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

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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/

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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 :



https://www.writeups.org/wp-content/uploads/Count-Dante-Deadliest-Man-Alive-comic-books-red-ad.jpg

And larger at:
https://starrcards.com/wp-content/uploads/comic-book-ad-for-deadliest-man-alive-count-dante.jpg

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.

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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!" Eclipse full-page ad

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/

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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 full-page 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.

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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 full-page ad, from SABRE issue 1 back cover, August 1982
  
  ECLIPSE magazine full-page 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 ................................ https://readallcomics.com/sabre-full/
(2) NIGHT MUSIC by P.Craig Russell 48p, Nov 1979 .................................. https://readallcomics.com/p-craig-russells-night-music-1/
(3) DETECTIVES INC. by McGregor and Rogers 48p, May 1980 .............. https://readallcomics.com/detectives-inc-001/
(4) STEWART THE RAT by Gerber and Colan/Palmer 64p, Nov 1980 ........
(5) THE PRICE by Starlin 46p, Oct 1981 ..................................................... https://readallcomics.com/the-price-1981/

Then they launched ECLIPSE magazine (May 1981- Jan 1983), also in an 8 X 11" magazine size black-and-white series, 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 in issues 7 and 8, he first two "Masked Man" stories by B.C.Boyer (that continued in ECLIPSE MONTHLY 1-10, and then in MASKED MAN 1-12) .

And then what was their first color comic book series, SABRE, beginning in August 1982.

I also love the backup stories in SABRE 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 the Starstruck serial was collected long after SABRE 1 and 2, as the STARSTRUCK Marvel graphic novel in 1984.

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

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  Eclipse Bookshelf full-page ad (on inside back cover of issues 1 and 2 )

Plus other ads for MS TREE, DESTROYER DUCK, and also 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 :

• In SABRE 3, full-page ad for the coming ECLIPSE MONTHLY comics anthology series
  

I like the subtle shift in the ad, but consistent with the previous ECLIPSE magazine ad, the new ad transitions to a full color comic size series as ECLIPSE MONTHLY . And the panoramic New York City scene the Foogle is flying over in the previous ads in SABRE 1 and SABRE 2, shifts from a New York City skyline, to a rural California 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 very small town 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 after 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, and DRAGONFLIGHT were from 1990-1991. 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 with issues 11-14 I completely lost interest. But SABRE was very good in the early issues.
I loved "The Incredible Seven" back-up stories 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.

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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 a house ad for WORLD'S FINEST 183.

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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.



https://readallcomics.com/plop-01/

The old image expired, so here it is resurrected with another.

And here is the cover of the actual 14" X 22" wraparound cover of KIRBY UNLEASHED (1971)

I happened to run across this one. On the back cover of DAREDEVIL 215, Feb 1985. And other Marvel titles the same month.
With a great story by Dennis O'Neil and David Mazzucchelli, a time travel story that teams Mat Murdock/Daredevil wih the Two-Gun Kid and his lawyer alter ego, to solve a crime across both time periods, in the 1985 present, and in the frontier West. The best issue of the O'Neil Mazzucchelli run, and 11 issues before the great Miller/Mazzucchelli DAREDEVIL:BORN AGAIN run.

https://readallcomics.com/daredevil-v1-215/
https://readallcomics.com/beauty-and-the-beast-002/

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An ad I couldn't find back when I first mentioned it, but here it is.




Also in :


THE DEMON issue 9 ..................... https://readallcomics.com/the-demon-v1-09/

BATMAN 249 .................................. https://readallcomics.com/batman-v1-249/

KAMANDI 6 .................................... https://readallcomics.com/kamandi-the-last-boy-on-earth-06/

HOUSE OF MYSTERY 214 ........... https://readallcomics.com/house-of-mystery-214/

BRAVE & THE BOLD 107............... https://readallcomics.com/the-brave-and-the-bold-v1-107/

I loved that ad as a kid! I'll have to track down the t-shirt!

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I saw a least one website, when looking for a usable image to post here, that still sells the T-shirt of it.

Worst case scenario, there are print shops where you could bring in the ad, and have them put it on a T-shirt for you.



Somehow, it reminds me of the evil Sensei in the movie Karate Kid.
"There is no fear in this dojo !", "There is no mercy in this dojo !"
And... "Sweep the leg !"

My cousins and I had some Micronaut figurines - they had Baron Kazaa and I had the guy with wheels on his back (I forget his name momentarily). I also had I think the first three of the four issues of the X-Men / Micronauts crossover. A few years back I decided to buy the full set on eBay so I could finally read the ending. Sadly it didn't age well.

