Shill With Scooter!

This charming 1966 comic book cover by first-rate artists Joe Orlando and Mike Esposito seems at first to merely  feature an innocent and harmless scene of swinging 60's kids enjoying each other at the local beach hangout. There's music, food, frolic, and fun, fun, fun!

But alas there is more to this seemingly naive portrait, as the spectre of crass commercialism crashes in upon this idyllic tableau of youth.

Here we see the then popular Batman TV show playing on the highly advanced and extremely portable television.

Here we see one member of Scooter's gang perusing an issue of the Batman comic book, and given his glasses, perhaps even some heretofore unknown 3-D rendition of the not-yet Dark Knight.

And finally and perhaps most discreetly we see Batman's mug on the back of this young swain's shirt as he gambols with a lovely ginger-haired lass.

DC was eager to promote their new comics, and their new ventures in other media, even if it meant stooping to this kind of quasi-subliminal messaging. It's doubtless the work of some Don Draper wannabe of the era eager to cut a notch in his belt by seeking new and nefarious ways to make us buy, buy, buy!

It's certainly nice that we live in simpler times.

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