Sunday, March 12, 2023

Modern Stoneage Fairgoers!

 I was at my local antique mall on Thursday (being off for Spring Break and all that) and something caught my eye. On a display rack of various comic books I found this:

Now, I didn't actually go to the New York World's Fair (although I did attend the Hemisfair in San Antonio about three years later), but I have collected a few things from it over the years- due mainly to the Disney connection. 

I was not aware that The Flintstone's went to the fair, but apparently they did and they put out their very own "official souvenir" comic book about it! Now, the condition was not great (the cover is almost falling off due to "wet basement syndrome.") but I figured five bucks was fair (pun sort of intended) so it came home with me! 

I considered copying every page but there are a lot of pages and quite frankly the stories aren't that good, so I'll just hit a couple of highlights...


The inside of the cover (where you can see the water damage clearly). Here we see a few NYWF lamdmarks. They'll show up later in the book...


The first page shows the gang showing up at the fair straight from Bedrock. How did they get there? Helo-dino of course! How did they travel through time? Don't ask too many questions...


There are quite a few attractions and exhibits in the stories. In fact, the first story has the kids getting lost just so the characters could tour the fair looking for them. Cheesy, but I guess it works...


There are also tons of cameos from other Hanna-Barbera characters. So many, in fact, that I had forgotten some of them. Here are the future's answer to The Flintstones... No word on how they managed the time travel either.


Ah, TC! I remember liking the cartoon as a kid, but I really can't remember it.


These guys, I remember even less. All in all, Hanna-Barbera never amused me like Disney or Warner Brothers did. 


Another one...


Ok, here's a headliner! Yogi, I like! Hey, Boo-Boo!


Nope. Not really a fan...


I have no idea who these guys are. I could Google it, but that takes effort. Sorry!


Quick-Draw! Oh no!!! He shot Barney!!!


Oh wait, it looks like he's ok. 
I was hoping that there would be a bunch of Disney references, but this is the only one. In this story, Dino is "fetching" various objects from around the fair (don't ask why- it really doesn't make sense). Apparently that "wooden fish" is supposed to have come off of Rolly Crump's Tower of the Four Winds. The fact that there never WAS a wooden fish on the tower makes no difference to the crack team of story tellers that came up with this mess. Oh well, at least Disney got a little nod. 
I kind of wonder if Hanna-Barbera didn't want to give another animation studio a plug.


This drawing of it isn't terrible, but the third and last story is- so I didn't even include it.


The back cover features more real photos and the fam.


I like the front and back covers better that anything in between. I wish it wasn't water damaged. 

All in all, the comic is a dud, but I'm glad I got it anyway. It will look good on my shelf, so that's a good thing. It's fun in a silly kind of way.  

Speaking of silly, I left a very important postcard off of last week's post! This slightly blurry pic is Punch and Judy on the Planet Mars! Why is this important?


Because it came from the very short lived  Spaceland amusement park! 


The same place that THIS treasure came from!


So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed my souvenirs! Even now I'm finding stuff!
So, remember to keep searching for treasure!


7 comments:

  1. What a great find, Stu! I've seen the cover of this comic online, but never any part of the inside. There was an episode of the Flintstones, where they go to the Fair. It starts out with them going to their own local fair, but an inventor's time machine sends them to the 1964/65 Fair (and to other key moments in history). I just checked YouTube, and it doesn't look like the entire episode is there. However, someone has uploaded just the part where they are at the modern New York World's Fair. They show the Unisphere, the New York State Pavilion, the Swiss Sky Ride, and a couple other pavilions. If you are interested, here's that four minute clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=furR_r_cPPw

    - TokyoMagic!

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    1. Very cool! They don't explain how they time travel in the comic, so maybe they assumed people saw it on the show? I'll give the link a watch!

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  2. I guess the Flintstones' and the Jetsons' time travel canceled each other out and left our timeline intact.

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  3. The flux capacitor market must have been hot back then!

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  4. I just heard that Rolly Crump passed away. He was 93. Perhaps it's fitting that the only Disney icon featured here is his.
    He was a great man.

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  5. Man, I really like that Spaceland badge! There can't be too many of those floating around. I do have a copy of that Flintstones comic book, you've pointed out some of the "comic book logic", but hey, it's still a ton of fun! I can't remember if the Flintstones went through the Magic Skyway and saw the cavemen and dinosaurs there. Probably not?

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    1. That happened in the clip that Tokyo Magic shared, but not in the book. I think you were supposed to have both to make some kind of sense out of it all, lol!
      I got the Spaceland badge (and learned about Spaceland) because I was looking for rockets that looked like the DIsney/ Werner von Braun rockets and I happened across it on eBay. It was just a lucky find!

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