An Advertising Match Made in Heaven... Hostess Snacks and Comic Books!

Martinex1: What could be better than running to the local dime store, grabbing your favorite comic from the spinner rack and with your extra money adding a Hostess Cherry Pie (or Ding Dong, Cupcake, Twinkie, Snowball, Suzy-Q or Ho Ho)?   Super-heroes and the sugary treats seemed to go hand-in-hand back in our youth.

  
And somebody quite brilliant who handled the marketing for the Hostess brands and Continental Baking Company back in the day approved in-comic advertisements.  These one-page ads, numbering in the dozens, featured characters from the various companies in short adventures in which the outcome inevitably involved eating one of the tasty treats.   Marvel, DC, Archie, and Harvey all participated.  Warner Brothers characters also made a few appearances. Villains were foiled, heroes were satisfied, and comedy ensued, but the tasty baked confections were always devoured.
 
During my initial collecting heyday, these ads were ever-present.  I believe some of the Marvel examples featured Sal Buscema and perhaps Marie Severin art, but I cannot be sure on any of it. If anybody can help identify the creators, that would be great.   For more than 250 examples go to tomheroes.com where I captured today's samples.  It would have been fun to find some of the original art for these. In the early 80's, John Byrne parodied the Hostess style in First Comics - that is also included below. 

Enjoy these jewels of yesteryear and share your memories on the nostalgic treats.

Who's The Best... Marvel's Corner Box?

Martinex1:  Marvel really had something special going on in the upper left hand corner of their comics.  From nearly the beginning, they carved out space on the cover to identify the characters within.   The heroes were easy to see on the shelved newsstands as the comics were layered for visual access.  The company quickly realized that they were onto something as they even advertised to "Watch for the  Greatest Symbols in Comics!"   It may have been Stan at his hyperbolic best, but I have to say that there were actually times that the corner box made me buy a comic.  Looking back at the history of that iconic marketing tool that lasted decades, I cannot believe how many variations existed.  In this post I share more than one-hundred examples, and I dare to say that I have only scratched the surface.  


During my comic purchasing peak, I inspected the cover and looked for the sometimes subtle changes in the corner box.  My favorites varied from the John Byrne floating head depictions to the rotating spotlighted team members in books like the Micronauts.   One of the most clever examples included a run on the Incredible Hulk in which the Hulk in the corner box transformed from a scientist into the rampaging character if the reader handled sequenced issues as a flipbook.  (The proof of that down below came from the thejadegiant.com website).


What were your favorites?  Which were the best?  And which were the worst?   Enjoy!

Face-Off: Stan Lee or Walt Disney?

Martinex1:  On this site, we often draw comparisons between various titans, and today we compare and contrast two giants of entertainment and creativity: Stan Lee and Walt Disney!

I have to give these two men credit.  For people that exist outside of my family and personal life and who I have never had the pleasure of meeting, they have added greatly to my life's happiness.   

But today it is Face-Off time!   So who is more impactful and influential (define that as you see fit)?   What are their similarities and differences?  They are both showmen, imagineers, business men, and visionaries who created icons for the generations.   But what do you say?