Saturday, September 8, 2012

Marvel's Western House Ads

While the Marvel westerns became increasingly marginalized as the 1960s wore on, early on they were quite popular and while Lee never featured any cross-overs (there were requests from time to time in the letters page to have a time travel story) they were still strongly linked with the Marvel Superhero line.

The Marvel brand name continued to grow in the early to mid-1960s, and the western "Big 3" of Kid Colt Outlaw, Two-Gun Kid and Rawhide Kid were part of that advertising. Full page ads for Fantastic Four or Amazing Spider-Man were scattered throughout the line, along with ads for the latest westerns. Stan Lee was still writing some of the westerns in 1965, but began relinquishing thes duties to Larry Lieber, Al Hartley, Roy Thomas, Denny O'Neil and Steve Skeates. In late 1964 the western's also received their own letters pages.


Kid Colt's first letters page, including a short lived western checklist, from Kid Colt Outlaw # 120, January 1965.

Like the superhero line, Lee also used full page ads to promote the western heroes. 


Ad from Two-Gun Kid # 75, May 1965



Ad from Kid Colt Outlaw # 130, Sept 1965. Note Lee's reference to the Marvel Bullpen. Two-Gun and Rawhide Kid images by Kirby/Colletta and Kirby/Ayers; Kid Colt image by sorely missed Joe Maneely.



Ad from Rawhide Kid # 46, June 1965. Carl Hubbell art?

The MMMS house ads were identical to the ones used in the superhero comics, of course substituting the Kid's for the long-underwear types. 

    
Since not all the western heroes had recurring villains a generic owlhoot was used, drawn by Marie Severin. From Kid Colt Outlaw # 124, Sept 1965


Ad from Kid Colt Outlaw # 126, Jan 1966. Kid Colt by Marie Severin.



The very same month Marie Severin's T-Shirt ad featuring the Hulk and Dr. Doom appeared (see my previous blog post) Marie contributed this charming illo of Kid Colt, from issue # 127, March 1966.

I'm curious if the MMMS was either advertised or mentioned in the Girl's titles (Millie the Model, Modeling with Millie, Patsy Walker, Patsy and Hedy). I have some example of those comics, but none with a reference to the club. It should be noted that the paid ads in these comics were usually different that those appearing in the rest of Marvel's line, although house ads for Millie and company still mentioned the Marvel brand and those titles also included letters pages. Any info would be appreciated and updated right here.

I hope you enjoyed this excursion down the dusty western trail.  
  

  
       

13 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Nick,

    That Maneely image may in fact be John Severin (or Marie?). I can't blow it up enough to really study it but it doesn't look like Maneely from afar!

    Doc V.

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  3. That's what I thought, but it's from the cover of KC #75.
    The hat and eyes are redrawn, but the rest is an exact copy. It's clearly JM (signed even!)

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  4. Doc,

    It looks like dwalt has identified the image from the cover to KC # 75which was by Maneely. As noted, the figure was repositioned a bit and the hat redrawn, and I guess, the eyes, but the stat is not very clear, even as seen in the original comic.

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  5. That explains it, Nick. From smaller the posted image it looked a bit funny.

    Doc V.

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  6. Did you notice that a "Gary Brodsky" had a letter in the first Kid Colt letter column? Sol's son was named Gary.

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  7. Hey, wasn't there a "Tony Isabella" who wrote letters to Rawhide Kid? Could you be the same guy??? :)

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  8. I took a look through my Millie's, Patsy's, etc. and didn't see ads or any mentions of the MMMS :(

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  9. Jacque,

    Thanks for looking. I was over Doc V's this weekend and went through some of his comics as well. It looks like there was no promotion for the MMMS in any of the Romance/Girl's titles in that period.

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  10. I would love that Two-Gun Kid, Rawhide Kid T-Shirt. Check out some Western Covers at my BLOG.

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  11. Don,

    I love those Kane and Severin covers on your blog, particularly the Western Gunfighters cover.

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  12. Thanks Nick! I follow your blog and love your insights!

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  13. BTW Nick, My Kickstarter campaign for my Western book has just started! Please take a peek and let me know what you think! Thanks!

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