John Martz

Papermaniac

In between film festival screenings today I spent a couple of hours scouring through the treasures at Papermania, a show devoted to paper collectibles: trading cards, movie stills and lobby cards, newspapers, magazines, postcards, viewmaster reels, stock certificates, vintage advertising.  You name it, if it’s printed on paper, they’ve got it.

At every table I visited I was asked “What is it you collect?” Clearly most visitors to the show are, like the dealers, avid collectors of specific items, whether it be fading antique photographs of ghostlike strangers or Garbage Pail Kids cards.

I picked up a handful of various turn-of-the-century ephemera that caught my eye with all its keen typography and ornate design work.  But the following two pieces are the highlights of my visit.

The first is a card game from 1933 called ‘Lexicon’ by Waddington’s:

It’s a small little box shaped like a book (attributed to an author cleverly named Atozed) which holds a small game that is obviously a precursor to Scrabble (which also dates back to the 30’s but wasn’t mass-produced until 1948).  The box itself is a little scuffed, but the cards within are almost new.  Like a mammoth preserved in a glacier, trapped inside the box, the cards and miniature rule book show no sign of yellowing or dogearing.  I was very excited to find it.  You can see another version here.

The other piece I found today that is near to my heart is a little get well message from the caped crusader in 1978:

Hello kids, Batman here!  Feeling under the weather?  Why don’t you explore my Bat-cave by simply pushing your finger deep within this puckered starburst!  That’s a good citizen!

If the front isn’t disturbing enough, opening the card will reveal an image of The Joker with a fleshy pink cylinder poking out of his mouth.  No joke.  I also picked up a similar Wonder Woman card that reads “Do your part to help during the energy crisis...” and then upon opening: “How about inviting me over, and then turn off the lights!”