My first publicity to Bob Laughlin’s unbelievable art work got here from opening packs of Fleer Baseball Stickers as a child in 1980. Whereas the product title referred to the varied group stickers on the entrance of every card…
The true enjoyable got here from the World Sequence cartoons and captions on the backs of the playing cards.
It was not till a lot later that I discovered the artist had a reputation (Bob Laughlin), had been placing out varied units (both with Fleer or independently) for greater than a decade, and that his World Sequence cartoons dated all the way in which again to 1967.
That was kind of the state of my data till a pair weeks in the past when a member of our SABR Baseball Playing cards Fb group (Join!) posted an authentic advert for Laughlin’s 1967 World Sequence set. Fb search being what it’s, I can now not find the model I discovered, however you may see related on this outstanding Laughlin tribute site. At any price, a key sentence within the advert was as follows.
For example of my work, I did the 1960 and 1962 Dodger and Colt booklets, am doing “The Collectors” collection for the Sports activities Dealer now and could have a full front-page cartoon within the Feb. 25 SPORTING NEWS.
SABR members can in fact use their member advantages to see the complete Sporting Information challenge in query, however right here is at the very least the related portion of the quilt.
As for the opposite two units talked about, the booklets might or might not look acquainted to you, however the gun on the Larker booklet unmistakably carries Bob Laughlin’s fingerprints throughout it.
As a Dodger collector, I had a number of of the 1961 Union Oil Dodger booklets in my private assortment, however I in some way had none from 1960. Being the Laughlin fan that I’m, I instantly rushed to eBay to seize a pair for beneath $10 every.
As quickly as they arrived, I flipped via them frantically (however delicately) to search for Laughlin cartoons harking back to his World Sequence playing cards and different units. Because it turned out, neither of my booklets had precisely that, however they did produce other cool Laughlin creations. (In reality, I imagine Laughlin wrote, illustrated, and designed each facet of those booklets, however some components have been actually extra “signature” than others.)
Essentially the most Laughlinesque web page within the Podres booklet was a crossword puzzled (billed a Dodgergram) within the form of Johnny’s initials. The title therapy and uneven outlining of the puzzle grid carried a definite Laughlin look. As for the Roebuck booklet, which had a “Dodgergram” as effectively, my favourite web page featured Roebuck’s son, Eddie Jr., holding up his dad’s 1958 Topps card amid a smattering of 1960 Topps cardboard gold.
A enjoyable factor about selecting up these booklets, identical to with packs of baseball playing cards, is that you just hardly ever know what you’ll discover inside. Most eBay listings for these booklets both present solely the entrance cowl or perhaps entrance plus again. The result’s you don’t actually know in case your booklet will include a “hit.” In the meanwhile, the one Dodger booklet that I do know for sure features a full Bob Laughlin cartoon in all its glory is the Roger Craig booklet.
The state of affairs is basically related for the Houston booklets, although I do know the Bob Bruce booklet contains a few of Laughlin’s trademark humor.
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Should you loved studying about this “model new” art work from Bob Laughlin, you’ll actually take pleasure in the list compiled on the “Artwork of Bob Laughlin” web site. The place else would you discover out Bob even labored on this Jackie Robinson comedian ebook from 1949?!
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