Comic Coverage

On the Flip Side: From Atari With Love

For all of the attention I give to the front covers of comics, I thought it was high time to devote some space to the back covers of the past, with a new feature I'm calling "On The Flip Side".   I've found that many of the best back covers function almost like mini time capsules, in that they provide a glimpse into the toys, games, gimmicks, snacks and hobbies of that era's kids.  For some, these images will be nostalgic, for others...well, maybe just historic curiosities.  Either way, they're worth checking out one more time.

So let's get to it.

The other day I was watching my son play his James Bond 007: From Russia With Love video game (PS2), and (as usual) was blown away by both the amazing graphics and my son's mutant ability to instantly master these games (my brain and finger dexterity are sadly not up to the task).

Here's a couple of screen shots from the game:

As I watched this complex, chaotic game unfold, I couldn't help but think how far our technology has evolved since the early days of home video games...something our first Flip Side candidate will make perfectly clear.

Appearing on the back covers of DC Comics with a cover date of November 1983, was an ad for Atari's James Bond 007: Octopussy.

 

By today's video game standards, it seems laughable to see such breathless praise lavished upon such crude graphics...but at the time, blocky stick figures and shrill, 8-bit audio really could deliver the "non-stop thrills". 

However, given the choice between an almost-perfect pseudo-Sean Connery (left) and crudely pixelated pseudo-Roger Moore (right), I think I'll stick with the former.

Especially if I can just sit back and watch the action as my son plays.

On the Flipside: Mike Marvel...Forgotten He-Man!

While conducting "research" for one of my Cover to Cover articles, I came across one of those great muscleman ads that used to pepper comics of old. Sure, everyone knew who top-muscleman Charles Atlas was, but there were a host of Atlas wannabes who walked in his manly shadow, all of whom offered the same promise of huge muscles to the huddling masses of skinny nerds and flabby loners.

But before today, I'd never heard of Mike Marvel and his Secret Dynaflex Method! The ad appeared on the back cover of Marvel Comics that were cover dated February 1965 and, as you can see from the scanned image (click on the thumbnail for a larger view), Mike managed to fit three encyclopedia's worth of hype into three super-dense columns of 2 pt. type.

To save you time (and eyestrain), I've selected a few excerpts that will hopefully tell you all you need to know about Mike Marvel (no relation to Captain, as far as I know).

On the Flip Side: Deck the Halls...With BB Guns?

This week's Flip Side comes from the back cover of Action Comics #188 (discussed in a recent post), and features the legendary Daisy BB Rifle, endorsed by Red Ryder himself (click on the thumbnail for a larger view)!  Note Red's odd assumption that the BB rifle would be hung "on your Christmas tree".  Because, you know, nothing communicates the peace and love of the Christmas season better than a rifle hanging from a Christmas tree.

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As anyone with a pulse knows, this is a similar pitch to the one immortalized in A Christmas Story (1980), the nostalgic tale of young Ralphie Parker and his desperate quest to score an official Red Ryder BB Rifle for Christmas.

The ad implores eager youngsters to slip their parents the model number of their dream rifle, a bit like the scheming Ralphie himself.  The ad also supplies some great rhetorical ammunition for the kids to use...including the possibility of junior membership in the NRA and an easy shot at nabbing a Boy Scout Marksmanship Merit Badge!  Why, it might even be enough to overcome the formidable "You'll shoot your eye out!" parental dodge technique!

Finally, take a look at the four-panel sequence at the bottom of the ad, specifically the third panel from the left.

Ahhh...the good old days, when dad could sight-in a rifle in the middle of a busy department store, and not immediately get maced by the clerk or tackled by store security.

Oh, and by the way....to answer Red Ryder's original question?  I'll take the No. 111 Famous Daisy 1000-Shot Red Ryder Cowboy Carbine model (which retailed for a whopping $5.95)! 

But please...don't hang it on my Christmas tree.

On the Flip Side: Disco Death Ray!

Place:  The back covers of DC Comics cover dated Nov. 1978.

Time:  The height of disco dancing mania!

Subject:  AAU Shuperstar vs. The Dirty Sneaker

Subtext:  American consumer culture banishes all remaining vestiges of its hippie past.

This ad from AAU SHOES, an early casualty of the sneaker wars (click on the image for a larger view), features AAU's hero-spokesmodel Shuperstar battling...well...pretty much just an icky hippie named The Dirty Sneaker.

Let's take a look at Dirty Sneaker's gameplan:

Apparently Dirty Sneaker's set to destroy the entire planet with his dirty dancing sneaker death ray (not to be confused with this). Ironically, said death ray is set to activate when the BeeGees' "Stayin' Alive" is played!  Perceptive as ever, AAU Shuperstar believes Dirty Sneaker is merely trying to horn in on the "boogie contest".

(click on the panels for a larger view)

Who's have guessed that one day we'd have to deal with real life shoe-themed terrorists, but back in 1978, it was funny to plan mass-murder with a shoe theme!  Ha ha!

(click on the panels for a larger view)

I'm not sure what's more irritating: AAU Shuperstar's garish late 70's sweatsuit or his excruciating shoe-based puns.  However, the important thing here is to note the banishment of the American youth culture's recent hippie past....powerfully symbolized by preppy, blow-dried AAU Shuperstar's well-placed kick to the Dirty Sneaker's dingy derriere.

