Justice League of America or JLA

The JLA (Justice League of America) goes back to the Silver Age of comics for it's inception. First shown as a team in 1960 the original members included Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter. Throughout the decades a variety of other Superheroes have joined the team to right the wrongs of the world. I particularly like the JLA comics in the graphic novel format from the 1990's that Grant Morrison worked on.

Tonto - Lone Ranger's Buddy

Tonto, the Lone Ranger's pal and companion got his own story in comic book form beginning in 1951. The story line lasted for 31 issues and was published by Dell. The cover on this comic doesn't look anything like the Tonto I remember played on TV by Jay Silverheels back in the 1950's.

Did you know that back in 1939 when The Lone Ranger first became a radio show that Tonto saved The Lone Ranger after he was left for dead by outlaws and nursed him back to health? Turns out that Tonto and The Lone Ranger were childhood friends and that The Lone Ranger had saved Tonto after a massacre of his tribe when he was a child. Tonto gave a ring to the masked man and that was the way that he could always make sure that it was his friend.

Babies a Favorite theme in Advertising

Babies, toddlers, and children in general have been a long time favorite to illustrate in advertising many different products. Perhaps the theory was to appeal to mother's with adorable children in order to sell their products. I know when I see an ad with a cute little baby, rambunctious toddler, or child in it I take notice of what is being sold. Many artists became famous for their depictions of children. I find this vintage ad for Karo Syrup from 1942 just adorable. Don't you just want to squeeze those rosy pink cheeks?

Hoosier Beer Advertising Crate

I wanted to take some time today and steer a little away from ephemera and show an unusual advertising collectible that is considered a cross-over. This wonderful old wooden crate style box fits into the advertising collectible category because it has the Hoosier Beer logo on it. It would also be desirable to a collector of breweriana because it was used for Hoosier Beer, hence the cross-over. A third category would be from us silly people in Indiana who collect items made in our state or have the name 'Hoosier' on them. So this old advertising box would be in at least three categories of collecting.

Hoosier Beer was brewed in South Bend, Indiana during the 20th century by South Bend Brewing Company. I couldn't find specific dates as to when it began and ended. I do know that an association was formed to market and brew Hoosier Beer from 1900 to 1949. The company was called South Bend Beverage & Ice Company. During the prohibition era that company made Hoosier Cream Soda. My guess is that the box pictured is after 1949 as it held 24 - 12 oz bottles of beer and it has South Bend Brewing Company instead of the Beverage and Ice name. If anyone out there knows more of the history, I'd be fascinated to know.

Dionne Quintuplets

Numerous pieces of ephemera can be found with the pictures or a likeness of the famous Dionne Quintuplets of Ontario, Canada. Pictured here is a magazine advertisement for Kre-mel Desserts, a pudding mix, with Marie the smallest of the Quints at birth.

The Dionne Quintuplets were born on May 28, 1934 in a rural area of Ontario. They are the first known quintuplets to survive their infancy. The quints were also identical which is a one in 57 million occurrence. The Canadian government took the children away from their parents after having learned of a contract with the parents to exhibit the babies at the Chicago World's Fair. To protect the sisters from exploitation the government provided a home with a nursing staff and doctor in residence. Unfortunately, the Canadian government proceeded to exploit the girls for their own financial gain and used them and the doctor in commercial ads, books, and other things. I believe that only two of the five sisters are still alive today.

Maud Humphrey Lithographs

One of my very favorite types of ephemera are the antique lithographs by illustrators like Maud Humphrey (Bogart). Maud is famous for her illustrations of babies and children dressed in Victorian style clothing. She is also famous for being the mother of actor Humphrey Bogart. It is reported that one of her favorite baby models was her son Humphrey. He was used to model for an advertisement she did for Mellin Baby Food. Maud's career spanned from the late 1880's up to the 1920's. She did illustrations for advertisements, calendars, cards, and books during her career. Pictured is a litho dated 1888 published by Frederick A. Stokes & Brother of New York.

