Note: I posted this then deleted it because I'm not all too familiar with how fair use works. After talking to someone, they told me that this is more than likely safe as it falls under "education" and "critique." So it's going back up. Hopefully this doesn't lead to trouble.
If there's one thing that's more nostalgic than going through old comic books for the art, it's the ads inside comic books. Whether they're ads for junkfood like Oreos and Hostess Cakes or ads for video games and baseball cards, if it's something you can market to the 8-25 male demographic, putting an ad out in a comic book probably gives you a good return for your money. After all, little kids will be bugging their moms left and right for the latest and greatest and those teenagers need to spend their hard earned summer job cash on something. Right? Comics and ads just go together.
One of the things I'm really enjoying about my whole journey into comic book decoupage is that it comes with the side benefit of allowing me to collect advertisements as well. You'll have your standard comic book cross promotions like these . . .
. . . which let you know what's going on in other titles, in hopes that you'll pick them up. By the way, I'm half tempted to get that Eternal Warrior ad framed. I like it. Don't judge me.
Video games also make up a huge chunk of comic book ads.
Here are two very well known Capcom games. Just looking at those ads bring back memories of Saturday mornings. But you'll also get more esoteric ads such as this puppy . . .
YEAH! The muthafuckingSEGACDbitches! Remember that shit? Seriously. Hot damn, does that ad scream “'90s.”
There are also ads for movies, such as the all ages appropriate Nightmare Before Christmas . . .
and the family friendly classic Natural Born Killers.
Every now and again, you'll get an ad that genuinely is esoteric. It's something of a head scratcher at first, but once you think about it, it might make sense. Such as this ad for a Yamaha synthesizer . . .
Chances are, there's that one guy in college reading Captain America who is also really into music and has a couple hundred bucks of dad's money burning a hole in his pocket. Hell, for all we know, it might have been kleinbl00 or thenewgreen that saw this ad and found themselves half tempted to pick this puppy up. Who knows?
Sometimes though, sometimes you come across an ad that just doesn't make any sense at all. It's so nonsensical, it stands out more because of it. Like an ad for a vacuum cleaner.
I took that picture while the comic book was still intact. You know why? Cause if I saw that ad all by itself, torn out with nothing to refer to where it came from, I never, not in a million years, would have believed it came from a comic book. Seriously. I don't even know what to think.