Byrne Robotics: Proof That Comics Are All Ages (Or Were)

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Topic: Proof That Comics Are All Ages (Or Were)

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Bill Collins
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Joined: 26 May 2005
Location: England
Posts: 11247

Posted: 24 April 2018 at 12:05am \| IP Logged \| 1	post reply

Wallace and Michael, yes expectations were ruined,
leading me to be a cynical adult!

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Drew Spence
Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 19 February 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 225

Posted: 24 April 2018 at 5:53am \| IP Logged \| 2	post reply

I begged and begged my dad to order one of those 1,000 soldiers toys for like $30 bucks or something. I thought it would be too good a deal to pass up.So he ordered and waited for what seemed like a lifetime.

I expected Green Army Men...

A tiny box showed up and they were all flat and colored in this dull-greenish-brown color. Cheaply, cheaply molded. I was so upset. I don't even think they stood up.

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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132236

Posted: 24 April 2018 at 7:01am \| IP Logged \| 3	post reply

Somebody did a parody of those toy soldiers. The "ad" showed a big, realistic battle scene, but down in one corner was a disclaimer stating that the drawing showed "just what the soldiers would look like if they looked like that."

I've used many a variant on that line in the years since.

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Andrew Bitner
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Joined: 01 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7480

Posted: 25 April 2018 at 6:49am \| IP Logged \| 4	post reply

That Sea Monkeys ad lied to me! Brine shrimp don't build miniature underwater cities at all!

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Rebecca Jansen
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Joined: 12 February 2018
Location: Canada
Posts: 4499

Posted: 25 April 2018 at 11:54am \| IP Logged \| 5	post reply

* Sea-Monkeys not exactly as shown. May be used to add protein to noodle soup. :^)

To return to the original post: comic books were sent to service men during WWII along with Life and Esquire etc. and the hope at least was that they'd continue buying comics after the war. Some publishers like E.C. probably banked on it. A lot of the ones aimed at adult men in the late '40s and '50s were the 'crime' emblazoned ones and saucy pin-up gal type things so beloved of Dr. Wertham. Also there seemed to be a lot of jungle adventure types then too. Maybe some of these should have been across the red line on the floor, then the two comics codes wouldn't have been at all 'necessary' (and kiddie publisher Dell never opted in while even E.C. did on both). That's what pretty much dealt any kind of adult four-color comics the fatal blow although there were still those young men who didn't care about looking dopey and bought what they wanted to and enjoyed and somebody advertised, plus the romance comics were read by young women.

Anything with pictures came to be thought of as a sign of a low intellect readership at some point whereas around the turn of the century it was the mark of quality publishing to have illustrations! Plus comics were stigmatized as all being quick and cheap junk by various groups and by the nature of their format/paper and printing quality (but Classic Comics were not necessarily good comics either, and they had pages cut over the years for reprintings).

Undergrounds had an adult readership, at least in terms of age, but they didn't go for advertsing as commercialism was not popular with that scene, but maybe a rolling paper or bong manufacturer could've done well there?

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