Airline Ephemera

A popular form of ephemera collected today is pieces of advertising, souvenirs, and other paper items falling into a theme of aviation or specific airline companies. This wonderful piece of airline history was a souvenir give away from NAC or the National Airways Corporation. NAC was formed in 1947 and was based in Aukland, New Zealand. Pictured is a souvenir portfolio to hold your travel papers in. I believe this particular piece is from around 1952 or 1953 as one of the pieces included in the portfolio advertises a flight to the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth which took place in June of 1953.

Beetle Bailey - In the Army for over 50 years

We've been enjoying the antics of the long time soldier BEETLE BAILEY since 1950. Mort Walker created Beetle, first as a college student. The comic strip debuted in around 50 newspapers on September 4, 1950. Beetle and his fraternity brothers were a moderate success. The comic strip caught on and was then purchased by King Features. It is reported that Beetle Bailey was the last comic strip personally approved by William Randolph Hearst.

Mort Walker decided to have his star character accidentally enlist in the Army during the Korean Conflict of the 1950's and as they say....the rest is history. The comic strip now appears in over 1800 newspapers around the world.

Pictured is a Dell Comic book from 1956 with the antics of Beetle and his fellow soldiers.

Longstanding Comic Strip Hero - Prince Valiant

Some comic strip characters seem to stand the test of time. One such character is Prince Valiant. This comic strip hero reminds us of the days of chivalry and tales of the mighty King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table.

I decided to do a little research on this mighty hero that I have been reading since I was a kid. The original strip was created by Hal Foster for William Randolph Hearst. It is reported that Hearst contacted Foster with the desire for a comic strip to be published in his newspapers. Hal was enamored with tales of chivalry and King Arthur and created a comic strip with that type of storyline. He first named his strip "Derek, Son of Thane" and presented it to Hearst. Mr. Hearst loved the strip but did not like the title. Foster changed the name to PRINCE VALIANT and the comic strip made it's debut in the Hearst publications on February 13, 1937 as a Sunday only strip.

In the last 60 years, Prince Valiant has inspired several adaptations in the form of movies, comic books, and graphic novels. Dell Comics published this Prince Valiant comic book in 1955 based on Foster's comic strip.

Shop Inventory has moved

I'm thrilled to announce that I am now an exclusive shop on Ruby Lane. I'll be selling ephemera, advertising collectibles, magazines, books, and comic books that are at least 20 years old exclusively at Ruby Lane. Items newer than 20 years old can be found at eBay.

If you love to shop for Antiques, Collectibles, and Jewelry but don't want to bother with an auction format, you should stop by Ruby Lane. There are 3 Lanes to browse through for the specific categories and hundreds of shops who offer items for sale in each Lane. You can click on the link for my shop to the right or for your convenience I've provided a link to the Home Page to Ruby Lane.

Happy Shopping!

All Things Paper Auctions on eBay

I would like to tell all you lover's of old paper about a series of auctions on eBay with the theme 'All Things Paper'. The auctions are in their 3rd week and doing quite well. The first two weeks generated quite a lot of interest with bidders getting some great deals on paper items.

Each Thursday night beginning at 7:00 PM (PDT) around 50 items are listed beginning at the low price of $.99. There will never be any reserves on these auctions. The auctions take us all back to the time when the bidder determined the value of the item instead of the seller.

About 50 different paper items are listed each week with a nice mixture of several types of paper. Bidders will find new and used books in the genres of Fiction and Nonfiction. Comic books and graphic novels can also be found. Back issues of magazines are extremely popular with bidders. Different types of ephemera are also found in the form of sheet music, paper advertisements, ink blotters, post cards, menus, and miscellaneous items.

