RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Oddest, goofiest and most interesting comic book ads

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What is arguably the best ad of the bunch, because it promotes all 4 Kirby series at once. And shows the logos of all 4 titles, tying them together as each being parts you need to have the complete Fourth World series.

52 Pages, don't take less !

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Definitely on the odd side, but darkly funny. This ad with edgy punk rats, one peer-pressuring the other to experiment with rat poison.

"What's the worst that could happen?"

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It vaguely reminded me of this back cover ad, "The Hit That Ended The Ball Game", from June 1973 DC comics;

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Demon-1972/Issue-9?id=31645

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Batman-1940/Issue-249?id=17863

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/House-of-Mystery-1951/Issue-214?id=70748

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An ad for MICRONAUTS by Butch Guice, from 1983.

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Because I posted Michael Golden house ads for MICRONAUTS, and also "Butch" Jackson Guice ads for MICRONAUTS, I wanted to post a MICRONAUTS ad by the third memorable artist on the MICRONAUTS series, Pat Broderick. But oddly, I couldn't find one.

Here are two Broderick MICRONAUTS images, although not ads.

This first one a cover from Brodeick's 1980-1981 run on the series, from MICRONAUTS 29 (Broderick pencils and inks) :





And a Broderick cover from a later IDW revival of MICRONAUTS in a new series:



Michael Golden drew MICRONAUTS issues 1-12 (Jan- Dec 1979), plus gorgeous Golden covers on 1-24, 38, 39, and 59.
Pat Broderick drew issues 19-34 ((July 1980-Oct 1981), plus covers on 25-30, and 32.
And Jackson Guice drew issues 48-58 (Dec 1982-May 1984), plus 48-58 covers.

Plus Keith Giffen on issues 36-37.
and Gil Kane on issues 40-45.

So Bill Mantlo was very fortunate with the artists available on MICRONAUTS during its run.
It's hard to believe that Jim Shooter disliked Broderick's art, and by Broderick's own account Shooter, along with Mantlo and Milgrom, basically drove Broderick to abruptly quit Marvel, from where he went to DC and did long runs on FIRESTORM and CAPTAIN ATOM.

But my favorite of Broderick's work, among many series he worked on, was always his MICRONAUTS run, where he was mostly paired with inker Armando Gil, that I think beautifully added to Broderick's art on the series. (in issues 19-22, and 24-26). And Dan Bulanadi inking the latter issues pencilled by Broderick, up through 34.

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Micronauts-1979/Issue-19?id=86657

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An early 1940's ad for the DC line of titles, billed as "the Big Eight".

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A 1939 advance house ad for the very first appearance of Batman in DETECTIVE COMICS !

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An Arthur Adams house ad for CLASSIC X-MEN.

Adams did covers and/or pin-ups for the first dozen or two issues. Despite these reprints including new material, I recommend buying X-MEN reprints of the Cockrum and Byrne issues in some other reprint edition. This particular series, the editor added 3 new pages by other writers and artists to the original stories, bringing stories originally 17 pages to 20 pages in each issue, and sometimes deleting Byrne/Autin pages, basically slicing and dicing the original material, so you neither get the feel or the full material of the original issues being reprinted. But in this era, you couldn't be choosy, there weren't any MARVEL MASTERWORKS hardcovers or trades yet.

There is also a long run of John Bolton new backups, about 13 pages per issue, as a regular back-up series in issues 1-35.
The new John Bolton back-up stories were also reprinted in a collected edition a few years ago.


CLASSIC X-MEN
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Classic-X-Men/Issue-1?id=64555

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An ad for DC's revived SHOWCASE series in 1978, that builds on the past successes in SHOWCASE in the 1960's era, promising the reader great new material following in that Silver Age tradition.

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https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Wonder-Woman-1942/Issue-184?id=15516


House ad for WONDER WOMAN issue 184, cover-dated Oct 1969, targeting female readers who "dig romance."

And we know you do !

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https://bullyscomics.blogspot.com/2007_10_14_archive.html


The original 1965 house ad showing an entire month of Marvel covers...

..and then in 1980, the exact same ad, but with a month of Sept and Oct 1980 Marvel covers.
The one I immediately recognize is the X-MEN 137 cover. One of a series of very clever and fun Marvel House ads in that period, this one deliberately re-capturing the "merry Marvel" 1960's house feel. I saw the ad in MICRONAUTS 22, among others.

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A beautiful Infantino BATMAN cover (issue 194, cover-dated Aug 1967), that also makes for a great ad.

