Review- STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI- THE ORIGINAL TOPPS TRADING CARD SERIES VOL. 3

STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI- THE ORIGINAL TOPPS TRADING CARD SERIES VOL. 3 (Abrams Comicarts, Second Printing, 2016; Hardcover)

Collects the red and blue sets of The Topps Star Wars Return Of The Jedi trading cards and stickers. 

I remember asking for the owner of the corner store to save me an empty box and he did. This was back in a time when a kid could wander around his neighborhood unsupervised. 

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. These Topps trading cards were one of the few ways to relive these movies in the days before home video and in a time when many homes (like mine) did not have cable television. I have gone over all of this in my reviews for the first two volumes in this line, so I'll skip the rest of that spiel and get to the meat of it. This series of books is a blast of nostalgia for those of us who were around to buy these cards at the time.

I managed to cobble together both sets of cards in 1983. I was surprised back then that there was only two sets while Empire had three, but it was a relief in a way since I started “officially” collecting comic books in January of 1983 and couldn't afford to split my money in two directions. Jedi was the last series of cards that I sought to complete. While I would buy packs of, say, Garbage Pail Kids and a few others afterward, I was never compelled to buy them all.

There's not much else to say. These are high resolution scans of the original cards, with the front on one page and the back side on the next page. Flipping through the book is similar to looking at a deck of the trading cards. If you love Star Wars, love trading cards, or are a younger fan who wants a chance to check out merchandise which was released at the time of the original trilogy then these books are a fun, relatively inexpensive way to relive the fun of buying these cards in 1983.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- This is the part where I go into tactile sensations and materials of physical media. Those with heart conditions, high blood pressure, or women who are pregnant should exit my blog at their earliest convenience, as their safety cannot be guaranteed beyond this point.

This book is a small, chunky book clocking in at 528 pages. The cards and stickers are presented in their original size.

Paper stock: Thick coated stock with a slight sheen.

Binding: Sewn binding. The binding is very tight, requiring two hands to keep it open at all times. This is the result of the book block being glued square to the casing.

Dustjacket and Hardback cover notes: The dustjacket has a waxpaper feel to it, similar in spirit to the wrappers of the original cards. The image on the front of the paper casewrap is the stick of gum found in every pack of cards. The back cover of the hardback shows the stick of gum broken. The casewrap has a matte coating.

Review- PLANET OF THE APES: THE ORIGINAL TOPPS TRADING CARD SERIES

PLANET OF THE APES: THE ORIGINAL TOPPS TRADING CARD SERIES (Abrams Comicarts, First Printing, 2017; Hardcover)

Spine with dustjacket on.

I was too young to see any of the original quintilogy at the movie theater but fell in love with Planet Of The Apes during the late '70s Apes Week, when WXYZ Channel 7 in Detroit would show the five movies and the reedited/reconfigured TV series in their “movie” forms several times a year. These aired from 4 PM until 6 PM Monday through Friday. I remember watching them many times. In the world of no cable TV or VCRs this was as good as it got.

Front cover sans dustjacket.

All of which brings us to this book, which collects the front and backs of the cards from all three Topps trading cards series. The 1969 set for the original movie, the 1975 set for the television series, and the set for the 2001 abomination of a film. It's nice that the latter it is included here for completist's sake but that is all. Let us never speak of it again in this review, or anywhere else for that matter.

Back cover sans dustjacket.

Gary Gerani is our guide, being involved with all three sets while working for Topps. He offers endless behind the scenes information throughout the book. Like I've stated in my reviews of the Topps Star Wars Trading Cards books, these cards were the only game in town for remembering scenes from the movie, and Gerani does a fantastic job of putting this in proper context.

I am a grade A sucker for these books of scanned cards. I would buy pretty much anything that I used to collect. Give me Alien, Mork And Mindy, Battlestar Galactica, King Kong, Jaws, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, E.T...heck, I'll take Fleer cards books for Kiss and Charlie's Angels while we're at it! Take my money!

Junk Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The four bonus trading cards which are included with this book, seen here on top of the dustjacket when laid flat.

The OCD zone- This book is a small, chunky book clocking in at around 480 pages.

