May 19, 2001

10:57 PM

..but no more X-Ray SpecsOne of those other groups had a pointer to a review of old comic book advertisements; it made me a little nostalgic. I went out, bought a copy of 'Amazing Spider Man', two bucks worth of gum and candy, and went surfing for my old nemesis, 'The Johnson Smith Novelty Company'. I remember buying the x-ray specs (didn't work, but the girls didn't know that - just as much fun) and the six foot Frankenstein screen printed of a 6 foot plastic tablecloth... with two lil glow in the dark stickers to put on the eyes. Anybody else have memories of comic book purchases?
posted by resigned (2 comments total)

oh, yeah... seamonkeys, vacuum cleaner hovercraft plans never built, a u-control plane that snapped its tether and flew off into oblivion...
posted by roboto at 3:11 AM on May 20, 2001

Just wanted to toss in my two cents, and remind people that comics are barely read by kids anymore...(although you couldn't tell that by looking at the ads). Comics can't survive on nostalgia alone, except maybe Archie.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the issue of Amazing Spider-man. Was it written by J. Michael Straczynski?

As for me, I don't have any memeories of purchasing anything from a comic book ad, but I do remember the Hostess Ads.

Finally, here a couple of non-superhero comics that you might find interesting: Oni Press' crime comic Whiteout and Drawn and Quarterly's historical fiction series Berlin.
posted by JDC8 at 8:05 PM on May 20, 2001