Here we have our man, Cesar Romero, as the Joker, who, although shown in cartoon form, is clearly identifiable. He was actually the first actor ever to portray the character, fresh from its comic book fame, both in the feature film, released in 1966, and in the television series which aired between 1966 and 1968.
These cards were first issued in America, in a wax packet, costing five cents, by a company called Topps, with chewing gum, hence the initials on their cards, "T.C.G." [Topps Chewing Gum]. These cards were then licensed to A. & B.C. Gum in the United Kingdom. Most of the cards are easily proven as to whether they are Topps or A. & B.C. Gum printings because there is a blurry blob on the English ones, which is the trademark of A. & B.C. Gum, not a great trademark though, for it is their initials inside very small cube shaped boxes.
In England the cards retailed with bubble gum, not chewing gum, and each packet retailed for 3d.
As to our set, before we get to the rest, most collectors call this the "blue bat set", because the title on the front is in a bat shaped emblem which is a solid in blue, and to be fair that does distinguish it from the cards with the black bat and the red bat. But it is also known as the "B Series", because on the back of the cards the number in the small black circle is followed by the letter "B".
You must "B" careful though, because this sectional blue bat "B Series" was reprinted in 1989, when the live action film of "Batman" was released. These reprints are relatively easy to spot though because there are additional wordings. The most noticeable is right beside the frame of the sectional picture on the reverse where it adds "1966 DELUXE REISSUE EDITION", but it also changes the other wording to read "THE TOPPS COMPANY INC. BATMAN TM & (C) DC COMICS INC. 1966. REISSUED 1989"
Now for even more confusion, because Topps originally produced two different back designs for their cards. The most easily available one has a sectional back making up part of a puzzle, and was the only back version issued by A. & B. C. Gum.
However, once these sectional backed cards had been issued in America in 1966, Topps released a totally different second back, showing here. Though do note that the text on both versions is the same.
Now these are most often known as "cape" cards, because of the back design, but they are also sometimes known as "blue bat back" cards.or as "descriptive" or "story" cards, which is rather confusing as the puzzle cards that we show as our main picture also have descriptive text to one side of the image which tells a story.
To add to the fun, Topps Batman cards were also issued by O-Pee-Chee in Canada, and by Scanlens (Australasia). You really only know which they are when you look closely at the card, and though this is easy enough for O-Pee-Chee because it says "(C) T.G.C PTD CANADA", the Scanlens cards all seem to just say "(C) T.G.C.PRTD U.S.A" which is exactly the same as on the Topps American cards - I have spent a great afternoon looking at the Australian version of eBay, and though the seller`s listings all say Scanlens I have not found a single card that does. So if there is anyone out there who can do a spot of confirming or denying, please do.
Now as this is the first "Batman" card to be a Card of the Day it gets the honour of becoming the home page for the entire grouping. It will also link to the ones we use elsewhere. There will also (one day) be a Topps link in here, which will tackle the fact that most of these were issued in America by Topps. At the moment, because we are only at the start of re-jiggling the index, we have linked to some of those Topps sets below, but this is only a temporary state of affairs.
So the first one of our reference books to show the set is our original British Trade Index part II. The entry below comes from there, but we have amended it to add the links.
"BATMAN" Grouping (A). Md. 81 x 55-57. Nd. ... ... ABF-2
1. Front with caption in black, "bat" outline. Titled "Batman" on back below number (55)
A. Full length picture of Batman on R of text
[see https://csgb.co.uk/publications/newsletter/2023-03-18]
B. Abbreviated picture of Batman on R of text, with inscription "Join the official Batman Fan Club" with details in panel below
[see https://csgb.co.uk/publications/newsletter/2022-09-10]2. Front with caption in red, "bat" outline. Sectional back. Nd. 1A to 44A. (44)
[for the Topps version, see https://csgb.co.uk/cardoftheday/2024-02-14]3. Front with caption in blue, "bat" outline. Sectional back. Nd, 1B to 44B. (44)
[for the Topps version see https://csgb.co.uk/cardoftheday/2024-02-15]4. Front without caption, red number in circle. (55)
A. Sectional back headed "Bat Laffs".
[for the Topps version see https://csgb.co.uk/cardoftheday/2024-02-16]
B. Sectional back headed "Batman" in "bat" outline.5. Front without caption, red imitation corner mounts. Back in black, "The Riddler`s Riddle" in lower half, with answer in code requiring paper "Secret Decoder" slip packed with wrapper (38)
There is an addition to this in our original British Trade Index part III, namely :
ABF-2 ("Batman" Grouping).
5. Front without caption, red imitation corner mounts. Back in black, "The Riddler`s Riddle" (38). An Afrikaans Language issue in South Africa is titled "Het Raadsel Van De Raadselman"
Now in our updated British Trade Index, the cards are catalogued as :
"BATMAN" (A). 1966. 80-81 x 55-57. Nd. ... ... AAB-040
1. Titled "Batman" on back. Nd. (55). Front caption in black. Fronts (a) matt (b) varnished. Two printings. Special album. Backs (a) pink, with "Join the Official Batman Club", abbreviated picture of Batman. (b) pink, without above wording, full picture of Batman
2. Nd. 1A to 44A. (44). Front caption in red, "bat" outline, a) matt b) varnished. Sectional back. Special album
3. Nd, 1B to 44B. (44). Front caption in blue, "bat" outline. Sectional back.
4. Nd. (55). No captions, red number in circle. Sectional backs. Special album. 3 printings.
1. With monogram, front a) matt b) varnished. Backs headed "Bat Laffs".
2. Without monogram, backs headed "Bat Laffs"
3. With monogram, back headed "Batman" in "bat" outline.5. Nd. (38). Black back with "The Riddler`s Riddle" in lower half, with coded answer requiring "Secret Decoder" slip packed with wrapper. Also found in Afrikaans, back "Het Raadsel Van De Raadselman"