Fuzzy Memories

One thing i enjoy perusing during my Comic Archeology digs is the old advertising. We've taken a peek or two, and we'll certainly go diving into old adverts in the future.
Today, let's look at a narrow group - some comic book back covers from  50  51 years ago in 1967 -

Hmm...

Perhaps those are not quite how my fellow geezers remember them? Let me offer a bit of aid in remembery with the front covers to those same comic books -

Surely that helps, right?
If not, then join us later today when take a look inside - and outside - of these little '60s oddities.

indicia to follow (1967)

Friday Ad-On Post

While engaging in my usual Comic Archeology digs (Quick Question: Who was Dryasdust?), i frequently see odd and interesting advertisements from the last 150 years or so. Sometimes, on rare occasions, i'm even clever enough to toss a copy into pile for later reference.

I'm betting most of you already know where this is going, huh?

Yep, let's look at some ads.
Some are very much a product of their time. For example, did it ever occur to you that there was a time when they had to advertise to convince people to buy canned food?

And you get a bonus quiz for entertainment, but i'm not hiding the answers, even if it is Friday.

And then there are products that seem to have faded away - like Yeast Foam? Do they skim an active batch or what?

Sure looks yummy, but that's the artist at work. That's a fascinating looking Yeast Foam block in the package. I'm curious now.

Looking at those old adverts also turns up odd little questions, like...

Is that where the expression "Mum's The Word" comes from, or did they take advantage of a previously existing phrase? There's precedent for both variations, but i am, at this point, wholly ignorant in this regard.
There must be a website.

Meanwhile...
Other products have simply become impossible in today's world-

Yeah. Like they'll ever make a car that can be completely maintained at home again. Much less be able to repair all the previous cars on the road that require major computer diagnostic tools to even evaluate. This is an artifact of a time now gone, for sure.

Other ads are clearly a product of another time for more ... social reasons...

"How Does Your Child Measure Up?"
Nope. This one would never get approved for use these days. Odds are, the person who suggested it would be working somewhere else soon after.

HEY!
Remember when they cured baldness back in the 1950s?

Oh, yeah. St. Helens. We must have lost this knowledge when the volcano erupted.
Ah, well.

But, y'know - There's one thing we can always count on in advertising... Comics!

From pyramids to space craft to advertising - comics is everywhere.

Of course, there's one other thing always to be found in adverts - Sex!
Like the elegant Gartier Watch:

Amazingly, this ad is from the 50s, not the 70s.

adverts from Action, Cavalcade, Confidential, Farmer's Wife, Saturday Evening Post, and The Dude (1932-1959)

Modern Advertising

Advertising has changed a lot over the years. I'm just not sure if it's getting better or worse. Half of these ads are fake, half are real.
The line seems a bit thin at points...

 Especially with promo lines like We've Got BIG ONES

 

Of course, these people have since re-purposed as online schools to suck up public education funding.

That's a lot closer to the 'real' version of this ad campaign than one might suspect.

One Dollar for a BB Machine Gun? No way that's a real ad, right?

ads from Crazy, Man, Crazy #s 1 & 2, My Greatest Adventure # 13, Fantastic Four #36, and Man Comics #5

Parents Never Understand

Back before it was quite so obvious that my beastly size was going to negate any dreams of being an astronaut, before we abandoned the moon for whatever reason, there was one cool toy that taunted me:

I said one toy, but that's misleading. One of the best things was the many supplemental toys, and how very well they were integrated to build your toy adventures. Yeah, the comic ads look okay, but what about the actual toys themselves?
They were actually well designed, detailed, and the TV commercials made them seem even more desirable.

 

Man, we ached for these. Major Matt Mason was the bad ass toy we all wanted, me more than anyone.

I got a Billy BlastOff instead. 

Yeah. No difference there...

Major Matt Mason 2-page ad from Metamorpho #14 (1967)

Inside Front Cover

In which we find a statement of introduction from the Publisher/Editor/DamnFoolInCharge, and possibly an advertisement for Amazing Wrist Radios or Bicycle Windshields.

