In 1961 APSCO (Automatic Pencil Sharpener Co.) released a promotional free comic book. The Canadian subsidiary of this company was APSCO Products (Canada) Inc and was managed (and later owned) by Ralph Roger. The comic was Bozo the Clown and the Mystery of the Missing Point. In the early 1960s Bozo the Clown was a popular character appearing on many TV stations. The comic is just a 16 page advertisement for APSCO pencile sharpeners targeted to students (and teachers). 

I'm not sure how these comics were distributed. Perhaps they were given away at schools. Inside was an advertisement for comic character themed pencil sharpeners. They had lenticular printed eye stickers for eyes that commonly fall off (and kids draw their own eyes). The eyes appeared to be looking in different directions depending on which way you viewed them. They didn't say APSCO on the sharpener so unless you see it in the original box you might not know the manufacturer.

I rescued this Eagle Neon pencil from a thrift store a few months back. It has seen some better days. It has a petrified wedge cap eraser on top and it had a bit of ink spilled on the side... possibly from an old fountain pen stored alongside it. It has also lost a bit of it's bright neon pink color and the white undercoat of paint is showing through.  Despite its appearance, it still writes great. I'm currently doing a master's degree in mathematics and I did much of my work in my last course with this pencil. A great pencil makes doing homework a more pleasant experience.  

Dixon's Eldorado is probably best known as a brand of drawing pencils. Dixon called it them the "master drawing pencil".  The brand name Eldorado was also given to their copying pencils. The set shown below probably dates to the early days of the Canadian Dixon factory in Newmarket, Ontario which opened in 1931.   I'm guessing these pencils date from the late 1930s or early 1940s... before cheap ballpoint pens were popularized.

The box for these pencils was made with a deep purple color and gold printing. This box is a bit worn but still in decent condition given its age.

"The convenience of copying pencils prior to the introduction of ball-point pens was widely appreciated. In 1916, Mitchell observes that “at the present time [copying pencils] are but seldom employed for copying purposes, but are commonly used for producing writing which cannot
be erased so readily as the marks of a lead pencil.” In many ways, these pencils can be viewed as a predecessor to the ball-point pen. They were convenient (no need to continually dip one's pen into the ink well), provided firm pressure (superior to fountain pens of the time), and generated relatively permanent markings. Their usefulness is demonstrated by the wide range of applications to which
they were enlisted."  - Liz Dube, The Copying Pencil: Composition, History, and Conservation Implications