I Am Not An Ad Man
Jan. 18th, 2008 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebitterguySo, I was flipping through this week's haul from my FLCS and I noticed some odd things about the ads in my new books. Specifically, that the ads seem to concentrate mostly on marvel themed products. I have a theory on that, too, but I'll wait until later.
Anyway, because anecdotal observations carry more weight if you do a little research, I thought I'd grab something out of one of the boxes I brought home and do a comparison.
The first two books didn't quite qualify because they were big issues (the Captain America where Reagan gets turned into a snake with legs, and the Acts of Vengeance issue of Iron Man where he and Doom go to Camelot again, only this time it's in the future) and I wanted to compare a regular issue, so I got the next issue of IM out of the box.
Iron Man 251, published date Mid December 1989. Titled "Wrecked him? He nearly KILLED Him!" which indicates that even then Marvel was not above a little sophomoric humour.
Just a quick note from the "Iron Man is a dick" file: as he flies to save a family from a collapsing bridge, Tony thinks "All the blased taxes we pay and this country STILL doesn't spend enough money on maintaining its infrastructure!"
Probably because the cash goes into the military budget, and everytime someone wants to build a bridge they get dogpiled for pork barreling.
Anyway, this isn't to review the book, which is good, because Trimpe & Milgrom's art on this is not awesome.
Okay, let's start analyzing the ads in this book.
The back cover and the inside covers are usually the prime spots, because they're the ones that are most visible and can be printed on pretty glossy stock that's better than the stuff inside. That was the situation back then, in any case, since now interior pages are glossier.
The back cover of this issue is the Dungeon! board game from TSR. TSR was doing a lot of board games back then; I recall also seeing a lot of ads for their Red October and Red Storm Rising games. This issue would have been around the same time 2nd Ed was released, so they were probably at the top of their presence.
Inside back cover? Clearasil Double Clear pads. Obviously, Marvel was still selling the books as something people who cared about hygiene would enjoy. Oh, I kid. I was an Oxy boy, myself. It was usually just a good face scrubbing and a dab of ointment. Although, one time, I had this huge... And you don't care.
Inside back page is a subscription form. Uncanny X-Mas Savings! Clever pun on the X-Men and a popular abbreviation for Christmas.
You could get subscriptions for as little as $6 a year ($6 in Canada). Available titles included three Avengers books (Avengers, Avengers West Coast, and Avengers Spotlight), three Spider Man books (Amazing, Spectacular, and Web Of), five X books (X-Men, X-Factor, Excalibur, New Mutants, and Classic X-Men, which was an awesome reprint book), two Punisher, FF, Groo, and a variety of individual books, including Nth Man, the Ultimate Ninja! Let's discuss other horrid mistakes in publishing history. Larry Hama’s Ninja fetish, which could be tolerated in GI Joe (although it had… unfortunate side effects) apparently failed to set the world on fire.
Going back to the front inside page, we get an add for Castlevania II: Simon's Quest for the NES, produced by Konami. Five is the first ad in the book, with an ad for Sky Shark from Taito, also a NES product.
Page seven has an ad for Operation Wolf, which was a lot less fun on the NES than in the arcade with the guns.
Amusing story with possible current relevance. Back in the '80s, Kingston did its part for hurrying the end of the cold war by treating wounded Afghanis Mujihadeen at Hotel Dieu (and holy cow is there a lot of nothing on that Wiki page). One time, a friend of mine and I were in GameKeeper, an arcade and occasional RPG store on Princess street (the section where they sold RPGs is now a chip shop) and there were a pair of Mujihadeen happily blastic away at the terrorists.
But, man, GameKeeper could be an awesome shop. 'Scuse me, I need to sniffle.
Page 10 is our next ad, and once again, for an NES product. This one, however, is not a game, but for the Acclaim Double Player system, a two player wireless controller set.
We are not disappointed on page 12, where we fidn an ad for WCW World Championship Wrestling, featuring the Road Warriors and other NWA Wrestling Stars.
Nine pages later on page 21, we get another ad, and the trend is not broken, with this ad for the Broderbund U-Force, another controller for the NES. This one is a touchless controller that "electronically senses your every move. And reacts. There's nothign to hold, nothign to jump on, nothing to wear. U-FORCE creates a power field that responds to your every command -- making you the controller." Although it apparently does still have the buttons to press.