(you know the drill)

It's not clear if AAU Shuperstar's blazing red panel of triumphant chest-thumping means that Dirty Sneaker is alive or dead....although the references to "space garbage" and "good-bye forever" indicates a darker side to Shupie's clean cut facade.

No matter...the disco kids are happy to get back to their boogie contest now that Dirty Sneaker's been banished from their midst.

Why, with a snazzy shoe like that, who wouldn't want to kick a smelly hippie into orbit?

On the Flipside: Multiverse 101

When I was a young lad in the early 70's, my friends and I were hardcore "Marvel Fans" (this was long before the term "Marvel Zombies" was coined).  However, something that began to change our minds when it came to DC Comics (or "Dumb Comics" as we dismissively called them) was the animated TV show Super-Friends.  Essentially a simplified version of the Justice League of America, Super-Friends familiarized us with DC's basic "pantheon" of heroes.  Of course, we already knew who Superman and Batman were, but the rest?  It was all new to us...and quite exciting to explore some interesting new "fictional territory".

It wasn't long before someone in our merry little band picked up DC Limited Collector's Edition C-46 (1976), an oversize treasury edition of Justice League reprints. The dynamic cover (by either Neal Adams or Dick Giordano...or both, from the look of it) featured the now-familiar core group on the cover. 

However, it was the back cover that really blew our minds.

At first glance, we thought the back cover was simply a duplicate of the front cover...but upon closer inspection, we realized that some of the heroes were subtley different versions of the familiar icons on the front, or...in some cases, completely different characters occupying the spaces of JLA members.

(click on the images for larger views)

Why was the Flash suddenly wearing a helmet and blue pants?  Is that a skirt on Wonder Woman?  What's the deal with Green Lantern's red shirt...and his ring on his left hand?  How about the slightly different chest logos on both Superman and Batman...and who's the guy with the cool golden helmet?

This was obviously my first introduction to DC's legendary "multiple earths" concept and, counter to the conventional wisdom that new readers are frightened away by such "confusing concepts", I still remember how my friends and I couldn't wait to find out more about these fascinating new (yet familiar) heroes. 

Gradually, I dug up other comics here and there (mostly from friends, considering this was the pre-comic shop era), and eventually found out about The Justice Society of America, and how it all fit together with the JLA.  Over thirty years later, those characters and their connection to their Earth-1 counterparts are just as interesting and exciting to me...despite DC's over 20-year banishment of the concept.  Happily, DC seems to be warming up to the multiverse concept once again, so perhaps that same delightful sense of "anything goes" the above pair of covers suggests can find it's way back into our modern cynical age.

Classic Ads: Building a Lifelong Friendship (Literally)

Those of us who grew up during the 1960's and 70's had some pretty bizarre toys...but few of them were quite as bizarre as Aurora's Big Frankie model kit.  Appearing on back covers of DC Comics dated February of 1965, readers encountered this simultaneously comical and disturbing ad (click on the ad for a larger view):

Where to start with this thing?  How about that inset shot of the kid maniacally grinning at the armless Frankie, like some sort of junior Victor Frankenstein?  Despite his clean-cut appearance, the madness and hubris of creating life from dead (or, in this case, plastic) human parts is obvious.

"Friendliest Monster in Town"?  You know, when I see this face from the package, "friendly" isn't one of the adjectives that come to mind.  And what's with the ruby-red lipstick?  That brings an even stranger vibe to an already unsettling advertisement. Plus, I'm thinking the cement block chained to Frankie's leg kinda negates the "friendly" message as well.


Of course, the most disturbing element of all is the ad's exhortation for kids to "make a friend" with a 2 foot tall grotesquery modeled after a homicidal creature assembled from corpses. Appearances aside, I could understand, say, a five or six year old kid wanting to lug around a large plastic playmate....but the (vaguely hunchbacked) kid in the ad appears to be twelve or thirteen years old, and clearly the age you wouldn't want to be spotted escorting a tiny Frankenstein monster down the sidewalk.

On The Flipside: The Wonders of PLASTIGOOP!

Hey, you 21st century kids may have your Playstations and iPods...but back when I was a kid, we had Plastigoop! 

Possibly created in some dark sub-basement of DuPont Chemical Co. or the Pentagon, Plastigoop was a multi-colored compound included in Mattel's Thingmaker kits, which kids could heat-set into several different shapes using various metal molds.  Yes, heat-set...as in, "giving kids stuff to play with that could burn their skin".

The Thingmaker kit I vividly remember is the Creepy Crawlers set, which featured molds of all kinds of cool bugs, lizards, and assorted slimy critters. However...I wish I'd seen the other Thingmaker kit that was advertised on the back covers of July, 1967 DC Comics...The Fright Factory!

 

(click on the ad for a larger view)

Unlike neon-colored bugs and worms, Fright Factory creations could be worn on your face and eyes (perhaps imparting super-powers due to their mild radioactivity)...but beyond that, how about that AD? Imagine the horrified moms across the nation when they spotted that insane image while Junior read his comic book?  Worse yet, how many kids actually followed the ad's suggestion and cut out the eye-hole? I'm sure just the thought of that would terrify those comic book collectors who "slab" their comics in hermetically-sealed plastic cases.

Though I wasn't able to find a retro commerical for the Fright Factory, I did find one for the good ol' Creepy Crawlers kit...complete with a mini-demo of the process.  Enjoy!