Baron Kazaa though had a very striking visual appearance. I don't know how much he was based off Darth Vadar. Also, he could transform into a centaur. My cousins had a version of the figurine where they could detach his torso and plug it onto a horse body.

Micronauts comics were very heavily advertised by Marvel back in the day, and I wonder if that is because the toy company which own Micronauts paid them to do so.

For us down here in Australia, who didn't know there was a DC Implosion, it was very frustrating to wonder when the hell were the next issues of a title was going to appear not being aware that it had been cancelled. For me, as a kid, that was Secret Society of Super-Villains. It just stopped mid-breath when the SSOV were doing a raid on Earth-2.

A few of the panels from the missing issue, featuring the SSOV in a sprint to get away from a vengeful JSA, appeared as a flashback in a subsequent issue of JLA.

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Here's all the cancelled issues you missed, Dave :

CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE, volumes 1 and 2 ( about 200 pages each)
https://readallcomics.com/category/cancelled-comic-cavalcade/


Some of them later appeared in color with better printing in other DC titles, a few years after the Implosion.

There was a Nasser BLACK LIGHTNING story that later appeared in a dollar-size issue of WORLD'S FINEST, issue 259.
https://readallcomics.com/worlds-finest-259/

There was another Nasser story that was originally going to be in KOBRA 8 (teaming Kobra with Batman) that ended up appearing in DC SPECIAL SERIES 1.
https://readallcomics.com/dc-special-series-01/

And a 30-page Reed and Nasser Batman story, a 20-page O'Neil and Golden Batman story, and a 10-page O'Neil and Rogers Batman pulp-ish text story, all in DC SPECIAL SERIES 15 (1978)
https://readallcomics.com/dc-special-series-15/

The unpublished KAMANDI 60 and 61 issues were interesting for me, because the unpublished story "The Seal Men's War On Santa Claus", that was first supposed to be published in SANDMAN 7 in 1976 ( but was not, because SANDMAN 7 was cancelled)
And was then supposed to appear in KAMANDI 61 in late 1978 ( but was not because the book was cancelled, by the DC Implosion), and FINALLY saw print in BEST OF DC DIGEST issue 22, for Chrismas 1981. And more recently reprinted in two different monstrously oversized DC Omnibus hardcovers, in DC UNIVERSE BRONZE AGE OMNIBUS (2019, and r in 2026) and JACK KIRBY OMNIBUS Vol. 2 (2013).
https://readallcomics.com/the-best-of-dc-22/
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=49306969
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=22105329

There was also a Jim Starlin OMAC back-up in KAMANDI 59 ( the last issue before the series was cancelled in the Implosion.) There were 2 more parts done by Starlin that went unpublished for a few years. Then all three backups ran in WARLORD 37-39 in 1981.
https://readallcomics.com/kamandi-the-last-boy-on-earth-59/

I periodically enjoy running across "Pre-Implosion" DC issues from late 1978, and seeing ads for books that were never published, such as a SHOWCASE issue with an Aparo Deadman story, VIXEN issue 1, some planned DC classics and western reprints, that all never saw the light of day. Or a least not for s very long time.

In a COMICS JOURNAL issue back in 1980, there was a cartoon of 2 kids playing on the grass with their Micronauts toys, describing imaginative adventures they came up with for their toys.
And behind a tree is writer Bill Mantlo holding a notebook, furiously writing down notes on what they say, to swipe for a MICRONAUTS story.

As I recall, the Micronauts toys were already on the shelves, when someone (maybe Shooter) had the idea to do a toy-based comic book series about them. It could have been Mantlo who came up with the idea, or maybe someone else who proposed it, and then Mantlo was assigned the series. As I recall, Mantlo was assigned.

Then maybe 2 years later in 1980, there was a ROM toy, and Mantlo was assigned to write that toy-based series as well, that had another 75-issue long run.

Mantlo was also assigned (after Gerber was gone) to do the HOWARD THE DUCK comic, and then later HOWARD THE DUCK magazine, for a few years, which was an acrimonious and thankless job where he was constantly grilled for not being Steve Gerber. As I recall, Gerber himself at least once called him a low-talent hack in the COMICS JOURNAL. I liked Mantlo's writing, on several series. He was prolific, and his work seemed to sell well.

Mantlo's other long-running series was INCREDIBLE HULK, mostly drawn during his run by Sal Buscema.
Mantlo intertwined and crossed over the stories in his various series, and introduced characters like Jack of Hearts, Cloak and Dagger, Woodgod, Rocket Raccoon, and Captain Universe, that appeared across all Mantlo's series work.
Kind of his own Mantlo-verse, within the larger Marvel Universe. And several miniseries as well, with the characters he introduced that got some traction.