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10 Awesomely vintage comic book ads

Posted in advertising, comic books, pop culture, Rubik's Cube with tags advertising, comic books, pop culture, Rubik's Cube on April 20, 2010 by Paxton

I collected comic books from about fourth grade through high school. And even into college a bit. So I’ve got a pretty big collection of comics in my garage right now. I had dipped into the collection the last few months to look for any comics having to do with werewolves as that will be this year’s Halloween theme. While I had some of my favorite issues out, I started scanning the covers and putting them up on my Flickr Photostream. I also started scanning some of the advertisements found within the comic books. Many times, these are even more memorable than the comic book itself. Many of the toy and video game ads are awesome, but you also see many other ads that showed up for decades within many different comics. Many of them are pretty crazy awesome, if you know what I mean.

Here are some of my favorite comic book ads that I’ve come across in my collection. Click any of the images to make them BIGGER.

Charles Atlas – One of the most famous comic book ads in existence.This ad introduced the “98 pound weakling”, named Mac, who birthed the cliche of having sand kicked into his face by a bully. It’s a classic ad that also got a sequel where a new “weakling”, Jack, is bullied at a school dance instead of a beach.

Sea Monkeys – Another ad that EVERYONE on Earth knows about because it was just that popular. Sea Monkeys. On the left you see your normal Sea Monkeys ad from 1972. On the right, however, you can see a 1978 ad for Super Sea Monkeys. These aren’t your average, every day Sea Monkeys, these bitches are SUPER. They grow twice as fast (and probably die twice as fast, too). I bet the inventor of the Sea Monkeys is right now livin’ the good life in Tahiti drinking umbrella drinks and partying with butt-naked freaks.

Cube Lube – This ad is like a flaming hot supernova of AWESOME. Cube. Lube. “We’ve got what it takes to really move your cube!!!” I’m speechless.

Spalding Street Ball ad – Originating in the ’70s, this ad could be found in comics all the way into the mid ’80s. One of my favorite ads that’s on the back of at least 75% of my comic book collection. I also love the artwork. Probably because it’s drawn by Mad Magazine superstar Jack Davis. Check out Davis’ awesome Back to the Future cover for Mad Magazine #260. I don’t want to burst Mr Barry’s bubble, but there is NO WAY that jump shot was a 30 footer. It doesn’t even look like it’s a 3-point shot. He’s lucky if it’s a 20 footer. A 30 footer would be from almost half court.

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Yuletide Brawl 2: Comic books featuring Santa kicking ass

Posted in Christmas, comic books, holiday, pop culture, Santa Claus with tags Christmas, comic books, holiday, pop culture, Santa Claus on December 17, 2009 by Paxton

If you missed the first part of this article, in which I show you Santa getting his ass kicked, then check it out here. I also wrote another article featuring ’50s and ’60s super heroes helping Santa deliver toys on their covers. See those comics here.

This week, we are changing it up and featuring a Santa Claus that has had enough and taking things into his own hands. Time to bloody up the snow with comic book covers featuring Santa kicking all kinds of asses.

From the 2008 Jingle Belle Holiday Special. Santa vs Frankenstein. You saw this a few months ago during my AWESOME-tober-fest 2009 countdown. I still maintain that it is awesome beyond words. SANTA VERSUS FRANKENSTEIN. Why has no one else thought of this? And where’s the movie script?

Hulk #378 – Santa fights The Incredible Hulk. With a crowbar. While falling out of a building. The only thing left would be to have them (or the building) on fire, but I’m not sure my mind could handle that much BAD ASS.

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Yuletide Brawl: Comic books featuring Santa getting his ass kicked

Posted in Christmas, comic books, holiday, pop culture, Santa Claus with tags Christmas, comic books, holiday, pop culture, Santa Claus on December 15, 2009 by Paxton

“Oh, the weather outside is frightful.
But beating Santa’s ass, is sooooooo delightful.”

Okay, I was paraphrasing those song lyrics. But they tie into today’s topic, you’ll see.

Santa Claus has a long history of showing up in comics books as an actual character, especially around the holidays. In the ’50s and ’60s, it was a more innocent time. Santa showed up as the typical jolly, old elf. He would distribute cheer and famous super heroes would help him deliver his toys to all the boys and girls. Last week, I looked at a few of these jolly comic covers featuring Santa Claus.