Two pages later on 23, we get another NES ad, this time for Star Soldier. What's amusing is that they don't actually tell you what kind of game Star Soldier is. Is it a flyer (which is suggested by ships flying in the background of the illustration) or perhaps a Xenophobe-esque shooter (because there's an alien of some kind on the page). There's no screen shots or anything.
Three pages later, page 26 brings us our first non video game related ad in the book, for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cereal. "Crunchy, sweetened Ninja Nets with Ninja Turtle Marshmallows", which means they're woven corn pieces with marshmallows. I occasionally desire marshmallow cereal, but I usually lie down until the feeling goes away.
On page 28 there's a half page ad under the bullpen bulletins for the Great Easter Cons being held in November '89. They were putting on one day shows every freaking WEEK. Three on the Nov 4 & 5 weekend (Westbury NY, East Hanover NJ & Mt. Laurel NJ), one the next week in Stamford CT, three again the next week in Paramus NJ, NY, NY, and New Brunswick NJ, and three the following weekend in Philadelphia, Springfield NJ, and a massive two day show Nov 25& 26 in Boston, Mass.
The ad says "Every week we present the best shows in the northeast. Geust artists, writers and editors frequently attend (and of course, there's the excitement of buying, selling or trading your favorite comics)."
After the issue's cliffhanger ending, there's an ad for the Remo Williams B&W magazine.
Okay, so, breakdown. One ad for a boardgame. Two house ads. One ad for acne medication. One half page Con ad, an ad for sugary cereal (because why else would you need those Clearasil pads?), and seven ads for video games. That's an interesting breakdown. I don't know what the reader demographics were for Marvel comics back then, but I know that many merchants I speak to say that comics fans skew a lot older now. What's amusing is that so much of the ad revenue came from video games, when they were probably going to contribute to the loss of a lot of the future readership.
It's not surprising to see the number of video games advertised in the book. Even though this was the dawn of the second great wave of video game wars, with Nintendo and Sega facing off, and the SNES would be released the next year, video game manufacturers were finding gold in the hills. There were 350 million NES cartridges sold in its lifetime. That's a lot of games.
I noticed that this issue also seems to be after the period of classic comic ads for Charles Atlas Dynamic Tension system and Grit delivery and Civil War armies for 99 cents.
There's also a dearth of used comics ads. I remember seeing double spread and one page ads for Mile High Comics and East Coast comics.
Now, let's look through a current comic, Incredible Herc 113. I would like to say that I have totally marked out on Planet Hulk, World War Hulk, and now Aftersmash. So I'm glad I enjoyed this book. Things are a bit emo, with Hercules and Child Supergenius Amadeus Cho in a government refugee camp run by the Green Cross (they handle the aftermaths of Gamma Irradiated Monster attacks). Ares, the god of War and Hercules uncle, is bein' a dick.
Never mind the emo and dickishness, here comes the ads.
Back cover is an ad for a show on the Disney Channel, Phneas and Ferb. It's on daily at 8 pm, and exclusive Phineas and Ferb merchandise is available at the Disney Store. Of course it is.
I do recall that there were regular two page centre spread ads for the new Saturday Morning cartoon lineups every year. They were exciting in the prepubescent years.
Inside back cover is apparently an ad for something that makes an arm grow out of the centre of your chest. Or possibly Ballpark hotdogs. What kind of kid eats hot dogs that make you grow extra body parts?
Inside back page is actually a spoof of the Charles Atlas ads about The Insult that made an Iron Man out of "Max" by the Mini Marvels guy. Cute.
Inside cover is the first of many ads for licensed Marvel materials. In this case it's for Spider-Man branded speakers, including an iPod docking device, a Nap Mat mounted speaker (and this is a good idea how?), a speaker pillow (ditto) and an inflatable speaker chair. I am uncertain as to where speaker is located, or how well the presence of a speaker lets a chair uninflate.
First ad inside is on page seven, where we're treated to an ad for the DVD of Dragon Wars. A PG-13 movie from Korea. Comics fans are probably the perfect audience for advertising home media to. I remember being a little surprised when the Flash & Lois and Clark TV dvds were being advertised on Marvel books. I mean, it makes sense, but they're the Dastardly Competition, right?
