The Gang's (Almost) All Here

BFF o'the Archive Jeff Shepherd has sent along scans of a couple of exceptional Bazooka Joe and the Gang original art pieces for everybody's viewing pleasure.  First up is Officer Bill, from an original character study on Bristol board, laid down by Wesley Morse:

Wait, what?!  There's no character named Officer Bill in the Bazooka Joe comics.  There is however, Sarge, the gruff but friendly cop on the beat (often seen directing traffic by the school) in whatever burg the gang called home:

That was actually a Bazooka comic, as eight of the characters rated a solo look in the first series of  one-cent tabs of the bubble gum in 1954. 

I ran the art by Mark Newgarden, who is wise in such matters, and he indicated he has a handful of these studies in his archives: Wilbur, Toughy, Tex, Walkie Talkie (more on those in a minute) and of course, the eye-patched hero himself, good ol' Bazooka Joe:

That one is just about identical to the finished version of Joe, seen here in a scan, again courtesy of Shep:

As a capper, there also exists a piece of art that Mr. Newgarden advises hung in a Topps conference room for years and it is a beauty, although the whereabouts of the original are unknown at present (but it's still believed to exist):

Seemingly a black-and-white stat (i.e. a photostat, a kind of early copying system that used a camera) with color added after reproduction, it depicts several characters that didn't last too long or ended up with new names. Let's go from left to right:

Bazooka Joe of course, comes first then we see his girlfriend Janet, Joe's kid brother Pesty, then sister L'il Pat, Toughy (formerly Butch, then later Tuffy), Wilbur, Mort, Tex (who seems redundant thanks to Pesty's presence), Bazooka Joe's Mom and Pop, Hungry Herman, Joe's dog Walkie Talkie and finally, Sarge.

Several recurring characters are not shown, even though they appeared with some consistency.  There were, for example, at least two teachers who were semi-regulars, one a young blonde woman and the other a white-haired, stouter Mrs. Grundy type. Various parents, relatives, townsfolk and even passing hobos made appearances in the strip.  

All these characters were around for years, even after Morse died in 1963, as Topps had a stash of comics in reserve they issued for almost two more decades, although by the mid-Seventies they began salting in more promo and prize comics before an early-Eighties redesign brought in new artists and some new characters as well (Metal Dude anybody?). But for literally hundreds, if not thousands, of adventures spanning a quarter-century, the original Bazooka Joe and his Gang were a familiar group to millions of penny-wielding kids.

Between The Joes

Continuing on from last week's post today, which you may recall featured some recycled Magic Funny Fortunes gags that were run up the flagpole by Topps when the original Bazooka Joe's drawn by Wesley Morse were petering out in the early 80's.  Morse died in 1963 but had created so many strips for Topps in ten years time that they lasted almost another twenty after his passing!

But run out they did and Topps, between the lack of new material and a desire to get a little hipper, had to find a new artist for the strip.  They eventually chose Howard Cruse and his strips began around 1983 but before that several "feature-style" comics were launched as replacements.  One of them ripped off another old Topps issue, 1961's Crazy Cards.  Check out this Unreal People strip (courtesy of Lonnie Cummins, as are all the others shown here):

And now compare it to the original Crazy Card (by Wally Wood no less):

Same exact gag!  Not sure why the art wasn't reused, maybe Topps was trying out artists?

We also got some more ersatz Joe action with Rotten Riddles:

I'll bet that "fortune" would have been a real bummer to some 9 year old kid in 1981! The fortunes may have improved with the Dumb Jokes subset but the gags did not:

Lonnie ciphered that that particular football gag appeared in 1970's Funny L'il Joke Books and I'd wager many others in the the Dumb Jokes sequence did as well.

What I don't get though is why Topps didn't just recycle old Joes as they were waiting on Howard Cruse?  They did it in 1981 with recycled strips from 1977 according to the most fabulous bazookajoecomics.com so why not keep going?  The last "new" Bazooka Joe strips look to have been issued in 1980 so surely a reissue of older strips for another year or two would have been a cakewalk.

