Transogram: Where the Fun Comes From!

Here's a Henry Boltinoff "Billy" half-page gag strip from DC:


"Billy" strip from Batman #203 (August 1968), script, pencils, inks, and letters by Henry Boltinoff
Say, that's a pretty cool pseudo-Ouija game Billy's got there. Mighty clever for a fictional game created for a comic strip. Or...is it?!?

No, it's not. Ka-Bala is real...


...not only real, but it's the subject of its own comic book ad!


"Ka-Bala" ad from Mighty Samson #13 (Dell, February 1968), scripter and artist unknown
I like to think that Transogram Toys, the company that made Ka-Bala, compensated Henry Boltinoff with large amounts of cash (which he then stored in a safe he made using a tip from one of his "Cap's Hobby Hints." But probably he got paid $10 under work-for-hire. DARN YOU, WORK FOR HIRE!

Ka-Bala was not Transogram's only board game with a connection to comic books. Here's the "Silly Sidney" game:




...based on the Gene Deitch animated cartoons for Terrytoons (this Sidney cartoons was nominated for an Academy Award):


Sidney's Family Tree (Terrytoons, 1958), directed by Art Bartsch, produced by Gene Deitch and Bill Weiss
Sidney also starred in New Terrytoons and Tom Terrific comic books.


Cover of New Terrytoons #2 (January 1963), pencils and inks by Fred Fredericks

Page from Silly Sidney story in New Terrytoons #1 (June-August 1960), scripter and artist unknown
Here's more about Sidney on the always-incredible Don Markstein's Toonopedia. There's another Transogram game I have great fondness for, as I played it when I was just a tiny stuffed bull: Green Ghost!!


Green Ghost was a three-dimensional, glow-in-the-dark boardgame (we'd sit in the closet and play it!) You'd spin the glowing ghost (which would make a terrible and spooky racket as it twirled), then move around the glowing board to collect keys. The keys would unlock the three crypts on the board: reach in and collect a little ghost from among spooky-feeling objects like feathers and rubberbands. Ah-wooooooo! Best game ever! Here's an informative Web 1.0 page on the Green Ghost game, plus a video showing the set-up:


Is that all Transogram put out that was utterly awesome? Guess again, ghastly ghouls! There was the fabulous Swing Wing...


...the melodious manic mayhem of Monkey's Uncle...


Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads...not with the Trik-Trak Road-Rally!


Too tedious for you, cool fats? Then let's crank it up a notch with the Dare-Devil Trik-Trak! (Matt Murdock, Blind Driver, not included.)


Still, there's one toy that wasn't from Transogram that I still want, but I'm not allowed to have toy guns. But, a bull can dream, can't he?


So, speaking of toy guns, play us off, honeyhoney, directed by and guest-starring Keifer Sutherland!

Fudge Judge 2: The Fudgening

He's back from his first amazing appearance...The Sensational Character Find of 1961! By popular demand*, once again I bring you, straight from the Court of Chocolate and the Tribunal of Toffee, that Lord Chief Justice of Lusciousness, the Deputy of Deliciousness...the man or woman we all call...

FUDGE JUDGE!

FUDGE JUDGE?!!

FUDGE JUDGE!!!

Tootsie Roll Fudge ads from Batman #150 and 151 (September and November 1962) and The Brave and the Bold #45 (December 1962-January 1963)

Coming next time: Fudge Judge, Jury and Executioner!

*No one has actually demanded this.

Here come de judge!

Sorry for the brief posts the last few days, folks, but I'm busy prepping to take a case to court. (Just call me Bully, Little Stuffed Attorney at Law!) Now, you never know which judge you're gonna have assigned to your case, but I sure hope I get the

FUDGE JUDGE!

FUDGE JUDGE?!!

FUDGE JUDGE!!!

Tootsie Roll Fudge ads from Detective Comics #294, 296, and 298 (August 1961-October 1961)

Fudge Judge, won't you?

My Little Real Live Pony

You can't have read comics from a certain period and not be aware of the "sell stuff to get cool prizes" ads that populated comic books:


Comic book ads circa 1976-1978

Yes, all sorts of riches beyond the dreams of boys and girls could be had by selling greeting cards or address labels or garden seeds: bikes, sports equipment, guitars, watches, radios, cameras, and the 1968 Presidency. But quite possibly the most extraordinary prizes you could get would be had by selling, door-to-door (or, conning your gramma into buying the whole lot) easy-to-use, fragrant, delicious Cloverine Salve, the all-purpose petroleum lubricant for protecting skin, leather (which, for cows, is skin) and (apparently) cotton balls!


Ad from Batman #90 (March 1955)

Yes, you could be the first in your neighborhood to get this junk keen stuff! Because when you sold Cloverine (in the easy-to-open and complicated-to-close tin), you could earn such amazing booty as a dolly, a light-up bunny, and...

A REAL LIVE PONY

Imagine the shrieks of joy echoing through the household as your real live pony drops through the mail slot and clops through your home, surprising Mom as she's dishing up a typical 1950s breakfast of toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, donuts, coffee, juice, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Kellogg's Pep, Kellogg's Wheat Krispies, and Uranium-240! Just picture riding to school on your own real live pony! Consider that you live in a three-floor walk-up in downtown Canarsie before you order this thing! What's more...you can fight a gorilla with it! (Actual pitting of gorilla versus pony is not recommended; see your local animal care laws and statutes; gambling upon outcome of gorilla versus pony fight not legal in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.)



Yes, once again, it's

A REAL LIVE PONY

Also, you could get The Bible, which would eliminate your need to steal one from a hotel. Cloverine Salve can save you from the burning fires of Hell!



All this and a bucket of oats could be yours by selling non-greasy, camphory, slick, delicious Cloverine Salve! It's a medical ointment and a koala aphrodisiac!



And, wouldja believe, that Cloverine is still available today, in our fast-paced world of fax machines, digital calculators, and anti-gravity trams?



Yep, Cloverine is sold today on Amazon.com. And you know what that means...Jeff Bezos has all the free ponies in the world!

Also, Cloverine would like to remind you



Surrrrre you are, guys. Let's just see how many of those ponies are still alive before you make that claim, okay?

Ads That Are Comics, Day 5: No jury in the land would convict Mr. Jones

Ad in Jonah Hex #13 (June 1978) for Super Siren from Empire: Toys Kids Love

Ads That Are Comics, Day 4: The Pride of Quality That Made RC America's Fifth Best-Selling Carbonated Cola Beverage

Ad in The Adventures of Bob Hope #5 (October-November 1950) for RC Cola. (Beware the haunting RC Cola Theme if you open their website!)

Ads That Are Comics, Day 3: Nothin' up my sleeve...

Ad in Life with Archie #44 (December 1965) for General Mills's Cheerios, starring Rocky and Bullwinkle

Ads That Are Comics, Day 2: This Does Not Refer to Mister Spock

Ad in Mystery in Space #113 (November 1980) for Steve Jackson Games's The Awful Green Things From Outer Space

Ads That Are Comics, Day 1: Feets Don't Fail Me Now

The Mid-Day Matinee this week, all week: Ads That Are Comics! So that you think the ad is part of the story! Which explains all those short interludes in the 1970s when Spider-Man would show up for one page and toss Hostess Cupcakes at the Scorpion.


Ad in Doorway to Nightmare #3 (May-June 1978) for AAU Athletic Shoes