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.