Confronting Destiny in a Comic Book

I’m not sure whether this is a public service announcement or an advertisement for a graphic arts position at the company that published this comic book. There are no specifics about applying for a job so I am leaning towards PSA. I guess that the company thought that it was never too soon for grade schoolers to ponder their prospective careers.

The unusual ad appeared in a 1971 issue of Mod Wheels published by Gold Key. The comic looks to be an attempt to cash in on the wildly popular Hot Wheels line of toy cars manufactured by Mattel. I was among the generation that these toys were initially marketed towards. The shelves of toy stores at the time were a riot of plastic model kits and die-cast vehicles with mile upon mile of plastic tracks. Everybody was trying to get a piece of that craze for souped-up miniature automobiles. There was a Saturday Morning cartoon based on Mattel’s toy line which begat a comic book which begat imitators and Mod Wheels was among them.

Mod Wheels tells the tale of Wheels Williams and his Modnik pals, Lump Logan, Li’l Bit Bannon and Scott McCall. The stories are all based around cars and racing. They are kind of like a number of Elvis Presley movies that came out in the 1960s which all had some racing element about them. Apparently, the Modniks even had a band which I read about but didn’t see in the few issues of Mod Wheels I have perused. Apparently the gang had given up the guitars and groupies for carburetors and mag wheels. Toy cars probably sold a lot better than record albums at the time so it seems like prudent switch.

I wonder if the Modniks reconsidered their decision upon meeting Joe Urth.