Showcase your monster cards here!

[dlhenderson]

It's amazing how those stickers still get my dander up. It was so exciting as an 11 year old, opening those packs to find the goodies.
Here are some of my obsessively repainted images. I worked primarily from eBay screen shots and a couple of other sources (including tiny black & white scans from a book on non-sports cards from the '80's). That book was all I had prior to the internet; the colorful images were only in my dreams (and as you said practically impossible to find). I used to get blank stares when I asked dealers at various conventions if they had any of the stickers. :/

[Hepcat]

Great likenesses!

I worked primarily from eBay screen shots and a couple of other sources (including tiny black & white scans from a book on non-sports cards from the '80's). That book was all I had prior to the internet;

That would be this book I'm guessing:

(and as you said practically impossible to find).

Those nine are the only ones I have.

I used to get blank stares when I asked dealers at various conventions if they had any of the stickers.

I'm used to getting blank stares from dealers when it comes to much that I collect.

[dlhenderson]

Similar book; green cover. Maybe an earlier edition.

[CreepysFan]

  dlhenderson, awesome job reconstruction those sticker images.  Did you do them in the size of the originals, or make them larger ?   

[dlhenderson]

The Photoshop files are considerably larger. One technique I used was to take a small scan from eBay (for instance) and make it like 600 dpi. Of course it was blurry, but the jaggies were gone. Then it was a matter of painting the image onto the fuzzy shape, essentially sharpening it and adding the missing detail. I printed out a set at the original card size. I showed 'em to my friend Bill Stout at DragonCon a couple of years ago and he was so taken by them that I just handed them over. Many people that I showed them to just didn't get it. The Spook Stories set must have had a fairly limited appeal back in the day, judging from the folks in my age bracket that showed no particular response. I remember the day, on the school bus, when I saw a kid with a stack of the cards. He was thumbing through them and I saw the green cyclops sticker. It nailed me. I clearly remember that moment. Like Brando's line in Apocalypse Now: : "...like I was shot through the forehead with a diamond"; I HAD to find these things. I think that's the moment I became a Monster Kid.

[Monolith]

By "originals" do you mean the original art?



I wish. Didn't they recently re-print those? By "originals" I meant the cards from '64 not the recent reprints.

[Hepcat]

I remember the day, on the school bus, when I saw a kid with a stack of the cards. He was thumbing through them and I saw the green cyclops sticker. It nailed me. I clearly remember that moment. Like Brando's line in Apocalypse Now: : "...like I was shot through the forehead with a diamond"; I HAD to find these things. I think that's the moment I became a Monster Kid.

Very cool memory! I like that. It all started with the Spook Stories.

Many people that I showed them to just didn't get it. The Spook Stories set must have had a fairly limited appeal back in the day, judging from the folks in my age bracket that showed no particular response.

These cards also called to me very strongly from the first moment I laid eyes on them. And they were widely collected by other little boys my age as well. But unlike you I have absolutely no memory of the stickers. It's possible that the stickers weren't included in Canadian packs. but it's also possible that I dispensed of them as trash because I was buying the packs for the cards specifically.

[dlhenderson]

Here are a couple of shots of my cigar box from back in the day (a bit worse for wear). I used to keep my Spook Stories cards in there; later a slot car. Now it contains some ephemera (old ticket stubs and the like). as you can see, it's adorned with some classic Ugly Stickers and one Munsters sticker on the inside lid. I was a compulsive drawer as a kid, so unfortunately Lily "got the treatment".

[Hepcat]

Have you not tried to reaquire the cards you most loved as a kid?



Here are some closeup scans of my 1967 Topps Terror Tales cards:







I love the contrast between the fronts with their sickly greenish tinge and the bright pink backs. It's a very tough set to complete though.

[MDG]

For some reason, as a kid these "true" stories really scared me. I think I have 20 or so of these cards somewhere.

[Hepcat]

   

  I don't think there's a more satisfying feeling than retrieving something special from one's childhood.

I agree! That's why I was absolutely enthralled by this uncut sheet of space tattoos when I saw them hanging on the wall of a card shop eighteen years ago. They brought back an almost forgotten memory of these tattoos having been included in the boxes of Cracker Jack that were given out to kids as part of boodle bags at my father's company Xmas part for kids!

[CreepysFan]

 

  Those are pretty wicked tatoos from Cracker Jacks, Hep.  I'm kinda thinking I remember them, but I'm not quite sure either.  Like a shadow on the edge of my mind.

   

Not vintage, but here are a few from the Vampirella cards :

   

[Hepcat]

I really like some of the cards in the Vampirella set depending upon the artist who did the rendering but I didn't think the model portraying Vampi at the time was right for the part because she was very clearly implanted.

[CreepysFan]

   

A lot of the artwork on these is awesome, that's what attracted me to them.  Definitely not the best Vampi model ever in the live pics, though she is kinda cute.  The artwork constitutes the best part of the set.

[Hepcat]

Topps in 1963 issued the 153 card Monster Laffs Midgees set. The cards though were only a third the size of regular cards as they were issued three cards to a 2 1/2" X 4 11/16" panel with each card separated by perforations that could be broken apart.

Later that same year Topps released 66 of the Midgees as standard size Monster Laffs cards. These cards seem to have been issued primarily for vending machine purposes as they were only packaged in generic wrappers. Here are front and back scans of some of mine: