Okay, I'm sort of cheating with this one, because this guy did appear in comics. More commonly: on the back cover of comics. For years. In fact, this ad may very well have ran longer than Spalding Presents Street Ball, if you can believe that.

Captain 'O' was created for Olympic Sales Club, Inc.- one of those "sell our stuff and get swell prizes" gimmicks that ran on comics for years, like Grit or The Consumer Gazette that was being advertised in Margie gets FRee GIFTS for the whole family. As a young child, I never understood why they'd design such a cool looking hero, but not give him his own comic book. Of course the answer was that he was only the eye candy that enticed young superhero fans like myself to give the ad more than a passing glance.

Usually rocketing across the upper left corner of the ad, he was sometimes merely posing with a few children to show how kid-friendly he was. This ad ran long enough to see the number of prizes change at least once, from 86 to 100. At one point, stars and a planet were even worked into the normally plain blue background. For the most part though, the ads stayed the same over the years.

What did not stay the same- and this may be a subtle hint to the Captain's true personality off-camera- were the names of the many Captain 'O' Operators from ad to ad; they show a revolving door of changing cast members. The children stayed the same- why didn't the operators? Was the Captain difficult to deal with? Were they forced to play obligatory damsel-in-distress roles that the Captain never quite saved them from? They all looked basically the same. Did the Captain have a type? Was a certain look the criteria for being an Operator, ala Star Sapphire? Or were they perhaps glimpses into alternate Earths- hints that no matter the world, the same woman would stand behind this super salesman, no matter what her name might be?

Whatever the case, let it be known that Captain 'O' did not sell alone! Oh no! Behind him were a legion of Captain 'O' Operators! With names like Ann, Bridget, Dawn, Deb, Janet, Marcia, Peggy, and Sally! ...Okay, those were actually their names. But let us pay tribute to these: the...

Um...ahem...yes...I got a trifle...carried away there. But then, what good is a blog if you don't indulge yourself? Anyway, here are some of the ads:

Gallery

I hope you enjoyed it. See you when I spot the next Ad Hero. As always, thanks for reading.

Ad Heroes are superheroes that are created specifically for a certain ad, outside of the comics medium.

oh yeah, Sketchers has a lot of those

@amazing_webhead said:

Yeah, I have at least one of them on the backburner... although the character did actually get a comic, so I don't know if I'd count it. ;)

Ha ha great running into this. Just wonderful brings back a lot of good memories. Great piece?

Thanks. I had fun doing this one. :)