Month: November 2020 (Page 3 of 10)

Over the years in The PopCult Gift Guide I’ve recommended many great books written, compiled, edited or presented by comics historian, Craig Yoe.

This year we are just going to point you to the Yoe Books! Website, chock full o’ wonderful comic book and cartoon collections which may well be the perfect gift for the die-hard lover of comics on your holiday shopping list. The Yoe Books website does not sell the books directly, but instead provides links to online booksellers.

At the Yoe Books! website you’ll find an amazing array of cartoon and comic-oriented books that cover a wide variety of genre.

Recent releases include…

Voting is Your Super Power Graphic Novella
by Various, Craig Yoe (Editor), Al Avison (Artist), Tom Feelings (Artist)

In the 1950s there was the Cold War and Red Scare. These fears motivated civic organizations and major comic book companies to team up and create beautifully drawn comic books with clever stories to be passed out in the streets, in union halls, in factories, at state fairs, in schools, in churches—wherever people gathered.

There were titles like “The Man Who Stole Your Vote” (with an evil masked super villain), “If Your Children Could Vote” (with a brave, brash Greta Thurnberg-of-the-time berating the adults), and “Your Vote is Vital” (powerfully illustrated by Lee Elias).

The 1960s Civil Rights-era had the NAACP behind a historically important, engaging comic book “The Street Where You Live” to motivatee blacks to get to the polls (drawn by pioneering black artist Tom Feelings). There is historical evidence that this is an unknown Marvel comic.

These comic books warned citizens to be on the alert for political corruption and get out and vote to stop it! These lost and priceless comic books are beautifully restored and reprinted in full in this fascinating edition. Multiple-Eisner Award winner Craig Yoe provides a revealing introduction profusely illustrated with photos and rare cartoons.

Love and Other Weird Things
by Rich Sparks

The world can always use a laugh. But today, the world could really use these laughs in thiscollection of comic strips and panel cartoons.

Love and Other Weird Things is a cartoon collection by the soon-to-be-household-name-if-there’s-any-justice-in-this-world Rich Sparks. The cast of characters seem innocuous enough: foul-mouthed animals, Paul Bunyan, Smokey the Bear, stout men in tighty whities. But the situations give Monty Python a run for their money. And the juxtapositions–good heavens!

Sparks has been published in the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. Now he breaks out on his own with approximately 150 bizarre but sweet(ish) but, no seriously, really bizarre, but also really funny cartoons.

Marvel Masterwork Pin-ups
Edited by Craig Yoe, art by Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Jim Steranko and more

Jack Kirby, “Sturdy” Steve Ditko, Jim Steranko, Don Heck, John Byrne, Barry Windsor-Smith, John Severin, Wally Wood, Dan Decarlo, John Romita, and many more!.

As part of the tremendous fun of Silver Age comics, artists created pin-ups of the most popular Marvel heroes and villains! Now the greatest of those works of art are gathered for the first time in a beautiful large-format hardback book! Included are rare examples of original art of The Thing, Spider-Man, and Dr. Strange.

An incredible artbook showcasing Spidey, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, The Avengers, Nick Fury, Daredevil, Millie the Model (!), and the ever lovin’ blue-eyed Thing–and many marvelous more. Witty wordage, pulse-pounding patter, and zany zingers by Stan “The Man” Lee.

That’s a small sample of the incredible cartoon and comics volumes presented by Yoe Books. Head over to their website for a ton of great gift ideas.

Next up in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide is a new career-spanning collection of songs by Mike Batt. It’s the perfect gift for any fan of brilliant pop-rock with a strong orchestral backing, and it’s also manna from heaven for the rare US fans of the 1970s litter-fighting critters, The
Wombles.

Mike Batt: The Penultimate Collection
CD/Download

Longtime readers of PopCult may remember that I am a huge fan of Mike Batt, and last year even recommended a fun storybook that he wrote. This year the focus is on his music, with a collection of songs from all of his vast career as a songwriter/singer/producer/arranger and Womble.

This two CD collection from the British singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, record producer, director, conductor and former Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry features 34 tracks spanning his career plus two new recordings.

Having achieved substantial international success as a solo artist he is particularly known in the UK for creating The Wombles pop act, writing many hits including the chart-topping “Bright Eyes”, and discovering Katie Melua. He has also conducted many of the world’s great orchestras, including the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony and Stuttgart Philharmonic in both classical and pop recordings and performances.

