Weird Comics History, Episode 19: Classic Comic Book Advertisements

You heard about 'em on the podcast, now come see 'em with your own eyes!

 

In this episode, Chris (@AceComics) and Reggie (@reggiereggie) will teach you how to kill a man with one touch, become the life of any party, and pull six cars for one mile using only your neck! We'll go over some seminal comic book ads and detail the lives of novelty purveyor S.S. Adams and bodybuilder Charles Atlas. Then, a brief discussion about comic book advertising, and why we don't really see it anymore! Have some scissors ready to clip those mail-in coupons!

 

SOURCES:
The Deadliest Ads Alive! A History of Martial Arts Ads in Comic Books by Dan Kelly, 2012, Hogan’s Alley Publishing
Life of the Party: A Visual History of the S.S. Adams Company, Makers of Pranks & Magic for 100 Years by Kirk Demarais, 2006, S.S. Adams LLC
magicmakersinc.com S.S. Adams Co.
Charles Atlas: The Man, the Myth and the Muscles by David Baines, 2014 Birch Tree Publishing
charlesatlas.com Charles Atlas 

 

You say Ketsugo, and I say Judo, let's call the whole thing off!

As featured in the movie Bloodsport

Dante was eventually indicted for claiming to be a Count when he was merely a Viscount

I'll take one of each, please.

The life-size monster poster capitalized on the popularity of a 7 foot tall Frankenstein poster drawn by Jack Davis, likely available elsewhere in this comic book

The classic strip, colored poorly. Later iterations of this strip would cut out the last two panels.

Here's a version of the strip where a guy gets tough enough to lay out a carny.

Here's a version of the strip capitalizing on the popularity of the FBI.