Any idea who did the Ka-Bala art? I’m guessing this came out AFTER Magic 8-Balls, but I could be wrong. Any idea about that?

I dunno, those flash cards are stupid from the little you see in the ad, and you had to send in a buck for the set. The Oreos thing, hey, at least you might win prizes. MMmm, oreos…

The “where everything is UP2U!” is pretty stupid, though…

How would you ‘stump your family’ with the would you believe cards? And how did they ‘work’, did you just show them to people as a joke? I’d rather own sea monkeys than those pieces of junk.

I always wanted a Ka-bala set though – the children looked quite alien to me though which freaked me out when I was younger.

Suggestion for an ad to feature: One of the two-page ads announcing the tv networks’ new Saturday morning lineup. They usually appeared in comics on sale around September in the late 60s.

I had one of those Ka-Bala games; got it for Christmas one year. It was just so exotic-looking and strange I couldn’t help but want one. The most memorable thing for me was the small 1/1-2 inch square monotone blue reproductions of the major arcana tarot cards, taken from the Rider deck.

Never got any urgent missives from the Spirit World, though…

I was going to point this out days ago, but I figured someone already had, but I decided to read all the comments of every column but didn’t see it. “We conrinue a MONTH…”?

“Material wealth”? Oh, Ka-Bala, you’re not really about spiritual realization at all, are you?

Oh wait. Wrong Kabbalah.

I understand that the “Would you believe… ?” routine was part of Don Adams’ schtick from when he was a stand-up comedian.

The catchphrase (as well as others of his stand-up routines) was made use of in the Get Smart series when it began.

Would you believe… that ever since #6 these posts begin with the words “We conrinue …” and nobody has noticed it yet?

I know at least two people who would go online to play Oreo themed games: Peyton and Eli Manning.

When I was in middle school my friend and I played those Nabisco games. A lot.

Ka-Bala was, of course, a feature of Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol run, under the Pentagon!

My students used to play those Nabisco games all the time — or try to, when they were supposed to be doing work. I recall that a lot of the decent Flash games were ads for products back then, and unlike other game sites, they weren’t blocked by the school network.

“Would you believe… that ever since #6 these posts begin with the words “We conrinue …” and nobody has noticed it yet?”

Well, in fairness, Brodie did.

I second Rob M’s suggestion about featuring the network’s two page spreads for their upcoming Saturday morning line up.

I still enjoy running across those ads when I’m looking through old comics.

Man, that Callahan guy brings up info about The Early Years of Grant Morrison any chance he gets. You’d think he wrote a book about it or something

Those Saturday morning cartoon 2 page previews continued into the ’80s, because I know there are a couple from shows that were out since I’ve been alive. I remember the one with Foofur in particular.

I see that it’s fixed now. In every column at that.

I believe the Ka-Bala ad art is by the great Bill Everett.

“I believe the Ka-Bala ad art is by the great Bill Everett.”

Whenever I think of Bill Everett art, I think, perhaps oddly, of large foreheads with sweeping lines on them – specifically, early Hulk issues and, of course, the Sub-Mariner. The first panel of this Ka-Bala ad has that tell-tale forehead line, which leads me to agree with you.

Pictures of Ka-Bala (because I know people want to see it): http://boardgamegeek.com/images/thing/5845/ka-bala

I hate to tell you, but “advergames” sites like Candystand and Millsberry (the descendants of this Oreo Web site) are hugely popular among kids.

Here’s a link to the Saturday morning TV ads printed in DC comics through the years: http://www.dcindexes.com/saturday/

My favourite of the flash cards has to be, “Would you believe my mother kind of likes me?”

Theno

The problems of these cards are multifold, but one of the biggest is that a proper “Would you believe?” joke requires THREE parts. With two, the joke doesn’t work nearly as well!

A properly framed gag would be something like:
Would you believe I’m adored by millions?
Would you believe my fan club has 200 members?
Would you believe my mother kind of likes me?

Still lame, in this case, but the second “still exaggerating, but not QUITE as implausible” part is crucial to make the joke work.

That Ka-Balla thing was used by Grant Morrison in the issue of his Doom Patrol run that introduced Flex Mentallo.