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

.




A 1985 house ad in Marvel titles for LONGSHOT , the 6-issue miniseries that first brought artist Arthur Adams to visibility and prominence.
https://readallcomics.com/longshot-v1-1/

Till then, I'd never heard of writer Ann Nocenti or Arthur Adams, and both instantly became favorites. I especially like Nocenti for her run on DAREDEVIL, for several years following the end of Frank Miller's DAREDEVIL "Born Again" storyline in DD 226-233,


Issue 236 by Nocenti (with art by Barry Windsor-Smith) in particular knocked me out.
https://readallcomics.com/daredevil-v1-236/

And then a long run after by Nocenti with artist John Romita Jr., in issues 250-282, particularly the last 5 issues.
https://readallcomics.com/daredevil-v1-279/
https://readallcomics.com/daredevil-v1-280/
https://readallcomics.com/daredevil-v1-281/
https://readallcomics.com/daredevil-v1-282/

.


I thought I'd posted this one before, but I guess I haven't, so here it is.


There was a drug awareness ad in the 1980's, as far as I know only shown as a TV ad, but it may have been a magazine ad too, but to my knowledge never appeared as a comic ad.

• "This is your brain. (Showing an uncracked egg.)
  
  This is your brain on drugs. (Showing an egg cracked and sizzling in a frying pan.)
  
  Any questions ?"

And in the late 1980's / early 1990's, I was in a T-shirt place, and I saw this version of it on a shirt you could buy :

https://metaphorawarenessmonth.word...ain-on-drugs-with-a-side-order-of-bacon/




I'm still kicking myself for not picking that one up.


There were two other funny ones, one a menu of Chinese food, the other a menu of Italian food, only all the menu items were altered to say obscene things, such as "Cream of Sum Yung Guy".

The old image expired, so here's another image of it :



And larger at:
https://starrcards.com/from-charles...-top-comic-book-ads-for-mma-instruction/


I love the odd, almost supernaural look he takes on in this photo.
Part black belt... PART VAMPIRE !!



Australia-Dave talked about turning this ad into a T-shirt, and several sites online are actually doing that.

.

Eclipse comics during its 15 years or so of publishing had a number of fun house ads for the Eclipse line, that projected both whimsey and intelligence. Here's one that appeared in AIRBOY issue 24, that having revived Airboy, updated him and his cast to be the equivalent of an Arnold Schwarzenegger or Chuck Norris movie. And a few issues into the series, also revived the Golden Age character "The Heap".

In this Eclipse ad:
" A HEAP of great reading!"

The ad appeared in AIRBOY 24, and also in MIRACLEMAN 11, both out in June 1987.
Also LOST PLANET 1, and MR MONSTER'S SUPER DUPER SPECIAL 7. Among other Eclipse tiltes, I'm sure.
https://readallcomics.com/airboy-24/
https://readallcomics.com/mr-monsters-super-duper-special-7/

.

Another Eclipse ad, from ECLIPSE MONTHLY issue 1 in 1983, in a full page ad featuring Marshal Rogers' "Cap'n Quick and a Foozle" and promoting the hard to describe ECLIPSE MONTHLY anthology series:
"Well there's something happening here... but you'll just have to see for yourself."

** Marshall Rogers ECLIPSE MONTHLY ad

And here's the ad again, as part of the full ECLIPSE MONTHLY issue 1 at:
https://readallcomics.com/eclipse-monthly-01/

ad also in :
https://readallcomics.com/dnagents-06/

ECLIPSE MONTHLY is great and under-rated anthology series.
I especially love :
* "The Masked Man" by B.C. Boyer that ran in all 10 issues,
* the "Rio" series by Doug Wildey that ran in 1, 2, 5 and 9-10,
* the "Cap'n Quick" series by Rogers in issues 1-4,
* and the "Carlos McLlyr" series by Christy Marx and Peter Ledger (who were married until his death) that ran in issues 6-8.




And I'd highly recommend the "I Am Coyote" graphic novel by Englehart and Rogers that the "Cap'n Quick" series was spun off from. It was first published in ECLIPSE magazine 1-8 (1981-1982) in black-and-white, and then "Coyote" was collected and released as a gorgeously colored graphic novel from Eclipse in 1984.
There are also 3 issues of CAP'N QUICK after ECLIPSE MONTHLY in his own series.

https://readallcomics.com/i-am-coyote-full/



Englehart and Rogers also famously together did DETECTIVE COMICS 471-476, MISTER MIRACLE 19-22. MADAME XANADU 1, and SCORPIO ROSE 1 and 2
https://readallcomics.com/detective-comics-v1-0471/
https://readallcomics.com/mister-miracle-v1-019/
https://readallcomics.com/madame-xanadu-v1-full/ (part 1)
https://readallcomics.com/scorpio-rose-1/ (parts 2 and 3, After Englehart left DC, and slightly altered his scripts, replacing Madame Xanadu with a new character)

And an unpublished SCORPIO ROSE 3, that was only published decades later in a collected edition of the series.

