{"id":23581,"date":"2018-05-01T06:50:49","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T10:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=23581"},"modified":"2019-11-26T07:25:53","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T12:25:53","slug":"ask-your-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2018\/05\/01\/ask-your-father\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask Your Father"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

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?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

This was an advertisement that regularly appeared in comic books, and it was the sort of thing that always made me wonder how the heck they managed to ship living animals through the mail. When junior came home from school, did he delight at the frolicsome fun of his mail-order sea creatures getting used to their new surroundings or was his hopes to be a seahorse rancher dashed by a ham-fisted postal employee? Is there somebody out there continuing to raise generations of sea horses in captivity from his original purchased pair?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The sea horse ad ran in All Star Comics<\/em> No. 65 published by DC Comics in 1977. As you can see, this comic had it’s title cut off. Back when comics were sold on newsstands, unsold comics were returnable to the distributor for credit. Rather than ship the whole comic back, all that was required of the newsstand operator was to strip the title off and send that back as proof of the books he couldn’t sell. Comics were considered disposable so the rest of the comic was supposed to be trashed. Of course, that didn’t stop unscrupulous vendors from hanging onto the stripped comics and selling them to kids of more modest means for a nickel or even a penny! It was a common practice and some stores used to have piles of these less-than-mint-condition comics that kids would sift through. I used to turn my nose up at these torn up treasures finding destroying a comic as an act of barbarism, but there was a number of times I couldn’t resist. Stripped of it’s collectability, the comic could be enjoyed for the simple trash entertainment it is. I just read this before I started writing this post, and it was a hoot!<\/em><\/p>\n

The price was right and Wally Wood<\/em><\/a> sure could draw Superman’s cousin Power Girl!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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?<\/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":[120,335],"tags":[191,312,726,9,4385,4380,4381,4379,4382,4383,1402,480,336,4384],"class_list":["post-23581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-curious-clutter","category-what-i-miss-about-comics","tag-191","tag-comic","tag-comic-book","tag-comics","tag-earth-2","tag-jsa","tag-one-pregnant-male","tag-power-girl","tag-seahorse","tag-stripped-comic","tag-superman","tag-usa","tag-vintage","tag-wally-wood"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-68l","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37035,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/01\/05\/mail-order-muscles\/","url_meta":{"origin":23581,"position":0},"title":"Mail Order Muscles","author":"Joe","date":"January 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Charles Atlas is the body builder that everybody knows from comic book advertisements, but if you actually bought and read comic books regularly any time between the 1950s through the 1970s, you would be just as familiar with the name of Joe Weider. Weider is recognized as the father of\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\/01\/New-Year-Resolution-detail.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/New-Year-Resolution-detail.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/New-Year-Resolution-detail.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5065,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/11\/07\/comics-will-rot-your-brain\/","url_meta":{"origin":23581,"position":1},"title":"Comics Will Rot Your Brain!","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"November 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite my love of comic books, there used to be a breed of comic magazines with lurid covers that Dr. Frederic Wertham was probably right about. They probably would rot your brain. I used to see these magazines in the same section as the detective and the really tawdry celebrity\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\/2011\/11\/Witches-Tales-detail.jpg?fit=640%2C634&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Witches-Tales-detail.jpg?fit=640%2C634&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Witches-Tales-detail.jpg?fit=640%2C634&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2009\/07\/28\/co2-comics\/","url_meta":{"origin":23581,"position":2},"title":"CO2 Comics","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"July 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The guys at CO2 Comics have a couple of my efforts in sequential art a.k.a. FUNNIES up at their fabulous web comic site. Right now you can read There's No Escape From a Deadline, my comic used for marketing printers and service bureaus, and Hot Topics, my fire safety comic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"CO2_Comics","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/CO2_Comics.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":38592,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/09\/01\/aaaaay-wear-the-fonz\/","url_meta":{"origin":23581,"position":3},"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":36406,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2021\/08\/10\/a-weighty-request\/","url_meta":{"origin":23581,"position":4},"title":"A Weighty Request","author":"Joe","date":"August 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"When you have about an inch of column space and are competing for eyeballs with Sea Monkeys, switchblade pocket combs and get-rich schemes, subtlety is a luxury advertisers in comic books could not afford. The advertisement above along with dozens of other ads making offers that were probably too good\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\/2021\/08\/Sue-and-John.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":41217,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2023\/08\/17\/with-the-comico-boys\/","url_meta":{"origin":23581,"position":5},"title":"With The Comico Boys","author":"Joe","date":"August 17, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Among the well worn stack of comics that I refer to as Barbershop Comics was an old issue of the X-Men that hit the stands late in 1981. There is nothing special about that particular issue, but the advertisement above for comic conventions caught my eye. I attended the Philadelphia\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/X-MEN-153.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\/23581","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=23581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}