Presidential Succession Plan

Very early in their "novelty" issuing history, Topps seized upon the U.S. Presidency as fertile ground for sets that were meant for entertainment but also had an educational angle.  Two of their first issued sets were Golden Coin (click HERE for some background) and the intertwined It Happened To A President, a set of twenty comic strip mini-biographies of many Chief Executives. These were packaged and sold together, appearing just after the first post-World War 2 U.S. Presidential Election. Golden Coin is not all that interesting to me as a novelty as it was forged by a third party and it's also pretty basic. It Happened to a President, though, is a bit more fun:

Here's how the original release of IHTAP looked. The set is attributed to 1949 based upon the outer Golden Coin wrapper, even though I'm pretty sure it saw the light of day as the election was ongoing. But 1949 is the common hobby attribution and I'll just leave that here...

These comics were each affixed to the back of a Golden Coin wrapper, and were quite large at 5 1/8" x 6 3/16":

That scan does not do it justice-these were a dazzling foiled gold color that would have been quite eye-catching.

While IHTAP does not get recognition for a 1952-53 issue, I believe Topps just reused the same comics as they repurposed the Golden Coins possibly in plastic, vs. the original metal. I say this because Harry Truman got a pair of glasses somewhere along the way, plus I can't see Topps missing a presidential election cycle at the time. Here's Harry:

The conventional hobby wisdom has the sets reappearing as an OPC issue in Canada in 1956, which seems odd but is supported by the Golden Coin wrapper indicia.  It Happened To A President got red and black accents for this release (sorry for the miscut):

Topps slightly revised the IHTAP subjects for 1956.  The original 1948-49 set and this re-release shared nineteen subjects, in this ordering:

1. Andrew Jackson

2. George Washington

3.Ulysses S. Grant

4. Theodore Roosevelt

5. Abraham Lincoln

6. George Washington

7. Andrew Jackson

8. Grover Cleveland

9. Zachary Taylor

10. James Monroe

11. James A. Garfield

12. John Adams

13. John Quincy Adams

14. Abraham Lincoln

15. James Madison

16. Franklin Roosevelt

17. Thomas Jefferson

18. Calvin Coolidge

19. Woodrow Wilson

20. (See below)

As you can see, not all Presidents were treated equally.  First of all, the mediocre ones are almost non-existent, except for one.  Here, The Simpsons will tell you who:

All but one of the other ignorees served a single term (or less), save for William McKinley, and Harry Truman, who was in office when the set debuted. 1956 saw the twentieth subject changed from William H. Harrison to Dwight Eisenhower. The only possible thing I can think of as to why the set was an OPC release is his presence.  I can't find his comic proper, so the original artwork will have to do:

Bowman's 1952 U.S. Presidents set got a quick re-release after Topps bought them out in early 1956, which also utilized the slightly different dimensions used by their former competitor. Here's the Bowman Ike, front and back:

Unlike the action-packed front, the back is very plain (and may peg the set to 1953, not '52):

Compare that to the Topps version, which at least added some color (the fronts were not altered):

Ike was the 33rd man to be President and to top off the 36 card set, three subjects, all "prez-adjacent," had to be wedged in.  Bowman (and then Topps four years later) went with:

No. 1 Washington Takes Command

No. 2 Declaration of Independence 

and No. 7 Burning of White House

The horizontal nature of these three makes finding centered examples quite difficult.

Golden Coin and IHTAP were then shelved for good, while U.S. Presidents would not see the light of day again for another sixteen years. Instead Topps issued a series of stamps circa 1962 that included all 34 POTUS through JFK.  Here's four:

Bazooka also got into the political mix with a 33 card package design set that presented three at a clip in particular order:

1964 though, was commemorated in a different way.  Topps issued a slapdash set of cards following the assassination of John F. Kennedy:

The backs were prepared just as quickly as the front, I'd say:

Topps did, however, address the 1964 Presidential Campaign with a set called Johnson Vs. Goldwater:

Not the worst design but as a card set?  I dunno....

