10 Things You Bought From the Back of a Comic Book

Now comic book ads feature the Avengers touting companies like State Farm and charities like Susan G. Komen for the Cure. But, back in the day, comic books featured ads for outlandish toys and products targeted directly at the superhero dreamer in us all.

I mean who didn't read an issue of Superman and wish they could see through walls? Who didn't want to be as tall or as strong as The Hulk? Well, now you could!

Ads touted x-ray specs, a step-by-step course to increase your height, "Dynamic Tension" for building muscles and a whole mess of special wonders, like a lunar module, a tripod machine gun and a miniature dog.

All you had to do was send away for them and voila, you too could get stronger, get taller, or see through walls. It all sounded too good to be true and, when the package arrived at a reader's door, they found out that it was.

Below is a sampling of the bizarre ads that dotted comic book pages in the past and what they really got you if you were taken in by the pitch.

For more of the truths behind the comic book ads of the '40s, '50s '60s, '70s and '80s, pick up Mail-Order Mysteries: Real Stuff from Old Comic Book Adsby Kirk Demarais with a afterword by Jesse Thorn host of Public Radio International's Bullseye.

SLIDESHOW: COOL COMIC BOOK PRODUCTS FROM THE PAST