In 1940, Victor Fox, publisher of
WonderWorld Comics,
Mystery Men Comics,
Weird Comics, and other titles featuring
The Blue Beetle,
Samson,
The Flame, among others, conceived an audacious marketing scheme.
Inspired by the success of
Pepsi
and
Coca-Cola
, he decided to promote
Kooba Cola, "The World's Newest and Best-Tasting Soft Drink!" in ads in his entire line of comic books.
It was also "Delightfully Refreshing and Contained 35 USP units of Vitamin B-1 for the Sake of Health and Nutrition!"
When Fox's
The Blue Beetle starred in a short-lived
radio show
that summer, he was sponsored by
Kooba Cola!
Wait a second...
What's that?
You've never even
heard of
Kooba Cola?
That's because it
didn't exist, except as a couple of mocked-up bottles used as props in ads and as art reference for illustrators.
(You'll note they couldn't even figure out what the color scheme for the label was!
It changed from ad to ad!)
Fox thought he could create a demand for
Kooba, then license the name to one of the big soft drink companies, let them do the work of actually creating, bottling, and shipping the stuff, then he'd rake in royalties on the name!
It didn't work.
The "buzz" never developed.
The soda pop was never actually produced.
Even Kooba's "sponsorship" of
The Blue Beetle radio show
was just part of the show's script, not paid ads! (One of the reasons the show only lasted four months!)
But, such visionary hucksterness should not be forgotten!
(Besides, the ads were rather kool.)
So we at
Atomic Kommie Comics™ decided to re-present the Soda That Would Not Die on collectibles ranging from
Beachwear to mugs, messenger bags (and the irony of doing bags with "Kooba" on them hasn't escaped us!) and hoodies at
KoobaCola 1 and
KoobaCola 2!
So celebrate what could have been one of the bubbliest success stories of soft drink entepreneurship, but instead fizzled out and fell flat!
(You just knew we were gonna do a pun like that, didn't you?) ;-)
in almost 20 years, and the upcoming big budget movie we're proud to present our own contribution to the growing buzz over the revival of the classic character...a kool symbolic cover from 1946's Green Hornet Comics #29 featuring The Green Hornet 
and some wild skull-like Deaths-Heads!
art from the Silver Age by 
(above) and the character's co-creator 
(all the rest).
...
!)
) are available on our 
)!
