Posted By Dan Greenfield on Aug 9, 2025 | 9 comments

SCOTT SHAW! SATURDAYS…

By SCOTT SHAW!

The late Wilson Bryan Key wrote several books about subliminal messages and subliminal advertising. His best-known publication was Subliminal Seduction, published by Berkley Books in December 1973. Key’s theory/revelation was that advertising, entertainment, and politics were using “hidden” objects, colors and other visual devices to influence the public’s choices, attitudes, and behaviors. The concept is still out there and still controversial considering that we’re in a world that seems to be controlled by marketing.

When the book was first published, it was a best-selling paperback — copies of which now sell surprisingly high at collectors’ prices. Its photo cover featured a glass full of ice that supposedly hid the word “sex.” I never could discover it, and believe me, I was always looking for sex back in 1973! Now that I’m old and married, I immediately see it!

By this time, Joe Orlando was no longer a freelance comic artist. In 1968, he was hired to be one of DC’s editors and his duties included conceiving many covers for the publisher. Apparently, he thought very much like Key’s  Subliminal Seduction and took it seriously. Considering the publication date of Key’s book is after these comics, and Joe’s attitude was so close to Key’s, that the only explanation is that he read an earlier article or interview by Key before Subliminal Seduction was published.

Let’s take a look at some notorious covers – and please note how close they were published together – with compositions and elements that are directing the eye toward Lois Lane’s crotch, drawn by one of comicdom’s finest experts at illustrating appealing women, Bob Oksner.

We begin with these bad guys who are tossing darts at Lois’ crotch…

Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #120, March 1972

Next, we’ve got a spaceman who’s pointing directly at Lois’ crotch…

Lois Lane #123, June 1972

In the next issue – just to mix things up a bit – Lois is threatening Superman while pointing a seriously-sharp spear at the Man of Steel’s crotch.

Lois Lane #124, July 1972

Big sharks got attention later in the ’70s because of Jaws. Lois’ crotch drew attention from the boys who were gathered around spinner racks across America.

Lois Lane #127, October 1972

And then there was the time Lois was strapped to the grill of a huge truck going over a cliff… so no one could miss seeing her crotch!

Lois Lane #135, November 1973

Eventually, Joe Orlando was made a DC vice president in 1985 when he was guiding the company’s special projects department. His fascination with cover-crotches seemed to be in the past.

However, in 2002, Oksner, a cartoonist I’d admired during his stints on DC’s Sergeant Bilko, The Adventures of Bob Hope, and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, among many others, attended San Diego Comic-Con for the first and last time. I planned to meet him in person and brought along Bob’s most Oddball cover to sign. As I walked toward the elderly cartoonist, I held up my copy of Adventure Comics #420 and waved it. As I approached him, he backed off, loudly saying, “That was Joe Orlando’s idea, not mine!”

Adventure Comics #420, June 1972

I explained that I worked in comics and had interacted with Mr. Orlando while developing Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew. After Bob calmed down and was signing the most blatantly sexual Oddball Comic of all time, he confided in me, “Whenever I was in DC’s office, Joe Orlando was always walking around, yelling ‘Sex sells! Sex sells!’”

Phew! He proved that I wasn’t seeing things that weren’t there.

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Want more ODDBALL COMICS? Come back next week!

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MORE

— ODDBALL COMICS: Get Slappy for FISH-IN-THE-FACE Comics Covers! Click here.

— ODDBALL COMICS: Marvel’s WHAT IF? #11 — Starring JACK AND STAN. Click here.

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For over half a century, SCOTT SHAW! has been a pro cartoonist/writer/designer of comic books, animation, advertising and toys. He is also a historian of all forms of cartooning. Scott has worked on many underground comix and mainstream comic books, including Simpsons Comics (Bongo); Weird Tales of the Ramones (Rhino); and his co-creation with Roy Thomas, Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew! (DC). Scott also worked on numerous animated series, including producing/directing John Candy’s Camp Candy (NBC/DIC/Saban) and Martin Short’s The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley. As senior art director for the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency, Scott worked on dozens of commercials for Post Pebbles cereals with the Flintstones. He also designed a line of Hanna-Barbera action figures for McFarlane Toys. Scott was one of the comics fans who organized the first San Diego Comic-Con.

Need funny cartoons for any and all media? Click here! Scott does commissions!

His latest project is Kilgore Home Nursing, based on stories that his home-care nurses told him about their jobs. He’ll have lots of copies for sale at the upcoming shows at which he’ll be a guest, including the Burbank Toon Con on September 7, 2025.