A series of cards from the sixties that made me what(ever) I am today!
UGLY STICKERS are sought after by many collectors today due to the exceptionally high quality of the artwork they display and because they so perfectly represent the monster madness that was going on in sixties pop culture.
While the young adults during that period busied themselves with rebellion,upheaval, free love, drugs and listening to the Monkees, smaller kids (or at least the boys)had their own set of distractions.
See that drawing on the right?
It's a sticker made in the 1960s, the size of a baseball card and part of a series called "UGLY STICKERS."The first time I saw it was when I was about seven years old. My mother was doing some washing at Pinky Laundry on Rupert Street (it's still there!)in Vancouver. It wasn't a school day, so she brought my little sister and me along. At one point, possibly while the clothes were in the dryer, we went to Bud's Grill a few doors down the block(it's gone now.) for lunch.
That's where I spotted "Belle." Somebody had bought "her" and, after having evidently deciding not to keep her,stuck her onto the brick wall by the booth we were sitting in.
After our meal, we went to pay for it at the front counter. As my mother handed the server (we called them "waitresses" in those days) the money I noticed a box full of packs of some kind of cards under the glass counter. Before my then barely literate brain could decipher the printing on the wrappers my mother surprised me by saying:
"And two UGLY STICKERS, please."
Sis and I were suddenly in possession of samples of this mysterious new(to us) product. My pack had the Belle sticker in it, and also this one:Now, Belle was pretty cool, but Iris really knocked me out! I've had a lifelong love for monsters with big bulging eyeballs but what fascinated me the most was the illusion of depth the artist (NORMAN SAUNDERS) was able to achieve. This may have been the first time I ever REALLY looked at an illustration.
I was hooked.
Unfortunately, at that age I very rarely had any money. A pack of UGLY STICKERS only cost a nickel but it might as well have been a hundred dollars. It was because of this snag that I only saw a few of the stickers, probably less than a dozen, back then - but I DID see this one:I was so blown away by it that I got myself in trouble at school for drawing my own version of it on my desk.
And speaking of school, that was where I saw the most UGLY STICKERS in one place because there was one lucky kid who had about a half dozen of them stuck on his lunch box. One of them was this guy:The fact that I saw so few of the cards(which "became" stickers when their backings were peeled off) only fanned the flames of my obsession. The ones that I did manage to get a hold of eventually faded away as the various notebooks and things they were attached to were tossed out, but they stayed in my mind for years afterwards.
As time passed and my knowledge of popular culture increased I gradually started to figure out how UGLY STICKERS came about in the first place and who the artists were who created them. Some more of the gaps were filled in when I started using the internet to research the subject.Here's what I know about UGLY STICKERS:
They were the result of a collaboration of three artists:
BASIL WOLVERTON, originator and master of the "spaghetti and meatballs" style of cartooning.
WALLY WOOD, "the world's second best comic artist."
and NORMAN SAUNDERS,a highly skilled and prolific painter of pulp magazine and paperback book covers.
From what I understand, sometime in the mid-sixties the Topps card company contacted Vancouver Washington cartoonist BASIL WOLVERTON with a request to produce a series of monster drawings. These drawings would be printed as stickers and sold in packs of two with a stick of bubble gum.With a career of drawing loony grotesque creatures going back to the thirties (see the MAD cover to the right), Wolverton was ideal for this assignment.
He got to work on the project but soon informed the company that they weren't paying him enough for the job.
Topps' way of handling this situation was to put some pressure on Wolverton by recruiting NORMAN SAUNDERS to paint a sample monster, just to show him that he could be replaced!Dorothy to the right here was the creature that Saunders came up with.
Wolverton informed them that he wouldn't budge and that if Topps had found someone to take his place for the low amount they were paying, they should go ahead and do so.
So that's what Topps did. Saunders was put to work producing more creatures and WALLY WOOD(see drawing to the right) was called in to contribute drawings.The way it worked was: Both Wood and Saunders did their own drawings of "Uglies", then Saunders made all of them into paintings.
At some point in the process, Topps decided to pay what Wolverton demanded for the drawings he had already done before he backed out. These were also colored by Norman Saunders.
Even though I eventually grew up to make a living in cartooning, at that young age I didn't realize that the different "look" that some of these cards had from the others was the result of them being drawn by three different artists.
Here's an example of an UGLY STICKER that was drawn by BASIL WOLVERTON and painted by NORMAN SAUNDERS:Unlike Wood and Saunders, Wolverton's pencil drawings were finished with ink before being painted. Some of the Wolverton UGLY STICKERS (including this one)were made into limited edition statuettes a few years back by Dark Horse, a comic book publisher. There's more information about this coming up below.
This one was drawn by WALLY WOOD and painted by NORMAN SAUNDERS:Wood's UGLY STICKERS tended to be the "cutest" looking of the bunch. Actually, he had a way of drawing aliens and bug-eyed creatures that always gave them a really appealing quality.
And here's one that was both drawn and painted by NORMAN SAUNDERS:Once again, when I was a kid I didn't know much about art or painting, but in hindsight I liked the UGLY STICKERS that Saunders did by himself the best.
