Vintage New Year Postcards

Here are three vintage New Year postcards I found in an old box of stuff. You can see the one vintage Christmas postcard I found with them here. It doesn't look like these were ever mailed. Since there's no stamp or address on them. Emma must have handed them to Pa way back in 1917.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My Christmas Loot

Here's what I got for Christmas. I think I did pretty good. Thank you to my wonderful family, I love you all!

My wife got me --
Canon Power Shot SX130 IS digital camera plus accessories
Pair of black jeans
Sesame Street t-shirt
Nose hair trimmer
A bunch of KISS trading cards
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies: A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols
Uncle John's Briefs book
Joe Boxer lounge pants with skulls on them
Instant lottery tickets (won $2)

My son got me --

Indiana Jones box set DVD
Superman Returns DVD in lunchbox with comic book

My brother got me --
Marvel Essential Moon Knight Vol. 1 & 2. He ordered them from a dealer on Amazon and unfortunately Vol. 2 was miscut. It was missing almost an inch from the bottom of the book. We returned it for a refund and hopefully he'll order me a new one.

What did you get?

CSN Stores Review

Way back at the end of November, I said I was going to do a product review for CSN Stores. Well, here it is.

CSN Stores offered me $75 worth of merchandise to do a review for them. It took me a while to decide what I was going to get because they have over 200 stores to browse through. I thought about getting a bookcase. But, I really don't have the space for another one. I also was looking to get my wife a ring. But, she didn't see any she really liked. So, I started looking through the toys and games & hobbies sections. The first thing I found was the Boo-opoly board game.

Next, I decided to get something for the house. The Zenith Bathtub and Shower Caddy in White.










And then I discovered they had a whole section devoted to Ultra Pro. I got comic bags, comic boards, magazine bags and nine-pocket card pages.

I placed my order on Dec. 12th. My total was $74.77 with free shipping. The Boo-opoly game arrived on the 14th, the shower caddy on the 16th and the Ultra Pro stuff on the 17th. I was very pleased with the shipping time and everything arrived in great condition. The shower caddy was too tall for my bathtub (my fault, I ordered the wrong size) but, I rigged it so that it would fit. Overall, I am very happy with everything I got from CSN Stores.

Happy Birthday Stan Lee!

Today is Stan Lee's 88th birthday. EXCELSIOR!

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to wish everyone who celebrates it, a very Merry Christmas! To those of you who don't, have a great Saturday.

Thank you to all who visit Wonderful Wonderblog! I really apprectiate it.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies!

On Christmas Eve we always open one gift. My wife got me the book It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies! A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols. Featuring the lyrics to classics like...

I Saw Mommy Chewing Santa Claus
We Three Spleens
Good King Wenceslas Tastes Great
Have Yourself a Medulla Oblongata
Slay Ride
Deck the Halls with Parts of Wally
Grandama Got Turned Into a Zombie
It's the Most Wonderful Time to Feel Fear
and many more!

Now if somebody would just record these.

Christmas With Perry

Believe it or not, Perry Como has only had nine Christmas songs hit the various Billboard charts between 1946 and 1974. Here are those nine songs according to the awesome book Christmas in the Charts 1920-2004. I tried to find the original versions of each song, but I'm not sure on a couple of them.

My previous Christmas in the Charts compilations are still available for download -- Garth Brooks and Bing Crosby.

Track List

1. Winter Wonderland
2. White Christmas
3. The Lord's Prayer
4. Ave Maria
5. It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
6. (There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays
7. Jingle Bells
8. There Is No Christmas Like a Home Christmas
9. Christmas Dream

Click the link below to download --

Perry Como

A VERY ZOMBIE HOLIDAY (Instructional video)

An instructional video for ensuring a happy home during this zombie-infested holiday season. Uploaded by Team Unicorn. (Caution: a few scenes may be too graphic for young children)

Merry Christmas From Heroes World

I found this Heroes World Superhero Catalogue in the quarter box at my local comic shop yesterday. The indicia says it is Vol. 7, Fall, 1978. It features ads for a whole bunch of games, books, toys, puzzles and other related stuff that was available for the holidays of 1978. I'm only sharing the front and back cover for now. I hope to have the inside 50 pages scanned and shared in January.

Christmas In The 70s

Here's a couple of Christmas photos of me and my brother from the 70s.

This first one is from 1975 at a family Christmas party. My brother got the Kenner Six Million Dollar Man Bionic Transport and Repair Station and I got the Hasbro Defenders "Iron Knight" Tank. I was nine years old and my brother was eight. That's my mom in the back. Hi mom!

From 1978 my brother got a Mego 12 inch Christopher Reeve Superman the Movie action figure and I got a Mego Micronauts Giant Acroyear. I was 12, my brother was 11.

To see more Christmas in the 70s, visit the blog called, oddly enough, Christmas in the 70s.

Steve Landesberg, R.I.P.

From TMZ.com --

Steve Landesberg -- famous for his roles on "Barney Miller" and more recently "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" -- has died ... this according to the actor's agent who spoke with TMZ.

