Mike Sterling's Progressive RuinWhere legends live since 1969

I never did buy that Swamp Thang parody comic…wonder who worked on that?

§ February 11th, 2019 § Filed under promo § 2 Comments

Now I’ve probably shown you this before, I think:

…a promo piece from the early to mid-1980s featuring Dalgoda, a fine science fiction comic by Jan Strnad and Dennis Fujitake that deserves to be collected (along with the stories from the Flesh and Bones mini, and a back-up in that Doomsday +1 reprint series, and probably something else I’m forgetting…Anything Goes, maybe?) into a fancypants hardcover. Hey, if they could do it with Puma Blues and Border Worlds, right? Anyway, this sign dates from those long ago pre-Mike in Comics Retail days, but I seem to recall seeing it on display in the shop at the time.

Same with this next item, pulled out of the endless boxes of old promo material that my former boss passed along to me:

I have yet to find the matching “OPEN” sign (and yes, pal Tom, I checked the other side!)…as I recall, this part was taped into the window in such a way that the “OPEN” sign could slide in front of it when necessary. I suspect the “OPEN” half eventally disintegrated from constant handling, given the state of the “CLOSED” portion here.

Anyway, Dalgoda hardcover. Someone get on that. In the meantime, I’ll add my copies of those comics to my “Pile of Stuff Mike Was Reminded of While Blogging or Tweeting and Would Like to Reread Someday.”

Next up, a couple of promos for Wizard, that price guide and news magazine that somehow I didn’t think I’d miss once it was gone, but it did go a long way to getting even casual fans excited about comics. In a very facile, surface-level way, usaally, sure, but I don’t think any retailers nowadays would really turn down anything getting folks hyped about the weekly funnybooks.

But perhaps I digress. There were a few of these 9 by 12 inch mini-posters that I found in The Box, which were basically just reproduced images of forthcoming Wizard covers. Like, for example, this one by Sam Kieth:

Not really much to say except “that’s a neat image.” I always liked Kieth’s work, and I especially liked it those couple of times he drew the Hulk. Glad he’s still out there doing stuff for us to enjoy. (Kieth, that is, not the Hulk…well, Hulk too, I guess.)

Kieth also drew this image for Parody Press in 1992:

Parody Press was sort of dismissed at the time, but I’d like to go back and see what creators worked on some of these titles. Sam Kieth just did the cover for this particular comic, though he (and Mike Baron) wrote a couple of the stories. And it looks like Ty Templeton drew a “pin-up” page, too! Huh. (I do know I have a current pal who wrote a Parody Press title back then, but I’ll let him out himself if he wishes!)

And going back to Wizard…boy, doesn’t this promo flyer sum up the ’90s something fierce:

“Order with reckless abandon,” indeed. I’m pretty sure that was printed on the covers of the distributor order forms at the time.