If you’re just joining the Institute, welcome! If you’re coming back for another visit, apologies for not doing this sooner. The Institute of Official Cheer has been on the internets since 1996 or so; it goes fallow for a while, then springs to life with an enormous new project, gets some half-baked redesign based on some fancy I got that looked good right up until I uploaded it.

This is the most recent example of that, I suppose.

Many old sites have been given a new look, and the Gallery of Regrettable Food is beginning its 14th year with a total overhaul, and a billion bytes of new material. The 70s site was new for 2011, and full of horrid things.

What can I say? It’s the Institute. It’s just a place full of stuff. Enjoy.

Lileks

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One of my proudest achievements: as complete a revival of the Gobbler as you'll get today. Assuming you want it. There was a time I thought this place was the height of gauche and kitsch, and while that's still the case . . . I've grown to love it. Go HERE.

 

 

The start of it all, right here. This is a promotional site for the book, but it has plenty of material. Upgrades always in progress! Go HERE.

 

 

Every few years I'll get mail explaining why underwear elastic was so poor in the 50s. But they can't explain the celery. Go HERE. UPGRADED in 2013.

 

The ghastly designs forced on decent, hard-working Americans by the trend-setters. There's no justice, but there is this site. It's the original 1999 version of the site, revived for the present. Go HERE.

 

Comic Sins is the new all-inclusive whizbang assemblage of illustrated delights. We have covers every Tuesday, and a bold, fresh new site on comic book advertising. Newspaper comics through the era can be found HERE; it includes the internet’s largest Lance Lawson archive. Big Little Books examines the chunky comics genre. The main page, where you’ll find a general menu, is HERE.

  The return - and total revision - of an ancient site. Advertising art repurposed as Actual Art, complete with pretentious commentary! Go HERE. WARNING: Undergoing an overhaul in the first quarter of 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 
     
English Fashion in the 60s and 70s. Yikes.   A salute to everything deeply creepy about 50s and 60s "men's" mags. Go HERE.
 
 
     
In 1949, the Sunbeam Bread company put out a comic book to get kids to eat bread. Their secret weapon: an interminable history lesson that tied the jobs of iron miners and classical violinists to your toast. LINK.   Whoa, Nellie. A collection of men's fashion photography from the 50s, 60s and - shudder - the 70s. Go HERE
 
 
     

An old collection of weary japery from the 20s, interspersed with hangover remedies. Go HERE.

  For years the Institute sent out a monthly magazine, the American Home Ironizer; here are some selections from the archives. Updated as our ongoing digitization of the archives continues. (Old site, c. 200; updated 2012-2013.) LINK.
 
 
     
How do you get kids to eat right and take their vitamins? Simple - scare the urine out of them with hideous meat collages! Meet the Dayalets - they're child-tested and doctor approved. (c. 2000, updated 2010) LINK.   Before the personal computer came along, companies sold their big iron with carefully staged promotional photos. Thrill to the yesteryear mainframes and the bouffanted women who loved them! Go HERE.

 
 
     
A 1972 vacation promo. Yea, how times have changed. (c. 1999, redesigned 2010.) LINK.   For years, newspapers could always rely on a dog photo to soften the grim news of the day. It was a boon for humans; we like dogs. It was hell on the dogs. A collection of newspaper photos from the 40s, 50s and 60s. LINK.
 
 
     
A pamphlet describing the Glories of Socialist Opera! Please to be enjoying. LINK.   Here's where you can learn all about the Institute, its mission and its history. Not required reading to enjoy the Institute's fine products, but when you've burned through everything else, this might make a little more sense. (Note: ancient site, redesigned in 2010.) LINK.