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!
This has got to be the most bland subscription ad I’ve ever seen! No characters, no fancy graphics, not even an interesting font! Come on, Marvel – you can do so much better than this!
However, one thing that caught my eye on this page was “Blip” – I’d never heard of that title before. Upon looking it up, apparently since kids at this time were spending more of their money on video games and less on comic books, Marvel decided to try cashing in on the video game craze by publishing a magazine about it! It only lasted 7 issues, but it looks amazingly geeky, and I’d love to get my hands on it!
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?
In honor of the release of Captain Marvel (I know, I’m a week late – but go see it! It’s awesome!), here’s another classic Marvel captain: Captain America! Here he’s offering you a Mighty Marvel Flying Shield (aka, a frisbee) for free when you subscribe to at least three titles!
Am I the only one who finds Cap’s use of “hip lingo” a little out of character? If they really felt the need to use that dialog, I think it would’ve gone better with Spider-Man.
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?
It’s Power Man and Iron Fist!
I initially thought this ad might be for issue #1 of the series, but it turns out that this is actually for issue #50. However, this technically is the first issue of this series, because issues #1-49 were just “Power Man” – so this is the first issue to actually be called “Power Man and Iron Fist.” Confused yet?
It turns out that both characters’ individual titles were seeing sluggish sales, so rather than cancel them, the two were teamed up. Considering this series went to issue #125, I’d say it was a pretty successful move!
So, I’m considering this kind of a bonus post, since I didn’t actually get this ad from a physical comic book. I recently went to the Marvel exhibit at MoPOP in Seattle, and they had some pretty great vintage Captain America ads on display, so here’s the first that I’d like to share with you.
Here you can join the “Sentinels of Liberty” (aka the Captain America fan club) for only 10¢! But not only are you showing your Cap fandom, you’re also helping to “preserve liberty in the U.S.A.”! That seems like quite a bargain!
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!
It’s the Care Bears – here to offer you a deal on all of your favorite cartoon tie-in comics! Star Comics was a division of Marvel that was used mostly for cartoon-related comics and other titles that would appeal to young children.
OK, I know subscription pages generally aren’t very interesting, but just (Care) bear with me – I’m almost finished with each of the comics I’ve been posting from, and soon I’ll have a whole new batch!
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!
I wasn’t really into the whole card fad in the ’90s (either trading cards or card games), so a couple things surprised me about this ad: 1) The section for Image is actually advertising a game; 2) There was a subset of X-Men cards called “Deadpool Party”!
Upon doing a little research, it appears that Image, Marvel, and DC all had versions of the OverPower card game, which was kind of similar to Magic.
And as far as the Deadpool Party – that just sounds cool! While they would be very cool to have, a quick check of eBay shows that they’re going for about $10 each, so I think I’ll pass. However, on an amusing note, when I Googled “Deadpool party cards” I got a bunch of results for children’s party invitations featuring Deadpool – really, people?! Even I, a hardcore fan of Deadpool, think it’s wildly inappropriate for little Gavin to have a Deadpool-themed seventh birthday party! Though now that I think about it, I am generally a fan of things that are wildly inappropriate, so maybe it would be entertaining!
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 