“Someone’s gonna get nailed.”
So thanks for the questions/discussion topics you dropped into the comments for Monday’s entry. That’s a whole lotta comic book talk for me to start makin’ with, so I’ll likely get to it next week. Also, sorry for no post on Wednesday, the mind was willing, the body less so, and thus the surprise day off.
But today I have…lazy posting, as I pulled out the Marvel “Sales to Astonish” retailer catalog from August 1993. Amongst the solicitations and sample…”artwork” that we somehow willingly tolerated then, were several full page ads for Marvel’s offerings. A couple of them I recall were used as actual print ads or house ads with the Marvel comics themselves. Others are, well, what they are, so let’s take a look, shall we?
Flashing back to that time when everyone’s favorite ersatz Thor (after Beta Ray Bill) was about to hit the scene in his snazzy new first issue, what with the foil cover gimmick an’ all. And it actually sold really well, and people were into the character. And, to some extent, the character is still remembered fondly today, even if the back issues don’t move like they used to. It was a time when you could put out a comic like this and have it get traction, at least for a while.
What really surprised me is that during the weird (and somewhat brief) comic cards book during the initial years of the pandemic, when even the 1991 Impel Marvel set was selling for stupid money after decades of literally nobody caring, that Marvel and DC didn’t try card inserts in their comics again. I seem to recall some promo cards being given away with some comics event or ‘nother around this time, and those were popular, but there wasn’t enough of that sort of thing. Granted, the marketplace now isn’t generating the same kind of money that it was back then, so things like “trading card inserts” and “foil cover gimmicks” are an expense only dipped into on a relatively rare basis.
I will note that younger folks, those who weren’t around in the ’90s for the first wave of all this stuff, love finding comics packed with cards or special cover enhancements. They weren’t jaded by the ’90s comics market experience like your boy Old Man Mike here.
I like this ad, even with the “It’s Miller Time!” blurb across the top (referencing of course Mr. Frank “THE SPIRIT movie” Miller, the auteur behind this series). I haven’t read the mini in forever, but I remember it being pretty good. A real standout in quality given the enormous amount of…possibly not top tier product being shoveled out at the time.
You see, there’s a frame around the main body of the ad, and that extremely blown up detail of Punisher’s head is indeed Not A Pretty Picture. Anyway, terrible.
Our second Gambit appearance in these ads, from the days people pretended that they liked Gambit. (Save your emails and your TikToks, I’m only kidding, maybe.) Scan’s a little crooked, which is okay because it fits with that jumble of blurbs at the bottom. And speaking of which, that’s a nice mix of ballyhooing the physical properties of the book (“Wraparound cover!” “Gambit hologram!”) with the signicance of the comics’s contents (“Wolverine’s last stand!” “Magneto returns!”), a reminder that there were still stories happening even underneath all the gimmicks and the “kewl” artwork.
Also, the toning on that ad is weird. The white hands, head, and cards with the rest of the image dimmed is a little offputting. Plus, that top card he’s supposedly throwing almost looks like it’s behind his head. Just the way it’s drawn, I’m sure, but it still looks odd.
Every time I see ads or covers from the nineties, I remember the words of someone-or-other.
“Why do they always have their mouths open? Does it help them aim better?”
@Chris Gumprich
I think the whole “mouths open” trope goes all the way back to Jack Kirby art and Silver Age Marvel Comics, then the Buscema Brothers and others refined it during the Bronze Age, and Ron Frenz and company kept it going during the Copper Age–resulting in thiry plus years of “How to Draw Mouths Agape the Marvel Way!” Sadly, more often than not in current Marvel Comics the characters are sitting around in very boringly rendered panels eating sandwiches…Jack Kirby would not be pleased with this…
Drawing Gambit’s hair *in front* of the playing card he’s tossing does not help with the perspective there.
That Thunderstrike ad has a real Walt Simonson vibe, which I’m sure didn’t hurt the book’s sales at all.
I thought the later “innovation” in drawing wide-open mouths was in showing the line of spittle stretched from top to bottom, as if just daring the viewer to imagine it falling off.
“and that extremely blown up detail of Punisher’s head is indeed Not A Pretty Picture”
Yuck! If you’re gonna blow up art to THAT big, pick better artwork!
” Gambit”
GAMBIT SUCKS!!! Lame character, annoying accent. He throws PLAYIBG CARDS! whoop-de-do! Even Jim Lee couldn’t make him cool.
“That Thunderstrike ad has a real Walt Simonson vibe”.
It kinda does. Thunderstrike was OK.
Just last week I said to an old friend, “No one ever liked Gambit.” And he countered, “Lots of people still do online.” And I said, “Online, lots of people also still ‘like’ Mobius.” Then we stopped talking.