We're told Landesberg died of cancer early this morning. He had been battling the disease for a while.

Landesberg played Dr. Rosenbaum -- the pediatrician -- in "Sarah Marshall." But he was more famous for his role as Det. Sgt. Arthur Dietrich on the TV show "Barney Miller," which ran from 1975 - 82.

Christmas Mix

I'm not making a Christmas Mix this year. If any readers of Wonderful Wonderblog has made one and posted it on their blog or site, please leave a link in the comments.

To start things off, here's a mix from D.X. Ferris --
DXmas 14.0, F_ Xmas and DXmas 14.5, A Very Metal Christmas (Caution: Rated R for adult language)

Check out John's Christmas Mixes. He's shared seven mixes that he made for friends and family from 2004 to 2010.

Merry Mutant Melodies

So, I was looking through some old issues of What The--?! from Marvel Comics. In issue 7 (April 1990) was this two page spread of Merry Mutant Melodies. Now you can sing-along to your favorite Christmas tunes with these old-school mutant lyrics. The songs include --

Logan's Claws Are Adamantium (Santa Claus Is Coming To Town)
Walk Through Walls (Deck The Halls)
Dazzler The Signing Mutant (Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer)
We Three Jeans (We Three Kings)
We Wish You Would Buy More X-Men (We Wish You A Merry Christmas)

Merry X-Mas

Click on pictures to make them bigger

Christmas In TV Land

Today I'm sharing with you a CD from 1995 called Christmas in TV Land from Nick at Nite Records. It includes 14 classic songs from three decades of memorable Christmas TV specials.

Track List

1. Medley: Happy Holidays/The Holiday Season - Andy Williams
2. Jingle Bells - Mitch Miller and The Gang
3. Toyland - Doris Day
4. White Christmas - Pat Boone
5. O Come All Ye Faithful - Julie Andrews
6. This Christmas I Spend With You - Robert Goulet
7. I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day - Johnny Cash
8. O Holy Night - Johnny Mathis (with Percy Faith & his Orchestra)
9. Baby It's Cold Outside - Dinah Shore with Buddy Clark
10. Winter Wonderland - Perry Como with The Satisfiers
11. Mary's Little Boy Child - Harry Belafonte
12. Silent Night - Neil Diamond
13. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear - Burl Ives
14. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Judy Garland

Click the link below to download --

Christmas In TV Land

Vintage Christmas Postcard

Going through some boxes of my parents stuff, I found this antique embossed Christmas postcard. There are actually three more postcards, but they are for the New Year. I'll post those after Christmas. Written on the back is this --

Dec., 26, 1916 plus many more.

Greetings and love
to you, dear Pa.

from
Your affectionate daughter,
Emma

I have no idea who Emma and Pa are. But this postcard is pretty cool.

Interview With Janice Gable Bashman and Jonathan Maberry - Authors of WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE

Today I have the pleasure of bringing you my very first interview on Wonderful Wonderblog. It's with Janice Gable Bashman and Jonathan Maberry, the authors of WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE: Vampire Hunters and Other Kick-Ass Enemies of Evil. I'm about half-way done reading the book and I'm enjoying it very much.


Tell me about WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE.

JANICE GABLE BASHMAN: WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE: Vampire Hunters and Other Kick-Ass Enemies of Evil deals with the struggle of good vs evil in film, comics, pop culture, world myth, literature, and the real world. Everything from vampire slayers to paranormal investigators to FBI serial-killer profilers. It includes interviews with folks like Charlaine Harris, Rachel Caine, Laurell K. Hamilton, L.A. Banks, Stan Lee, Mike Mignola, Jason Aaron, Fred Van Lente, Peter Straub, and many more; and the book is fully illustrated by top horror, comics & fantasy artists.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Our book starts with good vs evil as a concept and then we chase it through philosophy, religion, politics, literature, art, film, comics, pop-culture and the real world. It’s such a complex topic, one that’s fundamental to all of our human experience, from evolution to the formation of tribes and society. We take a look at it historically, mythologically, in terms of storytelling from cave paintings to literature, we track it through pop culture and into our modern real world.
The book has a real sense of humor, too. We have fun with the topic as well as bringing a lot of information to the reader. Plus the book is illustrated with forty black and white pieces and eight killer color plates. Artists like Chad Savage, Jacob Parmentier, Don Maitz, Francis Tsai, David Leri, Scott Grimando, Jason Beam, Alan F. Beck, Billy Tackett and more.

How did you come up with the idea for the book?

MABERRY: I’ve been researching this topic in one way or another for many years. My grandmother introduced me to a great deal of folklore, and almost all of folklore is tied to some aspect of the struggle of good vs evil. Over the last ten years I’ve written several books on the subject of the supernatural and paranormal. WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE was part of a package of five I sold to Citadel Press in 2005. The four previous books are: VAMPIRE UNIVERSE (2006), THE CRYPTOPEDIA (2007; winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Nonfiction; co-authored by David F. Kramer); ZOMBIE CSU (2008; winner of the Hinzman Science Award and the Black Quill Award); and THEY BITE (2009; co-authored by David F. Kramer). WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE is the natural conclusion to the series: after delving so deeply into the monsters and things that go bump in the night, I wanted to focus on those creatures (human or otherwise) who stand between us and evil.
And this book allowed Janice and I the opportunity to write about the complex struggle of good and evil from so many different points of view, from biblical conflicts to super-hero battles.

