The Story on Story Cards!
By Kurt Kuersteiner © 2026 Monsterwax
Trading Cards for The Wrapper Magazine
“Story Cards!” Some people use that term to describe non-sports trading cards. (That, or “Entertainment cards”, or sometimes, “Art cards”.) But not all Non-sports cards tell stories. Many are just pictures or art on one side, with gags, graphics or puzzles on the other. However, a picture on one side and a story on the other is a classic formula for a successful non-sport series. Superman, Batman, Wildman, G-Men & Heroes of the Law, Lone Ranger, Pirates Bold, Look & See, Outer Limits, Elvis Presley, Beatles, Scoop, Star Trek, Star Wars… the list goes on and on.
But you maybe wondering why I left out some of the BIGGEST and best sets in non-sports history. That’s because there’s two different types of story cards. Episodic story cards (like the ones listed above), and serialstory cards (like the ones I list later).
The episodic cards are by far, the most common format. The story jumps around in time and/or place, highlighting captivating moments of the subject featured. It allows the set to showcase the best scenes with the most climatic image on each card.
The other format, the serial format, tells a continuous story. It requires a beginning, a middle, and an ending (assuming the series isn’t discontinued prematurely). Some of the cards may need to develop plot details that are not as exciting as the fast paced scenes in an episodic story permit. A continuous story requires connecting threads that weave the plot together. These type of “filler” cards may not be as thrilling as other cards in the set, but an ongoing narrative can build suspense and dynamic pacing that an episodic series cannot.
Either type of story card takes a lot more work to prepare than cards with gags or puzzle backs slapped on the reverse. (That’s why they are more scarce overall—they cost more to make.) Even the adaptations of already scripted movies, shows, books, and comics take time and effort to transcribe and edit (albeit less time than writing something original). The vast majority of serial story cards are adaptations, and many of them are quite popular. Classic examples include Davy Crocket, Planet of the Apes, Zorro, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Robin Hood, James Bond (1965), Tarzan’s Savage Fury, Tarzan & The She Devil, as well as some super rare Topps test issues like Flash Gordon, and King Kong (both 1965).
There’s even more of the episodic story cards, many of them using original stories (often because they can’t get a release from all the different TV script writers, or because they are art sets with original images). Classic examples of those include Star Trek (Leaf, 1967), Outer Limits (1964), Superman (1940), Lone Ranger, Tarzan (Philly, 1966) Some purists are miffed when the stories on the back don’t match what aired on TV, but I find the faux storylines rather charming. (The goofier they are, the more amusing I find them.)
The rarest format (and in my opinion, the best) is the original serial story card format. These are all new, continuous story lines that usually require all new art or photos. They are typically made from scratch (with fresh ingredients)! I’m not the only one who treasures these kind of cards. Many of the Non-Sports greatest titles reside here. In fact, chances are that one of your favorite sets is listed below:
Mars Attacks
Jets-Rockets-Spacemen
The Horrors of War
Civil War News
Battle
Dinosaurs Attack!
Tarzan and the Crystal Vault of Isis
Superman in the Jungle
Dick Tracy Caramels
That’s only nine sets. There are seven more put out by the independent producers (like Bob Ting’s Uranus Strikes) that we’ll discuss later, but it’s amazing to think that since the 1930’s, with over a thousand different non-sports sets made in the USA, only 16 (total) told an original, ongoing story. I might have missed one or two other titles (I’m unaware of every US title ever made) but you get my point: Original serial story cards are really unique! If you’re not familiar with these sets, you’re missing out on some of the best non-sports series created.
Mars Attacks: (Topps, 1962) A perennial favorite with gorgeous art by Norm Saunders. One could argue it’s a retelling of War of the Worlds, but only the basic premise is borrowed. The time is moved to (the back then) modern 1960s, the invaders use a wide variety of ways to conquer the clueless Earthlings, and the Martian monster design is to die for (literally). It begins with the Martians taking off to Earth, then the majority of 54 story cards (plus checklist) graphically show the fiendishly clever attacks they enacted on humanity to take the planet over. The last few cards show Earth’s bloody revenge, although interestingly, the very last card (spoiler alert) indicates Mars would have blown up anyway so we really just wasted our time and ammo by going Charles Bronson on them.
