Punt, Pass and Kick: Variant Edition
Compare this ad to its other iteration — in the lamest game of “spot the differences” ever. Read more…
When “Brotherhood” goes awry – Justice League of America #57
Of the many well-intentioned comics that take on an augmented stiltedness with every passing year, the Justice League “Brotherhood” issue just might take the cake. Yes, comic books can at time surprise with mature, affecting stories dealing with heartrending issues. But often they say absolutely nothing while trying to be really profound — and end up being profoundly lame. Enter the above cover, in which superheroes benevolently place their hands on a ludicrously diverse, multi-racial, oddly tiny supporting cast. Because we all know that non-whites are like children, desperately in need of unsolicited paternal guidance, preferably from those of Aryan — or Aryanish — stock.
Aren’t they so cute? They think they’re people!
Exhibit A, friends. Read more…
Because smelly hobo hippies are the best way to advertise Teen Beat
DC’s failed attempt at a teen magazine, “Teen Beat,” was as short-lived as short-lived can be. Read more…
Yes, product placement can even worm its insidious way into innocuous looking comic strips. Read more…
Anthro had the Hollywood sign of DC pre-history
While DC’s first boy doesn’t have the largest footprint in that fictional universe, he had one of the niftiest little preview ads. Not many characters get to have their name chiseled from prehistoric stone. Well, Tor did — maybe there’s something in the old-timey water.
A pause to remember the real Dark World – Captain America (1990)
Even if you quibble with aspects of the current wave of comic book movies, you have to appreciate certain things that they do. They have robust financial support, and don’t feel like creative afterthoughts, cheap efforts to wring a little money out of the viewing public. Even if they fail, you at least come away with the impression that the bulk of those involved were trying, that they brought some genuine creativity to the project.
A look into the not too distant past puts this all in stark relief. Twenty years before Captain America was the First Avenger, he had what was supposed to be his big screen debut. “Supposed to be” is the key phrase here, as the resulting motion picture was so stupid, so dreadful, so atonal, it was shunted to the side and released direct to video in 1992, two years after its intended opening. Gazing back to this dim moment makes you realize how far we’ve come. It’s like sitting in a mansion — one that may need some work done on the swimming pool, granted — and harking back to the fifth-floor cold water 150 square foot studio walk-up you used to live in. Yeah, the one with the roaches and rats. Read more…
Conan. Christmas. Be there.
Even though Black Friday is still three weeks away, you’re already seeing decorations going up and notices for Christmas sales popping up. So we might as well kick the holiday season off here as well. And who better do handle that task than Conan the Barbarian? Yes, nothing says “Christianity’s most sacred day” quite like a musclebound, blood-soaked barbarian straight out of fictional pagan pre-history. Indeed, his smiling mug is no stranger to wreaths.
So travel back to 1977 and get your oversized Conan mag. No X-Mas is complete without one.
Bodybuild your skinny body into a slightly less skinny body
You know, it’s really more of a lateral move. Read more…
A Game of Thorones – Thor: The Dark World
The success of the first Thor was Marvel’s great triumph in the run-up to The Avengers. Of all the pieces, it was the one most fraught with peril, the one most likely to devolve into a giant, unspeakable mess. Read more…
No DC character’s Silver Age tenure gets more eye-rolls than Batman’s. The silliness of the time and the gravitational pull of the campy Adam West TV show conspired to create Caped Crusader adventures that fit in with neither the his edgy crime-fighting roots or the full-circle return that was to come. It’s Batman without being Batman. Batman on the Moon! Batman turns into a giant were-beast! Et cetera, et cetera. Ad nauseum.
That’s not to say it’s always bad, though. Hipsters are content to wear t-shirts in a wry, ironic manner, right? So shouldn’t we be able to enjoy some goofy Batman in the same wry, ironic manner? Even, dare we say, just enjoy it for what it is? Read more…
Teeth whitening? Real estate? Oh — La Salle.
Whenever you see this “Look Who’s Smiling Now!” ad, you think it’s directed at the poor souls out there with teeth like Halloween pumpkins. Or that you’re about to be sold some real estate. But no, it was for the now defunct La Salle Extension University, one of the ad infinitum correspondence schools that advertised in comics. And this wasn’t the only variant of this particular brand of ad, as there were a number of them over the years. All with those big, toothy, insincere Cheshire smiles.
Get a head start on your Christmas shopping with this glorious 1960s Hulk sweatshirt
We’ve seen plenty of spectacular comic book garments over the years, but the one you see above is maybe the cake-taker. Read more…
Hey, John Romita drew this mini-comic for a Spider-Man Aurora Comic Scenes model kit
You always see ads in old comics for model kits, and Lord knows there have been enough of them reposted here on the blog. A number of these kits weren’t the standard cars/planes models, but fictional characters, frozen in time like wax museum exhibits or figures in a diorama. Batman. Superman. Spider-Man. All of them had the plastic, glue and paint treatment, for the consumer who found action figures a tad gauche and wanted a more museumish feel for their figurines. To each their own.
A long time ago an ad for a Spider-Man kit from Aurora was posted here, a model that had the web-slinger perched on a banister in an apparently condemned building, blasting his webs down on a prone and defeated Kraven the Hunter. It looked kind of snazzy, one of the more action-oriented of the Aurora catalog, a credit to that company, blah blah blah. The forgotten thing about that Comic Scenes line, though? They came with miniature comic books inside, which served as both assembly guides and backstory on how the assembled scenario came to be. And the comic for this Spider-Man/Kraven model was illustrated by none other than John Romita, the only artist able to stand shoulder to shoulder with Steve Ditko — and perhaps surpass him.
You don’t see these pop up all that often. I found this one recently. Let’s have a quick look inside. Read more…
Is playing an accordion a sign of intelligence? Is it possible that women who play accordions are really good in bed? Like it gives them aphroditic super-powers or something? No idea why it would, just blue skying here, because you don’t see a lot of pictures of women holding accordions. You usually imagine some dude with Ernest Borgnine forearms handling one, not your second grade teacher.
Maybe this lady should just go ahead and pair her instrument of choice with a golden age harmonica and become the world’s most depressing one-woman band.
Slapping glow-in-the-dark cutouts on your walls and ceilings is something for children, and that’s apparent from most of the selections you see in this ad: animals, stars and planets, fairy tales, etc. And then you come to the “Party in Vegas” assortment, with a dancing girl, dice, playing card symbols, a stein and an icy cool glass of alcohol. For the *hic* eight-year-old Dino, perhaps *hic*.
Jared
blog into mystery 