Norm Saunders appreciation thread!

[Hepcat]

Norman Blaine Saunders was a 20th century commercial artist best known for his paintings in pulp magazines, paperbacks, men's adventure magazines, comic mags and trading cards. He was born in Minot, North Dakota on 1 January 1907. He got his start in the commercial art field when he landed some sort of position with Fawcett Publications in Robbinsdale, Minnesota where Captain Billy's Whiz Bang was printed. He left Fawcett's employ in 1934 to become a freelance pulp artist in New York where he studied under Harvey Dunn at the Grand Central School of Art. His ability to meet deadlines with paintings of action scenes and beautiful women got him steady work with various publishers.

Here are a few examples of his work for men's adventure magazines:







He got his first assignment with Topps as early as 1958 painting over photos of players who had been traded with their new team uniforms. Of course his main claim to fame with us of the monster kid generation was the card sets such as Mars Attacks and Valentine Stickers that he painted for Topps in the sixties.

Sadly Norm passed away at the age of 82 on 7 March 1989. Here's a book devoted to his life and art:



Here are two more excellent books in which his artwork can be found including on their covers:





Here also is a website devoted to his artwork:

Norman Saunders

[Hepcat]

Though he'd previously done some touch-up work for Topps on baseball cards, Norm Saunders first big statement in the gum card market was on the Civil War News set Topps issued in 1962. The artist who did the pencils on these cards was Bob Powell who then painted over 10 of the images. Maurice Blumenfeld painted over another 65 and Norm Saunders applied the paints for these 13:

3: The War Starts
6: Pulled from Safety
12: Bloody Combat
21: Painful Death
34: Wall of Corpses
36: Midnight Raid
38: General Grant
39: General Lee
44: Shot to Death
45: The Riverboat Explodes
49: The Explosion
55: The Silent Drum
57: Hand to Hand Combat

Norm's paints were so good though compared to the rest that Topps had him do the final touch up on the paint job for all of the other cards!

The Painful Death card was the most popular one in the schoolyard in my neck of the woods:



Here are scans of a couple of sheets from my set:

[Mord]

 The magazine covers are incredible! Thanks, Hep, I am now a Saunders fan, too.

[Hepcat]

Despite their ultra-violent content I don't recall the Civil War News cards prompting any kind of parental hysteria when they were issued. One of the reasons was that the cards were regarded as "educational" particularly since the centennial years of the Civil War were being commemorated at the time. The other reason was that the content of the cards wasn't sexually suggestive in any way. Any items containing an element of prurient interest are still enough to work a sizable sub-sector of the adult population into a lather.

The next card set on which Norm Saunders worked was the notorious Mars Attacks set that Topps released later in 1962 under the "Bubbles" brand name (probably to distance themselves as a corporate entity from the cards). While the images were sketched by Bob Powell and Wally Wood, Norm Saunders did the paint job on many or even all of the cards (depending upon which source is to be believed).

The Mars Attacks cards got an entirely different reaction from the general public than did the Civil War News cards. They were widely condemned by parents and the authorities in general and public pressure caused them to be withdrawn from the shelves in many U.S. locales. O-Pee-Chee simply opted not to distribute them at all in Canada. One of the reasons behind the hysteria that the Mars Attacks cards elicited may have been the depictions of Martians menacing young women in cards such as these:







Shocking! I mean why are they wearing so much (the women that is)?

As a kid I had only this one Hairy Fiend card which I received in a generic wrapper trick or treating on Halloween with my two best buddies in 1964(?):



As a result of their notoriety, Mars Attacks cards are widely collected these days and fetch high prices. Here's a scan of the Mars Attacks cards from my own collection:

[Hepcat]

The women Norm Saunders rendered in the Topps Battle set from 1965 were actually much sexier.







Here's a scan of the few I have:



Once again there's some question as to whether Norm painted all the images. There's no question though about the set having been a winner in the schoolyard!

I recall seeing the Battle cards condemned as hate literature in my local London Free Press back in 1965. Strange. I don't understand why anyone would have thought these cards would have prompted me or any of the other young fellows in the schoolyard to dislike let alone hate busty French women in tight blouses....

[Hepcat]

Norm Saunders also painted many of the cards in the first three sets of Batman cards that Topps issued in 1966. These are colloquially known as the Black Bat, Red Bat and Blue Bat Batman cards:







Here are scans of a couple of sheets from my own two sets of Topps Batman cards:

[Mike Scott]

Those BATMAN cards are cool!

[Hepcat]

Well, Batman is cool, his villains are cool, Topps bubble gum cards are cool and Norm Saunders artwork is cool. That's a very strong combination in my book.

[Hepcat]

Norm Saunders also painted all the Topps Ugly Stickers from 1965:





Twelve of these Ugly Stickers were Basil Wolverton designs while the remaining 32 images found on the stickers were designed by Wally Wood or Norm Saunders. The image used for the twelve card puzzle was one of the Norm Saunders' designs:



The wrapper also featured one of Norm Saunders' designs:



Overall though the Ugly Stickers aren't among the card sets I really like.

[Hepcat]

Norm Saunders also did the artwork for the fabulous Topps Frankenstein Stickers set from 1966. Here are two of the sticker cards from Monolith's collection:





Here are a few more:











They're very hard to find these days because they were stickers and kids used them as such.

The display box was also out-of-sight fabulous and looks as if the box art was done by Norm:



Sadly I have nothing but the wrapper myself: