View Full Version : 1960's/70's, comic book offers/ads...
Remember the back pages of comic books? How they always had all sorts of interesting and unique offerings? Things such as sea-monkeys, X-ray vision glasses, dirty hand/face soap, frothing tablets, cigarette bombs, life-size Frankenstein and ghost figures, super-hot chewing gum, and the handshake zapper, just to name a few?
It was all gimmick stuff... junk, but as kids, we used to dream of owning much it, especially the cigarette bombs, so we could prank mom with one!
Well, one year we ordered the sea-monkeys, and what a disappointment, for the sea-monkeys were so small you could hardly see them! Gosh us kids were bummed...
Do you have an old comic book ad/offer story to share?
My friend in kindergarten used to collect the Bazooka bubble gum wrappers to send away for those gimmicky things.
My betta fish Finn eats Sea Monkeys. They're brine shrimp and look nothing like the little aquatic family on the package. Thank goodness!
iris lily
2-23-13, 12:09am
Those little spy cameras. I thought it would be fun to be a spy.
When I was young, a bunch of us kids thought it would be a great idea to prank our mother, something my father jumped on like it was on fire. He had taken us out somewhere and we came home with a fake spilled bottle of nail polish, a piece of rubber vomit and those cigarette bombs. He had to be the instigator of the whole thing because none of us kids had any money, or, frankly, much imagination.
We came home, set the props around, inserted the bombs in a couple of her cigarettes and waited until she got home from wherever she was.
Supremely bad ideas, all.
When I was young, a bunch of us kids thought it would be a great idea to prank our mother, something my father jumped on like it was on fire. He had taken us out somewhere and we came home with a fake spilled bottle of nail polish, a piece of rubber vomit and those cigarette bombs. He had to be the instigator of the whole thing because none of us kids had any money, or, frankly, much imagination.
We came home, set the props around, inserted the bombs in a couple of her cigarettes and waited until she got home from wherever she was.
Supremely bad ideas, all.
I just laughed out loud reading this!
So did I! Major LOL Jilly!!!
I did a great job annoying my neighbors selling Christmas cards and seeds.
Those little spy cameras. I thought it would be fun to be a spy. I got one of those little spy cameras too - scrimoed and saved and did extra work just to buy that. And it was actually pretty cool and workable. I thought I was Mati Hari jr.! Or maybe that was Emma Peel from the Advengers :-)!
I remember all those funny ads - the 90 lb weakling potions and x-ray glasses, and sea Monkey's. recently watched a pretty raunchy "South Park" satire about Sea Monkeys where they made Cartman their God.
Yes, yes, yes... I remember the Bazooka Bubble Gum wrapper send-ins for things! Spy cameras' too!
Oh, but, Jilly... you left out the best part... what happened when your mom lit one of those tampered cigarettes? Darn it all anyway... I always wanted to pull that prank on MY mom!
Creaker. Great memories! Yes, door-to-door Christmas Card selling, was so popular back then, wasn't it.
Spartana. You're Emma Peel, all the way! :) ROTFLMAO! Yes! I remember the ad depicting the skinny beach weakling with the brute standing over kicking sand. I remember the ad stating something like... "you'll never have to put up with sand-kicking again".
I used to like cigarette loads a lot: stink bombs, little floaty snow-flake eruptions, tiny explosions. As I remember, the stink bombs were particularly effective.
... Oh, but, Jilly... you left out the best part... what happened when your mom lit one of those tampered cigarettes? Darn it all anyway... I always wanted to pull that prank on MY mom! ...
The loads worked, blew the foremost third of the cigarette into oblivion. Or, at least teeny shreds. Scared the bugeezhus out of all of us, especially when she recovered from the shock. We were all in huge trouble and forgot that we had put the loads in two cigarettes. Until later that evening.
Oh, the humanity.
Oh, Jane... between you and Jilly keeping me in suspense, you two are going to drive me wacky! LOL!
I want to hear the conclusion as to what those cigarette bombs did! Loud bang? Destroyed cigarette?
I can't help but think, if I still smoked, my two youngest are of the perfect nature to take part in just such a scheme! The older ones right behind them, too! Husband included!!!
ROTFLMAO, Jilly! Outrageously awesome! Somehow missed your post while posted my last entry.
Mighty Frugal
2-24-13, 5:20pm
When I was 9 years old I mailed out a (very hard earned) dollar for the promise of riches beyond belief. The ad inside the comic showed a girl with her arms filled with packages, the postman stooped over because of all the packages she was getting. And for the small price of one dollar they promised you the reader the same windfall!
How could I resist? My older sister told me it was a rip off. But I mailed away for these riches and waited and waited and waited and waited....
A few months later I got something in the mail. It was a sheet of paper with addresses of businesses throughout the States. You were supposed to then mail them a letter asking for a free sample-ugh
Alas, no packages for me....my dollar gone!
I always wanted the meat eating venus fly traps, but could never get Mom's approval. Retrospectively, Mother was (almost) always right. I also thought the X-Ray glasses were very tempting, but even as a young guy I knew that it was probably a gimmick. Remember the little telescopes that were always a little out of focus and when someone twisted them around to get a better view they left a black eye. I got some good mileage out of that one. Itching powder went through a period of prosperity in grade school, but I was usually the recipient rather that the perpetrator. It really worked.
I did sell Christmas cards like a mad man. I got mine from ads in Boys' Life. I think you could cash in for rewards for every dozen or so boxes and I usually got a couple of cool things each season.
I always wanted the meat eating venus fly traps, but could never get Mom's approval. ...
I had a Venus Flytrap (except I think it came from a nursery). We fed it raw meat. It didn't last long. I couldn't get my mom's approval to take home an anaconda snake from the local herpetarium. Dang.
The things we remember when someone else shares.
Sigh... Mighty Frugal. Thank heavens advertising like that doesn't exist anymore. Definitely not a positive way for young children to learn.
LOL, Rogar! The telescope sounds hilarious! As does the itching powder...
JaneV2.0. I had a friend in elementary school who had a Venus Flytrap plant, but I never seen it eat anything.
Indeed, Jilly... that's what I love about this forum!
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