Magnificent Muppet Monsters!

Here's another fabulous letter by my favorite Muppet-artistic pen pal. (I've blogged about his previous offerings, including a Sesame Street artwork postcard and a Shockingly Muppet-licious letter.) The stationery is "Mailing the Muppets Keep-in-touch kit," released by the U.S. Postal service in conjunction with the Jim Henson/Muppets stamps in 2005.



The generally disapproving Sam the Eagle guards the back of the envelope.



Around the edges of each page, inside of each little orange square, he drew his own monster doodles...



...inspired, as he writes, by Walt Kelly, Dr. Seuss, Jim Henson, etc.

Need a closer look at those doodled dudes?



I know I do!



What a treat!

Kermit the Frog postcard + stamp

I had the good fortune recently to get a Postcrossing address from someone else who loved the Muppets, especially Kermit the Frog. So I sent her this postcard. It came from the U.S. Postal service, from a set of postcards to match the Jim Henson/Muppets commemorative stamps.



Of course I had to incorporate the matching 37-cent Kermit stamp into the postage to Poland.

Another Muppets postcard

I figured that Sesame Street artwork postcard deserved some Muppets in return, so this is what I sent in response.

Oh, how I adore Muppet postcards...

Muppet Mail

Remember that wonderful shockingly Muppet-licious letter I blogged about recently? In it I mentioned some fabulous postcards he sent me, so I now share with you that bounty.

At the top is a Muppet postalette, a fold-and-mail sort of Hallmark wonder, here celebrating Kermit and Piggy's picnic love.

Below is a really incredible parody, which we must see a little bit closer. My generous blog reader correspondent sent me a few of these, so I've got a mini-collection of 'em.



Those familiar with basic American Art History 101 will recognize this as a very witty parody Edward Hopper's famous painting, "Nighthawks." My generous sender said he found the Muppet parody online, and did not know the artist but had a whole bunch of the postcards printed because he loved them. Hear, hear!

If anyone recognizes the artist, I will happily credit him or her. For now, though, let's admire the fun detail. See The Count up in the upper lefthand corner? Fabulous!

I should note that these are Sesame Street Muppets, not Muppet Show Muppets. There is a difference. My generous sender is more a devotee of the Sesame Street variety, and I am strongly in the Muppet Show camp, but we are different branches of the same tree and I still admire all the Jim Henson creations.

The future's bright (green, that is)

Another great eBay find, a bit old lot of Muppets postcards. I'm not exactly sure what the slant is here - is it copying some other kind of ad slogan? - but I love it.

This is what I sent to PostMuse in response to her fantastic Carlsbad Caverns bat postcard.

Power to the puppets!

It's Muppet Mail! (Imagine that in the same voice that Kermit uses to introduce the show when he says, all excited, "It's the Muppet Show!")

Just another beauty from my secret stash of Muppet postcards. Heh heh. Secret political message.

GirlZootZilla, the lucky recipient, blogged about this in a much more timely fashion. And she sent me that awesome tarantula postcard back, too.

Finally found it: Hallmark 1979 Muppet Show Stationery

For a stationery hound with a Muppet obsession like me, this 1979 Hallmark Muppet Show stationery is like the holy grail. Man oh man. I trolled eBay for quite some time hoping this puppy would show up.



It's like Muppet meta - they're writing letters! I would like to note for the record that Kermit is clearly left-handed. I have a few Muppet notepads from this era (yeah yeah, to be photographed and posted "one of these days"), and it also shows Kermit as a leftie.

I don't send the precious Muppet stuff unless I know you like Muppets. Are you Muppet-worthy? Tee hee.

(Did I mention I grew up on the Muppets?)