Jets-Rockets-Spacemen (Bowman, 1951). This is the best sci-fi set from the 1950s (some say of all time). You might think it was inspired by the Forbidden Planet blockbuster movie—but you would have it backwards, since the flick came out five years later. A rocket crew visits several alien worlds and dodges dangers in outer-space. There’re ice robots, dinosaurs, dragons, space pirates, metal men, vegetable men, underwater X-men… but no ladies (not even dragon ladies). The beautiful art screams 1950s, and although the 108 on-going story cards are pretty expensive to piece together (especially the middle series #37-72), you can pick up the WTW reproduction set for $15 or less. 5 series were planned to finish this story with 180 cards… but tragically, the fourth series was lost or stolen, and the (almost finished) fifth series wasn’t published for decades after that. The story presented is a real fun read!
The Horrors of War (Gum Inc., 1938) This series begins with the first Japanese fighting in China, and continues telling about various attacks and atrocities until the series abruptly discontinues at card #288… soon after Hitler and Germany enter the mix! Most of the stories are based on historical fact, but they embellish the events with such sensationalism, sentiment, and editorial flourish, that otherwise recycled news becomes creative writing and a truly original story. (Especially when compared to non-original serial story sets like War Bulletin, which basically summarize newspaper and history accounts.) The artwork is great, the “news” stories on the backs are passionate and detailed, and the violence is gory and graphic. (Severed human hands dangling from a bombed buses’ steering wheel anyone? Or would you prefer them chewed off by dogs? Or perhaps amputated and mailed to the media to intimidate reporters?) H.o.W. can cost thousands to finish in nice shape, but again, a cheap reproduction is available for collectors on a budget.
Civil War News (Topps, 1962). These 87 story cards (plus checklist) start out with John Brown’s terrorist attack at Harper’s Ferry, and ends with Lee’s Surrender at Appomattox. The ongoing story is reported in newspaper style on the backs, with bylines giving dates and locations. The print is small, with lots of details crammed into the newspaper style double columns. Not all the stories are real, most were made up by Len Brown and company. Other cards relate actual historical events. All the paintings are top shelf (with Norm Saunders painting many and retouching all the rest). There’s plenty of blood & gore to keep the kids happy. This series was a big hit for Topps and continues to be a favorite among collectors. Tracking down the 17 different confederate money replica bills that came inside packs is an expensive challenge.
Battle (Topps, 1965) Battle was expected to be as big of a hit with kids as Civil War News was. It told the narrative of WW2 (released on its twentieth anniversary). Card #1 starts with Hitler’s invasion on Poland and ends with card #54, when allies retake Rome and send a captured Nazi General to face war crime justice. Like Civil War News, Len Brown made many of them up. Although Norm Saunders art and action are both tremendous, this series never got the love CWN received. I consider them both equally great, but perhaps WW2 was still “too soon” (just 20 years) for people to feel nostalgic about at the time of release. Four of the cards included executions or torture that were considered too extreme for the UK market and they were withdrawn there. (So be glad we’re more bloodthirsty in the good ol’ USA!) There were another ten cards about famous leaders and special military units (plus 2 checklists), as well as 24 different military cloth emblems in the set.
Dinosaurs Attack! (Topps, 1988): Of all the sets on this list, this series is the least expensive. A lot of collectors don’t appreciate it for that reason (because they’re scarcity snobs)! This series is cheap for one reason only: Topps overprinted the hell out of it, then dumped truckloads on the market at deep discounts. When it was first tested, serious collectors vacuumed it up and the (then rare) test sets sold for $100 at the card shows. But then Topps used the exact same plates to make the regular issue and all those who paid “test” prices were S.O.L.. (So it’s a safe bet that if it had remained a test set and never mass produced, that this series would cost over $1,000.00… and be worth it!)
It has fantastic art (most of it painted by Chet Darmstaedter, aka Xno), a clever sci-fi story involving “time scan” technology that allows a space station to “unfreeze” and view images of ancient dinosaurs from orbit. Something goes wrong, and while the ancient dinosaur images materialize on the space station screen… real dinosaurs appear on Earth! Soon, the series parallels Mars Attacks in destroying our civilization… only the ones doing the carnage are hungry dinosaurs instead of vengeful Martians.
