RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Oddest, goofiest and most interesting comic book ads

Note the 1965 copyright date. This was "new look" Batman, but slightly into the Adam West era, with the "watch the show" promo.

Models of heroes and TV shows were all the rage back in the mid/late 1960's. Some of the coolest I saw were the Spaceship from THE INVADERS tv series, and I owned the ship from LAND OF THE GIANTS. Very cool, I have no idea what happened to it. Models of Dracula, Frankenstein and other monsters were out there too.

The INVADERS model ad. I'd forgotten the DICK TRACY model inset in the same ad.

The LAND OF THE GIANTS model.


Here's a blog that collects a whole bunch of the Aurora model kit ads.

And HERE.

And more here.

One of my favorite MAD covers, a great parody of these scale figure models.

MAD 89, Sept 1964.

The Juxtaposition of these two figures cracks me up.

I remember this apple shrunken head thing from 1975. I only ever saw the ad, never the actual kit, but it looked pretty cool. Illustrated by Mort Drucker, no less.

Many years after this ad first appeared, I realized in retrospect it was done by Neal Adams.

From this collection of 1975-1982 or so Saturday morning ads, Adams did ads for at least 1975, 1976, 1978, and possibly 1980 season line-ups(the NBC 1980 ad looks a lot like Adams' 1967-1968 BOB HOPE and JERRY LEWIS issues for DC).

I especially enjoyed seeing Adams' rendition of the Warner Brothers characters.

A little more Neal Adams for your viewing pleasure, this public service ad from 1976.

I just came across this house ad for X-MEN that ran during the Byrne years. If I recall, this was around issues 111-113, pretty well into the Byrne run. And it struck me as odd that they were using a page by the preceding artist Cockrum to promote the Byrne/Austin run.

From the summer of 1982, this house ad for the X-MEN/TITANS crossover book by Claremont, and Simonson/Austin.

Which published in the same month with Moench/Sienkiewicz MOON KNIGHT, Moench/Gene Day MASTER OF KUNG FU, Mantlo/Hannigan SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, Stern/Romits Jr AMAZING SPIDERMAN, Michelinie/Romita Jr/Layton IRON MAN, Levitz/Giffen LEGION, Stern/Rogers and Stern/Golden DOCTOR STRANGE, Starlin's DREADSTAR series and graphic novels, MARVEL FANFARE, EPIC ILLUSTRATED, CEREBUS and so much other good stuff coming out at that time, was part of one of the most incredible periods of great new material ever published.

A great Marvel house ad that ran in the X-MEN/TITANS one-shot, and also in many other books.
A well-illustrated and fun page by Simonson.

I remember this ad from back in the day. The first time I saw it I thought “how cool would an actual Neal Adams ‘Shazam’ book be?”

The closet thing we got was that one wild Mike Nassar issue.

Byrne once remarked in an interview that Marvel always seemed to treat him like Cockrum’s “fill in” artist

This was a house ad for Marvel in 1982-1983 (unfortunately altered with Michael Golden's photo added and the copy text removed).





It ran in:

MARVEL COMICS SUPER SPECIAL 22 (BLADERUNNER movie adaptation), Sept 1982
and

MARVEL NO-PRIZE BOOK 1, Jan 1983

And possibly other books. If those were the only 2 books it ever appeared in, it was a waste of a really beautiful page.

I actually remember that. He said that during most of his 35-issue run, Marvel ran the little
Cockrum heads in the upper left of the X-MEN covers. And when he was finally able to replace
them with Byrne heads, he felt he'd finally fully claimed the book.

He also expressed annoyance at how Marvel after Byrne's run ended, promoted Cockrum coming back
(issues 145-164) as if Cockrum was the real and definitive artist of the series, and as if (like you
said) Byrne was just a fill-in artist for 4 years, instead of the artist who first raised X-MEN
to Marvel's (and the industry's) best-selling title.

