In-Between Stuff

As an eight-year-old, I usually gave short shrift to the pages of ads or text or what-have-you that lurked between the stories in comic books.  This 1964 issue of Superman #176 was probably the same.  But nowadays, each artifact of this nearly 50-year-old comic can stand a LITTLE attention or examination, seems to me.
 

I don't recall  any other appearances of "Tricksy, World's Greatest Stunt Man," but according to comicbookdb.com, this was the 13th of 16 appearances as filler, always for DC, in a span from 1958 to 1974.



And I agree completely with his solution to a boring activity.  I used to read while walking home from school.  When I joined a gym recently, I was disappointed to find that while there were earphone jacks on the treadmills and other equipment to watch the TVs, there was no flat surface on which to rest a book.  What better combo than reading and burning unsightly fat?

A 1962 law required the publication of a "STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION."  Among other things, we read the legal yet magical title, "National Periodical Publications, Inc."  The Editor is good ol' Mort Weisinger.  Under owners, the only names not readily familiar to me are "P H Sampliner" (a magazine distributor), "S U Sampliner" (I assume a relative of his), and "Sonia Iger," who was Irwin Donenfeld's sister.

I don;t understand all the other legalese.  For example, Number 7 might mean that NPP was entirely privately held (no stockholders over 1 percent listed), or it might mean the company had no mortgage debt ... I'm not sure.  So I'll do now what I did then, skip over the stuff I don't get!

Now, here's a Real American Hero!  Really ... that was one of the later taglines for GI Joe.  (See this article for a fascinatin' look into Joe's history.)

Now, I never had a GI Joe.  I certainly had tons of soldier stuff, from a Union Soldier hat (we played "Silver War" because we didn't understand the pronunciation OR THE MEANING of Civil War) to a combat set bought for $5 of birthday money.  This Combat Set (by Marx!) contained a submachine gun and a 45 automatic, a periscope, and a plastic helmet.  I still remember the rattle-ratchet sound of the machine gun!

But for some reason I never had a Joe, although other kids on the street did.  My only Joe-llectible (a cool word I just now invented) is one of his footlockers, which I came across somewhere and used for an art-supply box when I took art in high school.

See you tomorrow for another new music compilation, and on Friday for the beginning of the SECOND story in this comic!