Imaginary text from a possible Marvel ad campaign…
Now, Friends! Say you’ve got a mid-level mall shop where the daily floor traffic is in low-hundred units. You’ve got a CPM of $1.07 per day and you want to stre-e-e-etch that CPM!
Look no further—Marvel Comics—yes, friends, I said, ‘Marvel Comics’! has a flag-waving, gut-busting dollar stretcher for your store or shop!
NO foolin’ around with costumed characters running amok in your store or shop no friends, no actors lounging about on their break taking up valuable real estate!
You get a FANTASTIC head-cutout figure—what we at Marvel call the “Heads In Display!” For the low—and I mean low price of $27.50 plus shipping and handling, you get Dr. Strange—Master of the Mystic Arts to stand in your store or shop!
Patrons can take their own pictures of their loved ones with their heads in the Heads In Display hole! Or! For a similarly low, and I mean low price of $350 plus shipping and handling, you get 160 exposures of instant-print Polaroid film with camera! Patrons will flock!
For short citizens of the Astral Plane, for the low, and I mean low price of $60 plus shipping and handling, you get an OSHA Approved box on which to stand so their head will reach the Head In Display hole!
Of course, that makes this image “Andy Standee…”
Let me yank you out of Advertising Copywriting 101 to explain… In previous blogs, I have mentioned the Marvel Marketing Department’s “In-Store” scheme to provide an event for a store to draw those customers in. Here was the low price version. You could get these huge cut out character shapes for your shop—for who knows what kind of money [ignore my very funny pricing in the above! Intended for maximum yuks, as you can plainly tell! –Money Mad Brown]. But it wasn’t the same as what you would pay for living, mostly breathing humans in costume.
It also meant you could kick these all over the place. That’s when on-staff color correction artist, Andy Yanchus would leap into action! Any scuffs or dings would have to be painstakingly retouched with colors matched. Just one of the many obscure tasks plopped at a Bullpenner’s feet!
These things were over-sized photostats (for those of you generationally challenged, a “photostat” was one of those brand names that stuck for all time. It was a high-contrast photo-sensitive paper that when exposed to light would turn black. Make sure you line up the art with a negative or piece of film and the light can reach what you want to turn black—and hey, presto! You’ve got a black and white print! Yes, you had to process it in a small swimming pool of chemistry in darkroom conditions, but that’s a side detail!). Shot from very clean original artwork – not “original” but another photostat that was very crisp and clean. These were processed, washed and dried then dry-mounted to a sheet of Masonite. (Okay, now I’m just showing off–) Dry-mount material was what we could call “hot melt” in sheets and the mounting press that handled this baby was huge. Masonite was basically thick wood dust with chemical resin acting as a glue.
One must also recall that back in those mid-to-late century times, coloring was done on photostat paper! Thus the staff colorists were all really good when dealing with the stuff. Except when it was life-size! Alas, the one time I caught legendary artist and famous for her coloring, Marie Severin on her knees and coloring one of these (I believe this one!), I did not take a picture! I can reveal that Marie was not happy at being on her knees and doing that exacting function. In particular she was applying the purple dye that was a royal pain in the neck to get smooth… and she was making it smooth! And cursing up a storm. I wish I had now, of course. But back then I was sympathetic to her –actual—pain!
Above, in the heady days of 1979-80, we see Andy holding a giant brush! That was the sort of thing one needed to work on these things. You had to cover a lot of area fast.
Below, I spotted Mailroom Maestro Mike Kudzinowski lugging this thing in through the back door, on his way to the mailroom’s back door. My stat room office door faced Marvel’s back door. I had my camera at the ready as he was struggling through the back door. And blammo, one can see an obscure bit of Marvel marketing history! Pretty sure the one he’s clinging to was a Green Goblin!
