WARNING: Spider-Man May Be In Your House

Kalinara once mentioned that when you're used to reading comics in trades, one of the most striking things about going through a run of actual back issues is that you get to see all the old letter columns, and admittedly, if you're used to recent comics, where the time-honored tradition that brought us T.M. Maple and Charles J. Sperling was thrown aside in order to make room for half-page editorial shills, she's probably right.

For me, though, it all comes down to the ads.

Go back far enough, and comic book advertising suddenly becomes, without question, the biggest gold-mine of the bizarre ever put to paper. And whether it's the nonsensical adventures on Earth-Hostess, the deadly fighting styles of Count Dante, or even Sea Monkeys--which, according to NPR's Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me, were created by a hardcore Neo-Nazi--I just cannot get enough of them.

And that's why this one--from the pages of ROM #64, a series that produced a few great ads of its own--stuck out to me.

(Click for a larger image)

I think that pretty much speaks for itself, but allow me to point a few things out here:

1. There was a time when Marvel Comics thought it was a good idea to put its entire marketing strategy into the hands of the readers of ROM: Spaceknight. This time will henceforth be referred to as "The Golden Age."
   
   
2. FABOOM! sounds like a totally awesome game, but the slogan for Crunchy Cookies makes me feel vaguely uncomfortable.
   
   
3. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing more ads for candy and sneakers, and less ads where the guy who chucked Gwen Stacy off a bridge advises me to buy a new Honda.


And perhaps most importantly...


4. Spider-Man and his Amazing Briefcase just totally broke into some dude's house, and then webbed some ad copy to his wall over a pile of broken glass! I'm thinking if times were that hard at the ol' House of Ideas, maybe they should've tried running more ads.

I gotta say, though: I love that last panel. Spider-Man's so sheepish and apologetic there that you can't help but forgive him for the mildly illegal B&E he just pulled. Maybe it could work for a few other transgressions...





You guys have any ideas?