The Art of Classic Comics: 100 Postcards From the Fabulous 1950s

America once had an insatiable lust for the ten-cent color comic book. From modest beginnings before World War II, this highly competitive arm of the publishing industry swelled until hundreds of titles by dozens of publishers sold millions of copies monthly in the early 1950s. All sorts of genres and sub-genres flourished, including romance, war, "weird menace" featuring sadistic villains, and sci-fi, but the biggest category was horror, accounting for fully a third of the total by 1953. In this competitive and varied atmosphere, it took a bold (and sometimes lurid) cover to sell the "book." Ilex Press, which has made a specialty of mining World War II for retro camp and humor (previous card collections include WE CAN DO IT, with Rosie-the-Riveter type propadanda cards; and ARMY CAMP, with surprisingly homoerotic, towel-snapping soldiers), now has given us THE ART OF CLASSIC COMICS, 100 POSTCARDS FROM THE FABULOUS FIFTIES. The title is a slight exaggeration (the actual time span is 1947 to 1963), but this is a wonderful collection all the same. Titles such as WARFRONT, HEART THROBS, OPERATION PERIL, BAFFLING MYSTERIES, BADGE OF JUSTICE, and the highly admired and reviled CRIME DOES NOT PAY show the variety of genres available to any kid (or adult) with a few dimes in postwar America. The cards measure about 4 by 5.5 inches (10 x 13.5 cm), the color printing is gloriously accurate and vivid and in retrospect, amazingly campy. The message side is nicely matte and can take almost any type of pen. My only complaint is a minor one, that the horror-comic covers, at about a third of total, are a little underrepresented; then again, if you were fearing an all TALES FROM THE CRYPT sort of collection, fear not. In the Fifties, this Americana dwindled almost as quickly as it had arisen. A compendium of "experts" (some legitimate psychologists, others scare-mongers), frightened news stories and editorials, and concerned parents triggered Congressional investigations. A new type of comics "Code" of self-censorship was instituted, and between 1954 and late 1955, the color-comic format of this type nearly went away, except for some romance, a few super-heroes, kid stuff and the ever-resilient ARCHIE. For a reasonable amount of money you can give your friends and Postcrossing pals a taste of the good old/bad old days. Given the colorful, sturdy box and ribbon, THE ART OF CLASSIC COMICS would make a great gift, too.

Frame worthy, excellent quality. The heavyweight glossy card stock is thick enough to mail worry-free. Love how each back has a little graphic where your stamp goes. Even if it gets covered up it’s still a cute touch. Comes in a gorgeous box that even has a little ribbon to help you get the cards out of the box. So pleased with this purchase! Well worth the price for the amount of quality postcards you are getting! I just got it in the mail today and couldn’t wait to post a photo review because more people need to see how great these are!

This is a great collection of cards, comparable in quality to the other 100 postcard sets around. The cards are stout enough, a bit thicker than the Marvel 100 card set, but not quite as thick as the Puffin or Vanity Fair card sets. The paper feels nice, and each card gives you the details about the comic book. The box they arrive in is very nice, sturdy, and the lid image is embossed. As for the card assortment, here's the breakdown. There are five categories of comic represented: romance, earthbound mystery (generally sci-fi/fantasy), space adventures, crime, and war comics. And here's the proportioning: Romance: 29 Earthbound mystery: 30 Space adventures: 14 Crime: 19 War comics: 8 All in all, I highly recommend this set. It's a wonderful selection, with a lot of great (read: hilariously insane) covers.

this is the most amazing set of postcards i have ever come across. the box itself is extremely sturdy and the cover is so beautiful! the cards themselves are all perfect wins. there is not a single unusable card in the whole collection. they are incredibly vibrant and the paper quality is very high. i love that they're slightly smaller than most postcards. i cannot wait to send these out, my friends will think they are hilarious. (note: the white mark in each picture is from the flash)

I used these for my wedding in substitution for a guestbook. There are a lot of romance comic covers included in the set which were perfect for the occasion. I plan to use the rest in scrapbooking/papercrafting/decoupage projects in the future. The cards are vibrant and come in a sturdy box. Some of the covers are downright hilarious.

