All posts by Eric Robert Nolan

Eric Robert Nolan graduated from Mary Washington College in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. He spent several years a news reporter and editorial writer for the Culpeper Star Exponent in Culpeper, Virginia. His work has also appeared on the front pages of numerous newspapers in Virginia, including The Free Lance – Star and The Daily Progress. Eric entered the field of philanthropy in 1996, as a grant writer for nonprofit healthcare organizations. Eric’s poetry has been featured by Dead Beats Literary Blog, Dagda Publishing, The International War Veterans’ Poetry Archive, and elsewhere. His poetry will also be published by Illumen Magazine in its Spring 2014 issue.

Poster for “28 Weeks Later” (2007)

20th Century Fox/Fox Atomic.

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Throwback Thursday: “Spuds MacKenzie” (1987)!

This is just another strange ad campaign from the 1980’s — Spuds Mackenzie was the mascot for Bud Light.   People went nuts for the dog — the campaign spawned a ton of merchandising.  (People in the 80’s got worked up over the damnedest things.)

In the interest of full disclosure, I will confess here that I myself owned a Spuds MacKenzie button at the close of the decade.  I wore it on my dark gray denim jacket — along with a bunch of other arbitrarily selected buttons that I thought made me look extremely cool.  (It was a late-80’s thing.)  Hell, I even wore that jacket-and-button ensemble during the first semester at Mary Washington College.

Weird world — Spuds was actually a female dog.  She was a rescue dog, and she was named “Honey Tree Evil Eye.”  (I feel certain there is an interesting story behind that.)  And Mothers Against Drunk Driving lobbied against the ad campaign as it allegedly targeted children.

 

Cover to “Grendel: Devil’s Legacy” #4, Matt Wagner, 2000

Dark Horse Comics.

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The Bristol Herald Courier publishes my “Open Letter to President Donald J. Trump”

Hey, guys — remember the “Open Letter to President Donald J. Trump Upon His Acquittal” that I wrote a few weeks back? The Bristol Herald Courier ran it Wednesday as a letter to the editor.

The newspaper is published in Bristol, Virginia, and has a readership of 39,000.  It won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2010.

You can find the letter right here.

 

 

Cover to “Batman” #530, Kelley Jones, 1996

DC Comics.

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“The Harlots cry from Street to Street”

The Whore & Gambler by the State
Licencd build that Nations Fate.
The Harlots cry from Street to Street
Shall weave Old Englands winding Sheet.
The Winners Shout the Losers Curse
Dance before dead Englands Hearse.

— excerpt from William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence”

 

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“Lupinar Romain,” from Histoire de la Prostitution Chez tous les Peuples du Monde, 1851

Cover to “Robin” #27, Terry Austin, 1996

DC Comics.

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Throwback Thursday: “Where’s the beef?!” (1984)

Here’s the 81-year-old Clara Peller performing her iconic line for Wendy’s restaurants, “Where’s the beef?!”  This was arguably the most memorable ad campaign of the 1980’s.

The commercials are pretty funny — the first two are, anyway.  All three aired in 1984.  Peller, who had emphysema,  went on to star in other commercials, including those for Prego spaghetti sauce, Praise dog food, and Ben’s insect repellent.  All were allusions to her breakout role for the restaurant (and were presumably unauthorized); Wendy’s then ended its relationship with her.

 

 

 

“Angel of Death,” by Richard Tennant Cooper, 1912

Watercolour with gouache and chalk.

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PREACH.

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