The Awl tells the story of Harold von Braunhut, the man responsible for several memorable if outlandish novelties sold in the back pages of comic books for decades. These included X-ray specs and, maybe most famously, a variety of brine shrimp marketed as Sea Monkeys.

These ads are very familiar to me from my misspent, comic book-reading youth. But I had no idea that its inventor was a patron of the Aryan Nation nor that he was born and raised a Jew. Much like the wares he peddled, he was not what he appeared to be. Read the whole story here.

Jump to this link