MARTY THE MAN FROM MARS FUN MASK: An original unused vintage WHEATIES cereal box CUT-OUT MASK. by (Johnson, Fridolf) - [1948].

General Mills, [1948]., [1948].. Very good. - An original 10 inch high by 12-3/8 inch wide cut-out mask printed in orange and black on an unused rear cover and sides of a Wheaties cereal box designed by Fridolf Johnson. This rear cover is illustrated with an orange, black & blue mask of "Marty the man from Mars" with instructions on "how to cut and fold" printed on one of the side panels and a blurb listing the vitamins and minerals in the cereal while touting the health benefits of "Wheaties 'Breakfast of Champions'". Slightly soiled with minor foxing. The top left corner is slightly creased. There are tape remnants at the corners and center of the verso with a strip of the backing rubbed away along one side likely due to having been mounted in a scrapbook. The side panels appear to never have been folded along the grooved gutters. Very good.

From the estate of the artist & commercial designer Fridolf Johnson, the graphic artist who designed this Wheaties cereal box.

Starting in 1947, Wheaties offered a series of approximately 60 cut-out masks printed on the box.

An illustrator and artist as well as a fine pressman Fridolf Johnson was an editor of American Artist Magazine until his retirement in the 1970's. As a graphic artist, he designed title panels for Hollywood movies and art & typography for advertising as well as dust jacket illustrations. He wrote and illustrated his own children's books in addition to other works. He compiled and edited the Knopf book "Rockwell Kent: An Anthology of His Work" and the significant Dover reference work "A Treasury of Bookplates From the Renaissance to the Present".