An Advertising Match Made in Heaven... Hostess Snacks and Comic Books!

Martinex1: What could be better than running to the local dime store, grabbing your favorite comic from the spinner rack and with your extra money adding a Hostess Cherry Pie (or Ding Dong, Cupcake, Twinkie, Snowball, Suzy-Q or Ho Ho)?   Super-heroes and the sugary treats seemed to go hand-in-hand back in our youth.

  
And somebody quite brilliant who handled the marketing for the Hostess brands and Continental Baking Company back in the day approved in-comic advertisements.  These one-page ads, numbering in the dozens, featured characters from the various companies in short adventures in which the outcome inevitably involved eating one of the tasty treats.   Marvel, DC, Archie, and Harvey all participated.  Warner Brothers characters also made a few appearances. Villains were foiled, heroes were satisfied, and comedy ensued, but the tasty baked confections were always devoured.
 
During my initial collecting heyday, these ads were ever-present.  I believe some of the Marvel examples featured Sal Buscema and perhaps Marie Severin art, but I cannot be sure on any of it. If anybody can help identify the creators, that would be great.   For more than 250 examples go to tomheroes.com where I captured today's samples.  It would have been fun to find some of the original art for these. In the early 80's, John Byrne parodied the Hostess style in First Comics - that is also included below. 

Enjoy these jewels of yesteryear and share your memories on the nostalgic treats.

Guest Writer: Imitation Is the Purest Form of Flattery

Doug: It's funny that we had Rob Anderson driving the "If I Had a Buck..." train yesterday. Because look who shows up as Guest Poobah today -- the originator of the Dollar Challenge himself, Martinex1! Take it away, chief!

 

Mike S.: Recently I've run across a number of comics that are obviously knock offs of very popular books of that era.  For example, in the early 1970's, riding high in the marketplace Archie Comics was not only publishing many multiple Archie character related books (Betty and Veronica, Jughead, Little Archie, Reggie and Me, etc), they also had additional series that were clearly imitating their own popular brand like That Wilkin Boy, Josie and the Pussycats, and the Mad House Maads.   The stories were definitely similar with a repetitive cast of characters to mimic their established icons.  I actually like That Wilkin Boy a lot; partially because it was amongst a group of comics my cousin gave me but also because I feel it had a slight freshness and freedom.   Other publishers also clearly jumped on the bandwagon; Marvel and DC either invented their own Archie doppelgangers or modified existing characters to the styling of Archie. 

 

Imitation has long existed in the comic industry from characters, to storylines, to series, to cover layouts. Whether Archie, Dennis the Menace, or Casper, there always seemed to be somebody ready to cash in.   I am sure that is true of countless heroes and villains as well.  Are there imitations you enjoy more than the original?  When did you have deja vu?  Here are some covers to wet your whistle.