STUFF FROM MY CHILDHOOD #1

This is the stuff of my childhood. when I was 6 or 7 years old I collected bubblegum cards of my favourite tv shows and other cool stuff.   These cards were like the best things ever back then.

Some of the most collectable cards back then were a series called Mars Attacks (the inspiration for Tim Burtons 1996 movie), Civil War News and  Battle.

Civil War News and Battle were and probably still are some of the most graphically violent trading cards I have ever seen.

CIVIL WAR NEWS TRADING CARDS

 

  BATTLE TRADING CARDS

MARS ATTACKS TRADING CARDS

 You'd never have such products available and freely sold to kids of that age nowadays . Is it any wonder I grew up the way I did?

BATMAN TRADING CARDS (BLACK, RED AND BLUE SERIES)

The crème de la crème of my card collection back in the 60's were these Batman cards.

Although not as graphically violent as Civil War News and Mars Attacks, they still teased with images of potential violent death*. There were three series to collect. The black, red and blue series (indicated by the coloured bat graphic in the right hand corner.

*They also came with the possible threat of real violence from another collector wanting the all important, yet elusive, card to complete his set that you happened to have in your possession.

 What all of the above have in common is that they were all painted by Norman Saunders and Bob Powell. Norman Saunders was well know at the time for his sci-fi and crime  pulp covers.

Related links

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/10/14/scotts-classic-comics-corner-the-painted-covers-of-norman-saunders/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Saunders

http://www.oldbubblegumcards.com/1960s/Battle/index.html

This link goes into more detail about the Batman cards. There were were seires: black, red and blue (I didn't want to bore the pants off you all with my nerdiness).

http://batmancards.com/blog/12-06-04_1966-red-bat-batman-cards.php

To get back to Batman....

Here's a nice post by Eddie Campbell about his childhood reading material which , by what he writes here, was the same as mine.

http://eddiecampbell.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/s-laddie-in-mid-sixties-i-discovered_22.html
Eddie Campell's  blog is very good if you have time for a coffee break.
http://eddiecampbell.blogspot.co.uk/

Batman # 90 (1955) has a story drawn by Dick Sprang, but my fave story in this issue is WEB OF DOOM, drawn by Sheldon Moldoff. I just love the big shadows.