Today marks the end of another San Diego Comic Con, and while I couldn’t attend this year, I did endeavor to follow the fun online. To tip my hat to this year’s event, I wanted to write up something from a time when I was heavily involved in the comic book biz: 1995’s X-Men Tattoo Bubble Gum.
As some of my readers know, I spent the bulk of the 1990’s working professionally in the comic book business, first with DC Comics and then most notably, as a member of the X-Men editorial team for Marvel Comics. Getting to spend my days helping produce stories about those characters was quite a thrill, and I’ll always treasure the years that I got to do so.
Just before I joined the X-Men editorial team in 1995, Fleer released X-Men Tattoo Bubble Gum. The mid-1990’s were a time when the X-Men were being licensed all over the place, having become a bonafide pop cultural phenomenon years earlier when X-Men #1 broke all previous comic book sales records (it remains the best-selling comic book of all-time). There were X-Men pajamas, X-Men fishing rods, as well as just about anything you could slap the cool X-Men logo upon.
And so, in 1995 – we got gum:
Marvel-Fleer X-Men Tattoo Bubble Gum trade ad – January 1995
Here’s a scan of a flattened wrapper:
Fleer – X-Men Tattoo Bubble Gum wrapper – 1995
I am pretty sure I recall having loads of this stuff around when I was working in the X-Men office. Either that or it’s just that I saw it every time I walked into a store back then.
Fleer gave the tattoo-bubble-gum treatment to Spider-Man that year as well, and I thought I’d include that wrapper in today’s post:
Fleer – Spider-Man Tattoo Bubble Gum wrapper – 1995
And that’s all I’ve got for you today, with regard to X-Men Tattoo Gum. I don’t really recall what the tattoos were like, though I’m confident I applied one or two to my arm back then… just for fun.
For all of my old friends and readers who did make it to the convention; I hope you had a blast and I hope to join you out there next year for SDCC 2013.
See you next time!
