A LOOK BACK AT FUNNY MONSTER TRADING CARDS

Any Monster Kid back in the days of the Monster Craze of the 1960's and 1970's could hardly forget the monster cards that were always around at drug stores and mini-marts. I spent many a' nickel on the magical "wax packs", and believe me, it wasn't for the crappy slab of gum that sometimes ruined the faces of the cards with the powder that was on them! Like opening any other type of trading card pack, it was always exciting to see which cards you'd get next (usually doubles, triples, ad nauseum!).

Leaf had the quintessential series, "Spook Stories", with pictures on the cards from the Universal monster movies and the Hammer horror films that had been licensed and distributed in the US. On the front was a joke about the photo on the card, and on the back were more jokes, usually the type told between one ghost or other spooky character to another.

The first monster cards I remember seeing were from the Topps "Funny Monsters" series launched in 1959. This 66-card series, also titled "You'll Die Laughing", were masterfully drawn by MAD magazine illustrator, Jack Davis, and are considered to be the first ever series of monster trading cards. It's also interesting to note that they came out just the next year after the first issue of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND was published.

From 1959 through as recent as 1980, Topps produced three different series of their monster joke cards. This article from the October issue of the NON-SPORT UPDATE takes a look these creature collectibles

TELL ME A 'SPOOK STORY'

Imagine this, Monster Millennials: As a Monster Kid in the 1960's, you didn't have the luxury of on-demand monster movies to watch whenever you wanted to. If you were lucky, your parents let you stay up and watch the late-night shows hosted by assorted and sundry witches, warlocks and just plain weirdos. Luckier still were the early evening monster movies that were shown during the week of Halloween. Later on, some of the shows were broadcast (in L.A. anyway) on weekend afternoons, but that was it until videotape showed up. All we had were monster magazines and a few toys and games (including the Aurora monster models) to remind us of the fun scares that we got watching TV.

That is, until 1962 when Leaf Brands introduced the "Spook Stories" trading cards. A year earlier, Nucard released a set with photos from American International and other B-movie distributors, but Spook Stories were the first cards to feature the famous monsters we knew and loved from Universal. Plus, the card stock was thick, sturdy and glossy, too.

The series came in two sets for a total of 144 cards. The wrappers came in two colors, orange and purple, and had the title, Spook Theatre. We never referred to them as that; to us they were just simply, "monster cards"!

Following is from the October issue of NON-SPORT UPDATE, which includes a short history of these legendary trading cards. 

Sample cards (front).

Sample cards (back).

Sample stickers.

Card box and wax packs.

Card wax wrappers. Images are from the collection of Hepcat.