Reminiscing With Old Comic Book Ads #2

This past weekend, there was a little(and I do mean little), comic convention at the local SUNY college.  There were a handful of vendors, and lots of people playing Magic The Gathering.  There was a Batman coloring contest, for which they only suplied you with crayons to color him with.  I of course went with the old-school blue and gray look, that he sported in Super Friends.  I had only $5 to spend, so I had to spend it wisely.  So, I went ahead and checked out the $1 boxes, and found 5 comics that I thought were worth picking up.  Four out of the five ended up being New Mutants comics.  But were her to talk about the ads contained within.

Above is the cover for The New Mutants #100, which, as you can see, was the final issue of the series.  The characters you see in The New Mutants are the members who ended up making X-Force.  Even though the cover is done by Rob Liefeld(ugh), it’s still very memorable to me.  This issue hit stands a few months before I turned 12, so this was a time when I was heavily into comics.

On the inside cover, we have an ad for Double Dragon III for the Nintendo Entertainment System.  While I presently own all 3 Double Dragon games for the NES, I only had and played the first one when I was a kid.  This ad had me believing that this was a can’t-miss game.  It’s okay, but it’s not the blockbuster my younger self thought it would be.

Now this was a game I had and played!  In my opinion, I find this to be the second best Mega Man game on the NES(with Mega Man 2 being the best).  This was a can’t miss series in the NES’s heyday.  The comics of this era are peppered with NES ads(which is awesome), and this was one of the better ones.  Some of the other ads had insae scenes depicted, which made the games seem a lot cooler than they actually were.

This is an ad I remember seeing a lot of!  I never got into playing Dungeons and Dragons, but believe me, this was an ad that peaked my interest every time I laid eye upon it.  Looking at it now, it still has me interested.

Here’s an ad for one of the hardest Nintendo games ever!  I have never played this game, even to this very day.  I definitely wouldn’t mind adding it to my collection, but I don’t think it would get played very often.   But wait there’s more!

This Silver Surfer contest gave you a chance to win you very own “Customized Silver Surfer Jet-Ski”.  I wonder if anyone really won this, and if it still exists.  Hell, I’d like to see what the Silver Surfer watches look like.  You had to send in a photo of your high score to enter, and you could enter as many times as you wanted.  I would really like to see the high scores that won prizes.

This is another one I remember seeing a lot of!  I’m pretty sure I bought a few 3 Musketeers bars because of ads like this.  I mean, c’mon, reading comics and eating candy go perfectly together(as long as none of the said candy ends up on the comic).

Is it any surprise that the las ad in this comic is another ad for an NES game?  This is by far, my favorite ad in this comic.  Nintendo and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were 2 of my biggest childhood vices, and this put both together.  Yes, there was an NES Turtles game before this one, but this was the game to have!  I just love how the arcade cabinet is dripping with retromutagen ooze.  So many things to like in this one.

There were only 3 ads I did not cover(not including ads for subscriptions).  2 Were for baseball cards, and another was for a sci-fi book club.  But let’s not forget that I bought four other comics.  And I plan on covering the ads from those as well.  There will be a little variety, as the comics range from 1982-1989.