August-September 2017 33
TOP OF THE CROP
pre-WWII years, aircra , soldiers, propaganda, and more
were deemed topical by both well-known and anonymous
companies. Jacob Warren Bowman, the iconoclastic leader
of Gum Inc. since 1935, brought Horrors of War to public
scrutiny, and he spearheaded many other war-related titles
before chicle and paper products became scarce civilian
commodities. War Gum may have been Gum Inc.’s nest
hour. Its artwork provides clear testimony of 1930s general
illustration techniques, while subject and narrative content
skews toward the heroic rather than the sensational.
FREEDOM’S WAR (Topps, 203 cards) By 1950, Topps had
solidi ed their long-release marketing form vis-à-vis gum
cards. Along with Hopalong Cassidy, the opportunistic
Brooklyn rm embarked on what eventually became a 203-
card collection titled Freedom’s War depicting the Korean
Con ict. e set fascinates (or frustrates) advanced collec-
tors on many levels. Challenges lie in A) Back variations
(tan v. gray); and B) e existence of singles, perforated
panel singles and whole two-card panels. Even its scarcest
subset, the seven-card Tanks, varies between die-cuts and
non-die-cuts. In a sense, Freedom’s takes a cue from Gum
Inc.’s War News Pictures (1939) in terms of formatting and
capturing instant history. For Topps Gum, however, their
saga was just beginning.
WAR BULLETIN (Philadelphia Chewing Gum, 1965, 88-card
set) Before the Vietnam War entered America’s grim col-
lective consciousness, news gathering operations of the
mid-1960s re ected on World War II. Philly Gum added
to the retrospectives with War Bulletin, which apparently
borrowed its newspaper headline-based backs on Topps’
Civil War News. Dissimilar to News is the employment of
wire photos for the obverse illustrations. e next year,
Philly touched upon the emerging heroes of Vietnam with
e Green Berets.
BATTLE (Topps, 1965, 66 cards; 24 emblems) Meanwhile,
Norman Saunders, who became the non-sport industry’s
most celebrated artist, was tapped to paint a World War II
set. Woody Gelman hired Saunders to contribute art for
C i v i l Wa r News in 1961. Not surprisingly, Battle, illustrated
exclusively by Saunders, carries the same pulp art cachet
of News and Mars Attacks. Note that Topps’ U.K. partner,
A & BC, replaced card numbers 54 through 64 with more
British-focused content. e substituting 11 are decidedly
less violent than the Saunders-painted originals.
WORLD WAR I SCENES (SWEET CAPORAL, 1914-15)
WAR GUM (GUM INC. 1941-42)
FREEDOM’S WAR (TOPPS, 1950)
FREEDOM’S WAR (TOPPS, 1950)