but preferred 'em in their pristine condition), and it was the kind of artwork on them that had me wanting to be a commercial artist when I grew up (paid to sit around draw these? Fantastic!), which sort of came to pass.
As noted, there were other car-themed things back in the day - I recall ads in comics for new "Deal's Wheels" and DC often ran ads for new car kits designed by Tom Daniels...what happened to those guys? How come all that car-mania faded?
B Smith- that's cool that you still have some of those stickers; as you imply most of them got stuck on walls and books and are loooong gone. Also interesting that your hobbies led to a career...
As for the 'car culture', you're right. You don't see such ads, cards and t-shirts as often as in years past. In the 70's they were absolutely ubiquitous. Of course there are still some around, I still see commercials for those wild car shows at various venues, and the car mags are still on the stands at the bookstore (but I don't see much evidence of the wacky artwork discussed in this post).
B Smith said 'If there's anyone left to stumble upon this, an Australian bubblegum manufacturer licensed a lot of US-derived material, and I'm happy to say this was one of them.'
That's right, Scanlens used to license all those cards and print them here (in Australia). Very sought after now.
Would really like to get a hold of some of those CARtoons mags now ...
What the heck?!? Looks like it's STILL GOING: https://www.cartoonsmag.com/the-magazine/
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