Back when I first got into comics in 1993, Drake’s Cakes, maker of dessert snack cakes like Devil Dogs and Yodels, included one of four 16-page Marvel mini-comics (these little things make manga digests look oversized!) in with their desserts. At the time, I was still a kid living at home, and my granparents lived upstairs. The whole house loved Ring Dings (which are superior to Hostess Ding Dongs in every way), so I was able to collect these pretty quickly.
These were kind of perfect for me, too. Since I was just getting into comics, they were a great way to introduce a few major Marvel characters to me without my having to actually invest in anything. Besides, the adults were the ones buying all the junk food. I just took the free prizes inside the box!
The scans you’re about to see aren’t my original comics. Those are lost to time. But a few years ago, I managed to find all four of them on eBay, very inexpensively. And then I scanned them for preservation (although, given the amount of preservatives in those snack cakes…). But what good is preserving something if other people don’t get to enjoy it, too?
Besides, Drake’s primarly only distributes to the Northeastern part of the US, so anyone west of Pennsylvania and south of New Jersey probably has never seen these.
So I’ve decided to share my scans. Just don’t tell Marvel.
Here’s the first of the four issues: Jubilee and Spider-Man.
Come back tomorrow for part two!
