Small pre-fanfic queries

[ffutures]

Does California have any common birds that collect shiny things to decorate their nests?

Did American comics of the 1930s / 40s give away, or sell, toys and other objects related to the comic?

Comments

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

Magpies are a holarctic species, so they're found in North America as well as Europe. A quick check suggests that you find them in California as far south as San Francisco, especially away from the coast.

Sunnydale, as I suspect you want to know, not so much.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Did American comics of the 1930s / 40s give away, or sell, toys and other objects related to the comic?

This was super common for pulps (G-8, The Shadow) and radio shows (The Shadow, again). There were definitely ads in comics at the time, but I dunno if they had fan clubs and premiums.

Magpie-wise, what could be more accurate than Wikipedia?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-billed_Magpie

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

I would suggest seeing if you can find anything out about the behavior of the California jay. We definitely have them in pericoastal San Diego: big, bright blue birds with raucous voices and a sassy attitude. I really like them. A lot of corvids do the picking up shinies thing, so it wouldn't surprise me if jays do so, but I don't know for sure.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

A check on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Jay) shows that "Western scrub-jays are also known for hoarding and burying brightly colored objects." Burying might be even better. . . . I've always called them "California jays"; this is the first I've heard the name "scrub jay."

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Jay is good enough, it's just a way to explain something being noticed - there's an abandoned nest in the tree outside Buffy's bedroom.

[davidkevin.livejournal.com]

> Did American comics of the 1930s / 40s give away, or sell, toys and other
> objects related to the comic?


There were lots and lots of Superman-related toys beginning in the early '40s but I don't think many of them were sold through the comics. What was in the comics was the Supermen of America (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermen_of_America#Historical_Supermen) club from the '40s through the early '60s, membership in which got you a pin button picturing Superman from the waist up (drawn by Wayne Boring (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Boring), I think); a membership card with a pledge of conduct on it; some kind of decoder for a letter-substitution cypher.

There may have been a Batmen of America or similar club, but memory is fuzzy on that.

Marvel had the Merry Marvel Marching Society in the mid- to late '60s, from which you got the usual membership card (no conduct pledge, though), members-only newsletters, and a flexible plastic record with Stan Lee introducing you to all of Marvel's other creative talent of the time, each with an alliterative adjective applied to their name, with a few words from each person plus a couple of songs. ("You belong, you belong, you belong, you belong to the Merry Marvel Marching Society! March along, march along, march along to the song of the Merry Marvel Marching Society!")

Does this help?