Two other features were mixed in during this period. Little Creeps, which seems like it was a standalone set from Hallowe'en a couple of years prior, may not have been issued that way and instead may have just been mixed in with some of these.  Or it was a reissue; I'm trying to figure that one out still.

Then there were also strips of Knock-Knocks:

There was a lot of artwork created for these interlocking issues, 218 including a kind of reissue of 52 of them! They span the 1981-82 period "Between the Joes" quite nicely but also served to give notice things were changing. There's a mix of types within each release, which look to have occurred every 4-6 months or so based upon the volume of comics.

There are 3 comic and 10 comic valuations but it's not even as there's far more 10's; I'm not sure which was first but these seem to follow a different kind of numbering and release scheme than the vintage strips did. 

On a semi-related note I got a ten pack of Bazooka in my stocking this year and am happy to confirm Joe lives!

I went to bazookajoe.com to see what was linked and was met with a choice between two paths, one for kids and one for "adults".  I chose the latter (the former looks like it was designed for five year olds) and that s what I have put as the click through link-check it out!

BBQ Smasharoo

With a three day weekend upon us, and for no other reason than good ol' laziness, I figured a nice, easy hodgepodge post was in order as I tend to my grill and related activities. UPDATE-it's pouring out!

1950's Hopalong Cassidy was the second licensed character release from Topps and it did boffo business in the wake of William Boyd's televison repackaging of his old Hoppy movies.  The first eight episodes (subsets to you, pardner) also had an associated foil insert "title card" for each. As you can imagine, these shiny, fragile extras are super collectible and realtively scarce. None have ever graded higher than a PSA 6.  I can't find the two-card panel data but this example, in a PSA 5 slab, would be considered high end:

I like how Topps darkened the star to AND underlined the episode title:

Much like the diecut tank cards in the same era's Freedom's War set, these foil cards were printed separately and pushed into the packs.  Two-foil panels were inserted in the elongated nickel wax (actually glassine) packs of the time, so sized to allow for the two card panels, and possibly the ten cent Trading Card Guild packs that didn't have any gum included. Foil panels are rare quite rare and the singles (from penny apcks or separated) aren't too easy to find either.

Speaking of the Trading Card Guild, some of the 1957 cello packs issued by Topps had associated "TCG" graphics. At least one (second series) pack has been graded as by PSA, almost certainly the one I detailed here almost a decade ago. As always, there could be more in slabs but whether or not PSA identified the wrapper as being branded or not is an open question.  Well, here's a second series cello pack without the graphics, just to bring things full circle:

Finally, a rejection by Bazooka Joe (LOL) of a premium fulfillment request gives us some insight into how things were run in the (very much) pre-digtial age.  I'm not sure the comic goes with the envelope actually, it seems to have merely been included in a larger eBay lot.

The Magic Circle Club "comic", as above, may not be what came along with this letter:

This certificate for 250 comcis though, seems to have been the subject of the letter.  The mimeograph lines indicate it was cut from a larger sheet, so this type of premium hiccup would have been common enough to warrant a pile or two of hand-completed certificates being kept at the ready, I'm sure:

I think this is the proper catalog for the mailing though (1966):

I never actually sent in any comics to Bazooka Joe back in the day, I always ended up tossing them.  Oh, the irony!

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!

Joe No

Concluding a loose trilogy on uncut Bazooka comics sheets of the 50's, today brings nothing but Bazooka Joe goodness.

The sheet below is the second (of three) series of these printed in 1955 and totals 48 distinct comics.

Once again there are 7 columns (1-7) and 12 distinct rows (A-L).  The three rightmost columns replicate the three leftmost columns while the middle column is all on it's own.  I guess there could be a "B sheet" with a different configuration as it seems odd to have single and double prints for freakin' comics!

 As we have seen previously on similar sheets, the black-barred comics appear every third row and your eye can pick up the pattern of repeating rows after the fourth iteration downward of this distinct feature.

These have a premium offer expiration date of February 15, 1957.  Looks like Topps went about 18 months from printing and packaging to premium expiry.

