In September 1991 we were in the middle of The Infinity Gauntlet story line. A story that would have a far reaching impact in the Marvel universe. The Infinity Gauntlet was mostly self contained into it’s own comic book, but it did crossover into a few other titles.
Cloak and Dagger, Doctor Strange, Silver Surfer and a few others were part of the crossover event. So was The Incredible Hulk #385, the comic we are looking at today. I didn’t regularly by Incredible Hulk comics, but like most of collectors in 1991, I bought all The Infinity Gauntlet comics and crossovers.
It led to an increase in my weekly pick list. I’d add comics that I liked from the crossover and buy them. Sometimes the comic would find a permanent place on my list and sometimes it would fade away after a few months.
I collected The Incredible Hulk from the first crossover, #384 until issue #400 and then I stopped. Not sure why I stopped, I guess issue #400 seemed like a good place to stop.
The Incredible Hulk 385 “Dark Dominion”
The story line for issue #385 takes place around the same time as The Infinity Gauntlet #6, the final issue. Earths population is cut in half, New York is in total chaos and a psycho named Gestalt is basking in all the chaos.
The Hulk is transported back to Earth (he’s away fighting Thanos who controls the Infinity Gauntlet) and must fight Gestalt to save mankind.
It’s a great story and who better to save Earth than the Hulk? Can the Hulk defeat Gestalt and save us all?
This run of The Incredible Hulk was drawn by Dale Keown. He started drawing The Incredible Hulk on issue #367 and ended his run on issue #398. Maybe that’s why I stopped collecting. Keown moved over to Image Comics and create a character called Pitt.
I collected a few of the Image comics too, Pitt being one of them.
We don’t need to go into the history of Image Comics, even though it is quite interesting. We want to see the ads from The Incredible Hulk!
Let’s get to it.
Capri Sun
I remember seeing Capri Sun for the first time in the mid to late 80’s. We never had it in my house but I’d drink it occasionally at friends. Although, most of my friends stuck to pop (that’s soda or coke for those outside the Midwest). Capri Sun seemed more like a little kids drink so we stayed away from it.
Despite not drinking much of it, this ad is great. It screams the 90’s! The colors, the artwork, the fonts, everything about it is so 1990’s and it’s awesome!
I don’t know what Pacific Cooler taste like, I imagine it’s a pineapple-banana blend of some kind. Really it doesn’t matter. I could stare at this ad for hours and be transported back to the 90’s.
Star Trek Trading Cards
Another great ad. This one for the Star Trek 1991 25th Anniversary Trading Card set. I own a bunch of non-sports trading cards, including multiple Star Trek sets. Unfortunately I don’t own this set.
It looks like an amazing set with over 310 cards! And it’s from Impel, who make high quality cards. You know this isn’t some cheap card stock with bad images. I need to find a set of these cards.
The Punisher Game Boy
The Punisher…on Game Boy, yes please! I could lament about how I never owned a Game Boy, but I won’t. Instead I’ll rave about this ad.
The artwork is fantastic. Full of color, showing The Punisher doing what he does best…punishing. Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is swinging into action in the background. What’s not to like.
The screen shots are an added bonus. Look at them. The helicopter, the skulls, the jungle scene, that’s a lot of detail packed into the 8-bit screen.
If there was a game to lure me into buying a Game Boy this would be it. If you missed it too you can play The Punisher: The Ultimate Pay Back over on Retro Games
Terminator 2: Judgment Day Movie Cards
More trading cards, this time from Terminator 2. I talked about these cards in the Deathstroke post.
Still don’t own them, still want to buy them.
Score Football Cards
Who doesn’t like football cards? This ad is showcasing the young superstars in the league. I’m don’t recall who the pretty boy is on the 2nd card but below him is Dan McGuire.
He played at Iowa (Go Hawks!) for a couple years then transferred to San Diego. He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks (Go Hawks!) and served a backup QB role for five years.
Just to prove the scouts are human, McGuire was picked in the first round (16th overall) while a guy named Brett Favre was picked in the second round (33rd overall).
The other players shown all had respectable NFL careers and lived up to the young superstar moniker.
Dungeons & Dragons Trading Cards and Game
Ahhh! OK, my heart just skipped a beat…maybe two. Dungeon & Dragons trading cards and game board! It’s a full color, glossy ad for the best trading cards ever made! If you like D&D (and if not, why not) you should own these cards.
I bought more foil packs than I can count and even have a few unopened ones lying around. The first series is over 720 cards, so I decided to stop messing around with the foil packs and I bought the complete box set, four of them!
I gave one box set away to one of my instructors and the other three are down in the basement. Two are in the original boxes and one set I put in card holders to look at and display.
Then on the opposite page we get the D&D game, featuring Alias of the Azure Bonds. I didn’t own this board game. I did however own the Curse of the Azure Bonds game for the Commodore 64.
As a sign of the times, the ad says you can find the board game at Toys R Us, Waldenbooks and B. Dalton. All great stores of yesteryear.
This is one fantastic centerfold!
Marvel T-Shirts
I think the only shirt I’d consider wearing is the black Wolverine shirt. I wonder what the quality of these shirts were? Did the images hold up through years?
I never bought one and $15 seems a little high priced.
Mile High Comics
A two page ad for Mile High Comics. Their ads didn’t change much over the years. Neither has my opinion of them.
Next!
Science Fiction Book Club
We saw another ad for the Science Fiction Book Club back in the What If… #24 post. This ad features different books. One about a dinosaur park by Micheal Crichton (I wonder if that will be popular), a Star Trek book and others from established names in Science Fiction and Fantasy; Asimov, Brooks, Niven, Clarke.
This one offers Heinlein’s Stranger In A Strange Land free when you buy four more for a dollar each. Not a bad deal. Pick out the books you want and send in your order form.
Olympic Sales Club
I like this ad. We saw it before in Legend of The Shield #1.
In the other ad it said to ask for Ruth. This ad says to ask for Ruby. I still have questions about the women answering the phone at the Olympic Sales Club.
Fleer Football Cards
More football cards. Unlike the last football card ad, this one is packed with Hall of Famers. Dan Marino, Warren Moon, Mike Singletary and Howie Long. David Fulcher made both ads.
It’s a good ad, but I’d like to see more focus on the cards and less on the text graphics. But it’s much better than the last one which put the cards along the side as an after thought.
Marvel Universe Trading Cards
The final ad on the back cover of the book. It seems fitting it’s for more trading cards. This time for the Marvel Universe by Impel. This is for Series II of the Marvel Universe. Series I is a great card set and Series II didn’t disappoint either.
The series features power rankings for each character, an Arch-Enemies category of cards and five unique hologram cards. I remembered The Punisher hologram card but had to go look at the other hologram cards to see who they are. The other four are Spider-Man, Hulk, Doctor Doom and the Fantastic Four vs Mole Man.
I miss the days of card collecting. This comic brought back all the right memories with so many ads for trading cards. The clear winner is the D&D ad. The Capri Sun ad is fun and had a great 1990’s feel.
What’s your favorite ad? Let us know in the comments below.
Until next time, keep your comics bagged and boarded…unless you want to thumb through them to check out the great ads!
Check out the previous installments of
Check Out Those Ads!
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