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Back when people sent a lot of letters and postcards through the mail, the position of a stamp could send a message of its own. The “code” became popular around 1890, after it was written up in a Hungarian newspaper. It was printed on postcards in several European languages so a correspondent could clue in a recipient for future reference. See a collection of these postcards explaining the meaning of your stamp at Poemas del río Wang. Link -via TYWKIWDBI
We’ve posted art from more than one person who takes everyday paintings or iconic images and adds fantastic monsters to them. It’s neat, but it’s not new. Back in the 1970s, Yokopro in Japan published postcards that did the exact same thing. The monsters are called pachimon kaiju. See a collection of them at How To Be a Retronaut. Link -via Everlasting Blort
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Colin Greenhalgh adds monsters and somewhat-poetic captions to vintage postcards to make them much more interesting.
Meanwhile in Adventure Land, an imp lands a hand, scaring all the guests. Onlookers are captivated in fear, as he emerges from the murk, and lets lose a terrifying burp.
See a variety of such nonsense at his blog Monsters Abroad. Link -Thanks, Amy Dix!
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In 1910, a French illustrator named Villemard created a series of postcards which imagined life in the year 2000. He speculated that we would use motorized roller skates, firefighters would fly on batwings, and machines would dress and powder ladies automatically. As for school, as you can see, information will be simply downloaded into our heads.
This Tumblr blog collects only the worst of the worst -but there seems to be no shortage of bad postcards! Some lend themselves well to caption contests. Link -via J-Walk Blog
Get a taste of Independence Day celebrations of the past with a slide show of vintage postcards from collectors Scott Henderson and Richard Sheaff. Now this is Americana at its finest!
Early 20th-century postcards manufactured for the Fourth of July were very popular. Thousands of colorful cards featured such themes as Uncle Sam, the Goddess of Liberty, eagles, cannons, flags, liberty bell, fireworks, Statue of Liberty, Native Americans, Revolutionary War figures, nautical subjects, and the nation’s founders. From the early 1900s the production of postcards neatly coincided with the Safe and Sane movement that was initiated in a number of major cities to get dangerous fireworks away from the public. Many cards demonstrated the seriousness of this issue, but interestingly did so in a humourous vein. One popular card included the conundrum: “How to prevent your boy being killed on the Fourth of July-kill him on the third.”
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Artist Franco Brambilla depicts scenes of pleasant, everyday life during and after aliens have conquered the Earth. To do so, he superimposes aliens over actual postcards of serene landscapes. It’s like Norman Rockwell like drunk one night and woke up the next morning in bed with Frank R. Paul.
Some people love to send postcards. Some people love to tell the truth. Sadly, most postcards out there tend to have a very nice and polite message that is not always the reflection of what we think or feel about a situation.
If you want both (a nice-looking postcard that reflects your feelings) here are some good news. Things have changed and now you have some good options…, well, at least two good options to be sincere using a card.
You can send a "Wrong Card" for free via email (they are online and they have cards for any ocassion) or you can buy at Etsy "Courtesy Cards" by Gramkin Paper Studio that are like business cards, but with the purpose of getting rid of undesirables in a very polite way.
Of course these cards are meant just for people with sense of humor. Incorrect use of any of them could lead you to trouble!
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by scbr.
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