Well, like most classifieds, we’ve got lots of comic lists and lots of stamps! And the award for least creative company name on this page goes to Comic Sales Company!
I know I’ve voiced my concern before about sending live animals through the mail, but I still find it kind of weird that you can order seahorses by mail order – seems like it would be pretty treacherous for them!
It’s another grab bag of classifieds! This time it’s mostly for comics retailers, with a few others mixed in.
I like how understated the ones for conventions are – these days conventions are so overblown and crazy that it’s kind of refreshing to see something so simple. Though I have to admit that I was a bit surprised by the location of the “Southwest Comic Show” – I assumed it would be somewhere like Phoenix, Las Vegas, or maybe Albuquerque, but definitely did not expect Tulsa! I’ve never thought of Oklahoma as part of the Southwest – how about you?
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!!!!!”)!
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?
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?
If you’re a real friend of Superman, then you need the one thing that can defeat him!
Wait, what?
OK, so their logic is that friends of Superman should have all the Kryptonite in order to keep it out of the hands of those who would use it for evil. I guess that kind of makes sense.
So am I the only one who’s wondering about amounts here? Nowhere in this ad does it say exactly how much you’re getting. Maybe it’s just me, but if I’m going to spend my hard-earned money on glowing rocks, I at least want to make sure I’m getting a lot of glowing rocks!
I like the checkbox where you can send $1 for a brochure – since this ad says nothing whatsoever about any other kind of product beyond glowing rocks, does that mean this catalog is just full of glowing rocks to choose from?
But my favorite part here? The tiny print at the bottom: “The above story is only fictional and is in no way to be confused with actual fact.” Well, damn – that just makes this whole thing a lot less exciting, doesn’t it?
Do you enjoy reading Comic Book Ads? If so, please consider supporting me by clicking here for my Amazon link – I’ll get a percentage from everything you order! Thanks!
Yes! I’ll take all of it, please!!! Here we’ve got vintage ’70s DC action figures, along with a Barbie-style Wonder Woman doll, the four story Wayne Foundation, and the Batmobile with an exploding bridge! That’s a whole lot of fun and excitement packed into this page!
I seem to remember, as a kid, there being a Barbie mansion that looked suspiciously similar to the Wayne Foundation pictured here – what do you wanna bet they just took the same toy and gave it a new cardboard backdrop?!
I’m guessing that a lot of you don’t recognize Isis, since she’s not a major DC character like most of the others. Well, a few years ago I stumbled across her TV show while flipping through the channels. My first thought was, “Wow, this is a total rip-off of Wonder Woman!” But it turns out that Isis was actually on TV first!
Do you enjoy reading Comic Book Ads? If so, please consider supporting me by clicking here for my Amazon link – I’ll get a percentage from everything you order! Thanks!
Yes, you can subscribe to your favorite DC comics! …But just not this one. At first I thought I must’ve just missed it in the listing, but no – Power Girl, the title that Superman himself is showing off here, is not on the list of available titles!
This ad appeared not long before the “DC implosion,” where they canceled about 40% of their titles. In fact, here Amazing World of DC Comics is advertising issue #16 – well, #17 was the last ever published!
Also, this is the first time I’m noticing a subscription price that’s actually higher than the cover price!
Do you enjoy reading Comic Book Ads? If so, please consider supporting me by clicking here for my Amazon link – I’ll get a percentage from everything you order! Thanks!
Yeah, I know ads like this aren’t super exciting, but I’m a historian and a completist, so I feel compelled to share all the ads from the books I’ve scanned.
Anyway, here we’re visiting East Coast Comics again, almost a decade after the last ad I published from them. And I thought I had a lot of tags last time – well, I think I broke my record again, because in addition to all the regular series, they also listed all sorts of limited series and special sets!
I’m sure a lot of these titles can be found in quarter bins today, but I wonder just how many of them have skyrocked in value.
Do you enjoy reading Comic Book Ads? If so, please consider supporting me by clicking here for my Amazon link – I’ll get a percentage from everything you order! Thanks!
Big news! It’s the Huntress! And Shade, the Changing Man! Most of you probably know the Huntress as Helena Wayne (or Kyle), the daughter of Batman and Catwoman from an alternate universe.
But what about Shade? I’d never heard of him before, which I was kind of surprised by – I mean, if he starred in his own series, he must’ve been at least somewhat of a big deal, right? Well, it turns out that this was an original character created by Steve Ditko (which is pretty cool), but his series only lasted eight issues (which is not so cool). Apparently Shade was a casualty of the “DC Implosion” where, due to financial troubles, DC canceled 40% of its titles! In fact, All-Star Comics and The Secret Society of Super-Villains (the comic this ad was printed in) also got the ax. 1978 must’ve been a sad time indeed for DC fans!
Do you enjoy reading Comic Book Ads? If so, please consider supporting me by clicking here for my Amazon link – I’ll get a percentage from everything you order! Thanks!
Comic Book Ads 