FW Presents: Wax Wrappers & Old School Halloween with author Jason Young

Remember those wax packs of gum cards you used to buy near the checkout? Remember the smell of those vibrant vinyl costumes you and all your classmates wore at Halloween? Jason Young does, and that’s what compelled him to write and design his two recent books The Wonderful Artwork of Wax Wrappers and An Old School Halloween. Join your host Chris Franklin and Jason, as they discuss these books, and dive deep into the subject matter, and just about every pop culture topic they can think of along the way, including Mego!

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14 responses to “FW Presents: Wax Wrappers & Old School Halloween with author Jason Young

  1. What a delightful episode Jason and Chris. As soon as the episode ended (OK, during the episode), I purchased a copy of each book. Can’t wait to dive in and relive my childhood. Your description of the whooshing sound of the costumes as kids walked around the streets brought me back to my Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood, knocking on row home doors, the cool October air chilling me as my Mom mandated jacket lie stuffed in my pillow case/candy bag. Thank you guys for the wonderful episode!

  2. Well, since you guys went off on a Mego tangent, I’m going to as well!
    That Hammer Dracula card is indeed AMAZING! I’ve got almost all the Mego Monsters! I had the superhero Megos as a little kid, but I could never afford to collect the vintage toys.
    Congratulations on the books and the Mego designs Jason.

    1. Corey – Now we’re all jealous after Jason revealed that you have seen all his other cool Photoshop projects! 🙂

  3. Wonderful discussion! I’m only halfway through and already ordered myself a copy of THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF WAX WRAPPERS! Jason makes a delightful guest!!

  4. A few years ago at a convention, myself and Jarrod Alberich the Yard Sale Artist (from the Longbox Crusade Network) came across a box of unopened “V” trading cards. We bought a bunch of wax packs and had so much fun. And yes, stupidly we ate the gum. Tasted worse than that guinea pig that Diana ate!

    1. Wow, nice Shag! But I wouldn’t have chewed that gum if you paid me. I’d sooner eat my box of Ralston Purina Batman cereal from 1989 I have sealed (with Michael Keaton Batman bank!).

  5. Impressive podcast. Most impressive. I had some of these costumes as a kid. Wore the 3PO as a small child. And the Bat man one I ware and ware around the nabor hood. Latter with a Bat Girl mask replacement. I remember getting some cards with gum. Sorry never liked the gum. The cards ware cool. Not as much as the WWF ones, but the movie ones ware pretty cool.

  6. This episode brought back a lot of fond Halloween memories. For most of my childhood, my brothers and I would have to cycle through the same few Kooky Spooks costumes (the ones with the big inflatable headpieces) each year. But, for my second ever time out trick-or-treating, before my parents got the idea of reusing the same costumes each year, I did get to wear a Ben Cooper Darth Vader costume. It was a blast to see a picture of that same costume in the gallery.

    Thank you, Chris, for putting together this episode, and thank you, Jason, for your work on these books.

    1. So YOU were one of those kids who wore those Kooky Spooks? That subject came up in a FB group I’m in a while back (I think it was Brian Heiler’s Pod Stallions), and no one there ever wore them, we just remembered seeing them for a few years during Trick or Treat, and all the advertisements that were on TV for them. Then they just seemed to disappear, and nothing like them has ever resurfaced. Fascinating!

      Chris

      1. I’m pretty sure we had the Bone Head and Scary Spider costumes. I don’t know if we had a third one for my youngest brother, or if all this occurred before he was old enough to trick-or-treat with us. Regardless, I know we used those same costumes for several Halloweens, because I remember debating who would where which costume each year.

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