I’ve been having a ton of fun browsing through some collections of Golden Age comic books I downloaded recently. I’ve been uploading some of the images that strike me as most interesting on my Tumblr and Facebook pages, but I had to share this one here. It’s an ad for a book called “Growing Up and Liking It,” and it appeared in issue #28 (December 1952) of Teen-Age Romances.

In case the message wasn’t clear enough, this ad is aimed at teen girls having “issues” with their period. Modess, in case you didn’t know, is a maker of feminine products (aka sanitary napkins) that started in the 1920s as a division of Johnson & Johnson. Their big slogan around this time was “Modess… Because.”

Anyway, for those who don’t already know, there are tons more ads like these on Retrotisements. So what are you waiting for? Get wise… get 1952!

With the 2012 Major League Baseball season nearly upon us, now is as good a time as any to obsess once again on one of my favorite topics — logos. So I’m going to offer up my choices for the best and worst team logos for all 30 current MLB franchises. Primary, alternate, and cap logos listed on Chris Creamer’s outstanding logo website are all under consideration. Today, for the final installment, I look at the five squads of the National League’s East division.

(Other recaps — AL West, NL West, AL Central, NL Central, AL East)

Atlanta Braves

Best

The whole Atlanta Braves look from the ’70s was one of the best in modern baseball, and that includes the primary logo seen here (used until 1986). A close second for this spot was the distinctive feather logo used on the jersey sleeves.

Worst

This cap logo, rolled out in 2003, is a silly, hamfisted attempt to meld the team’s long-lived cap logo with the tomahawk used in the current primary logo.

Miami Marlins

Best

I don’t have a lot to choose from. Prior to the Marlins’ total makeover heading into the 2012 campaign, they had used the same primary logo since their founding in 1993. It’s a decent enough graphic, but I like the 1993-2004 alternate much better. Very nice typeface choice here. It just looks cleaner and leaner than the original primary.

Worst

I have to say, I don’t think this is really all that bad. Sure, this could just as easily represent the Miami Board of Tourism, but it’s original — gotta give the fish that much. The color scheme is pure South Beach, and I like the stylized Marlin. There, I said it. But still, I’m a traditionalist at heart and I had to pick this for the “wag of the finger” slot.

New York Mets

Best

Mr. Met for the win. Simple as that. Pick any variety you want. This is the original alternate, used from 1963-1970.

Worst

Only a diehard Mets fan — is there any other kind these days? — could tell you the difference between this alternate logo and one of the two primary ones. Basically, this is the same as the current primary but is used with the team’s black-based color scheme. And since I don’t care for the Mets wearing black, I don’t care for this version of the logo (which otherwise is quite good).

Philadelphia Phillies

Best

This is the Phillies cap logo of 1970-1991. Great uniforms and a great color scheme. I still have never gotten used to what replaced it, even though it’s been around for 20 years essentially.

Worst

I can dig where they were trying to go with the whole Colonial motif, but this is just too childish. They look like extras from Schoolhouse Rock. Oh and by the way, these kids do have names — Philadelphia Phil and Philadelphia Phyllis. Seriously.

Washington Nationals

Best

Yeah, I went there. Les Expos got screwed in ’94 by the MLB strike, and I still miss them and their logos.

Worst

One of the many variations on the Nats’ basic cap logo. And this one looks like the Walgreens logo, just like the rest of ’em.

I can’t wait for Free Prescription Refill Day at Nationals Park this season!

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As provocative album covers go, Ike and Tina Turner’s Outta Season LP has to be one of the greats. The image of the couple eating watermelon while wearing whiteface — a brilliant mockery of blackface minstrelsy — would be controversial now, so the fact that this was released in 1968 is even more amazing.

Not surprisingly, the foreign versions of Outta Season featured much more unimaginative album art. I don’t know if they featured the super sexy gatefold picture the original U.S. edition (on Blue Thumb Records) had.

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Who doesn’t love a delightfully cheesy pulp fiction book cover? I know I do, so here’s a bunch of good ones, curated for maximum enjoyment by yours truly. Some of these were selected for the artwork, some for the titles or description, and some for both. As you can probably guess, some of these may not be safe for work so I’ll put the racier ones after the jump.

And lest you think pulp novels were all about sex, there was also murder and space. But yeah, mostly sex.

