Putt Putt Traffic Cop Vintage snapshot 1955 Miniature Golf

Putt Putt Traffic Cop  Vintage snapshot dated on reverse 1955 Miniature Golf.
Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Here Comes TOKEY WEDGE !!! The Diminutive Hard-boiled Dick from Novel Books (Chicago) Vintage Sleaze Paperbacks

Here comes Tokey, buzzing out of the pages of pulp history from the back cover of TORRID TWINS, just one of the capers solved with his tiny fists and subtly implied detective dong  pounding. Tokey's secret weapon other than his quick wit was his manhood.  You want sex and hardboiled action in your reading?  Put down that limp "best reading" from the New York Times Book Review and grab yourself a big deep toke...of TOKEY!

A man's man and a women's dream, Tokey raced around the twirling paperback racks when the top presidential philanderer of all time, Jack Kennedy was in the White House.  Did Jack care if his "arranged" girlfriend Judith Exner was usually in bed with mobster Sam Giancana and reported back to the wise guy after every presidential performance?  HELL NO! Because Jack was a MAN'S man, just like Tokey Wedge.  Screw that, and screw THAT, organized crime.  No wonder (and no coincidence) Tokey gets involved with some  anti-Castro gun runners in BROAD BAIT...just like big Sam!   

So Tokey had a buzzcutt instead of Kennedy's Nantucket tousle...when you are racing to action in your midget muscle-car, there is no time to brush anything out of your eyes.  Here comes Tokey, nostrils flared...nay SMOKING.  Never mind that Tokey was actually no taller than 5' 4"...he was big where it mattered.  One book adds an inch to his frame...but does not specify if he had bought some lifts.

Jack Lynn wrote the Tokey Wedge novels.  Who was Jack Lynn?  WHO CARES!  This isn't about some fussy, anonymous, elite font prissy with an underwood, it's about Tokey Wedge.  The paperback community speculates who Jack was and you are more then welcome to browse around to speculate while REAL men just read the novels (from Novel Press) a sleazy Chicago outfit with questionable organized crime ties but outstandingly bad fiction! 

There were at least twenty one books by Jack and all of them had a serious problem with inaccurate perspective and unrealistic rendering on the covers.  So the real question is not who wrote this stuff, but who the hell did the art?  Check out the Torrid Twins Tokey is running down.  Not only are they twins, their burning breasts have exactly the same flame pattern!  Tokey had a thing for twins...witness Mary and Beth in another split zygote thriller "Double Seduction" which is no problem for Tokey.  He loves them and leaves them...looking exactly the same.  And yet AGAIN...there are twins in the later Desire in Duplicate...in which a $5000 a night hooker charges that much because she is...a twin! So the price is really $2500 each.  Does Tokey get a discount?  You have to ASK?

Other Jack Lynn books are listed below, but not all feature the diminutive dick Tokey.  In fact, one of them introduces a far taller character, a Danny Thomas look-a-like who actually towers over the dames who moan his name!

Tokey Wedge fears nothing as he solves the case of Nympho Lodge.  In another, Tokey struggles with a trio of "women loving women"  In Wild Women.  AS you can see, another cover with burning dames for Tokey to struggle through. 

Clearly Tokey's biggest challenge was Ten Shockingest (sic) Seductions, in which he has do do just that...seduce them all to determine which were guilty of murder and which were guilty of lesbianism.  There is only one man for the job...look down.

It's TOKEY.

Vintage Folk Art Tramp Art Miniature Dresser made of Matchsticks and Glitter

Vintage Folk Art Tramp Art Miniature Dresser made of Matchsticks and Glitter.  Circa 1960?
Click and Scroll for free preview of books by the author of Dull Tool Dim Bulb.  Ebook versions instant downloads are less than $10, Paperback and hardcover also available.
 Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Redware Folk Art Pottery Figure of a Lamb 19th century Pennsylvania ?