I find this kind of interesting because Wood and Wolverton both had a lot more professional experience drawing monsters and weird things than Saunders did.
I'm grateful that these three great artists got together all those years ago to make these cards that blew the minds of kids everywhere.
At the same time though, it saddens me that Wood and Saunders were forced by their financial situations to take on this job even though it paid dismally.It makes me feel even worse that recently one of the original UGLY STICKERS paintings was sold at an auction for $1,276.00!
Magazine illustration was on its way out in the sixties and artists had to scramble for what they could get. Things have gotten far worse since then.
A few months back I heard a magazine publisher on the radio. A listener phoned in and asked him why his publication always had photos on the covers and never illustrations. The publisher replied that whenever he tried to put paintings on the covers in the past, sales would drop.
I'm tempted to launch into a rant about the public's indifference to art, but that can wait for another time.
Instead I'll tell you about...
RUBBER UGLIES!
Back in the days when a dime, a nickel, or even a penny could actually be enough to buy something, selling gumballs from machines was big business.The Topps card company was a major player in this racket. They also manufactured and sold many of the little trinkets that gumball machines often dispensed instead of gum.
Monsters were popular with kids in those days so little rubber creatures were perfect additions to the wares sold in North American candy stores.
Somebody at Topps got the terrific idea of basing some of these rubber jigglers on the UGLY STICKERS cards and RUBBER UGLIES were born!Here are some examples of the results compared with their "inspiration."
In addition to being available in gumball machines, RUBBER UGLIES were available on counters in candy stores all over the place. That's where I saw them. This may just be a Canadian thing(I grew up in Vancouver), but the boxes these critters were displayed in were marked TEACHER'S PETS rather than RUBBER UGLIES.
The UGLY STICKERS cards had disappeared from stores a year or two before I discovered RUBBER UGLIES/TEACHER'S PETS, but I immediately recognized where these cute little miscreants came from.By this time my love for all things monstrous had increased and evolved greatly and, more importantly, I had become more resourceful when it came to acquiring money.
In no time at all I had my own little collection of rubber creatures and never left the house without my pockets bulging with them. Things continued in this way for a few months before my RUBBER UGLIES started their gradual migration from my pants to the top of my head.
(Note: the next part of this lens was written by me and posted on a blog I was writing a couple of years ago. I'm using it again here with a few changes to make it fit better.)
Remember THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW?
Do you recall Goober(George Lindsey) and that funny hat he wore?
One summer day my mother started to cut up an old felt hat and said she was making something for me. She told me it was just for laughs and that I didn't have to wear it if I didn't want to. When she was a kid her older brothers wore these hats with all kinds of things sewn to them.When she was finished I instantly recognized it as a "Goober hat" and started looking for neat stuff to attach to it. At first it was covered with a variety of buttons, badges and things that I can't remember anymore, but my collection of RUBBER UGLIES quickly crowded all of the other stuff off. Topping it all was a blue cross-eyed gorilla(he wasn't part of the RUBBER UGLIES lineup, but still seemed to fit in somehow)!
Putting it on made me feel like I was a kid from a comic book or an old TV show, like one of Beaver Cleaver or Dennis The Menace's pals.
I wore it everywhere (except at school) for I don't know how long. It eventually reached the point that my family and friends were so accustomed to seeing it on me that they didn't even notice it anymore.
Then we moved to another neighborhood. I got enough unwanted attention from being a "new kid" so I quit wearing my monster Goober hat and eventually got rid of it altogether.
Of all the stuff I had as a kid that is lost, this hat is the thing I miss the most.
POINT YOUR GOOGLY EYES AT THESE VIDEOS!
BASIL WOLVERTON IN 3 DIMENSIONS!
Can your senses take it?
A while back Dark Horse produced a series of limited edition busts modeled after Basil Wolverton's drawings. Called "Wolverton Weirdos," there were five in the series with 1200 copies made of each. I've got the whole set uglifying my living room!Even though Wolverton spent a good many years as a "Producer of Preposterous Pictures of Peculiar People who Prowl this Perplexing Planet," four of the "Weirdos" were based on his UGLY STICKERS designs.
The fifth in the series was LENA THE HYENA, a character Basil designed in the forties who should be familiar to fans of Al Capp's Lil' Abner comic strip.On the right is one of Wolverton's original stickers and its sculpted counterpart.
BUT THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE!
I'm Flashfinkifying the internet
- FLASHFINK'S FAVORITES
- It's been bothering me that the images on this UGLY STICKERS lens are so small, so I've put a post on my new site that features a few bigger examples of the cards. I invite you to visit and take a look!
Do You Like Monster Movies?
Then how about taking a look at my blog?
- CAPTURED MONSTERS
- Screen captures from great and less-than-great creature features! New images added almost every day!
UGLY LINKS
- BASIL WOLVERTON
- The genius whose mad magic with a pencil got the whole thing started!
- WALLY WOOD
- He lived a sad life but this man was one of the greatest comic artists EVER! There's a lot of his work on the web. LOOK AT ALL OF IT!