Do you have any favorite pop culture monsters?

BASHMAN: One of my favorite monsters is the monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein because he’s a sympathetic character. He has both monster and human qualities in him. He’s not pure good or evil, but a mixture of both. He is an ugly and looming creature who only wants someone to love him, but he doesn’t know how to find that love. In the quest to do so, he murders, which leaves him distraught and ultimately sends him into the darkness where he goes to die. In WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE, we explore that whole good vs evil idea as it relates to monsters, vampires, serial killers, ghosts, real people, and more.

MABERRY: I have two favorites. The Stregoni Benefici, who were vampires that were captured by the Church and ‘reformed’ (meaning ‘tortured’) until they accepted God and afterward became assassins for the Church. The other is the Benandanti, a race of werewolves from Italy and Germany who fought monsters in order to protect humanity. Even the Inquisition could not torture them into saying that they were evil, and they let them go free, giving them the nicknames ‘The Hounds of God.’
I’m working on a novel now, BOOK OF SHADOWS, a modern-day counter-terrorism thriller that incorporates both legends.



POISON by Peter Mihaichuk


Tell me about your writing and research process.

BASHMAN: The actual research process was quite intensive and took a lot of time. WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE is full of facts yet they’re presented in a fun way which makes for an easy read. In addition to the research, we interviewed tons of people, including Stan Lee, John Carpenter, Charlaine Harris, Peter Straub, Rachel Caine, Amber Benson, Lucienne Diver, and Christopher Golden. Between the two of us, it took us about a year to research, conduct interviews, and write the book.

MABERRY: Luckily we live in the age of emails, Facebook and Skype, all of which make the process of interviewing extremely easy and efficient. These days you can find virtually anyone through social media, websites, blogs or emails, and reaching out is a snap. Most of our interviews were conducted via email, which allowed us to reach experts all over the world.

BASHMAN: We each came into this project with our own strengths and that made it easy to decide who should tackle what part of the book. The most difficult aspect was finding one voice that worked for both writers so that the book read like one person wrote it. We accomplished this fairly easily, with some trial and error, since we had worked together on a number of articles in the past.

MABERRY: We also divided the book according to personal interest and existing knowledge base. I tackled stuff that played to my strengths—vampires, comics, pulp fiction, etc. Janice played to her strengths. She’s writing a book on thrillers, so she tackled serial killers, etc.
I agree that finding a single voice was a challenge. We’re different kinds of people and different kinds of writers, but now, even I have a hard time remembering who wrote what. Janice even picked up my smartass sense of humor—which means that I may have caused her some permanent damage. On the other hand, she’s an enormously disciplined writer, so I hope I picked up some good writing habits through osmosis.

What's next for you?

MABERRY: This has been my most productive year to date. Between novels, nonfiction books, short stories and comics (for Marvel), I’ve had something new coming out every month, and often multiple things coming out in a single week.
My latest release is ROT & RUIN, my first young adult novel. It’s set fourteen years after the zombie apocalypse and kicks off a new series that will be released in hardcover by Simon & Schuster. Next up I have my third Joe Ledger thriller, THE KING OF PLAGUES, hitting stores in March from St. Martins Griffin. I also have three mini-series from Marvel in the pipeline. MARVEL UNIVERSE VS THE PUNISHER is already running, and it’s a post-apocalyptic existentialist adventure. Very strange, even for me. BLACK PANTHER: KLAWS OF THE PANTHER kicked off in October; and then in January we launch CAPTAIN AMERICA: HAIL HYDRA, a five-issue Marvel Event that follows Cap from World War II to present day. And my graphic novel, DOOMWAR, also debuted in hardcover in October.
I’m currently writing DEAD OF NIGHT, a standalone zombie novel to be release by Griffin in June.

BASHMAN: I just finished a proposal for my next non-fiction book; it’s still under wraps so I can’t share the details at this time. I can say that dozens of key players are already on board for the project and it’s sure to be a fun one. I continue to write for various publications, and I’ll also be shopping a young adult novel shortly.

******************

Jonathan Maberry is a NY Times bestseller, multiple Bram Stoker Award-winner and a writer for Marvel Comics. He has written a number of award-winning nonfiction books and novels on the paranormal and supernatural, including THE CRYPTOPEDIA, VAMPIRE UNIVERSE, THEY BITE, ZOMBIE CSU and PATIENT ZERO. His latest novel is ROT & RUIN. Visit Jonathan’s website at http://www.jonathanmaberry.com/.

Janice Gable Bashman has written for THE BIG THRILL, NOVEL & SHORT STORY WRITER’S MARKET, THE WRITER, WILD RIVER REVIEW, and many others. Visit Janice’s website at http://www.janicegablebashman.com/.