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Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Clark Bars in Japan - 1979

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Okay, today's post, in my mind, ranks up there as one of the most bizarre, left-field Aquaman appearances ever. Read and decide for yourself.

This ad for Clark Bars (drawn by the incomparable Dick Giordano) ran for a few months in most of DC's 1978 books, with a similar one running in Marvel's books, featuring some of their biggest stars. Anyone who grew up reading comics in the 70s is familiar with it, and the Shrine covered it back in 2008.

But just a few weeks ago, our newest F.O.A.M. member, Chris Sobieniak, left a comment on that original post mentioning that while Clark Bars weren't sold in Japan, this ad was spoofed in the 1979 animated film Lupin III: The Mystery of Mamo, where a character--a caricature of Henry Kissinger, no less--opens a Lupin comic book only to see the famous ad, with Lupin inserted himself into it:
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...as I responded to Chris at the time: What. The. Hell.

According to a post on the Let's Anime blog, this scene was deleted from the American DVD of this film for legal reasons. Makes sense, but then of course the only people that ever saw this ad were in countries that sold Clark Bars, so Americans would have been the perfect audience to get this joke in the first place!

Maybe I'm crazy, but this kind of stuff makes my day.

Anyway, a big thumbs-up to Chris for the info and links--he has definitely earned his certificate. Thanks again Chris, and welcome to F.O.A.M.!

5 comments:

Wings1295 said...

Bizarre!

Orin's dad said...

Talk about off the wall...

Marc Tyler Nobleman said...

Between this and the "New Americans" post of a couple of days ago, you may be on the path to documenting every public Aquaman reference in history. Makes me excited to see what you uncover next.

Earth 2 Chris said...

That is odd, but that ad is really iconic to me, so I can understand wanting to go into it. The DC heroes had never seemed so real and...solid to me as in that ad. I was only 4 after all!!!

Dick Giordano was THE MAN.

Chris

David J. Cutler said...

Every time I see that image I'm jazzed that Arthur's where he belongs among the five big DC hero icons--must have been a Super Friends thing.