Paper stock: Thick coated stock with a slight sheen.

Binding: Sewn binding. The binding is very tight, requiring two hands to keep it open at all times. This is the result of the book block being glued square to the casing. On the plus side, there is no way that this book will ever fall apart. The denizens of 2148 will delight in this book, as it will surely outlast me.

Book spine sans dustjacket.

Dustjacket and Hardback cover notes: The dustjacket has a waxpaper feel to it, similar in spirit to the wrappers of the original cards. The image on the front of the paper casewrap is the stick of gum found in every pack of cards. The back cover of the hardback shows the stick of gum broken. The casewrap has a matte coating.

Review- STAR WARS- THE ORIGINAL TOPPS TRADING CARD SERIES VOLUME 1

STAR WARS- THE ORIGINAL TOPPS TRADING CARD SERIES VOLUME 1 (Abrams Comicarts, Third Printing, 2015; Hardcover)

Trading cards were very important to kids in prehistoric world of no cable television or home video. Kids like me, who was 4-5 years old when these cards were released. These Topps cards were the only game in town to remember and relive the Star Wars movies in the comfort of your own home. I didn't see the first movie until late spring 1978, so the cards and comics were how I first learned about this movie, building my anticipation to a fever pitch...and I was not disappointed when I finally saw the movie.

One of my favorites from the blue set when I was a kid.

Even many months after it's release the movie was a big deal. I remember my mom taking us to see it at the show and standing in a line that wrapped around the block of the two-screen movie house. No multiple screens or showings back then. We got in line for a one o'clock show and finally got up to the window for the 3:30 showing. I have never seen anything like that for a movie since then.

I stuck this sticker on the door to the upstairs of my mom's house. She never said a word about it, nor did she ever remove it. It was there until I moved out of her house.

It is impossible to overstate how huge of an event that this movie was to those who were too young to experience it. It was a cultural atom bomb on par with Elvis' swiveling hips and The Beatles performing on The Ed Sullivan Show. Star Wars, Kiss, and Queen...1977-78 were the zenith of Western Civilization, a cultural golden age that we'll likely never see again.

I really enjoyed this picture as a kid. I'm not sure why.

I had several packs of the blue set as a kid, while the red set was not sold on my end of town. I was unaware of their existence until 1984, and my mind was blown when I discovered this “lost” set. I had several packs of the yellow set, maybe two of the green, and only one pack of the orange set as a kid. My family was poor and my mom would occasionally buy me a pack of cards here and there. I treasured them, spending countless hours flipping through them and learning how to read partially by memorizing the back of the cards.

The Wonder Bread cards were awesome.

It was a blast to go through and relive the excitement of collecting these cards. The cards are all scanned, front and back. In 1987 I was able to get complete sets for under $10 each. Sealed wax packs of the Topps cards were $1 each. I opened them and tried a stick of the then-10 year old gum. It crumbled to dust when it hit my tongue.

The Wonder Bread cards are included, which is a great bonus. I remember my brother taking every loaf of Wonder Bread off of the shelf looking for the missing cards to complete his set. I had most if not all of them back then.

These are the four bonus cards, seen here laying on the dustjacket.

There are four bonus cards included for reasons I cannot ascertain. In an age of nearly limitless hard drive storage and images being a right click away it may sound silly to young people to pay for pieces of cardboard with an image printed on them. But these cards were and are a treasure. My son collects card games like Magic and Pokemon, so trading cards aren't dead, they have just changed into games that kids trade. The days of Topps issuing mass market pop culture cards found in every convenience and drugstore in the country might be gone, but their place as an indispensable part of the original Star Wars experience and popular culture as a whole is secure.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- This book is a small, chunky book.

Paper stock: Thick coated stock with a slight sheen.

Binding: Sewn binding. The binding is very tight, requiring two hands to keep it open at all times. This is the result of the book block being glued square to the casing. On the plus side, there is no way that this book will ever fall apart. The denizens of 2148 will delight in this book, as it will surely outlast me.

