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New Article: “The Adventures of Kool-Aid Man!”

Uh oh. Some of you might've heard rumors about the Kool-Aid Man once having a comic book, but chances are good that you've never actually seen it. Now you can. Today's article is a 25+ page review of "The Adventures of Kool-Aid Man," issue number four, published by Marvel Comics in 1987. It's here that we'll meet "Scorch," Kool-Aid Man's enemy made entirely of fire, it's here that we'll play word search games with terms like "lemon lagoon" to find, and it's here that we'll see Kool-Aid Man enter (and WIN!) a surfing contest. Review also includes a special bonus tribute section to my favorite Kool-Aid pals, "Sharkleberry Fin" and "Purplesaurus Rex." That should kill you some time it should did so time kill, yes.

Posted by Matt on 01/19/2004. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 105 comments

I, too, recall the "Wacky Warehouse" promotions well, because my sisters and I used to pretend to be in the "Warehouse" with all the freaky stuff going on. Despite drinking gallons of Kool-Aid in my youth (my mother even made Kool-Aid pops for really hot, sticky summer afternoons and evenings), I don’t remember us ever actually buying anything with the points. We might have and it’s just slipped my mind.

"Purplesaurus Rex" was one of my sisters’ favorite flavors (I still prefer good, old fashioned cherry), so I remember him and Sharkleberry Fin as well. In fact, some of my happiest childhood memories are of sitting on our back porch in Cape May during the summer, still damp from a morning spent at the beach, eating lunch and drinking Kool-Aid before returning to the sand until dinner-time. Kool-Aid will probably always bring me back to those hours spent on the small back porch, under the shade of the now-vanished willow tree, chatting with my sisters and whichever friends or relatives opted to join us that day.

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 01/19/2004 10:51 PM

I love that layout. I liked the short but many pages and I love the way the links are set up.

Was Surfin’ Berry Punch pink or red? When K-Man is pouring it into a glass, the punch in the pitcher is red, while the punch in the glass is pink.

Hair, meet splitter. Splitter, meet trajeal.

These comics remind me of the old Richie Rich comics I had as a kid. He had his slicked-out hair, his dog Dollar, and his butler Cadbury. And plenty of sound bubbles.

See you in the morning, Duck! ;-)

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 01/19/2004 11:02 PM

I remember having the map of the Kool-Aid Kingdom you’d used to track down Scorch in that one contest that was mentioned earlier. That thing was a-a-awesome.

I saved up my Kool-Aid points,but all I ever got with them was a Kool-Aid Man-shaped pitcher and glasses.

Chestnuts roasted by Overlord @ 01/19/2004 11:21 PM

Very funny review, Matt!

Chestnuts roasted by Bek @ 01/19/2004 11:45 PM

That Pound Puppy being offered in the vault ad isn’t a cooler–his name actually was Cooler. I think he was the head Pound Puppy on the old cartoon if anybody remembers that.

Chestnuts roasted by Luap @ 01/20/2004 12:05 PM

By now Matt, I guess you know that there’s a comic created for everyone and everything by now. I’d thought I’d seen it all til I found pearl Jam and Cheap Trick comics. Then I was scared.

Chestnuts roasted by Jimkaider @ 01/20/2004 12:41 PM

Matt – once again, great job digging up the glorious past of the ’80s and making the current existence of terror alerts and cluster bombs more and more distant in my already fragile psyche (long sentence!)

I actually have that comic!!! Good God – I actually remember "Roast my Toast!" (sad, but true).

The best part is that my brother and I WON THE !@$%@ CONTEST!!! We were 2 of the 1000 kids that found ol’ Kooly’s blasted key to the vault!

It was a $50 gift certificate to Toys ‘R Us!! Being 9 years old, I debated on getting either Kid Icarus or Metroid (!!!), but in the end, I succumed to TurtleMania and bought Ninja Turtle swag.

Thanks again for bringing up an awesome ’80s memory!

Chestnuts roasted by AgentShaolin @ 01/20/2004 12:53 PM

Haha King, I am glad that I am alcohol flavoured. And everyone knows that pixie sticks are only a short step away from being a potent speed/cocaine hybrid.

Chestnuts roasted by Gabbylicious @ 01/20/2004 1:12 AM

something sounds wrong with this line:
Kool-Aid Man throwing his holy liquid on scores of children

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 01/20/2004 1:13 AM

OOOh yeah, I defenitely used to own those. Good Find!

Chestnuts roasted by delafro @ 01/20/2004 1:24 AM

DAMNIT. I wasn’t the first person to bring up the Jell-O comic.

Chestnuts roasted by Marc @ 01/20/2004 2:47 AM

Like RYAN and LISA on that MAZE in section 3… i as well live in DENVER COLORADO… does that make any difference? Of course not!

Chestnuts roasted by Mike @ 01/20/2004 3:18 AM

The Go-Bots that were part of the mail order thing were also given away in Wendy’s Kids Meals. I had a few of them myself.