Along the way he’s worked with a few notable musicians, like George Harrison, Art Garfunkel, Julian Lennon, Jon Anderson, Steve Harley, Stephane Grapelli and many others. Batt’s solo work is marked by brilliant orchestrations and a strong pop sensiblity, but with progressive ideas and daring musical combinations.

Batt’s latest album issue, – an in-depth, 36 track collection of his own versions of hits written by him for other artists (Art Garfunkel, David Essex, Barbara Dickson etc) and international hits from his own solo albums.

Disc 2 of the set emphasises some tracks that would never have been singles by virtue of their non-mainstream character, and some earlier items such as his highly original 1971 single cover of the Beatles “Your Mother Should Know.”

There are three Wombles tracks on the album, the first time Batt has included Wombles tracks on a compilation of his solo work. There are two brand-new recordings on the tracklist, “Nine Million Bicycles” and “It’s Only Pain “ – both of which were written for Katie Melua but which he has never recorded himself until now.

You can order the CD or buy the download of Mike Batt: The Penultimate Collection from Amazon, or if you want to be all fancy and special about it, order a signed copy directly from Mike Batt’s website (be sure to order early so that it can make it here from the UK in time for Christmas).

Today’s first pick in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide is seven suggestions that you give a magazine subscription or single issue to the person on your holiday shopping list who enjoys the quaint and archaic pastime of reading magazines. For the younger among you, these were printed pamphlets that were sort of like websites, only they never crashed, and weren’t updated as often.

If you know someone of that certain age where magazines are still a thing and they still want to read about what was cool when they were growing up, then you can get them a gift subscrption to one of the magazines below, because despite all the joys of modern technology, nothing beats the tactile experience of reading and turning the pages of a good magazine…especially when you’re sitting on the toilet, or in your other favorite reading room.

We begin with a new magazine…

Toy Ventures

Back in the day, toy collectors got their news from magazines. There were several on the stands back in the early 90s: Jim Main’s Collectible Toys & Values, Lee’s Action Figure News and Toy Review, Tomart’s Action Figure Digest, Kalmbach’s Classic Toys, Toy Shop. I’m probably leaving out a few, but those were the leaders in the field.

Some of these magazines offered detailed, in-depth articles, printed on cheap newsprint, while others presented high-quality photographs of rare toys on expensive slick paper. They all filled a reference niche that the book market hadn’t quite caught up with yet. This was how you learned the history of the various toy companies and kept up with the hobby.

Happily, the nostalgia-merchants at Plaid Stallions.com  have created a new toy magazine, Toy-Ventures, and after a harrowing experience in crowdfunding, it is available and it’s an absolute treat.

Editor and publisher, Brian Heiler, has a passion for the toys of his youth, particularly the lesser lights that don’t get that much attention from the average toy collector. Over seven years ago I raved about Brian’s book, Rack Toys, which looked at the cheap and cheesy toys sold in grocery stores and pharmacies, and that’s going to be back in print soon.

The first issue of Toy-Ventures is not only an entertaining read, but it’s also an impeccable work of reference. The second issue is imminent.

To get your own copy of Toy-Ventures, visit the MegoMuseum/Plaid Stallions/Odeon Toys store (where you can find some other pretty cool things to order) or check eBay. At the moment, it’s going to run you about sixteen bucks shipped to the US, and it’s well worth it if you have any interest in cool toys of the 1970s.

Remind Magazine 

Remind is a great little magazine that is published by the folks who currently publish TV Guide, and it’s well-steeped in the days of yore.

The key to Remind is pure nostalgia. They claim to cover each decade from the 1960s to the 1990s, but since nostalgia was already such a huge part of pop culture by then, they have also delved into pre-1960’s pop culture icons like the Universal Monsters, Elvis Presley, Marlon Brando, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe and the earlier stars of Hollywood.

I’m not complaining, because Remind employs a light, informed and fun approach to their articles. You won’t find deep, probing analysis here, just the highlights and some great photos. It’s fun, and that’s really something we need more of these days. The articles serve their purpose to remind us of the cool stuff from the history of pop culture. Hence the name.

Remind also has trivia, crossword puzzles, word search, and one of my favorite features, reprints of vintage comic strips from the various decades. This is the kind of magazine that, by law, should be required in all waiting rooms.  It’s a bit like Highlights Magazine for grown-ups.