Dustjacket and Hardback cover notes: The dustjacket has a waxpaper feel to it, similar to the wrappers of the original cards. The image on the front of the paper casewrap is the stick of gum found in every pack of cards. The back cover of the hardback shows the stick of gum broken. The casewrap has a matte coating.

Review- ART OUT OF TIME: UNKNOWN COMICS VISIONARIES, 1900-1969

ART OUT OF TIME: UNKNOWN COMICS VISIONARIES, 1900-1969 (Abrams ComicArts, Third Printing, 2010; Hardcover)

This book is an excellent overview of the forgotten and the esoteric comic strip and comic book artists of the early 20^th century. The material is broken down into five categories, Exercises In Exploration, Slapstick, Acts Of Drawing, Words In Pictures, and Form And Style. I will list each artist covered as well as the material that is reprinted in this book.

First up we have Harry Grant Dart's The Explorigator strip, a beautifully drawn surreal series obviously inspired by Winsor McCay's Little Nemo In Slumberland. The strips for 6/14/1908, 6/21/1908, 7/26/1908, and an undated 1908 page are all shrunk down too small to comfortably read.

Next is Howard Nostrand's classic What's Happening At...8:30 P.M. from Witches Tales #25 from 1954. This tale has since been reprinted multiple times by multiple publishers.

Herbert Crowley's The Wiggle-Much is completely ruined due to the strip being shrunk down to fit into this standard sized book. It seems fascinating, but is unfortunately too small to read. The strips reprinted here are 4/3/1910, 4/17/1910, 5/1/1910, 5/8/1910, 5/15/1910, 5/22/1910, 6/5/1910, and 6/12/1910.

Odgen Whitney's Herbie is brilliant. It is bizarre and doesn't make much sense, but that is what makes it so great. His emotionally abusive father certainly doesn't help him any. Old comic books are fascinating snapshots of bygone eras. Societal mores are on full display, albeit often in caricature. A story from 1964's Herbie #3 is reprinted here.

Not everything here is a winner, though. Take Rymond Crawford Ewer's Slim Jim. It would suck even if it were presented in full size. The 4/30/1911, 5/27/1911, 6/17/1911, 6/24/1911, 7/8/1911, 12/16/1911, 11/29/1914, 4/11/1915, and10/31/1915 are reprinted here. This strip will likely never be reprinted again anywhere. Indeed, one has to wonder if any company could even piece together a full run of the series to reprint even if they wanted to.

Another one that has been reprinted many times since this book is Bob Powell's godlike Colorama from 1953's Black Cat Mystery #45. Psychedelic before the term even existed.

I'm not much of an anthropomorphic animal kind of guy, but I can appreciate anything that is well done. Walter Quermann's Hickory Hollow Folks is highly derivative but enjoyable nonetheless. The strips collected here are from 7/3/1938, 7/31/1938, 8/21/1938, 9/11/1938, and 10/23/1938.

As we move to the Slapstick section of the book my enthusiasm waned. I am not a fan of slapstick comics. Milt Gross' Nize Baby is tolerable. The strips from 4/3/1927, 5/28/1927, 8/6/1927 are reprinted here. A 15 page Pete The Pooch story from 1947's Milt Gross Funnies #2 rounds out his section of the book.

Stan Mc Govern's Silly Milly is wretched. The less said about it the better. Daily strips collected here are from 7/3-5, 10-13/1944, 9/5/1944, 12/11, 19-22/1944, 3/26-30/1945, 4/2-6/1945, 5/21/1945, and 6/11-15, 1945.

Dick Briefer's Frankenstein is shown here years before all of the other collections sans the Idea Men Productions book which introduced me to the character. PS Publishing, Yoe Books/IDW, and Dark Horse have all taken a stab at reprinting his run. The story reprinted here, 1946's Frankenstein #4, is great.

Jack Mendelsohn's Jacky's Diary is such an obvious influence on stuff like Diary Of A Wimpy Kid. My son loves those books. Stories from 1960's Jacky's Diary #1 are reprinted here.

In the third section of the book, Acts Of Drawing, we get Charles M. Payne's S'Matter, Pop, which was titled Say, Pop! in the first strip shown here. An undated strip from 1918, 7/21/1918, 2/20/1921, 4/1/1921, 5/?/1921, and an undated 1924 strip round it out.

