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05/07/2004: Return of the Comic Book Ads!

Return of the Comic Book Ads! I’ve been saving these up for months, and though none of ‘em are really anything special, they’re all personal favorites of mine. Take a trip back about twenty years or so, with ads from Abracadabra Magic Shop, the Fun House, and even a special deal where Spider-Man teams up with a cheese company to hand out backpacks. Hooray.

Posted by Matt. E-mail me!

Discussion Thread: 126 comments

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Choose Your Own Adventure! Fantastic!

…And I thought I was the only guy who cut out and saved the Hostess Cupcake ads!

Ghosted by Aaron @ 05/11/2004 2:06 PM EDT

My sister had the Oreo cup, but it wasn’t wide enough to actually dunk an oreo in it. How retarded is that?

Ghosted by chris @ 05/11/2004 2:11 PM EDT

My brother had the Intergalactic Spy CYOA book
It was different because only one of the paths would lead to the end
the rest killed you
After I read that I was severely disappointed that the other books didn’t have a right answer

Ghosted by Buster @ 05/11/2004 11:12 PM EDT

I have that count duckula comic book with geraldo and have scanned the cover, not sure how to post it though……

Ghosted by simoneagle @ 05/12/2004 5:21 PM EDT

I have that count duckula comic book with geraldo and have scanned the cover, not sure how to post it though……

Ghosted by simoneagle @ 05/12/2004 5:21 PM EDT

Dude, I loved CYOA, especially the one SuperAdventure I had, wich was Journey to the Year 3000. Does anyone else here remember that?

Anyway, sweet ads. I definitely would’ve gone for the Spidey backpack had I known about it. I remember participating in a similar offer when A&W gave away a color-changing Spidey mug.

Ghosted by Nate @ 05/12/2004 10:40 PM EDT

I remember most of the ads. They also had similar ads in Boys’ Life the evil magazine of Boy Scouts of America. I think the Johnson Smith ads are still in most comic books and magazines.

Ghosted by The Adamantium Elbow @ 05/13/2004 2:44 AM EDT

Is there any chance of bringing back Jack Chick? Do you have links to the old ones you used to put up? I’m trying to tell my boyfriend about them but I just don’t do it justice.

Ghosted by littlemissv @ 05/13/2004 10:22 AM EDT

Man, doug Sulipa’s Comic World . . . that’s a frightening memory! I remember going there as a kid when we’d go into Winnipeg, and the descriptions so far are accurate; a huge maze of shelves & boxes of musty old comics. Once I took a huge box of comics in to sell, and ended up with barely enough to get an old X-Men that looked like somebody have given it to a really violent 5 year-old. If memory serves, it changed locations a number of times, before disappearing all together.

Ghosted by Killdozer @ 05/14/2004 1:59 AM EDT

I greatly enjoyed the article, my dad is a big comicbook nerd who has been collecting since he was 9. He knows Doug Sulipa personally and is now an Overstreet Price Guide Advisor. Since there were always thousands of comics around, I remember each of those adds….I’m getting all misty and nastalgic now…

Ghosted by DMC @ 05/14/2004 8:59 PM EDT

Y’know what was forgotten? that one where meat Loaf and the marvel Superheroes teamed up to fight world famine. "We’ll help, Meat Loaf, but how?" I loved that one.

Ghosted by Max @ 05/14/2004 10:15 PM EDT

I read those CYOA stories a hella lot, now that I think about it…

Ghosted by add!ct @ 05/16/2004 4:49 AM EDT

I remember each and every one of those ads, and I’m sure if I thumbed through enough of my back issues of The Defenders (starring both silver surfer and the Hulk) or perhaps my bargain bin bonanza of Rom Spaceknight (Marvel) issues i could find dozens more for you. lol. And yes, we ALL collected those giant white boxes, like status symbols of the highest grade.

Ghosted by Ben @ 05/17/2004 1:54 PM EDT

Back in the mid-90s, I read the Sonic The Hedgehog Archie Comics series. There were ads for Twizzlers and Shock Tarts.
The guy in the Shock Tarts ad looked like Beakman from Beakman’s World and the photo of a man altered with Twizzlers Pull-and-Peels were funny as hell.

Ghosted by AngeFaitore @ 05/18/2004 5:29 PM EDT

that Captain O. always looked very suspicious to me. I am glad I never joined it.