The cardstock is excellent quality and so is the cute sturdy collector's box it came in. There are romance comic covers, war cartoon scenes, crime busters, and horror. The romance and crime buster ones are nice with a sense of humor. If you're into depictions of soldiers and the like, there are a handful in this set that you may appreciate. The reason I am removing two stars is because there are way too many horror/grisly postcards in the set! The collection is at least half grisly stuff depicting murder, blood, corpses, skulls, skeletons, torture, weird alien creatures devouring people, etc. I could have done without the explicit gore. I ended up having to give half the box away to someone I know who enjoys gore. So I am left with only half the quantity now. If you are not a horror fan, you will be a little bit disappointed. Box is 50% gory stuff more suitable for Halloween or horror buffs, 25% romance comics, and 25% mashup between detective/crimebusters and military depictions.

These classic comics postcards set have good artwork and quality, but the size is cut down a little. My other comics postcards set is the same in artwork and quality, but the size is not cut down.

I can't believe the quality of these postcards! Incredible. The colors are very vibrant and the stock is super sturdy. They are slightly smaller than the average touristic postcard but the variance in themes and the aloofness of some of the comic excerpts is so eclectic and fun! These are going to be my go-to thank you notes for months to come. I may order another set and make a laminated collage for wall art- they're that good!

Excellent postcards

Great cards to swap with other people.

Certains écrivains mal intentionnés ayant parfois l'outrecuidance d'écrire des romans qui ne me plaisent pas, il m'arrive très souvent d'égarer dans des livres abandonnés mes marque-pages préférés. C'est donc parce que j'étais en panne de marque page que je me suis procuré ce coffret de 100 cartes postales "comics année 50" très vintage. (J'utilise depuis très longtemps des reproductions de tableaux ou des cartes postales comme marque-page, et personne ne s'en est jamais plaint.) Je ne regrette pas cette acquisition, c'est vraiment du travail très soigné. Il s'agit de véritables cartes postales, de bonne qualité, avec des illustrations qui sont des reproductions fidèles de comics américains. Certaines sont très jolies, d'autres rigolotes (les unes de comics à l'eau de rose sont particulièrement savoureuses). La boite en carton imprimé qui contient les cent cartes est aussi très soignée, elle est même munie d'une petite cordelette pour pouvoir sortir les cartes facilement, sans les abîmer. Faites comme moi, achetez des marque-page, fabriquez-en, mais de grâce cessez de martyriser les livres innocents qui ne méritent en aucun cas ce traitement infâme du cornage. Ensemble, mettons fin à ces pratiques barbares d'un autre temps. (C'était un message du Comité de Protection des Livres dans le cadre de la Grande Action 2014 contre le cornage des pages.)

Fantastic set and mostly great reproduction. Also arrived fast and well packed.

Wunderbares Set bestehend aus 100 Postkarten mit unterschiedlichen Motiven aus den Bereichen Romantik, Crime, Horror, SciFi und War. Alleine die Verpackung ist großartig: eine feste Pappbox, von allen Seiten mit coolen Motiven bedruckt und innen einem Bändchen, das das Herausholen der Postkarten erleichtert. Genauso liebevoll sind die Karten selbst gemacht. Die Motive sind wunderbar trashig, auf der Rückseite jeder Karte befindet sich der Nachweis, welcher Künstler das Cover gestaltet hat und wann und wo das Heft erschienen ist. Da es sich sämtlichst um Magazincover der 50er Jahre handelt, unterlagen die Darstellungen zum großen Teil noch nicht dem Comics Code! Es handelt sich auch nicht um die Magazincover, die wieder und wieder in irgendwelchen Anthologien auftauchen, ich jedenfalls habe die meisten zuvor noch nie gesehen. Überhaupt wird wohl selbst der passionierte Sammler kaum Gelegenheit haben, die Hefte im Original in die Finger zu bekommen, und da die Cover doch immer das Beste waren, ist diese Box ein absolutes Muss! Mein einziger Kritikpunkt: Die Postkarten sind im Format etwas kleiner als üblich, schön wäre die klassische Postkartengröße gewesen. Aber vielleicht sind Karten in den Staaten ja generell nicht größer? Egal, der Gesamteindruck ist so hervorragend, dass ich für dieses kleine Manko keinen Stern abziehe. Viel größer ist doch das Problem, dass ich mich von den Karten bestimmt nicht trennen kann. Fazit: Am besten gleich zwei Sätze kaufen, einen zum Verschicken und einen für das Sammlerherz.