Fletcher Hanks in batshit insane. His nonsensical writing, coupled with his bizarre artwork make for an awfully memorable (or is it memorably awful?) reading experience. I had both Fantagraphics books which reprinted his stuff but dumped them years ago. Rereading 1940's Fantastic Comics #10 reminded me that I did the right thing, as his work is like a train wreck.

Sunday Press Books recently issued a hardcover of Garrett Price's White Boy, and after reading a sampling here I want it. I likely won't even get around to buying it, but my OCD homeskillet Ferjo Byroy has it and would loan it to me if I asked. It's great stuff that is worth reading. The Sunday storyline from 6/3/1934 through 9/30/1934 is reprinted here.

A.E. Hayward's godawful Somebody's Strong harshed my buzz from the previous strip. The 7/23/1922, 8/20/1922, 3/28/1926, 5/12/1929, and 4/3/1932 strips are a waste of your time.

Jefferson Machamer's Gags And Gals is unreadable. I like old stuff, but sometimes things just don't translate. It's a historical curiosity and nothing more. Reprinted here are the strips from 4/11/1937, 7/11/1937, 8/1/1937, 8/29/1937, and 11/28/1937.

Underground Comix were never my thing. I understand the historical significance of them, but this one kinda sucks and certainly isn't one of the important ones. Rory Hayes' stories from 1969's Bogeyman Comics #1 and 2 are forgettable.

Harry Hershfeld's Dauntless Durham Of The U.S.A. is brilliant. Great art and a great ongoing story, it is marred by the shrunken size of it in this book. It is so difficult to read that I gave up after a while. It's a shame. Maybe IDW/Library Of American Comics can reprint it in one of their strange small landscape format books. There is lots of great slang of the era here. None of the strips' dates here are known, save that the 62 dailies reprinted here are all from 1913. There was a hardcover from 1977, and it makes me envious of the “old guys”, those collectors from the first and second generations of our hobby. They already knew how cool this stuff was 40 years ago, and here I am just discovering it.

Cecil Johnson's Elmo, from 1948's Elmo #1 is unremarkable. There was a time where I would buy anything that was old, so long as it was slapped between two hardbacks with nice paper and sewn binding. The novelty of reading old comics has worn thin after hundreds of these over the past dozen or so years.

I am not a fan of slapstick comics, but I can appreciate anything so long as it is well done. Boody Rogers' Sparky Watts, from issue 8 of the same title from 1948, is great fun. I especially enjoyed it when Sparky was shrunk down to the size of a flea on the monkey. Dimwitted Slap Happy decided to help the monkey get rid of it's fleas by spraying it in the face with D.D.T. Crazy. As goofy as the two stories from Sparky Watts #8 are, I would be all over a collected edition of it.

Harry J. Tuthill's The Bungle Family is so marred by the shrunken size that I gave up trying to read it. What a shame. The 1/1/1933, 8/6/1933, 8/13/1933, 11/26/1933, 12/3/1933, 12/17/1933, 2/4/1934, 3/04/1934, 3/11/1934, 3/18/1934, 4/15/1934, 4/22/1934, 7/29/1934 and 12/26/1937 full page strips are ruined here.

C.W. Kahles' Hairbreadth Harry is genius. I suffered through the smaller size, reading it through the zoom on phone's camera. There is something wrong with a book when you have to use an electronic device to read it. This is very clever strip with gorgeous artwork that needs to be rescued and reprinted. The 2/9/1924, 2/23/1924, 3/8/1924, 4/5/1924, 4/12/1934, 4/19/1924, 4/26/1924, 5/3/1924, 5/10/1924, 5/17/1924, 1/20/1929, 2/3/1929, 3/24/1929, and 3/31/1929 strips are reprinted here. They are not enough. I want more.

Naughty Pete by Charles Forbell is unreadable in this book. It's a second rate Little Nemo In Slumberland anyhow. Strips collected in this book are from 8/17/1913, 8/24/1913, 10/5/1913, 10/12/1913, 10/19/1913, 10/26/1913, 11/2/1913, 11/16/1913, 11/23/1913, 11/30/1913, and 12/7/1913.

