This weekend I’m posting some ads in comics format from the very early issues of Gang Busters, namely issues 2, 3 and 4 (the latest proving to be a veritable smorgasbord). I’m always amazed at the cheer range of products that was advertised in comics in those days.
Click through, and enjoy !
Leave it to the Hollywood Animation Archive to come up with some great commercial comics from Colliers Magazine in the 1930’s (click through for the complete versions). When I first saw the ad presented above, I thought it was a modern day tongue-in-cheek alternative comic, but it is genuine. And so is the guy below…
Here’s a nice piece of ephemera that I found on Usenet this weekend. CMO Comics was published in 1942 for the Chicago Mail Order Company by the very pompously called Comic Corporation Of America (it’s also listed as one of the latest titles published by Centaur). It ran for only two issues, and contained short stories about cowboys, movie stars, plain-clothes policemen and superheroes, none of which were signed, and none of which featured big name characters.
In fact, the stories aren’t that inventive or even intersting themselves, but rather seem to have only one raison d’être : showcasing the CMO products. On almost every page at least one panel is dedicated to items of clothing that feature in the story on that page (read on for examples). It’s so blatant, it’s baffling. And it predates all the click-through schemes you see in presentations about interactive TV nowadays. Nothing’s ever new, it would seem.
The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has put up the first edition of Big Boy Comics, published by Bob’s hamburger restaurant, and featuring the chain’s iconic logo character, said Big Boy. These books were produced by Timely Comics, with stories by Stan Lee and art by Bill Everett. It’s still being produced.
I especially quite liked the riddlepage above, but the whole book is one big retrofest.
update : get the whole book here, courtesy Alternative Comix.
How the times change - or do they ? From a Colgate ad in Colliers Magazine, october 24, 1935. Read on for the full ad.
Another piece of non-PC (or, rather pre-PC) comic art, this time from the Brit funny paper, The Jester (1929). This time with thanks to Lyle Tucker.
The names of these characters wouldn’t be out of place in Little Britain, or another show of that kind.
Agence eureka has been running scans from an 1938 French comic on aviation and airplanes for about a month now. Beautiful stuff - it’s so vintage, it looks new.
Over at Tomorrow’s Heroes, I just discovered a plethora of amazing comics ads, like the rather topical one above. Their collection currently holds 570 ads, so it will take a while before you’ve seen them all. It’s a pity though that they rarely point out their actual sources.
(thanks to Dave for the hint)
This comic reminds me of the art of Belgian cartoonist Renaat Demoen, but I don’t think they’re related.
(From PCL LinkDump - read the whole thing there)
In the fifties, speed was a good thing !
Chocolate, as ever, was speed for kids (except that your skin doesn’t end up as smooth)…
Oh, and what’s with all the alliterative names ?
(From The Dodo And The Frog 86, and The Adventures Of Alan Ladd 8, respectively)