Another part of the charm of Remind is that it’s a hybrid magazine, with part of it printed on slick paper, and the rest on newprint. Hardly anybody prints on newsprint anymore, and to be honest, I sort of miss it. You can find your way to ordering gift subscriptions right HERE.

RetroFan Magazine 

RetroFan is the brainchild of Michael Eury, who edits Back Issue Magazine (devoted to bronze-age comics) and TwoMorrows, who publish a variety of magazines and books that cover comics, pop culture and toys. RetroFan is a natural extension of the throroughly-researched nostalgia that Eury employs with Back Issue, only applied to pop culture in general.

With an all-star roster of writers, including Ernest D. Farino, Scott Shaw! Will Murray and others, RetroFan is a pure delight that dives head-first into topics like Charlie’s Angels, Captain Action Toys, Horror Movie hosts, The Andy Griffith Show, Space Toys, lunch boxes, classic TV shows and cartoons, pop music and anything else that made life more fun in our youth.

RetroFan has been successful enough to be bumped up to bi-monthly status from the quarterly schedule it began with and it’s clear that they have no shortage of topics that will punch the nostalgia buttons of any Baby Boomers, Sub-Boomers, Gen Xers or even Millenials with great taste on your holiday shopping list.

You can subscribe to RetroFan HERE, and I’m sure they can work out gift subscriptions for you as well. What could be more nostalgic than reading a magazine of any sort, let alone one that covers cool stuff from decades ago?

Exotica Moderne

Exotica Moderne is a quarterly publication showcasing the new tiki and lowbrow art and artists, exotic cocktails, kustom kulture, music and more. Focusing on where these genres have been and where they are heading, Exotica Moderne features emerging artists as well as those spearheading these movements. Where all of these subcultures meet and intersect, Exotica Moderne covers next wave of tiki and lowbrow art.

Regular Features include: Tiki with Ray ; Cocktail Hour; Moving in Stereo; and Private Oasis. There have been two issues published so far, and they can be ordered directly from the magazine’s publisher, House of Tabu, who also offer some cool Mugs and other items like shot glasses and memberships in The Order of The Golden Fez.

Determined not to fall into the trap that has ensnared some other Tiki magazines, Exotica Moderne does not offer subscriptions. You can sign up for their email list, and you will be notified when the new issue is available to order. It’s neater that way. Nothing beats being able to flip through a magazine and find great articles and cool graphics about stuff that just screams “COOL” at the top of its lungs.

This is a great gift for the Tiki fan on your holiday shopping list who still reads paper magazines, and it’s cheap enough to be a stocking stuffer. You can order it HERE.

Zelda: The Magazine of the Vintage Nouveau

Zelda: The Magazine of the Vintage Nouveau is the publication for lovers of early 20th century culture, style, arts, film, music, and more! From the beginnings of the 20th century to the Golden Era of Hollywood, Zelda brings the love of this era to life on paper. They feature not only interviews, tutorials, and features on subjects from the era (1900-1940), but highlight the movers and shakers and best of what’s going on in the vintage-style social scene today.

Published twice a year, this digest-sized small press publication is the perfect gift for the person on your holiday shopping list who feels that they were not born of this time. Zelda is filled with articles on fashions of the day, new Jazz era concerts and shows and interviews with the biggest pre-Atomic-age retro personalities.

The latest issue, just released a few weeks ago, includes articles on coctails of the era, David J, late of the neo-Goth grandfathers,Bauhaus on his transition to Big Band music, 1920s-style Garters, plus reviews of classic movies, words on styling and a look at Art Deco Egyptmania, along with loads of other fascinating stories.

You can order the current issue, as well as select back issues of Zelda at their website, and be transported to another time.

Bachelor Pad Magazine

We move on to another “out-of-it’s time” digest-sized ‘zine, Bachelor Pad Magazine.  This quarterly mag is for anyone who is a fan of the Atomic Age lifestyle. Filled with stories all about booze, babes, and burly-q since 2007. Bachelor Pad publishes four regular issues a year plus one naughty Nightcap Edition each summer. You can subscribe or order back issues at their website.

The hallmark of Bachelor Pad Magazine is the stunning PG-rated pin-up pictorials, usually starring the stalwarts of the modern burlesque scene. Though eye-popping, they are tame enough to retain a classy aura that calls back to a more innocent era, where being “naughty” didn’t involve quite so much effort.