A redware glazed lamb, likely 19th century.  The piece has characteristics of Pennsylvania and Shenandoah Valley Virginia figural redware toys like those of Samuel Bell.  A large group of similar figures (and glaze) are found HERE.   Age and maker unknown.
Redware Lamb collection Jim Linderman 

The Guys Back Home. WW2 era drawings by Lucy Moose c. 1940

Four drawings with watercolor by Lucy Moose (1921 - 2010)  Miss Moose was born August 28, 1921,in Charlotte, N.C. and passed away on October 7, 2010 in Atlanta, GA at the age of 89. She attended Queens College in Charlotte, N.C. and also served actively in the United States Navy at The Pentagon during World War II, followed by 3 years in the Naval Reserves. Miss Moose had a long-standing career in fashion merchandising with several large retailers, in addition to retirement from the United States Army & Air Force Exchange Service. After living for many years in New York City and abroad in Hong Kong and Germany, Miss Moose retired to Atlanta, Georgia where she became a very active volunteer and received her 20 Year Volunteer Award from The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. Miss Moose was a member of Peachtree Road United Methodist Church. 
ART BOOKS AND INSTANT EBOOK DOWNLOADS BY JIM LINDERMAN AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE OR FREE PREVIEWS HERE

Colorama Crazy Ball Vintage Handpainted Carnival Sign Folk Art

Colorama Crazy Ball Vintage Hand-painted Carnival Sign Folk Art.  He started out bold with a giant C but ended up with a tiny A.  Collection Jim Linderman

Annual I'm not at the Outsider Art Fair 2017 post. Are Cartoonists Outsider Artists? Elizabeth Stohn and Fred Johnson

These drawings were done from 1918 to 1919 by Elizabeth Stohn.  Ms Stone was a child at the time, and was something of a "cross-category" artist.  Part Schoolgirl art, part naive, part trained (as she had just completed her "art school training" by correspondence school. )  Certainly not what is generally considered "outsider" art, though that term is pretty widely applied as far as I can tell.  These are folky and charming, but not really folk art either.  Outsider Art? Nah.
 
While thousands of women studied art and (like Ms. Stohn) aspired to be an artist, even naming early woman artists is hard.  They were screwed over ever since they were here in every field.  Why should art (or comics, for that matter) be the domain of men?  Plus, here is a secret…they were often better than the men and never received the credit.  They were lost and laboring as "anonymous" in quilting, needle-point, and other acceptable near domestic arts.   

Labels appropriate to Ms. Stohn could maybe include "rebel" too.  I have written about her life and how she was one of the first women to use "thought and caption" balloons.  That post sorta went mini-viral in the comic book world, being picked up by comic historians and such.  The Comics journal linked to it as well. One day I hope to scan her entire "graphic novel"  From Poverty to Luxary (sic)

I remember respected art scholar and dealer Randall Morris saying something like "Cartoonists have their own school, they aren't outsider artists" and I don't differ with him.  Still there are many standards being applied on the walls of the outsider art fair, and each show will continue the mixed blessing of being labeled as an outsider. 

"I know it when I see it" was used to describe pornography by Justin Potter when ruling in a landmark obscenity case heard by the Supreme Court in 1964. I am pretty sure he threw his hands up when he said it.  "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["hard-core pornography"], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it..." he said.  We should avoid that esteemed opinion when evaluating outsider art.  

A wonderful group of  "comic books" were one of discoveries at the last Outsider Art Fair.  I'll guess he took some courses too, but it is a guess.  Dan Nadel would be the person to ask. I sure would love to see them, but as I say, I wasn't there. 

(There was another Johnson (real name Ferd or Ferdinand Johnson) working at the same time in Chicago, and he became quite well-known among other cartoonists.  Same fellow? I can't tell…I didn't go go cartoonist school! (joke)  It was certainly not the same fellow,  but neither of them were being "obsessive" about drawing.  They were just doing what comic book artists do.  That would be filling page after page with drawings.  Ask Gary Panter, a great artist who is not an outsider.  He published a massive book containing his sketchbooks.  Read the great essay on Frank, the outsider HERE by Dan Nadel.  There were other great cartoon artists (Basil Wolverton, Windsor McCay for example) and there were plenty of bizarre comic strip artists who were visionaries.  Mr. Nadel knows his stuff…See the magnificent volumes he put together on some HERE. Any library specializing in any art must have these two books.  Like the books displayed at the last outsider art fair, he reveals dozens of quirky and magnificently talented artists, be they self-taught or not.

Ponder on what an outsider artist is, and if the work you are appraising fits some arbitrary non-definition like Justice Steven's frustrated legal opinion of smut, ponder more. Everyone has their own concept. But can we agree, at least, that if one went to art school, he isn't an outsider?  Outsider Art...I know it when I see it.

Other articles in the I'm Not at the Outsider Art Fair series are HERE.  See also two books on Folk art Outsider art by the writer Jim Linderman HERE and HERE.