The back designs are also incredibly clever. Most are laid out like newspaper stories with screaming headlines, but others are actual color photos of terrified characters getting attacked, comic book strips detailing the chaos, top secret army dispatches, or even blood splattered wedding invitations. No stone was left unturned in the production of this series. Many of the employees at Topps modeled for the actual characters, including the author Gary Gerani, who played the Time Scan creator/ misguided doctor who must sacrifice himself to save Earth.
Tarzan & the Crystal Vault of Isis (Schutter-Johnson 1935): This is a wonderful 50 card series with solid art very reflective of the period. The story is excellent too. The Canadian version reduces the text so it can squeeze a French translation on the back as well. The story includes several science fiction elements, like robots, anti-gravity rings (so you can fly), and giant, flying turtle-bats. The story is all original, and kids must have really flipped out over it. My favorite scene? Tarzan loses his cool over a native who betrays him, so he picks the tribesman up and throws him into a roaring airplane propeller. (Now that’s gotta hurt!)
Superman in the Jungle (Topps, 1968) This is an ultra-rare test series in the USA that never went to regular print. Fortunately, a smaller version in the UK was distributed, with all 66 images and the same text. (It’s still around for a few hundred dollars per set…. That’s only a fraction of the cost of the test set.) The series is painted comic book style by Norm Saunders. Originally, he started painting them in his beautiful pulp cover style, with three-dimensional highlights that made the realistic image jump off the page, but Topps rejected them. They wanted them to look more cartoonish (like Superman appears in the comic books). You can still see one of his original renderings, however, on the cover of the box (Superman wrestling a lion). That same gorgeous image is divided up into 16 different puzzle pieces (die-cut onto cards which were also included in the packs).
Dick Tracy Caramels (Walter Johnson Candy Co., 1937). This series of 144 cards is very true to Chester Gould’s comic strip, both art and story-wise. The first 96 cards proclaim the series is 96, the next 48 cards say its 144. Sadly, the series stops there… even though the story was still in full swing. While the earlier cards are typically $15 to $35 each, a large horde of cards 121-144 were found in the early 1980s, and all 48 of those cards can still be purchased for around $100. This series seems to pre-date when Gould started adding grotesque villains to his cast. (All the bad guys in this series are just big brutes.) But don’t let those dashing devils fool you—what they lack in gruesome looks, they more than make up in blood and gore. My favorite card is when a villain kidnaps a little boy, but hires a nursemaid to take care of the brat… until she irks him enough that he beats her to death and dumps her body out the ships porthole while the little kid plays in the corner.
Like I said, all of these sets are classics. It’s a shame more all-original serial sets haven’t been produced. After all, trading cards make a perfect storyboard. If you want to visualize your story for others but can’t afford to film it, what better way to get it seen? Think of all the comic book stories that first appeared in scene-by-scene cartoon narratives that have since been made into movies. IMHO, the big card companies dropped the ball by not exploiting this artistic avenue more. The few times they committed the resources to make original serial stories, they often went down in trading card history as their best accomplishments.
Fortunately, big companies are not the only producers of Non-sports. The small private producers also contributed several through the years… but not many. I could only find seven more original serial story sets in the last 50 years!
Uranus Strikes
Midnight Madness
Zombie Wars
The Nightslasher
Monsters & Maniacs
Monsters From Hell
(And you'll never guess #7)
Uranus Strikes (Ting, 1986): Bob Ting is a graphic designer, and his solo work on this 36 card set is impressive. It’s a parody (and also an homage) of Mars Attacks. As such, there’s a cartoonish style to the art—but there’s still plenty of gore to keep the kids entertained. I find the four armed, horse-faced aliens awesome. The entire set is well executed, with the only short cut being that the card stock is somewhat thin (NBD). The awesome wrappers and 48 pack box more than make up for that though, and so do a number of cool prizes that you can send away for. (There’s also a large 3-D poster, complete with 3-D glasses.) Bob is a big fan of MA, and it’s clear he went all out on this series. Before I subscribed to The Wrapper, I searched high and low to finally find a set—driving 2 hours to get it in San Jose!
Midnight Madness (Rosem, 1990): This series was unique for several reasons. It is actually six different stories, with twelve cards telling each story (making 72 total). They each have their own wrapper: Desert Rats, Jungle Parasite, Robot Killer, Shroud of the Undead, The Pharaoh’s Revenge, The Surgeon. Originally, each subset was issued in their very own assigned wrappers. In 1991, they released a beautiful (semi-flat) box with all sorts of die-cut tombstones that pop up when you open it. The artwork is by the fantasy artist Alfredo Osorio. The horror stories are good, but some of the “set up” cards seem to drag on a bit, while building up to the sensational climax. (Trying to keep each subset twelve cards in size may have padded out some of the story plots.) Overall, it’s a neat series and it’s a shame they never released the promised second series.
