The Persistence of Old Cartoon Memories – Part 3

Back here, I did a couple of posts about bizarre cartoons that I had seen as a kid. When I thought about them decades later, I wondered if my memory was faulty and if I had imagined them. Fortunately, I found them both on the internet to prove I wasn’t nuts.

While the first examples were TV cartoons, this subject of today's post is a newspaper comic.

As I noted before on this blog, my parents used to pick up a Sunday Plain Dealer before the Journal began publishing an edition on that day. So I was exposed to all sorts of great comics that didn’t run in the Journal, such as Li’l Abner and The Wizard of Id (as well as the regular features Cappy Dick and Ask Andy).

I also remembered seeing a comic about two beans named H. J. and Heinz. The strips were little adventures. I recalled one where they were on a magic carpet.

And ever since then, for the past 50 years or so, every time I’ve seen a Heinz ketchup bottle I’ve thought of those two cartoon beans.

I’ve tried to find a copy of one of those H. J. & Heinz comic strips via Google for many years with no success. 

So did I ever find a copy of one of their adventures? Well, it’s not exactly spilling the beans to tell you I did, since I’ve devoted today’s post to this whole affair. One of those newspaper archive services came through.

To my surprise, the whole thing was an advertisement for Heinz Beans in Tomato Sauce! Here are some samples, from the summer of 1965. I was six years old when I first saw these.

July 11. 1965

July 18, 1965

Sept. 5, 1965

It’s funny looking at these ads today. I wonder if Heinz was hoping that these two beans would take on a life of their own, like the two M&M candies? I like the fact that the cute tomato (slang for a woman) is actually a cute tomato.

So what does all this prove? 

The answer: that I’ve been a sucker for advertising since I was very young.

The product is still around, even if H. J. & Heinz,
the “almost human beans,” aren’t.