Night Owl Cards

As a youngster, I enjoyed reading the comics in the daily paper. The concept of a new amusing strip each day fascinated and entertained me, and I remember at an early age cutting out individual strips of Peanuts or Blondie and stacking them up for months and then going back and reviewing past strips. We didn't get the Sunday paper at our home. But my grandmother did. So when we'd go over to her house, the Sunday funnies from that week, and previous weeks, would be waiting for us in the room where she kept all the toys for the grandkids. I had my favorites and others that confused me. I don't know if anyone remembers "They'll Do It Every Time," a one-panel strip that addressed the frustrations of everyday life. That just seemed too adult to me. I had no idea what it was saying. As I got older, I'd appreciate more sophisticated, off-beat strips like Tank McNamara and Bloom County. But anyway, comic strips were an everyday part of life. My brother ...

Today is Free Comic Book Day, which is yet another modern-day celebration that would have been a lot more useful to me in, say, 1980. That's when I read comic books. That's when I bought the few that I bought. It's an interest that didn't stay with me long nor follow me into adulthood. While I appreciate comics and cartoon drawings and story-telling immensely, I have no desire to read through a comic book anymore and haven't for years. When Free Comic Book Day comes around every year, I look at the offerings online with faint interest. But the days of wanting to turn those pages are gone. Besides, cards take up all my free time. I decided to look at a few instances of comics on the fronts of cards. I talk all the time about how much I love the cartoons on the backs of cards (and how they should be on the back always ). But comics on the front are a rarity. This is by no means an exhaustive, historical look. I don't have the time today. I just want t...

The process of organizing my collection is an ongoing, year-round project for me. But I do more organizing during the last month of the year than at any other time. During November and December, I start cataloging and boxing up sets from the current year. The sets that I don't ever plan to add to go in boxes first and those 2016 sets are already there. Left in stacks are 2016 sets that should grow at least a little during the gift-giving season. Packs of Archives, Heritage, Stadium Club and Allen & Ginter are all on the ol' Christmas want list. But even those sets will likely be boxed up after the holiday; there is almost nothing from 2016 that I want to see in a binder. Meanwhile, I am undergoing an extra bit of organization thanks to the supplies that Dave recently sent my way. He sent both binders and pages and I've already put one of the binders to work. Yesterday, I paged my 1976 SSPC set. It looks absolutely fantastic, and since there is no printing on th...