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House ad for WORLD'S FINEST 183 (cover dated March 1969).
The actual interior story is not exactly a masterpiece of the era, but like so many DC issues in that era, with a gorgeous Neal Adams cover,
It's well hyped in a way that makes you want to buy and read it.
I saw the ad in a back issue (in BEWARE THE CREEPER 6), many years before I was able to finally purchase and read the WORLDS FINEST issue in the ad.

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/World-s-Finest-Comics/Issue-183?id=47807

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A 1968 DC house ad, in advance of SHOWCASE 73, and then BEWARE THE CREEPER 1-6 by Ditko.

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Showcase/Issue-73?id=43483
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Beware-The-Creeper/Issue-1?id=85842

A DC era starting with editor and artist Dick Giordano moving to DC, bringing along Steve Ditko, Jim Aparo, and Dennis O'Neil. All hired by Carmine Infantino, recently just moved from penciller up to editor in chief, and appointing Joe Orlando and Joe Kubert as editors, beginning a renovation of DC that for my money made them such a creative publisher in the 1967-1975 era (up until Infantino was fired in early 1976),.
Not only the stories and art themselves, but also the DC house look in the books' design and promotional house ads, made the entire DC line for me more interesting and fun than at any time since.

Infantino in an interview said that when DC fired him, they had to hire and promote 5 more people to replace him and do the workload he had been doing, and that even 5 people wasn't enough to do all the work that Infantino himself had done for DC every month. And remaining DC insiders told Infantino that a year after Infantino was fired, DC had its worst sales of any year in DC history. That DC quickly realized what a mistake it was to fire him.

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An ad for the then-just-released new PLOP magazine, in 1973, with panels in the ad by Sergio Aragones.
I've always loved PLOP, that ran 24 issues.
And the remaining inventory material after its cancellation was then published in an all-Aragones DC SUPER STARS 13 issue, in 1976.

Long overdue for a collected edition.

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Plop/Issue-1?id=114027

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/DC-Super-Stars/Issue-13?id=95860

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The DC house ad for BATMAN 200, cover-dated March 1968.
It's also Neal Adams' first cover on the BATMAN series.

Full issue at:
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Batman-1940/Issue-200?id=17814

Story credits (uncredited in the issue) are Mike Friedrich story, with Chic Stone pencils/Joe Geilla inks.

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Another of my favorite Infantino covers on the series, in this ad for BATMAN 184, Sept 1966.
Infantino cover only, interior story by Gardner Fox, and "Bob Kane" (ghost art done by Sheldon Moldoff).

In larger size, he cover and full story at :
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Batman-1940/Issue-184?id=17798

That also includes several more DC house ads with covers for DETECTIVE COMICS, WORLD'S FINEST and other titles.

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House ad for BATMAN 198, Jan 1968, an 80-page giant collection of 50's and 60's camp-era reprints.
The negative inset page is pretty eye-catching.

Larger cover and full issue at:

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Batman-1940/Issue-198?id=17812

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I'm kind of fascinated by the DC Implosion.
I guess it's the irony, that instead of a massive expansion, at exactly the time it was to begin, the "DC Explosion" instead went brutally the other way, with DC's parent company instead cancelling one third of the DC line.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_Implosion

Here's a larger version of the DC house ad I posted earlier...





And here's another promoting the expansion of titles :



And...



It happened in issues cover-dated Oct 1978.
And by November the explosion had imploded, with no explanation, unless you were reading the fan publications, particularly THE COMICS JOURNAL. But beyond the stuff that ran in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE, there was still a year's worth of inventory material to burn up in the now thinned down DC titles, so freelancers were forced to migrate over to Marvel for work. Guys like Michael Golden, Bob Wiacek, Al Milgrom, Bob McLeod, Jerry Bingham, Dave Michelinie, Bob Layton and many others. Which was really good fortune for Marvel, because these talents began a renaissance on the tiltes they took over at Marvel, particularly CAPTAIN MARVEL, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, IRON MAN, and MICRONAUTS.

At DC, there were a few issues where the Implosion hit so fast, that they ran house ads for titles that were never actually published.
One in JLA issue 159, Oct 1978, where a full page ad appears with covers shown for SHOWCASE 105 (DEADMAN), DEMAND CLASSICS (a planned reprint title), WESTERN CLASSICS (another planned reprint title), and VIXEN issue 1. None of which were actually published, but later collected in xerox form in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE vol. 2.

