SUNDAY FUNNIES WITH KERRY CALLEN!
By KERRY CALLEN
The great thing about creating commissions for other people is I never know what kind of requests I’ll get. This latest surprise was to take the cover to 1974’s UFO Flying Saucers #5 by Luis Dominguez and replace the scary alien with QUISP!
There were both Gold Key and Whitman versions.
Quisp, and his cereal “rival” Quake, first appeared in 1965. Here they are in their very first TV commercial:
As kids, when the cereals were on the grocery shelves, my older brother would usually get Quake, while I got Quisp. We kept the “rivalry” alive in our own household. I loved Quisp! How could I not? It was a sugar-filled cereal that sometimes came with a comic book inside the box!
The comics were long and skinny and on newsprint. They were essentially a regular-size comic cut into thirds, which is no doubt how they printed them.
Their popularity didn’t last forever. Quake cereal was pulled from grocery shelves in 1973. Quisp made it all the way to 1979.
Thank you Quisp for all the QUAZY times we had together!
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Want more SUNDAY FUNNIES WITH KERRY CALLEN? Come back next week!
Want a commission? Send an email to KerryCallenArt@gmail.com. You can also find other work at linktr.ee/kerrycallen.
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MORE
— GHOST RIDER: Eat the Rich! Click here.
— The Cheeky Reason WONDER WOMAN Took the STAR-SPANGLED KID to Court. Click here.
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KERRY CALLEN spent much of his career as an artist and art director, developing product for Hallmark, but has also dabbled in comics for many years. As a freelancer, he creates work for a range of needs, spanning from Mad Magazine to children illustrations. He has two graphic novels available on Amazon worldwide, Halo and Sprocket: The Definitive Collection, as well as Dirtnap: Mystic Spit.
August 30, 2026
I sheltered the kids from commercials and lots sugar too. If you asked them if they were familiar with either they would go Huh. Bernays’s would have liked us. Cool commission you did for party.
August 30, 2026
Awesome! As a devoted cereal enthusiast going back decades, I loved Quisp in particular. One correction, however – Quisp was sold, at least in select markets, up until around 2020 or so. Happily, my city of Madison WI was one of the fortunate places where I could still buy Quisp on the shelves until then. Hoping that Quaker will bring the little guy back at some point.
August 30, 2026
I learned that there was a limited edition release of the cereal in 2025. I wish I would have known about it. I would have at least bought a case of the cereal.
I wish they would bring it back.
August 30, 2026
Damn, I wish I had known about that, Geoff! I can’t believe I missed it. Do you happen to have any info or link to anything about that re-release?
August 30, 2026
I can’t recall where I first found that info. I am the one who sent Kerry this commission so it was fairly recently, as I was digging for information about Quisp that might help with figuring out how to best portray him (turns out his propeller on his head and finger count has changed over the years so Kerry and I talked about which version would be preferred. I decided to go between the early and latter years.)
I came across an article that they had released limited edition runs of the product to stores as late as 2025.
Maybe it wasn’t in production, IDK, or they were shipping out the last of their stock.
I know I would have snagged up a full case of it if I had known, priced be danged.
This is what I found:
“Quisp’s last major nationwide return to grocery store shelves occurred in late 2012. However, rather than one specific limited-edition drop, the cereal spent the decade leading up to its 2025 discontinuation in a constant state of limited distribution. Quaker Oats would periodically ship Quisp to discount and grocery chains—such as Dollar General, Grocery Outlet, and SuperTarget—where it would appear in “guerrilla displays” and remain available only until the store’s stock sold out.”
August 30, 2026
I have a snippet of childhood memory of Quake cereal being replaced by one with a Kangaroo as the mascot. Unless this is just the memory from a childhood fever dream .
August 30, 2026
Bob, you’re right! It was called “Quake’s Orange Quangaroos.” They soon dropped “Quake” from the name and kept selling it, at least for a while.
August 30, 2026
Quisp is still out there. Just takes some doing to find it.
August 30, 2026
Those boxes may be what’s left over of the 2025 re-release. I learned they released a number of limited edition boxes. But they are no longer in production, so once those are gone, they are gone!
August 30, 2026
I seem to recall there was a popularity contest between the two, Quisp and Quake, and that Quisp won. Which is why Quake went away IIRC…?
August 30, 2026
I hope you’re right, Tim, but I fear it’s been discontinued since around 2021. Please post if you have any evidence that it is still being made.
August 30, 2026
Russell, correct!
August 30, 2026
The research I read mentioned Quisp lost NATIONAL grocery store distribution in 1979. It has had several limited releases since then, not available everywhere. But, I could be wrong. You know, internet.
August 30, 2026
I recall seeing Quisp on sale at Target maybe 15 or 20 years or so ago. I was not only thrilled to see it, but there was an offer for a send-away watch, which I quickly did and still have. What I heard, since then, was that it was available only in limited markets, of which my city of Madison WI, was one. I also heard that it was available on Amazon for a while, though I never bothered buying it there as I had ready access half a mile from my house.
August 30, 2026
I loved Quisp and Quake but Quisp was my favorite. Somewhere there’s an old picture of a 4 or 5 year old me holding a Quisp that my dad cut out from a cereal box.