Comic Book Martial Arts Ads

The below images are ads for martial arts courses that appeared in comic books and other magazines of the late 50s through the early 80s. The ads were usually over the top in their promises to teach you how to smash bricks with your head, turn invisible, fight 12 attackers at one time, and kill a man with your pinky finger. Even when you include bodybuilding courses, hypno coins, and fake vomit in the equation, there was something especially strange about selling martial arts training through comic book ads. Unlike all those other products, it was unlikely anyone could get hurt or killed by mucking about with a sea monkey. In truth, all you really got for your 99 cents was a small pamphlet providing ass-backwards instruction in a few techniques, or, more often, a "taster" for the larger course. It's safe to say no one became a martial arts master through a comic book ad.

After 30 or so years, I'm assuming that these ads are in the public domain. However, if you own the copyright to any of the below ads, don't lawyer up. Just contact me and I'll be happy to add your copyright info (with a link to your site, if you have one) or pull the ad from this page. Naturally, if you own the copyright you probably have information to share about them. Fill me in.

Note: I understand that these ads are irresistibly cool and/or strange, and you probably want to grab one for a martial arts forum, your blog, band's site, or whatever. Just don't steal my bandwidth to do it, please. Host the image on your own site, and provide a link to this page or mrdankelly.com.

Wallace Reumann

A career soldier for most of his life, Reumann trained in Chito-Ryu Karate under Senseis Hank Slomanski and Fukamoto during the five and a half years he was stationed in Japan in the 50s. He later opened schools in New Jersey and California. Reumann's daughter contacted me to say that Mr. Reumann died on December 28, 2008, in North Carolina.

1968
Hawkman

1968
Amazing Spiderman

1969 Submariner

1973
Fantastic Four

1982
Daredevil
Same ad as the 1968 one!

Count Dante and the Black Dragon Fighting Society

Count Juan Raphael Danté's (original name John T. Keehan) story is far too long to share here. He was born in Chicago and after spending several years training in other arts, studied Shuri-ryu karate under American karate pioneer Robert Trias. After a distinguished early career, Danté became known as a "black sheep" among martial artists, advocating a style he called Kata Dan-Te, which incorporated disfiguring and deadly techniques. He died in 1975. I wrote an article about Dante for the Chicago Reader.

1975
Detective Comics

1975
Deadly Hands
of Kung-Fu

Nelson Fleming and Yubiwaza

Nelson "Mitch" Fleming and his wife Yoshie Imanami would have preferred the Yubiwaza ads never have appeared. After studying Sosuishi-Ryu jiu-jitsu in Japan, Mr. Fleming and Ms. Inamani returned to America to open a school in New Jersey. Convinced by a publisher to write a book on Yubiwaza (jiu jitsu finger techniques) what Mr. Fleming thought would be a 100 page book turned into a 14 page pamphlet, sold through the proposterous ads below. Fleming had no input on the ads, incidentally. He enjoyed a long career as a martial arts instructor until he passed away in 1987. Ms. Fleming, as her son indicated to me in an e-mail, is "still alive, still very tiny."

1968 Avengers

1968 Strange Tales

Bruce Tegner

Bruce Tegner published several dozen books on various martial arts and had a side career as a stunt coordinator and actor. Tegner apparently passed away in 1985.

1976 T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents

John Natividad

John Natividad is still alive and has a Web site.

1975
Deadly Hands
of Kung-Fu

Master Kung-Fu

Since this ad also touts a book called Forbidden Oriental Fighting Arts— the title of a book by Wallace Reumann (see above)—I have my suspicions that he may have been Master Kung-Fu. Count Danté issued a challenge to any "masked marvels" in one of his ads, which appeared in many of the same wrestling magazines as Master Kung-Fu's ad.

According to Floyd Webb, there was another comic book sensei known as El Shaitan, who also wore a mask, so Danté's challenge may well have been directed at him.

New Orient School — Shifted Between Karate and Kung-Fu

I suspect this was a black belt by mail scam.

1975
Hercules Unbound

1980
DC Comics Presents

Ketsugo Novelty company Johnson Smith holds the copyright on this booklet, which looks like a collection of material snatched from earlier martial arts books. JS was unable to provide any insight on where Ketsugo came from or who its original author, S. Henry Roberts, was. Ketsugo is not an unknown martial art. It simply means "gathering together" in Japanese. The book is entirely useless as an instruction manual.
1966 Thunderbolt	1968 Action #361	1969 Bat Lash
1968 Superman	1969 Avengers Honor House?	1971 Cheyenne Kid
1973 Wrestling Monthly

Aicondo

Though I have found no further information about aicondo, it was undoubtedly another make-believe martial art and black belt by mail scam intended to take advantage of the 70s kung-fu fad.

1975
Deadly Hands
of Kung-Fu

Ninjas/Ninjutsu/Ninjitsu

No further information on these. Any insight is appreciated.

1975
Detective Comics

1985
Swamp Thing

General Jiu Jitsu

Jiu Jitsu is likely the first Asian martial art to make an impact in America. I've encountered jiu jitsu booklets and manuals going back as far as the turn of the 20th century. The term police jiu jitsu came into vogue because Japanese police instructors came to the states to train police officers in nonlethal methods of incapacitating a suspect.

1960s Unknown Comic
Honor House

1962
Tales Calculated to Drive You Bats

1965
Casper #83
Elbarr District

1967 Little Audrey
Regency Mail Order

1975
The Wrestler

General Karate Manuals cranked out to take advantage of the 60s and 70s karate craze.
1968 Amazing Spiderman 1968 Jimmy Olsen Mojo Rone	1969 Jimmy Olsen Honor House
1974 Dr. Strange 1975 Wrestling Guide
1974 Kull Universal 1974 Marvel Tales Universal	1976 Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu Universal Interestingly, this is the only ad I've come across that mentions a Korean art: Tae Kwon Do.
1975 Batman Honor House 1975 Marvel Tales
1975 Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu Demaru

General Kung-Fu

1973
Wrestling Revue

1974 Brave and the Bold

1975
Batman

1975
The Dingbats of Danger Street
Johnson Smith

1975
World of Jughead
Honor House

1982
Daredevil
American Southwest

Get Muscles/Learn Martial Arts

The Joe Weider Company was brought to court by the U.S. Post Office on fraud charges for promising way too much in their ads. Further details can be found here. As martial arts course ads go, they are brilliantly weird.

c. 1970s Charlton Comic

1975
World of Jughead
Charles Atlas

1972
Wrestling Guide
Joe Weider

1974
Detective Comics
Joe Weider

Martial Arts Doohickeys
1974 Human Torch Macarawa Board	1975 Wrestling World	1976 Spectacular Spiderman
1972 Wrestling Guide	1974 Marvel Tales	1975 Wrestling Guide
1977 Wrestling Revue	1982 World's Finest	1983 Firestorm

Unidentified Comics/ Dates /Companies/Styles
		1985 Swamp Thing
1985 Swamp Thing

Top