Then in JLA 160 (Nov 1978), no mention whatsoever of the "DC Explosion' or its unforseen implosion.
With BATMAN FAMILY cancelled afer issue 20, the inventory material instead appeared in DETECTIVE COMICS 481 and 482, with some really nice material by O'Neil, Rogers, Golden, Giordano, Starlin and Russell. Subsequent DETECTIVE issues with inventory material were far less impressive.

The last RETURN OF THE NEW GODS unpublished issue by Conway and Newton was split in 2 parts, and ran in ADVENTURE COMICS 459 and 460, with truly awful inking.

"Black Lightning" by Mike Nasser appeared in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE in xerox form, and then about a year later appeared in color as a backup in WORLD'S FINEST.

An OMAC backup began in KAMANDI 59 in Oct 1978, but the series was cancelled in the Implosion. CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE ran KAMANDI 60 and 61 story in xerox form, that also included an unpublished Kirby story that would in 1976 have been SANDMAN 7 ("The Seal Men's War on Santa Claus") , but with the 1978 Implosion was again prevented from being published as a color comic issue.
It appeared in CCC in xerox form in 1978, and then finally in color in BEST OF DC digest 22, in 1982.

The three-part Starlin OMAC backup finally fully ran in WARLORD 37-39 in late 1980 (WARLORD 37 repeats the 8-page OMAC backup story published in KAMANDI 59, inked by Joe Rubinstein. WARLORD 38 and 39 present the other 2 chapters by Starlin, but very disappointingly inked by Romeo Tanghal. )

Beyond that, not much impressed me in this mass of cancelled material. It's still interesting to see, but there wasn't much that really stood out.

Post-implosion, I liked the new title TIME WARP 1-5 (a thick dollar comic of SF anthology stories, all 5 with dynamite pulp-ish Kaluta covers).
And then when that was cancelled, it was replaced by a thinned-down regular 36-page formatted MYSTERY IN SPACE anthology, that ran from 111-117, that despite some nice art and interesting stories, didn't survive in a standard comic size format either.

It was only in 1980-1982, witth Starlin in DC COMICS PRESENTS 26-29 and 36-37, Wolfman and Perez on NEW TEEN TITANS, Conway and Perez on JLA, Levitz and Giffen on LEGION OF SUPERHEROES, Pasko and Giffen "Dr Fate" backups in FLASH 306-313, Thomas/Colon/Dezuniga on ARAK, plus ARION by Duursema, and other new material at that time, that DC really fully recovered from the Implosion.

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Paull Kupperberg: "My 13 favorite DC house ads"
https://13thdimension.com/paul-kupperberg-my-13-favorite-1970s-dc-comics-house-ads/


Quite a few of his picks were among mine as well, that I've already posted earlier in the topic.

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The Joe Weider comic ad posted earlier expired.
Here's a replacement image, with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the ad as well.





and another Schwarzenegger ad, with a good-looking lady-friend...

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And a DIET 7-UP ad with Schwarzenegger, alongside Loni Anderson :



I makes my eyes bleed to read the fine print, but it looks like it says the two coupons expire in May/June/July 1982, and March 1982.

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A 1985 ad for CBS's new Saturday morning line-up, prominently featuring wrestler Hulk Hogan.

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And from TALES TO ASTONISH 37, Nov 1962, another vintage bodybuilding ad :

Images of many more O.J.-sponsored full-page ads.

Man, look at all these endorsement ads he was a spokesperson for.
He sure couldn't get them now.

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Hulk Hogan again.
I don't know where this is from, but a great likeness by the artist.

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And a similar portrait of Schwarzenegger, a perfect likeness.
There are many others I saw of Schwarzenegger I didn't post, because they look nothing like him.

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If you grew up after the 1970's, you can't possibly know how big Six Million Dollar Man was in that era.
Second only to Planet of the Apes, Star Trek, and later in the decade, Star Wars.

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A great DC house ad from 1974, for those wonderful 100-page issues.
Decades later, it's great to see this ad, already have the issues in my collection, and just be able to pull them out and enjoy them again.

Or, God bless the internet, provide you with links to enjoy them, even if you don't.

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Detective-Comics-1937/Issue-444?id=5686
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Our-Army-at-War-1952/Issue-275?id=38102
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/House-of-Mystery-1951/Issue-228?id=70764

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Superman-Family/Issue-168?id=88733
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Tarzan-1972/Issue-234?id=55831
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Brave-and-the-Bold-1955/Issue-116?id=31216
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Young-Love-1963/Issue-112?id=206845

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Pirates of the Caribbean model kits, in July 1973 DC ads, across both regular comics and the 100 page issues.





