comic book fans . . . remember this? . . .

[OneBlueSky]

or this? . . .



many more classic comic book ads here . . .

http://www.steveconley.com/comicads.htm

[markbark]

1. What? No Sea Monkeys?!?!? (N/T)

[OneBlueSky]

8. sea monkeys? . . . you want sea monkeys? . . .

sure . . . we got sea monkeys . . . :)

[VolcanoJen]

2. That's a fun link, OneBlueSky!

Ahhh, if only I could have back all the money I sent to the Johnson Smith Catalog when I was younger... :-)

I also signed up to sell greeting cards door-to-door, thanks to my comic books! :-)

[BurtWorm]

3. This was always one of the most fascinating pages in any comic book

The Treasure Chest of Fun

http://www.steveconley.com/pages/chest.htm

[sangh0]

5. I bought almost every single one of those

and each time I was sure, ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN, that this time the product would live up to it's ad copy.

The Sea Monkeys and the toy soldiers didn't pan out either

[Chovexani]

6. OMG!

I bought Sea Monkeys too, LOL. I thought they were so cute...boy was I gullible, hehe.

[newyawker99]

12. Congrats Chovexani!! 600 posts

:toast:

[Chovexani]

13. Thanks!

I didn't even notice till you pointed it out. :hi:

[BurtWorm]

7. I was always curious about the 6' monsters for some reason

Were they cardboard cuts?

[noonwitch]

4. I'll never forget the Charles Atlas ads, too many parodies

like the Daffy Duck cartoon in which he is a weakling or the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

[FlashHarry]

9. I remember this one from an 1964 Avengers comic!

I was -5 years old, by the way...

[BurtWorm]

10. Did anyone ever send away for this?

What was it really made of? Cardboard?

[FlashHarry]

11. For $6.98...

...it was either cardboard or Soviet surplus. :-)

[Ratty]

14. The bitter disappointment

Ah, thank you for posting this. It's amazing what pleasant memories those pictures bring back. Another time, another life.

I never seemed to learn my lesson with those things. I sent away for lots of them and was stunned by how crappy they turned out to be. Never anything like the spectacular ads.

I sent away for the Sea Monkeys. WTF? They didn't hold hands and snile at you and dance. And where were their crowns?

The XRay glasses. Flimsy cardboard things with two tiny eyeholes covered with something like feathers. There was this faint nimbus around everything and where they intersected it kinda seemed almost like "bones" but you certainly couldn't see nasty things through peoples' clothes.

The hot air balloon. I was obsessed with balloons after reading a story when I was very young. I saved up and sent off for one imagining all the trips I would take. It was just these few tissue paper panels that you had to glue together into a misshapen lightbulb-like construction. It was pretty big and I did put it together and launch it and it turned out to be pretty exciting after all.

The throw your voice device was unusual. It was a small plastic whistle that you could put in your mouth. You held it between your tongue and the roof of your mouth and could make whistling sounds. Either I was too young to learn how to do it, or, more likely, it was a crock of shit, I certainly couldn't do more than make whistles. True, you didn't have to purse your lips and the tiny whistle was invisible in your mouth--maybe that was cool--but "throwing" your voice into boxes and startling people with the spookiness was NOT part of the package.

I got the smoke from your fingertips stuff too. It was actually kind of cool, though, as expected, not anything like real smoke coming out of your fingers. It was a tube of some sticky rubber cement-like substance. You'd put some on your fingers, then pull your fingers apart and sweep your hand in the air and these gluey spiderweb like filaments would float in the air. I actually liked this one and used to play with it until it was all gone.

I never did fall for the body building ads. Probably because I was gay and would just as soon have kicked sand in the girl's face and run off with the muscle guy.

Now the submarine was one that I always, always wanted but never did send away for. So anybody ever get that? What was the dissappointment? Was it like made out of flimsy cardboard? Six inches high? What was the gimmick?