- NORMAN SAUNDERS
- A vast online collection of works by this great illustrator. Includes ALL of the UGLY STICKERS!
- TOPPS
- Producers of the UGLY STICKERS cards as well as a multitude of others! Click this link to see what they're up to these days!
Some UGLY STICKERS-related stuff!
Just click on the thumbnails that interest you and the fine folks at Amazon will be glad to be of assistance.
Check out my other lenses
- Who remembers EERIE PUBLICATIONS?
- Tasteless comics that aren't worth the paper they were printed on. Don't miss it!
- THE FLASHFINK PHENOMENON
- The internet's newest micro-celebrity or a green-skinned flash in the pan?
I'M SPREADING THROUGH THE WEB LIKE A DISEASE!
- FLASHFINK'S MYSPACE PAGE
- Visit my MySpace page several times every hour to find out what I'm up to. You'll thank me for it later!
- FLASHFINK'S FAVORITES
- There isn't much at this site yet, but it will be growing like crazy in the next few months!
- CAPTURED MONSTERS
- Yeah, I know I mentioned it earlier on this page but I can't stop myself from listing it again.
Tell me what YOU think!
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BethErickson
creepy, but fun :) 2.5 stars for the stickers and another 2.5 for the info. that's a total of 5. Posted July 10, 2008 |
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debnet
Fun Lens! I don't remember the stickers, but I do remember the rubbers! 5* :) Posted July 07, 2008 |
Sweet!
Posted June 02, 2008
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manxsal
A fun 5 star lens! Posted May 29, 2008 |
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manxsal
A fun 5 star lens! Posted May 29, 2008 |
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MiaBellezza
5 Stars for the ugly stickers! Posted May 29, 2008 |
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hearthealth
Yes, the middle of the 20th century was really the greatest seedbed of US comics, which went on to influence how we enjoy Marvel and DC. 5*!! Faved too! Posted May 25, 2008 |
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triathlontraining
I'd never heard of them before. Thanks for the great lens on ugly stickers. :) 5* Posted May 17, 2008 |
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sellingnicestuff
One of the best lenses yet! Love it! 5* for sure! Posted May 16, 2008 |
Love your lens. I was too old for stickers in the 60's and my kids were too young. Besides I used to be petrified of monsters as a small child. You could actually make me love them. Keep up the good work.
Posted May 07, 2008
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JAV010
nice lens good work :) Posted April 29, 2008 |
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NooNoo
Great lens, very informative, thank you. Posted April 20, 2008 |
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mulberry
Can you ever have too much ugly?? Wonderful lens. Posted April 17, 2008 |
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Beaddoodler
Good trip down memory lane. ;) Great lense Posted April 15, 2008 |
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thisistherealme
Great lens. We have sold cute stickers on Ebay, but I think that these would be a lot more fun to sell. I have bookmarked this lens. 5/5* Posted April 09, 2008 |
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beeobrien
Fun lens. Great stickers. Thanks. Posted April 08, 2008 |
I was more into Spook Stories bubble gum cards (that's what we called trading cards in the 60s... "Here's your 15 cents allowance, son, what are you going to buy with it?"... "I'm gonna get me some bubble gum cards!!") but I did purchase a pack or two of Ugly Stickers. By the way... that sticker entitled "Dave" looks NOTHING like me... I do bear a striking resemblance to the "Artie" sticker, however...
Posted April 08, 2008
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NeonZeppelin
These are great! Awesome stuff here, Spudboy! Posted April 07, 2008 |
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Toxiferous
Those stickers are fantastic and you've made a wonderful lens! :) Posted April 07, 2008 |
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Flashfink
Thanks to all of you for looking! Some of my friends have contacted me and said they were unable to leave comments because of the problems Squidoo has been dealing with over the last few days. This makes me extra appreciative to those who got through! Posted April 07, 2008 |
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clouda9
Both my hubby and I remember these...great trip down memory lane :) Posted April 07, 2008 |
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rms
Very cool lens! I remember these stickers too! Posted April 07, 2008 |
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ThomasC
Man i remember these things when I was a kid! Great job! Have some stars! Posted April 07, 2008 |
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chefkeem
I found your lens quite intriguing. ***** Posted April 06, 2008 |
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ms-giggles
Laughter is good for the heart. Posted April 04, 2008 |
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Flashfink
That's a hard question to answer, poddys. Every time I try to look in a mirror it shatters! Posted April 03, 2008 |
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poddys
Nice job on this lens. I had never heard of these before. I like your opener "These ugly cards made me what I am today"... Just curious to know if you are ugly LOL :) Posted April 02, 2008 |
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LaraineRose
You were right not to discard what you have already shaped. 5* for now - STICK to it (more stickers please.) My lens is never finished. I post new photographs daily. Please come back when you have time. Posted April 02, 2008 |
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flowergardener
LOVE IT! I remember those stickers :) Posted March 31, 2008 |
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MarkMBravura
Superb display of reckless Squidlove- a definite 5'er! Posted March 31, 2008 |
