Brian Rogers (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
subplotkudzu) wrote2009-04-07 12:38 pm
subplotkudzu) wrote2009-04-07 12:38 pm
Entry tags:
1970's comic book ads
I just got a stack of 1970's comics from my Father in Law and am parsing through which ones to add to my collection and which to return to him for flea marketing. Aside from some serendipitous filling in of holes in my Justice League of America and Fantastic Four runs of this period there was also much of the Korvak cycle of the Avengers - pure '70s Cosmic, part genius, part drivel.
But I havebeen most amused by the back cover ads. Many of the classics are there - Street Ball with Rick Barry and Dr J for Spaulding, various BB gun, lego and model kit ads, and that strange one for the Super Siren to put on your bike to avoid accidents in suburbia, because your neighbors will love you for blasting an air horn to announce your presence every time you pass their driveway - but there were some ones I had never seen before that deserve shout outs.
The best of which, in an advertising sense, is where John Rankowski, the man who rode his bike around the world in the 70's, was pitching for the brand of bike he used. Makes perfect sense, and had nice flashes of his trip to illustrate the Browning bike's sturdy and reliable nature. I really should see if Rankowski wrote a book about his trip.
The oddest is for the talking Patty Prayer doll, which is an "almost 20 inches tall" girl doll (in caucasian or black) in a kneeling position, where pressing her tummy has her recite a bedtime prayer in "her precious childlike voice". The voice comes from a mini record player (!) inside the body of the doll, and you can open her up to flip the record over to instead have her sing Brother John. Aside from the odd marketing idea (who in the 1970's comic reading demographic is this aimed for? and it's on both the FF and Avengers issues that month, so Niresk industries made a considerable outlay), the thought that the doll's voice is provided by a mini record player is just bizarre from this technological remove.
But the worst by far is the AAU Shoes ad where AAU Superstar takes on the Dirty Sneaker in "Saturn Night Fever". That's right, the unkept super-villain the Dirty Sneaker has an electronic death ray hidden inside his namesake footwear that will kill everyone in the disco once "Staying Alive" is played. Fortunately AAU Shuperstar's "shupernatural" powers tell him there's trouble afoot, and he is able to kick the Dirty Sneaker into orbit "My AAU Shoes have turned you into space garbage, Dirty Sneaker! Goodbye forever!"), thus saving the hottest disco on Saturn. I would love to add extra snark to this description, but words fail me.
But I havebeen most amused by the back cover ads. Many of the classics are there - Street Ball with Rick Barry and Dr J for Spaulding, various BB gun, lego and model kit ads, and that strange one for the Super Siren to put on your bike to avoid accidents in suburbia, because your neighbors will love you for blasting an air horn to announce your presence every time you pass their driveway - but there were some ones I had never seen before that deserve shout outs.
The best of which, in an advertising sense, is where John Rankowski, the man who rode his bike around the world in the 70's, was pitching for the brand of bike he used. Makes perfect sense, and had nice flashes of his trip to illustrate the Browning bike's sturdy and reliable nature. I really should see if Rankowski wrote a book about his trip.
The oddest is for the talking Patty Prayer doll, which is an "almost 20 inches tall" girl doll (in caucasian or black) in a kneeling position, where pressing her tummy has her recite a bedtime prayer in "her precious childlike voice". The voice comes from a mini record player (!) inside the body of the doll, and you can open her up to flip the record over to instead have her sing Brother John. Aside from the odd marketing idea (who in the 1970's comic reading demographic is this aimed for? and it's on both the FF and Avengers issues that month, so Niresk industries made a considerable outlay), the thought that the doll's voice is provided by a mini record player is just bizarre from this technological remove.
But the worst by far is the AAU Shoes ad where AAU Superstar takes on the Dirty Sneaker in "Saturn Night Fever". That's right, the unkept super-villain the Dirty Sneaker has an electronic death ray hidden inside his namesake footwear that will kill everyone in the disco once "Staying Alive" is played. Fortunately AAU Shuperstar's "shupernatural" powers tell him there's trouble afoot, and he is able to kick the Dirty Sneaker into orbit "My AAU Shoes have turned you into space garbage, Dirty Sneaker! Goodbye forever!"), thus saving the hottest disco on Saturn. I would love to add extra snark to this description, but words fail me.
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So, basically, a mercy killing.
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