BTW I LOVED CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE!!!

Ghosted by Mike @ 05/19/2004 4:15 PM EDT

that Captain O. always looked very suspicious to me. I am glad I never joined it.

BTW I LOVED CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE!!!

Ghosted by Mike @ 05/19/2004 4:32 PM EDT

that Captain O. always looked very suspicious to me. I am glad I never joined it.

BTW I LOVED CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE!!!

Ghosted by Mike @ 05/19/2004 5:04 PM EDT

Oh man those ads, who could forget them? And I was king of CYOA books, The best of the Best had to be the Zork novels. I would always keep my thumb in the page before making any major decisions, you know, just in case. Great article man.

Ghosted by Steve @ 05/25/2004 1:27 AM EDT

I HAD the Mario CYOA book where all of Bowser’s kids were in it and you and Luigi had to get away without running into one of them. (Wendy, Larry, etc.) Those bastards. Also, in the book you were Mario. But I was ALWAYS Luigi….i had a love/hate relationship with that book.

Ghosted by Muppet Baby @ 05/27/2004 3:42 PM EDT

Wow… a number of thoughts come to mind after reading this article! Well, for one, with CYOA books, I had one that was entitled, ‘Star Trek- Phaser Fight’ or something to that end, and I swear, it seemed like at every turn, I’d get the bad end of the stick, either having the Enterprise get bashed up by meteors, Klingons taking over he ship, or some space spores killing the crew. Dammit, Jim!

And as far as Mile High Comics go, I too, live in Denver, and as a matter of fact, as a kid, Mile High was a mecca for any comic book collector, hardcore to neophyte to casual collector (I’m 25 now, BTW.) At any rate, when Image Comics was still extremely hot in the 1990s, my twin brother actually went to Mile High Comics’ superstore well north of Denver and had his GEN13 #1 signed by J. Scott Campbell. My bro even had a picture taken with him, and was the envy of everybody for a while! For a comic book fan, that’s definitely a cool moment.

Oh, and I was just wondering, Matt… when are you gonna write an article about those frickin’ milkcaps known otherwise as POGS? Those things… that fad… was just odd.

Keep up the good work!

Ghosted by RKMtwin @ 06/02/2004 1:28 AM EDT

Growing up in Winnipeg, I had the privilege of visiting Doug Sulipa’s Comic World whenever I was downtown on school in-service days, or seeing a movie on Saturday afternoons. What the beautiful advertisement conceals is the fearful nature of the store…a grungy basement store that was never cleaned, where the employees continually smoked pot, and where one of the employee’s (perhaps Doug Sulipa’s) own mother was an employee who couldn’t be bothered to be helpful and was continually screamed at by the employees. Unfortunately, they had a really great four-comics-for-a-buck bin that always sucked me back in, and built up my Spider-Man collection.

Ghosted by Tyler @ 06/11/2004 2:24 PM EDT

Wow. I actually had the robot watch from Bonkers. I love this site, it has everything I did when I was a kid!

Ghosted by Chris @ 06/29/2004 8:53 PM EDT

Batfreak’s the name (via GYBO) – you have fanz, mate.

yep, i was BIGTIME on the CYOA books, and I never bothered responding to the plethora of ads – why would you from Down Under?

What WAS fun, though, was coming to grips with the value of the American dollar WAY BEFORE the Australian dollar got floated… ho boy.

Ghosted by Australian reader @ 08/27/2004 5:37 AM EDT

heh i remeber all the things from the comic books..my favorite comics were GI Joe.strange for a girl but ahh well..heh thanks for bringing me back to my child hood for a little while..mm..now i am craving bonkers and nabisco cookies.:)

Ghosted by the sunmaid @ 09/19/2004 2:08 AM EDT

WOW does this bring back memories. One of my fond comic book memories is the novelty company : “HONOR HOUSE” that was on the inside cover of most comic books. The art work was really great. The snakes in a glass of water, a bald man with a scowling face eating onion gum, the kid with vomit spewing from his mouth, the itching powder, the smoke bombs (worked well, made lots of smoke), x-ray specs with the sex fiend that had the popping eyes staring at a girl etc. I bought quite alot of stuff from them. It generally took 4 to 6 weeks back then. Here’s the real kicker….I always sent CASH and they never ripped me off.

Ghosted by TOM @ 09/20/2006 11:08 AM EDT

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