Alongside the lovely ladies you’ll find short stories, articles on mixologly, movie lists, coverage of Burly-Q events and vintage-style magazine cartoons. Bachelor Pad Magazine is a deliberate relic of an earlier age…an Atomic one, at that.

Non Sport Update

Okay, I’m going to be a bit self-serving here. I’ve been contributing to Non Sport Update for twenty-three years now. This is the journal of non-sport trading cards and in 2016  it was acquired by Beckett Sports Media, which put it on even more newsstands and in more places so that you can read about the latest Wacky Packages, Garbage Pail Kids, Star Wars cards or other cool non-sport trading card wonders.

Non-Sport Update is THE magazine for collectors of non-sport trading cards (cards that focus on movies, television, sci-fi, comics, music, etc.–anything other than sports). The magazine is published bi-monthly in January, March, May, July, September, and November.

Each issue is filled with features and departments focusing on the latest trading card releases, promotional cards, online happenings, and vintage cards. Their large, 32-page price guide lists values for the most popular card series from the 1880s through today. Articles cover new and vintage card releases. Inside the magazine, you will also find contests, a schedule of card releases, and much, much more. Each issue comes poly-bagged with sample promotional trading cards.

If you’d like to subscribe or look into ordering back issues, just visit the website and check out all the wax pack goodness (gum not included).

Today is Stocking Stuffer Day in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide. All of today’s gift suggestions will be small, cheap and hopefully will fit in a stocking for your loved ones.

I will be pointing our suggesto-meter to websites where you can order these cool things so that you can stuff a safe and socially-distanced stocking. One of our entries will be for a website where everything is cheap.

Keep these ideas in mind, and be sure to order early so you have them in time for the holidays.

I first told you about Lights of Broadway Show Cards a couple of years ago in The PopCult Gift Guide, but we’re going to remind you of that gift idea today because they have just released a new series of cards and they have several exciting projects on tap, plus there is no better stocking stuffer for the fan of the theatre on your shopping list than these little gems.  With 2020 being such a devestating year for Broadway, and the performing arts in general, this is a nice way to remember that the shutdowns won’t last forever, and we will be able to enjoy live theatre again someday.

The Lights of Broadway Show Cards feature the artwork of Broadway’s reigning caricaturist, Squiggs, and present the stars, theaters and shows of The Great White Way in trading card form. This is the absolutely perfect gift for the theatre fanatic on your holiday shopping list.

The Lights of Broadway Show Cards celebrate Broadway theatre. The stories and the storytellers, the art and the artisans, those who make it all possible and the community embracing it. Shows, actors, directors, writers, designers, and all else in the spotlight or behind the scenes who keep the theatrical world spinning.

Over at The Lights of Broadway website, you’ll find special deals where you can get packs of their new 2020 Edition, with dozens of new faces showing up in the series for the first time. You’ll also find deals on binders and starter kits (which include an illustrated binder and several packs of cards).

Single packs are only five dollars, and you can be a little more generious and get your giftee multiple packs. They’ll fit in a stocking, trust me. The 2020 Series was released in October 2020, the lineup can be seen here. Some cards are more rare than others and there are many super rarities to be found. Each pack contains five cards.

If you want to go whole hog, you can find entire boxes of 36 packs, to shower your theatre fanatic with loads of great cards. You can even find single-show packs for Fiddler on The Roof, Fun Home and Dear Evan Hansen. They have everything from stocking stuffers to mid-sized gifts to BIG TICKET items.

The cards are beautifully printed and feature the amazing art of Squiggs. If you’ve got a theatre kid on your gift list, this is where you need to go. You can order directly from The Lights of Broadway Show Cards website.

This is the perfect gift for the Broadway Baby and die-hard theatre buff on your holiday shopping list.

Today is Stocking Stuffer Day in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide. All of today’s gift suggestions will be small, cheap and hopefully will fit in a stocking for your loved ones.

I will be pointing our suggesto-meter to websites where you can order these cool things so that you can stuff a safe and socially-distanced stocking. One of our entries will be for a website where everything is cheap.

Keep these ideas in mind, and be sure to order early so you have them in time for the holidays.

Five Below

Our website recommendation for The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide Stocking Stuffer Day is for the true cheapskates among you. Five Below is a wonderful chain of stores that we do not yet have in the Charleston area. They are getting closer with a new store in Parkersburg, but instead of making the drive, you can now order online for the glorious cheapness that is Five Below.