Yeah, Nasser definitely had the Adams moves down.
And I bought many of his books for precisely that reason.

He came from Continuity Associates. Which was an Adams-clone factory, that also gave us
Rich Buckler and several others in the late 1970's. Even Rudy Nebres (for Continuity Comics,
circa 1984-1990) despite his normally very personal and distinctive style, began drawing just
like Adams.

More Golden goodness!

A house ad for MICRONAUTS # 1, cover-dated Jan 1979.
It ran 12 issues by Golden, his longest running series.

Only Golden's THE NAM had as long a run.

The ad that ran for MICRONAUTS 7.
The only Golden cover inked by Neal Adams!
I like how Adams made a signature "A" for himself, to match Golden's signature "G".

Another MICRONAUTS house ad by Golden, promoting the series' then-upcoming first issue.
I like Baron Karza. The Micronauts' Darth Vader.

Another advance partial-page house ad preceding Mantlo/Golden's coming release of MICRONAUTS # 1.
With some nice art not used in the series.

This was the unused Golden cover for MICRONAUTS 1.
That as I recall was also used as a promo ad, in different form.

I got a kick out of this promotion for Barr and Golden appearing in a comic book signing appearance.
It looks more like a concert poster for a rock band.

On the subject of Nasser, I wondered if this Clark Bark promo ad that was a double-page centerfold in DC titles for Sept-Oct 1978
was his work.


http://mixedupmonsterclub.blogspot.com/2014/10/1979-advertisement-for-famous-clark-bar.html

I wracked my brain many times looking at it, trying to figure out which artist or combination
of artists, did the art on this one.



There was a similar ad in Marvel titles:




Both ads have very familiar art, but I can't quite place which artist did them.
Maybe John Buscema/Frank Giacoia?

Fred Hembeck chimes in:

Eaelier in the topc, I showed the advance ad for THE SHADOW from Jan 1973 that promoted it to be
drawn by Berni Wrightson.

Here's a promotional ad in the months before the first issue that showed Kaluta as the series artist.

And here's a 1988 ad for the first collected hardcover. Kaluta did issues 1-4 and 6, with about 20 pages of new story.
The colors are changed (and odd), garishly colored by Lovern Kindzierski, and some of the dialogue is changed by
O'Neil, and also does not include the covers, 8 of the 12 by Kaluta, and virtually all suitable for framing. I'd like to
see a new DC Archive hardcover that collects the complete series, including covers, with original coloring, and no
dialogue changed.

And here's a Dark Horse house ad for the 2-issue Kaluta adaptation of The Shadow movie starring Alec Baldwin, that I actually
enjoyed as much as the movie.
THE SHADOW movie adaptation 1-2 (1994) Kaluta covers and interior art.
There were at least two THE SHADOW miniseries after from Dark Horse that had Kaluta covers and Gary Gianni art:

SHADOW: IN THE COILS OF LEVIATHAN 1-4 (1994)

SHADOW: HELL'S HEAT WAVE (1995)

And

THE SHADOW AND THE MYSTERIOUS THREE (1995)


Here also is THE SHADOW AND DOC SAVAGE 1-2, the first issue having a cover by Dave Stevens.

Another of my favorite Marvel ads.

This one ran in many issues of EPIC ILLUSTRATED around 1984-1985, among other titles.

Here's an un-photoshopped version of the 1982 Michael Golden house ad for Marvel I posted above.




Not as big, but in its original form.

Continuing the 1978 Milk Duds Sweepstakes, this double-page centerfold of Dr Doom.

I want to guess Buscema/Sinnott art. But the linework looks more decorative than Sinnott.
Maybe, Giordano, Layton or Continuity Associates?

The Golden house ad for Marvel again, large size in black and white.
I don't know where it was published, but it look gorgeous.
AMAZING HEROES or COMICS JOURNAL, or CBG maybe. Or one of the Marvel b & w magazines.

