"Rediscover your sense of wonder! Generations of comic book readers remember the tantalizing promises of vintage novelty advertisements that offered authentic laser-gun plans, x-ray specs, and even 7-foot-tall monsters (with glow-in-the-dark eyes!). But what would you really get if you entrusted your hard-earned $1.69 to the post office? Mail-Order Mysteries answers this question, revealing the amazing truths (and agonizing exaggerations) about the actual products marketed to kids in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Pop-culture historian Kirk Demarais shares his astonishing collection, including: 100 Toy Soldiers in a Footlocker Count Dante s World s Deadliest Fighting Secrets GRIT Hercules Wrist Band Hypno-Coin Life-Size Monsters Mystic Smoke Sea Monkeys Soil From Dracula s Castle U-Control Ghost Ventrilo Voice Thrower ...and many, many more! With more than 150 extraordinary, peculiar, and downright fraudulent collectibles, Mail-Order Mysteries is a must-have book comic book fans everywhere. "
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As a child, NOTHING annoyed me more than not being able to send off for the simply incredible stuff on offer through the small ads in US comics. So as an adult, I jumped at the chance to find out just what I was missing. Some of the most awesome rip-offs ever crafted is the answer, as revealed by the dedicated Mr Demarais; in particular, had I ever actually clapped eyes on the fabled 100 SOLDIERS IN A PASTEBOARD FOOTLOCKER at the age of eight or nine, I probably would have cried. This book, however, is a true delight - a real labour of love, with great photographs accompanied by captions pitched somewhere between weary cynicism and wide-eyed goshwowoboyoboy enthusiasm.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As a child of the 60's and 70's I have fond memories of the ads in Marvel and DC comics, all that wonderful stuff available for a dollar or less......how I longed for the submarine and the life size monsters, how I envied those American kids! Now at long last along comes a book that shows them all in their tacky gloriness and an actual picture of a real sea-monkey. For all fans of comics of old or just the curious do yourself a favour and treat yourself to this, an enjoyable trip down memory lane and a book to treasure....I simply love this book!!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you were around in 1954 you'll recall my heading to this review as the title of Frederick Wertham's stinging attack on the comic book biz. A lot of folks in high places took note and forced the industry to create the Comics Code Authority to clean up the product. Fortunately for advertisers in comics none of this applied to them and they continued to promote cheap rubbish as they had done since comics arrived.
Kirk Demarais has written a wonderful tongue-in-cheek review of these novelties. The clever format allows you to see a picture of the original ad, full of glowing rhetoric and a photo of the real thing. The text nicely breaks it down as this: We imagined; They sent; Behind the mystery; Customer satisfaction. The eight chapters cover 150 items that no boy's room should be without and Demarais admits, in the Intro that he has spent big bucks collecting these 'treasures' from past decades.
I enjoyed looking through the pages helped by the breezy, colorful layout, Demarais designed them, too. In the back pages six ads are reproduced from comics, typical examples that seduced America's youth (mostly boys of course) and if you want to see more of these check out Hey Skinny!: Great Advertisements from the Golden Age of Comic Books, a large size paperback that reprints in colour comic book ads from the forties and fifties. 'Mail-order mysteries' and 'Hey skinny' are both instant nostalgia.
***LOOK AT SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
Kirk Demarais has written a wonderful tongue-in-cheek review of these novelties. The clever format allows you to see a picture of the original ad, full of glowing rhetoric and a photo of the real thing. The text nicely breaks it down as this: We imagined; They sent; Behind the mystery; Customer satisfaction. The eight chapters cover 150 items that no boy's room should be without and Demarais admits, in the Intro that he has spent big bucks collecting these 'treasures' from past decades.
I enjoyed looking through the pages helped by the breezy, colorful layout, Demarais designed them, too. In the back pages six ads are reproduced from comics, typical examples that seduced America's youth (mostly boys of course) and if you want to see more of these check out Hey Skinny!: Great Advertisements from the Golden Age of Comic Books, a large size paperback that reprints in colour comic book ads from the forties and fifties. 'Mail-order mysteries' and 'Hey skinny' are both instant nostalgia.
***LOOK AT SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Theo
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
This book is organized much like an encyclopedia, with a large number of relatively small entries. Each entry describes a single "Mail Order Mystery". There's one entry for the X-Ray Specs, one for the Sea Monkeys, and so on. The entries are well organized, and there are lots of photos to show us exactly what we missed out on.
Well, so much for the "objective" portion of this review. Now for the real scoop.
Speaking for myself, I think I'm _just_ old enough to have grown up with the comic book mail order advertising described in this book. I say that because even during my own childhood, I saw comic book advertising move on to other things. Saturday morning cartoons... junk food... That kind of stuff. Arguably more reputable, but infinitely less intriguing than the mail-order mysteries this book concerns itself with.
Like so many kids, I was always convinced by my parents not to send off what little money I had in response to these ads. That's partly because my parents were quite sure that none of the stuff would actually work: particularly the products with the more extravagant claims like the X-Ray Specs. But also because we lived in Australia. I was patiently informed that the sums requested would never cover international shipping.
And so, like so many children, I was won over by reason. And yet, left forever wondering...
