Gone but not forgotten: DC Comic Book Foldees

By the 1960’s the superhero fad had well and truly reached the shores of the UK propelled in no small way by the success of the Batman television show in 1966. Although American comics had long been established in the UK the success of the Batman TV show resulted in an obsession in these costumed characters that was fueled in no small part by an increase in the number of new US superhero comic books and US strips being reprinted in UK comics. Along with these new comics came other merchandise such as colouring books, toy cars, models and trading cards. Out of all these items my favourites were the DC Comic Book Foldees trading cards by Topps.

DC Foldees were bubble gum cards about 2 ½ x 4 inches (approx. 6.5 x10 cm) with three perforated panels that could be folded over with a picture of a DC super-hero on one side, and a humorous generic character (an animal, woman, old man etc) on the reverse that could be folded over, in various combinations, to produce funny pictures. Looking at these cards today they are tame but in 1966/7 this 6-year-old thought they were borderline hysterical. There were 44 cards in this set with art by Wally Wood. Although Superman and Batman featured most prominently on these cards they also featured other characters including the Elongated man, Saturn Girl, Green Lantern, Jimmy Olsen, the Flash, the Golden age Flash, The Joker, Riddler, Green Arrow, Bizarro, and the Spectre.

I first encountered the DC Foldees on a trip to the ice cream van to pick up my Friday treat. I was usually given around 1 shilling (5p) by my parents to buy sweets for myself. On this particular day (it would have been summer 1966/67) as I reached up on my tip toes to place my order at the ice cream van serving hatch I spied in the corner of the window a brightly coloured yellow box with picture of characters I recognised (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman etc.) . I immediately knew I had to have one of these, I can’t recall the price ( it was probably around 3d / 1 ½ p) or the card I bought but within a few weeks these were collected and traded by all my friends (and my brother) so I had lots of these cards in no time at all. On the downside, like all trading cards at this time the chewing gum was a thin pinky / red rectangle that was usually brittle, tasted awful, and was almost always immediately binned.

Favourite comics and geek thrills - Avengers 106

It’s strange that while we experience many thousands of events across our life, we can only truly recall a handful of these with any real clarity. Some of these memories might be significant “firsts” such as our first day at school, our first date, first house or car etc. while other memories on the face of it may sound surprisingly trivial. However, whilst I can now only barely recall my first day at school or indeed my first date with any real clarity it seems to me that those “trivial” memories are becoming more significant to me the older I get. An example of this is the memory that was triggered by the above comic, Avenger issue 106 “A traitor stalks amongst us” I saw this comic recently for sale in City Centre Comic in Glasgow a few months before the Covid lockdown took hold and within seconds of seeing it I was transported back to the summer of 1973 and to a family break we had in the seaside town of Arbroath, a holiday that I had all but forgotten that we had taken until that very moment. The reasons this comics “trivial” memory is important to me is because on our arrival in Arbroath the weather took a turn for the worse and it poured with rain for the entire time (4 days) we were there. Now Arbroath is a nice enough seaside town but when your 13 years old and stuck in a fixed mobile home with nothing to do then 4 days can seem like 4 weeks. It was on the second rain-soaked day of our holiday that my brother came to the rescue as he found a shop that sold US comics and bought me this very comic. Of course at the time I was geeked out at the comic itself as I opened it up and saw that great Rich Buckler splash page with the Vision draped over a chair brooding and in deep self-refection before being interrupted by the arrival of Captain America. The Vision informs Cap that the other Avengers have gone off to search for Quicksilver while he has a wee sulk to himself.

Just then Rick Jones appears in a fury about how the Avengers made him stay behind during their battle against the Sentinels and shows that he is now again linked to Captain Marvel. This was a big geeky thrill for me as I think this was the first time I had seen this version of Captain Marvel.

Then when Rick clashes his steel wristbands together it causes suppressed memories to resurface in Cap's mind to a battle against Hydra, with Rick as Cap's partner under the Bucky guise. I loved this part of the story as the artist drawing the flashback sequences changed from Rich Buckler’s (then) modern style to George Tuska’s more traditional style ( and for me one of his best ever art jobs) giving it that air of nostalgia and realism (and another “geek thrill” for me).

Meanwhile, Iron Man, Black Panther, Hawkeye, and the Scarlet Witch search New York City for any trace of Quicksilver. However, they all seem to go mad one at a time and attack each other but are soon stopped when their true foe reveals himself as the Space Phantom who has returned, and this time he has teamed up with the Grim Reaper.

That’s the great thing about “trivial” things like comics that can reignite some half forgotten memory of a family holiday of 48 years ago and to the kind act of my brother (now no longer with us) going out and getting soaked to buy me a comic to cheer me up. I also now recall that later that week we both went back to that shop and bought a few other US comics but that may be for another post.