I was fortunate to score a few Silver Age DC comics at a local comics convention today. As I was reading Adventures of Bob Hope 99 I ran across this poetry designed to appeal to the hip kids of 1966:
I know there are others, including one that begins "Tired? Complaining? You need entertaining!"
Anyone got that one or anything similar?
Hoy
Replies
Go-go checks....
You mean they weren't just along the top border of the cover????!!!
Didn't you know? They were connected to an early company-wide crossover in which the world was gradually being infected by a spreading check plague that covered all surfaces. "It's go- go- go! Can the heroes save the world from the GO-GO CHECK PLAGUE - before it's GO- GO- GONE?"
Seriously, I found an image of a rhyming Jimmy Olsen ad here (scroll down) at the Dial B for Blog site.
There's also a bit of rhyme in the ad for Swing with Scooter at the bottom of this page.
DC house ads used to be great stuff. They's squeeze three covers into a one-third house ad space. Sometimes, especially with the Super-Family, they'd *describe* the story in those little boxes and give us the title.
There were a few half-page ads they seemed to use a lot, or at least I saw them a lot. There was one for Batman Annual #3, with Gorilla Boss in the middle, that I seemed to see a lot, along with one for Flash #128 (Case of the Real-Gone Flash).
Later, they went to two comics in a half-page size with a little sell line on them, which were still pretty good. The best part was that they could mix them up so I could see a bunch of the comics that were coming (and maybe be ready to spot that cover as I was flipping through the spinner).
Marvel's were more boring--they typically put two comics on a full page, turned sideways, and just said "More From Marvel!" or something like that.
Speaking of Scooter, I always liked this house ad. Not only does it show the eclectic range of DC comics, but Superman and Lois showed up only to hype Scooter. Now that's team work!
I found a thread on DC house ads on another message board here and ran through it, to which I owe my knowledge of the Scooter ad in my last post. I found further rhyming ads on page 7 post 129 ("Loves the thing" romance comics ad), page 20 post 394 (Inferior Five ad), page 29 posts 561 and 579 (Funny Stuff ad featuring the "Three Mouseketeers"; Gang Busters/Mr. District Attorney ad), page 32 post 638 (Peter Panda ad), page 34 post 666 ("Laughs! Laughs! Laughs!" Sugar and Spike ad). DC also ran a series that ran through the names of animals. A number of posts at the site have images from the series, and the whole series is collected in page 40 posts 788-790.
Oh I disagree.
Marvel in house ads, expecially around 1964-65 were GREAT... for showing you what you had missed... as recently at 1966 and '67, you were still trying to collect the continued stories that ran through many Marvel mags (FF, Thor, Iron Man, Spidey, Cap, Nick Fury, Dr. Strange) and through these "cross-referenced" ads and the might Marvel check-list (on the bullpen page after initially being a feature on the letters page)... you had an idea of what you were missing. Just having a image of the cover was a great help in spotting an issue on a yard sale or in the back issue bin at the local family grocery store.
I found most of these in house ads were four issues (quadrants) displayed in a full page ad... at least, that's how i remember them. I especially recall seeing Thor, Spidey and X-men displayed in the pages of the Fantastic Four magazine.
I wonder now if there was a formula for which series were promoted in which on-going titles.... or if it was just random? I would always flip around from issue to issue to try to see who was appearing and what was going on in other titles, since they sometimes crossed over or had guest stars. This seemed to be true in Thor and the FF, since Kirby was drawing them both. (I recall the evil FF being scared off from looting the Baxter Bldg after defeating the FF with an a-bomb when Balder appeared on earth in a flaming fireball, and they mistook it for the human torch returning.)
And, I'm certain I have recited (ad nausium) my tracking down the first appearance of the Black Panther after years of staring at the star blurb that obscured the in house ad by running across it in a small fishing supply store up at the Houghton Lake campground. I was blown away that it was a cover that I had NEVER seen before, and then realized it was the long-lost missing FF #52 that I had never seen before! I owned #53 but never saw #52 before that. I still own that wrinkled, worn copy in my collection.) I thank you Marvel in-house ads!
There's something basically wrong and offensive about grafting Ben Grimm's head in a Beatle Wig onto the body of Robbie Ryan dialing H for Hero.... I know, I've seen a lot of these tribute websites in the past, but this one certainly strikes a nerve!
LOL!
Luke Blanchard said:
I actually know the "Cat Suffocating in Squaresville" limerick by heart since it appeared in the very first comic book I ever owned, JLA # 45.
Not sure it counts as poetry exactly, but this house ad copy always stuck with me, maybe because of its stark, blank verse terseness:
"Who are they? What are they? Angel and the Ape." That's it. That's all you get to know about it. As Kirby would say a couple years later, "Don't Ask! Just Buy It!"