This site NOT commended by Parents’ Magazine.

§ May 25th, 2015 § Filed under golden age, publishing § 9 Comments

So I had a couple of comic collections come into the shop over the weekend. One was a big ol’ pile of Dark Horse Star Wars comics, which, as it turned out, was about 99% different from the Dark Horse Star Wars comics I already had in the shop for sale (i.e. the ones I had bought for myself but gave up to the shop when I opened). The other was a big ol’ pile of comics from the late ’40s/early ’50s, mostly Disney (including lots of classic Carl Barks), Little Lulu, and other various humor books, all offered up by the original owner.

In the middle of that second pile was one of these, a repackaged comic with a new cover advertising the Blue Bird brand of shoes, offered by the Gallenkamp’s shoe store (who also may be the manufacturer of the shoes, I’m unclear on that).


The comic inside is this issue of Kid Colt, Outlaw from 1953:


Looking up some info on this on the Grand Comics Database, it appears that some years later the Blue Bird repackaging moved on to printing new covers that reflected the contents (just Charlton comics at that point, apparently) and more prominently featuring the shoe store name. The Blue Bird logo from the back cover above is still present on the newer front covers.

Anyway, just an interesting artifact from the days of long ago. I think, maybe, when I was but a young Mikester, I vaguely remember getting a free comic book from the shoe store we frequented. This would have been the mid-1970s. It may have been branded with the store’s name, or a shoe manufacturer’s name, or both…it’s just on the edge of awareness, but I can’t say for sure, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t. I wonder how long shoe stores gave out free comics…or any stores. (I mean, beyond Free Comic Book Day, wise guys.) Radio Shack had their comics (apparently into the 1990s!), I remember grabbing one of these in a video store in the late 1980s. And, apparently, Big Boy made it into the 2000s? More as a magazine-with-comics than as a comic book, but close enough!

I’m sure there’s still the occasional funnybook promotion from stores or restaurants here and there, but I feel like it’s not quite the same, or as prevalent, or as amazing, as it had been.

9 Responses to “This site NOT commended by Parents’ Magazine.”

  • John Platt says:

    Yeah, I remember getting comics from a shoe store as a kid — Buster Brown, maybe?

  • Brad says:

    With me it was the shoe department at Sears and March of Comics – Western/Gold Key books. I remember thinking I saw stories that originated in MoC show up later in Gold Key Digests; no reformatting needed. But there was at least one case where they cut down a regular Scooby Doo story to fit the MoC format.

  • Andrew says:

    I want to say I remember something being available at Kinney’s Shoes,but I couldn’t tell you what was inside.

  • ArghSims says:

    Think I got a Blackstone the Magician comic at Buster Brown in the late ’60s or very early ’70s.

  • C. Elam says:

    I had a copy (actually two!) of a Bicentennial-themed Woody Woodpecker issue of March of Comics. It’s not on the GCD but other sources tell me it’s #420 in the series. Since we’re around the same age, I would guess you probably had an issue of March of Comics from some shoe store (it looks like several were involved). Amazingly, Western continued March of Comics until 1982!

  • Yeah, I’m pretty sure you had an issue of March of Comics, which I remember well from the late ’70s.

  • swamp mark says:

    sorry to bug you Mike but would you know what comic the Justice League United preview appears in. Swampy is in it and DC doesn’t seem to think it’s important to let the fans know where to find these previews in print. checked the web and my store and I’m stumped. thanks for the time.

  • Matthew Murray says:

    I got a Batman comic from Zellers in Canada in the early ’90s: http://www.comics.org/series/53983/

  • Donald G says:

    When my parents used to get me shoes at our local Professional Footwear store in the late sixties/early seventies, they used to give away free comics featuring the Archie characters.