Chestnuts roasted by Brad @ 01/20/2004 3:26 AM

This article is, truly, MIGHTY MIGHTY A-A-AWE-SOME!!! A few numerated comments:

1) My first reaction was "Oh cool, a Kool-Aid Man comic book, I didn’t know they made those!" And I continued to think that all through the review, until we came to the part about TWISTING THE SKEG… and I realized I’d actually read this comic! It was in the pile of comics that my third grade bus aide handed out to quiet us kids down! Piles of Archies, Ewoks, Droids, Richie Rich, Spooky Boo… and yes, even Kool-Aid Man! But apparently the only part that stuck with me was "twisting the skeg," probably because I loved words as a kid and was eager to know what you called the fin on the bottom of a surfboard. It makes me wonder, how long did I hold onto the memory of that comic, and when did I forget it? Why was ‘skeg’ the only part my brain regarded as too important to throw away?

2) I’ve got a 1998 Kool-Aid commercial on my Pee-Wee’s Playhouse tape, the one with "Lots of great taste– and a whole lot more!" That shows Kool-Aid Man’s face being drawn in the condensation on the pitcher, which is how I always assumed he was constructed. But in this comic, on page 6 of the Surfin’ Contest story, we see him from the side– and his big black nose is projecting! That’s freaky!

3) I checked M Sipher’s Big Transformers Variations List. Breez, Beamer (aka Beemer), and Pow Wow, the Kool-Aid Go-Bots, were probably back stock from the Wendy’s Go-Bots promotion. Maybe they’re variations too? I wonder.

4) If I were a Kool-Aid character, I’d like to be a sort of lemonade-colored anise mocha flavor. "Lickerish Java G’Tron," they’d call me.

Chestnuts roasted by G'Tron @ 01/20/2004 3:32 AM

1998? No, 1988. I’m a dumdum.

Chestnuts roasted by GTron @ 01/20/2004 3:52 AM

Roast my toast! i remember seeing that awful Tang commercial in a zillion other comics. It gives me big orange nightmares to this day.

I also remember seeing ads for a Kool-Aid Man video game for Atari which looked really awful …

Great article, Matt.

Chestnuts roasted by Kit @ 01/20/2004 3:53 AM

Obviously, A-A-Awe-Some is a great phrase that should be used in all forms of printed text. However, how does one SAY it?

Is it (rhymes with pay) ae – ae – AWE – sum?
Or (stretch it out for a few seconds) AAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWE -sum?
Or, even better (worse), "Triple A awesome!"

I ask because I need to say this for my next job interview to look intelligent.

Chestnuts roasted by Justin @ 01/20/2004 6:57 AM

Kool-Aid was and still is a stapel in the house my 20 year old brother and I guzzle that flavored stuff as if it was liquid crack. We collected the Kool-Aid points as kids and had points up the wahzoo. Say like 20,000 points. We really never traded in the points. But collected them. Is the point system still the same can you trade them in for stuff?

I used to own the Kool-Aid Trivia game. The thing was like Trivial Pursuit but for kids. There really was nothing Kool-Aid about it though besides for pictures of Kool-Aid man and some other villians known as the Thirsties which were mini yellow suns that pesterd Kool-Aid and his beloved kids. I think the game was sent to the dump some years ago.

Chestnuts roasted by Rowan_Steele @ 01/20/2004 8:52 AM

oh yeah, me and a friend were arguing earlier about how to pronounce that. when i first read it, i pronounced the word, "aaaaaaaawesome", but everyone else seems convinced that it’s "uh-uh-awesome", so who knows?

the one thing that i do know, however, is that the second one is much more entertaining to randomly blurt out during class.

Chestnuts roasted by amber @ 01/20/2004 12:02 PM

I still play the Atari game once in a while, having a 7800 to play it on. It’s only fun until someone dies.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 01/20/2004 12:09 PM

Justin… go with triple A awesome…. I like the ring to it.

Chestnuts roasted by chad @ 01/20/2004 12:18 PM

Eh, I read that comic and all I can think of is Michael Jackson, inviting little kids into his Neverland ranch. I suppose my thoughts are justified. Who the heck would trust a gigantic, talking pitcher of colored water who breaks through walls and screams "Oh Yeaah!" anyway?

…ok, who would trust Michael Jackson anyway? Nevermind.

Oh, Matt. Great website. Love it.

Chestnuts roasted by Sucrose @ 01/20/2004 1:01 PM

A little late but…Pig Malien, that is the best Batman episode ever!! The part where Joker and his girl are talking over their phones that look like hot dogs is the best. And Batman and Robin wear their bathing suits ON TOP of their costumes.

Batman, whispering to Robin: "That girl, is talking into her hot dog."

Chestnuts roasted by Y2JB78 @ 01/20/2004 2:20 PM

I’ve got some of the plastic glasses and a pitcher somewhere at home. Used them many a time. I liked Great Bludini because it would change color.

Chestnuts roasted by JG! @ 01/20/2004 3:01 PM

"I’m hot!" "I’m thirsty!" "HEY, KOOL-AID!" BLAMMO! "OH, YEAH!" I love the old Kool-Aid commercials from the 70′s. Any body see the courtroom scene from Family Guy? "Oh no." "Oh, no!" "OH, NO!" BOOM! "OH, YEAH!"

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 01/20/2004 4:34 PM

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