Comics advertised on TV

It was a regular occurrence for new UK comics and free gift issues to be advertised on TV throughout the 1960s. I remember many a time when I'd come home from school, see an ad for a comic and rush up to the corner shop to buy a copy. They all tended to follow a similar pattern: show the free gift in action, a few brief images from the strips, and concluding with the cover and an enticing "Out Now!" blurb. Who could resist?

Sadly, those numerous 1960s TV ads don't seem to exist now... or are waiting to be rediscovered. I've even asked television archivists if they've found any in their searches but unfortunately they haven't. Such a pity, as I have vague memories of short, snappy adverts for Sparky, Pow!, Fantastic, and many, many more. 

However, some more recent TV ads have been preserved, thanks to video, and transferring them to You Tube. (I say "more recent", but these will still be ancient to the younger readers of this blog.) Quality is poor, but better than nothing! 

First up, a selection of adverts for Look-In from the late 1970s...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c4ykxxlOu4

An ad for the first issue of 2000AD from 1977:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYBN2joXUoo

The ad for the relaunch of Eagle in 1982:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHWK6nThxdQ

A free gift issue of The Beano (1994):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLpEWB4hRms

A free gift issue of The Dandy (1994):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvolN9SKrqU

...and finally a plug for 2000AD's revamp in 1994:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYUC79D6piw

You'll find a few more if you search You Tube. Let me know if you ever find any from the 1960s!

Sugar Smacks!

Ad from the back page of TV21 and Joe 90 No.1. 1969.

As a break from comics, if you go over to the Down the Tubes blog today John Freeman is waxing nostalgically about the free gifts given away in packs of Sugar Smacks cereal in the 1960s/70s. Take a look here....
https://downthetubes.net/?p=106086

Cooling off 50 years ago

Kinky from 1968.

As the heatwave continues, here's a look back at the ice cream and ice lollies us old 'uns had to cool us off half a century ago. All images have been scanned from comics in my collection.

Strip art: Ken Reid.

Strip art: Frank Bellamy

Space was ace!

Ask most lads who grew up in the 1960s what they were interested in and "space" would be in the top few answers for many, or at least the imaginative ones anyway. The space race between America and the USSR was regularly in the news and manufacturers of toys, comics, and TV shows were eager to latch onto the huge interest in space exploration.

Even Zoom ice lolly was rocket shaped, and in 1963 it gave away a free space picture card tucked in the sleeve of every lolly. Add an endorsement by Steve Zodiac of Fireball XL5 and who could resist? 

This advert is from Boys' World No.22, dated 22nd June 1963. I was only four then, and ice lollies gave me stomach ache so I never had those cards. (I was always ok with ice cream. It was ice lollies that disagreed with me.) I thought I'd show the ad here today though to stir the memories of those of you who did collect them and its album. Anyone remember it?

Ad break!

From Boys' World this week in 1963, an advert for three tasty looking lollies that are no longer produced. Z Bar looks familiar, and I think that would have been my choice out of the three. (I was never keen on ice lollies, only ice cream ones.) 

I know some people hate to see advertisements in comics but I like 'em because they're representative of their period, both historically and in terms of design. They also helped finance a comic to keep it going! 

If you're interested in seeing more old adverts from British comics you can click on the following links:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/junk-food-and-comics.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/ads-from-comics-of-1960s.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/seventies-nostalgia-adverts-in-comics.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/seventies-nostalgia-more-adverts-from.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/more-ads-from-1970s-comics.html

https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/more-classic-adverts-1972.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/advertisements-for-comics-of-past.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/anti-smoking-strips-of-sixties.html

Wall's WONDERMAN by Frank Bellamy (1970)

Frank Bellamy is well known in comics circles for his work on strips such as Heros the Spartan for Eagle, Thunderbirds for TV21, and Garth for the Daily Mirror, but (as some of you also know) he also worked in advertising. Some of those adverts appeared in the weekly comics too. In 1970, Bellamy produced two full page comic strips featuring Wall's Wonderman; a bespoke British superhero promoting Wall's Wonder Woppas ice cream lollies. 

The strip shown above is one I scanned from my edition of Tiger dated 30th May 1970. 

Another Wonderman adventure, Martian Inferno, appeared in Valiant dated 18th April 1970. I don't have that issue, but you can see it on Norman Boyd's blog here:
http://www.frankbellamy.co.uk/notes/wallswonder.htm

Colour ad for WHAM! No.1 (1964)

Earlier this year (see here) I showed how Eagle comic had promoted the launch of Wham! comic in 1964 with various black and white ads. Boys' World went one better and advertised the first issue in full colour. There's the half-page advert above, from Boys' World Vol.2 No.25, dated 20th June 1964, showing part of Leo Baxendale's cover for Wham! No.1.

As we know, in time, Wham! would be joined by sister papers Smash!, Pow!, Fantastic, and Terrific to form the 'Power Comics' imprint, but in the beginning, Wham! was seen as a companion comic to Boys' World and Eagle. 

I'll be showing more pages from Boys' World soon! 

Forgotten Ice Lollies

A very quick blog post tonight as I'm busy. Who remembers Warlord ice lollies? Star-Ship 2000? Banana flavoured King Kong? No, me neither, but I was 19 back in 1978 when these were around so ice lollies weren't really on my agenda. Some of you slightly younger ones might remember them. Star-Ship 2000 looks like it was a renamed version of Sky Ray. Anyway, here's how Wall's promoted them using comic strips 39 years ago. This page appeared on the back page of Misty in the summer of '78, and I'm sure it must have been in other IPC comics too. 