Very cool on their own, but even better once you'd seen the then-new Pirates attraction at Walt Disney World, as I got to do a few months later.
Much as I loved the ride and this ad, I never got the kits, or saw anyone else who bought them.

Here are some issues with the ad :
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Weird-War-Tales-1971/Issue-15?id=35465
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/House-of-Mystery-1951/Issue-215?id=70749
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Batman-1940/Issue-250?id=17864
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/G-I-Combat-1952/Issue-167?id=34998

Here also are the Haunted Mansion model kits, in another 1974 2-page centerfold ad :
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Weird-War-Tales-1971/Issue-25?id=35502
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/G-I-Combat-1952/Issue-171?id=35012

And similar "Vampire" and Mummy "Time Machine" kits, both shown in another centerfold ad :
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Weird-War-Tales-1971/Issue-33?id=35523
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/G-I-Combat-1952/Issue-175?id=35022

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Possibly based on this ad 50 years ago, these were the first two LIMITED COLLECTORS' EDITION issues I bought new off the stands. The earlier ones I mail ordered directly from DC, or bought as back issues.

These oversize issues had striking house ads, and were, as far as I could see, very popular.

And retailers liked them because they had a higher price and rate of profit for dealers than regular comics. And also opened up new retail displays in places that didn't normally carry comics, such as bookstores. I recall seeing those displays in stores, they were pretty cool looking, very well packaged.

So these collectors' editions were just a great retailing idea all the way around.

https://www.comics.org/series/2100/covers/ (LIMITED COLLECTORS' EDITION)

https://www.comics.org/series/7765/covers/ (FAMOUS FIRST EDITION)

https://www.comics.org/series/7764/covers/ (ALL-NEW COLLECTORS' EDITION)

The last one, C-61, a FAMOUS FIRST EDITION reprint of SUPERMAN 1 from 1939, is shown in house ads the same month as the DC Implosion. (in books dated Nov 1978)
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/House-of-Mystery-1951/Issue-262?id=70810


One more, C-62, not comics stories, is a book of photos and articles about the Superman movie (ads in books dated Feb 1979).
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/House-of-Mystery-1951/Issue-265?id=70813

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Here's a house ad for Marvel's magazines at the time, which included HOWARD THE DUCK, SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN, HULK, and DRACULA.
It ran in MARVEL SPOTLIGHT 6, cover-dated May 1980. And in other Marvel titles out the same month.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Marvel-Spotlight-1979/Issue-6?id=54562
https://viewcomiconline.com/marvel-spotlight-1979-issue-6/

With art by Gene Colan / Dave Simons.
Dave Simons, who is now deceased, and as I recall died rather young, did beautiful art on many Marvel stories in the 1979-1992 period, particularly on Marvel magazines, both inking others like John Buscema and Gene Colan, and at other times doing both pencils and inks himself.

Here it is in a much larger size:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FiVWRFWUcAUYIoH.jpg:large

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An Arthur Adams house ad, for an X-MEN collected trade.
Not sure if this is the same material as the collection I own, but I'd guess it collects the X-MEN / ALPHA FLIGHT two-issue miniseries by Claremont and Paul Smith,
And the story from NEW MUTANTS SPECIAL 1, concluded in X-MEN ANNUAL 9, both by Claremont and Arthur Adams, with 2 or 3 subsequent X-MEN ANNUAL issues also by Claremont and Arthur Adams, I think 10 and 12. Material from 1985-1988 or so, in a collected 1988 edition.
I think I have a later edition than the one promoted, that includes more material.

If it's the one I have, it has a white background on an Arthur Adams cover, and a weak binding that started falling apart the 2nd or 3rd time I read it.
For a long time in the 1980's and 1990's, that was a recurrent problem on a number of Marvel collected editions, but in the 2000's Marvel finally got it together with better bound collections, at least on the collected trades I've gotten since then.

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EDIT :
I looked it up. The one advertised above is:

X-MEN : THE ASGARDIAN WARS (1988, 220 pages)
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=312791




And I dug out the one I have, it's this one :

MARVEL LEGENDS: ARTHUR ADAMS, X-MEN (2003, 288 pages )
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=489181

Some of the same material, but as detailed in the 2 links, definitely not the same contents.