Back in the sixties in the pages of Marvel Comics, Stan Lee would occasionally award some lucky (?) reader what he called a "no prize." It might be in a letter column or it might be in the house ad section called the Bullpen Bulletins. The reader might have made some extraordinary contribution to the cause of Marvel, or he might just have found some dumb error in an issue and called it to Stan's attention. Whatever the location, whatever the meritorious conduct, it warranted the same reward: A "no prize," as in, "You get no prize." I gather this was kind of a running joke on the old Jean Shepherd radio programs and Stan kept it going, but I never heard enough of Mr. Shepherd to know the derivation for certain.
Anyway, some readers were gleeful that Stan had awarded them a "no prize," and some didn't understand and they'd write in and say, "I haven't received it." Around 1967, I'm guessing, Stan took the joke to the next level and began actually sending out…well, I'm not sure if you could say he sent out "no prizes" because there was no such thing. But he sent out empty envelopes that said they contained your no prizes. Above is a pic of one of these envelopes — a later version, judging from the return address — which sported lettering by Marvel's ace letterer at the time, Sam Rosen. Someone wrote and asked me about them so I thought I'd post this for all the world to see. There was something very charming and clever about the whole concept, and it was part of what made Marvel Comics feel like a company run by your buddies.