Sourced from this site...

https://comicbookhistorians.com/the-infl...of-comic-books/



... a DOC SAVAGE pulp ad, that describes Doc Savage as a "superman" who works to fight crime from his "fortress of solitude".

Also interesting is use in DETECTIVE COMICS 27 of Commissioner Gordon, from a character of the same name in a pulp magazine.
And photos of about 20 of the major comics artists of the Golden Age, most of who continued and became even bigger names
in the Pre-Code and Silver Age.

Others like Julius Schwartz, Otto Binder, Ray Bradbury, Daniel Keyes, Jack Schiff and Mort Weisinger started ouct active in
fandom for pulps, some of whom later worked professionally in the pulps, before switching over to comics.

Wouldn't it be cool if Eisenhower and his staff worked out the strategy for D-Day playing Risk?

A 1975 DC ad.

Because every cool vampire (and kid), chews Slim Jims!

"A homicidal maniac and Milk Duds..."



The last of the centerfold candy promotion ad campaign from 1978.

Four (that I know of) in total. One with all the Marvel heroes, one with all the DC heroes, one with the best-known Marvel villain, one with the
best known DC villain.

If I were to guess the artist on this one, I'd say Novick/Giordano, or possibly Garcia-Lopez/Giordano. But I think Novick.

Does anyone else see a logic gap in choosing a freaky-looking mass murderer who poisons people as a spokesperson... to sell candy?

https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Detective-Comics-1937/Issue-406?id=5648#32

The Neal Adams ad from the December 1970 Dc titles, showing DC's winners for the first ACBA
(Academy of Comic Book Arts) annual industry winners. All the better for being illustrated
by Neal Adams.

A house ad for DC 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR 6 (1971), with a wraparound cover by Neal Adams.

With an amazing set of reprint issues, including:

* JLA 21 and 22 from 1963, the first JLA /JSA Earth 1
and Earth 2 team up, that became an annual crossover event.
* A Bernard Baily Spectre story, from MORE FUN COMICS 55, May 1940.
* A Joe Kubert silver age Hawkman story, from BRAVE AND THE BOLD 36, July 1961, the third of Kubert's
six stories before Hawkman later got his own title.
* And golden age stories of Johnny Quick, Vigilante, and Wildcat.

I don't think in 1971 we realized often what treasures these stories were. The randomness with which these
stories were reprinted somehow made them more exciting.

A double-page DC subscription ad from mid/late 1972, that I find exciting because it lists all the DC titles at the time, from the era I consider, at both Marvel and DC,
to have the highest ratio of great material coming out. Kirby's Fourth World titles (JIMMY OLSEN, FOREVER PEOPLE, NEW GODS, MISTER MIRACLE), THE DEMON,
KAMANDI, Kubert's Edgar Rice Burrough material in TARZAN, KORAK and WEIRD WORLDS, not to mention his other war material in OUR ARMY AT WAR and Enemy
Ace in STAR SPANGLED WAR concluding, JLA beginning by Wein and Dillin, The various Superman titles with Swan/Anderson art bridging them all, O'Neil/Adams and
O'Neil/Novick or Robbins/Novick/Giordaano in BATMAN and DETECTIVE, Hany and Aparo BRAVE AND THE BOLD, Wein/Wrightson SWAMP THING, the great Orlando-
edited HOUSE OF MYSTERY, HOUSE OF SECRETS, WEIRD MYSTERY, WEIRD WAR and WEIRD WESTERN, among other great DC mystery titles, Aparo PHANTOM
STRANGER, soon to have Kaluta "Spawn of Frankenstein" backup stories, O'Neil/Adams GREEN LANTERN... there was just more good stuff coming out than I knew
what to do with!

For THE SPECTRE 3, April 1968, by Neal Adams.
Adams did issues 2-5, this one scripted by Mike Friedrich.

Of DC's hyperbolic house ads, the Adams books I felt were among the ones
that fully lived up to the hype of ads like this one.