Moving along to page nine there's an ad for Iron Man cakes. Apparently you can order Iron Man cakes and cupcakes from Cakes.com. They look neat; I got Cynra a Superman cake for her birthday a couple years ago. Possibly. Or maybe she got one for me. Anyway, plastic cake toppers are fun.
The next ad, two more pages along on 11, is for Marvel Sleepwear, licensed by American Marketing Enterprise, In, a member of the Li & Fung Group. So, yeah, Spider-Man Pajamas. I wonder if they come in grownup sizes? There's no info on where to buy them, or a web site for more info, so it's probably available at a Wal-Mart near you.
There's a double page ad on page 14 for Advance Wars: Day of Ruin, a Nintendo DS game that looks like a RTS game. This is the only video game ad in the entire comic. A big shift from the old days.
The next ad is on page 19, for the Head of the Class Activity Station, an educational tool in the shape of Optimus Prime's head. The ad is targeting parents, with copy saying "The games, puzzles and brain teasers have different skill levels to keep up with your child's progress. Add custom spelling lists, math problems, and even your child's name to make the experience uniquely personal."
At this point, you can see that they're not even trying to hide the fact the magazine is aimed at people with young chilldren. No more Clearasil ads, and only one video game.
On page 25 is a house ad for a new X-Force book, with the catchphrase "X-Men do not kill. These are not X-Men." Jesus, didn't we get enough of this bullshit in the '90s? Featuring X-23, Wolfsbane, Wolverine and Thunderbird (or whatever his little brother calls himself) in grey outfits with glowing red eyes. "Cyclops' covert wetworks team doesn't protect the dream, they erase the threats." Wow. They even have two variant covers, a standard variant and a bloody variant.
The final ad in this book is for Mega Bloks (the Lego ripoff) Neo Shifters (Bionicle ripoff).
So, Three ads (out of nine) are for licensed items. It's a generally accepted truth that comics exist primarily to feed the multi-media enterprises, the movies and video games and underoos (or Sleepwear, etc). I wonder if the licensing agreement includes a promise on the licensees’ part to buy a certain number of ads in the books. Also interesting to see that there are fewer ads in this issue than the one from '89.
Both books are 32 pages, and the cover price on the '89 is $1.00 US ($1.25 Canadian), with the current one being $2.99 US & $3.05 Canadian. I suspect that's above the inflationary rate, but the Paper change may be reflected in that.
Anyway, because anecdotal observations carry more weight if you do a little research, I thought I'd grab something out of one of the boxes I brought home and do a comparison.
The first two books didn't quite qualify because they were big issues (the Captain America where Reagan gets turned into a snake with legs, and the Acts of Vengeance issue of Iron Man where he and Doom go to Camelot again, only this time it's in the future) and I wanted to compare a regular issue, so I got the next issue of IM out of the box.
Iron Man 251, published date Mid December 1989. Titled "Wrecked him? He nearly KILLED Him!" which indicates that even then Marvel was not above a little sophomoric humour.
Just a quick note from the "Iron Man is a dick" file: as he flies to save a family from a collapsing bridge, Tony thinks "All the blased taxes we pay and this country STILL doesn't spend enough money on maintaining its infrastructure!"
Probably because the cash goes into the military budget, and everytime someone wants to build a bridge they get dogpiled for pork barreling.
Anyway, this isn't to review the book, which is good, because Trimpe & Milgrom's art on this is not awesome.
Okay, let's start analyzing the ads in this book.
The back cover and the inside covers are usually the prime spots, because they're the ones that are most visible and can be printed on pretty glossy stock that's better than the stuff inside. That was the situation back then, in any case, since now interior pages are glossier.
The back cover of this issue is the Dungeon! board game from TSR. TSR was doing a lot of board games back then; I recall also seeing a lot of ads for their Red October and Red Storm Rising games. This issue would have been around the same time 2nd Ed was released, so they were probably at the top of their presence.
Inside back cover? Clearasil Double Clear pads. Obviously, Marvel was still selling the books as something people who cared about hygiene would enjoy. Oh, I kid. I was an Oxy boy, myself. It was usually just a good face scrubbing and a dab of ointment. Although, one time, I had this huge... And you don't care.
Inside back page is a subscription form. Uncanny X-Mas Savings! Clever pun on the X-Men and a popular abbreviation for Christmas.