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With the 2012 Major League Baseball season nearly upon us, now is as good a time as any to obsess once again on one of my favorite topics — logos. So I’m going to offer up my choices for the best and worst team logos for all 30 current MLB franchises. Primary, alternate, and cap logos listed on Chris Creamer’s outstanding logo website are all under consideration. Today I look at the five squads of the American League’s East division.

(Other recaps — AL West, NL West, AL Central, NL Central)

Baltimore Orioles

Best

Despite being a lifelong Yankees fan, I’ve always been partial to the Orioles. Could it be because orange is in fact my favorite color? Maybe. All I know is that this logo, the team’s second, is damn neat. It’s fun but not frivolous, cartoonish but not cutesy. This one, used until the early ’90s, just edges out the Orioles’ original logo as their best.

Worst

It seems a lot of people favor this alternate logo, which the O’s rolled out in 2009. I am not one of them. Yeah the Maryland state flag design is cool, but the way it’s just lazily shoehorned into the old Baltimore logo leaves me cold. I’ll take any of the team’s ornithologically correct (but bland) logos over this one.

Boston Red Sox

Best

Until I undertook this project, I never really gave much thought to the fact that the primary logo the Red Sox used from the late ’70s until 2008 used two totally different typefaces. Now that I have this alternate, more uniform version in front of me, it just looks so much better. I’ll despise the Sawx until they lower me into the ground, but this is one of the best logos in sports.

Worst

On the other hand, this thing is an abomination. I don’t know what kind of drugs were available in 1950 — when this was introduced — but somebody got some and decided it would be swell to combine the red sock imagery with the shape of Massachusetts. What resulted instead was a decade of nightmare fuel.

New York Yankees

Best

Two things make this an easy choice. One, the Yankees have only used two primary logos in their history, of which this is the second (introduced in 1947). Two, it kicks ass.

Worst

I know I said in previous entries of this series that I don’t like to rag on early 20th century logos because everything looked weird back then, but I really didn’t have a choice here. Again, two primary logos in Yankees history. So this is the one used by the Yankees in 1905, when they were still known as the New York Highlanders. You can see what they were going for here, but they didn’t really hit the mark.

Tampa Bay Rays

Best

So now we move from a franchise with a rich, storied past to one with virtually no past. I had to disqualify the Devil Rays’ first logo because using a color gradient was a bad idea. This is cleaner, albeit less interesting. Still, it gets the job done. The typeface is not without merit too.

Worst

Has it really been four years since Tampa pulled the gutless move of removing the word “devil” from their name and ditched the devil ray symbolism altogether? Lovely. So what is this new logo and name supposed to represent? Well, in the words of majority owner Stuart Sternberg it represents, “a beacon that radiates throughout Tampa Bay and across the entire state of Florida.”

Fail.

Toronto Blue Jays

Best

I was a big baseball card collector for about five years, starting around 1983. I always enjoyed seeing Blue Jays cards pop up and looking at this logo and those old uniforms. I always loved the color scheme, the logo itself, and especially that typeface (which was retro and modern at the same time). There can be no question that this specimen, used from the team’s debut season of 1977 through 1996, is their all-time best.

Worst

I have vague memories of an old Woody Woodpecker episode where either Woody or some other bird becomes all huge and muscular. I don’t remember if it was a drug of some sort or the result of an intense workout regimen, but it probably was the drugs. Body-altering serums were big in cartoons back in the day. Anyway, it creeped me out as a kid and this creeps me out as an adult. Fortunately this was canned after 2003, with just one season as Toronto’s primary logo.

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The recent death of French artist Jean Giraud — aka Moebius — was the inspiration for this week’s album cover selection. It’s Cedar Walton’s Mobius, released on RCA Records (APL1-1009) in 1975.

The album notes pretty much give away the inspiration for the title:

“Mobius, which is the theoretical shape of the infinite universe, makes use of the most modern recording techniques and synthesizers. We mastered and mixed so that it’s hotter than the competition, which should help radio play and in-store demonstration.”

Technically the correct spelling would be Möbius, but I’m not sure how jazz/funk fans in 1975 would’ve reacted to seeing an umlaut in an album title. But they’d probably get past it hearing hot tracks like “Road Island Red.”

Unfortunately I do not know who illustrated this cover, so if any of you can provide that information please do!

I really do love the internet. For a lover of vintage ads like myself, there really is no better resource outside flea markets or estate sales for tons of them. Of course that means weeding through a lot of unremarkable ads before I get to a gem. And boy is this one ever a gem.

