Fine An' Wild

Wednesday Advertising Day.

From the I Love Comic site come two Sam Spade ads I think I didn't show yet. I love Lou Fine's realistic art work in the late forties, which I why I have tried to find all of his movie ads as well. And what do you know, I Love Comics also had one I didn't have! Follow the link for more , film ads, Sam Spade and Charlie Wild Wildroot ads.

Mixed Messages

In the early days of this blog I did a lot of newspaper comic strip ads. So many, in fact, that I don't always have a lot to add to those. But every once in a while I come across a new one and keep it apart. So here are a couple of news ads, that fit in with those I have shown earlier.
Wednesday Advertising Day.

I thought I had done this Tom Mix ad, but can't find it anywhere. The comic book series was quite succesful and is even mentioned in the Price Guide. My guess is these strips were taken from the same material.

If anythin, this mid fifties ad shows that the Terry and The Pirates brand was exploited regardless of who drew it or what characters were in it. While the series (and probably this ad) was drawn by George Wunder, the comic book advertised probbly reprinted a ten year old story by Milt Caniff.

These His Nibs ads for Nebisco went on for a couple of years. Although not Roland Coe's most exciting work (look for his Crosstown gags on my blog), it was very well executed and probably pretty succesful.

I had never seen this later serious Nabisco ad. My guess is that it is drawn by Elmer Wexler, a very capable artist who spoend the best years of his career doing unsigned (but probably well-paid) advertising work such as this..

These Postum ads by Lou Fine are among the best serious ones that were done in the early fifties. The only ones even better are the Sam Spade and Charlie Wild ads for Wildroot... also by Lou Fine.

Late Fine

Saturday Leftover Day.

I have shown so many of Lou Fine's Sam Spade advertising comics for Wildroot Hair Oil over the years, that I believed I had callected all of them. But here is one I didn not yet know, from a 1949 comic book. If you like this and have not seen the rest, please follow the tag for Sam Spade and it's successor Charlie Wild. And the whole story about why there should be a successor.

Haire Care Products

Wednesday Advertising Day.

Some time ago I showed almost all of Lou Fine's run on the Wildroot advertising strips Sam Spade and Charlie Wild by Lou Fine. Fine was a prolific artist, who did a lot of that sort of ads in the late forties and early fifties ina distinctive style. ThisI have adde this early sample to that post, one of three that seem tom be in a different style, possibly by another artist.

After that, I have yet another ad Fine seems to have done in 1950 and a couple from 1955, when his regular acccounts had stopped.

No Peeking At The Tag

Wednesday Advertising Day.

On May 13 2009 I did a post about Lou Fine's Charlie Wild ads for Wildroot. Like the Sam Spade ads before that, they were based on the Wildroot sponsored radio series for CBS. And like that radio series, they changed the set-up and name of the series when Dashiel Hammett was blacklisted. I thought the run of the ads ended when the radio season must have ended, but finding a fresh installment from November of that same year make me wonder. I think these ads are but Lou Fine, although several posters on my previous showing agreed that something was off. I have also added these to (and a fresh and better one of the March 1951 episode) to that earlier post.

After that, I have another ad that at first baffled me as to who coul dhave drawn it. The style is so generic, that it could have been any number of people. Thankfully, this pne is signed in the third panel. Can you spot it?

And knowing where to look, I found two more Charlie Wild smaples. The ad series seems to have skipped the summer months and continues in September. But by then the 'listen to Charlie Wild on CBS' caption has disappeared.

Slick Sam

Wednesday Additional Ad Day.

As promised, here are all my old and new scans and NewsArchive captures of the Sam Spade Ad series for Wildroot Haircream (also the sponsor of the radio show on CBS).

The first few were drawn by an unknown artist, the rest are supposed to be by Lou Fine. I believe they are actually on his resume, so I ma assuming that attribution is correct. However, I find the resemblence between this style and the one of the Philip Morris ads I showed yesterday remarkable. There is also a great resemblence to the Steel! information booklet I will be showing tomorrow (which can't possibly be by Fine).

As far as I can see, there were new Sam Spade ads ever month from 1947 (maybe even earlier) to somwhere in 1950. The last two years the series was on NBC, which helps me date one of the unknowns. The ad serie may have run until late 1950, when it was replaced by a similar series called Charlie Wild, because of problems with the Sam Spade Show. I have shown what seems to be all five 1951 episodes of the Charlie Wild ads last year (follow the tag) and explained the situation there. This means there could be as many as 36 seperate ads, of which I am showing 24 here (most of which in color). If anyone has any others or any of the Charlie Wild ads in color, I'd love to ad them here.

As for comparing the art styles of these and the stuff I showed yesterday, I ask you particulary to have a look at the lions and the bullfighting episodes. The Philip Morris ads show similar situations in a similar style, but different enough for it not to be a swipe or a case of using the same photo reference material.

Jan 12 1947:


March 9 1947:


May 25 1947:


Date unknown 1947:


Date Unknown 1947:


Date unknown 1947:


Aug 17 1947:


Jan 11 1948:


March 1948:


May 1948:


July 1948:

 

August 1948:


Date unknown 1948:


Feb 8 1949:


March 20 1949:


Date unknown 1949 (but before September):


Oct 1949:


Dec 1949:


Jan 1950:


Feb 1950


March 19 1950:


June 1950:


Sept 23 1950:


Date unknown 1950:


Additionally I have a couple of reworked ads from DC comics. It is impossible to place these in any sort of timeline. Most of them are the same as the ones above, but there are a couple of impressie new ones as well.