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CARDS
BATTLE!
Painted by Norman Blaine Saunders
Published by T.C. G. (TOPPS)
The Topps Company, Inc., manufactures chewing gum, candy and collectibles. Based in New York, New York,[1] Topps is best known as a leading producer of baseball cards, football cards, basketball cards, hockey cards and other sports and non-sports themed trading cards.[
Topps itself was founded in 1938,[3] but the company can trace its roots back to an earlier firm, American Leaf Tobacco. Founded in 1890 by Morris Shorin, the American Leaf Tobacco Co. imported tobacco to the United States and sold it to other tobacco companies. (American Leaf Tobacco should not be confused with the American Tobacco Company, which monopolized U.S.-grown tobacco during this period.)
American Leaf Tobacco encountered difficulties during World War I, as it was cut off from Turkish supplies of tobacco, and later as a result of the Great Depression. Shorin's sons, Abram, Ira, Philip, and Joseph, decided to focus on a new product but take advantage of the company's existing distribution channels. To do this, they relaunched the company as Topps, with the name meant to indicate that it would be "tops" in its field. The chosen field was the manufacture of chewing gum, selected after going into the produce business was considered and rejected.
At the time, chewing gum was still a relative novelty sold in individual pieces. Topps’ most successful early product was Bazooka bubblegum, which was packaged with a small comic on the wrapper. Starting in 1950, the company decided to try increasing gum sales by packaging them together with trading cards featuring Western character Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd); at the time Boyd, as one of the biggest stars of early television, was featured in newspaper articles and on magazine covers, along with a significant amount of "Hoppy" merchandising. When Topps next introduced baseball cards as a product, the cards immediately became its primary emphasis.
MORE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topps
MORE: http://www.mickeysclubhouse.com/catalog%20pages/Story60sPage.htm
BATTLE the story of WORLD WAR II
1965 Trading Card Set
Battle trading card set was produced by Topps in 1965, highlighting the graphic violence of World War II. Parents absolutely hated these cards, but us kids loved them! The set is similar in nature to its predecessor -- the 1930s classic Horrors of War -- with its often graphic depiction of the gore and violence associated with war. The Battle cards were painted by Norman Saunders, Maurice Blumenfeld, Ed Valigurski, and Bob Powell.
MORE: http://www.oldbubblegumcards.com/1960s/Battle/index.html
MORE: http://www.shout.net/~scg/collections/pages/jackjuka.html
What is
Battle! anyway?
Battle! is a 1965 collector card series from Topps containing
66 cards and 24 cloth stickers.
Except for numbers 54 - 66 (which are types of servicemen, generals, statesmen,
and 2 checklist cards) the typical color painting of this series depicts a
violent war scene in realistic detail. The caption appears in a yellow panel on
the front and the cards have white borders. The backs are brown and grey and
there is a sketch of a running soldier next to the text. The cards are 2 1/2" x
3 1/2". One "U.S. Military Cloth Emblem" (2" x 3 5/16") was inserted into each
gum pack as a bonus. Number 65 is the cloth emblem checklist and number 66 is he
series checklist.
A Short History...
The United States Civil War Centennial
Celebration was still going strong in 1962 when Topps produced a set of cards
titled THE CIVIL WAR. The cards were the idea of Len Brown and Woody Gelman. Gelman
recalled an earlier series of cards from the 1930's called HORRORS OF WAR that
had made a large impact because of the graphic violence that was shown. They
felt that boys would react strongly if they did a combination Civil War
Chronicle with the feel of the old Horrors of War cards. Because of the title of
the "newspaper-like journal" on the back the set has become known as the CIVIL
WAR NEWS. The cards were graphic, bloody and extremely successful. This was the
first of the the three "bloody" sets (including Battle and Mars Attacks) by
famous 'pulp' artist Norm Saunders. CWN made a bundle and got Topps to invest
some time and effort on the other two series. Later Norm Saunders also did the
art work for Wacky Packs and Batman cards for Topps. Norm passed away in 1989,
his daughter Zina has followed in his footsteps as an artist and has even done
some excellent new MARS ATTACKS! work.
MORE: http://www.bobheffner.com/battleweb/a_faq.shtml
ED VALIGURSKY
(1926-2009)
During the 1960s Ed Valigursky contributed several freelance illustrations to classic trading cards sets, including Batman and Battle!, which were produced by Topps Bubble Gum Company, where he worked along with Norman Saunders and Wally Wood.
MORE: http://www.pulpartists.com/Valigursky.html
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