I’ve long assumed that the phenomenon of suburban, white men feeling the need to escape dreaded femininity was a recent one. And yet I now have this 1953 ad, advertising one of the forerunners of the “man cave,” right in front of me. One imagines the dialogue in the top part of the ad going something like:

“Good evening, Mr. Thompson. So nice to see you again.”

“Evenin’, Jack. How’s the weather look for the flight?”

“Oh, just swell. Before I let you on board, I’ll have to check your briefcase. Standard procedure, of course. Can’t have you sneaking on anything womanly like perfume or unrepressed emotions, right?”

“Haha! Gets me every time!”

I can only imagine how crestfallen United’s more manly customers were when they discontinued the “Chicago Executive” service. No more slippers, no more steaks. *sigh* Such a dreary airborne existence.

With the 2012 Major League Baseball season nearly upon us, now is as good a time as any to obsess once again on one of my favorite topics — logos. So I’m going to offer up my choices for the best and worst team baseball logos for all 30 current MLB franchises. Primary, alternate, and cap logos listed on Chris Creamer’s outstanding logo website are all under consideration. Today I look at the six squads of the National League’s Central division.

(Other recaps — AL West, NL West, AL Central)

Chicago Cubs

Best

This is the only Cubs logo I’ve ever known, and I assumed it always looked like this. Alas, this particular variant of the primary design introduced in 1937 has only been in use since 1979. Still, seems kind of timeless, no?

Worst

It had been not quite 20 years since the Cubbies’ last World Series title when this was rolled out in 1927. So why can’t I shake the feeling that this rather portly fellow is committing the ursine equivalent of seppuku?

Cincinnati Reds

Best

Reds fans fondly remember the running Mr. Red with the team’s Big Red Machine glory days in the 1970s. I almost went with his mustachioed relative from the 1950s, but learning that Cincy adopted it and the name “Redlegs” to deflect associations with Communism left a bad taste in my mouth.

Note that the original Running Red wore jersey number 27.

Worst

Reds logos come in two basic flavors — Mr. Red or a variation of the letter “C” and the team name. I chose this one, used throughout the 1940s and early ’50s, mainly because I can’t reconcile Cincinnati with Chicago Cubs colors. Otherwise, it’s fine.

Houston Astros

Best

This was the Astros’ first logo after being renamed from the Colt .45s. Even as late as 1965 this was sort of retro. Love the action font and the Atomic Age motif. I’d love to have this on a t-shirt.

Worst

Blech. I can deal with the unfinished star — even though the color scheme does nothing for me — but that typeface is awful. I’m very much interested to see if they keep this logo when they move to the AL West next season.

Milwaukee Brewers

Best

Finding out that this seemingly simple logo actually contained an M and a B as part of the glove was a mind-blowing experience. ‘Twas a sad day when the Brewers ditched this in 1994…

Worst

…for this thing. You’re telling me they couldn’t just update the glove logo a little bit? Please.

Pittsburgh Pirates

Best

I’m not a huge fan of any of Pittsburgh’s logos, which is odd since a pirate should be an easy win. Well I guess for their opponents it still is (hey-o!). But seriously, this one from the ’50s comes the closest to the appropriate amount of seafaring menace.

Worst

And then there’s this bloated monstrosity, which was introduced during the team’s World Series winning year of 1960 and stuck around for six more seasons after that. I have to say, though, that the skin loop earrings were a bold and fashion-forward looking touch.

St. Louis Cardinals

Best

The Cardinals have been around for 120 years, but their current logo (seen here) is only their seventh new primary. Pretty impressive. More impressive is the fact that this one, rolled out in 1998, beautifully incorporates their past iconography into a look that’s modern and timeless at once. One of the best logos in sports.

Worst

This is Fredbird, introduced as the team’s mascot in 1979 and adopted as the alternate logo in 1980. I do not care for Fredbird. That is all.

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For a few years I was really into collecting coins. Lack of time and lack of money (ironically) preclude me from pursuing the hobby any further for now, but I still appreciate some of the classics. Like the so-called Buffalo Nickel, designed by James Earle Fraser and minted in the United States from 1913 to 1938.

Timeless and utterly American, no? So imagine my glee when I spotted the cover to the latest album from Richie Owens and the Farm Bureau, In Farm We Trust.

Very nice indeed. Looks like they used the more recent 24-karat American Buffalo gold coin as the template, but that design looks great either way.