Yeah, you'll see a lot of comicbook based analogies here. I'll babble about comics, but rarely if ever new comics. The people publishing both Marvel & DC actively disdain the medium, their properties and the very concept of heroes. It may take decades to scrub them clean again, if that's even possible.
Not to say that there isn't great work being done in comics these days, but there's people who are willing to wade through the swamp to find them for you. I'm not one of them. I'm more likely to go the archeological route, and mine the past.
I'm much more likely to babble on about current movies and television. Of course, the old school comic geek has plenty to play with there. It's hard to believe the riches heaped upon us these days. There was a time when we considered the Doctor Strange tv movie to be a fairly good attempt to bring the character to life. And, don't get me wrong, it was! In its way, for the time, at least. They tried to find a distinctive take on the character, had a Marvelously funky soundtrack, and tried to take it seriously when damn few were willing. (See the Challenge Of The Superheroes for comparative reference)
Given the rare tastes we received of our comic heroes in live action, the general contempt of the money suppliers, and the arts & crafts level of effects available - it was the best we could seriously hope for. There was, of course, no way we'd ever see Doc on the big screen. If they even tried, there'd likely be literal witch hunts back in those pre-D&D demonic controversy days.

And now...

Damn. The Big Two might hate their characters and their legacies, but the movies & TV are satisfying those cravings like we could never have imagined in those days.
Sure, Warner Brothers has eschewed their characters for Elseworlds versions of them in the movies while chasing decades old notions of what makes for 'adult' comicbook entertainment, but a lot of the TV shows and Animated movies remember vague notions like Fun, Heroes and Story.
And, of course, it's not just Marvel & DC comicbook/superhero movies out there. Hell, it's not even just American movies. Have you seen Guardians yet, the 2017 Russian movie about survivors of an old Soviet era program recruited to form basically an Avengers type group, gathered by a SHIELD type group, if SamL Jackson was an Aryan babe with bright lipstick. Strictly by-the-numbers flic, nothing special in the storytelling, but fun overall, and it's always enjoyable (for me) to have that slightly different feeling that comes with movies filmed in other cultures, even when they're made for the global audience. Perhaps not as distinctly Russian in feel as Black Lightning (flying car, not electric powers), but still enough to help keep it feeling fresher for the difference.

Besides being an ancient comic book geek, scifi (sorry Mr. E) nerd, and media junkie, there's also that international element displayed above. I grew up globally, with particular focus on Asia. Not surprisingly, Hong Kong movies and Japanese cartoons were mainliners for me. It was Yuen Wo Ping that brought me to The Matrix, with his always-fun environmental destruction action scenes that were so beautifully highlighted with the 'bullet time' computer controlled camera technique. Even with Sad Keannu's pitifully weak 'I know kung-fu, but my body doesn't' scene, it was .. well ... you know. Frelling seismic cultural impact.
Too bad they stopped ripping their material from The Invisibles for those next two movies, but that's okay. By that point, Yuen Wo Ping had revolutionized action in Hollywood and my old faves were colliding into the mainstream - much like today's comicbook movies flood/stampede/avalanche/devestationofyourchoice.

Besides Comics, Movies, TV and assorted intersections, there's also likely to be ramblings on Music (currently playing: The Blow Monkeys - Digging Your Scene following Nina Simone - Chilly Winds Don't Blow. Give you an idea of how my playlists run?), Culture, Philosophy, the Oxford Comma, and Bitter Old Mannings.

To tell the truth though, i really have no clue what i'm going to do in a lot of respects. Do plot breakdowns and cover old comic stories? Maybe. Certainly if i find anything as outrageously cool as this early no-4th-wall madness, i'd feel mighty tempted to post the entire (short) tale. Something like that is a public service!
And, in keeping with the first post, there'll be more historic goodies from ancient publications like FOOM and Amazing World Of DC Comics. Maybe some cool bits from old convention programs. (Did you know that they used to run special comics in some of the big cons programs back in those halcyon days? Especially the NY Cons and their delightful Matt Howarth insanity (Go find Changes or a run of issues from Those Annoying Post Brothers and get yourself a late start if that name doesn't wake your blood up. And to drive the artists among you nuts - he produced all his old comics on typing paper with ball point pen? That can't be right, can it?)

Also, being a filthy old hermit, there's most likely going to be an adult warning popping on this blog soon. Not just because i read those comics, too. But also because i'm sure the world around me is going to leave me cussing here at some point. Yeah - you might get the odd rant of a political/cultural nature at times. But at least my views are my own, not those of some group that's told me what to get upset about. That's one of the nice things about being a hermit. You don't even hear most of the arguments, much less the BS version of the viewpoints that the media presents. Might do a ramble on the devolution of news with a bit of historical overview, too. It's often hard to understand things by looking from within the moment.

And then I'll tell you how Fox can make a good Fantastic Four film. Since it's apparent we're not going to get a good Superman movie before i die, it looks like they're my next hope.

Now, here's your advertisement:

Adds Class ... Looks Sharp
But they really missed out not calling the built-in pouch a Utility Pouch.
Probably because the copyright is Superman, Inc. Screw that other guy.

(Ad from ifc of Jimmy Olson #52(1961))