You could get subscriptions for as little as $6 a year ($6 in Canada). Available titles included three Avengers books (Avengers, Avengers West Coast, and Avengers Spotlight), three Spider Man books (Amazing, Spectacular, and Web Of), five X books (X-Men, X-Factor, Excalibur, New Mutants, and Classic X-Men, which was an awesome reprint book), two Punisher, FF, Groo, and a variety of individual books, including Nth Man, the Ultimate Ninja! Let's discuss other horrid mistakes in publishing history. Larry Hama’s Ninja fetish, which could be tolerated in GI Joe (although it had… unfortunate side effects) apparently failed to set the world on fire.
Going back to the front inside page, we get an add for Castlevania II: Simon's Quest for the NES, produced by Konami. Five is the first ad in the book, with an ad for Sky Shark from Taito, also a NES product.
Page seven has an ad for Operation Wolf, which was a lot less fun on the NES than in the arcade with the guns.
Amusing story with possible current relevance. Back in the '80s, Kingston did its part for hurrying the end of the cold war by treating wounded Afghanis Mujihadeen at Hotel Dieu (and holy cow is there a lot of nothing on that Wiki page). One time, a friend of mine and I were in GameKeeper, an arcade and occasional RPG store on Princess street (the section where they sold RPGs is now a chip shop) and there were a pair of Mujihadeen happily blastic away at the terrorists.
But, man, GameKeeper could be an awesome shop. 'Scuse me, I need to sniffle.
Page 10 is our next ad, and once again, for an NES product. This one, however, is not a game, but for the Acclaim Double Player system, a two player wireless controller set.
We are not disappointed on page 12, where we fidn an ad for WCW World Championship Wrestling, featuring the Road Warriors and other NWA Wrestling Stars.
Nine pages later on page 21, we get another ad, and the trend is not broken, with this ad for the Broderbund U-Force, another controller for the NES. This one is a touchless controller that "electronically senses your every move. And reacts. There's nothign to hold, nothign to jump on, nothing to wear. U-FORCE creates a power field that responds to your every command -- making you the controller." Although it apparently does still have the buttons to press.
Two pages later on 23, we get another NES ad, this time for Star Soldier. What's amusing is that they don't actually tell you what kind of game Star Soldier is. Is it a flyer (which is suggested by ships flying in the background of the illustration) or perhaps a Xenophobe-esque shooter (because there's an alien of some kind on the page). There's no screen shots or anything.
Three pages later, page 26 brings us our first non video game related ad in the book, for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cereal. "Crunchy, sweetened Ninja Nets with Ninja Turtle Marshmallows", which means they're woven corn pieces with marshmallows. I occasionally desire marshmallow cereal, but I usually lie down until the feeling goes away.
On page 28 there's a half page ad under the bullpen bulletins for the Great Easter Cons being held in November '89. They were putting on one day shows every freaking WEEK. Three on the Nov 4 & 5 weekend (Westbury NY, East Hanover NJ & Mt. Laurel NJ), one the next week in Stamford CT, three again the next week in Paramus NJ, NY, NY, and New Brunswick NJ, and three the following weekend in Philadelphia, Springfield NJ, and a massive two day show Nov 25& 26 in Boston, Mass.
The ad says "Every week we present the best shows in the northeast. Geust artists, writers and editors frequently attend (and of course, there's the excitement of buying, selling or trading your favorite comics)."
After the issue's cliffhanger ending, there's an ad for the Remo Williams B&W magazine.
Okay, so, breakdown. One ad for a boardgame. Two house ads. One ad for acne medication. One half page Con ad, an ad for sugary cereal (because why else would you need those Clearasil pads?), and seven ads for video games. That's an interesting breakdown. I don't know what the reader demographics were for Marvel comics back then, but I know that many merchants I speak to say that comics fans skew a lot older now. What's amusing is that so much of the ad revenue came from video games, when they were probably going to contribute to the loss of a lot of the future readership.
It's not surprising to see the number of video games advertised in the book. Even though this was the dawn of the second great wave of video game wars, with Nintendo and Sega facing off, and the SNES would be released the next year, video game manufacturers were finding gold in the hills. There were 350 million NES cartridges sold in its lifetime. That's a lot of games.
I noticed that this issue also seems to be after the period of classic comic ads for Charles Atlas Dynamic Tension system and Grit delivery and Civil War armies for 99 cents.
