Vintage of the Day- Wacky Wednesday! Wacky Packs, Collectible Cards by Topps

The following was written by Jim, my husband and best friend. He taught me about these wacky and sometimes offensive cards. his love for comics as a kid and as a dealer in the 80's is what got us here today. Enjoy and come back next Wednesday. He's putting together like cards to show you :) Melissa

Those Beatle cards got me thinking about other cards I saw as a kid.

Star Wars, Indiana Jones, E.T., Smurf's, Dukes of Hazzard and New Kids on the Block cards. It seemed as if a television show or movie were truly "good", it had a set of cards to go with it. It was like the kid "Seal of Approval"!

Then there were "Wacky Packages" stickers. These were produced by Topps.

These product parodies were originally a 44 card set produced in 1967 and 1968. They were perforated, die cut images on cards. Punch them out like paper dolls, lick and STICK!

Art Spiegelman, noted comics editor, New Yorker cover artist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist. "Maus" was a graphic novel of his family's experience in the Holocaust.

Mid 60's and still in college, Spiegelman began work at Topps Chewing Gum Co. He landed in their product development department. He came up with ideas, created rough drafts, then they were painted by Norman Saunders.

Spicy pulp paperback's as well as trading cards, Norm had a lengthy career as an artist.

"A year later, Topps released "Wacky Ads". Advertisements for Wacky Package products. They were a larger than normal sized card done in a Billboard style. These were rough drafts from Spiegelman, but painted by Tom Sutton.

4 years later In 1973 all but 14 of the original 44 die cut cards were then re-introduced as peel and stick stickers.

The 14 were not re-introduced. Legal departments from big companies like Pepsi, Firestone and Campbells Soup, sent "Cease and Desist" orders for making fun of their products. I'll reveal who were the biggest babies later.

**The new peel and stick format was a huge hit! To meet demand, production went into overdrive and caused a shortage of materials. They had to source materials from other companies. Paper backing for example, created variations which created another subset of collecting the series.

It's what us nerds live for, gotta catch em all.

Some had white or tan backs and 2 other versions had red or back camels.

Recognizing the value in recycling, they revamped the billboard-style Wacky Ads cards and released them as the 2nd series of Wacky Package stickers.

7 new cards were added to this series. All were painted by Norman Saunders. The stickers were a HUGE hit.

New artists came in and submitted their own ideas. Legendary cartoonists like Jay Lynch, Kim Deitch, Drew Friedman, Bill Griffith, Bhob Stewart and others. This led to 14 more series of cards. All new art to take them through 1977.

To this day day, they have regurgitated re-prints and spin-offs. Wacky themed merchandise has kept the cash register's ringing.

Going through all the cards is fun, I'll post groups on "Wacky Wednesdays". That will keep us busy for a few weeks :)

Jim

Love vintage? Me too! Follow me it's my favorite subject!

Melissa