{"id":12574,"date":"2013-04-08T06:25:19","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T11:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=12574"},"modified":"2020-05-22T21:22:30","modified_gmt":"2020-05-23T01:22:30","slug":"chicks-dig-locksmiths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2013\/04\/08\/chicks-dig-locksmiths\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicks Dig Locksmiths"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"COMICS-HEAD\"<\/a>\"locksmith\"<\/a>Am I the only one getting a Ted Bundy<\/a> vibe<\/em> from the fellow featured in this ad?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The happy locksmith appeared in one of many home correspondence course ads that appeared in comics for decades and seemed to dry up some time during the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\"\"I often wonder about these ads. How were they sold? How were they placed? Did advertising agencies handle them producing the mechanical and dealing with either the comic company or the printer as far as inserting them into various books? Did Marvel, DC, Charlton and Keystone have ancient, brown-suited salesmen who ran out to the clients?<\/p>\n

Eddie, try to talk them into the extra color!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…or did they have a bank of ladies on phones taking orders for ads.<\/p>\n

Yeah, we can pick that up, hon. You want the inside back cover again?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have a feeling the ads dried up when comics left the newsstands for the direct market. Advertisers weren’t getting the bang for their buck and the audience at comic book shops wasn’t their audience. The intended audience for the ads were bored GIs that got their comics from the PX or guys thumbing through well worn funny books in a barber shop. The long box and mylar bag crowd was a waste of money.<\/p>\n

Unlike a lot of the ads in comics, a lot of the correspondence courses were legitimate. My Dad sent away for a course similar to the one above and became quite adept at picking locks and was thought of as a Saint with a Slim Jim<\/a> who had often helped out friends and family members who locked keys in their cars. Dad didn’t go for the electric key machine or start a business. He chased down the course because he was curious, and it was not possible for the man to have too many tools.<\/p>\n

The locksmith ad appeared in \u03a9mega the Unknown<\/strong><\/em><\/a> No. 8 published by Marvel Comics in 1977.<\/p>\n

\"Omega-8-1977\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Omega seemed to be a take on both Superman and the original Captain Marvel. He was the last survivor of an alien race that sported a red and blue costume complete with cape. It sort of looks like the costume that is being used in the Man of Steel<\/strong> movie. It turned out to be a little too clever for it’s own good and I thought the interior artwork was somewhat lackluster despite the great Gil Kane cover. The series lasted 10 issues and the plug was pulled<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Am I the only one getting a Ted Bundy vibe from the fellow featured in this ad?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[335],"tags":[191,312,726,9,43,2469,308,2468,1402,2470,336],"class_list":["post-12574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-i-miss-about-comics","tag-191","tag-comic","tag-comic-book","tag-comics","tag-humor","tag-locksmith","tag-marvel","tag-omega-the-unknown","tag-superman","tag-ted-bundy","tag-vintage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-3gO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15311,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2014\/01\/07\/w-is-that-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":12574,"position":0},"title":"W, is that you?","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"January 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Is it just me or does this guy look like the 43rd President of the United States? That's what I thought when I saw this ad for a life-changing course of study in locksmithing. These ads were fairly common in comics as were a number of other home study courses.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Geo-Bush1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Geo-Bush1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Geo-Bush1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38592,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/09\/01\/aaaaay-wear-the-fonz\/","url_meta":{"origin":12574,"position":1},"title":"AAAAAY! Wear the Fonz!","author":"Joe","date":"September 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"This Fonz T Shirt ad appeared in Justice League of America No. 138 published by DC comics in 1977. This is an issue that I may have gotten as a stripped comic for a penny. Back then, unsold comics were returnable to the company that distributed them to newsstands and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/AAAAAY-detail.jpg?fit=640%2C282&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/AAAAAY-detail.jpg?fit=640%2C282&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/AAAAAY-detail.jpg?fit=640%2C282&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37973,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/06\/22\/what-i-miss-about-comics-perfectly-legitimate-ads\/","url_meta":{"origin":12574,"position":2},"title":"What I Miss About Comics – Perfectly Legitimate Ads","author":"Joe","date":"June 22, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"This along with a number of other classified style advertisements for perfectly legitimate products and services appeared in Marvel Spotlight No. 25 published by Marvel Comics in 1975. It was a comic adaptation of Ray Harryhausen's 1958 fantasy epic The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. My guess is that Marvel was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/AUTHENTIC-LOOKING.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/AUTHENTIC-LOOKING.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/AUTHENTIC-LOOKING.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":23581,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2018\/05\/01\/ask-your-father\/","url_meta":{"origin":12574,"position":3},"title":"Ask Your Father","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"May 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Ma, it says right here that they'll send ya 'ONE PREGNANT MALE who will give birth to as many as 25 babies!' How can that be, Ma? How can that be? This was an advertisement that regularly appeared in comic books, and it was the sort of thing that always\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Curious Clutter"","block_context":{"text":"Curious Clutter","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/curious-clutter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/All-Star-Comics_No65.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13007,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2013\/05\/13\/big-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":12574,"position":4},"title":"Big Money!","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"May 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Miniature Chairman of the Board? ...or was this kid in an episode of The Wire? This was another one of those Earn Cash or Prizes ads that ran for decades aimed at kids hoping that there was something easier than slinging newspapers from a bicycle in all kinds of weather\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/11-years-old.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/11-years-old.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/11-years-old.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12728,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2013\/04\/22\/glows-in-the-dark\/","url_meta":{"origin":12574,"position":5},"title":"Glows in the Dark!","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"April 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It seems that everything old is new again. I don't necessarily mean the recent big screen movie version of Dark Shadows featuring baby-faced character actor Johnny Depp and arranged by stylist Tim Burton, but I'm thinking of Hemlock Grove which is a new horror series available through Netflix. Similar to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/GLows-in-the-dark.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}