Well, hopefully anyone reading who had been a schoolboy in the 1960's!
I couldn't get enough of them, I was addicted to them. In each pack you got a few cards, a piece of bubble gum and "Confederate dollars"! There were 87 different cards in the set, dramatic bloodthirsty artwork on the front and a press report on the reverse, they were currency for swopping in the playground, and when I'd collected them all I sent off for the album. I poured over them for years but when I left school I forgot about them, until one day I gave them away. And I have regretted that ever since!
Until recently, when a random ebay advert popped up in my newsfeed for a complete set, I clicked the link and sure enough I could get all 87 again for just £144. YIKES! Nostalgia is a powerful emotion but not THAT powerful!
Happily there were several lots of cards on offer and among them was a seller offering reprints of the entire set for a much more manageable £16.99 available in 3 sizes, I opted for 110mm x 75mm which is 50% larger than the original cards. If you remember the similar Battle News cards covering WW2 they've also reprinted them, and I'm pondering whether I should get a set?
In the meantime I'm very pleased to have the Civil War News cards, I don't know what I'll do with them but they are an itch scratched. I remember every single card vividly, the images are so powerful, I think they will provide inspiration for conversion ideas and perhaps wargame scenarios, we'll see.
I'd always assumed they were imported from the U.S. but the cards state they were printed in England by A&BC (American & British Chewing Gum Ltd.) A firm originally set up in 1949 by four soldiers demobbed from the British Army, who opened a factory in Cricklewood to serve the post war craze for bubble gum. Their first set of cards were issued in 1953 to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and in 1959 they teamed up with the Topps Company of USA to produce and distribute Topps cards in UK, so that's where the American iconography came from.
I do vaguely remember these and the WW2 ones - collecting "things" is still such a strong impulse! I used to really enjoy collecting the cards that came with PG Tipps.
ReplyDeleteWhen you look back there were so many things we collected back in the day, stamps, coins, tea and cigarette cards etc. all for free and unexpectedly educational as well, I wonder if kids still collect things with the same fervour today?
DeleteI had these as a child and was facinated by the 'gore' , there was a 'Man from Uncle' series as well.
ReplyDeleteThere certainly was plenty of blood and gore, they probably wouldn't be allowed in these PC times, I remember the Man from Uncle cards, I was a big fan of the TV series.
DeleteIn the UK we had cigarette cards. My grandfather lived with us and smoked a lot, so I had lots of them. I like yours though!
ReplyDeleteHi Steve, I remember sets of cigarette cards showing Regiments of the British Army and Empire, we used them for uniform info in the days before the Osprey books were published.
DeleteI had some in the 60s and still do. I think they came with bubblegum. I had only a dew of these ACW ones. Other cards I had included Batman, Tarzan, Battle of Britain, WW2 B & W, Laugh-in, Ripley's Believe it or Not and The Outer Limits.
ReplyDeleteHi James, I'd forgotten there were so many! Especially the Batman and Outer Limits sets, they had great pulp fiction graphics.
DeleteWow Brian, I can't believe you collected the whole set as a child! You were very dedicated indeed! I remember these being very popular on the school playground, so violent and bloody! But don't let the teacher see them, or you'll lose them for sure and get a note sent home! Thanks for the wonderful memories!
ReplyDeleteHi Brad, it took a long time to acquire them, even with all the frenzied trading in the stockmarket of the playground, in the end I had wads of the Confederate dollars, it was like Monopoly money and I felt like a millionaire!
DeleteI never had the full set, I had around 60 odd if I remember correctly, loved them, so gory for a young blood thirsty child!! Super memories, may have to purchase the reprints myself.
ReplyDeleteLooking back from the lofty heights of old age in these enlightened times the blood and gore are rather vivid, I might add a few more pictures of them to this post.
Delete