Every item they sell is five dollars or less (except for a few things they call “Five Beyond” but those are still under ten bucks). You will find T Shirts, toys, books, make up, jewelry, decorations, candy, pillows, Snuggies, phone accessories, posters, workout equipment, and more. When I first wrote about Five Below in PopCult, for some reason, they sold a lot of poop emoji or just poop in general products, in the store. In fact, if you had a poop-obsessed person on your holiday shopping list, this was where you would find poop Nirvana. They had animated dancing, farting plush poop, poop emoji pillows that were puking rainbows, several sizes of fake poop, games you could play on the toilet, and poop emoji Christmas Tree ornaments. Since that time, they have tried to cut the crap out, but there’s still a little bit, around the edges, if you’re into that sort of thing.

For today, the important stuff is the items you can cram into a stocking, like art supplies, small journals, candy, small toys, blind-box items, make-up, jewelry, hand-sanitizer, facemasks, and tons of other stuff.

And it’s all cheap. You can find gag gifts and actual real useful gifts like lamps, bookends, stationary. Just go check out the website and see what all they have.

Today is Stocking Stuffer Day in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide. All of today’s gift suggestions will be small, cheap and hopefully will fit in a stocking for your loved ones.

I will be pointing our suggesto-meter to websites where you can order these cool things so that you can stuff a safe and socially-distanced stocking. One of our entries will be for a website where everything is cheap.

Keep these ideas in mind, and be sure to order early so you have them in time for the holidays.

Our next compact and inexpensive suggestion for The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide is perfect for anyone who loves toy cars. Boom City Racers brings back the zip-cord powered thrill of Kenner’s old SSP cars in a smaller size, with cool fireworks-inspired packaging and a nod to the current blind-box craze.

The cars are slightly bigger than a Hot Wheels car, but the flywheel works perfectly, and the bodies fly about into three pieces on impact. It’s a lot of good clean destructive automotive fun.

Boom City Racers are the collectable cars that rip out of their fireworks rocket launcher and explode apart on impact! With a super-fast flywheel inside, they are designed for speed! Watch the cars parts fly when they collide into each other or hit something hard! Then, simply click the parts back into place and your car is ready to race again! There are 24 cars to collect and race across Season 1. Build up a team of the hottest machines, take on the challenge and rip, race, explode to own the road.

With easy reassembly, simply click the parts back into place and your car is ready to race again.

Each Boom City Racer car is powered by rip cord, the harder you rip, the bigger the smash.

These cars are made for speed with their super-fast fly wheel.

Rabid fans can collect all 24 explosive cars across Series One. Including the Limited Edition ‘Cop That’ car with lights and sounds. You don’t know which car you get, but they’re all cool, and at around six bucks a pop, they won’t break the bank.

There are also more elaborate sets, but we’re pushing the basic cars as stocking fodder. You can find these almost anywhere toys or sold, or order them from Amazon, Walmart or Target.

Today is Stocking Stuffer Day in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide. All of today’s gift suggestions will be small, cheap and hopefully will fit in a stocking for your loved ones.

I will be pointing our suggesto-meter to websites where you can order these cool things so that you can stuff a safe and socially-distanced stocking. One of our entries will be for a website where everything is cheap.

Keep these ideas in mind, and be sure to order early so you have them in time for the holidays.

5 Surprise “blind box” toys from Zuru are one of the hottest kids collectibles on the market right now. They have innovative packaging, a small portable size and are priced just right for kids to obsess over. Among the popular lines in this program are Glitter Unicorn Squad , Mini Brands, Toy Mini Brands and Dino Strike,  as well as new series of 5 Surprise aimed at boys or girls (or you can switch ’em if you’re not hung up on the gender thing).

You can find these online at Amazon, Target, Walmart and Books A Million, among many other websites.

5 Surprise Mini-Brands hit stores before Christmas last year and while they flew under the radar of adults, they became an instant hit with kids, selling out almost everywhere and garnering over half a billion views for a viral campaign on Tik Tok and YouTube.

5 Surprise Unicorn Squad lets kids collect all 13 sassy squad members, from ballerinas to bubblegum babes and RARE golden unicorns. There is alos a glitter variety.

5 Surprise Dino-Strike lets kids build dinosaurs, who have missile-firing weapons. If the real dinosaurs had missile-firing weapons they might still be around.