Zombie Wars (Fantaco, 1992): I knew nothing about this 45 card factory set, but bought it anyway because 1.) It’s an original serial story set, which are scarce and I love to collect. 2.) It’s a zombie (monster) set, which I love to collect. And 3.) It’s super inexpensive, which I especially love to collect.
The paintings by Charles Lang are colorful and very professional. This set is loosely based on the comic book series of the same name (corpse’s are reanimated so the dead will rise and attack humanity), but it includes new story elements not in the comics, so it’s like a parallel spin-off or reboot. (The art is much better, too!)
I like all three of these private releases a lot, and it’s pretty obvious the folks who made them were inspired by the original serial sets that came before them. When you see other kids having fun in their sandbox, it makes you want to jump in and get your own hands dirty. (I know, because that’s why I was involved in the next three sets on the list.)
The Nightslasher (Mystery Playhouse 2004): I share the blame for this set with Todd Riley of Nostalgia Cards. I sent Todd some photos where I played Carl Kolchak at our haunted house. It was meant as a joke, but Todd is a big Night Stalker fan too, and he returned them formatted as a trading cards. Soon, the “joke” evolved into a 36 card parody set, with an unnamed reporter in a Seersucker suit fighting off zombies to save the world from The 4th Reich. We made up 50 boxes as a lark and they quickly disappeared. All the photos were taken at my first haunted house (Mystery Playhouse) before it was torn down, so the props and scenery were professional. I keep hoping to buy back a box back for myself, but never see them for resale.
Monsters & Maniacs (Monsterwax, 2014): This is a 44 photo card set telling a horror story about a band of psychotic criminals who escape an asylum that used them as lab rats. Unfortunately, the serum they were tested with allows them to survive military related injuries—including gun shot wounds. There’re also 24 monster paintings by Mark Thomas, a UK artist (who also plays a resurrected creature in the story). The creepy images telegraph just how deranged/dangerous the character is. The series was rated R for mature themes and violence.
Monsters From Hell (Monsterwax, 2019 & ’26) When I first saw the Obelix Hell Art of Pablo Mercader, I immediately wanted to do a card series based on it. He’s a card collector living in Spain (where they don’t print any stories on the backs), and he enthusiastically agreed. The first series was 76 cards of his very colorful monsters. It’s a sci-fi/ horror story that suggests hell may be an actual monster-infested dimension, free of any religious connection. There’s also a secondary plot involving an airborne pandemic that has a catastrophic impact on society. (The weird part is that the cards were released two months before COVID was.) The second series was only recently released. It’s 90 cards long and concludes the story with another subplot involving the impact of self-aware AI. It includes an audio CD that provides an immersive soundtrack to each card. It’s narrated so the reader can experience the story while enjoying the image and not even need to flip the card over.
Sadly, those are the only original serial story cards that I’m aware of—except one more that is super obscure. A Man At War (The Wrapper, 1981) was produced by none other than The Wrapper magazine’s editor, Les Davis. It was a 36 card set following the adventures of a WW2 army investigator, Ulrich Vodin, illustrated by the same man (but written by Les). There were only about a dozen made, and I haven’t seen any of them resurface for sale. The 36 card set was issued in four uncut sheets of 8 cards, each measuring 3.5 x 4” in size. The basic B/W line renderings are somewhat cartoonish in style. The backs are filled with text typed by Les’s classic Smith Corona. They tell of Ulrich’s exploits. (Spoiler alert: We win WW2.) The 3.5 x 4” images also include five personal photos and the ancient typewriter font adds to the intimacy. The story is compelling and it certainly earns first place for the rarest original serial set published in the USA.
Trading cards make a perfect medium for telling serial stories, because they are basically glorified storyboards. (The plethora of movie and TV card sets prove that.) Why we’ve let comic books corner the market when it comes to printing original visual stories is anyone’s guess. Let’s hope we get more original story cards in the future—especially if they are anywhere near as fun as the ones that preceded them.