The diamonds have been seen here and there but what's new to me is the embossed + sign in the gutter to the left of said jewel. I don't know if these are centering or cutting guides but they must mean something.

Here's a few more comics for your reading pleasure!

Joe Henry!

Further to the uncut sheet of pre-Bazooka Joe comics I dissected back at the end of January, I've taken a look at another sheet, this time the one that launched the familiar kid with the eyepatch and his gang, and found some surprises.

The sheet in question is a large one:

I usually try to trim the scans I, um, appropriate here down but the yardstick is a useful, well yardstick, in this one so I've left it.  It's so large I can't get good resolution here without making it too massive to see on a single screen  but using my traditional array method, from the first full row down there are 12 different rows, A through L as I call them.  Likewise, going across the top there are 7 columns, 1-7 (clever, no?).

The first thing that jumps out is the column (#7) of Henry comics. According to BFF o'the Archive Jeff Shepherd, this is the first concrete evidence Topps printed the Henry strips, although it's been surmised for decades.  So that's some interesting news that I will return to momentarily.

The second thing that we can see is that two columns are repeats.  Unlike the pre-Bazooka Joe sheet, which did not repeat any of its 7 columns, Topps has changed the mix here. Columns 1 and 2 are repeated as columns 5 and 6 while Henry of course, stands on his own.  This makes sense as there are 48 different comics in the original Bazooka Joe series: 40 "traditional" and 8 of the "intro" single panels featuring the main characters in the "Gang".

Henry though is vexing me. The examples on this sheet all have a 1953 copyright and, obviously, no premium offers or anything else at all is displayed.  Odd but a known fact.

I own three Henry comics.  A larger one with a 1953 copyright and a smaller one from the same year. These measure, respectively, 4 1/4" x 3 and 3 3/4" x 2 3/4".  The third is a small example with a 1954 copyright. Based upon the yardstick measurements above I believe these to be the larger sized comics.

This is not anything of note really as the smaller size is probably just due to different packaging configurations.  What is of note though, is that my large Henry does not match one of the 12 examples on this uncut sheet.  My small one is no match either.  I have to surmise then, that a "B" sheet exists that duplicates columns 3 & 4 above and has a different dozen Henry comics along one edge. Then when you think it all works out, you have to consider the 1954 Henry's! They must have been printed after these, meaning Topps was hedging their bets on Bazooka Joe, which had three distinct series issued in 1954. This sheet has the first and all the premium offers expire on June 20, 1955.  These were printed and packaged sometime between April and August of 1954

Whew!  Well I clearly need to do more research on these comics.  In the meantime, just enjoy a handful below, preferably with a big wad of Bazooka! Do note, however, the black barred rows (Save Bazooka Comics for Free Prizes) while not contiguous across each row, appear every third row, just like the Double Feature Comics that were so prominent on the pre-Bazooka Joe sheet!

Premium Time

I have been digging deep into the Bazooka back story of late and finding all sorts of interesting things.  As many regular readers here know, there was a wealth of premiums offered over the years by Topps and Bazooka comics were the source of many of these trinkets and gadgets.  I thought a look at some of the more offbeat Bazooka Joe comics and premium offers would be a fun diversion today.

First up is a 1957 Bazooka Joe one cent comic exhibiting signs of the high speed cutting process used by Topps at the time.  I believe the comics were folded (the diamond marks the spot) and then cut, which explains the Rorschach like pattern.  I especially like the black-and-white first panel and the entire comic seems a bit noir-ish.  Geez, that Jerry Mahoney keychain charm is frightening!

Another 1957 comic with something for the ladies.  You don't often see premiums (or much else) from Topps, so this bride doll is a head turner.  It's alsoan expensive premium by the standards of the times.

This 1965-ish comic possibly features the Topps Gum Card Album discussed here many yonks ago. I don't know why the one above only holds 180 cards when the most common one can house 208. There were also some albums produced in 1965 and 1966 by third parties designed to hold Topps baseball cards but I have no idea what this premium looks like as the graphics are less than helpful!

This "roll" comic (it came with the five cent roll of Bazooka that looked a little like a cigar with score marks) does not have a code that speaks the date to me but the premium represents overstock of the only two issues of Topps Fan Magazines from 1965. A $1.00 value on distributor returns?  Hah!