5 Surprise Mini Brands are exact realistic miniatures of some of the world’s most loved shopping brands. Inside each package (more on that later) you will find tiny replicas of popular name-brand food items, candy, shampoo, deodorant and other household essentials. Kids love these because kids love miniature stuff. These are highly collectible, with some rare “chase” items featuring metallic or glow-in-the-dark highlights. Each package includes a checklist, which is cleverly designed to look like a full-color cash register receipt, and some packages include buildable extras like shopping carts, shelfs or baskets.

5 Surprise Toy Mini Brands take the hot miniature collectible trend to a new level with the introduction of Toy Mini Brands, a range of realistic miniature replicas of classic and contemporary toy brands. Through a partnership with Nickelodeon/Viacom, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, SpongeBob SquarePants JoJo Siwa are among the toy brands that will be miniaturized and hit store shelves across the globe this year. In addition, iconic and popular brands such as Classic Rubik’s, Crayola and Wham-O join the Toy Mini Brands portfolio. These are out now, and they’re pretty darned cool.

The 5 Surprise Pink (girls) and Blue (boys) series are filled with all kinds of cool things that kids will love.

The 5 Surprise line combines the thrill of old-school gumball machines with an upgraded sensibility that brings much higher-quality to the world of kid-oriented trinketry. These cool globes, a bit bigger than a baseball, will fit into a stocking and bring smiles to the faces of the folks digging into them. With plenty of different series and types of toys involved, you’re bound to find something perfect for your loved one.

The PopCulteer
November 20, 2020

It’s going to be a very short PopCulteer this week. After this post, there will only be six days left in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide.

As with everything in 2020, the gift guide has been a little unusual. I’m ending it earlier than ever because nearly every gift suggestion I make is available online, and with the rocky recent behavior of The Post Office, I don’t want anybody missing the shipping deadines.

Nobody likes to find “Your gift is in the mail” under the tree.

I’m not doing my usual bit of urging you to shop local because it’s not really safe. I’m not doing it this year, and I wouldn’t suggest you do anything that I wouldn’t. In the grand scheme of things, ordering something from Amazon instead of fighting the crowds at Walmart is not exactly the kind of sacrifice that you’ll tear up about when you tell your grandchildren about this year.

I miss going to local stores, but my will to continue living outweighs that.

Also in this year’s gift guide, longtime readers may notice that I’ve recycled a lot of reviews of books, comics, toys and music from earlier in the year. This was actually part of the plan all along. In previous years I have run myself ragged cranking out this guide, and I didn’t want to do that to myself this year. So I planned ahead. I enjoy assembling the gift guide every year, but I don’t enjoy just barely outrunning my self-imposed deadlines. Except for two days, I’ve had this year’s guide prepared at least one full day in advance.  Recycling the year’s best reviews made that possible.

It’s worked out pretty well, so you can expect way more reviews in PopCult in 2021, along with a couple of other major changes that I’ll tell you about near the end of the year.

I’ve done pretty well with my plan to cap the price of my gift suggestions at a hundred bucks. I’ve also gone out of my way to suggest things that aren’t listed in every other gift guide. The reason I didn’t suggest the Animatronic Child from The Mandalorian, aside from the fact that the little bugger is on back-order almost everywhere, is that…well…it’s the hottest Star Wars toy in decades. Nobody who would be interested in it doesn’t already know all about it. I like to tell you about things you may not already know about.

We have six more days of cool ideas for your holiday shopping, and Friday is going to be a special day filled with ideas for Stocking Stuffers. Everything we recommend today is going to be cheap, small and fun. We may have as many as five entries today, and they’ll start dropping around 11 AM EST, so check back for that.

Our last gift guide post will go live the day before Thanksgiving, and the day after Trukey day will bring The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide Master List.

There will be some kind of post on Thanksgiving, but I guarantee you that there won’t be much effort put into it. Next week will have some new programs on The AIR, plus a holiday programming stunt, and then, if all goes according to plan, a week from Saturday PopCult‘s regular features will all return.

Thanks for coming to PopCult, and thanks for making The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide the most-read ever (and that’s with six days left to go!)

Our final entry today in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide is an adults-only item for fans of great pin-up art. It’s a collection of “good girl art” by famed animator and cartoonist, Bruce Timm.

The Big Tease by Bruce Timm
by Bruce Timm
Flesk Publications
ISBN: 978-1-64041-041-1
hardcover $49.95
softcover $29.95

The Big Tease is an oversized new Naughty and Nice Bruce Timm collection, with an emphasis on “Naughty.”

