Doppelganger Week!

This week is/was apparently "Doppelganger Week" on Facebook, so it seemed appropriate to change my profile picture to:

Real Live Monkeys!

We're taking a little breather from the ads today, but that doesn't mean I'm skipping out on you guys. I recently came upon an article from Comic Book Resources written over a year ago talking about peoples' real life experiences with comic book mail order pets, namely monkeys!

Here's a tidbit from Jeff Tuthill, who shares his own experience with receiving his real life monkey:

I know it wasn’t over $25 bucks because I wouldn’t have bought it if it was. I remember I saved up the money to buy it, and I had it delivered to a friend’s house that lived around the block from me. He called me up when it was delivered, and there was actually postage due upon delivery, which I expected. It was less than ten bucks. I was 15 years old. When he called, I rode over on my bike. It came in this little cardboard box. I mean, I’m saying small. It was probably the size of a shoebox, except it was higher. It had a little chicken wire screen window in it. There was a cut out. All you could see if you looked in there was his face.

Sadly I skipped over the monkey ads when I started doing this blog, and by the time I realized my error they were already gone from the pages of Spider-Man. I have, however, showcased two other pet ads, one for raccoons (sold by a company that used to sell the same monkeys, and still exists today) and one for a... dragon?

I still have no clue what that creature is in the latter ad, so if you have any idea, please feel free to comment below!

But first, a timely aside

"Hi kids, sit down, we need to talk. As I'm sure you've been hearing rumors for a while now, your daddy Sam and I have decided to get a divorce. I know this is really sad, but given the way things have been recently, we decided this is the best thing to do. We'll always have those fond memories back in 2002 and 2004, though, right?"

"Oh, also, I promise you'll have a brand new, hotter dad real soon, cause I'm gonna start dressing like a cougar!"

"Now come and give your momma Sony a kiss."

In-depth Martial Arts comic book ads article

Dan Kelly, on an  MSNBC blog, of all places, wrote up an insanely in-depth look at martial arts ads in comic books, including our personal favorite here, Yubiwaza!

Check here for all our local coverage on martial arts advertisements, but for a Ken-Burnsian expose, check out Dan Kelly's article, written way back in... oh, the article doesn't say. I'll just assume he wrote it after I started my blog, and that he ripped me off because I was so awesome.

1967 - ASM #47 - Kraven's Brawn(do)

Okay, this isn't an ad, but a frame of an old Spider Man. Specifically, Amazing Spider Man #47, April 1967.

In it, villain Kraven (the Hunter), having realized that Spider Man trumps him with his super powers, decides to fight dirty.

He does this by installing blasters that shoot OUT OF HIS NIPPLES (really the eyes of the lion's head (not main, the entire head) that he wears as a vest), rays that "MAGNETIZE HIS MUSCULAR ELECTROLYTES," thereby rendering his body a twitching mush.

Seeing as how apparently the general public still has no idea what the hell electrolytes are and what they do, this had to have just been completely incomprehensible to the average 1967 reader, and thus perfectly acceptable for Stan Lee (or whoever was ghost-writing for him at this point).

Also Kraven refers to his "ANIMAL POWERS" which, since he really has no super powers other than above average strength, agility, and probably attuned senses*, just refers to his sexual magnetism, as evidenced by his shaved chest, slicked hair, thick mustache, and his leopard print leggings that stop above his ankles like a suburban mother's yoga tights.

*Wikipedia claims Kraven gets heightened powers by regularly ingesting some sort of "jungle juice." I don't recall reading this back then, so they may have toughened him up in subsequent issues by giving him a source of power similar to what college students drink out of a rubbermaid tub at parties.