Comments on: Hooray for bubblegum cards!!

Hooray for bubblegum cards!!

filthy light thief — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:47:28 -0800

After the gum is gone, you still have the bubble gum cards. Browse a collection of scanned cards from the 1960s (Ugly Stickers and Ugly Names), 70s (Monster Initials, Marvel Super Heroes) and the 80s (Pee Wee Herman). The initials series have word generators (IE only!): Love Initials, Mod Initials, Monster Initials (similar, previously). [via]

Related: Norman Saunders (prev) was the artist for many Topps series. His last major art project was his biggest: Wacky Packages (wiki), which according to traders, is the only Topps product to outsell their baseball cards. When it was in production, there was a growing list of food conglomerates they could not parody, based on cease and desist letters from prior series. Regardless of C&D requests, the series has been brought back over the years, with the most recent being earlier this year. If the collecting scene is too costly, Topps put out a book of Wacky Packages, covering Series 1 through 7 (1973-74).

By: Liquidwolf

Liquidwolf — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:53:46 -0800

What a flash back, I haven't seen those ugly monster cards in an eon. Nice art.

By: griphus

griphus — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:55:25 -0800

Milhouse: Hey Bart, look. Krusty trading cards. The long-awaited "Eight Series". Bart: [reading the cards] "Krusty visits relatives in Annapolis, Maryland. Krusty poses for trading card photo." Milhouse: Hmm...he seems to be running a little low on ideas. Bart: Well, at least you got the gum. Milhouse: [biting it] Ow! I cut my cheek. via

By: Artw

Artw — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:01:50 -0800

Yiksey. Looks like that IE only code uses document.all... it must be truly ancient.

By: Copronymus

Copronymus — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:02:57 -0800

When I was younger my cousin had some Garbage Pail Kids cards which I thought were the absolute coolest. Now I see they're still making new ones. I wonder what it's like churning out booger jokes for a half-baked parody of a line of toys that was trendy 20 years ago. Probably depressing.

By: Slack-a-gogo

Slack-a-gogo — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:07:40 -0800

For several years my allowance seemed to be dedicated strictly to the pursuit of owning more Wacky Packages.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:08:36 -0800

Ugly Stickers, arriving in the 60s, with their blatant pandering to youthful, even childish, transgression -- they were signposts on the road out of the fifties, with its charade of conventional adult decorum, and into our modern world.

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:23:52 -0800

Yes, the webdesign is near archaic, but the resources buried within are very keen, such as theTopps 1975 Super Heroes cards and 1976 Marvel Super Heroes, which were the subject of the io9 [via] post. Few of the quotes are the heroes (or villians) catch phrases, and instead The Punisher won a Kewpie Doll and Shang-Li, Kung Fu tells us that "all aspirin is not alike!" (I'm assuming he is supposed to be Shang-Chi, but I could be mistaken).

By: mccarty.tim

mccarty.tim — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:29:20 -0800

Oh no! Oh no! You've got it all wrong! You think you're chocolate when you're chewing gum!

By: sexyrobot

sexyrobot — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:31:40 -0800

if you like this kind of work, you should check out Goth-Icky....the other books in the series (Love Sick, Happy Kitty Bunny Pony, and Fluffy Humpy Poopy Puppy) are all excellent as well. Great post...shame i can't peel and stick the internet to my locker...

By: codacorolla

codacorolla — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:34:27 -0800

Holy crap! Thanks for the link. Tons of good source material here.

By: infinitewindow

infinitewindow — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:51:44 -0800

Fun fact: Garbage Pail Kids were created by Art Spiegelman.

By: digsrus

digsrus — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 12:13:21 -0800

I wonder if a young Stephen Hawking was tramatized by this card and thereafter was afraid of contact with aliens.

By: tommasz

tommasz — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 12:14:34 -0800

I may not have the alleged gum in my possession, but it's still around somewhere. Probably in some landfill, totally unchanged.

By: Postroad

Postroad — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 12:32:01 -0800

There were giants back then. and now? bah...

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 12:47:39 -0800

Confession: When I was eight I had an alarmingly large collection of New Kids On The Block cards.

By: applemeat

applemeat — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 06:27:33 -0800

When my friends and other lawyers complain about their boring jobs I feel guilty because I find the work I do so exciting and interesting. YMMV. I'm a trademark attorney, and absolutely credit a childhood delight in Wacky Packages for leading me here.

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 09:28:56 -0800

applemeat - could you elaborate? I'm intrigued!

By: M83

M83 — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 07:04:19 -0800

Thanks!