Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Walt Disney's Comics and Stories (and Ads)

It's not quite officially summer yet, but we've already hit 100 here in St. Louis, so we might as well call it.  And summertime always brings my childhood to mind which involved not going to school (the best), watching game shows on TV, hanging out in our basement (because it was cooler) and reading comic books.

I often pick up random (cheap) comic books at estate and garage sales to supplement our bathroom reading supply.  This is one of them.  This particular comic dates from 1978.

I didn't seek out Disney comics as a kid.  I was a Marvel Comics kid.  But one year for Christmas, my mom put some in my stocking. I guess she thought they were "safe to read".  While I liked reading them, it didn't put me on the path to collecting them.  I remained an ardent Marvel fan for years.

The stories in these comics are typically reprints of 1950's comics with a story from a newer property (in this case, "The Rescuers") thrown in.  I'm not going to include the stories in this post, but rather the ads. They're always more interesting anyway.  

But, I will comment on the cover: Hey Donald. You have at least 2 other identical shirts (one on the line and one on your back).  Chill out.  You should worry more about finding a pair of pants.

And  now, on to the ads.

I'm not sure I get the Sears and Kellogg's tie-in.  They weren't owned by the same company. I know the Sears "Tele-Game" was just a rebadged Atari, but did you want to be that kid?

Let's take a look at that cereal line-up.


It's a little hard to see, but Kellogg's hadn't yet removed "sugar" from the cereal name, although it had been severely down-sized from earlier boxes.




While we're reviewing these, anyone remember Corny-Snaps? Anyone?


According to MrBreakfast.com:
"Corny-Snaps were described on the box as a "ready-sweetened corn & oat cereal." The cereal pieces had a Cheerios-type color and texture. They were curly - like the warped letter "S" or a misshapen Cheeto."
They apparently were around for a few years, but I sure don't remember them.


For those of you not familiar with the Marvel Universe (outside of the current run of films), Daredevil was blind.  Struck in the head by a radioactive cannister, he was stricken blind, but gained a super-human heightening of his remaining senses. You see, in the old days, radiation didn't give you cancer, it gave you super powers. Leave it to those meddling scientists to mess that up.

Anyway, to denote his blindness (which by the way wasn't known to his enemies) he was always shown with red-clothed(?) eyes.


This begs the question, did Daredevil cut out the eyes for his mask and then say, dang, they'll see I'm blind and sew patches back in?  Couldn't he have just left the eye cutouts off altogether?  That would have really confused his enemies: "Dang, how does he see out of that?!"  All kidding aside, the moral of this story is, "You get a big delight out of every bite of Hostess' Fruit Pies." 'nuff said!


"The Adventures of Grit Boy". Man, I'm glad my mom didn't buy me that comic for Christmas.

"This offer is being made to children" There's no way an adult will ever wear a Star Wars t-shirt.


This Star Wars watch offer is by the same people that offered the posters and t-shirts above.
"Swiss Made": We were eating a swiss cheese sandwich when we designed it.
"Anti-magnetic": Because they're made entirely of plastic.
"Precision Movement": Your arm moves, the watch moves with it.
"Unbreakable Mainspring": There is no mainspring.
"Durable Vinyl Band": Okay, you got me there. I'm sure it was vinyl. Durable? Ehhhhhhh....

"Flipit!  Fly it, toss it! Lands on its feet. Minutes of fun!"


Okay, Unique Products Co, I get where you're going with the name.  But "Sta-ons" is pronounced "Stă ons", not "Stay Ons".  You and the Saf-T pop people need to learn how words are pronounced.

Oh, and WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?!

    

Most of these toys were likely cheap, thin plastic.  But I have to say, I would have bought the 6 Poopa Troopers.  I loved those things. I still have one from my childhood sitting on the shelf in front of me.


Okay, here we go.  Here are the adult-sized Star Wars shirts.  I'm not sure why they had a separate full page ad for them. Kind of a big investment. I hope this Star Wars thing works out for them.

And finally, no comic is complete without the obligatory Sea Monkeys ad. And not just Sea Monkeys. SUPER Sea Monkeys.  I wonder if they were exposed to radiation.

10 comments:

  1. I saw a lot of ads for selling Grit, but I've still never seen a copy of Grit, nor have I met anyone who claimed to have seen one.

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    1. Well, Alec, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ruin your streak. My grandma subscribed to Grit and I read it whenever I visited her (which was pretty much every weekend). Lots of rural and everyday man stories. Kind of like Charles Kuralt On the Road but in print.

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  2. I remember that Flipit ad, and even back then, I had no idea who the hell "Super Chick" was. Guess the licensed property budget was exhausted on the other five characters, and someone from marketing got an extra sawbuck for coming up with this last-minute gem.

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    1. Yeah, it kind of has that Baby Huey vibe without crossing the line and requiring an actual license.

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  3. oh my, i'm behind on posts from JUNE?? how did that happen? my apologies. it's been a busy summer. wish i had those star wars watches and shirts now, that's for sure. (also, i'm kind of wondering if they were knock-offs. cease and desist letter from george lucas, incoming!)

    i read a ton of disney comics, but i can't say they were my favorite either. but i didn't fall squarely into a DC or Marvel camp, either -- i just read 'em all.

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    1. >oh my, i'm behind on posts from JUNE??
      I hear you. Another summer that came and went. Here's to Fall and Halloween (and all that entails).

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    2. definitely looking forward to fall, and hopefully a wet winter with bountiful snow. but i neglected to mention in my earlier post that i don't recall those "Corny Snaps" either -- i'm adding it to my mental tally of things proving we're in an alternate timeline now.

      oh, and speaking of fall, i haven't forgotten about your powdered cocktails... burning man is taking all my focus right now, but once we get back i'll muster up the bravery to dive into those in September. I can't promise video, but then again that seems to be exactly what tasting 50-year-old edible products requires, so.... we'll see.

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    3. Yeah, Corny Snaps are foreign to me too.
      There are a number of Youtube channels that focus specifically on eating/drinking old food products. There was even a show on the History Channel called "Eating History". You could be the next big thing! "Drinking History"!

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    4. i've seen those channels. they are great! the problem with that is -- as you know! -- once you do a couple posts, you'd have to continue, and i'm not looking to start or build a Youtube presence, lol. if i used TikTok, i could make these a short TikTok thing, but i refuse to start an account there. YT does have their own TikTok variation now, though, so maybe that's the answer. just some quick thing, boom and done.

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    5. I'll take what I can get.

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