Bruce Timm has been creating elegant drawings of women for over 30 years, and nearly all of these charming nudes were drawn purely for fun after-hours. This book collects his three Teaser collections—released from 2011 to 2013 and long sold out—plus Surrender, My Sweet from 2015. In addition, Timm has created new material especially for this collection and delved into his personal archives to share pieces not shown before. These culminate in more than 75 additional pages of material not reproduced in any of his previous Naughty and Nice collections. In all, over 260 women drawn in pencil, ink or color fill these pages. Timm’s art is reproduced at an impressive size and showcased in this oversized format.

Timm is primarily known for his work as the lead designer on Batman: The Animated Series, and subsequent role as supervising producer for much of DC Comics’ animated offerings. This book sees him letting his hair down and drawing what he really wants to draw…women, of the gorgeous variety.

Mature Warning: The Big Tease contains nudity throughout. This book is intended for ages 18 and up. Don’t give this to junior unless his parents are okay with that.

All hardcover pre-orders come with 2 free bonus 8.5 x 11” mini-prints that feature B.T. art found within the book. While supplies last. The Paperback edition comes with one print and can be ordered from any bookseller (without the Flesk bonus print). The hardcover edition can only be ordered from Flesk.

Chances are, you have somebody on your holiday shopping list who would love this.

Next up in The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide we have a double-shot of gift ideas for the rabid fan of The Who on your shopping list, with bonus points if they also love vinyl. Note that one of these is a pre-order that will be released on December 11.

The Who Live In Hyde Park
Eagle Rock/Universal Music Group

Over the summer, this anniversary concert came out on three colored-vinyl LPs. Originally issued on CD and Blu Ray five years ago as part of the band’s fiftieth anniversary year, this recording captures the band performing their greatest hits live in London’s Hyde Park in front of a crowd of over 50,000 fans.

The recording itself is a fascinating document of the current state of The Who, with founding members Keith Moon and John Entwistle no longer among the living, but Roger Daltry and Pete Townshend having managed to not die before they got old.

With Zak Starkey on drums and Nino Palladino (Nine Inch Nails) on bass, and augmented with several additional musicians (including Townshend’s brother, Simon), the band does a fine job of recreating the sound of the original records, albiet with some transpositional adjustments to account for the aging of Roger Daltry’s still-amazing voice.

The recording quality is outstanding for a live, outdoor venue. The vocals are not buried, and all the instruments can be heard clearly in a crisp and bright mix. The song selection runs from the early days of The Who, through highlights of “Tommy” and “Quadrophenia,” and even touches on their early 1980s hits before coming to a close with “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” from their “Who’s Next” album.

True die-hard Who fans may also be receptive to the CD/Blu Ray release, because much of the band’s performance is visual, including several tributes to Moon and Entwistle, but for vinyl collectors, this delayed release is a real treat. You should be able to order this from any store that sells vinyl, or click on the title for the Amazon link.

Speaking of Vinyl Collectors and Who fans, this pre-order for a box set is sure to tug on their squeezebox…

WHO [7″ Singles Box Set w/ Live At Kingston
Interscope Records

The Who has one of the greatest rock legacies in music history, they’re one of the all-time great live bands, have sold over 100 million records worldwide. In 2019, Fifty-five years after they made their first recordings, The Who returned with their first new album in thirteen years entitled WHO.

The eleven-track album was mostly recorded in London and Los Angeles during Spring and Summer 2019. Singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend are joined on the album by long-time Who drummer Zak Starkey, bassist Pino Palladino along with contributions from Simon Townshend, Benmont Tench, Carla Azar, Joey Waronker and Gordon Giltrap.

On December 11 The Who will release a new version of last year’s album WHO featuring an updated version of “Beads On One String” newly remixed by Pete Townshend and acoustic tracks from the band’s only live shows of 2020.

The live songs on the CD with the deluxe version of WHO were recorded in Kingston on Valentine’s Day this year exactly 50 years to the day since The Who’s seminal show at Leeds which became the infamous live album `Live At Leeds’.

The Limited Edition Numbered 7″ Singles Box Set includes WHO pressed on Six 7″ Single LPs all with individual artwork, plus the Live at Kingston Bonus CD. You can pre-order it now at Amazon, and have it in plenty of time to wrap it and stick it under the tree.