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Funny comic book ads, part 1

by Mike on Mon 26 Sep 2005 07:55 PM EDT | Permanent Link | Cosmos

Ever since my trip to the comic store last week, comics have been on my mind. Over the weekend, I decided to start on an inventory of my comics collection. I have a decent-sized collection, so this will probably take a while.

Sorting through my collection will be a little time consuming. I haven't really made an attempt to organize my comics in several years, because I've been busy with more important things. This time around, I'm using an old Macintosh PowerBook 1400cs/133 laptop to record my inventory. I'm not grading my books as I go, but I am noting the titles, issue numbers and quantity of all the books in my collection. Some of the older books don't have issue numbers on the front covers so I have to take them out of the bags and check the inside cover for the information that I need. This process can become a bit daunting at times, especially when I am dealing with comics from the ‘40's and ‘50's that crumble a little each time they are handled. But on the other hand, this gives me the opportunity to flip through comics that I haven't looked at in years and from time to time, I discover things that I hadn't noticed or long since forgotten.

airboy

For example, in an issue of the Golden Age Airboy Comics (volume 8, number 3, to be exact), I noticed one of the strangest ads I have ever found in a comic book: "Throw Away That Truss!" Bear in mind that this is a serious, legitimate ad and not a spoof like you might find in Mad Magazine. Apparently, comic book readers were a key demographic target for the truss market back in 1951.

Here's a full scan of the ad.

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Comments

Re: Funny comic book ads, part 1

by Antonis on Mon 26 Sep 2005 10:50 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link

All this comic-reading can put tremendous strain on your muscles, this is no laughing matter. Thousands of avid Airboy readers must have had their backs ruined, resulting in days off sick from school or work, resulting in inferior grades and millions of man-hours lost. Bad for the economy! The guy deserves a medal.

Airboy? Airb-AIRBOY??? What kind of name is that? I couldn't help but think that his superpowers involved some sort of excessive flatulence, but thankfully, this was not the case. But that comic appears to be way before your time, right?

Re: Funny comic book ads, part 1

by Mike on Tue 27 Sep 2005 10:00 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link

Well, I am a big fan of the Eclipse-era Airboy titles from the 1980s. Airboy was an aviation/ war comic book series. Airboy and the Air Fighters were WWII-era characters that Eclipse Comics bought up and re-presented during the Reagan years. The Eclipse folks were lefties that put quite a spin on the old "nationalist" heroes. Airboy, et al ended up in places like Latin America fighting right-wing dictatorships and the like. There was still some mildly jingoistic stuff left over...There was a short run in which Airboy fought with the Mujahideen against the Soviet invasion and there were also some old Korean War-era Skywolf tales mixed in, but the Eclipse team always managed to put a really unique spin on these stories. Eclipse used to add in public service announcements about the farce of Reagan�s "Star Wars" program, etc. one of these days, I will post a more extensive note on the old Eclipse days.

I have a handful of the original Airboy issues from the 1940s and 1950s. They are not without their charm.

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