Madness indeed. Yes, meet the Marvel Mites and then say goodbye forever. Is it possible that nobody else on the internet has even mentioned the Marvel Mites?
Maybe it's because I'm the only person who bought a copy of Howard the Duck #9. That's where I found this freakish listing.
These tiny tots are completely useless in the ongoing struggle against evil. Not only are Spiderman and Captain America helpless babies, they're revealing their secret baby identities. One wonders if toilet use is among their super powers. To make matters worse the toddler Peter Parker has a dreadful bowl cut. Stan Lee must be rolling in his grave.
UPDATE: Anonymous commenter pointed out that there's a photo HERE. Thanks for the er, anonymous tip!
anonymous- that Stan Lee bit is my way of trying to be funny.
These are pretty freakish. I think it would be really interesting to see a Hulk version of these Mites. Would the little babies head be poking through Hulk's mouth?
As for revealing the secret identies, maybe the designers were just pioneering the practic of humanizing the characters like Sam Raimi does in the 2nd two Spiderman flicks. I've never seen Peter and Venom unmasked so much ever.
Too bad they didn't get their own Saturday Morning Cartoon like the Muppet Babies. On second thought, it's a good thing they didn't!
You'll perhaps not be surprised to hear that I have Li'l Spidey (a little the worse for wear, if I recall correctly). I've never seen another, packaged or otherwise. I think that people ignore them mostly because the "Super Jrs." are so much cooler.
Hey, Kirk... the only reason I've not said anything about 'em yet is that I just haven't hit that particular month and year in my "comics ad of the day" feature in my own blog yet (although I've written about lots of other comics ads).
Well done anonymous #2! I updated the post.
smurfwreck- I like the mental image your Hulk comment gave me. Amen to the Sam Raimi thing. Especially when he looked down upon scores of photographers before his public appearance and pulled off the ol' mask to take it all in. Jeez.
devlin- sheesh, I actually AM surprised you have one. Shocked really.
Jon- your comic ad posts are an internet treasure. I was just recently referring to your flickr page for reference. Nice job.
I wish I had a copy of one in front of me to reference but as I recall there were whole catalogs circa the late 70s made up of pages like the ad you show here. They were full of Marvel and DC related toys, gee-gaws, medallions and such. I believe the art was provided by the Kubert School.
Thanks, Kirk! I'll continue posting a new comics ad every day for as long as I have comics to scan ads from!
Mr.S is correct...they were published by Heroes' World (the same company that would be a mainstay among comics direct market distributors until Marvel bought them as a means of self-distribution, and set in motion the chain of events that nearly destroyed the comics market. There were at least 8 or 9 of them, variously titled THE SUPERHERO CATALOG or HEROES' WORLD CATALOG. and they were printed at World Color Press and distributed to the newsstand market with regular domics (which in retrospect seems kind of strange).
Great info Scott and Devlin! Thanks.
I see there's even one available on ebay. No telling what blog-worthy stuff lies within. I'll bet it's full of so much coolness that it would be painful to look at now.
You don't know the half of it! I believe we have a couple available here at the shop, so you can judge for yourself during your visit.