Tuesday, September 14, 2010

That's A Lovely Housecoat, Madge! Did You Order It From a Comic Book Ad? Tuesday!

You know, you have to do what it takes to pay the bills, and I totally get that. While I occasionally read someone who complains about the ads jarring the comic book experience, I think most of us would gladly put up with a few pages of ads if it will knock the cover price down. I would even go so far as to say I wouldn't mind some ads in Graphic Novels or Trade Paperbacks if it would make my comics dollar stretch further. It seems to work for magazines.

But that being said, I admit I was a little surprised at those who chose to advertise in Daredevil #43. Thusly:


This is indeed what every boy should know: How to "rate the gals" and come up with alibi's when you're "careless." What the good folks at Date-Getter didn't seem to understand was that when you're a comic book-reader, you already have limited your target audience considerably so "rating" the girls is a luxury you can ill afford. And if you do find a girl who will put up with you, you aren't going to need an alibi because the odds are huge you'll never have more than one girl in your life at a time. We read comics, guys. That's the hand we were dealt.


This always weirds me out. I can't imagine anyone in the market for a housecoat would be reading Daredevil comics. I think the "Economy-Wise Ladies of America" would understand that $6.95 would have bought you almost 70 comics back in the day, so I don't see little Billy filling out that coupon any time soon.

This makes a bit more sense, but not much:


It may be a "sturdy, he-man's jacket," but it is also one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. And what is that in his hand? I think it's a taser. She's probably in a lot of trouble and just hasn't figured it out yet.

But if anyone wants to sell clothing on this site, I can now consider it, so there's always that.

See you tomorrow!

6 comments:

Cormac Brown said...

"smartly tailored"

For Cosmo Kramer.

Yeaahh!

Britt Reid said...

That "sturdy he-man's jacket" was the obvious inspiration for the leisure suit of the 1970s!
And, you'll note, it's made of "Spun-Rite" (a forerunner of polyester?) not cotton or wool...

Britt Reid said...

Oh, forgot to mention, we plugged you in today's post http://atocom.blogspot.com/2010/09/golden-age-daredevil-cover-gallery.html

Adam Barnett said...

Thanks for the shout-out, Britt!

Jack Norris said...

Don't forget, at the time far more "regular guys" read comics than would become the case in later years, and a good chunk of the audience were in the military, etc., so the presence of ads aimed at guys with women in their lives isn't as incongruous as you're making it out to be.
(Remember all that stuff people are always quoting about how much bigger sales once were, and how much more prevalent comics-reading was in the general population, etc.)
The only way of being conspicuously geeky about it was if you held onto the things for any length of time rather than throwing or giving them away.

Elizabeth said...

I wonder how many hapless young boys bought that chenille housecoat as a Mother's Day present.