There's also a dearth of used comics ads. I remember seeing double spread and one page ads for Mile High Comics and East Coast comics.
Now, let's look through a current comic, Incredible Herc 113. I would like to say that I have totally marked out on Planet Hulk, World War Hulk, and now Aftersmash. So I'm glad I enjoyed this book. Things are a bit emo, with Hercules and Child Supergenius Amadeus Cho in a government refugee camp run by the Green Cross (they handle the aftermaths of Gamma Irradiated Monster attacks). Ares, the god of War and Hercules uncle, is bein' a dick.
Never mind the emo and dickishness, here comes the ads.
Back cover is an ad for a show on the Disney Channel, Phneas and Ferb. It's on daily at 8 pm, and exclusive Phineas and Ferb merchandise is available at the Disney Store. Of course it is.
I do recall that there were regular two page centre spread ads for the new Saturday Morning cartoon lineups every year. They were exciting in the prepubescent years.
Inside back cover is apparently an ad for something that makes an arm grow out of the centre of your chest. Or possibly Ballpark hotdogs. What kind of kid eats hot dogs that make you grow extra body parts?
Inside back page is actually a spoof of the Charles Atlas ads about The Insult that made an Iron Man out of "Max" by the Mini Marvels guy. Cute.
Inside cover is the first of many ads for licensed Marvel materials. In this case it's for Spider-Man branded speakers, including an iPod docking device, a Nap Mat mounted speaker (and this is a good idea how?), a speaker pillow (ditto) and an inflatable speaker chair. I am uncertain as to where speaker is located, or how well the presence of a speaker lets a chair uninflate.
First ad inside is on page seven, where we're treated to an ad for the DVD of Dragon Wars. A PG-13 movie from Korea. Comics fans are probably the perfect audience for advertising home media to. I remember being a little surprised when the Flash & Lois and Clark TV dvds were being advertised on Marvel books. I mean, it makes sense, but they're the Dastardly Competition, right?
Moving along to page nine there's an ad for Iron Man cakes. Apparently you can order Iron Man cakes and cupcakes from Cakes.com. They look neat; I got Cynra a Superman cake for her birthday a couple years ago. Possibly. Or maybe she got one for me. Anyway, plastic cake toppers are fun.
The next ad, two more pages along on 11, is for Marvel Sleepwear, licensed by American Marketing Enterprise, In, a member of the Li & Fung Group. So, yeah, Spider-Man Pajamas. I wonder if they come in grownup sizes? There's no info on where to buy them, or a web site for more info, so it's probably available at a Wal-Mart near you.
There's a double page ad on page 14 for Advance Wars: Day of Ruin, a Nintendo DS game that looks like a RTS game. This is the only video game ad in the entire comic. A big shift from the old days.
The next ad is on page 19, for the Head of the Class Activity Station, an educational tool in the shape of Optimus Prime's head. The ad is targeting parents, with copy saying "The games, puzzles and brain teasers have different skill levels to keep up with your child's progress. Add custom spelling lists, math problems, and even your child's name to make the experience uniquely personal."
At this point, you can see that they're not even trying to hide the fact the magazine is aimed at people with young chilldren. No more Clearasil ads, and only one video game.
On page 25 is a house ad for a new X-Force book, with the catchphrase "X-Men do not kill. These are not X-Men." Jesus, didn't we get enough of this bullshit in the '90s? Featuring X-23, Wolfsbane, Wolverine and Thunderbird (or whatever his little brother calls himself) in grey outfits with glowing red eyes. "Cyclops' covert wetworks team doesn't protect the dream, they erase the threats." Wow. They even have two variant covers, a standard variant and a bloody variant.
The final ad in this book is for Mega Bloks (the Lego ripoff) Neo Shifters (Bionicle ripoff).
So, Three ads (out of nine) are for licensed items. It's a generally accepted truth that comics exist primarily to feed the multi-media enterprises, the movies and video games and underoos (or Sleepwear, etc). I wonder if the licensing agreement includes a promise on the licensees’ part to buy a certain number of ads in the books. Also interesting to see that there are fewer ads in this issue than the one from '89.
Both books are 32 pages, and the cover price on the '89 is $1.00 US ($1.25 Canadian), with the current one being $2.99 US & $3.05 Canadian. I suspect that's above the inflationary rate, but the Paper change may be reflected in that.