Here's the ultra-exciting (not) back:

Topps mixed things up a bit after the 1964 election; we'll get into that next time out.

Bonus Bazooka Blast!

It's a grab bag of Bazooka this week kids!  Here's some Bazooka eye candy I think you will all enjoy.

Wesley Morse drew Bazooka Joe comics for Topps for less than a decade (1954 debut) and then they figured out how to stretch is work even more after he died in 1963-his drawings ran until 1982!  It looks like he did some other work for Topps as well, take a gander at the line work and style on this envelope:

(courtesy Jeff Shepherd)

I'm not positive but I think the 2 cents US postage metered rate ended sometime in 1958, so this looks like a mid 50's envelope.  That traffic cop looks just like an amalgamation of Sarge and Herman from Bazooka Joe,  doesn't it?

I recently found a true date attribution for the Bazooka U.S. Presidents package design set.  It was described in Woody Gelman's Card Collector as a 1962 issue and I think in the few guides that covered it over the years but it's from 1960. That makes total sense given it was a presidential election year.

In 1969 Topps experimented with a foil Bazooka wrapper on what may have been a test of a nickel roll twin-pack (dig the markdown from Grant's), harkening back to the product launch in 1947:

I have no idea why they did this, nor why they brought back the sepia comics of yore:

Finally, on the heels of last week's waxy insert post, I thought I'd revisit this 1973 Bazooka comic inserts showing how Topps would sometimes gyp the kids with an ad instead of Bazooka Joe and His Gang:

Stay safe out there folks!

How Irregular

Well it's been just over a year since my last post on The Card Collector and now that I've dusted off some more issues, I thought I'd share some additional fun facts.

I don't have a full run of issues but I did note that sometime between issue 11 (5/15/61) and 16 (12/30/61) Woody Gelman turned over the editorship to Jim Zak of Cicero, Illinois, although it remained essentially a house organ for Gelman's Card Collectors Company, which still published the little 'zine.

First up, from number 19 (3/30/62) we get an issue date for the Bazooka Presidents set, namely 1962.
(UPDATE 6/23/20: It turns out it's from 1960 after all):

Previously attributed for the most part to 1960, this 33 card sets runs through Eisenhower.  These were issued in the familiar 3 panel package designs.  Here's old Zachary Taylor:

Later in the same issue we see that the 1962 Topps Baseball Stamps were being issued 40 at a time, at least in the beginning.

The Stamps did clock in at 200 subjects, although Roy Sievers is shown with two teams (Athletics and Phillies) as Topps corrected a mistake as he was never on the A's. This little hiccup meant 201 stamps were actually issued!

Anyhoo......Fleer's FTC complaint against Topps makes news.  Fleer would win one of their arguments in 1965 before the decision was overturned and they sold all their player contracts to Topps in '66. Topps had 414 of 421 major leaguers locked up and Fleer took exception.

Things pick up a bit in the next issue, dated 4/20/62, check out the CCC ad:

1949 Bowman PCL cards are one thing but 1956 (really 1955) small Hocus Focus cards in uncut sheet form for $2.00???!!!  The $1.00 price point for the PCL cards is intriguing as the recently reappeared 1952 Baseball high numbers (garbage scow, my ass) were going for the same rate.  As it has turned out, the former are a good bit harder to find that the latter.  And I've never seen an uncut sheet of the Hocus Focus cards-the mind reels at what that would be worth today.  Other ho-hum items include T205's, Hopalong Cassidy foils and the rare #68 Fleer Ted Williams card. Jim Zak had some deals too, no?

In issue 22 (6/20/62)  we get one of the first inklings of the 1962 Baseball green tints:

Meanwhile issue #24 (8/20/.62) brings 1949 Bowman misprint sheets and 1952 Topps highs. Woody was really turning up some goodies!

I hope to fill in the missing issues (I have about half of the run) but these seem a little harder to find than some other hobby mags of the day. Some are also very mundane but the hobby was visibly nascent for two decades and the Card Collector was a vital early publication that helped fuel the wide-ranging world of cards that exists today.