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Friday, January 21, 2022

House ads: Part two - Marvel comics

Unlike DCs house ads, Marvels ads of the early 1960s were at times pretty slapdash. Seemingly this was because DC had a fair sized production department which was overseen by Jack Adler who could call on the assistance of several DC artists and letterers to produces bespoke house ads. Marvel by comparison at this time had to rely solely on Sol Brodsky and John Verpoorten to produce their ads often with very little time to do so. Of course by the mid -late 1960s and into the 1970’s this all changed and Marvel produced some excellent and fun ads. Below are some of my favourite Marvel House ads from the mid 1960s to the 1970's.
Although the Marvel production department of the early 1960's may have been limited, by the mid 1960’s they were certainly starting to produce some great looking house ads the equal of their Distinctive Completion as can be see below.
In part three I will show some of my favourite house ads from other publsiher like Mighty Comics, Charlton, Atlas and more.
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9 comments:

  1. KidJanuary 21, 2022 at 7:19 PM

    Roy Thomas lettered the 'Conan In Chains - - But Still Conan!' part of that house ad, McS. And perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me, but I seem to remember him saying that he either had to do the lettering back to front or upside down for some reason.

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    1. KidJanuary 24, 2022 at 3:40 PM

      The comment above is feeling a bit neglected, McS - it may have to come home soon if it's left on its own.

      Delete
  2. McSCOTTYJanuary 25, 2022 at 10:53 AM

    It's a wee shame so it is 😁 Strangely this month's views are the second highest since I started but the last week not so much although still high views ( for me) but has resulted in the fewest comments. Saying that it doesn't really bother me getting comments ( as nice as it is) as long as some folk read it which seems to be the case.

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    1. KidJanuary 25, 2022 at 12:30 PM

      It's good to get loads of views, McS, but it doesn't actually tell you whether people are reading the posts. On my blog, I'm sure some people are perhaps attracted by the title, but don't stick around to read the full thing once they see what it's about. That's why I like to see comments - it proves that people are reading the posts.

      Delete
  3. McSCOTTYJanuary 25, 2022 at 3:41 PM

    Yeah I do agree with you Kid but what can you do. I'm chuffed my views have steadily increased though month on month with only a couple of blips. But added up I only have received comments from 7 individuals with only 2 people ( you know who you add-on thank you) regularly commenting. I think if I was asking questions like "Steve does comics" I may have more luck but I don't have the free time at present with work being insane to spend time ( or the way with words you and Steve have) on weekly threads and replying.

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    1. KidJanuary 26, 2022 at 12:24 AM

      Strangely, the number of monthly views doesn't always reflect the amount of comments one receives - or vice versa. Odd, eh?

      Delete
    2. baggseyJanuary 27, 2022 at 9:26 PM

      Jumping in to the topic of increasing the number of reader comments.... I do think that allowing "Anonymous" comments is one way of removing barriers to getting responses as the idea should be to enable a reader to respond at the point in time they read the blog (on a mobile, on a train, whatever). Beyond making it easy for people to chip in, I think that effort is best spent on increasing general readership.
      I've found that tagging blogs with key words and phrases helps bring items to higher up in Google searches, plus having a blog or title which mentions something which is currently "hot" helps bring in new readers. I've also found that setting up a Superstuff Twitter account to advertise a new blog entry has brought new readers, especially when I use that same account to "like" or "retweet" Twitter content posted by other users.
      The reality is that Blogger is very "old school" and no longer in the mainstream of social media, so efforts to link blog posts into mainstream social media seems to be the best way to increase visibility. I'm interested in other thoughts on this.

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  4. baggseyJanuary 26, 2022 at 6:20 PM

    A great selection of Marvel House ads, McScotty. I must say that the ads which always got me most excited were simply those that showed a comic cover which I did not have. The simplicity of that kind of ad had more effect on my comic-buying than any of the other House ads. I wonder if DC or Marvel did any kind of analysis on the impact of House ads, and which type produced the greatest follow-on sales? Of course, today's comics seem to have no house ads whatsoever...wonder why?

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  5. McSCOTTYJanuary 27, 2022 at 10:02 AM

    At the time I also preferred the house ads to show the covers and the more the merrier. But the more bespoke ones like the above Conan and Brother Voodoo ads just showing the title and an illo of the character etc always attracted my interest. I haven't seen a house ad in a comic in years baggsey ( not that I buy that many new comics) I still think they would be a good idea as comic shops confound me with walls of titles it would be good to see a wee ad showing a new comic.

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