In the ’70s and ’80s, things were a bit different for Mr Claus. For one thing, comic heroes had no problem beating the fat boy down. Seriously. Santa showed up as an adversary throughout the ’70s and ’80s. Then in the ’90s and ’00s, Santa turned the tables, armed himself to the teeth, and took on all comers like some bad ass pit fighter in a Van Damme movie.

Today, I’m going to take a look at the comic book covers that feature Santa getting his jolly, old ass handed to him by some of our most beloved superheroes. Don’t worry, though, next week, we’ll see Santa get his revenge. For now, let’s watch all kinds of mayhem be delivered unto “The Claus” as Santa gets his butt kicked by some of the most violent heroes of the ’90s.

Lobo Paramilitary Xmas Special (1991) – I mentioned this comic last year when talking about my holiday reading. Lobo gets into literally a 10 page vicious, bloody brawl against an armed-to-the-teeth Santa. As you can see by the cover, it doesn’t end well for Father Christmas. To be fair, though, Santa is portrayed as a slave driving, drunken dictator over all of his elves.

Hitman #22 (1998) – I’m not sure what leads to this moment in the story, but Santa seems to be in a situation that is causing him to rethink the decisions he’s made. And by that I mean he just crapped his pants. Feliz Navidad, bitch!

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Comic book covers featuring Santa Claus

Posted in Christmas, comic books, holiday, pop culture, Santa Claus, Uncategorized with tags Christmas, comic books, holiday, pop culture, Santa Claus on December 9, 2009 by Paxton

Santa Claus Funnies

I love comic books. I collected them for many years and I love to look at old comic covers. You can find comic book covers that conform to almost any theme. I posted several Frankenstein monster comic book covers during AWESOME-tober-fest this year. For this holiday article, I thought it would be fun to look at some comic book covers that feature the lovable image of St Nick. He’s been showing up in some form or another on comic books since the ’30s and ’40s.

Santa has made many appearances in comics, this week I’ll look at some images of jolly old Saint Nick getting some help from superheroes to complete his rounds. Next week I’ll have a different Santa comic book theme. Now, let’s see Santa get some help from some of our favorite heroes.

Action Comics #105 – Here’s Superman using his super strength to help Santa get his plump midsection down a chimney. You can imagine a thought bubble above Superman saying, “Maybe you should hit the treadmill, Santa. I have murderers and rapists to catch.”

Batman #27 – Up above in the first comic cover we see Superman stop his normal duties to help Santa deliver toys. Here we see Batman laugh and what looks like smack Santa on the back while he and Robin try to carry a gi-normous bag of childrens’ toys. Batman is a douche, dude.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2009: Frankenstein comic books!!

Posted in comic books, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2009, comic books, Dell Monsters, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture on October 23, 2009 by Paxton

This week we looked at Frankenstein’s many appearances in books and novels. Today, I want to take a look at Frankenstein’s appearances in comic books. Specifically, his cover appearances. Having Frankenstein’s monster make an appearance on a comic cover gave companies an instantly recognizable character that could lure in more readers. Plus, having your hero battle Frankenstein’s Monster was pretty BAD ASS.

Let’s take a look at some of the cooler comic covers featuring our friend Frankenstein (‘s monster).

These are the Classics Illustrated comic adaptations of Mary Shelley’s novel. The comic on the left is the original from 1941. The comic on the right is from ’47 or ’48. It’s a reprint of the comic on the left with a nice, new painted cover.

Artist Dick Briefer created his own version of the Frankenstein monster in the early 1940s. It ran in Prize Comics as a feature. Briefer’s Frankenstein character got his own humor comic in 1945. Issue #2 of this comic is on the left up there and Issue #10 is on the right. Briefer was known for his color and composition. His Frankenstein was very popular and ran well into the ’50s.
Here’s some nice artwork featuring Briefer’s Frankenstein fighting an alligator. Wait…he’s fighting an ALLIGATOR?! I wonder why. Oh yeah, probably because it’s f***ing AWESOME.