T.E. Power's Joys And Glooms is a slice of irony. Hipsters like old stuff and irony, and since this is really old and really ironic they would really like it. The 10/14/1911, 10/16/1911, 10/30/1911, 11/8/1911, 11/13/1911, 12/2/1911, 12/12/1911, and 12/21/1911 certainly pleased men with lumberjack beards the first time around that they were popular.

Gustave Verbeek is all but forgotten with even the strips fans. His artwork has a surreal, childish look to it. The Upside-Downs Of Little Lady Lovekins And Old Man Muffaroo is represented here by the 5/1/1904, 5/8/1904 , 5/22/1904, 6/5/1904, 6/12/1904, an undated 1904 strip, two undated 1905 strips, 7/31/1910, and 6/13/1913.

I couldn't even stomach Gene Deitch's Terr'ble Thompson, as cutesy stuff doesn't float my boat. I did not read the 2/5/1955, 10/20-11/6, 11/10-13/1955, or the 3/04/1956 strips.

Comic books were aimed squarely at children when they came out. While there was certainly a sizeable adult audience for many titles, things like Jingle Jangle Tales #2 from 1943 were for the kiddies. George Carlson's artwork is whimsical and kid friendly for the day.

Norman E. Jennett's Monkey Shines Of Marseleen is godlike. It has a definite Winsor McKay influence, but it so well done who cares! I would love to see it reprinted in its entirety. The 2/28/1909, 3/14/1909, 3/28/1909, 4/4/1909, 4/18/1909, 5/2/1909, 9/26/1909, and 11/21/1909 are all marred by the reduced size.

There is a lot of great vintage material in this book which is not available elsewhere. Unfortunately it is ruined, as the strips are shrunk down in size to such a degree that it causes eye strain. I have 20/20 vision and I had trouble reading it. I ended up using my phone's camera to zoom in, but after a while I became aggravated and gave up on some of the strips. It's a shame that this is the only place to get printed examples of some of these lost classics. I checked this out of the library and I am glad that I didn't pay for the substandard presentation. Saturday or Sunday comic sections were huge, and to see them reduced to this size is painful and heartbreaking.

Still, this is the only game in town to get a lot of this material, so as long as you understand what you are getting you should be okay.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3 out of 5.

The OCD zone

Linework and Color restoration: Raw scans (or photographs) with minimal tinkering. Line bleed, off register printing, so-called Ben Day dots, and cracked, flaking paper are all present.

Paper stock: Thick coated stock with a slight sheen.

Binding: Smyth sewn binding, lies perfectly flat.

Dustjacket and Hardback Cardstock cover notes: This is a library copy, so the dustjacket is fastened to the hardback and has a Brodart sleeve on it. Therefore, I am unable to comment on them since I cannot inspect them fairly. 

Review- STAR WARS- THE ORIGINAL TOPPS TRADING CARD SERIES VOLUME 2: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

STAR WARS- THE ORIGINAL TOPPS TRADING CARD SERIES VOLUME 2: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (Abrams Comicarts, First Printing, 2016; Hardcover)

Trading cards were very important to the kids of 1980. In the land of no cable television or home video (most people did not own VCRs at the time), these Topps cards were the only game in town to remember and relive the Star Wars movies in the comfort of your own home. I bought as many of them as I could afford, scraping together quarters and empty pop bottles. My brother and I would trade our doubles, eventually completing all three sets.

It was a blast to go through and relive the excitement of collecting these cards, memorizing the facts on the backs of the cards and doing the puzzles from the backs of the stickers. I remember using the alphabet stickers on school folders, and my brother putting S W A M P on our bedroom door. He was a big M.A.S.H. fan and called our room the Swamp after that show.

The cards are all scanned, front and back. Some are presented slightly larger than the original cards, while some are slightly smaller due to the front and back being on the same page. I enjoyed the commentary about the first series, which was planned before the movie was released.

This book is a real trip down memory lane. I still need to get the book for the cards from the first movie, Star Wars (suck it, you 1981 rerelease A New Hope revisionists!) and am looking forward to the Return Of The Jedi book.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- This book is a small, chunky book.

