Poring through a handful of Marvel comics from 1978 this week (Avengers, Black Panther, Daredevil, Thor, Spider-Woman, Godzilla, Captain America and Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man, to be precise), I repeatedly ran across these whimsical Slim Jim ads from yesteryear. They used to make me smirk as a kid, even if I didn’t know what a Slim Jim was then, other than a metallic apparatus adults used to unlock their car doors when leaving their keys inside. In 1978, the stick meat products were found advertised heavily in comics with its “meat tooth” campaign, featuring classic Universal Monsters such as Dracula and The Wolf Man.

Mad magazine artist Paul Coker certainly enjoyed a good bit of freelance commissions with his gleeful caricatures including Slim Jim in the 1970s and their long running “Beef Up” campaign. Considering all the sports connections Slim Jim meat snacks would ally themselves with in the late 1990s and mid 2000s, it’s a wonder this particular slogan never resurrected.

Now when you think of Slim Jim snack ads, the de-facto pitchman coming instantly to mind is late wrestling megastar Randy “Macho Man” Savage and his “Snap into a Slim Jim!” cheer. So popular was this tactic other pro wrestlers like The Ultimate Warrior, Kevin Nash, Edge and Bam Bam Bigelow, plus other celebrities (who can forget the hollering antics of comedian Sam Kinison’s spot?) who lent their talents to the brand’s whip-crack huckstering. Worked like a charm, since Slim Jim probably sold better in the 1990s than any other decade.

Unless you’re a vegetarian, who hasn’t sat down with one of these pencil-thin snacks likened to a rolled-up pepperoni and salami sausage hybrid? Actual ingredients being inclusive of beef, chicken, soy and lactic acid. The oily texture of the sticks themselves is part of the experience but if you have a box of these things handy, I dare you, like Pringles or Girl Scout thin mint cookies, to eat just one.

My stepfather used to pound a whole box of Slim Jims with a couple of beers on a day off with westerns playing on the tube, his idea of heaven. Perhaps Paul Coker had managed to drop him subliminal messaging from the “Beef Up” series. Still, you have to tip your hat to Slim Jim’s moxy back in the 1970s for shoving their brand unsparingly at kids, parents, outdoor sportsmen, athletes and beer drinkers alike. They claimed their product to be “a little less than meal, a little more than a snack.”

The truth was in the Slim Jim.

–Ray Van Horn, Jr.