advertising

Yet another item from the many mystery boxes of promotional / retailer goodies:

Clicking on the above image will reveal a 1988 flyer from Dark Horse Comics, ballyhooing Concrete‘s mention in Harlan Ellison’s Playboy article about comic books. In particular, warning retailers that this kind of exposure could increase demand for the then quickly-forthcoming Concrete Color Special, and orders should be adjusted accordingly!

This being about 23 years ago, and just about the time of my entry into the high-finance world of funnybook-selling, I don’t really recall a huge Playboy-fueled bump in demand for the Concrete Color Special. In fact, I bet we probably still have a copy or four left over from our initial order on those. If I were to hazard a guess, if there was a transfer of readers between the world of Playboy and the world of comics, there were probably more comic book fans who sought out that issue of Playboy to read a Harlan Ellison article about funnybooks, than Playboy fans who went looking for a comic book about a giant rocky dude. And if that were the case, I’m sure Playboy appreciated that extra 0.001% bump in sales.

Honestly, I have no idea. Like I said, I don’t have any specific memory of anyone coming into the shop and declaring “I have read of this Concrete comic in the newest issue of Playboy, and by God, I must have it,” assuming anyone would actually tell us that they read about it in Playboy. But I don’t remember it selling much better than normal, aside perhaps from the slight bump in curious readers who’d been avoiding the critically-acclaimed comic book because it was black and white, but were finally tempted to sample the series when presented with a self-contained full-color one-shot. Perhaps other folks present in comics retail at the time may have had different experiences.

Anyway, it’s an interesting flyer, and regardless of the results, I appreciate Dark Horse’s efforts in informing retailers and taking advantage of media coverage. Plus, that gag panel on the flyer featuring Concrete is pretty cute.

By the way, I remember reading that Playboy article at the time, sitting there in the barber shop waiting for my turn in the chair and feelin’ all adult and stuff, picking up the nudie magazine to, um, read an article about comic books. Yes, I actually did read Playboy for the articles. Or, at least, an article.

Some other goodies from 1980s Comic Images retailer ads…bumper stickers!

I like the simplicity of this one…they should bring it back to tie into the Thor movie. Except they’d probably screw it up by, I don’t know, putting Chris Hemsworth’s face in place of the heart, or something.

I only got through year 2 of my X-Men language classes in high school, so I might be a little rusty. All I remember is “I…hurt” and “tovarisch.”

“Bonjour! Je m’appelle Puck, et je t’aime, eh?”

That’s going to make it hard to practice my X-Men-speaking skills.

I understand he also “bites,” and that he “never drinks…wine.” You could’ve had a whole line of Dracula bumper stickers there, Comic Images.

Sorry, Iceman!

I know Puck isn’t French-Canadian. But, c’mon, “Je m’appelle Northstar, et je t’aime” isn’t nearly as funny.

From an April ’88 Comic Images retailer solicitation sheet comes this, one of the greatest Punisher merchandise taglines ever:

Tagline presumably would also work with a Bi-Beast hat.

So, believe it or not, I got my hands on two more boxes of 20+ year old comic book promo materials, and am currently unearthing even more wonderful delights of comics retail past…such as this item from the cover of Blackthorne Preview Magazine (February 1989):

For those of you too young to remember, or otherwise don’t know what this was all about, here you go:

You’re welcome.

Also in this Blackthorne Preview Magazine: an advertisement for the original comic book publication of Street Poet Ray (as pal Andrew discussed just the other day):

Some of the details are lost at that size, so click on it for a better look…if you dare.

…comes this swell back cover ad from the fourth issue of the Eclipse Extra retailer giveaway, dated March 1985:

In a fair world, we’d be up to about issue 300-something of Mr. Monster by now. Of course, there have been several mini-series and spin-offs over the years, but there just wasn’t anything quite the like the demented energy and creative diversity of those original ten issues. And while I liked the “serious” Mr. Monster origin story in the series that followed, I had a bit of difficulty getting back into the not-so-serious version of the character presented in the stories published after that second series. Not that I was all “I demand my Mr. Monster be serious stuff now,” but…I don’t know, it just felt like something had changed. Maybe it’s not you, baby, it’s me…perhaps I’d just read enough Mr. Monster at that point.

Anyway, those old Mr. Monster comics were some fine books, even if the later issues didn’t quite grab my fancy the way those earlier ones did. But I’ll tell you, I’d still read the hell out of this crossover!

Just look at it:

The sheer magnitude of the explosion has given the victim multiple sets of eyebrows.

I’m not 100% positive, but the person does appear to be a woman, judging by what seems to be earrings visible in the image:

…and thus, that “unibrow” immediately above the eyes may in fact be eyelashes, with a small printing error or ink blotch connecting the lashes above each eye. Also, I don’t know if the woman’s hair is simply being worn that way, or is in fact disheveled or “blown back” by the explosion’s force.

As to the text of the ad itself: the “can be used over and over again” statement leaves out the fact that if you do use it over and over again, your friends will eventually turn on you and kill you.

In conclusion…the exploding pen: harmless!