I presume this is the sort of thing the average comics fan of 1973 would wear... on his or her bongwater-soaked jean jacket, of course. A few random points:
1. The advertiser certainly tried to cover a wide demographic base, by including both a "Black Is Beautiful" emblem and the Confederate battle flag. They're the Switzerland of embroidered cloth patch distributors!
2. Does the "Help! I need lovin'" patch actually work? Yes, but only if the other person is "Budweiser Powered."
3. I count no less than five peace symbols and one specifically anti-war slogan among the patches. And yet the world is still wracked by military conflict. Obviously, the damn patches are defective. I want my money back.
4. It was 1973 and they were still selling Woodstock patches. What, had they run out of patches commemorating the 1893 Chicago World's Fair? Also, where's my Altamont patch?
5. I'm tickled by the notion that somebody wearing the "pollution" skull-and-crossbones patch would probably get their heads dunked in the High School boy's room toilets by somebody wearing the regular skull-and-crossbones patch.
5 comments:
Didn't the Doom Patrol kack it in #121?
Oh well. The ads are pretty amazing in those old DP issues; I can understand why GM created Flex Mentallo.
#123 is a reprint of a story that looks to be from the 60's. I can't imagine a publisher nowadays killing off all the characters in a book and then continuing to publish it in a reprint-only format.
Man, I am just old enough to remember these old ads. Do you think anyone made the faux pas of stiching them to anything other than naturally-faded denim?
The very fact that I have to specify "naturally-faded" in reference to c1973 denim makes me a bit angry.
I also like the "Survival(ecology)" caption, to differentiate it from "Survival(conspiracy theorist/militiaman)".
I ordered a Popeye patch back in the day. Make whatever conclusions you wish...
Were Flash Gordon and Felix really that big a deal in 1973 that making a patch of them was considered commercial? Would the targeted crowd that wore patches in the 1970s even be big fans of these characters?
I'm guessing, probably, this was part and parcel of a deal with King Features Syndicate that resulted in the probably more popular to the target crowd Popeye patch. "Who else ya got we can license?" "Well, we're got Felix the Cat, and Flash Gordon, and Dagwood and Blondie..." "Kids like cats. Gimme the cat. And gimme Buck Rogers there. Skip on the guy with the giant sandwich."
Speaking of licensing, man, those Road Runner and Coyote patches look off model and probably unlicensed, right? And I'm wondering the same about the Beatles one, probably the only one I'd still want today...
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