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| Valiant 1970.06.06 Page 34 |
I had posted this ad from 1969 previously - the particular version was published in various comics found in the UK. It seems it was common for comics to come serialized in a weekly magazine, each containing a few pages of an ongoing serial, rather than stories in a single character issue which is more common in the US. I believe the weekly format is also common in other parts of Europe, and just something that makes things more interesting from a US perspective, but I digress.
1969 Mattel MMM Moon Pictures Offer
Full page ad that could be found in various UK Comic Magazines in 1969, and later in Belgium for the French market.
Joe 90 1969.06.14 MMM Promotion from Shippams Spreads
"Win a Super-Sensational Matt Mason Space Set" - This looks to be a Space Station Space Crawler Super Action Set with an extra Sgt Storm on Cat Trac.
For the remaining ads there's a personal story. I received a mysterious package from Paul Vreede a few years ago that contained ten 60's/70's era UK Weekly Comics. This was a holiday present for me and a complete surprise (thank you Paul!).
He sent me 10 comics, 8 are titled "Valiant" which seems to be stories of a heroic nature as the name may suggest, while two were titled "Tiger" which seems to be more related to sports competitiveness. These comics are various issues covering about a year - each containing a half-page MMM ad that's beautifully rendered (I believe Mattel hired good draftsmen, perhaps the same artists illustrating the comics?) with the exception of the final full page ad (shown above and below).
Most of these ads have the titles in a word balloon, spoken by the good Major. Here are the ads in order of publication with a link to the covers (they are also pretty interesting, many of them have a higher degree of quality illustration with the application of gouache or translucent water color).
Valiant 1969.07.19 Page 20 "You can Conquer the Rough Lunar Terrain with the Mighty Space Crawler"
Half-page ad with the Space Station, Space Crawler (with Matt at the controls) and Space Sled with Jet Propulsion Pak. [ Cover ]
Valiant 1969.07.26 Page 18 "Join Me in the Exploration of Space! With all this Exciting Authentic Equipment..."
Half-page ad with the Moon Suit, Supernaut Power Limbs and Reconojet. [ Cover ]
Valiant 1969.08.09 Page 3 "The Space Team Meets Callisto The Mysterious Astronaut from Jupiter"
Half-page ad with Doug Davis on a "Lunar Tractor," Callisto, Sgt. Storm and Major Matt Mason (there's a Space Station in the distance). [ Cover ]
Valiant 1969.08.23 Page 12 "Join Me in the Exploration of Space! With all this Exciting Authentic Equipment..."
Half-page ad showing Matt, Storm at the helm of a Firebolt Space Lazer, and a Space Station in the near distance. [ Cover ]
Valiant 1969.09.27 Page 5 "Meet my Friend Captain Lazer the Giant with Superhuman Lazer Powers..."
Half-page introducing Capt. Lazer, showing a scale comparison and all of the equipment and functions. [ Cover ]
Valiant 1969.10.25 Page 30 "The Uni-Tred and Space Bubble are Geared to Go Anywhere"
Half-page with Uni-Tred as the main focus, Matt at the helm with Doug in the bubble. Several others shown in the background including tandem bubbles going up a hill. [ Cover ]
Valiant 1970.05.23 Page 5 "Quick, Doug Davis is in danger!"
Half-page with Doug Davis in the Space Power Suit, the Major in the background driving a Uni-Tred pulling Doug in a Space Bubble with the Space Station in the background. [ Cover ]
Tiger 1970.05.30 Page 11 "Callisto lands again!"
Half-page with Matt in the Supernaut Power Limbs and manning a Gamma-Ray Gard. A Space Shelter in the background as is Callist. Capt. Lazer is in the foreground making an iconic first encounter with Callisto who is "...a friendly visitor." [ Cover ]
Valiant 1970.06.06 Page 34 "Wow! Now Major Matt Mason TALKS"
Full-page with Matt hanging from a Talking Back Pak held by a grinning kid with various vehicles and accessories in the background. [ Cover ]
Tiger 1970.07.25 Page 6 "Stand by for further instructions"
Half-page with Matt in the Talking Back Pack with the Space Crawler atop a Space Station in the background on one side, and the Firebolt Space Lazer on the other. [ Cover ]
Paul's notes:
John's observation about European comic magazines is correct. While magazines for the very young do contain (several) complete stories, most European comic magazines contain two- or four-page episodes of longer stories in weekly installments. Together with the odd single-page or half-page strip and occasional illustrated text articles. These magazines have A4 or letter-sized pages; vintage UK magazines being even a bit larger that that.
Each publisher has a stable of artists under contract or commission to supply comic strips, which that same publisher would then issue as a comic album containing the complete story after it had run its course in their magazine. Such albums are now called graphic novels in English, esp the high-quality ones, for the simple reason that the term 'comic book' already existed for a completely different format. Over here each language uses an equivalent to 'comic book' to describe comic albums and the English word 'comic' to indicate US magazines by Marvel, DC et al.
A final point is that comic magazines in the UK tended to be printed on cheap grayish newsprint, whereas continental comic magazines used better quality semi-coated stock such as used for family magazines and high-volume catalogues. The subsequent albums use quality paper and in France come as hard-cover albums as standard (other countries having paperback covers as standard but now offering hardcovers as collector's editions).
All Mattel images and captions are copyright Mattel and used without permission. All other content, including images and editorial, is Copyright © 1997-2024 John Eaton and/or contributors unless otherwise stated. If there are any comments or objections, please contact John Eaton or Paul Vreede.
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