African-American Folk Art Sculpture Joe Louis c. 1940 Sewer Tile Clay

Joe Louis, the Brown Bomber folk art sculpture made of clay. Joe was active in the late 1930's to the late 1940's.  Born in Alabama and moved to Detroit after being visited by a gang of the Klan. Let's not let that happen again.  Best known for his professional record, but also for standing up for civil rights all his life.  In 1934, Louis won his first professional title (for which he earned $59.00) and went on to win all 12 of his fights in 1934, ten by knockouts.
THANKS TO NATALIE CURLEY ANTIQUES

Joe Lewis clay sculpture Circa 1940  Collection Jim Linderman

GAWD I had an Art NIGHTMARE Original Painting 1913

GAWD I had a NIGHTMARE  Original Painting 1913 collection Jim Lindermanhttp://dulltooldimbulb.com

The BEST Valentines Homemade, Hand Drawn and BITTER

 

Cutest little Valentine's Day Cards I have ever seen...and I met the artist!  The woman selling them told me she made them as a young schoolgirl after I bought 'em.  Makes these little bundles of bitter about 50 years old.  I am really glad she kept them. 

Three vintage handmade Valentines circa 1960 Collection Jim Linderman

Dull Tool Dim Bulb is TEN Years old!

The site is ten years old.  There is no big whizbang shindig to celebrate, as I am working on a book.  There ARE a hundred or more people to thank. Lauren Leja, Natalie Curley and Shannon Regan in particular have contributed objects and ideas over the years.   ALL the followers are appreciated, many of them artists and art dealers, antique dealers and pickers.  Folks who "get it" and let me know they do.  Some of the brightest people I know and admire have found the site.

Most encouraging is the mail I have received from relatives, friends and such who have written me over the years and add to my stories.  Being thanked for writing about forgotten folks they knew, they married or grew up with. It is humbling.  For example, the post I did on obscure bluegrass and country performer Rem Wall.  Nearly FIFTY comments from folks who remember or knew him. What an honor it is to receive such feedback.

My wife Janna lets me do it.  Not everyone has a wife who allows their husband to dwell in curious places and sully his reputation with risque images once in a while.  I get to.  

There are a few special friends.  The late Jay Tobler, one of the smartest people I have ever known.  Robert Reeves, who shared my interests and made me laugh like no one else.  Jimmie Allen, A golden Southern Picker who influenced one of my most successful books.  Steve Slotin, a hero. Craig Yoe, the world's greatest comic art scholar and collector. Lance Ledbetter and Dust to Digital.  Brian Wallis and the International Center of Photography.  Tanya Heinrich and the American Folk Art Museum.  The fascinating Dire McCain at Paraphilia published some of my favorite pieces. I could go on and on.  Lisa Hix at Collectors Weekly has been wonderful and written about a few of my
projects.

I can't thank enough the folks who took the time to write about the site and my projects.  Many of them are found on the side banner.  The banner is not often seen on a smartphone, so I am copying them here.  Since I don't make any dough on any of this really.  I am lucky to break even...so the words mean so much.

The people and publications who took the time to write about me have made what I do legitimate.  It is and was liberating and encouraging.  This list is again far from complete, but I truly never thought I would "receive press" and boy, have I had lovely things said about me.  Here are links to those to whom I am in debt.

"Linderman produces the most sublime books on dreamy, arcane subjects, sexy stuff, too, all with rare one-of-a-kind images." Craig Yoe 2017

"...disclosing an underground history of American popular culture one oddball tale at a time"
John Strausbaugh in The New York Times
 
"...one of the blog writers to watch for"
ARTSlant

"...wonderful, extraordinary, fascinating, remarkable and profound" Fans in a Flashbulb International Center of Photography Museum 2016

"Brilliantly Astute, Acerbic and Aesthetic Jim Linderman"
The Museum of Everything 2014

"Dull Tool Dim Bulb is always worth a visit" THINGS Magazine 2016

"...grumpy..." The Austin Chronicle 2014

"Perpetually ahead of the collecting curve...a one man Taschen. An authentically curious individual...diligently archiving the forgotten curiosities of American History"

Emma Higgins in Art Hack May 2012

"Jim Linderman likes Art, Antiques and Photography and his collection of Vernacular Photography, Folk Art, Ephemera and Curiosities is a wonderful place..."
LifeElsewhere with Norman B. 2014

"...collected over the years by Jim Linderman, a character who seems the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic. Linderman treats collecting like a calling, and his finds have a resulting air of authority, stunning in their capture of bygone picturesque moments."
Derek Taylor Dusted

"The pictures, discarded artifacts of ecstatic Americana, come from the stash of Jim Linderman, who in his introduction recalls advice he’s plainly taken to heart: “Collect the heck” out of whatever you find interesting."
Drew Jubera Paste Magazine