Well, I wonder no more, because now, without even having to suffer the ignominy of being fleeced, I know exactly what was sent out to those who responded to the ads! Or at least (if my parents were right) to those within U.S. borders.
I wouldn't exactly say that this book contains many surprises. But it does contain many wonders.... Read more ›
Well, so much for the "objective" portion of this review. Now for the real scoop.
Speaking for myself, I think I'm _just_ old enough to have grown up with the comic book mail order advertising described in this book. I say that because even during my own childhood, I saw comic book advertising move on to other things. Saturday morning cartoons... junk food... That kind of stuff. Arguably more reputable, but infinitely less intriguing than the mail-order mysteries this book concerns itself with.
Like so many kids, I was always convinced by my parents not to send off what little money I had in response to these ads. That's partly because my parents were quite sure that none of the stuff would actually work: particularly the products with the more extravagant claims like the X-Ray Specs. But also because we lived in Australia. I was patiently informed that the sums requested would never cover international shipping.
And so, like so many children, I was won over by reason. And yet, left forever wondering...
Well, I wonder no more, because now, without even having to suffer the ignominy of being fleeced, I know exactly what was sent out to those who responded to the ads! Or at least (if my parents were right) to those within U.S. borders.
I wouldn't exactly say that this book contains many surprises. But it does contain many wonders.... Read more ›
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Runmentionable
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Most comic book fans of a certain age will know the feeling. You excitedly urge one of your favourites on a friend, hoping they'll intuitively grasp the genius of Jack Kirby or Neal Adams, and they'll be converted to your obsession. Only they don't, and they're not. They have no interest in the art or story. All they can see is the adverts.
But they had a point. What we in the UK used to call "American comics" were full of adverts for what seemed, to kids, to be the most fantastic plunder. Amazing novelties with which to dazzle your friends. The chance to gain astounding skills and powers. And mind-boggling toys at unbelievable prices (assuming you could work out the dollars-to-sterling ratio). The fact you couldn't get them in the UK made them seem even more desirable. How I wanted that Polaris nuclear sub - over 7 feet long! Seats 2 kids! Controls that work! Rockets that fire!
Turns out the fact you couldn't get them in the UK was a blessing. Kirk Demarais, the author of this thorough, amusing, informative and handsomely designed book, openly confesses to not getting the stories in the comics but being obsessed with the ads. So he's hunted down many of the most famous products advertised (including the obvious classics such as X-Ray Spex, the Charles Atlas body building course, and the boxes of toy soldiers which promised hundreds of pieces for knockdown prices) and now shares his research with us in the book,, which includes reproductions of the ads, pictures of the products, and his verdict on what you actually got.
And what you actually got, for the most part, was ripped off. Turns out item after item was shoddily made, misleadingly advertised and distinctly underwhelming.... Read more ›
But they had a point. What we in the UK used to call "American comics" were full of adverts for what seemed, to kids, to be the most fantastic plunder. Amazing novelties with which to dazzle your friends. The chance to gain astounding skills and powers. And mind-boggling toys at unbelievable prices (assuming you could work out the dollars-to-sterling ratio). The fact you couldn't get them in the UK made them seem even more desirable. How I wanted that Polaris nuclear sub - over 7 feet long! Seats 2 kids! Controls that work! Rockets that fire!
Turns out the fact you couldn't get them in the UK was a blessing. Kirk Demarais, the author of this thorough, amusing, informative and handsomely designed book, openly confesses to not getting the stories in the comics but being obsessed with the ads. So he's hunted down many of the most famous products advertised (including the obvious classics such as X-Ray Spex, the Charles Atlas body building course, and the boxes of toy soldiers which promised hundreds of pieces for knockdown prices) and now shares his research with us in the book,, which includes reproductions of the ads, pictures of the products, and his verdict on what you actually got.
And what you actually got, for the most part, was ripped off. Turns out item after item was shoddily made, misleadingly advertised and distinctly underwhelming.... Read more ›
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4.8 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cool trip back through time
A very fun book, i found it both fascinating & funny the stuff they used to offer for sale in the back of comics. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Importaku
5.0 out of 5 stars
So THAT'S what I would have bought!!!???
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Published 4 months ago by J. Scott
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent book
bought this for my husband for christmas he loved it just glad we didn't buy the products shown years ago.
Published 5 months ago by avid reader
5.0 out of 5 stars
All life is here.
Just ordered this - am in a fever of anticipation....ironic perhaps ?
As a kid in the sixties I was thrilled by Ditko, Kirby and even some D.C. Read more
As a kid in the sixties I was thrilled by Ditko, Kirby and even some D.C. Read more
Published 14 months ago by knocked out 73 just woke up
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mail Order Memories
I loved this book - in several places I found myself laughing out loud. As a child in the UK I never actually got round to ordering any of the items, as my pocket money wouldn't... Read more
Published 17 months ago by D. Parry
5.0 out of 5 stars
The X-Ray Specs WORK!
I got this book for Christmas this year (2011) and by Boxing Day I had read it all!
I couldn't stop myself... It was so wrong and yet it felt so right... Read more
I couldn't stop myself... It was so wrong and yet it felt so right... Read more
Published 17 months ago by StevieDArnott
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