Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Hell Money of the Slain President Kennedy Hell Bank Note

A John F. Kennedy Hell Bank Note! "Hell Money" is a traditional Chinese offering to the dead. Hell dollars are burned as ceremonial offerings at funerals and near the graves of the departed. In this case, a Hell note which I assume dates to 1963 replaces the Jade Emperor. This looks like play money, but it's the real deal. I don't know how many were produced as tributes to the fallen president, and I see them for sale on ebay now. The Wiki story of Hell Money is HERE.

John. F. Kennedy Hell Bank Note circa 1963? Collection Jim Linderman
BOOKS AND $5.99 EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN AVAILABLE HERE

Michigan Squiggle Street Photograph Republican Road Repair

One of my closest friends, the brilliant Kate Bloomquist, was riding around town with me when we both saw this "Squiggle Street" a few blocks from the beach. I loved it, but guessed out loud before I had a chance to take a picture, they would pave it over. To my surprise, Kate went BACK, took a picture and sent it to me from 750 miles away. THAT is a friend.

Michigan, with a millionaire, former venture capitalist Republican Governor, "can't afford" to fix the roads, so they tar them up and hope your car suspension isn't remembered at election time. He isn't the worst politician, but he sure isn't the best. I would vote for Mark Schauer, a Democrat in the upcoming election anyway, but now that I was gifted this photograph, It's a definite. Maybe HE can fix the roads.

I hope his campaign uses this photo in an ad…and the incumbent, who can well afford to buy me a new set of tires, will hear from me too.

Original Digital Photograph 2013 by Kate Bloomquist

Spark Magazine Magazines Aren't what they Used to Be (continuing series)

Magazines aren't what they used to be.
Two issues of Spark, one of numerous Life magazine imitators which didn't last as long.

Spark 1940s

Mexican Comic Book Fantasia Horror Mystery and Gore Which Knows No Border!

Fantasia Ad circa 1954 Scanned by Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Fantasia from Mexico! Mexican Comic Book Graphic Novel Fantasia

There was a Fantasia not produced by Disney, and it was a comic book which came from south of the Rio Grande. This one had "all the imagination of the most extraordinary and rapporteurs of the fantastic real, poured in..." according to the pitch and my translator. From the illustrations I can believe it. A graphic novel or comic book from Mexico circa 1954. I don't find a copy on my least favorite auction site, but I had to scroll through plenty of hits for the one in which Mickey runs from brooms.

Horror, Mystery, Fantasy and Reality you will find on the creepy pages of Fantasia! It makes me want a time machine and a border pass to go find some issues. 60 years ago. I don't know if the Mexican comic book industry had a "golden age" but it seems the illustrations are universal, as these resemble all those Dr. Wertham found offensive. Gore knows no border!

MAKE SURE TO BROWSE THE BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN BELOW. ALL AVAILABLE FROM BLURB.COM HERE

Tintype Occupational An Actor

I'm not sure if "occupational" counts when it comes to photographs of actors, as they spend more time in lines hoping for a gig than working...but this Shakespeare performer takes HIS work seriously. Thanks and a nod to painter J. J. Cromer who found this for me, if I am not mistaken.

Tintype Photograph circa 1870 Collection Jim Linderman

Virginia climbs the Aeromotor windmill 1946

Virginia climbs the Aeromotor windmill 1946 Oregon
Snapshot embellished by hand collection Jim Linderman

Bettie Page and Dog visit Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Bettie Page Original Contact Print signed by Bunny Yeager on reverse and photograph from the same session on the cover of Sunbathing and Health Magazine March 1956.
Photograph Collection Jim Linderman

The Slipper Shaped Calling Card of Pearly White collection Jim Linderman

The Slipper Shaped Calling Card of Pearly White, signed by hand circa 1880
Collection Jim Linderman

BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN ARE HERE

Girl with Purse in Painted Backdrop Tintype

Now available in eBook for $5.99

THE PAINTED BACKDROP: BEHIND THE SITTER IN AMERICAN TINTYPE PHOTOGRAPHY by Jim Linderman
The previously untold story of 19th century painters and their influence on American photography during the tintype era. Never before examined in detail, the book contains over 75 rare, unpublished original tintype photographs from the Jim Linderman collection. A Grammy nominated writer and collector who has been called "the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic" this book is informed with Linderman's wit and continues his examination of previously overlooked art and photography subjects. 80 Pages, 8' x 10" with essays by Jim Linderman and Kate Bloomquist. ORDER HERE

Salman Rushdie and Snakes and Ladders

"All games have morals; and the game of Snakes and Ladders captures, as no other activity can hope to do, the eternal truth that for every ladder you hope to climb, a snake is waiting just around the corner, and for every snake a ladder will compensate. But it's more than that; no mere carrot-and-stick affair; because implicit in the game is unchanging twoness of things, the duality of up against down, good against evil; the solid rationality of ladders balances the occult sinuosities of the serpent; in the opposition of staircase and cobra we can see, metaphorically, all conceivable oppositions, Alpha against Omega, father against mother." Salman Rushdie Midnight's Children. Random House. p. 160.

Common Cardboard Snakes and Ladders game, no date, no manufacturer Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll (Number Two) Snapshot Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll Snapshot Collection Jim Linderman Undated circa 1960

Barn Raising (BIG Hammer) Vintage Photograph

Vintage Photograph, No date Collection Jim Linderman

Women Outlaws Seduce the Innocent Ladies of the Lurid West!

