Sheldon Cooper was correct!

[CAMPER49]

Remember that episode of the Big Bang Theory where the guys are discussing opening their own comic shop?

Sheldon adds that buying a van and giving kids rides to the comic store while wearing Spandex would be a great idea?

Of course Leonard is thinking, here comes jail-time for a bunch of pedophiles.

Ludicrous idea, no?

 

Well, I was just reading FLASH #225 (Bronze Age FLASH) and near the back of the comic was this blurb about the new COMICMOBILE (see blurb below).

Sol Harrison, with the blessing of Carmine Infantino, would have someone drive this comicmobile around delivering comics to kids.

I love the parts that say "covers of the latest issues filling the windows" and "inside, the van is decorated with posters..." and "stopping at day camps, parks, beaches..." and "beginning a fleet of comicmobiles all around the country..."

 

Was this actually fro real? Does anyone remember seeing this van in the the test cities listed?

Or were they just pulling our collective legs (pun intended).

 

Maybe Sheldon wasn't so far off the mark. At least it doesn't say "free candy" on the side.

 

[CAMPER49]

Update

 

Found this on the 'net, promoting the comicmobile.

Apparently Bob Rozakis himself drove the thing for awhile.

I guess it was a real thing.

 

 

[jaybuck43]

Michael Uslan also drove the Comicmobile. Here's an interesting article on it.

http://www.kleefeldoncomics.com/2014/07/on-history-comicmobile.html

[ss5rmp]

you know that's before I was born, but for some reason I feel confident in saying they were different times...more innocent times than today

[chromium]

Michael Uslan also drove the Comicmobile. Here's an interesting article on it.

http://www.kleefeldoncomics.com/2014/07/on-history-comicmobile.html

 

So did "the answer man" Bob Rozakis.

 

 

After Rozakis, Bruce Hamilton, publisher of Gladstone comics had the van shipped to Arizona where he drove it for a while until it was totaled in a collision with a semi.

[JAM_NYC]

A guy driving a van offering treats if I get in? I'm not falling for that for an eighth time.

[comicstock]

I wonder if Jared has his driver's license...

[Meeklo]

They did this on Comic Book Men with Ernie Hudson helping out. They were selling comics out of an ice cream truck.

[jools&jim]

 

Yes, it was a more innocent age, and the comic book biz was much smaller potatoes, too.

 

My friends and I saw that same "DC Comic World" page, and couldn't get over how lucky the kids in NY and NJ were to have fleets (as we imagined it) of rolling comic book vendors driving through their neighborhoods.

 

Btw...that van is aces. If I had it, I'd paint it midnight blue, have somebody airbrush Frazetta's "Snow Giants" on the back doors, install a vintage analog receiver and tape deck, and blast Foghat and Blue Oyster Cult tunes while I sat in it in my driveway...

 

 

[jaybuck43]

You're gonna airbrush Franzetta and NOT rock Rush on the system? Good thing you don't have the van

[jools&jim]

 

You're gonna airbrush Franzetta and NOT rock Rush on the system? Good thing you don't have the van

Yes, we are obviously separated by doctrinal differences!

 

Btw...my other period-evoking choices would have been Black Oak Arkansas, Uriah Heep, and Montrose...