Just in Time for Christmas! …Or Not.

January 1978

The Secret Society of Super-Villains #12

I almost forgot to post this one, but I think that a few days after Christmas is still OK, right?

So here we’ve got the “All-new! Jam-packed holiday edition!” of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer! (Hmm… does that mean there’s also a non-holiday edition where Rudolph just does regular day-to-day stuff?)

We’ve also got “The battle you never thought you’d see!” – Superman vs. Wonder Woman! OK, I’m going to go ahead and take a wild stab at this and guess that they start out fighting because of some misunderstanding, and then once they realize that, they actually team up to fight evil – am I right?? Well, no matter what this comic is like, at least it’s got to be better than Batman vs. Superman (“MARTHA!!!!!”)!

Battling Death, 8 Bits at a Time

December 1983

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi #3

It’s almost Christmas, and this ad combines two longtime favorite gifts: Star Wars and video games! This was actually one of the first licensed Star Wars video games (from what I’m finding, it seems to be the second, but I’m not 100% sure about that), and in it you pilot the Millennium Falcon in a mission the destroy the Death Star – pretty exciting stuff!

If you want to give it a try, the Atari 2600 version is emulated here. I got 550 on my first try – I’m sure I could do better if I tried again, but don’t have the time at the moment.

Anyway, happy holidays, everyone!

But What About Friends of Lois Lane?

August 1979

Shogun Warriors #7

Christmas is coming, so I think it’s a good time to focus on toys for a bit. Here we’ve got Corgi’s line of Superman vehicles.

“Shhhh, don’t let Lois Lane find out you’re a friend of Superman” – this is actually the second ad from this issue that addresses you as a “friend of Superman,” the first one being for Kryptonite rocks. Was being Superman’s BFF all the rage in the late ’70s?

I like that not all of these necessarily have Superman or his logo on them. Personally, if I could have one of these, I’d probably take the Metropolis police car, because I like the subtlety of it. What do you think? Do you have a favorite?

Warp to the Comic Store!

December 1983

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi #3

Here we’ve got a classified page that’s (pretty much) full of comics. Here’s your chance to find all those back issues you’re looking for!

The single non-comic ad here is for Mazewarps – “24 Challenging Videomaze Games in a Book.” I’m a bit confused by this – how can they be video if they’re in a book? Maybe it’s a book on how to program games on a computer? Any of you out there know what the deal with Mazewarps is?