.



A few more ads from Eclipse, from their earliest color comic, the SABRE comics series.
Issues 1 and 2 reprint the 1978 SABRE graphic novel, for the first time presented in 7 X 10" comic book size, and with color added.

This ad for the black and white ECLIPSE magazine (1981-1982) that ran for 8 issues :

• ECLIPSE magazine ad, from SABRE issue 1 back cover, August 1982
  
  ECLIPSE magazine ad, from SABRE issue 2 back cover, October 1982

Up till SABRE comic series 1 and 2, Eclipse's publications had all been black and white 8 X 11" magazine-size graphic novels :

(1) SABRE by McGregor and Gulacy, 40p, Aug 1978
(2) NIGHT MUSIC by P.Craig Russell 48p, Nov 1979
(3) DETECTIVES INC. by McGregor and Rogers 48p, May 1980
(4) STEWART THE RAT by Gerber and Colan/Palmer 64p, Nov 1980
(5) THE PRICE by Starlin 46p, Oct 1981

Then they launched ECLIPSE magazine (May 1981- Jan 1983), also in an 8 X 11" magazine size, but an anthology. It was kind of a hybrid, partly running 1970's underground type stuff by artists like Howard Cruse, George Metzger, and Trina Robbins. And in addition ran some of the artists and writers Eclipse came to be known for in the 1980's, such as Steve Englehart, Don McGregor, Craig Russell, Paul Gulacy, Marshall Rogers and John Bolton, and the first two stories in issues 7 and 8 by B.C.Boyer.

And then what as their first clor comic book series, SABRE, beginning in August 1982.

I also love the backup stories in 1 and 2, by Elaine Lee and Charles Vess, with colors by someone named Lynn Varley, when none of us knew who she was, that we all became very familiar with just a few years later wih THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS.
"Starstruck" by Elaine Lee was being serialized in HEAVY METAL in 1981-1982, but I think most of us didn't really see it until Marvel collected the series as the STARSTRUCK graphic novel

I also like the "Eclipse bookshelf" ad, that promotes all these ttitles :

• 
  Eclipse Bookshelf ad (on inside back cover of issues 1 and 2 )

Plus other ads for MS TREE, DESTROYER DUCK, Don McGregor's own (I guess self-published) anthology books, and other budding projects.



And then when SABRE 3 came out (Dec 1982), the Eclipse back cover ad was slightly changed :

• ECLIPSE MONTHLY ad, for coming series
  

I like the subtle shift in the ad, but consistent with the ECLIPSE magazine ad, transitioning to a full color comic size series as ECLIPSE MONTHLY. And the cityscape the Foogle is flying over shifts to a rural lake surrounded by forest. Which could be seen as Eclipse subtly announcing they were moving from their initial offices in Staten Island, New York, to the West Coast in Geurneville, California.

I think Eclipse were half-moved for the better part of a year in 1983-1984, but the address officially changed in their books beginning in Oct 1984 to Guerneville, California. Which even now is still a tiny little rural commune outside of San Francisco, of less than 5,000 people.
And roughly a year later, there was a flood in Guerneville and the Eclipse offices lost a lot of their back-issue inventory in the flood. Somehow they later replaced their back-issue stock, by either buying stock from distributors or buying it from comic book stores.

I was surprised to read that Eclipse (around the time of MIRACLEMAN, SCOUT, and AIRBOY ), was the third largest comics publisher in most of the 1980's.
In 1988-1989 they had a CRISIS-style crossover event called TOTAL ECLIPSE that bombed badly, and they never quite got their mojo back afer that, and were after publishing on a smaller scale, and eventually filed for bankruptcy in 1994. But the last comics I recall from Eclipse that I have, such as LOST CONTINENT, were from 1992-1993. They were already long gone for a year or so when Eclipse's management filed the paperwork to finalize bankruptcy.


the full SABRE issues at :

https://readallcomics.com/sabre-01/
https://readallcomics.com/sabre-02/
https://readallcomics.com/sabre-03/

I loved the stories and art in SABRE up through issue 3, but after that the series in both story and art declined. Beyond that point, up through issue 10, I was often buying the series more for the backups than the lead features. and after issue 10 I completely lost interest. But very good in the early issues. And I loved "The Incredible Seven" by B C Boyer in issues 4-6, and the Kent Williams and Michael Bair backup story material in 7-10.
And these ads got Eclipse in its early years off to a very fun but also elegant start.

.




New image, to replace the one that expired

Full issue online at :
https://readallcomics.com/worlds-finest-183/
Neal Adams cover. Story by Leo Dorfman, art by Ross Andru / Mike Esposito


https://readallcomics.com/beware-the-creeper-v1-06-of-6-1968/
That has house ad for WORLD'S FINEST 183.

.





Then, now, and forevermore, I'll always love PLOP.

Another of the early ads, that back in the day got us all pumped up for the first issue.