Double Shot of O.J.

COMICS-HEADautographIf the boot doesn’t fit, you must…oh, never mind.

The 1970s and ’80s must have been pretty good for Orenthal JamesO. J.Simpson because he seemed to be the king of all media back then. He was all over television and movie screens while his cartoon image adorned comic book advertising.

spot-biltThat must have been a pretty sweet gig. He didn’t even have to show up for filming or a photo shoot. An illustrator at an advertising agency probably worked from promo photos providing a reasonable facsimile of The Juice, and the the former football star would collect a paycheck. Nice work if you can get it.

dingoFootwear manufacturers seemed to have a thing for Mr. Simpson back before he became the Lizzie Borden of the end of the twentieth century. It’s funny — O.J. and shoes. I imagine that Dingo boots are considerably less expensive than what Bruno Magli offers.

This pair of O.J. Simpson shoe ads adorned the inside front and back covers of Shogun Warriors No. 17 published by Marvel Comics in 1980.

sw-17Similar to The Transformers, The Shogun Warriors was an attempt by an American toy company to cherry-pick existing Japanese toys based on Japanese cartoons and television shows, re-brand them and hopefully have a red hot toy that would fly off the shelves. They never quite made it. Maybe if it had a half-hour cartoon that would act like a commercial and help sell the crap out of it as The Transformers, G.I. Joe and Masters of the Universe did, it may have taken off. I’m not sure if such avenues of syndication were in place at the time. They had to settle for a comic.

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