As a depressed cartoonist with internet access, I spend a lot of time looking at old comic book covers online. They're beautiful. But what I find almost as beautiful are the
back covers of old-school comics. Here's a quick sampling of a few, from the early 1970's.
I'll probably grieve a bit when it finally hits me that no one younger than me will understand what the hell I'm talking about if I make a joke about Sea Monkeys, X-ray specs, or Charles Atlas. And what will cartoonists do parodies of?! I presume you've seen Chris Ware's "Make Mistakes - Get Children".
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of embarrassing to admit I've got comics with those back covers, plenty of them in fact. To me at the time I bought them (the 1970s) they looked exotic, like a window into a different culture - we had different ads in France, obviously. Today, the ads in comic books are just annoying reminders of how global pop culture has become. Nothing exotic about an ad for a new video game, I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteI remember all of these ads, but that guy smiling "Who's Smiling Now?" bit really stands out. I also suggest seeking out an ad inside the comics of that era which tells a comic story of a guy getting buried alive and after his rescue deciding to change his life. Bizarre and dramatic at the same time!
ReplyDeleteOh my, I was just thinking about how powerful the back copy of a comic book can be. Admit tingly, I had decided to blog about some of the comics I am posting on sale.
ReplyDeleteWhereas, the prices are low for some the back covers are very interesting. Not all are from my baby boomer era and I so appreciate the ones you have posted. It really is an interesting art form and the backs are often ignored. Thanks for this post and walk down memory lane.