obscure children books

[2pf cell]

THINK i remember that - or maybe i'm confusing it with an 80's copycat..?

"Masquerade became the forerunner of an entire genre of cryptic puzzles known as armchair treasure hunts. It spawned a succession of books and games from other publishers seeking to emulate its success, including The Key To The Kingdom (Pavilion Books), The Piper Of Dreams (Hodder & Stoughton) and The Golden Key (William Maclellan), all of which were published in 1982."

this might have been the one:
http://www.treasureclub.net/publichunts/conundrum/index.html

obviously nick kershaw's "the riddle" slots in here somewhere...
ha

[eyestrain]

This might be common knowledge, but I forgot about it for a few years:

http://www.50watts.com

An illustration site, but with a big focus on far-out kids books.

[Duncan]

I had a dig through many of my old kids books recently when visiting home.  Among the many I had forgotten all about was 'Willy the Champ' which follows a small, nerdy chimpanzee who gets bullied a lot by big, butch gorillas until he loses his shit and accidentally knocks one of them out.  Despite having a really lurid visual style anyway, there is an awful lot of hugely homo erotic imagery going on which is, of course, great.  

Some small scans here on this blog which moans about it being an inappropriate display of violence for wee kids (I will have been reading this as a kid during the early 90s, how things have changed even now I guess?!) but you will get the idea.  I'd certainly recommend having a proper look in person if anyone gets the chance: http://virtuallysally.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/booktober-willy-champ.html

Edit - Some better, more sexy images :