"His interest in art is rivaled only by his interest in music, and one expression informs the other. He pursues objects with thoroughness and an innate sense of curiosity..."
Tanya Heinrich Folk Art Magazine

"Linderman acknowledges the obscure at the same time that he elevates it.... His collections tell vast stories in sotto voce, allowing curios and objects shadowed by mainstream culture and ideology to converse and be heard. What we hear is an enormous American sub-culture speaking in forbidden, marginalized languages: stuff discovered boxed in the attic out of embarrassment or zealotry, smutty ash trays crowing next to religious pamphlets, each claiming a part of the complex, sometimes contradictory, always conflicted American imagination, a chaos of memories that will one day vanish."
Joe Bonomo Author of Conversations With Greil Marcus, Jerry Lewis Lost and Found and No Such Thing As Was

"...he's one of the world's greatest pickers."
Brian Wallis in The New York Times
"Documenting--one clipping at a time--the scrapbook of a leg and garter aficionado that was dumpster-dived in Virginia in the 60s" "...an outstanding image-archaeologist who has compiled a shelf-ful of worthy and unique photographic histories."
William Smith Hang Fire Books

"Linderman has a knack for discovering untold stories and introducing them to a wider audience"
Joey Lin Anonymous Works

"Jim Linderman...makes us all look a little puny"
Could it be Madness-this?

"...insatiable collector of ephemera and ringleader behind an incredible circus of blogs — including the treasure trove dull tool dim bulb"
The Cynephile

"Yo no sé ustedes pero creo que es uno de los mejores sitios que he visitado en mucho tiemp"
Color Me in Blog

"...there's something beyond the endless photos and postcards and weird propaganda from another time that he lovingly documents - I think it's the collection as a whole, the portrait of a person fascinated with culture and communication. I have met people like this before, and in reading Dull Tool Dim Bulb I feel I have been lucky enough to meet one more. This site is a goldmine in terms of links..."
The Hyggelic Life October 2009

"Linderman is always on the lookout for the new and exciting"
Chuck and Jan Rosenak Contemporary American Folk Art

"...an amazing collection..."
Revel in New York October 2009

"Jim Linderman has a nice little colllection of interesting books and blogs...But every so often he just loses it."
American Digest March 2010

"FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, COLLECTOR JIM LINDERMAN has searched high and low for authentic things--unique and special objects that define the artistic culture of the American experience. From folk art to popular culture, from pulp fiction to Delta Blues-- Jim is a walking authority on so many things American they are too numerous to mention. One thing is certain-- his collecting interests are for things that have fallen through the cracks, those things lost and forgotten--the box of material under the table at the flea market booth. If it wasn't for dedicated collectors like Jim Linderman-- so many important objects about our culture would have surely been lost to time and indifference."

"Jim Linderman maintains a most interesting blog about the most amazing things from his collection—a site he calls “Dull Tool Dim Bulb,” the only curse words his father ever uttered. I love it, and read it everyday."
"...an excellent writer and I devour your blog daily. I am impressed at your deep knowledge of things within your niche..."
John Foster Accidental Mysteries
 
"I am grateful to Jim Linderman for first alerting me to the existence of the 1930s Spiritualist hymn "Jesus is My Air-o-plane."
William Fagaly New Orleans Museum of Art, Author Tools of her Ministry: The art of Sister Gertrude Morgan

"Linderman describes a long gone world...(he) claims not to be a writer but he is most certainly an excellent researcher..."
BOOKSTEVE

"Jim Linderman, King of the Internet Ephemeral Arts"
Spaniel Rage

"Jim is a fantastic historian...show him some love"
Astrid Daley Fringe Pop / Sin-A-Rama

"He came to us with hundreds of jaw-dropping baptism photos that he'd been collecting for 25 years," Ledbetter explains. "By the time he found us, he'd already done half a lifetime's works, and he trusted us to handle it properly." Lance Ledbetter in Creative Loafing 10/13/11

Thank you all so very much.  Everyone needs a hobby.  I am so grateful for mine.

Odd Fellows Ark of the Covenant Folk Art Needlework from a Banner

Odd Fellows Ark of the Covenant Folk Art Needlework fragment from a banner.
No date.  Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Child's Needlecraft Dove and Text

Antique Folk Art Child's Needlecraft.  Two pieces 1905.  Dove and Christmas Message.  Collection Jim Linderman

Art Car ! You can Come in Praying if this van is Swaying Jesus Freak Van

You can Come in Praying if this van is Swaying  Jesus Freak Van circa 1990 original photographs Jim Linderman