Lang Clay sends this cover of a very curious comic book from the early 1950s.  Hadacol was a once-popular patent medicine that originated in the 1940s.  It contained various vitamins and even more alcohol.  It was said to promote health when taken four times a day, one tablespoon diluted in water after each meal and before bed, though there were pharmacies in dry counties that sold it by the shot, for the alcohol kick.

The inventor of Hadacol, Dudley J. LeBlanc, a Louisiana state senator, published a comic book for kids that promoted the wondrous elixir.  It starred a mild-mannered man who gained extraordinary powers when he took a slug of the stuff.  Sales of Hadacol were enormous but it turned out that LeBlanc spent more on promotion than he took in in sales, and his enterprise collapsed.  Wisely, LeBlanc had sold the company just before that happened.

For more on the medicine, and the comic, go here.

Click on the images to enlarge.