Come join in the fun this week. The auctions can be found in eBay Stores by searching for the store Bev's Paper and Stuff. Bidders can also search under the seller's eBay ID of owens-paper-trail. Bidders are also encouraged to sign up for the newsletter mailing list so that they can receive the current listing of auctions each Friday. We've provided a link to the eBay store in our links section to the right for your convenience.

What are those Ages of Comics?

Ever wonder what it means when you see a comic book referenced as Golden Age or Bronze Age? I'll try to give a simple explanation.

The collecting of comics and the Comic Book Industry is a huge business. Doing a simple search on Google for “Comics Online” gives you over 52,000,000 pages. When you visit an online site, many times you will see a comic book referenced as from some sort of Age. Typical references will be Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, and Modern Age. These Ages refer to time frames and specific eras that comic books were published in.

Collectors and historians do not always agree on exact dates of these ages but a pretty standard formula is something like this:

Golden Age of comics is the timeframe of 1938 to 1945

Atomic Age of comics were published between 1945 and 1955

Silver Age of comics began in 1956 and ran to 1972

Bronze Age of comics includes comics from 1973 to 1985

Modern Age of comics began around 1986 and includes the present.

There were significant issues or events that usually closed one Age and began the next one.

I would like to concentrate on the history of the Golden Age of Comics in this column. Most collectors and historians agree that the Golden Age of Comics began in 1938 with the debut of Superman in Action Comics #1 published by DC Comics. During the next few years popular superheroes were introduced like Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman to name a few.

Notable talents of the age were Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster who created Superman, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon who created Captain America, Stan Lee who co-created Spiderman and many others.

Many fans mark the end of the Golden Age as 1945 when the popularity shifted to gritty crime and horror related comics. Many describe the next 10 years as the Atomic Age of comics.

We offer a nice selection of comics from each of these great ages of comics in our online shop. Stop by and see if you can find your favorite old comic book character.

Our website for comic books is located at: PAPER TRAIL BOOK CAFE

Our Second Shop on the Web

Last month we opened our second shop on the internet. Paper Trail Book Cafe

Hungry for a good book, comic book, or magazine? You will find Children's Books, Fiction and Non-fiction books on our little menu. Comic books from the Bronze and Silver Age of comics. Back issue magazines are also being served up daily.

Stop by and check out the daily menu and sign up for our newsletter.

Our main shop The Paper Trail still specializes in vintage advertising and ephemera.

Site of the Week Series

The Paper Trail would like to recommend a website each week for you to consider visiting. This will be the first in a series of recommendations.

Our site pick this week is: Doxette The Right Dog
This site specializes in Dog Antiques and Collectibles with over 150 different breeds represented. It is a fun site to shop in with over 4,000 items in stock.

You will find ephemera, advertising, figurines, books, and any other form of antique or collectible if it pertains to a dog.

Have fun shopping this great site.

Tip of the Week - Cleaning Advertising Tins

When cleaning old advertising tins ... NEVER wash them with soap and water. Water will cause the tin to rust or worsen already present rust. The best method to clean the old tins is to use Car Wax. The wax takes off most dirt and leaves a film of protection to prevent any future rust.

Visit our on line shop The Paper Trail to find Ephemera and advertising collectibles.

This Weeks Sale

This week The Paper Trail is running a sale on all Advertising Collectibles in their shop. This includes collectibles advertising appliances, automobiles, advertising boards and signs, communication and utility advertising, farm and farming advertising, food advertising, gas station advertising collectibles, health and beauty advertising, insurance company advertising, kitchen collectible advertising, motorcycle advertising, railroad advertising, soda company advertising, souvenir and premiums used for advertising, and advertising tins. The Paper Trail is advertising 10% OFF when you use the Coupon Code ADV1 during the checkout process.

Visit the website located at: www.bevspaper.com

Sale ends January 6th at midnight.

Along with the Advertising Collectibles, The Paper Trail is also offering 10% off any purchase of Individual Magazine Advertisements. To receive the 10% off just use the Coupon Code ADV-IA during the checkout process.