Mail-Order Mysteries: Delightful Treasures from Vintage Comic Book Ads

by Kirk Demarais

Hardcover, 2011

Status

Available

Call number

TT174

Genres

General Nonfiction

Graphic Novels

Graphic Novels and Comics

Comics

Business

Nonfiction

Publication

Insight Editions, Div of Palace Publishing Group, LP (2011), Edition: Illustrated, 156 pages

Description

Rediscover your sense of wonder! Generations of comic book readers remember the tantalizing promises of vintage novelty advertisements that offered authentic laser-gun plans, x-ray specs, and even 7-foot-tall monsters (with glow-in-the-dark eyes!). But what would you really get if you entrusted your hard-earned $1.69 to the post office? Mail-Order Mysteries answers this question, revealing the amazing truths (and agonizing exaggerations) about the actual products marketed to kids in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. Pop-culture historian Kirk Demarais shares his astonishing collection, including: 100 Toy Soldiers in a Footlocker Count Dante's World's Deadliest Fighting Secrets GRIT Hercules Wrist Band Hypno-Coin Life-Size Monsters Mystic Smoke Sea Monkeys Soil From Dracula's Castle U-Control Ghost Ventrilo Voice Thrower ...and many, many more! With more than 150 extraordinary, peculiar, and downright fraudulent collectibles, Mail-Order Mysteries is a must-have book comic book fans everywhere. Trust us.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member figre

This is a book for a very specific kind of person; the kind of person who grew up perusing the ads in the comic books almost as closely as the comic books themselves, the kind of person who really thought there might be glasses that would allow us to have x-ray vision, the kind of person who

measured out the dimensions of the cardboard submarine to see if it might be something that could really be played in, the kind of person who actually bought 204 Revolutionary War soldiers , the kind of person who ponderously poured over the prizes available if you sold just enough stuff, and the kind of person who continued to buy sea monkeys even after he knew what they were. This is a book for people like me.

Quite simply, it is pictures and descriptions (with amusing asides) of the kind of junk that could be bought in the 60's through mail order – primarily from ads in comic books. (At least, that's the way I remember it.) As such, it is a fond remembrance of how we all thought we could get amazing things through the mail; how we might achieve our hearts desire with just a few dollars, an envelope, and a return address.

Not a book for everyone. If you didn't experience that time, then I'm willing to bet you won't get it.

But if you were there, then you will greatly enjoy being there again.

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LibraryThing member rickklaw

Cheesy ads promoting all sorts of questionable items have appeared throughout the history of comic books. In the lavish Mail-Order Mysteries, Demarais supplies a chronicle of the more popular and infamous products. Far more than just a mere listing, each item includes the original ad, a picture of

the actual item, and exploratory text broken into three or four parts: WE IMAGINED, THEY SENT, BEHIND THE MYSTERY and CUSTOMER SATISFACTION. Demarais starts with an exploration of the classic X-Ray Spex. The ad promised "Amazing X-Ray Vision Instantly!" For $1, it claimed you could "See through fingers -- through skin -- see yolk of egg -- see lead in pencil." Demarais reveals every boy's belief about the product in the WE IMAGINED. "Glasses that enable you to see real skeletons and nudity." In the THEY SENT segment he quickly debunked it, informing that the Spex were really "eyewear stuffed with bird feathers!" The feathers created the illusion of seeing skeleton or the curve of a woman's body. In BEHIND THE MYSTERY, Demarais tells us that creator Harold von Braunhut also created Sea-Monkeys. He closes the passages with "CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: Not X-actly what we X-pected, but they're X-alted as the quintessential mail-order novelty." In 150 pages, Demarais covers legendary novelties and questionable products such as the 100 pc. Toy Soldier Set, Grit newspapers, World's Deadliest Fighting Secrets, and the Polaris Nuclear Sub. He often shares little known but interesting facts about the products, their companies and creators. The only downside to this book is the lack of an index. Demarais divides the book into eight subject sections making it difficult to locate something you read previously.

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