Paper stock: Thick coated stock with a slight sheen.

Binding: Smyth sewn binding. The binding is very tight, requiring two hands to keep it open at all times. This is the result of the book block being glued square to the casing. On the plus side, there is no way that this book will ever fall apart. The denizens of 2148 will delight in this book.

Dustjacket and Hardback cover notes: The dustjacket has a waxpaper feel to it, similar to the wrappers of the original cards. The image on the front of the paper casewrap is the stick of gum found in every pack of cards. The back cover of the hardback shows the stick of gum broken. The casewrap has a matte coating which gets scuffed fairly easily. 

Review- THE HORROR! THE HORROR! COMIC BOOKS THE GOVERNMENT DIDN'T WANT YOU TO READ

THE HORROR! THE HORROR! COMIC BOOKS THE GOVERNMENT DIDN'T WANT YOU TO READ (Abrams Comicarts, 2010; Flexicover)

Collects selections from Chamber of Chills No. 6, Chamber of Chills Magazine No. 16, The Clutching Hand No. 1, Crime Mystery No. 9, Dark Mysteries Nos. 3, 7, 18, 20, Mister Mystery No. 7, Strange Fantasy No. 7, The Thing No. 14, Tomb of Terror No. 16, Uncanny Tales No. 14, Voodoo No. 14, and Weird Tales of the Future No. 3 (cover dates October, 1951- August, 1954)

Writers: Basil Wolverton, Al Eadeh, Howard Nostrand, Bob Powell, and others

Artists: Basil Wolverton, Vic Donahue, Al Eadeh, Howard Nostrand, Sid Check, Steve Ditko, John D'Agostino, Harry Lazarus, A.C. Hollingsworth, Bob Powell, and others

This is a really nice sampler book of 1950s pre-code Horror. While Fantagraphics' Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s is a better value overall, this is a great companion book to that wonderful compilation. If you have never read any pre-code Horror comic books, these two books are a great place to start. While EC Comics are the gold standard, there are many worthwhile talents in many of the off brands and knockoff titles as well.

This is a beefy book, but only 91 out of the 306 pages are complete stories. The rest of the pages are articles which provide invaluable historical context, excerpts from other stories (including Marvel/Atlas and EC), and hundreds of covers. The great thing about these covers is that they demonstrate the breadth and depth of the genre. The bad thing is that I now want all of these comic books collected in books! Fortunately for us, PS Artbooks has answered the call since this book's publication, with their Harvey Horrors and ACG hardcovers. They reprint the complete issues of several of the stories presented here and in the aforementioned Four Color Fear. Go to the Harvey Horrors website and see for yourself. I've been buying them all, and will buy as many as they release. Marvel has been re-releasing their Atlas '50s output slowly with their Marvel Masterworks line of high end hardcovers. The EC Archives are progressing slowly, with the announcement of two more coming soon. We are truly living in the golden age of collected editions. 

I love these old Horror comic books, and often chuckle at the black humor contained therein. It also pleases me to know that these comic books helped to open the minds of the youths that went on to become the counter culture of the '60s and help bring about social change in this country. No wonder the powers that be wanted to shut these types of comic book down.

This book also contains a 25 minute long DVD with an episode of Confidential File. First aired on October 9, 1955, it was an alarmist show about the dangers of these comic books. I love seeing the kids of the era reading these now obscure and valuable comics with reckless abandon.

The OCD zone- This book is a high quality affair from top to bottom. The cover is what I call a “hard” softcover, being made of a super thick cardstock cover that flexes a bit but is highly durable. The paper is an incredibly thick, uncoated stock. It prevents the book from laying flat, even though this boasts sewn binding which is glued to the ribbon and flexes very well.

They use high resolution scans, although they aren't cleaned up like Fantagraphics or PS Artbooks use. These are some pretty rough copies, though, with dog eared covers, splotches on some of the pages, and other anomalies. While the nostalgia fetishists like this approach, I like the appearance of mint condition copies used by the aforementioned companies. I want the look and feel of the book being fresh off of the presses, not a crumbling old comic book.