Comments on: Mail-Order Friends: The Comic Book Squirrel Monkeys

Mail-Order Friends: The Comic Book Squirrel Monkeys

An Infinity Of Monkeys — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 18:50:19 -0800

Mail-Order Friends: The Comic Book Squirrel Monkeys

By: moonmilk

moonmilk — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:03:35 -0800

I remember wondering if those monkey ads were real. I enjoyed reading this - thanks for posting!

By: heeeraldo

heeeraldo — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:08:42 -0800

Can you call self-link on an infinity of monkeys?

By: smartyboots

smartyboots — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:56:29 -0800

I was sure Comic Book Squirrel Monkeys was going to be the name of a band.

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:09:30 -0800

Great post: childhood memories, funny pet stories, comic books... and monkeys are just funny. Funny monkeys.

By: Alexandra Kitty

Alexandra Kitty — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:18:38 -0800

Leave the monkeys alone!

By: edman

edman — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:42:09 -0800

Maybe one should write about the fabled 'x-ray' vision glasses that all giddy school boy fantasized about. Oops, already done.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:21:02 -0800

I wanted a pet monkey up until I read Where the Red Fern Grows at around 8 or 9 years old. The vivid descriptions of grevious puncturing by way of monkey biting put me right off of the idea pretty much for life, and I've always maintained a healthy respect for apes and monkeys and primates of all sorts, homo sapiens or not. However, if you want to get a pet moneky, be my guest. Just make sure you post the videos on YouTube.

By: jimmythefish

jimmythefish — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:46:23 -0800

Is this not a late return to Monkey News?

By: gottabefunky

gottabefunky — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:14:40 -0800

There was monkey biting in WTRFG? First book to ever make me cry.

By: adipocere

adipocere — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:04:06 -0800

So many of my peers doubted the prospect of live mammal delivery after having been burned by the cruel hoax of the Sea Monkey, but not I. Lawns were mown, candy foregone, and loose change assiduously acquired. A young man of enterprising nature might amass child-sized wealth, divided into monthly expenditures, and have a steady stream of squirrel monkeys delivered to the vacant building down the street, for at least one magical summer. Ah, the sweet, sweet vivisections of youth.

By: tommasz

tommasz — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:24:02 -0800

I haven't read one in years, but the comics of my youth were just chock-full of bitter disappointment. We just didn't know it.

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:34:15 -0800

Most of them are still like that tommasz, just now it has nothing to do with the ads. Cool post, I always wondered how successful the ads were. Thanks!

By: vronsky

vronsky — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:12:03 -0800

I saw jay Leno tell a story about getting one of these when he was a kid. The box finally came and when they opened it, the monkey (well, they think it was a monkey) jumped out and started to race around the house and his mom freaked out and chased it out the door with a broom. Never saw it again. I read comics when I was a kid but don't remember these ads. I do remember the ad for the 2 man submarine you could build yourself. Oh I wanted one of those bad.

By: bonefish

bonefish — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:58:01 -0800

While I was definitely not going to get burned on a fake submarine or brine shrimp sea people, the "foot locker" full of plastic toy soldiers ("army men" in our boomer parlance) seemed too good to pass up. Despite warnings from my parents, I clipped the coupon and mailed off my hard earned allowance anyway. After interminable weeks, the tiny package arrived. Like the comic book ad subs and log cabins, the foot lockerishness was merely an imprint on cardboard. Rather than able to hold the kit of a true serviceman, it was half the size of a shoe box. How could hundreds of army men fit in this thing? Easy, if they are not the three dimensional finger-sized sculptures I expected, but rather flat brittle thumbnail sized simulacras, not even worthy of being cheap Crackerjack prizes! "Man, what a gyp!" I wept. "Caveat emptor," chuckled papa. Comic book ads = life lessons.