More classic adverts (1972)

It's been a while since I showed any old ads from the comics, so for a quick blog post today here's a selection from 1972. A taste of nostalgia for the over-40s and a glimpse into cultural history for the rest of you. 

Order live goldfish by post!

If you're interested in seeing more old adverts from British comics you can click on the following links:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/junk-food-and-comics.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/seventies-nostalgia-adverts-in-comics.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/seventies-nostalgia-more-adverts-from.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/more-ads-from-1970s-comics.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/ads-from-comics-of-1960s.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/advertisements-for-comics-of-past.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/anti-smoking-strips-of-sixties.html

Comic oddities: STARCOM (1987)

This 8 page A4 size comic, Starcom,  was presented as a pull-out in the middle of a comic or magazine in 1987. (I've long forgotten which title.) It was a promotional item for a new range of toys but what makes it interesting to comics collectors is that it features a six page comic strip drawn by Garry Leach. (Just five years after he produced the memorable visuals for the Marvelman revival with writer Alan Moore for Warrior.)

The 3-D technique for comics was back in vogue at the time and Starcom used it to give a wonderful aspect to Garry's already fantastic artwork. It came free with a pair of 3-D specs, which I'm afraid you'll need to see these pages in all their glory. (Or any 3-D specs from other comics should do the job too.) Failing that, you could improvise your own 3-D Specs by holding a piece of transparent red plastic/film over your left eye and green transparent plastic/film over the right eye. 

Here's a few examples from the comic. As always, click on the pages to see them much larger.

The back page of the comic showed the actual toys the strip was based on. They're unfamiliar to me as I was long past the age of playing with toys by 1987 but I'm sure that some of you must have fond childhood memories of them. Feel free to post your comments below about the toys and/or Garry Leach's great artwork.

Who remembers SUPER Z BAR?

Some people hate adverts in comics but I think they add to their history and nostalgia. Case in point; who remembers Super Z Bar ice lollies now? I don't, but I remember Booster (not that I liked ice lollies much). This ad is from Boys' World in the summer of 1964.

If you're interested in seeing more old adverts from British comics you can click on the following links:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/junk-food-and-comics.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/seventies-nostalgia-adverts-in-comics.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/seventies-nostalgia-more-adverts-from.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/more-ads-from-1970s-comics.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/ads-from-comics-of-1960s.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/advertisements-for-comics-of-past.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/anti-smoking-strips-of-sixties.html

Doctor Who in TV21

Although The Daleks had their own regular strip in the first 104 issues of TV Century 21, and they appeared in headline news items on the cover a couple of times, Doctor Who never appeared because rival title TV Comic had the rights to the strip. However, one issue of TV21 did feature the Doctor, albeit not in strip form. Issue No.28, which went on sale 28th July 1965, heavily promoted the movie Doctor Who and The Daleks, with Peter Cushing's screen version of The Doctor on the front cover.

Inside, there was a special photo-feature on the movie, with a synopsis of the story, including the ending! Ah, where was River Song to warn of "spoilers" back then? 

TV21 had a regular little PR feature with celebrities being "interviewed" by Lady Penelope, but in this issue it was expanded to a full page, accompanied with an exclusive photo of Jennie Linden and Roy Castle reading the comic.

As stated on the cover, the big attraction of the issue was a competition to "Win a real Dalek!". The feature included a photograph of the Dalek plus the runners-up prizes of other Dalek merchandise of the sixties. Wonderful stuff. 

That issue was so Dalek-focused it had eight extra pages to accommodate all the extra features and adverts for various merchandise featuring the Daleks and other characters. I'm pretty certain the artwork on the half pager for 'Stingray Arm Fins' is by Brian Lewis. (I seem to recall either these items or the Stingray inflatable were withdrawn after swimmers got into difficulty.) Art on the ad for the inflatable is by Ron Embleton, the regular artist on the Stingray strip at the time... 

Bizarrely, despite all the Dalek promos throughout that issue, the regular Dalek strip on the back cover didn't feature any Daleks! Art by Richard Jennings...

That issue also featured all the regular strips of course, and I couldn't let the moment pass without showing one of them. A memorable episode of Fireball XL5 by Mike Noble...

This issue is highly collectible and I had it missing recently until I snapped it up on eBay recently. I now have a full run of the first series of TV21 except for No.2. I doubt I'll ever find that one at an affordable price, but no worries. 

As always, click on each page to see it much larger.

Ads from 50 years ago

It's 50 years today since the first episode of Thunderbirds was broadcast and, yes, it certainly feels like half a century! I've already done quite a few posts on Thunderbirds on this blog over the years so today I thought I'd look at what else we as kids were thrilled about back then. Much has changed over the last five decades, yet in some ways many things stay the same, as shown by these vintage adverts from TV21 comic of 50 years ago.

Above is perhaps the first Thunderbirds-related piece of merchandise, and certainly the first appearance of a Thunderbird in TV21. It's an ad for Century 21 Records from TV21 No.41, dated 30th October 1965. 

Here are a few other ads from around the last few months of 1965, when the popular things were Lego, Daleks, fireworks, and James Bond. Not much change there, although fireworks would not be advertised in comics now. Personally I think it's time for a revival of Stingray Slippers! (When I was 3 or 4 I had a similar pair with Yogi Bear heads on them! They were all the rage you know.)

As always, click on the images to see them much larger.