I was recently having lunch with a prominent comics creator and the topic of Frank Miller came up, but not in the context that you may think.
We were reminiscing about those old Hostess Fruit Pies ads that ran in comics back in the 1970s and 1980s (Here’s a great archive of every Hostess comic ad) and it was mentioned that Frank Miller’s first work in comics was on these comic ads.
I was shocked and didn’t believe it. But a quick Google search of “Frank Miller Hostess” revealed this link to a message board discussing this very fact. According to the discussion it was revealed in book The Art of John Byrne that both Byrne and Miller drew a few of the Hostess Fruit Pie Ads.
Here is Frank Miller’s Hostess Fruit Pie comic, The Human Torch in The Icemaster Cometh:
This kicked off the grim and gritty era of Hostess fruit pies.
Haha yes!
Washed up food photography star Lemon sold out Cherry’s secret identity to Apple for a hit of high fructose corn syrup.
Maybe Lemon’s turn influenced “That Yellow Bastard”?
I guess it was either that, or warm his icy heart with a hot island song.
But it’s a cool island song!?!
You can’t melt ice with a cool song, ‘tardheart.
Every time I see these ads I feel like a kid again.
I still rock the Apple and Lemon Pie’s every so often. Remind’s me of being a kid and riding bikes to the general store to get comics, baseball cards and junkfood.
I remember riding my bike to the drug store to buy my comics off the spinarack then going for an ice cream bar at the Safeway … sigh. I miss the simplicity of that so much.
Comics, Baseball cards and junk food AND having spare change leftover!!!
I like the one Frank Miller drew of Sentry and Twinkie the Kid fighting hunger in Ethiopia .
PS. I think The Flash meets the Bureauc-Rat comic is much more befitting of the “Occupy” headline.
http://www.seanbaby.com/hostess/v2flash01.htm
If I remember correctly the Sentry was immediately reduced to weeping and the Ethiopian children had to console him by sharing their Hostess treats.
The 4th minute of “We are the World” – when Bob Dylan puts his licks in – it gets him every time.
Someone really needs to do some dark, violent, what-if-Frank-Miller-did-these-today, Hostess ads.
Yellow Rat Bastard and Hostess Lemon Pies! Ain’t that what they call brand synergy?
I like the one where Daredevil gets hoodwinked by Funny Bones and the Ring Dingler.
Without warning, it comes… crashing through the window of your taste buds… and mine.
Yes, father, I shall become a hoste–
ow shit ow ow it’s hot
These are my favorite ads ever, in any medium. The fruit pies themselves are my favorite snack when I undertake a long car trip.
P.S. – Ron, thanks for that wonderful link. Looks like I know how my evening is going to be spent!
I didn’t even know know Hostess ran these in DC books!
I think Miller drew the one called
“Arabian Knight in: ‘Jihad me at Delicious'”,
in which the Knight slaughters a group of boy scouts for their Fruit Pies, then urinates on an American flag.
I thought it was kinda weird at the time, but, y’know, I was little.