Women Outlaws Seduce the Innocent. Ladies of the Lurid West!

Women Outlaws. A "golden age" comic book, which means before the government decided kids should read Casper the friendly ghost rather than lurid crime from the Wild West OR downtown. Whatever. None of these were as bad as what is found through a gaming console today, and kids are even lazier, more sullen and more surly now. Kefauver's censorship worked for a time, as the comics learned how to "self-patrol" with the comics code logo…but the kids are just the same, only worse!

Sure enough, one of Women Outlaws was used as an example for Fredric Wertheim's expose Seduction of the Innocent. And no wonder…check out one of the woman outlaws being served justice. Still, I was a juvenile delinquent, and all I read was the Hardy Boys!
Some kids are going to test the rules, Fredric. No matter what they read. Plus now that I recall, the boys were always bullying Chet, the fat kid.

One of these issues (the one with what seems to be Marshall Dillon's platonic girlfriend and implied whore Kitty from the Gunsmoke TV show) is currently listed on eBay for $600, so these have to be pretty scarce. One website puts the first issue at $900.

Who READ these? Little sisters who wanted their own action tales? Let's face it, "romance" comic books for the girls were horrible. Every single story was the same. Guy with a buzzy haircut meets a girl, there is some confusion (usually Buzzy has to fix his car and forgets to call) and the last panel has them swapping rings. Happy ending. It gets old, even to impressionable young readers being socialized into accepted forms of happy women consumers. So maybe some "branched" out into hanging branches?

I guess they do strike a blow for women somehow…and Annie Oakley was a role model for tough girls.

I really think Dad read these. Illiteracy rates were reported as less than 4% back in the 1950s, but I think that was propaganda to show the Ruskies we were superior. In fact, I think it was many times that, and even higher today. Imagine how many returned soldiers wanted books with pictures…and a little bright colored excitement from the wild west (with dames) would have been perfect.

Below is a great one…all smudged up with age and rotten acid pulp and more…yet still so great the seller is asking the price of dinner for it. It looks like "Dot" signed her name on it, so maybe girls did read them!

Comic Book guys are, by the way, WAY too hung up on condition. All things age, especially cheap comic books. Get over it. Live with the wear guys…art is supposed to change over the years through use and appreciation. Let your comic books breathe.

Women Outlaws was published by the Fox Feature Syndicate, who also published "Crimes by Women" and for some ungodly reason, a comic called "General Douglas MacArthur (which adds some support to my theory the consumers were slow readers from the Greatest Generation.) There were only a handful of issues.

The best site (and most information) is found on the FANTASY INK website, a place which also links to many things comic book. It is edited by Tom, who doesn't provide his full name but should. Nice stuff. Further information is available on WESTERN COMICS ADVENTURES. More information on Dr. Wertham and his curious mission is found HERE on Seduction of the Innocent the website, which is devoted to finding every damn comic book the good doctor was shocked by.

Books and ($5.99) ebooks by Jim Linderman are available HERE

Folk Art Toy Cannon in Original Paint

Folk Art Toy Cannon in Original Paint (Circa 1918?) Collection Jim Linderman

My Little House Status Report (and reporting a guy who stoled my picture!)

The guy here stole MY picture of MY little cabin from the web and is using it to promote his business! He didn't even ask. 25 Grand! Mine cost 6 Grand. He HAW. If he had credited my photo and cabin, I'd help him. On the other hand, his voiceover does call me "a progressive individual." Progress on the inside is shown here.

Folk Art Sculpture Man and Woman

Folk Art Sculpture Carvings. Lacking Pitchfork. Collection Jim Linderman

Musical Knapp Family of Michigan

Musical Knapp Family of Michigan Real Photo Postcard Collection and Juke Box Hits
More on the family HERE. Collection Jim Linderman

BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY THE AUTHOR AVAILABLE HERE

Where Those Novelty Photographs Come From: GEORGE'S

Did you ever wonder where all those novelty carnival photographs of people looking silly sticking their heads through holes in a photography studio? Here's the answer. Georges!

Novelty Photograph in original sleeve George's "Fat Boy" Photos San Francisco, CA No Date
Collection Jim Linderman

Sleestak Halloween from Dull Tool Dim Bulb Handmade Folk Art Mask

After considerable thought, I've decided to go with Sleestak.

Handmade Sleestak Mask (Epoxy Resin, Corduroy, Paper Mache, Paint) circa 1975
Collection Jim Linderman

Animal Trainers At the Circus in Black and White #34 on Dull Tool Dim Bulb collection Jim Linderman

It has been a while, but here is At the Circus in Black and White number 34, the latest installment of the series here on DTDB. Animal Trainers! Top is Buckles Woodcock, Elephant trainer extreme. Second is an unknown Dog Trainer.

Others in the series are found HERE

Snapshots circa 1959 collection Jim Linderman

Books and Ebooks by Jim Linderman available HERE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jim Linderman

"...Linderman is widely regarded as one of the foremost figures in a field of vernacular art collectors working beyond the margins of most institutional axioms and impulses, in what is essentially it's own self-taught art form."
Ursula Magazine Hauser & Wirth 2019

"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

"Almost an experimental narrative"
Idiopath

"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

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