Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Highlighting House Ads: Brawny Stan for Pizzazz

Full disclosure here: I've never read an issue of Pizzazz. If fact, I have no recollection of ever seeing copy of it for sale back in the day. I had, however, seen plenty of ads relating to this magazine. I'm can't think of any book that was pimped as much as Pizzazz in the late 70s. What I really love about ads featuring Neel Nats is how buff and manly he's made to appear. As we all know, he was always a pretty slim guy, but I can picture him telling artists 'add more muscle'. This one is ridiculous, as Stan looks like a lumberjack with giant hands. Typically, I'm fine with made up words, but Pizzastic is beyond terrible. Also, who is standing on Iron Man's foot? No one looks close. Is 'sounds great' supposed to be funny because DD is blind? Who knows? It is all just late 70s Marvel nuttiness. Don't you miss it?

3 comments:

Four-Color Kid said...

I vaguely remember Pizzazz.
I know I bought the first few issues back in the days. IIRC, it was suppose to be a marvelized version of teen magazines (like Creem, for exemple; even the title type look kinda similar don't they?). I seem to remember some articles about the stars of movies and tv shows like Star Wars (the 1st movie) and the original Battlestar Galactica, some pop and rock star stuff like Kiss and other (then) current popular teen-age idols.

It must not have been that great because I don't think i bought more than 2 or 3 issues. For the same price of one magazine I probably could get 3 or 4 comics at least, so that was another good reason to drop Marvel's teen rag. Anyway, I don't think it lasted more than a year or two.

Anonymous said...

The mag sucked. It was written by a bunch of middle-aged squares trying desperately to be hip and failing. Note to former Pizzazz editors: KISS WAS NOT A PUNK BAND!

HellRazor said...

I bought these when I was a kid - I remember it was pretty uninspired and way-second fiddle to the uber-popular similar kid's zine BANANAS. I think it only lasted 2 or 3 issues.