Alpha Flight, Go! thrown together by Dalton
Filed under: mission
Alpha Flight #15: Attack of the Killer Zombies!
Writers: Steve Seagle and Duncan Rouleau
Art: Rob Hunter
One of the things I love about reading old comic books is the trip down memory lane through advertisements. I get to read about the new up and coming Genesis games, the radical food on the market these days, and board games that are totally gnarly. For example, I totally forgot about Kool Aid Bursts, but now I REALLY want one. Sometimes, though, these comics can just be ad overload and a) make me really appreciate indie publisher who don’t have ads and b) wonder how people can read magazines like Vogue.
I have belief that if something is overloaded with ads, it should be free. That only seems right to me. If I’m paying for a product, then that should be what supports the company. It’s actually kind of funny because if you go to Seattle, the fastest growing newspaper is called The Stranger. Unlike the other newspapers in Seattle, The Stranger is free. But they pack it with ads. But it’s FREE. People love that. And in a world where newspaper demand is dying, The Stranger is growing. I understand that some products need to have ads, and I’m totally cool with just a few, but it’s a little absurd when half the product is just advertisements.
I can’t remember when or what, but one of those female-geared magazines like Vogue or something had a giant sticker on their issue that said like “500 page issue!” My first reaction was, “wow, that’s a lot,” and assuming a few hot women would be in there, I braved up and opened the magazine. 300 of those 500 pages must have been ads. That’s not a 500 page issue! That’s a 200 page issue! How do people fall for this crap?
Anyway, this comic really wasn’t that bad. It was actually kind of good considering it was written in 1998. There was an ironic joke about Canada’s economy sucking compared to ours, but otherwise it was pretty entertaining. The only part that sucked was that I thought it was a double issue when I bought it, but it was only one issue . . . filled with ads.
i, being a woman, can explain the retardedness of mags like vogue. first of all, women readers (and this is a BROAD generalization, no pun intended) who enjoy mags like vogue, in style, redbook, crap like that…they don’t care about the ads because the ads are esentially for things that appeal to women such as designer clothing. if you browse through vogue, which i can’t recall the last time i did, you’ll notice about 100 dolce and gabbana ads with sickly-looking stick-thin models, pouting because the $1200 dress they have on is just too tight, and their hair is so messy they can do nothing but sulk. and since i started planning my wedding a year ago, i noticed this is true for bridal mags as well. when you open them up hoping for nicely staged articles about what dress will look best on your body type, you generally find that 2/3 of the mag is ads with 12-year-old models who look all angry in their designer wedding gowns that cost around $6000. now, i think designers and mag editors are completely aware that most women like to look at these ads. it’s kind of like why women are obsessed with people magazine; it delves into celebrity fashion and lifestyle, something most women feel they can’t live without. all i know is that it makes no sense for ads to be as rampant as they are but i don’t see them losing steam anytime soon. unfortunate as that may be. it makes me think of the movie idiocracy, where 500 years in the future, the human race has gotten completely stupid and everything is owned by a company. independent ANYTHING no longer exists, and you can’t ever find your way out of the 50 mile long and wide Costco. “Welcome to Costco, I love you…” god i love that movie…
Comment by allison 09.19.08 @ 4:51 pmUnfortunately is right. Ads aren’t going away any time soon. They are only going to double, or triple…everywhere. The one thing that really bugs me is seeing ads at movie theaters. I remember the days where that did not exist. It has really taken the fun out of going to a movie. Before the feature presentation finally starts, you’ve already been there for an hour. I’m going to suggest that those ad companies pay us for looking at a picture of their product in a magazine or wherever.
Comment by Guff28 09.19.08 @ 6:23 pmLeave a comment
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