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1958, fried eggs, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, meteor, Moon, outer space, planets, topps, trading cards, vintage space art
Space travel ain’t what it used to be! Technology, design, and planetary knowledge have evolved since these beautiful Topps trading cards came out in 1958. But if you are like me and easily amused by vintage space art, these cards are worth checking out.
Below is a slideshow featuring a few dozen of my favorites. You can find a complete collection, including scans of the text on the back of the cards, at http://www1.coe.neu.edu/~dan/tsc/go.html
Meteor Peril! Isn’t space travel exciting?! The only thing that could make it more fun is fried eggs.
Mars Will Send No More 
Very cool. These definitely represent the pulp sci-fi ethos of the 1950s.
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Glad you enjoyed them, Ben! Remember to pack your iron skillet on your next trip to Mercury.
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Very “Chesley Bonestellian” in sooooo many ways! I think that’s what drew me to collect the series. It’s the future we thought we would have; where our solar system was accessible and brimming with adventures.
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I couldn’t agree more. A solar system that’s “accessible and brimming with adventures” is exactly what makes golden age SF fun. Before we learned so much about the system, authors and artists projected their fantasies onto it. Now that we know it’s less like “John Carter of Mars” and more like “The Martian”, space-based SF has lost some of its playfulness. Thank you for introducing me to these cards, and the “Jets, Rockets, Spacemen” set, which so perfectly capture the vintage fantasy of space adventure.
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It depends. “A Meteor Strikes New York” was painted by Chesley Bonestell.
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I haven’t seen that one, but there is an image of multiple atomic bombs detonating in New York in the gallery on his website: https://www.bonestell.org/Image-Gallery.aspx
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Does anybody know who drew and painted the Topp’s space card pictures, and does the original artwork still exist? All I’ve seen is blurry scans of aged cards, and some of the printing wasn’t very good, with colors offset. Some of the artwork was a bit kindergarten-like, but some was superb, e.e. “Mysterious Mars”, “Exploring Jupiter” and “Discovering a New Sun”.
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It’s a mystery to me — but sometimes people drop by this site and clear up mysteries just like this! Thank you for visiting and commenting.
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Wa-a-a-y back in the late 1980s, Topp’s had a public auction of original art. A card-collecting friend of mine went and bought a couple of pieces but none were of the “Space Cards”. I cannot recall if there were any up for auction that day. I do remember “Wacky Packages” art was sold. The pieces my friend won were from the 1957 set “Planes” are were fairly reasonable but even then, some 30 years ago, the prices were high. Do a Google image search for “Topps Planes” and you will see many examples from this cool set.
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I love these cards so much. I just can’t stop looking at them. I ran into these when I was 13 yrs old in 1986. I have one space card that it came in a shoebox full of baseball cards from the 1960s I bought from a 29-year-old when I delivered the paper to his mom. 10 years ago I started looking into ebay and discovered the whole collection. I will one day collect them. I’m not afraid of forking out 1400 for a complete set. I know that this is an investment that will go up in value.
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They would make a gorgeous collection! Sometimes I think about recreating a few of my favorites on canvas with acrylic paint just for fun.
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