Sometimes Topps would sneak in something that wasn't a comic.  Here is an insert for the famous Exploding Battleship:

I guess they had a lot of those in the ole warehouse and I suspect they may have tried to move them all out before the big move to Duryea, PA in early 1966.  Other premiums are featured on these as well. Topps had been recycling series of Bazooka Joe's for years, peppering in what stock they had remaining of the Wesley Morse originals but they were drying up by the end of the 70's (Morse had died in 1963).  It would be another decade before they commissioned a redesign but Topps became expert at repurposing the exisiting artwork and stretching out the series as this 1972 one-panel shows:

Those felt baseball pennants go back to the origins of Bazooka, although these are probably the latest in the redesigned series that commenced in 1958-59.  Still #121 was an ancient premium number by 1972 as the most common ones seen were from the "400 series".   

I think the below comic dates to around 1980 and it's a hybrid of Morse's and another artist's work:

The Little Creeps were, accoring to this site, the forerunners of the Garbage Pail Kids:

Things were getting pretty thin in the idea department by 1983, so Topps had Howard Cruse develop a whole new look for Bazooka Joe and His Gang:

This redesign gave the World Metal Dude:

And since I have nowhere else appropriate to show this at the moment, check out this point-of-sale decal for Bazooka:

Pennant Feverish-Part 2

If I may put the cart before the horse, it is time to look at the antecedents of the 1959 Baseball Pennant premiums. Believe it or not, the first year Topps offered a pennant premium was in 1949 and it was college football teams, not professional baseball squads:



Those inserts would come with the early Bazooka penny pieces before comics really caught on. I do not have any scans of these yet but suspect some will show up someday. By the way, all of the Bazooka comic scans today are from Jeff Shepherd's bag of tricks, as are the date identifications ff same. I suspect some form of the football pennant inserts existed for years afterward.

In 1952 Topps made a baseball pennant premium part of the wrapper design for both the first 310 cards:



And the High Numbers:




Betcha did't know they had their own wrapper, eh? Well, I didn't either until I stumbled upon that scan. As a side note to a side note, it is believed by yours truly that the '52 high numbers were only issued in nickel packs. I'll get to the top premium offer in a minute but the bottom one shows the baseball pennants offer:



The pennants seem to follow the design of the earlier College Football version, with just lettering and no logos. That Chicago and New York teaming would live on for many more years, as we shall see.

We are ranging a bit far afield here but the logos however, were also available via the premium offer at the top of the wrapper for five inch felt emblems and predate by four years the accepted 1956 issue date covered here. Not sure if they match the 1956's identically but check it out:



1953 came and there were no pennant premiums (or emblems) offered on the baseball wrappers, so it was back to the bubble gum set:



Buzzy was about the last character to appear on the comics before Bazooka Joe & His Gang became ubiquitous. The pennants are still nondescript, from the looks of things but Chicago and New York continue to be displayed (the Giants and not the Yankees this time out).

However, in 1954 the stars aligned and we not only get a nascent Bazooka Joe but also a merger between the emblems and pennants of yore:



I have not tracked the emblems as closely as the pennants and am not sure if they were still offered as premiums or if they were not reintroduced until 1956. Anyway.....

1957 brought a redesigned comic (matching somewhat the scroll work on the retailer certificates of the time) but the same old Chicago/NY axis:



1959 was a three-fer as Bazooka had the pennants on the comics:



And Topps had 'em on the baseball wrappers:



And in the packs:



Tying back to Part 1, in 1968 they were also advertised as a premium on the comics:



Yes, same old New York and Chicago tandem! It was still going strong in 1971:



But by 1979 things were moribund in New York:



Pennant premium offers on the comics extend to at least 1983 and may still be offered today for all I know. Along with the felt emblems and a few other items, it is safe to say there is a gap in the information on these premiums. This is partly due to their confusing and longstanding issuance and partly due to Bazooka being considered as lesser when compared to the Topps brand, even though they are all one and the same!